(Cross-posted from the Official Google Blog to bring you information on other green efforts at Google)

Today, Earth Day turns 40 and is now celebrated in more than 198 countries. Here at Google, we’ll be focusing on one of the planet’s more enjoyable aspects: its food. (Though, to be fair, we’re always focused on food around here). Our offices are hosting farmers markets, planting herb gardens, hosting talks on sustainable cooking and much more.

At our Mountain View headquarters, we’re enjoying solar cooking demonstrations, classes on composting and local food sourcing, distribution of reusable shopping bags and discussions on healthy cooking and eating. We’re also hosting a speaker from The Nature Conservancy and giving tours of our on-site 1.6MW solar panel installation and the 400kW Bloom Energy fuel cells. Today is also Take Your Child to Work Day, so we have plenty of kid-friendly activities centered around healthy, sustainable habits to complement the bounce house, movies and games.

The focus on food is not limited to Mountain View. Our Dublin office is removing all disposable cups, Stockholm is running a special Earth Day food menu in their cafe, Wroclaw employees are planting seeds and Amsterdam is overhauling its salad bar with organic offerings. And the cafe in our London office is sourcing all of its food from within 50 miles of the office, as well as organizing a bike-to-work effort coordinated with Google Maps.

Beyond food, we’ve been busy with a number of other Earth-related initiatives. Last month, Google Maps biking directions launched in the U.S. and we hope that having these directions on hand will help you find less carbon-intensive ways to commute to work or meet friends. Just the other week we added a new feature in Google Finance that reports companies’ carbon disclosure rating from the Carbon Disclosure Project. Oh, and don’t forget about the new kids on the block.

If you’re looking to make a difference, check for local efforts or make a pledge to have an impact. We’re working to minimize our own carbon footprint, and hope that you’ll take a moment today to consider how you can make a positive impact on our planet.

Posted by Austin Rachlin, Green Business Operations

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(Cross-posted from the Official Google Blog to bring you information on other green efforts at Google)

Last year, in our quest to minimize our carbon footprint (and keep people on their toes), we turned to an unlikely solution for mowing an overgrown field: goats. More than 200 goats from California Grazing have once again arrived at our Mountain View headquarters where they’ll stay for over a week chomping away on grassy goodness. The cost of bringing in the goats is comparable to hiring lawn mowers for the same job and the green benefits are clear: the goats eliminate mower emissions, reduce noise pollution, restore plant species and fertilize while grazing.

Don’t worry, we’re not going to be in the business of chèvre anytime soon, but in the meantime we’re having a lot of fun watching our new colleagues.



Posted by Dan Hoffman, Director of Real Estate and Workplace Services for NorCal, and Chief Goat Herder

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(Translated from the Google China Blog)

Yesterday, when a powerful earthquake struck the Qinghai province in Western China, Googlers within China and internationally mobilized to see how we could help with disaster response.

We are working on several tools to help people on the ground find out more information about the earthquake, connect with loved ones, as well as help with recovery efforts.

For those concerned about loved ones in Qinghai, the China Person Finder tool can be used to submit or search for information about individuals who may have been affected. The tool is available in Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese and English. We encourage organizations and media sites to embed the gadget on their sites and help spread the word.

In addition, users can access earthquake information on Google News and Google Maps from a link on our homepages on google.com.hk, and google.com.tw. The site also includes links to real-time search information, which includes people’s posts to Twitter and other sources.

We will keep posting updates to the Google China blog as more information and tools become available. Please visit this page for updated resources.

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(Cross-posted from the Google Public Policy Blog)

We all receive an electricity bill once a month that is hard to decipher besides the total amount due. What if we instead had access to more useful and actionable information about our energy consumption? What if consumers could use this information to automatically adjust appliances, lights, and other equipment to save money and cut energy use?

