Justin Casey
08-09-2011, 06:05 PM
Google says that it emits 1.5m tonnes of carbon annually but claims that its data centres consume 50% less energy than the industry average. The emissions are slightly higher than the country of Laos in south-east Asia and equivalent to the UN's operational footprint [WTF?].
The company said that many of its "cloud-based" services for businesses, such as its popular Gmail system, can be up to 80 times less polluting than traditional alternatives, which require companies to operate their own, potentially more inefficient servers.
Google's energy use became the subject of scrutiny in 2009 following the publication of a story claiming that each search carried out on the website had a carbon footprint of 7g of CO2 – around half as much as boiling the water for a cup of coffee. Google's response was to claim that this figure included many factors it was not responsible for, such as the power consumed by the user's computer, and that its share of the footprint was only 0.2g of CO2 per search.
Today's announcement repeats the 0.2g figure and gives equivalent numbers for other Google services, such as YouTube (1g of CO2 for each 10 minutes of viewing) and Gmail (1.2kg of CO2 per year for the typical user). The company calculates that, in total, the typical Google user creates 1.46kg of CO2 by consuming its various services – the equivalent of filling a deep bath or buying an imported bottle of wine. It also claims that producing and shipping a single DVD uses as much energy as watching YouTube non-stop for three days.
Last year, Facebook, came under pressure in relation to energy use following its decision to site its new data centre in Oregon and to power it with electricity largely generated from coal. However, Facebook argued that the cool climate in Oregon helped it minimise energy consumption by reducing the need for cooling.
As online activity has increased, the internet has become an increasingly significant consumer of energy, with a carbon footprint estimated to be in the hundreds of millions of tonnes – equivalent to a large industrialised country.
Google discloses carbon footprint for the first time (http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/sep/08/google-carbon-footprint)
The company said that many of its "cloud-based" services for businesses, such as its popular Gmail system, can be up to 80 times less polluting than traditional alternatives, which require companies to operate their own, potentially more inefficient servers.
Google's energy use became the subject of scrutiny in 2009 following the publication of a story claiming that each search carried out on the website had a carbon footprint of 7g of CO2 – around half as much as boiling the water for a cup of coffee. Google's response was to claim that this figure included many factors it was not responsible for, such as the power consumed by the user's computer, and that its share of the footprint was only 0.2g of CO2 per search.
Today's announcement repeats the 0.2g figure and gives equivalent numbers for other Google services, such as YouTube (1g of CO2 for each 10 minutes of viewing) and Gmail (1.2kg of CO2 per year for the typical user). The company calculates that, in total, the typical Google user creates 1.46kg of CO2 by consuming its various services – the equivalent of filling a deep bath or buying an imported bottle of wine. It also claims that producing and shipping a single DVD uses as much energy as watching YouTube non-stop for three days.
Last year, Facebook, came under pressure in relation to energy use following its decision to site its new data centre in Oregon and to power it with electricity largely generated from coal. However, Facebook argued that the cool climate in Oregon helped it minimise energy consumption by reducing the need for cooling.
As online activity has increased, the internet has become an increasingly significant consumer of energy, with a carbon footprint estimated to be in the hundreds of millions of tonnes – equivalent to a large industrialised country.
Google discloses carbon footprint for the first time (http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/sep/08/google-carbon-footprint)