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 emissions performance and management.

In 2022, our total GHG emissions (Scope 1, 2 [market-based], and 3) were 10.2 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (tCO₂e). In 2022, our total operational GHG emissions¹ were approximately 2.9 million tCO₂e.

Scope 1 emissions represent less than 1% of our carbon footprint. Our main sources of Scope 1 emissions include transportation (company vehicles and aircraft), fuel use from back-up generators, natural gas use, and refrigerant leakage in our data centers and offices.

Scope 2 (market-based) emissions represent 24% of our carbon footprint, mainly due to the electricity demands of our data centers. Scope 2 emissions are thus a key focus of our decarbonization efforts, given that we have more direct control over our data centers than many other parts of our value chain. For over a decade, we’ve procured clean energy to reduce carbon emissions from electricity use: In 2022, our Scope 2 (location-based) emissions, which don’t take into account our renewable energy procurement through power purchase agreements (PPAs), represent 51% of our carbon footprint, demonstrating the dramatic emissions reductions that we’ve achieved through PPAs.

Our Scope 3 emissions are indirect emissions from other sources in our value chain, such as our suppliers, use of our consumer hardware products, and business travel. The majority of these emissions come from upstream manufacturing of consumer hardware products, the production of capital goods we have purchased for use in our data centers, and data center construction. After taking into account the impact of renewable energy procurement through PPAs, Scope 3 emissions represent 75% of our carbon footprint.

We aim to reduce 50% of our combined Scope 1, 2 (market-based), and 3 absolute emissions before 2030. In 2022, our total GHG emissions were 10.2 million tCO₂e compared to 11.4 million tCO₂e of reported emissions in 2021.

We’re working to reduce our emissions across our data centers, offices, and upstream and downstream value chains. Our key efforts include clean energy procurement, energy-efficient and low-carbon facilities, electrification, sustainable travel and commuting, and supplier engagement.

We’ve worked to make Google’s data centers some of the most efficient in the world, improving their environmental performance even as demand for our products like Gmail, Google Cloud, Search, and YouTube has dramatically risen.

We design new office buildings and spaces to internationally-recognized and industry- leading green building standards, such as LEED certification, BREEAM, and ILFI LBC and Zero Carbon Certification. And we use energy management strategies, building optimization, and data analytics to improve performance across our existing portfolio.

We work with many suppliers that are committed to sustainability and we’re partnering with them to develop decarbonization roadmaps and build essential data infrastructure to accurately quantify emissions and reductions across the value chain.

We’re working to reduce our electricity demand through low-carbon building design and energy-efficiency efforts in both new and existing facilities. We pursue a set of integrated strategies to reduce the carbon footprint of our facilities, including energy efficiency, building and fleet electrification, on-site generation of clean energy, and carbon-free energy¹ procurement. We are also reducing waste across our data centers, workplaces, and hardware products.

When designing our data centers and offices, we consider options to reduce their carbon impacts, such as incorporation of low-GHG materials and adaptive reuse of existing buildings. For example, in Sunnyvale, we’re building our first ground-up mass timber building, which is projected to have 96% fewer embodied carbon emissions than an equivalent steel and concrete structure, factoring in sequestration.²

For new office buildings, we optimize for overall performance, including both efficiency and user experience, and design to internationally-recognized and industry-leading green building standards. We use energy management strategies, building optimization, and data analytics to help drive efficiency across our existing portfolio of offices.

We’ve also worked to make Google’s data centers, which are the engine of our company, some of the most efficient in the world, improving their environmental performance even as demand for products like Gmail, Google Cloud, Search, and YouTube has dramatically risen. We’ve done this by designing, building, and operating each one to maximize efficient use of energy, water, and materials.

Our long-standing data center efficiency efforts are important because our data centers represent the vast majority of our direct electricity use. To reduce their energy use, we strive to build the world’s most energy-efficient computing network. Our efforts have paid off: on average, a Google-owned and -operated data center is more than 1.5 times as energy efficient as a typical enterprise data center and, compared with five years ago, we now deliver approximately three times as much computing power with the same amount of electrical power.³

Electrification—which helps enable transitioning away from fossil fuels—is an essential first step toward decarbonizing our operations, followed by 24/7 CFE¹ procurement. We’re exploring opportunities to electrify our facilities, from retrofitting existing building systems, to including electrification standards for new development, to working with landlords on electrification-friendly leases for buildings we don’t own.

