Environmental
Report2017 progress update

01

Environmental sustainability at Google

Our approach03

Mission and values07

Our carbon footprint

09

Spotlight: Capturing value from waste in upstate New York

13

Performance highlights and targets

17

About Google

17

About this report

Designing efficient data centers
19

Overview

22

Spotlight: TPUs: Big resource savings in a small package

Advancing renewable energy
26

Overview

29

Spotlight: Going Dutch on wind energy

Creating sustainable workplaces
33

Overview

35

Spotlight: Fulton Market: Building a workplace that works

Empowering users with technology
39

Overview

41

Spotlight: Project Air View: Making the invisible visible

Appendix
45

Environmental data

51

Endnotes

GOOGLE ENVIRONMENTAL REPORT: 2017 progress update

Environmental sustainability
at Google
At Google, our values reflect our belief in the fundamental importance of inclusion,
openness, science, and commitment to the environment. Operating our business inan environmentally sustainable way has been a core value since our founding.
In 2016 we marked 10 years of operating as a carbon neutral company andannounced that we’ll reach 100% renewable energy for our global operations in2017. When we committed to being carbon neutral in 2007, we knew that aggressive
energy-efficiency initiatives, renewable energy, and carbon offsets would all be
critical to our ongoing strategy, and over time we’ve learned and innovated acrossthese areas in ways we couldn’t have imagined a decade ago.
Our Earth Outreach program also recently celebrated its 10th birthday. Launchedto give nonprofit groups the resources, tools, and inspiration they need in order toleverage the power of Google Earth and other mapping tools for their causes, Earth
Outreach is now combining machine learning and cloud computing to build a living,breathing dashboard of the planet, creating new insights both in local communities
and at global scale.
After years of reporting our carbon footprint and publishing information on oursustainability programs, in December 2016 we put our whole story in one place inour first environmental report. This update to that first report is a chance for us toclose out 2016, which was a landmark year for our program, and share some ofour progress on ongoing efforts. We think there’s a lot to be proud of—but also a lot
more important work to do.
We’re more committed than ever to the environment, and we believe thatbusinesses, governments, and citizens all have critical roles to play in ensuring that
we have clean air, water, soil, and healthy forests. We’ll continue working hard for acleaner and more prosperous future for all.
Urs Hölzle
Senior Vice President of Technical Infrastructure
GoogleGOOGLE ENVIRONMENTAL REPORT: 2017 progress update

01

Our
approach

GOOGLE ENVIRONMENTAL REPORT: 2017 progress update

02

The Googleplex in Mountain View, California

Caption here.

IN THIS SECTION
03 Mission and values
07 Our carbon footprint

Mission and values
Our mission is to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible
and useful. Fulfilling this mission—bringing the benefits of information not just to the

13 Performance highlights and targets

3 billion people who are already online but to the next 4 billion as well—requires us to

17 About Google

use resources ever more efficiently.

17 About this report

We meet the challenges posed by climate change and the need for resource
efficiency by working to empower everyone—businesses, governments, nonprofit
organizations, communities, and individuals—to use Google technology to create amore sustainable world. This philosophy started with Googley decisions like building
server casings from reused Legos and grew to building a global network of data
centers that lead the industry in efficiency.
After all, the cheapest energy and water are what we don’t use in the first place,and waste streams can offer new sources of value. In a growing number of regions,renewable resources like wind and solar are now less expensive than standard
grid power, helping us save money over the long term. Google became carbon
neutral in 2007, and since then, our carbon footprint has grown more slowly thanour business—proof, 10 years later, that economic growth can be decoupled fromenvironmental impact and resource use.

GOOGLE ENVIRONMENTAL REPORT: 2017 progress update

OUR APPROACH

03

Addressing a global challenge
Humanity is consuming natural resources at an astonishing rate. During the 20th
century, global raw material use rose at about twice the rate of population growth.1
Every year humanity consumes far more than what the planet can naturally
replenish. In 2016, global demand for resources was roughly 1.7 times what the
Earth can support in one year.2
These statistics highlight the need to revisit the “take-make-waste” economic
model that human societies have followed since the Industrial Revolution, in which
we take a natural resource, make a product from it or burn it for fuel, and eventuallysend what remains to the landfill as waste. A major consequence of this model isclimate change, one of the most significant challenges of our time. We believe that
Google’s scale, resources, and technological expertise can help the world meet
its energy and resource needs in a way that drives innovation and growth while
reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and the use of virgin materials and water.

Taking action
Demand for computing continues to skyrocket, with millions more people coming
online every month, and data center capacity continues to expand to meet this need.
But despite this growth, the total amount of electricity used by U.S. data centers hasremained constant. Annual consumption increased by 90% from 2000 to 2005, but
only by 4% from 2010 to 2014, largely due to data centers’ ability to improve theirefficiency as they scale.3 As the use of mobile devices increases and more IT users
transition to public clouds, we believe our industry can and must do better than justholding the line on energy use. We can actually lower it, serving more users while
using fewer resources.
Google’s energy consumption drives our biggest impact on the environment,
and we’ve focused on tackling it through a threefold strategy for carbon neutrality.
First, we pursue aggressive efficiency initiatives. Second, we purchase significant
amounts of renewable energy and will reach 100% renewable energy for all ouroperations in 2017. Third, we buy carbon offsets for any remaining emissions wehaven’t yet eliminated.
We’ve long been a vocal advocate for greening electrical grids worldwide. We’ve
supported strong clean-energy and climate-change policies committed to adding
clean power to the grid by investing $2.5 billion in solar and wind projects and are
partnering with governments and nongovernmental organizations to use Google
technology and computing power to model the effects of climate change on both aglobal and a local level. We’re also working to incorporate climate resilience strategy
into our own operations.

GOOGLE ENVIRONMENTAL REPORT: 2017 progress update

OUR APPROACH

04

Google Cloud Platform and G Suite applications like Gmail, Docs, and Drive areenabling millions of businesses to switch from locally hosted solutions to Google
Cloud’s highly efficient, renewable energy–based computing infrastructure. Researchfrom the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory suggests that if all office workers
in the United States moved their email and documents to the cloud, it would reduce
IT energy use by up to 85%.4
Water is another top priority. The United Nations predicts that by 2025,
two-thirds of the world’s population could live in water-stressed conditions.5
As a global company headquartered in drought-prone California, we’re working
to efficiently utilize water, particularly in our data centers, where we regularly
redesign and enhance our cooling technologies and utilize water from nonpotablesources where feasible. We’re also using Google technology to help researchers
study global water challenges and awarding millions in grants to promising waterconservation solutions.6
Finally, we’re changing how we think about waste. By repairing, reusing, andrecycling products, we transcend the linear take-make-waste economy. We strive
to embed these circular economy principles into everything Google does, fromhow we manage servers in our data centers to the materials we select to buildand furnish our offices.

GOOGLE ENVIRONMENTAL REPORT: 2017 progress update

OUR APPROACH

05

In fact, in October 2016 we announced that we’re committed to achieving Zero
Waste to Landfill for our global data center operations. Six of our 14 operating data
centers have already reached 100% landfill diversion, and we’re always looking for
new ways to reduce waste in our journey to sustainably managing resources acrossGoogle. As a Global Partner of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, we’re also working
with other leading companies to help bring initiatives like these to scale, thereby
accelerating the transition to a circular economy.

Looking toward future opportunities
We believe global businesses like Google should lead the way in improving people’s
lives while reducing or even eliminating our dependence on virgin materials andfossil fuels. And we believe this can be done in a way that makes business sense,
providing economic returns alongside societal benefits and positive environmental
impacts.
Our end goal is a zero-carbon world where everyone everywhere has access toclean, carbon-free energy 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. This means empowering
all energy users with cheap, clean options by continuing to drive down the cost of
existing renewable energy sources like wind and solar and developing new policies,
technologies, and tools that help users, businesses, and activists drive change.
Google tools are helping people measure the planet’s health. Today anyone who
is online can see the world change over recent decades, watching as cities grow,forests disappear, glaciers recede, and lakes dry up. We’re also working with researchand nonprofit organizations all over the world to monitor the Earth’s vital signs. Our
vision is to use our mapping, cloud, and machine learning technologies to create aliving, breathing dashboard of our planet that can help inform everyday decisions forindividuals, organizations, and nations today and for generations to come.

GOOGLE ENVIRONMENTAL REPORT: 2017 progress update

OUR APPROACH

06

Our carbon footprint
We began calculating our annual carbon footprint in 2006. Every year since 2009,
we’ve publicly reported the results to CDP, a global organization that asks companies
to disclose information on their GHG emission performance and management. Our
report received an A score from CDP for the past three years, and in both 2015 and2016, we earned a spot on CDP’s A List, which recognizes top reporting companies.
In 2016, our gross GHG emissions were 2.9 million metric tons of carbon dioxide
equivalent (tCO2e), but because of our renewable energy and carbon offset programs,
our net operational carbon emissions were zero. Because of our emissions-reduction
efforts, our carbon intensity has steadily decreased even as our company has grownand our energy use has correspondingly increased. Over the past five years, ourcarbon intensity per revenue and our carbon intensity per full-time equivalent employee
both decreased by 55%, and our carbon intensity for electricity used at our data
centers dropped by 59%. This means we’re delivering our products and services withdecreased carbon impacts, even before using carbon offsets to reach neutrality.

A decade of carbon neutrality
In 2007, Google committed to being carbon neutral, and we’ve met this goal every
year since then. We reach carbon neutrality via three steps. First, we work to reduce
our total energy consumption by pursuing aggressive energy-efficiency initiatives.

