Hello again!
In my previous blog post, I mentioned about the impacts of the Internet on our environment. In this blog post, I will thus talk about the efforts major corporations have put in to reduce their footprints. Google is currently one of the leading corporations in terms of environmental efforts. Let’s take a look at some of the things Google is doing.
1. Google has been running on 100% renewable energy since 2017.
Google made a pledge to switch completely to renewable energy in 2012 and finally achieved this in 2017. Although many factors have to be taken into account before we can determine the actual reduction in carbon emissions from the use of renewable energy over fossil fuels, the emissions from renewable sources have been shown to be consistently lower than that of fossil fuels. This can be represented by the figure below taken from a study done in 2014.
2. The Circular Economy Model.
Google places emphasis on designing their new campus projects with the concept of the Circular Economy Model in mind. As much as possible, Google gives used objects second lives. Used furniture which have lived out their live time in Google are donated to non-profit organisations for a second life with the needy. Furthermore, Google plans to created new contracts which will welcome, and even prioritise the use of secondary use materials in their production. For a corporation as big as Google to do is this will mean a large increase in the demand for these materials. Beyond that smaller corporations can follow in Google footsteps when they discover that usage of recycled materials are viable options.
3. Google cafes use ugly produce.
40% of the food produced in the U.S. goes uneaten due to physical imperfections in the food product which does not indicate compromise in quality. Google has thus begun to purchase these “ugly produce” for their cafes. As of 2016, more than 1 million pounds of food has been saved from going straight to the trash by Google cafes in the Bay area.
I chose to do a study in Google in this blog post as I was surprised by the amount of effort that Google has put in to ensure that they are as environmentally responsible a corporation as possible. However, Google has been able to do this due to their large company size, giving them much flexibility to explore non-profit maximising options in their business plans. This will not be the case for many other businesses but I feel that it is essential that they do take a look at what Google has done in the name of sustainability and pick up a few of the initiatives to incorporate into their own businesses.
To end off, do take a look at “Your Plan Your Planet”, a platform Google has created to educate users on the Circular Economy and give tips of how to reduce your foorprint. In my next post, I will be comparing the environmental impacts of online shipping, compared to traditional purchasing methods, so stay tuned!
Sze Jie
References:
A Circular Google (June 2019).
http://services.google.com/fh/files/misc/circular-google.pdf
Hi Sze Jie!
Huge companies have always been considered the “villain” to environmentalists so it gives me hope that companies such as Google is making an effort to be greener. As you mentioned, other companies, especially smaller ones, cannot take up big-scale environmental projects like Google. How do you think such smaller companies can do their part?
– Rachel
Hi Sze JIe
Thanks for sharing about the efforts that Google is making! They surprised me too, as I didn’t expect Google to be doing this. The perception that businesses and environmental efforts are at odds are indeed contested by this blog post. In my opinion, it’s likely that Google has done this to reduce costs and win favour with consumers. That said, it’s my hope that other enterprises will follow suit with a titan in the industry taking action to reduce resource-usage and more sustainable. What do you think?
Cheers!
Fang Ning 🙂
Hello Sze Jie!
Wow, so interesting and promising that a tech company like Google would be so environmentally conscious and active in sustainability efforts! I know other tech companies like Apple are also spearheading the movement in Silicon Valley when it comes to “greening” up the industry.
I wanna ask, are these tech companies “competing” with each other to “out-green” one another or is it due to environmental laws set in place by the government in the USA? If it’s the former, then that’s pretty impressive in my opinion, since they are doing this pretty much on their own accord and following the forces of the free market while doing so!
Cheers,
Ryan