Green Blog
A better web. Better for the environment.
Nobel Peace Prize for climate change advocates
10/15/07
Posted on behalf of the Google.org team by David Bercovich, Product Marketing Manager, Google, Michael Terrell, Team Member, Google.org, and Adam Borelli, Team Coordinator, Google.org
Last week the
Nobel Foundation
awarded Al Gore and the United Nations
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)
the Nobel Peace Prize. Former U. S. Vice President Al Gore was honored for his work on climate change and his Oscar winning documentary
An Inconvenient Truth.
The IPCC, a joint project of the United Nations Environment Program and the World Meteorological Organization, was honored for its efforts over the past two decades to educate the world about climate change. Earlier this year, the IPCC issued its strongest
statement
to date, finding the evidence of climate change "unequivocal" and concluding with 90% certainty that humans are the cause.
In awarding the Nobel Peace Prize to leaders in the battle against climate change, the Norwegian Nobel Committee emphasizes that the problem's effects go beyond climate, and extend to individual security and opportunity. In the award
press release
they state:
"Indications of changes in the earth's future climate must be treated with the utmost seriousness, and with the precautionary principle uppermost in our minds. Extensive climate changes may alter and threaten the living conditions of much of mankind. They may induce large-scale migration and lead to greater competition for the earth's resources. Such changes will place particularly heavy burdens on the world's most vulnerable countries. There may be increased danger of violent conflicts and wars, within and between states...the Norwegian Nobel Committee is seeking to contribute to a sharper focus on the processes and decisions that appear to be necessary to protect the world’s future climate, and thereby to reduce the threat to the security of mankind. Action is necessary now, before climate change moves beyond man’s control."
Al Gore has
argued
for rising to meet the challenge of climate change from a moral perspective: "The climate crisis offers us the chance to experience what few generations in history have had the privilege of experiencing: a generational mission; a compelling moral purpose; a shared cause; and the thrill of being forced by circumstances to put aside the pettiness and conflict of politics and to embrace a genuine moral and spiritual challenge."
We agree wholeheartedly, and congratulate Al Gore and the IPCC on this historic recognition!
International Cleanup Weekend: Think globally, clean locally
10/1/07
Posted by Steve Miller, Google Earth Outreach
On October 13
th
and 14
th
, Googlers and many people around the world will head out to clean up local parks, beaches, trails and other places close to home. We'll be planning our cleanups using
Google Maps
and sharing our plans with friends and families, along with an invitation to help. So far, Googlers have sent in almost 100 cleanup maps and proposed plans, and have invited more than 900 of their personal contacts to help.
And since many small cleanups add up to one big impact, we hope you'll join in too. It takes just a few minutes to plan your own cleanup, make a map of it, and send your map to us -- we'll add it to a growing map of all the cleanups around the world. If you keep your cleanup small (groups of 6-10 people work best) and close to home, it'll be easy to organize and you can be sure that you're doing what's most important for your neighborhood. After your cleanup, share your work with the world by posting photos and videos to your map.
If you'd like to join this global effort, you can
get started here
.
Pour on the pedal power
9/24/07
Posted by Dan
Reicher,
Google.org
You may already know that we're working to reduce our impact on the environment in a number of ways. We opt for locally-grown food whenever possible in all of our cafes. We've covered our roofs with solar panels. We offer a rebate on our employees' fuel-efficient car purchases. When it comes to getting people to the office, we offer round-trip shuttle service to our Bay Area Googlers, as well as incentives for creative commuting, from walking to biking and even to kayaking (depending, of course, on where the office is).
Over at
Google.org
, the
RechargeIT project
is
collecting data
on plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) in an effort to accelerate commercial adoption of the cars as well as vehicle to grid technology. To the same end, we just issued a $10 million request for investment proposals to encourage companies and individuals to develop sustainable transportation solutions.
And now, we encourage all of you to get your wheels spinning to offset climate change. Google has teamed up with
Specialized
and
Goodby Silverstein & Partners
on the
Innovate or Die Pedal-Powered Machine Challenge
, to give you problem-solvers a chance to show us with a YouTube
video
how you harness pedal power in innovative ways. In January, you could win $5,000 in cash and Specialized Globe bikes to keep up your commitment. We're doing our bit to support new solutions. Are you feeling inspired?
Neil Young's Silver Seed comes to visit
9/19/07
Posted by Charles Baron, Team Researcher, google.org
Last week, we had the distinct pleasure of a visit by rock legend
Neil Young.
Neil is touring the country in a soon-to-be converted
1959 Lincoln Continental Mark IV
named Linc-Volt, spreading the word about plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) and vehicle-to-grid technology. As part of the trip, Neil and his crew are filming a documentary of their travels and the folks they meet along the way.
Neil piloted the big white Continental down from his Broken Arrow Ranch over to see us and get a closer look at the
RechargeIT
program, including
Machu Picchu
and our solar charging station. Orchestrating the tour were our own Larry Brilliant, RechargeIT Project Manager Kirsten Olsen and Lead Engineer Alec Proudfoot, Google Green Czar Bill Weihl, and Green Business Operations Associate Lacy Caruthers.
