Over the past decade Google has grown to be one of the biggest companies on the planet. People from all over the world know who and what Google is: acompany who strives on the principle of innovation. So it really isn’t a surprise when you read on the news that their company is almost entirely run on renewable energy and that by the end of 2017 the company plans to be 100% reliant on renewable energy. By doing this they plan to have all of their offices and data centers throughout the world run solely on solar and wind energy. There new energy purchasing model isn’t something that they are trying to hide. The company also hopes to inspire other businesses to follow suit.
So why is this important? Why does a big company like Google entirely run on renewable energy so important? Is it because that if they are a big company then it will be seen as acceptable? According to Google’s 2017 Environmental Report, they are the world’s largest corporate purchaser of renewable energy. Signing 20 agreements totaling 2.6 gigawatts (GW) of renewable energy. If you want to imagine how much this affects the environment it would be equivalent to taking more than 1.2 million cars off the road. And according to the EPA , in 2015 transportation in the U.S accounted for 27% of greenhouse gas emissions coming from cars, trucks, ships, trains, and planes with 90% of fuel used is either diesel or gasoline.
So what is Google’s goal? According to Google their end goal is “a zero-carbon world where everyone everywhere has access to clean, 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.”
Now imagine if more other companies followed in their footsteps. I go back to the title of my post because in order for the world to move towards a better tomorrow and protect the environment with renewable energy there has to be someone that can lead us or show us how it can be done. Companies can easily support ideals that help our environment but rarely do they follow on their promises, especially if it will cost them money. Our world is still very reliant on fossil fuels which is no doubt hurting our environment and adding to the already high level of greenhouse gases, and it doesn’t seem like renewable energy will be our number one source of energy anytime soon. But for now this is a step in the right direction.
One Response
I agree 100% with this post. Google is one of the top companies in the world and they are known by so many people. Starting this renewable energy movement not only will help protect the environment, but it may have an impact on an average persons decision to start using renewable energy as well in their homes. Other major companies like Apple, Facebook and T-Mobile have begun to offer 100% renewable energy. Apple uses energy sources like solar, hydro, and wind power to power 100 percent of their data centers, and 96 percent of their facilities worldwide. They would like to build new products using recycled materials and they currently 99 percent recycled and responsibility sourced paper for there packaging.
T-Mobile plans to boost its renewable energy efforts to fuel 100 percent of its power needs by 2021. It has two wind projects that will generate 320MW of energy and account for roughly 60 percent of its nationwide energy consumption.
In 2015, Facebook exceeded it’s goal of reaching 25% clean and renewable energy in there data center electricity supply mix. Building on that success, they doubled there target and expanded its scope. They are now aiming to have at least 50% clean and renewable energy in there company-wide energy mix in 2018.
Smaller companies and businesses will hopefully follow in thees big companies footsteps and make this a global trend.