GCP – Earth Week in the cloud

Although Earth Day was April 22, at Google Cloud we take sustainability seriously so we celebrated Earth Day all week long. We didn’t want you to miss a thing, so we’re recapping all our news from Earth Week in one handy location.

Faster, cheaper, greener? Pick the Google Cloud region that’s right for you

When it comes to sustainability, we get more done when we move together. That’s why Google Cloud partners with nonprofits, research organizations, governments, and businesses to build technology and tools to accelerate meaningful change. 

To help our customers do this, last month we shared the average hourly Carbon Free Energy Percentage (CFE%) for the majority of our Google Cloud regions. On Monday, we shared a new tool leveraging this data—a Google Cloud region picker—that helps customers assess key inputs like price, latency to their end users and carbon footprint, as they choose which Google Cloud region to run on. Read more.

Four consecutive years of 100% renewable energy—and what’s next

On Tuesday, we announced that in 2020 Google again matched 100 percent of its global electricity use with purchases of renewable energy. We were the first company of our size to achieve this milestone back in 2017, and we’ve repeated the accomplishment in every year since. All told, we’ve signed agreements to buy power from more than 50 renewable energy projects, with a combined capacity of 5.5 gigawatts—about the same as a million solar rooftops. Read more.

Solving for more sustainable and resilient value chains

Global supply chains are also subject to environmental risks. In 2020, over 8,000 suppliers disclosing through CDP, a global disclosure system for environmental impacts, reported that US$1.26 trillion of revenue is likely to be at risk over the next five years due to climate change, deforestation, and water insecurity.

On Thursday, we shared how we’re working to help organizations digitally transform their supply chains with sustainability in mind. With better insights from data, they can automate processes more intelligently. With smarter ML models, they can optimize systems and routing. With an open platform, they can integrate partner solutions. And they can connect their workforce in real time to collaborate up and down the value chain. Read more.

Contributing to a sustainable future with Chrome OS and partners

Google’s sustainability initiatives extend all the way from our data centers to our endpoints. That’s why Chrome OS also provides sustainable computing software and hardware through our ecosystem of partners and customers committed to driving systemic change. On Friday, we shared how Chrome OS was born in the cloud and introduced a modern, more sustainable way of computing. Many partners and customers have adopted Chrome OS with specific sustainability goals in mind, and we’re sharing their stories to inspire others. Read more.

Every day is Earth Day

Although today marks the close of Earth Week, our passion for sustainability never waivers. As we continue to operate the cleanest cloud in the industry, we’re working with a growing group of cloud customers focused on reducing the carbon impact of their operations. Learn more at https://cloud.google.com/sustainability.

Further reading

• Faster, cheaper, greener? Pick the Google Cloud region that’s right for you
• Four consecutive years of 100% renewable energy—and what’s next
• Solving for more sustainable and resilient value chains
• Contributing to a sustainable future with Chrome OS and partners
• How we’re working with governments on climate goals
• How carbon-free is your cloud? New data lets you know
• A timely new approach to certifying clean energy