Google announces its lifetime net carbon footprint is now zero

Google’s CEO Sundar Pichai has revealed that the company has eliminated its entire carbon legacy.

As of this week, Google has eliminated its entire carbon legacy (covering all our operational emissions before we became carbon neutral in 2007) through the purchase of high-quality carbon offsets.

This means that Google's lifetime net carbon footprint is now zero, making it the first major company to get this done, to date.

In addition to this they become the first major company to make a commitment to operate on 24/7 carbon-free energy in all our data centres and campuses worldwide by 2030.

Google is investing in technologies to help our partners and people all over the world make sustainable choices. It is investing in manufacturing regions to enable 5 GW of new carbon-free energy, helping 500 cities reduce their carbon emissions and finding new ways to empower 1 billion people through our products.

It estimates that the commitments they are making today will directly generate more than 20,000 new jobs in clean energy and associated industries, in America and around the world, by 2025.

Google say they are ‘optimistic’ that by harnessing new technologies, investing in the right infrastructure and tools, and empowering partners, non-profits and people, this can be the most decisive decade for climate action yet.

Google has been working towards sustainability for over a decade. In 2007 they became the first major company to become carbon neutral. It was also the first major company to match its energy use with 100 percent renewable energy in 2017. In addition to this they operated the cleanest global cloud in the industry and were the world’s largest corporate purchaser of renewable energy.