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URL: https://sustainability.google/

⇱ Sustainable Innovation & Technology - Google Sustainability

Making AI helpful for everyone, including the planet

Committed to the efficient and responsible use of resources

Across our operations, we’re dedicated to everything from replenishing water to improving AI efficiency. We’re strengthening the circular economy by designing out waste and implementing 100% plastic-free packaging. We’re also investing in next-generation clean energy technologies like advanced nuclear and enhanced geothermal. Below is a snapshot of our progress in 2024.

Reduced data center energy emissions by 12%

In 2024, our data center emissions were reduced by 12% compared to the prior year, even in the face of increased energy demands.

Replenished 64% of our freshwater consumption

In 2024, our water stewardship projects replenished approximately 64% of our freshwater consumption, or 4.5 billion gallons6 (roughly equivalent to the annual water usage of 40,000 average U.S. households7), up from 18% in 2023.

Procured over 8 GW of clean energy

In 2024, we signed contracts to purchase over 8 GW of clean energy generation8—more than in any prior year.

Improved TPU power efficiency by 30x

Ironwood—the first Google TPU (our custom AI chips) designed to power thinking, inferential AI models at scale—is nearly 30 times more power efficient than our first Cloud TPU from 2018.9

Stay informed

JUNE 17, 2026

We’re expanding our support for breakthrough carbon removal technologies.

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JUNE 9, 2026

We've teamed up with American Airlines to reduce nearly 300,000 tons of CO2.

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JUNE 3, 2026

Google’s water stewardship commitments for local communities

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JUNE 2, 2026

We’ve signed a first-of-its-kind agreement with Voltus to create a smart capacity solution for the grid.

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  1. To estimate aggregate enabled emissions reductions, we first estimated reductions for five products individually (Google Earth Pro, Solar API, Nest thermostats, fuel-efficient routing, and Green Light) and then combined the totals. For Solar API, we used the enabled emissions reductions following the annual (rather than lifetime) accounting basis. For details about the individual calculation methodologies, refer to our 2025 Environmental Report.

  2. “Greenhouse Gas Equivalencies Calculator,” U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, November 2024, accessed June 2025.

  3. We use the term “ambition-based” to describe the subset of emissions from our total carbon footprint that are within the boundaries we’ve set for our climate ambitions. For more details, refer to our 2025 Environmental Report.

  4. Google uses an AI prediction model to estimate the expected fuel or energy consumption for each route option when users request driving directions. We identify the route that we predict will consume the least amount of fuel or energy. If this route is not already the fastest one and it offers meaningful energy and fuel savings with only a small increase in driving time, we recommend it to the user. To calculate enabled emissions reductions, we tally the fuel usage from the chosen fuel-efficient routes and subtract it from the predicted fuel consumption that would have occurred on the fastest route without fuel-efficient routing and apply adjustments for factors such as: CO₂e factors, fleet mix factors, well-to-wheels factors, and powertrain mismatch factors. This figure covers estimated enabled emissions reductions for the calendar year, from January through December. Enabled emissions reductions estimates include inherent uncertainty due to factors that include the lack of primary data and precise information about real-world actions and their effects. These factors contribute to a range of possible outcomes, within which we report a central value. We then input the estimated prevented emissions into the EPA’s Greenhouse Gas Equivalencies Calculator to calculate equivalent cars off the road for a year.

  5. According to the UN Economic Commission of Europe.

  6. For details about this calculation, refer to the Methodology section in the Appendix of the 2025 Environmental Report.

  7. From “How We Use Water,” U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

  8. The total GW figure represents primarily PPAs, and includes some generation from targeted renewable energy investments where we also receive EACs. Actual generation may vary from the signed amounts based on changes during construction or project terminations.

  9. These calculations are based on internal data, as of March 2025. Google’s TPU power efficiency relative to the earliest generation Cloud TPU v2 is measured by peak FP8 flops delivered per watt of thermal design power per chip package.