Regarding his vision for the Linc-Volt and its unique potential to draw attention to sustainable transportation solutions to combat climate change, Neil summed it up this way: "Classic Americana from then meeting the Americana of now."
From Mountain View, the
journey continues to Wichita, Kansas,
where the Mark IV will be converted from a carbureted gas guzzler to a bio-diesel series PHEV. After Neil's
fall tour
and annual
Bridge School
Benefit Concert, the Linc-Volt will undergo interior restoration. Then the bio-diesel-electro-cruiser will power on to Detroit; back to its factory in
Wixom, Michigan;
and then to the east coast.
We look forward seeing the Linc-Volt in its full electron-powered tailfin glory back in Mountain View, and can't wait to charge it up at our station. If you happen to see a '59 MK IV whirring into your rearview mirror, get your wits about you because a rock legend is about to pass you in a chromed bio-diesel PHEV. As he notes about this epic journey, "We all charge the grid in our own way."
A new Google.org RFP
9/12/07
Posted by Kirsten Olsen, Project Manager, Google.org
Today,
Google.org
has issued a
request for proposals
to the tune of $10 million in order to advance sustainable transportation solutions. We're inviting entrepreneurs and companies to show us their best ideas on how they can contribute to this important cause. We need catalytic investments to support technologies, products and services that are critical to accelerating plug-in vehicle commercialization.
There's
more about this
on the Google.org blog.
Drivers, start your batteries!
9/12/07
Posted by Kirsten Olsen
Since Google.org launched the
RechargeIT
initiative in June as part of our efforts to stop global warming, a lot has happened in the world of plug-in vehicles. Automakers have made key announcements about future plans for plug-ins. Our grantee, the
Electric Power Research Institute
(EPRI), along with
Natural Resources Defense Council
(NRDC), released a
comprehensive assessment
that found that widespread use of plug-in hybrids could dramatically reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The charge for electrified transportation is heating up, and we couldn't be more excited. But consumers still can't buy plug-in vehicles – and that's a problem. It's time for us to put some money where our mouth is and help accelerate mass commercialization of plug-in vehicles.
Today, Google.org has issued a
request for investment proposals
(RFP) to the tune of $10 million in order to advance sustainable transportation solutions. We are inviting entrepreneurs and companies to show us their best ideas on how they can contribute to this important cause. We need catalytic investments to support technologies, products and services that are critical to accelerating plug-in vehicle commercialization. That is why we have structured this RFP to offer investment dollars to for-profit companies to promote social and environmental change. The severity of global warming requires solutions from NGOs, governments, individuals and (very importantly) the private sector. We have already made $1 million in grants to a group of outstanding
non-profit organizations,
and want to expand our impact by spurring innovation in the private sector. While $10 million is a fraction of the total investment needed to transform our transportation sector, we hope this RFP will help catalyze a broader response. We need the automakers to bring these cars to market, but plug-in vehicles also need an entire ecosystem of companies to flourish.
We realize that this type of open call for proposals is not the usual model for investment, but we wanted to use a process that was open to new ideas and new entrants. Part of our goal is to get as many people as possible to work on solutions to our vehicle emissions challenges. We welcome and expect to receive submissions from a wide variety of companies -- from cutting edge battery technologies to innovative service businesses – and from companies of all sizes. We also encourage participants from all over the world to submit proposals. This is a global challenge, and it will take all of us to solve it.
This open RFP process is a new approach to mission-focused investing, and we're interested to see what we can learn from it, both in terms of opportunities and gaps that exist in this space today, as well as ways that we can improve on this solicitation process for future investments. Our focus on learning is the primary reason we decided to narrow this first RFP to investments in private companies, rather than a combination of grants and investments.
We will continue to make grants as part of RechargeIT and other programs, but we're excited today to announce our first foray into investments.To learn more,
read the RFP.
Is black the new green?
8/9/07
Posted by Bill Weihl, Green Energy Czar
Reducing climate change by saving energy is an important effort we should all join, and that's why we're very glad to see the innovative thinking going into a variety of solutions. One idea, suggested by the site called "Blackle" (which is not related to Google, by the way, though the site does use our
custom search engine
), is to reduce energy used by monitors by providing search with a black background. We applaud the spirit of the idea, but our own analysis as well as that of
others
shows that making the Google homepage black will not reduce energy consumption. To the contrary, on flat-panel monitors (already estimated to be 75% of the market), displaying black may actually
increase
energy usage.
Detailed results
from a new study confirm this.
As computers become a bigger part of more people's lives, they will consume an increasing amount of energy, which is why we've invested so much in
making our data centers efficient
and we've
joined with others
to launch Climate Savers Computing, which has a goal of reducing total power consumption by more than 50% for all computers by 2010.
There
are
some things you can do now to reduce the energy used by your computer, such as:
turn on the power management features. Virtually all computers today have the ability to switch into low-power modes automatically when they're idle; very few computers have this capability enabled!
Here's how
to do it on computers running Windows XP.
turn off your monitor and computer when you're not using them
turn down the brightness on your monitor
make sure your next computer meets the efficiency standards of
Climate Savers Computing (
an efficient computer uses up to 50% less energy than a conventional one)
to find the most efficient PCs available today, look for the words "EnergyStar 4.0 compliant."
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