We’ve been piloting technologies to enable building electrification since 2010. For example, our first all-electric office—1842 North Shoreline in Mountain View, California—has been in operation for over a decade. Many of these pilots led us to confidently implement new technology in our large development projects. In 2022, we advanced a comprehensive plan to electrify systems across our building portfolio. This plan includes identifying retrofit opportunities through technical feasibility studies, beginning to incorporate electrification into leased buildings and lease language, and updating our building design standards to include electrification of new spaces and buildings.

For example, in 2022, we opened Bay View—our first major campus developed by Google—an all-electric campus with the largest geothermal installation in North America and the largest electric kitchen in our global portfolio.

We’re also working to eliminate use of natural gas by designing all-electric kitchens at our offices, including in the Bay Area, Europe, and Latin America.

Our transportation team plans, implements, and operates sustainable commuting options that help Googlers get to work by riding shuttles, carpooling, taking public transit, biking, or walking. We also support hybrid meeting solutions and remote participation options to reduce employee travel needs.

We have a growing number of electric vehicles in our corporate fleet, and the majority of our global fuel consumption from non-electric vehicles is renewable diesel. We strive to provide electric vehicle charging stations for 10% of the total parking spaces at our Bay Area headquarters, and we continue to work toward this design standard for new development projects. Of the total parking spaces at our Bay Area headquarters, more than 8% were designated EV parking spaces with charging stations in 2022.

Many campuses offer commuter shuttles to reduce individual vehicle trips. In 2022, we expanded operations of all-electric buses for the Bay Area, and we’re planning to add even more in 2023. For 2022, our shuttle buses in the Bay Area produced savings of more than 10,000 tCO₂e emissions—the equivalent of avoiding more than 41 million vehicle km (25 million vehicle miles) per year or taking on average more than 2,000 cars off the road every year.¹

We work with many suppliers that are committed to sustainability and we're partnering with them to develop decarbonization roadmaps and build essential data infrastructure to accurately quantify emissions and reductions across the value chain.

We engage with our suppliers—including hardware manufacturing and indirect services suppliers—to help reduce their energy consumption and GHG emissions, as stated in our Supplier Code of Conduct (SCOC), which all suppliers are required to sign. We've also integrated sustainability criteria into our supplier sourcing and performance management processes.

We expect all our suppliers to report environmental data and engage with suppliers directly to drive improved data and accounting. Of the 222 suppliers we invited to participate in CDP’s 2022 Climate Change survey, 98% responded; 96% reported at least one scope of GHG emissions, and 70% reported emissions for at least one Scope 3 category. At least 90% of our hardware suppliers by spend provide data, and we continue to refine our data quality and methodology for calculating the life cycle carbon footprint of our products.

Since setting our net-zero emissions goal¹, we've engaged our key suppliers to develop roadmaps to reduce emissions across our supply chain, and provide in-depth training for key suppliers on setting ambitious GHG reduction and renewable energy targets. For suppliers that completed our CDP supply chain survey, 75% reported having GHG emissions reduction targets, and of those suppliers, 36% reported that their target is science-based. We aim to accelerate our suppliers’ GHG emissions reductions through further integration of climate performance into key procurement tools.

Our 24/7 carbon-free energy (CFE) strategy is focused on driving progress across three focus areas: purchasing carbon-free energy, accelerating new and improved technologies, and transforming the energy system through partnerships and advocacy.

Carbon-free energy is any type of electricity generation that does not directly emit carbon dioxide, including (but not limited to) solar, wind, geothermal, hydropower, and nuclear. Sustainable biomass and carbon capture and storage (CCS) are special cases considered on a case-by-case basis, but are often also considered carbon-free energy sources.

We buy electricity directly from new wind and solar farms via long-term power purchase agreements (PPAs) on the grids where we operate, and we also buy renewable power through utilities via renewable energy purchasing models that we helped create. Through these agreements, we estimate we'll spend approximately $10 billion to purchase clean energy through 2040.¹

We are also working on a wide range of projects to demonstrate, scale, and maximize the climate impact of carbon-free energy technologies, such as new solar roofing for on-site power generation, carbon-intelligent computing, and next-generation geothermal power.

Achieving 24/7 CFE is far more complex and technically challenging than annually matching our energy use with renewable energy purchases. We see our efforts as part of a bigger picture, and we’ve set these ambitious goals to help scale new, global solutions. We’re excited to see others—like the U.S. federal government—set similar goals as well.