GOOGLE ENVIRONMENTAL REPORT: 2017 progress update

OUR APPROACH

07

Second, we purchase significant amounts of renewable energy. Third, we buy carbon
offsets for any remaining emissions we haven’t yet eliminated.7
When we committed to carbon neutrality, we saw carbon offsets as an interim
solution. As we continue to improve our energy efficiency and reach our target ofoperating with 100% renewable electricity, our need for carbon offsets will decrease.
When we do purchase carbon offsets, we follow stringent principles. We invest
in high-quality, third-party-verified offsets, including landfill gas projects and animal
waste management systems. All our offsets are additional, meaning that the
projects reduce GHG emissions that would not be reduced through other incentives.
We also ensure that the projects we invest in are permanent sources of carbon
reduction or sequestration, rather than temporary solutions. Finally, wheneverpossible, we invest for the long term, which offers owners and developers thefinancial stability they need to continue operating.
Google has been carbon neutral for a decade now, and in that time, we’ve
partnered with more than 40 carbon offset projects to offset more than 16 million
tCO2e.8 We look forward to continuing to work toward net zero carbon in the decade
to come.
LEARN MORE
2011 white paper: Google’s Carbon Offsets: Collaboration and Due Diligence2017 white paper: 10 Years of Carbon Neutrality

Golden Hills wind farm in California (43 MW for Google)

GOOGLE ENVIRONMENTAL REPORT: 2017 progress update

OUR APPROACH

08

SPOTLIGHT

Capturing value fromwaste in upstate New York

Flares destroy methane gas at Oneida-Herkimer
Regional Landfill in New York.

GOOGLE ENVIRONMENTAL REPORT: 2017 progress update

OUR APPROACH

09

Oneida-Herkimer Regional Landfill in New York,
one of Google’s carbon offset project partners

500K

METRIC TONS OF CO2e ELIMINATED
THIS LANDFILL GAS PROJECT HAS
ELIMINATED HALF A MILLION METRICTONS OF CARBON DIOXIDE EQUIVALENT,GENERATING MORE THAN HALF AMILLION CARBON OFFSETS.

One of Google’s long-standing carbon offset project partners is Oneida-Herkimer
Solid Waste Management Authority. This Authority operates the newest landfill
in upstate New York, the Oneida-Herkimer Regional Landfill, which serves ruralcommunities with a combined population of 300,000.
Our partnership goes back to 2010, when we decided to invest in the Authority’s
landfill gas project in its early stages. As organic waste decomposes inside a
landfill, it creates methane gas, which is a significant contributor to climate change:
methane is 28 times more potent than carbon dioxide and accounts for 16% of
global GHG emissions.9 Landfills in many U.S. states aren’t required to capture
or process methane if they don’t reach a certain threshold of emissions, so by
voluntarily collecting and destroying it, they can generate carbon offsets.
The Authority wanted to install a network of wells, pipes, and flares to captureand destroy the site’s methane gas. Developing a carbon offset project provided
the financial incentive for the initial investment. After vetting the project, Google
committed to purchasing all the carbon offsets it would generate. This long-term
investment provided the financial certainty the Authority needed to build and begin
operating the gas-collection system three years earlier than planned. Since then,the project has eliminated half a million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent,
generating more than half a million carbon offsets while ensuring the gas isproperly handled.

GOOGLE ENVIRONMENTAL REPORT: 2017 progress update

OUR APPROACH

10

Once a gas-collection system was in place, the Authority could then take further
steps to fully utilize this resource. Rather than simply flaring off, or burning, thewaste gas, the Authority commissioned a plant to convert it to electricity. This plant
now produces enough renewable energy to power more than 3,300 local households
and also provides a steady revenue stream to fund additional waste management
initiatives for the community.
Revenue from selling carbon offsets has allowed the Authority to continuously
expand the gas well field to capture even more methane. The money has also
supported the launch and operations of other waste management initiatives,
including electronics waste recycling and the safe disposal of hazardous household
waste. Without the revenue stream catalyzed by the initial gas-collection project,
the additional cost for these community programs would have to be borne by local
residents and businesses.
This project is just one example of the many mutually beneficial long-term
partnerships we’ve established through our carbon offset program. By enabling us
to reduce our carbon footprint while reducing local air pollution, improving waste
management, and increasing local revenue streams, each of these collaborations isa win for both Google and our communities.

Wells capture methane gas at Oneida-Herkimer
Regional Landfill in New York.

GOOGLE ENVIRONMENTAL REPORT: 2017 progress update

OUR APPROACH

11

Our journey to net zero carbon
Google is committed to reducing our carbon emissions and helping to increase the world’s
supply of clean energy. Here are some of our notable milestones over the past decade.

2007

We committed to carbon
neutrality and purchased
enough carbon offsets to bringour net annual emissions tozero for the first time.

2010

Our Bay Area headquarters
became a proving ground forrenewable energy with a 1.6 MW
rooftop solar installation, thelargest corporate rooftop solar
array at the time.

We became one of the firstnon-utility corporations toreceive permission from theFederal Energy Regulatory
Commission (FERC) to buy
energy directly from wind andsolar providers.

2012

In addition to purchasing
renewable energy for ouroperations, we began
contributing to growing theclean energy market by making
our first renewable energy
equity investment with a$39 million commitment to the
170 MW Peace Garden windfarm in North Dakota.

With FERC authority in hand,
we made our first purchase ofrenewable energy by signinga 20-year power purchaseagreement (PPA) with the Story
County II wind farm in Iowa.

2014

With the momentum from ourpurchases, we set a goal toreach 100% renewable energy
for our operations.

Our total cumulative
commitments reached$1 billion in renewable energy
equity investments.

We nearly doubled ourrenewable energy purchases
in a single year by entering into
six new PPAs totaling 842 MW,
the largest aggregate purchaseof renewable energy ever by
a non-utility, bringing our total
contracts to more than 2 GW ofrenewable energy worldwide.

Our total cumulative
commitments reached$2.5 billion in renewableenergy equity investments.

Bolstering our commitment tooperate with 100% renewableenergy, we signed theAmerican Business Act on
Climate Pledge and joined theRE100 campaign.

By November, we had signed
a cumulative total of 20 PPAs
for more than 2.6 GW ofrenewable energy.

By the end of the year, we will
have been carbon neutral for
10 consecutive years.

2015

We surpassed a cumulative
total of 1 gigawatt (GW) ofrenewable energy purchasedfor our operations.

2016

We joined with Amazon, Apple,
and Microsoft to promote
federal mechanisms to growcleaner sources of electricity in
the United States.

2017

We will reach100%

renewable energy forour global operations.

GOOGLE ENVIRONMENTAL REPORT: 2017 progress update

OUR APPROACH

12

Google’s Tech Corners campus
in Sunnyvale, California

Performance highlights
and targets
The following four pages include highlights of the environmental initiatives
discussed in this report. They provide a snapshot of our performance to date andour targets going forward. Together, they demonstrate how we’re strengthening ourbusiness by reducing the environmental impact of our operations and working toempower people everywhere to live more sustainably.
For a more complete overview of our performance over time, see theenvironmental data tables and charts on pages 45 to 50.

GOOGLE ENVIRONMENTAL REPORT: 2017 progress update

OUR APPROACH

13

Performance highlights
Designing efficient data centers
WASTE

100%

86%

Six of our operating data centers
have achieved 100% landfill
diversion, and one of these has alsoreached Zero Waste to Landfill.10

In 2016, we diverted 86%
of waste from our global data
center operations awayfrom landfills.

LANDFILL DIVERSIONWASTE DIVERTED

36%

22%

In 2016, 36% of the servers
Google deployed wereremanufactured machines.

In 2016, 22% of thecomponents we used formachine upgrades in our data
centers were refurbishedinventory.

OF SERVERSREMANUFACTURED

ENERGYOF COMPONENTS
REFURBISHEDCERTIFICATIONS

50%

1.12

3.5X

14001& 50001

On average, a Google data center
uses 50% less energy than a typical
data center.

In 2016, the average annual powerusage effectiveness (PUE) for our
global fleet of data centers was
1.12, compared with the industry
average of 1.7—meaning that ourdata centers use nearly six times
less overhead energy.

Compared with five years ago, we
now deliver more than 3.5 times asmuch computing power with thesame amount of electrical power.

We’ve achieved ISO 14001(environmental management)
and ISO 50001 (energy
management) certifications for
12 of our 14 Google-owned and-operated data centers globally,
which together represented
more than 98% of our IT energy
use in 2016.

10 YEARS

040

55% DECREASE

Google has been carbon neutral
since 2007.

Because of our renewable energy
and carbon offset programs, ournet operational carbon emissions
in 2016 were zero.

Over the past 10 years, we’ve
partnered with more than 40
carbon offset projects to offset
more than 16 million tCO2e.

Over the past five years, ourcarbon intensity per revenue
and our carbon intensity per
full-time equivalent employee
both decreased by 55%.

100%

2.6 GW$2.5 BILLION

We’ll achieve 100% renewableenergy for our operations in 2017.

Google is the world’s largest
corporate purchaser of renewableenergy. We’ve signed 20
agreements to purchase a
total of 2.6 GW of renewableenergy—generating emissions
savings equivalent to taking morethan 1.2 million cars off the road.

Since 2010, we’ve committed
to invest nearly $2.5 billion in
renewable energy projects with a
total combined capacity of 3.7 GW.

LESS ENERGYPUECOMPUTING POWER

ISO CERTIFICATIONSAdvancing renewable energy
GHG EMISSIONSOF CARBON NEUTRALITY

NET EMISSIONSCARBON OFFSET PROJECTSIN CARBON INTENSITY

ENERGYRENEWABLE ENERGY

RENEWABLE ENERGYGOOGLE ENVIRONMENTAL REPORT: 2017 progress update

OUR APPROACH

IN EQUITY COMMITMENTS

14

Performance highlights
Creating sustainable workplaces
WASTE

85%

LANDFILL DIVERSION
In 2016, we reached an 85% landfill
diversion rate in the Bay Area and
78% for our offices globally.

