We’ve already discussed how Google and Intel have pledged their efforts to the green movement by launching the Climate Savers Computing Initiative.
Now comes word of Google promising to become carbon neutral by the end of the year.
The Google plan essentially has three parts:
- Reduce energy consumption by maximizing efficiency;
- Invest in and use renewable energy sources; and
- Purchase carbon offsets for any remaining emissions.
In a recent entry on the Official Google Blog, Urs Hoelzle, Senior Vice President, Operations told readers about the self-assessment the company undertook before setting off on the green initiative.
"To calculate our carbon footprint, we took into account emissions from purchased electricity, employee commuting, business travel, construction, and server manufacturing. In a partnership with the Environmental Resources Trust (ERT), we have independently verified this assessment, and will do so every year."
Something this blogger was not aware of, most likely because I live 3,000 miles away from the Google green scene, is how big a focus transportation plays in the Google plan.
Apparently every day Google provides shuttle service for over 1,500 commuting employees in the San Francisco area. Google also offers employees a financial incentive for purchasing environmentally friendly cars.
Lastly Urs Hoelzle writes about Google’s ambitious plan to create 50 megawatts of new renewable generation capacity by 2012. According to Hoelzle, that’s enough to power 50,000 typical U.S. homes.
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Google has been talking, for a while, about being carbon neutral. Their actions as a corporation set an strong example to the world. Collective drive to help climate change comes from 2 sources: corporate; and personal. Government is either too slow or ill-placed.
Each of us can take action to be greener, to build greener activities into our everyday routine. Search engines used by us all can be one way: searchgreener.com is the green search engine - the same Google search but including a green bonus of reduced emissions and carbon neutral offsets from funds generated!
A small step but built into my daily routine it is a greener way to search.