That’s what a group of over 45 major companies and organizations said today in a letter to President Obama. Signers include companies like AT&T, General Electric and Intel and NGOs like The Climate Group, NRDC and the Alliance to Save Energy. The group also includes start ups, smart grid companies, venture firms and trade organizations.

This diverse group shares a common vision: giving consumers the ability to monitor and manage their power use will save them energy and money. It will also unleash innovation in homes and businesses as new energy saving technologies and apps are developed.

This group will continue to look for ways to offer ideas to policymakers on how to empower consumers with energy saving tools and information. Join the discussion tomorrow at an event in Washington, DC co-hosted by Google and The Climate Group. If you can make it, RSVP here.

Posted by Michael Terrell, Energy Policy Counsel

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The international community likes to define Liberia’s recent history primarily through two events: its fourteen-year civil war, which ended in 2003, and the work of the country’s president, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, the first democratically elected female leader in Africa. The chart below illustrates both. On my recent trip to Liberia, first with a group of Bay Area philanthropists hosted by the government and then as part of a small group of Googlers on a country visit, I learned more about how terrible the 1980s and 90s were in this small West African nation. GDP -- a crude measure of the health of a nation, but an indicator nonetheless -- dropped 90% as the country endured brutal dictatorship after brutal dictatorship. That decline is the largest in any nation since World War II, and nearly twice the percentage drop that Rwanda, Zimbabwe, and other states experienced during their crises. The good news is that although Liberia essentially had no economy at the depths of the war, GDP has almost risen to pre-conflict levels during Johnson Sirleaf’s tenure, and foreign direct investment has returned.


The numbers also tell a third story. Throughout the 1960s and 70s Liberia’s economy grew at a steady pace in a way that most other African economies did not. The growth was inequitable -- but real -- and the ingenuity and entrepreneurship that drove it are on full display today, albeit in ways that can sometimes puzzle a visitor to the country.

During the ten days I was in Liberia my colleagues and I always had a driver; it’s the only way for foreigners to get around. The first day we reserved our car for 9:00am but when I looked out the hotel window at 9:02am I noticed the car speeding off with three other passengers. When I frantically called the driver he responded, “My man, don’t worry -- I will get you to your meeting on time.” And he did. Then there was the night a local friend suggested dinner by saying, “Come on -- this place has a nice outdoor patio at the base of Sniper Hill. . . wait, that didn’t quite sound as inviting as I meant it.” When we arrived our waiter was Frankie, a cheerful eight-year old sporting an Alex Rodriguez Yankees jersey who delivered our food and drink on the jog. At the local family restaurant, everyone pitched in.

Like most of Africa, cell phones are ubiquitous in Liberia and are the technology of choice for the vast majority of the population. Our meetings with the mobile providers there could have taken place anywhere in the world. They’re making money but are fiercely competitive with one another, slashing prices and offering new products to gain market share, and desperately trying to expand into new markets like broadband. Their activities are far from philanthropic, but they’re arguably having a more positive affect on Liberians’ day-to-day life than any other segment of society. The mobile penetration rate is 40% and rising, particularly in rural areas where phones are often the first “big” purchase a Liberian will make.

The country’s trademark ingenuity is of course noticeable here as well. Liberians will often carry SIM cards from different mobile carriers and switch back and forth depending on coverage and prices (a noticeably nice option that’s not available in the locked-down U.S. market). Since unanswered calls don’t incur a charge and the person who initiates the call pays more than the receiver, Liberians will also occasionally call and hang up, meaning, “I want talk to you but you can afford this more than I can, so call me back.” Scratch cards, which give you twenty or thirty minutes of talk time, are practically used as cash and are sold virtually everywhere.

The past thirty years have been difficult ones for most Liberians, and with an 80% unemployment rate and known war criminals still occupying high government offices, there are still huge problems to address. In the next two years the country will hold elections and most of the UN peacekeepers will withdraw. Watch closely: if both go well, a stable Liberia may finally be back.

Posted by John Lyman, Google.org

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