TRANSPORTATION

WATER

1.5

33,000 tCO e

40% REDUCTION

In 2016, Google avoided morethan 700,000 kilograms (1.5
million pounds) of food waste
in our cafés globally by tracking
pre-consumer food waste andusing this data to inform future
production levels.

In 2016, the use of Google shuttle
buses and corporate electricvehicles in the Bay Area resulted insavings of more than 33,000 tCO2e.
That’s like taking 6,500 cars off
the road every day or avoiding
152 million vehicle kilometers(95 million vehicle miles) every year.

From 2013 to 2016, we reduced
potable liters of water used per
Googler by 40% at our Bay Area
headquarters.

3 MILLION

10 PETABYTES

Through Project Air View, Google
Street View cars equipped with
air quality equipment made nearly
3 million measurements in thecourse of a year, creating one of
the largest air quality data sets everpublished and demonstrating thepotential of neighborhood-level air
pollution mapping.

Global Forest Watch, Global
Fishing Watch, Project Sunroof,
and the DiSARM platform for
malaria risk mapping haveenabled tens of thousands ofscientists around the world toeasily analyze 10 petabytes
of geospatial information,
resulting in a deeper
understanding of the planet.

MILLION POUNDSOF FOOD WASTE AVOIDEDSAVINGS

2

IN POTABLE WATER USE

CERTIFICATIONS

9.3

34%

As of the end of 2016, 865,000
square meters (9.3 million squarefeet) of Google office facilities
have achieved LEED (Leadership in
Energy and Environmental Design)certification.

As of the end of 2016, 34% of our
LEED-certified square footage
achieved a Platinum rating and
54% a Gold rating.

MILLIONSQUARE FEET LEED CERTIFIEDLEED PLATINUM

Empowering users with technology
ENABLING TECHNOLOGIES

1BILLION KM

70,000Google Maps provides more than
1 billion kilometers’ worth of transit
results per day, helping limit carbon
emissions by giving people accessto mass transit options, bike routes,
and traffic information.

Global Fishing Watch, powered by
Google Cloud Platforms’ machinelearning algorithms, monitors theplanet’s fisheries and provides thefirst view over space and time,covering more than 70,000 of thelargest commercial fishing vessels.

OF TRANSIT RESULTS

VESSELS MONITORED

AIR POLLUTION
MEASUREMENTS

OF FREELY AVAILABLEGEOSPATIAL DATACLOUD-BASED PRODUCTS

43 MILLION

65%–85%98%

EMISSIONS REDUCTION

1MONTH = 1MILE

Since 2015, Project Sunroof has
mapped more than 43 million U.S.
rooftops in 42 states. More than
2 million users have accessed thetool to make informed decisions
about solar panel installation.

Businesses that switch to G Suite
products like Gmail, Calendar, Docs,
Drive, and Meet have reported
reductions in IT energy use andcarbon emissions by up to 85%.

A business using Gmail can
reduce the GHG emissions impact
of its email service by up to 98%
compared with running email
on local servers.

Providing an active user one
month of Google services
creates about the sameamount of GHG emissions
as driving a car one mile.

MAPPED ROOFTOPSENERGY SAVINGSGOOGLE ENVIRONMENTAL REPORT: 2017 progress update

OUR APPROACH

15

Progress against targets
TARGET

DEADLINE

2016 PROGRESS

AnnualThe average annual PUE for our global fleet of data centers was
1.12. Our fleet-wide PUE has stayed constant at 1.12 for the past
five years.

None

Six of our operating data centers have achieved 100% landfill
diversion, and one of these has reached Zero Waste to Landfill.

Annual

We maintained certification for 12 of our 14 data centers, which
together represented more than 98% of our IT energy use. In 2016,
our two newest data centers were not yet included in our EnMS, but
only one of these facilities met the criteria for inclusion. We plan toadd both of these sites to our ISO 50001 certificate in 2017.

None
initially,
now
2017

Our energy deals produced enough renewable electricity to cover
57% of our operations in 2016. Given our signed contracts for
projects to come online, we’ll reach 100% renewable energy in2017.

Annual

We purchased enough renewable energy and high-quality
carbon offsets to bring our net annual carbon emissions
to zero. Google has been carbon neutral since 2007.

Annual

865,000 square meters (9.3 million square feet) of Google officefacilities have achieved LEED certification, with 34% achieving a
Platinum rating and 54% a Gold rating.

Reduce single-occupancy vehicle commuting at our
Bay Area headquarters to 45%.

None

Initial results indicate that for the Mountain View portion of our
Bay Area headquarters, we have met and are already exceeding
this goal.

Provide electric vehicle charging stations for 10%
of parking spaces at our Bay Area headquarters.

None

We have achieved a design standard of approximately 10% for new
construction and tenant improvement projects in the Sunnyvale
portion of our Bay Area headquarters.

Reduce total waste per Googler at our Bay Area
headquarters by 10% in 2016, compared with 2015.

2016

From 2015 to 2016, we reduced total waste per Googler by 2%
at our Bay Area headquarters.

Set regional waste-reduction targets for our offices
in 2017.

2017

On track.

Reduce potable water consumption per Googler at our Bay
Area headquarters by 40% by 2016, compared with 2013.

2016

From 2013 to 2016, we reduced potable liters of water consumed
per Googler by 40% at our Bay Area headquarters.

Set regional water-reduction targets for our offices in 2017.

2017

On track.

STATUS

Designing efficient data centers
ENERGY

Maintain or improve quarterly PUE at each Google data
center, year over year.
WASTE

Achieve Zero Waste to Landfill for our global
data center operations.
CERTIFICATIONS

Maintain ISO 50001 energy management system (EnMS)
certification for all Google-owned data centers that meetcertain operational milestones.

Advancing renewable energy
ENERGY

Reach 100% renewable energy for our global operations.

GHG EMISSIONS

Maintain carbon neutrality for our operations.

Creating sustainable workplaces
CERTIFICATIONS

Pursue third-party green or healthy-building certifications
for office projects, such as LEED, WELL Building Standard,and Living Building Challenge.
GHG EMISSIONS

WASTE

WATER

ACHIEVEDON TRACKONGOINGMISSEDGOOGLE ENVIRONMENTAL REPORT: 2017 progress update

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16

About Google
As our founders explained in their first letter to shareholders, Google’s goal is to“develop services that significantly improve the lives of as many people as possible.”
We believe in technology’s potential to have a positive impact on the world. We also
believe we’re just scratching the surface. Our goal as a company is to remain a placeof incredible creativity and innovation that uses our technical expertise to tackle
big problems.
Google’s innovations in search and advertising have made our website oneof the most widely used and our brand one of the most recognized in the world.
We generate revenue primarily through online advertising. Google’s core products—
Search, Android, Maps, Chrome, YouTube, Google Play, and Gmail—each have morethan 1 billion monthly active users.
We also offer a broad collection of cloud-based products and services, including
G Suite business productivity apps like Docs, Drive, and Calendar and satellite
mapping and analysis platforms like Google Earth and Google Earth Engine.
In recent years we’ve expanded into hardware solutions with products including
Google Pixel, Chromecast, and Google Home.
We’re a wholly owned subsidiary of Alphabet, which also includes companies
such as Access, Calico, CapitalG, GV, Nest, Verily, Waymo, and X. As of December 31,
2016, we had more than $90 billion in total revenues and 72,053 full-time employees.
Google’s headquarters are located in California, in the San Francisco Bay
Area, United States. In this report the term “Bay Area headquarters” refers to ouroperations in both Mountain View and Sunnyvale. We own and lease office andbuilding space, research and development labs, and sales and support offices
across more than 150 cities, primarily in North America, Europe, South America, andAsia, and we own and operate 14 data centers across four continents.

About this report
The annual data in this report covers our 2016 fiscal year (January 1 to December
31, 2016). The spotlights also include data and stories from prior years to provide
context, as well as some of our progress in 2017. Unless otherwise specified, allenvironmental performance data included in this report applies to Google Inc.
The primary exception is our GHG emissions and energy use data, which covers
operations of Google together with our parent company, Alphabet Inc.
LEARN MORE
For more information about our environmental sustainability initiatives, including casestudies, white papers, and blogs, please see our Environment website and our 2016
Environmental Report. Our Creating a Responsible Supply Chain report and Investor Relations
website have more information on sustainability and corporate responsibility at Google.

GOOGLE ENVIRONMENTAL REPORT: 2017 progress update

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Designingefficientdata centers

Modular cooling units at Google’s data center
in Mayes County, Oklahoma

GOOGLE ENVIRONMENTAL REPORT: 2017 progress update

18Overview
Google’s data centers are the heart of our company, powering products like Search,
Gmail, and YouTube for billions of people around the world, 24/7. We own andoperate 14 data centers on four continents and continue to add new sites to better
serve our customers. Each data center is a large campus whose facilities, servers,
networking equipment, and cooling systems are designed from the ground up for
maximum efficiency and minimal environmental impact.
For more than a decade, we’ve worked to make Google data centers some of
the most efficient in the world, improving their environmental performance evenas demand for our products has dramatically risen. We’ve done this by designing,building, and operating each one to maximize efficient use of energy, water,and materials.
To reduce energy use, we strive to build the world’s most energy-efficientcomputing network by squeezing more out of every watt of power we consume.
First, we outfit each data center with high-performance servers that we’ve custom
designed to use as little energy as possible. We improve facility energy use by
installing smart temperature and lighting controls and redesigning how power
is distributed to reduce energy loss. We employ advanced cooling techniques,relying primarily on energy-efficient evaporative cooling, and use nonpotable water
whenever possible. Finally, we apply machine learning to drive energy efficiency
even further.
Our efforts have paid off: Google data centers use 50% less energy than typical
data centers use.11 Compared with five years ago, we now deliver more than 3.5
times as much computing power with the same amount of electrical power. In 2016,

DATA CENTERS: BY THE NUMBERS

50%

1.12

86%

On average, a Google data
center uses 50% less energy
than a typical data center.

