Google Sustainability News, Milestones, Cloud Partnerships and Net Zero Timeline

Here are additional Google sustainability strategy updates, and the associated partner implications.

February 2024: Sustainability Strategy and Partnerships

• Financial Services and Cloud Software: HSBC has partnered with Google to finance fast-growing climate technology firms behind some of the world's most promising solutions to global climate change, Rueters reported. Under terms of the partnership, HSBC will look to provide financing to companies cherry-picked by the U.S. technology giant to join its Google Cloud Ready-Sustainability program, Reuters said.
• Funding - Carbon Capture Technology: Google co-founder Sergey Brin and Alphabet's moonshot lab X are betting on 280 Earth, a startup that leverages industrial waste heat to power machines that suck carbon out of the air, Bloomberg reported.
• Power Purchase Agreement: Google has signed its largest ever power purchase agreement (PPA) with offshore wind projects off the coast of the Netherlands as part of efforts to green its power supply and hit climate targets, Reuters said.

January 2024: Sustainability Strategy and Partnerships

Multiple Updates...

• IT Consulting, Cloud Services and Generative AI: Global IT consulting firm Deloitte has launched the Geospatial and AI Platform for Scenario Planning and Monitoring. The solution is powered by Google Earth integrations, Google Earth Engine (GEE) and Generative AI technology from Vertex AI. The solution can help customers to "leverage AI and geospatial data to take action on sustainability and climate as they work toward positive economic, social and environmental outcomes," Deloitte said.
• United Kingdom - Google Data Center: Google will invest $1 billion to build a data center in Waltham Cross, Hertfordshire. The new facility will be ready for off-site heat recovery, and will deploy an air-based cooling solution, Google said.
• Partnership - Clean Electricity Management: Flexidao and Google are collaborating to scale clean electricity portfolio management and 24/7 carbon-free energy matching processes, the companies said.
• FTC Investigates Generative AI Partnerships: The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has ordered OpenAI, Microsoft, Google's Alphabet, Amazon and Anthropic to provide information on recent investments and partnerships involving generative AI companies and cloud service providers, Reuters reported.
• Chip Lawsuit Settlement: Google settled a patent infringement lawsuit involving chips that power the company's AI technology, Reuters reported.
• Partnership - Clean Electricity Management: Flexidao and Google are collaborating to scale clean electricity portfolio management and 24/7 carbon-free energy matching processes, the companies said.
• Right to Repair: Google reaffirmed its support for the Right to Repair movement by releasing a related white paper and endorsing proposed Oregon Right to Repair legislation that offers a compelling model for other states to follow, the company said.
• Solar-Powered Devices: Ambient Photonics and Google plan to launch a solar-powered device featuring Ambient’s bifacial solar cell technology, the companies said at the CES 2024 conference. Related: See more CES 2024 sustainability news here.

December 2023: Sustainability Strategy and Partnerships

Multiple Updates...

• Partnership - Cloud Services: CGI and Google Cloud are partnering to develop the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) Sustainability Planet Platform, a "data-driven source for countries to identify sustainability challenges such as air pollution, rising temperatures, and flooding." The platform is designed to support UNIDO's unique mandate to promote, dynamize, and accelerate inclusive and sustainable industrial development, the two companies said.
• Partnership - Clean Energy Marketplace: LevelTen Energy has launched the Granular Certificate (GC) Trading Alliance -- a collaboration with AES, Constellation, Google, and Microsoft to "build the market infrastructure needed to scale time- and location-based carbon-free energy" for power purchase agreements (PPAs).
• Startup Accelerator: If you're seeking guidance for your startup, check out Google for Startups Accelerators -- and these 23 other accelerators focused on sustainability startups.
• Partnership - Renewable Energy and IT Solutions: Google, ASM and HP have joined the Schneider Electric's Catalyze program, which aims to "accelerate access to renewable energy across the global semiconductor value chain and IT supply landscape," the companies disclosed.

November 2023: Sustainability Strategy and Partnerships

Multiple Updates...

• Cloud Services: The company continues to press forward with its T-EACs -- which enables clean energy generation and trading to be tracked on an hourly basis.
• Data Centers: An advanced geothermal project has begun pumping carbon-free electricity onto the Nevada grid to power Google data centers there, SeekingAlpha reported.
• AI for Climate Action: How can artificial intelligence (AI) potentially assist businesses, researchers and government agencies with climate action? Google and Boston Consulting Group (BCG) offered some context in a white paper titled "Accelerating Climate Action with AI."

• Talent: Google veteran Mike Werner will now lead the technology company's Sustainability Programs and Innovation Group.

• Cloud Partnership - Consulting: Sustainability consultancy ERM has joined the Google Cloud Partner Advantage Program as a service partner. Among the potential use cases: Google Earth Engine will allow ERM to "scale the use of earth observation data to address organizations’ most pressing sustainability imperatives including climate risk identification and management, and biodiversity and nature strategy," the companies said. Among the key names to know: Kushal Mashru, head of strategic partnerships at ERM.

October 2023: Google Sustainability Strategy, Milestones, Partnerships and Investments

Software Tools: The search giant announced multiple product milestones, including:

• How Google uses AI to combat floods, wildfires and extreme heat.
• How Project Green Light leverages AI to reduce urban traffic emissions.
• New Fuel-Efficient Routing technology.
• How Tapestry, an early Alphabet project, developed AI-powered tools for grid mapping and planning to help governments and utilities efficiently model scenarios, like taking a coal-based plant offline or how an extreme weather event could impact clean energy sources. 
• How a new feature in Google Earth makes it easier for planners to determine the best building designs and solar options for urban areas. 
• CEO Sundar Pichai provided more context here.
• Related: See Google's sustainability strategy and net-zero timeline here.

More: Continue to the next page for additional Google sustainability strategy updates, and associated partner engagements.