Google to go carbon neutral by 2008
Published: 20 Jun 2007 10:06 BST
Google has committed to becoming more environmentally friendly and has enlisted the help of a green group to meet its target.
The company has partnered with international organisation The Climate Group to reduce its impact on the environment, and it intends to become carbon neutral by the start of next year.
The pair will use a three-pronged approach to turning Google carbon neutral: cutting the company's energy consumption, making greater use of renewable energy and offsetting any additional carbon consumption through accredited schemes.
According to The Climate Group, Google has already set up solar panels on its Mountain View headquarters generating 1.6MW, and intends to expand the program to create 50MW of energy — enough to power 50,000 homes.
According to Rupert Posner, Australian director of The Climate Group, the impact of Google's environmental drive will be wide-reaching.
"The exciting thing about Google is it's high profile — everyone who switches on a computer knows them," Posner said. As well as the impact on Google's own carbon consumption, "they'll have a cascading effect with what they're doing", he added.
As well as cutting carbon emissions, Google will save money, Posner said.
Google senior operations vice president, Urs Hölzle, at the policy's recent launch in Paris, said: "Our primary use of energy is in our data centres." The search company reckons its data centres already use half the power of conventional centres, thanks to a commitment to efficient power supply design and evaporative cooling rather than air conditioning. Any remaining deficiency will be made up through cleaner energy sources, stringent planning for new centres and monitored offsetting activities.
"We want to be more than carbon neutral. We hope we will have a positive impact on the larger environment," Hölzle said.
The drive to be green has also reached into other prominent technology companies. News Corp made a commitment earlier this year to achieve carbon neutral status by 2010, and Linux developers are already working on reducing the power consumption of the open-source operating system.
ZDNet Australia's Angus Kidman contributed to this report.
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