In 2016, the average annual
power usage effectivenessfor our global fleet of data
centers was 1.12, comparedwith the industry average of
1.7—meaning our data centers
use nearly six times lessoverhead energy.

In 2016, we diverted 86%
of waste from our global
data center operations
away from landfills.

LESS ENERGYPUE

GOOGLE ENVIRONMENTAL REPORT: 2017 progress update

WASTE DIVERTEDDESIGNING EFFICIENT DATA CENTERS

ISO

14001 & 50001
CERTIFICATIONS
We’ve achieved ISO 14001(environmental management)
and ISO 50001 (energy
management) certificationsfor 12 of our 14 Google-owned
and -operated data centers
globally, which together
represented more than 98%
of our IT energy use in 2016.

19

Seawater cooling plant at Google’s data
center in Hamina, Finland

the average annual power usage effectiveness (PUE)12 for our global fleet of data
centers was 1.12, compared with the industry average of 1.713—meaning that Google
data centers use nearly six times less overhead energy for every unit of IT equipment
energy. Our fleet-wide PUE has stayed constant at 1.12 for the past five years.
Generating electricity requires water, so the less energy we use to power our data
centers, the less water we use as well. The source of energy matters too: wind andsolar energy require considerably less water to produce than do coal and nuclear
energy. In 2016, using renewable energy for our data centers reduced our embedded
water use by 45% on average compared with buying grid power.
In 2013, we became the first company in North America—and the only majorinternet company—to achieve a multi-site ISO 50001 energy management system
certification. We also maintain a corporate multi-site ISO 14001 environmental
management certification. Both of these voluntary third-party certificates cover all of
our owned data centers globally once they meet certain operational milestones. In
2016, we maintained these certifications for 12 of our 14 data centers, which together
represented more than 98% of our IT energy use. We plan to add our two newest
facilities to our ISO 50001 certificate in 2017, once they meet operational criteria.

GOOGLE ENVIRONMENTAL REPORT: 2017 progress update

DESIGNING EFFICIENT DATA CENTERS

20

We’re also working to design out waste, embedding circular economy principles
into our server management by reusing materials multiple times. In 2016, 36%
of Google’s newly deployed servers were remanufactured machines, and 22% ofcomponents used for machine upgrades were refurbished inventory.
We’re committed to achieving Zero Waste to Landfill14 for our global data center
operations by reducing the amount of waste we generate and finding better disposal
options. Six of our operating data centers have achieved 100% landfill diversion, andone of these has also reached Zero Waste to Landfill.15 In 2016, we diverted 86% ofwaste from our global data center operations away from landfills.
Google has saved more than $1 billion through our energy-efficiency initiatives andhundreds of millions more through resource efficiency. By sharing our best practices
and supporting research and collaboration, we hope to help other companies realize
their own savings and promote ever-greater data center sustainability worldwide.
LEARN MORE
2011 case study: Google’s Green Computing: Efficiency at Scale2011 case study: Google’s Green Data Centers: Network POP Case Study
2016 case study: Circular Economy at Work in Google Data Centers
Google Data Centers website: Efficiency: How We Do It

An employee works atop a storage tank at Google’s data center in Douglas County, Georgia.

GOOGLE ENVIRONMENTAL REPORT: 2017 progress update

DESIGNING EFFICIENT DATA CENTERS

21

SPOTLIGHT

TPUs: Big resource savingsin a small package

TPUs deployed in a Google data center

GOOGLE ENVIRONMENTAL REPORT: 2017 progress update

DESIGNING EFFICIENT DATA CENTERS

22

15 30xx—

TPUS ARE 15 TO 30 TIMES FASTER FOR
MACHINE LEARNING APPLICATIONSTHAN CONVENTIONAL CHIPS ARE.

Machine learning puts the oomph in many of Google’s popular applications, fromStreet View to voice recognition to Smart Reply in Inbox by Gmail. It involves
deep neural networks and complex mathematical systems that can analyze large
amounts of data in order to learn specific tasks. Machine learning thus requires a lotof compute power, which puts more pressure on Google engineers to find ways tosave power as we use this tool more broadly throughout our products.
About five years ago, when we started using machine learning to enhance Google
Voice Search, we realized that, given the processing units we were currently using,if every person in the world with an Android phone used voice search for just threeminutes a day, we would need twice as many data centers. Rather than double ourdata center fleet and our environmental footprint, we set out to create a computer
chip designed specifically for machine learning applications like speech recognition.
The result is the Tensor Processing Unit (TPU), an entirely new class ofapplication-specific integrated circuit that has been running machine learning
applications in our data centers since 2015. TPUs are designed to use sophisticatedmachine learning models and apply them more quickly, so users get more intelligent
results more quickly as well. TPUs are much faster for machine learning applications
than are conventional chips—15 to 30 times faster than their contemporary graphics
processing units (GPUs) and central processing units (CPUs)16—and they allow us tomake predictions, and enable products to respond, in fractions of a second.

GOOGLE ENVIRONMENTAL REPORT: 2017 progress update

DESIGNING EFFICIENT DATA CENTERS

23

These custom chips are behind every Google search query, powering the visionmodels that underlie products like Google Image Search, Google Photos, and theGoogle Cloud Vision API. When AlphaGo won its famous 2016 match against Lee
Sedol to become the first computer to defeat a world champion in the ancient gameof Go, it was TPUs that enabled it to “think” much more quickly and look farther
ahead between moves.
TPUs are also much more energy efficient for machine learning by an order ofmagnitude, outperforming standard processors by 30 to 80 times in the TOPS/Wattefficiency measure.17 This is roughly equivalent to fast-forwarding technology sevenyears into the future (more than three generations of Moore’s Law).
More than 100 teams at Google are using machine learning today, and TPUs will
enable huge resource savings for all of them. By dramatically reducing the need to
expand our data center fleet, this new technology has brought us immense savingsin land, materials, energy, and water, not to mention money. We can in turn pass onthese savings to our customers. While we’ll continue pushing our data centers tomake them as sustainable as possible, the most sustainable data center is one that
doesn’t have to be built.
LEARN MORE
2014 research paper: Machine Learning Applications for Data Center Optimization2017 research paper: In-Datacenter Performance Analysis of a Tensor Processing Unit

A “TPU pod” built with 64 second-generation TPUs delivers up to 11.5 petaflops ofmachine learning acceleration.

GOOGLE ENVIRONMENTAL REPORT: 2017 progress update

DESIGNING EFFICIENT DATA CENTERS

24

Advancing
renewableenergyEl Romero solar farm in Chile(80 MW for Google)

GOOGLE ENVIRONMENTAL REPORT: 2017 progress update25

Overview
Running our business requires us to consume energy—primarily electricity—topower our data centers, offices, and other infrastructure. And combating climatechange requires the world to transition to a clean energy economy. So we’ve madeit a top priority not only to become more energy efficient but also to ensure that theenergy we purchase comes from clean sources such as renewables. Our support
for clean energy goes hand in hand with reducing our carbon footprint. By improving
the efficiency of our operations and buying both renewable power and high-quality
carbon offsets, we’ve been carbon neutral since 2007.
Google is the world’s largest corporate purchaser of renewable energy.18 Since
2010, we’ve signed 20 agreements to purchase a total of 2.6 gigawatts (GW) ofrenewable energy that is new to the grid—generating emissions savings that areequivalent to taking more than 1.2 million cars off the road. And in 2012, we set along-term goal to reach 100% renewable energy for our operations.
This year, we’re going to achieve it. In 2016, our energy deals produced enoughrenewable electricity to cover 57% of our operations. These efforts earned Google
a 2016 Green Power Leadership Award in Direct Project Engagement from the
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. And given our signed contracts for projects
that will come online in 2017, we’ll reach 100% renewable energy for our global
operations this year. While we’ll still be drawing power from the grid, some of which
will be from fossil fuel resources, we’ll purchase enough wind and solar energy toaccount for every megawatt-hour (MWh) of electricity our data center and office
operations consume annually.

RENEWABLE ENERGY: BY THE NUMBERS

100%

RENEWABLE ENERGY
We will achieve 100%
renewable energy for ouroperations in 2017.

2.6 GW

598 MW$2.5 BILLION

Google is the world’s largest
corporate purchaser ofrenewable energy. We’ve
signed 20 agreements totaling
2.6 GW of renewable energy—
generating emissions savings
equivalent to taking more than
1.2 million cars off the road.

In 2016, we increased our totalpurchases of renewable energy
by entering into five new PPAs
totaling 598 MW.

Since 2010, we’ve committed
to invest nearly $2.5 billion in
renewable energy projects witha total combined capacity of
3.7 GW.