Wind and solar power have played a critical role in enabling Google’s clean energy progress, but meeting our 24/7 carbon-free energy¹ goal—and maximizing our contribution to global decarbonization—will require expanding our technology toolkit. In 2022, we continued to work on a wide range of projects to demonstrate, scale, and maximize the climate impact of carbon-free energy technologies, leveraging Google’s engineering capabilities and purchasing power to accelerate the commercialization of new clean energy technologies.

Examples of our efforts to accelerate new clean energy technologies:

• Optimizing generation from existing CFE technologies
• Managing energy demand across our global operations
• Accelerating next generation energy sources
• Improving energy data and clean energy tracking

We are supporting others to join us on the journey to 24/7 carbon-free energy¹, by sharing insights and lessons we are learning and new approaches we are developing.

One such example is the United Nations 24/7 Carbon-free Energy Compact, which we helped launch with Sustainable Energy for All and other partners in 2021. The Compact is a global community dedicated to building the technologies, policies, tools, ideas, and advocacy needed to accelerate the decarbonization of electricity grids.

In Europe, we work with the European 24/7 CFE Hub, a collaboration with Eurelectric to create a platform where energy buyers, suppliers, and policy makers can meet to learn more about 24/7 CFE and receive technical training and implementation guidance.

In 2022, we published a first-of-its-kind policy roadmap sharing our recommendations for energy policy and market reforms to accelerate electricity decarbonization, informed by our experiences as a large energy user and clean energy buyer around the world.

We are committed to working with others and advocating for clean energy policies that can enable 24/7 CFE for all energy consumers by decarbonizing electricity grids at the scale and pace required to meet the world’s climate challenge.

Our long-term vision is that all of our suppliers—for hardware manufacturing, transport, logistics, and indirect services—and their communities have access to reliable, cost-effective, carbon-free energy.¹ And we’ll get there only through significant global investment in new wind, solar, and other clean energy capacity, as well as more robust grid systems.

In 2020, Google set a goal to enable 5 gigawatts (GW) of new carbon-free energy through investments in our key manufacturing regions by 2030. Investment in renewable capacity is a scalable approach to creating system-level change by driving grid decarbonization and enabling greater access to carbon-free energy.

To fulfill this goal, Google has been advancing efforts across the globe. Google’s investments will be targeted to support bringing additional carbon-free energy capacity online in key manufacturing regions around the globe, including in the North America, Latin America, Europe, and Asia Pacific regions. Such projects may reduce Google’s carbon footprint directly, may reduce a Google supplier’s carbon footprint, or may simply help decarbonize the local grid.

From 2010 to 2022, we entered into agreements to invest nearly $2.9 billion in renewable energy projects with an expected combined generation capacity of approximately 4.2 GW.

When looking at our 5 GW goal specifically, as of the end of 2022, we’ve signed agreements to support the development of 0.5 GW of renewable energy in the United States.

Carbon markets can be a valuable mechanism for businesses to counterbalance residual emissions, but only if there are strong standards and effective verification mechanisms to ensure that the credits that businesses purchase lead to real and lasting emissions reductions or removals.

We will continue to work with other companies and stakeholders in the scientific, academic, and NGO community to improve measurement, reporting, and verification (MRV) and develop tools to support robust, well-functioning markets. For example, Google.org has contributed more than $6 million to efforts to strengthen carbon markets, digitize their infrastructure, and set standards for high-quality carbon credits.

We will continue to evolve our approach to counterbalancing our residual emissions.

We aim to avoid or reduce greenhouse gas emissions to reach our absolute emissions reduction target, but there are some emissions that will remain difficult to abate. We are taking multiple approaches to address these residual emissions and are aiming to play an important role in advancing the development and deployment of nature-based and technology-based carbon removal solutions.

While permanent carbon removal solutions are not yet economically viable or deployed at scale, we are supporting the development and commercialization of emerging carbon removal technologies, as well as the development of initiatives to ensure the integrity and climate impact of the emerging carbon removal sector.

In 2022, we contributed $200 million towards a $925M total pledge to Frontier, an advanced market commitment that is accelerating the development of carbon removal technologies by guaranteeing future demand. As a founding member of Frontier, we are signing our first offtake deals in 2023, with removals expected to be delivered starting in 2024.