Helping build a more sustainable future for everyone

Increasing numbers of people are thinking about how they can live in more sustainable ways. Searches for “rooftop solar power”, “electronic waste recycling”, and “coastal flooding” reached all-time highs in 2023. These kinds of changes to lifestyles and behavior matter—the IEA estimates that around 55% of the cumulative emissions reductions needed to achieve a global net-zero energy system by 2050 are linked to consumer choices. We’re focused on empowering consumers with better information for more sustainable choices, especially for higher carbon-impact decisions like home energy and transportation.

• Helping people reduce home energy emissions and save cost

  When users search for high-impact home products like boilers, heat pumps, or furnances on Google Search in the United States, they can find suggestions for sustainable options. This can not only lower emissions but also help users save money on energy costs.

  Nest thermostats use AI and machine learning to optimize residential heating and cooling systems and reduce energy consumption by setting up energy-efficient schedules or automatically making small changes to temperature settings when energy use is surging and prices are high. These actions lead to a significant collective impact.

• Empowering people with options for more sustainable transportation

  Fuel-efficient routing on Google Maps optimizes for lower fuel or battery consumption based on factors such as traffic, terrain, and a vehicle’s engine. Google is also making it easier for users to figure out if an EV is right for them. Drivers can see estimated costs, range, and charging speeds for each model, as well as compatible charging stations nearby. Additionally, drivers can get customized routes based on their engine type, as well as emissions estimates to enable comparison with other models.

  Users can quickly identify flights that emit less CO2e with Google Flights, and compare the environmental impact of different options, such as trains, while also weighing price and convenience. And, users can search for hotels that have earned eco-certifications or committed to meaningful environmentally-sustainable practices.

By innovating together—from cities and governments to companies and nonprofits—we’re able to make quicker progress on solutions that advance climate progress than any of us could alone.

Environmental Insights Explorer helps cities and regions measure emissions sources, run analyses, and identify strategies to reduce emissions, and has since expanded to more than 40,000 cities and regions worldwide.

For our Google Cloud customers, we’re providing powerful insights to help organizations harness AI for improved sustainability measurement to build resilience, AI-powered insights to use energy and resources more efficiently in operations and supply chains to reduce costs, and AI tools to unlock new growth opportunities and markets while accelerating sustainability impact.

Google Earth Engine on Google Cloud gives businesses and governments the ability to analyze planetary-level satellite data—it’s a technology that’s enabling global businesses to raise sustainable sourcing standards for partners such as their suppliers.

In partnership with frontline organizations, we’re using AI to help people adapt to environmental changes with tools like flood forecasting and wildfire detection, and we’re building technology to help communities impacted by extreme heat.

We are also investing in bold ideas to drive climate action through initiatives such as our $30M Google.org Impact Challenge on Climate Innovation and our $25M in funding to AI for the Global Goals, which will use AI to accelerate progress on the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

Lastly, we’re open-sourcing our models and platforms wherever we can, including supporting the Data Commons project, to ensure climate information is as widely and publicly accessible as possible as part of an open, global internet.

Our work on sustainability started with our own operations, and we’ve worked hard to lead by example, with the ultimate goal of driving larger systems change. We share the innovations we create and the lessons we learn with others, so we can help accelerate the global transition to a low-carbon and sustainable future.

We have a bold goal to achieve net-zero emissions across all of our operations and value chain by 2030, supported by a goal to achieve 24/7 carbon-free energy (CFE) on every grid where we operate. We also aim to replenish 120% of the freshwater volume we consume, on average, across our offices and data centers by 2030.

We also are working to build a circular Google—helping speed up the transition to an economy in which businesses create environmental, economic, and community value through the maximum reuse of finite resources.