TOTAL OFRENEWABLE ENERGYGOOGLE ENVIRONMENTAL REPORT: 2017 progress update

OF ADDITIONAL
RENEWABLE ENERGYADVANCING RENEWABLE ENERGYIN INVESTMENTCOMMITMENTS

26

We achieved our 100% renewable energy target much faster and at much greater
scale than we thought possible when we set this goal five years ago. We met it
primarily by buying renewable electricity directly from new wind and solar farms
via long-term power purchase agreements (PPAs), as well as by buying renewable
power through utilities via renewable energy purchasing models that we helped
create. In addition, a small portion of our utility energy purchases include renewablesources as part of the utility’s grid mix.19
By pioneering new energy purchasing models that others can follow, we’ve helped
drive wide-scale adoption of clean energy. We’re also helping to green the power gridthrough our advocacy of clean energy policies and our support for renewable energy
procurement programs. For example, we provided a seed grant to the Center for
Resource Solutions to explore the creation of renewable energy certification systems
in Asia. These efforts earned Google a second 2016 Green Power Leadership Award
in International Green Power Market Development.
Along with being the world’s largest corporate purchaser of renewable energy,
Google is also one of the world’s largest corporate investors in renewable energy.
Since 2010, we’ve committed to invest nearly $2.5 billion in large-scale renewableenergy projects and residential solar rooftop funds with a combined capacityof 3.7 GW. These targeted investments go beyond our own operational footprint,

Interior of turbine at Golden Hills wind farm in California (43 MW for Google)

GOOGLE ENVIRONMENTAL REPORT: 2017 progress update

ADVANCING RENEWABLE ENERGY

27

Golden Hills wind farm in California(43 MW for Google)

enabling renewable energy deployment at a larger scale while generating attractiverisk-adjusted returns.
The cost of renewable power has dropped precipitously, while its scale has grown
dramatically. Over the past seven years, wind and solar energy costs have decreased
by 66% and 85%, respectively.20 In 2015, wind and solar energy became the world’s
largest source of newly installed power capacity,21 and in 2016, almost two-thirds of
net new power capacity globally came from renewable energy.22 Renewables havebecome a mainstream source of affordable electricity for millions of people.
Increasing the share of renewables on the grid would bring many positive impacts.
For example, doubling renewables by 2030 is expected to increase global grossdomestic product (GDP) by as much as 1.1%, improve global welfare by 3.7%, andemploy more than 24 million people in the renewable energy sector.23 At Google, we’ll
continue doing our best to help accelerate the transition to clean energy and a more
prosperous future.
LEARN MORE
2013 white paper: Expanding Renewable Energy Options for Companies through UtilityOffered Renewable Energy Tariffs
2016 white paper: Achieving Our 100% Renewable Energy Purchasing Goal and Going Beyond

GOOGLE ENVIRONMENTAL REPORT: 2017 progress update

ADVANCING RENEWABLE ENERGY

28

SPOTLIGHT

Going Dutch onwind energy

Delfzijl wind farm in the Netherlands(63 MW for Google)

GOOGLE ENVIRONMENTAL REPORT: 2017 progress update

ADVANCING RENEWABLE ENERGY

29

Delfzijl wind farm in the Netherlands(63 MW for Google)

136 MWOF RENEWABLE ENERGY

THE KRAMMER AND BOUWDOKKEN WIND
PROJECTS COMBINED WILL ADD 136 MW OF
NEW RENEWABLE CAPACITY TO THE DUTCH
ELECTRICITY GRID.

Making a clean energy future a reality will require corporations, communities, andgovernments to work together. That’s why we were excited to join forces with threeleading Dutch companies—AkzoNobel, DSM, and Philips—to source power fromtwo new wind projects in the Netherlands. Our long-term collaboration offers a
successful and replicable model for how companies can achieve time and costsavings and meet ever-growing sustainability targets in a scalable way by jointly
sourcing renewable power.
Acting as a group offered big advantages. Combining our collective power needs
into one agreement gave the consortium access to better pricing by allowing
it to buy power from a larger project than most members could have pursued
individually, while letting each partner share risk and build a more diversified energy
portfolio. Using PPA contracts with identical terms between each buyer and the
project developer reduced negotiation costs. Creating a replicable structure let us
negotiate subsequent deals in a fraction of the time. Including the time it took tonegotiate the terms of the consortium, the first PPA transaction took 36 months
from inception to closing, and the second took only 7 months. Finally, drawing fromeach company’s expertise let the group share best practices and market knowledge.
The first agreement, executed in October 2016, was for the consortium topurchase the entire power production —102 MW—of Windpark Krammer, a wind farmestablished by two community-owned cooperatives in the Dutch province of Zeeland.
Once the Krammer wind farm becomes fully operational in 2019, the consortium will
buy a total of 350 gigawatt hours (GWh) per year—equivalent to the annual power

GOOGLE ENVIRONMENTAL REPORT: 2017 progress update

ADVANCING RENEWABLE ENERGY

30

consumption of 100,000 households. Our purchase agreement is for a 15-year
period, a crucial element for the project to secure financing. This is also the firsttime Google has teamed up with a community on a consumer-to-business energy
partnership. We’ll be buying wind power directly from 4,000 landowners, mostly
farmers, who collectively own the land on which the wind turbines will be built. Someof these landowners will also be direct, albeit modest, investors in the wind farm.
The consortium’s second PPA, signed in January 2017, will enable development of
the 34 MW Windpark Bouwdokken. When both are operational, the Krammer and the
Bouwdokken wind projects combined will add 136 MW of new renewable capacity to
the Dutch grid.
These deals weren’t Google’s first renewable energy agreements in the Netherlands.
In 2014, we announced that we would independently purchase the entire energy
output (63 MW) of a new wind farm in Delfzijl. Thanks to that contract, 18 new windturbines have been built, and our data center in Eemshaven has had renewable energy
from day one. Together these three deals have enabled us to significantly contribute to
the Netherlands’ national target of 14% renewable energy by 2020.
As the world’s largest corporate purchaser of renewable energy, we were thrilled towork with other companies to jointly pursue our sustainability goals and help realize
a clean energy future faster than ever.

Lehtirova
103 MW

RENEWABLE ENERGY FOR GOOGLE’S OPERATIONS

Jenasen76 MW
Story County II
114 MW
Cimarron Bend
200 MW
Golden Hills
43 MW
Bluestem
198 MW
Bethel225 MW

Tellenes
160 MW
MidAmerican Energy Wind VIII
407 MW
Duke Rider GS#1
61 MW

Windpark
Krammer
26 MW

Maevaara
105 MW
Beaufort
76 MW
Eolus Wind Farms
60 MW

Delfzijl
63 MW

Canadian Hills
48 MW
Great Western
225 MW

Minco II
101 MW

Happy Hereford
239 MW

Since 2010, Google has signed
20 agreements to purchase a totalof 2.6 GW of renewable energy that is
new to the grid.

Wind

400 MW
200 MW
50 MW
1 MW

Solar

El Romero
80 MW

GOOGLE ENVIRONMENTAL REPORT: 2017 progress update

ADVANCING RENEWABLE ENERGY

31

Creatingsustainable
workplaces
Central staircase in Google’s Fulton Market officein Chicago, Illinois

GOOGLE ENVIRONMENTAL REPORT: 2017 progress update32

Overview
Americans spend roughly 90% of their time indoors,24 and much of that time is spent
at work. At Google, just as we try to focus on the user in designing our products, we
try to focus on our employees in creating the healthiest possible workplaces, fromour Bay Area headquarters to Google offices at diverse sites in more than 150 cities
around the world. To do so we look for innovative ideas that deliver measurable
results and can be implemented at scale.
We start by applying industry-leading green building standards wherever possible
and by using tools like our own Portico to source nontoxic materials that are easy
to cycle. As of the end of 2016, 865,000 square meters (9.3 million square feet) ofGoogle office facilities had achieved LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental
Design) certification, with 34% of our LEED-certified square footage achieving a
Platinum rating and 54% a Gold rating.
We take a science- and community-driven approach to managing our campuses,with the aim of strengthening the ecosystem while improving access to the
outdoors for Google employees and the surrounding community. We also lookfor opportunities to install renewable energy like solar panels and ground source
heat pumps.
We reduce our water footprint by installing water-saving technologies and using
reclaimed water wherever possible. From 2013 to 2016, we reduced potable litersof water consumed per Googler by 40% at our Bay Area headquarters. We reduce
waste wherever we can and look for diversion pathways that keep the waste we dogenerate out of landfills. From 2015 to 2016, we reduced total waste per Googler by
2% at our Bay Area headquarters, and in 2016, we reached an 85% landfill diversion
rate in the Bay Area and 78% for our offices globally. We are now working to set
regional water- and waste-reduction targets across our portfolio.

SUSTAINABLE WORKPLACES: BY THE NUMBERS

9.3 MILLION

40%

85%

152 MILLION

As of the end of 2016, 865,494
square meters (9.3 million
square feet) of Google officefacilities have achieved LEED
certification.

From 2013 to 2016, we reduced
potable liters of water used per
Googler by 40% at our Bay Area
headquarters.

In 2016, we reached an 85%
landfill diversion rate in the
Bay Area and 78% for ouroffices globally.

By using Google shuttles andcorporate electric vehicles in
the Bay Area in 2016, we saved
33,000 metric tons of carbon
dioxide emissions—equivalent totaking 6,500 cars off the road.

SQUARE FEET LEEDCERTIFIED

REDUCTION IN POTABLE
WATER USE

GOOGLE ENVIRONMENTAL REPORT: 2017 progress update

LANDFILL
DIVERSION

CREATING SUSTAINABLE WORKPLACESVEHICLE KILOMETERSAVOIDED33

Our cafés and MicroKitchens offer nutritious, responsibly sourced meals, snacks,
and beverages. We try to make thoughtful choices in the products we buy and the
suppliers we buy them from. Our food program also focuses on reducing waste
throughout our operations, composting where we can and donating leftover foodwhen we’re legally able to do so. But we’ve learned that the best way to reduce foodwaste is to prevent it in the first place by tracking data and making adjustments. In
2016 this sort of data-driven optimization helped Google avoid 700,000 kilograms(1.5 million pounds) of food waste in our cafés around the world.
Our Transportation team works to make commuting and campus mobility
a stress-free part of every employee’s day. We set ambitious goals for helping
Googlers transition to shuttles, carpooling, public transit, biking, and walking. In
2016, initial results indicate that for the Mountain View portion of our Bay Area
headquarters, we exceeded our long-term goal to reduce single-occupancy vehiclecommuting to 45%. We also achieved a design standard of providing approximately
10% of parking with electric vehicle charging stations for new construction andtenant improvement projects in the Sunnyvale portion of our Bay Area headquarters.
In 2016, our Google shuttle buses and corporate electric vehicles in the Bay Area
produced savings of more than 33,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions—the equivalent of taking 6,500 cars off the road every day for a year or avoiding 152
million vehicle kilometers (95 million vehicle miles) per year.
Finally, as we explore these sustainability strategies, we’re committed to sharing
what we learn with other companies in order to help foster the growth of a newgeneration of more productive, environmentally friendly businesses.
LEARN MORE
2015 report: Vision for a Resilient Silicon Valley Landscape2016 report: Google Bay Area Waste Case Study

Employees ride shared GBikes to get around Google’s Mountain View, California, campus.

