Green Blog
A better web. Better for the environment.
Happy Earth Day, Earthlings
4/22/09
Googlers around the world are celebrating
Earth Day
today by participating in events from green-themed film screenings in Singapore and Hyderabad, to a local food event in Kirkland, WA and Bike to Work Day in London. At our Mountain View campus, we're holding an environmental fair and hosting talks all week long as part of our Green@Google speaker series.
We're also giving employees in most of our offices around the world next-generation, super-efficient
LED
light bulbs to encourage energy efficiency. (LEDs use up to 90% less energy than incandescent bulbs and 50% less energy than a
CFL
.) In the average U.S. home, lighting accounts for about 20% of the electricity bill. If every Googler changes out one incandescent light bulb for one of these LEDs, the combined impact would be the equivalent of taking over 4,000 cars off the road for one year!
Of course, installing efficient light bulbs is just one way to cut down on energy consumption and costs. Just in time for Earth Day, the
Climate Savers Computing Initiative
's
Power Down for the Planet
pledge campaign aimed at colleges and universities wrapped up last week. More than 17,000 students took
the pledge
to support more efficient computing. The
University of Maine at Farmington
won the challenge, beating out 18 other schools with more than 24% of their campus community taking the pledge. You too can help save energy by enabling
power management
on your computer and buying
more efficient computers
.
As you take a moment today to think about how you can make our lovely patch of blue and green a little more healthy, we encourage you to explore a
special gallery
of Google Earth layers we compiled to inspire awareness and appreciation for the Earth's environment. With the power of Google Earth, we have the ability to visualize geo-spatial information and help us better understand the true impact humankind has on the planet. For example, you can visualize the
changes in glaciers over the years
,
rising sea levels
and
climatic change and rising temperature
from the feature KMLs in our Gallery.
Like
others have said
before us, we like to think that every day is Earth Day. But on this 39th anniversary of the official Earth Day, we're showing Mother Earth a little extra love and care, and hope that you'll be doing the same.
Posted by Lacy Caruthers, Green Business and Operations Strategy
Designing lean, green, energy-saving machines
4/9/09
Last week Google hosted a
Data Center Efficiency Summit
, bringing together approximately 160 industry leaders to share insights and best practices. Since it was April Fool's Day, we threw in a few jokes to keep the atmosphere fun (
oil-cooled data center
, anyone?), but the topic is serious: How can the IT industry keep growing while also exercising good environmental stewardship?
We disclosed for the first time details about the design of our
ultra-efficient data centers
. We also provided a first-ever video tour of a Google
container data center
as well as a
water treatment facility
. We detailed how we measure data center efficiency and discussed how we reduced our facility energy use by up to 85%. The engineers who developed our efficient battery backup solution even brought an actual
Google server
to the event.
By the end of the day, we narrowed in on a recurring theme: Reducing resource use through efficiency efforts is not just good for the environment, it saves money too. And it is this economic advantage which makes efficient data centers not just green, but truly sustainable.
For a tour of a Google container data center check out the video below or watch the entire summit:
part 1
,
part 2
, and
part 3
.
Posted by Jimmy Clidaras, Principal Engineer
A Green Light for Green Energy
4/1/09
To solve the climate crisis and meet our growing demand for energy, we need to move to clean, renewable energy sources that will cut global warming pollution and power our economic recovery. This goal requires construction of clean energy generation plants and transmission lines on an unprecedented scale. Google.org’s
Renewable Energy Cheaper Than Coal initiative
is working to drive down the cost of renewable energy, but today one of the bottlenecks is the difficulty of obtaining approvals for siting and permitting of generation and transmission facilities. We need to find a way to ‘green light’ clean energy projects while making sure to protect sensitive landscapes and wildlife habitats.
As part of Google.org’s
Geo Challenge Grants
program, the
National Audubon Society
and
Natural Resources Defense Council
(NRDC) have created maps of restricted lands and sensitive wildlife areas in the Western U.S. NRDC produced a map of 13 western states (and more than 10,000 individual conservation areas), showing all of the areas, such as parks, which prohibit or restrict development due to federal and state regulations, as well as sensitive areas where development should be avoided. Audubon researched and mapped critical habitat for birds and wildlife in Wyoming, Montana, and surrounding areas, sites which should also be avoided when planning energy development.
To
view
these maps on Google Earth,
download
the layer here.
These maps can serve as a starting point to enable a more collaborative approach to energy siting decisions. By identifying areas that developers should avoid, we hope that the site-specific approval process can be streamlined – possibly by creating green energy generation and transmission corridors that have an expedited approval process.
Posted by David Bercovich, Program Manager, Google.org and Christiaan Adams, Google Earth & Maps Specialist, Google.org
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