GOOGLE ENVIRONMENTAL REPORT: 2017 progress update

CREATING SUSTAINABLE WORKPLACES

34

SPOTLIGHT

Fulton Market: Building
a workplace that works

Google’s Fulton Market office in Chicago, Illinois,is the largest Living Building Challenge–certified
project in the world.

GOOGLE ENVIRONMENTAL REPORT: 2017 progress update

CREATING SUSTAINABLE WORKPLACES

35

Google’s Fulton Market office in Chicago, Illinois

100%

RED LIST–FREE MATERIALS

Google Chicago, also known as Fulton Market and as Google’s new home in the
Windy City, is a 30,000-square-meter (350,000-square-foot) space spanning sevenfloors. The building, built in 1923 in Chicago’s historic West Loop neighborhood,
was originally a cold-storage warehouse. Today this industrial concrete structure
has been transformed into a warm, inviting workplace and the first Google office to

ALL BUILDING MATERIALS USED IN THE
FULTON MARKET OFFICE ARE FREE OF THE
WORST-IN-CLASS CHEMICALS FOUND IN
CONSTRUCTION PRODUCTS.

receive the Living Building Challenge (LBC) Materials Petal Certification.25 In fact,
Fulton Market is currently the largest LBC-certified project in the world.
When the project began, our team set ambitious goals for improving Googler
wellness, happiness, and productivity through the use of design factors like lighting,materials, and biophilia (connecting people to nature). This was also the first time we
explored utilizing multiple green rating systems, including LEED v4, LBC Certification,and WELL Building Certification. Pursuing these certifications led us to focus onfour key initiatives: 100% Red List–free materials, circadian rhythm lighting design,
sustainably sourced wood, and biophilic design.
The LBC Materials Petal is the leading healthy materials certification forgreen buildings. To meet it while also meeting Google’s own healthy materials
requirements, the team used our online application Portico. Developed in partnershipwith the Healthy Building Network, Portico combines a product database andcollaborative workflow tools to offer an in-depth focus on healthy materials. At the
moment, this tool is available internally at Google and to our project partners, but
we’re working to expand access to Portico in the future. In a similar spirit of driving
industry-wide change, the Google Chicago design team also used the project to

GOOGLE ENVIRONMENTAL REPORT: 2017 progress update

CREATING SUSTAINABLE WORKPLACES

36

encourage broader market transformation by writing to manufacturers to argue forgreater product transparency and request full ingredient lists.
Our lighting strategy focused on improving Googler productivity and stress levelsby aligning with the body’s natural circadian rhythm through careful integration of
daylight and electric light. Open offices along the building’s outer edges maximize
access to natural daylight, and we make sure that spaces lacking daylight accessstill benefit from the full spectrum of light.
Our team tried to avoid using new wood, first exhausting all feasible reclaimed
wood sources (the aerobics room floor, for example, had a previous life in a local
high school gym). When new wood was necessary, we worked with local millworkers
to identify nearby sources of Forest Stewardship Council wood from sustainably
managed and harvested forests.
Each floor has a Chicago-centric theme, including the city’s L System, Loop, andfamous parks. But the whole building integrates biophilia with a sense of place,taking inspiration from nature through touches like edible plants, wall textures, anddynamic video walls. We’ll look to use our learnings from Chicago in future projects.

Google’s Fulton Market office in Chicago, Illinois

GOOGLE ENVIRONMENTAL REPORT: 2017 progress update

CREATING SUSTAINABLE WORKPLACES

37

Empowering
users withtechnology
The Global Forest Watch interactive map gives people
precise information about tree cover gain and loss.

GOOGLE ENVIRONMENTAL REPORT: 2017 progress update38Overview
A global challenge requires a global response. We strive to meet the vast challenge
posed by climate change by working to empower everyone—from individuals andcommunities to nonprofit organizations, businesses, and governments—to use
Google technology to help create a more sustainable and resource-efficient world.
Google Cloud Platform and G Suite applications like Gmail, Docs, and Drive areenabling millions of businesses to switch from locally hosted solutions to Google
Cloud’s highly efficient, renewable energy–based computing infrastructure. This
infrastructure is so efficient that providing an active user one month of Google
services creates about the same amount of GHG emissions as driving a car one
mile.26 Businesses that switch to cloud-based products like G Suite have reported
reductions in IT energy use and carbon emissions up to 85%,27 and a businessusing Gmail can reduce the GHG emissions impact of its email service by up to98%, compared with running email on local servers.28 In addition, Google Maps now
provides more than 1 billion kilometers’ worth of transit results per day, helping limit
carbon emissions by giving people access to mass transit options, bike routes, andtraffic information.
We also put Google technology to work helping others study and respond toenvironmental challenges. Our Geo team is working with numerous research andenvironmental organizations to map the world’s forests, oceans, and watersheds,
and then getting that information into the hands of decision-makers by working
with partners to build services like Global Forest Watch, Global Fishing Watch,
Project Sunroof, and the DiSARM platform for malaria risk mapping. These tools,
representing 10 petabytes’ worth of freely available geospatial data, can provide
invaluable information to scientists, environmental organizations, and communities

TECHNOLOGY: BY THE NUMBERS

85%

1BILLION

10

UL110

Businesses that switch to
G Suite products like Gmail,Calendar, Docs, Drive, andMeet have reported reductions
in IT energy use and carbon
emissions from 65% to 85%.

Google Maps provides morethan 1 billion kilometers’ worthof transit results per day, helping
limit carbon emissions by giving
people access to mass transit
options, bike routes, and traffic
information.

Global Forest Watch, Global
Fishing Watch, Project Sunroof,
and the DiSARM platform for
malaria risk mapping haveenabled tens of thousands ofscientists around the world toeasily analyze 10 petabytes ofgeospatial information, resulting
in a deeper understanding of
the planet.

Google Pixel phones are UL 110
certified for sustainability in
categories like energy use, healthand environment, and end-of-life
management.

POTENTIAL ENERGYSAVINGSKILOMETERS OF
TRANSIT RESULTS

GOOGLE ENVIRONMENTAL REPORT: 2017 progress update

PETABYTESEMPOWERING USERS WITH TECHNOLOGYGOOGLE PIXEL PHONES

39

that are trying to devise more informed solutions to challenges like deforestation,
overfishing, and air pollution.
We also hold ourselves to a rigorous set of environmental standards throughout
the life cycle of Google-branded consumer electronics, from design andmanufacturing through packaging and recycling. Google Pixel phones are UL 110
certified for sustainability in categories like energy use, health and environment, andend-of-life management. A portion of the plastic content in products like Google
Home and Chromecast is recycled, and we make it easy for customers to recycle
their electronics for free via take-back programs.
The Nest Learning Thermostat, a product of the Alphabet company, uses
learning algorithms and smart control of residential heating and cooling systems
to reduce home energy consumption. Many people leave traditional thermostats
at one temperature or forget to change them when they leave home for extended
times, wasting energy and costing more money. The Nest Thermostat learns youroccupancy patterns and temperature preferences and detects environmental
characteristics to customize a schedule that can keep you comfortable while savingenergy. It can also be controlled from your phone. Multiple studies conductedby Nest and third parties show that, on average, the Nest Thermostat saves U.S.
customers about 10%–12% on their heating bills and about 15% on their coolingbills.29 Our team takes special pride in the collective savings our thermostats deliver.
In fact, as of December 31, 2016, we’ve saved more than 10 billion kWh combined,
based on the average savings studies above—enough energy to power all of San
Francisco for more than 21 months.
LEARN MORE
2011 case study: Google’s Green Computing: Efficiency at Scale
Project Sunroof: United Nations Momentum for Change award

Google Pixel smartphones offer built-in features like Google Assistant and are UL 110
certified for several sustainability categories.

GOOGLE ENVIRONMENTAL REPORT: 2017 progress update

EMPOWERING USERS WITH TECHNOLOGY40

SPOTLIGHT

Project Air View:
Making the invisible visible

A Google Street View
camera fitted with air quality
equipment

GOOGLE ENVIRONMENTAL REPORT: 2017 progress update

EMPOWERING USERS WITH TECHNOLOGY

41

A Google Street View car fitted with air pollution
measurement equipment

Every day we make decisions with the help of data from the world around us. By
making the invisible visible, air pollution maps are helping us understand how clean(or unclean) our air is so that we can make changes in order to live healthier lives,
build more sustainable cities, and reduce climate-changing GHGs.
Project Air View began in 2011, when the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF)
asked Google to help it map thousands of methane leaks from natural gas
pipelines under select U.S. city streets, using Street View cars equipped withmethane analyzers.30 For years we’ve been measuring indoor environmental quality
across Google offices in partnership with Aclima, which builds environmental
sensor networks. So in 2014, we equipped several Street View cars with Aclima’s
Environmental Intelligence mobile platform, including scientific-grade analyzers andarrays of small-scale, low-cost sensors to measure particulate matter, nitric oxide,
nitrogen dioxide, carbon dioxide, black carbon, and other pollutants.
In 2016, PSE&G, one of the largest U.S. utilities, announced that as part of its
approved multimillion-dollar pipeline replacement program, it had used data andmaps from our Street View mapping effort to prioritize the replacement of gas
mains.31 This enabled PSE&G to replace 35% fewer miles of pipe than if it hadn’t
used the data and thus reduce methane emissions from targeted areas by 83%.
Today, Project Air View is active in three California regions in partnership withAclima and EDF. Our results for Oakland, California, released by EDF in June 2017,
show in street-level detail how pollution emitted from cars, trucks, and other sources

GOOGLE ENVIRONMENTAL REPORT: 2017 progress update

EMPOWERING USERS WITH TECHNOLOGY42

3

can change block by block.32, 33 The freeway where the Bay Bridge meets Interstate
80, for example, has higher sustained pollution levels due to vehicles accelerating

MILLION

MEASUREMENTS

PROJECT AIR VIEW’S OAKLAND SURVEY ISONE OF THE LARGEST AIR QUALITY DATASETS PUBLISHED TO DATE.

under I-80 and merging onto the bridge.
With nearly 3 million measurements in the course of a year, Air View’s Oakland
survey is one of the largest air quality data sets yet published, and it demonstrates
how neighborhood-level environmental data can help local groups better understandtheir communities and help regulators find ways to improve them. The learnings
can also be applied to other cities that are trying to understand local patterns andimprove their own air quality.

An Environmental Defense Fund map shows analysis with Google/Aclima data of black carbon particles that come from burning fuel, especially diesel,wood, and coal. High exposure is associated with heart attacks, stroke, and some forms of cancer.

GOOGLE ENVIRONMENTAL REPORT: 2017 progress update

EMPOWERING USERS WITH TECHNOLOGY43

Appendix

GOOGLE ENVIRONMENTAL REPORT: 2017 progress update

44

Environmental data
The following table provides an overview of our performance over time and includes environmental
data for our global operations, including our data centers, offices, and other facilities.
Data for GHG emissions and energy use covers Alphabet Inc. and all of its subsidiaries, including
Google Inc. The exceptions are data center energy efficiency and renewable energy figures, which
cover Google only. All other data applies only to Google. Unless otherwise specified, all data is global.
For more information on our energy use and GHG emissions data and initiatives, see our2017 CDP climate change report.

FISCAL YEAR34
KEY PERFORMANCE INDICATOR

UNIT

2011

2012

2013

2014

2015

2016

29,56337,187

41,37351,802

66,991

66,2181,439,703

1,149,988

1,245,253

1,460,762

37

1,384,427

1,518,643

1,439,703

1,654,645

1,831,142

2,198,821

2,450,43838

2,902,554

208,157

332,612479,388980,783

1,234,683

1,292,267

1,677,423

1,519,787

1,766,014

2,493,347

2,686,101

2,877,128

Emissions neutralized by carbon
offset projects­–1,677,423–1,519,787–1,766,014–2,493,347–2,686,101–1,898,889

Net operational carbon emissions39

0

0

0

0

0

0

GHG emissions35
Scope 1*, †Scope 2 (market-based)*, †, 36

Scope 2 (location-based)*,†

Scope 3*, †Total (Scope 1, 2 [market-based], and 3)

Carbon intensity

tCO2e

40

Carbon intensity per unit of revenue

tCO2e/million
US$

38.8

25.8

23.2

22.9

19.4

17.6

Carbon intensity per full-time equivalent(FTE) employee

tCO2e/FTE

51.9

33.8

31.9

31.0

25.0

23.4

Carbon intensity per megawatt-hour(MWh) of electricity consumed atdata centers

tCO2e/MWh

0.552

0.337

0.325

0.316

0.242

0.227

GOOGLE ENVIRONMENTAL REPORT: 2017 progress update

APPENDIX

45

Environmental data
FISCAL YEARKEY PERFORMANCE INDICATOR

UNIT

2011

2012

2013

2014

2015

2016

Total energy consumption41

2,863,852

3,547,045

3,970,438

4,702,387

5,533,433

6,513,719

Electricity consumption*

2,675,898

3,324,818

3,712,865

4,434,390

42

5,221,476

6,209,191-

2,326,210

2,562,688

2,985,108

3,779,280

4,522,314-

998,608

1,150,177

1,449,282

1,442,196

1,686,877

Energy use

U.S.

MWh

International
Data center energy efficiency
Trailing 12-month (TTM) power usage
effectiveness (PUE)43

TTM PUE

1.14

1.12

1.12

1.12

1.12

1.12

Number of data center sites included in
ISO 50001 certificate

#

0

0

9

9

12

12

% of data centers that met criteria for
EnMS inclusion and were included in
ISO 50001 certificate

%

-

-

100

100

100

92

% of IT energy use represented bydata centers included in ISO 50001
certificate

%

-

-

-

-

-

98

Total cumulative renewable energy
contracts, in megawatts (MW)

MW

215

263

634

1,147

2,121

2,611

% of total electricity obtained fromrenewable sources44

%

-

34

35

37

48

5745

t

-

-

-

-

50,05045,705

Annual landfill diversion rate
for data centers46

%

-

-

-

-

84

86

Annual landfill diversion rate for offices

%

-

-

-

-

78

78

Annual food waste prevented in cafés

Kilograms

-

-

-

-

229,971

702,865

Servers deployed that wereremanufactured machines

%

-

-

-

-

19

36

Components used for machine
upgrades that were refurbishedinventory

%

-

-

-

-

52

22

Components resold into thesecondary market

#

-

-

-

-

2,000,000

2,100,000

Unsellable hard drives crushed andsent to recycler

%

-

-

-

-

100

100

Million gallons

-

-

-

-

-

2,500

Renewable energy

Waste generation
Total waste generated annually
Waste diversion

Hardware refurbishment and reuse

Water consumption
Total annual water consumption47

GOOGLE ENVIRONMENTAL REPORT: 2017 progress update

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46

Environmental data
FISCAL YEARKEY PERFORMANCE INDICATOR

UNIT

2011

2012

2013

2014

2015

2016

Square meters

62,852

156,894313,209462,395

711,626

865,494

Sustainable workplaces
OfficesCumulative LEED-certified office space
Gold

%

69

75

63

59

58

54

Platinum

%

17

19

23

26

31

34

Cumulative electric vehicle (EV)charging ports installed at Google
offices in the U.S.48

Ports

147

415

601

988

1,382

1,646

Estimated annual emissions avoided
due to employee EV commuting in
the U.S.

tCO2e

41

148

483

929

1,489

2,142

1,500,000

2,000,000

2,500,000

3,000,000

3,500,000

3,750,000

CommutingTotal annual employee shuttle
commuting trips in the Bay Area

Total trips

Peak daily employee shuttle riders in
the Bay Area

Unique riders

4,000

5,000

6,000

7,500

8,500

9,000

Annual emissions avoided due toemployee shuttle trips in the Bay Area

tCO2e

4,527

7,858

10,06518,85628,901

33,656

1.8

1.9

2.4

2.7

3.7

3.7

Equity investments in renewable energy projects49
Cumulative commitments,
in gigawatts (GW)

GW

* Indicates verified data. Scope 1, 2, and part of Scope 3 emissions are verified by an independent, accredited verifier. Our electricity use is also part of our Scope 2 verification.
† Scope 1 emissions are direct emissions from sources we own or control, such as company vehicles or generators at Google’s offices and data centers.
Scope 2 emissions are indirect emissions from the production of electricity we purchase to run our operations. The location-based category reflects the average carbon
intensity of the grids where our operations are located and thus where our energy consumption occurs. The market-based category incorporates our procurement choices,
i.e., our renewable energy purchases via contractual mechanisms like PPAs.
Scope 3 emissions are indirect emissions from other sources in our value chain, such as business travel or our suppliers.

GOOGLE ENVIRONMENTAL REPORT: 2017 progress update

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47

Environmental data
GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSIONS5MILLION tCO 2e

42,877,128 tCO2e3

2n Scope 1
n Scope 2 (market)50
1n Scope 2 (location)n Scope 3l Total market-based
GHG emissions
2011

2012

2013

2014

2015

2016

RENEWABLE ENERGY AS PERCENTAGE OF TOTAL ELECTRICITY USE
76,209,191 MWh
6

MILLION MWh

5

4

57%
3

48%
2

1

34%

35%

37%
n Total electricity
consumption (MWh)n % renewable energy

2012

GOOGLE ENVIRONMENTAL REPORT: 2017 progress update

2013

APPENDIX

2014

2015

2016

48

Environmental data
CARBON INTENSITY PER UNIT OF REVENUE

$90.2

100

billion

40

75

50
20

17.6

BILLION US$

tCO 2e/MILLION US$

30

25

10

l Carbon intensity
l Total revenue
2011

2012

2013

2014

2015

2016

CARBON INTENSITY PER FULL-TIME EQUIVALENT (FTE) EMPLOYEE
80

60

67,848

23.4

20

40

l Carbon intensity
20

2011

2012

2013

GOOGLE ENVIRONMENTAL REPORT: 2017 progress update

2014

APPENDIX

2015

THOUSANDStCO 2e/FTE

60
40

l Average FTE
employees

2016

49

Environmental data
OVERHEAD ENERGY USE IN GOOGLE DATA CENTERSPERCENT

20
15

12%

10

l Overhead energy
as % of IT energy
2008

2009

2010

2011

2012

2013

2014

2015

2016

AVERAGE POWER USAGE EFFECTIVENESS (PUE) FOR ALL DATA CENTERS
1.26

PUE

1.22

1.18

1.14

1.12
1.11
2009

2010

2011

2012

2013

2014

2015

Trailing 12-month (TTM) PUE
Quarterly PUE

2016

CUMULATIVE LEED-CERTIFIED OFFICE SPACE
1

865,494 m2
MILLION SQUARE METERS (m 2)

0.8

0.6

0.4

0.2

n Platinum
n Goldn Certified and Silver
2011

2012

GOOGLE ENVIRONMENTAL REPORT: 2017 progress update

2013
APPENDIX

2014

2015

2016
50

Endnotes
OUR APPROACH
1.

Mathy Stanislaus, “A Virtuous Circle,” The Environmental Forum, September/October 2016 , https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2016-08/documents/stainislaus_a_
virtuous_circle_2016_final.pdf.

2.

Global Footprint Network, accessed 2017, http://www.footprintnetwork.org.

3.

Arman Shehabi et al., United States Data Center Energy Usage Report, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, June 2016, https://eta.lbl.gov/publications/united-statesdata-center-energy.

4.

Eric Masanet et al., The Energy Efficiency Potential of Cloud-Based Software: A U.S. Case Study, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, June 2013, https://www.osti.gov/
scitech/servlets/purl/1171159.

5.

“International Decade for Action ‘Water for Life’ 2005–2015,” United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, accessed 2016, http://www.un.org/
waterforlifedecade/scarcity.shtml.

6.

Read about our $6.5 million in Google.org water projects: https://www.blog.google/topics/causes-community/world-water-day.

7.

A carbon offset is an investment in an activity that reduces carbon emissions. The reduction in carbon emissions is represented by a carbon credit. The credit, usually
verified by a third party, signifies that GHG emissions are lower than they would have been had no one invested in the offset. One credit equals one metric ton (1,000
kilograms or 2,204 pounds) of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) prevented from being released into the atmosphere.

8.

Carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) is a quantity that describes, for a given mixture and amount of GHG, the amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) that would have the same global
warming potential (GWP), i.e., the ability of a gas to trap heat in the atmosphere when measured over a specified timescale (generally, 100 years). Some GHGs are morepotent than others, as measured by their GWP. Carbon dioxide is the baseline and thus has a GWP of 1.

9.

GWP relative to carbon dioxide (CO2) with a 100-year time horizon and global GHGs per gas, both as per the most recent Climate Change 2014: Synthesis Report,
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, 2015, https://www.ipcc.ch/pdf/assessment-report/ar5/syr/SYR_AR5_FINAL_full.pdf.

DESIGNING EFFICIENT DATA CENTERS
10. Five out of six of our data centers that have achieved 100% landfill diversion have a current waste-to-energy contribution greater than 10%, meaning they haven’t yetachieved Zero Waste to Landfill.
11. According to Google’s own analysis of our more efficient servers, power infrastructure, and cooling systems, compared with data center industry averages.
12. PUE is a standard industry ratio that compares the amount of noncomputing overhead energy (used for things like cooling and power distribution) to the amount of energy
used to power IT equipment. A PUE of 2.0 means that for every watt of IT power, an additional watt is consumed to cool and distribute power to the IT equipment. A PUE
closer to 1.0 means nearly all the energy is used for computing.
13. According to the Uptime Institute’s 2014 Data Center Industry Survey, the global average PUE of respondents’ largest data centers was around 1.7.
14. At Google, Zero Waste to Landfill means that when waste leaves our operating data centers, none of it goes to a landfill—100% is diverted to more sustainable pathways,
with no more than 10% going to a waste-to-energy facility, unless waste to energy can be proved more valuable than alternative diversion paths. Our approach is based on
UL’s Environmental Claim Validation Procedure for Zero Waste to Landfill.
15. See note 10 above.
16. Fifteen to 30 times over GPUs and CPUs made with an equivalent process technology as the TPU and became available at the same time as TPUs (i.e., in early 2015).
17. TOPS is defined as tera-operations (trillion or 1012 operations) per second of computation per watt of energy consumed.

ADVANCING RENEWABLE ENERGY
18. Bloomberg New Energy Finance database for wind and solar energy PPAs, as of December 31, 2016.
19. WRI’s market-based Scope 2 methodology requires the use of residual grid mixes, which represent the mix of resources generating electricity in a region after accounting
for those designated for specific customers via contractual instruments like PPAs.
20. Lazard’s Levelized Cost of Energy Analysis—Version 10.0, Lazard, December 2016, https://www.lazard.com/media/438038/levelized-cost-of-energy-v100.pdf.
21. Medium-Term Renewable Energy Market Report 2016, International Energy Agency, October 25, 2016, https://www.iea.org/Textbase/npsum/MTrenew2016sum.pdf.
22. Renewables 2017: Analysis and Forecasts to 2022, International Energy Agency, October 2017, https://www.iea.org/Textbase/npsum/renew2017MRSsum.pdf.
23. Renewable Energy Benefits: Measuring the Economics, International Renewable Energy Agency, 2016, http://www.irena.org/DocumentDownloads/Publications/IRENA_
Measuring-the-Economics_2016.pdf.

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51

Endnotes

CREATING A SUSTAINABLE WORKPLACE
24. Neil E. Klepeis et al., “The National Human Activity Pattern Survey: A Resource for Assessing Exposure to Environmental Pollutants,” Journal of Exposure Analysis andEnvironmental Epidemiology, 2001, http://www.readcube.com/articles/10.1038/sj.jea.7500165.
25. International Living Future Institute, “Living Building Challenge: Materials Petal,” accessed 2017, https://living-future.org/lbc/materials-petal.

EMPOWERING USERS WITH TECHNOLOGY
26. Google emits about 8 grams of CO2e per day to serve an active Google user—defined as someone who performs 25 searches and watches 60 minutes of YouTube a day,has a Gmail account, and uses our other key services.

27. See note 4 above.
28. The annual carbon footprint of a Gmail user is about 1/80th that of a small business with locally hosted email servers. Larger organizations show smaller, though still
impressive, efficiency gains. “Google’s Green Computing: Efficiency at Scale,” Google, 2011.
29. Energy Savings from the Nest Learning Thermostat: Energy Bill Analysis Results, Nest Labs, February 2015, http://downloads.nest.com/press/documents/energy-savingswhite-paper.pdf.
30. Environmental Defense Fund, “Natural Gas: Local Leaks Impact Global Climate,” accessed 2017, https://www.edf.org/climate/methanemaps.
31. PSE&G, “PSE&G Teams with Google, EDF to Stop Methane Leaks,” December 13, 2016.
32. Joshua S. Apte et al, “High-Resolution Air Pollution Mapping with Google Street View Cars: Exploiting Big Data,” Environmental Science & Technology, June 5, 2017,
http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acs.est.7b00891.
33. Environmental Defense Fund, “Mapping Air Pollution with New Mobile Sensors,” accessed 2017, https://www.edf.org/airqualitymaps.

APPENDIX
34. Alphabet’s fiscal year runs from January 1 to December 31. Unless otherwise specified, reported data is global.
35. GHG emissions are calculated according to WRI’s Greenhouse Gas Protocol. For more information on our methodology, see our 2017 CDP climate change report.
36. Since 2010, we’ve procured renewable energy for our operations, and in 2012, we began publishing how this reduces our overall carbon footprint. Up until 2015, there wasno guidance from WRI on how to account for these emissions reductions, so we developed our own methodology, whereby on an annual basis we assigned renewableelectricity procured against electricity consumed (in MWh) in the closest data center to the renewable energy project. In 2015, WRI released new guidance for marketbased Scope 2 accounting, which we adopted, starting with 2015 data. Our pre-2015 methodology differs from WRI’s in the use of residual mixes, which avoid doublecounting of claimed renewable energy attributes.
37. We have restated our 2015 electricity and Scope 2 emissions data due to quality assurance improvements in our data collection and calculations.
38. See note 37 above.
39. In 2016, we adopted the industry practice of including only operational emissions in our carbon neutrality commitment. Our 2016 operational emissions include Scope 1,
Scope 2 (market-based), and Scope 3 (business travel and employee commuting). For more information, see our 2017 white paper 10 Years of Carbon Neutrality.
40. Carbon intensity figures are based on our combined Scope 1 and market-based Scope 2 emissions, with the exception of electricity consumption intensity, which is
calculated using only market-based Scope 2 at the data centers.
41. Total energy consumption represents total Scope 2 electricity consumption plus total Scope 1 fuel use.
42. See note 37 above.
43. Power usage effectiveness (PUE) is an industry-recognized ratio to measure data center efficiency. For more information on our PUE and how we calculate it,
see “Efficiency: How We Do It” on our website.
44. Percentage of renewable energy is calculated on a calendar-year basis, comparing the volume of renewable electricity (in MWh) purchased for our operations(i.e., renewable energy procured through our PPA contracts, on-site renewable energy generation, and residual renewable electricity delivered directly through the grid)with the total volume of electricity consumed by our operations.
45. To align with the method outlined in note 44 above, starting in 2016, we adapted our methodology for calculating total electricity obtained from renewable sources.
Prior to 2016, we were not accounting for the residual renewable electricity purchased through grid electricity.
46. Waste diverted to a more sustainable pathway than landfill or incineration without energy recovery.
47. Includes water consumed at offices and data centers.
48. Number of ports for ChargePoint stations in the United States only, which represent the majority of our electric vehicle charging ports in the United States. Emissions
avoided are estimated using data from these ports only.
49. In addition to our renewable energy contracts, Google also invests in renewable energy projects around the world that have an attractive risk-adjusted financial return.
These projects are not used to offset our carbon footprint.
50. See note 36 above.

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52

ON THE COVER:El Romero solar farm in Chile (80 MW for Google)
GOOGLE ENVIRONMENTAL REPORT: 2017 progress update
Published October 2017