Would you believe that the average internet\u00a0user pollutes the atmosphere?<\/p>\n
An average Google user \u2013 someone who does 25 searches and watches 60 minutes of YouTube a day with a Gmail account and other services \u2013 emits about 8 grams of CO2 per day. [1] The oddity is, watching an episode of Netflix, reading the New York Times online, and downloading apps are not obvious ways to pollute the atmosphere. But collectively, our growing demand for cloud services means that the data centers that power them are currently responsible for about 2% of global greenhouse gas emissions. [2] That amount is on par with the aviation industry!<\/p>\n
Our huge appetite for data is fueling the growth of companies like Google, which are spending billions of dollars on data centers every year. Last year in the U.S. alone for example, data centers used 91 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity, equating to 97 million metric tons of CO2. [3] This order of magnitude is why investment and innovation in improving data centers for the environment is so important.<\/p>\n
Google\u2019s thought leadership in data center strategy <\/u><\/p>\n
There are two primary pillars within Google\u2019s green data center strategy. The first is to make the data centers themselves run more efficiently, and the second is to fund sustainable sources of energy to power the data centers.<\/p>\n
#1 Efficiency:<\/em> Google\u2019s data centers are some of the most efficient in the world. The standard industry metric to measure data center efficiency is the power usage effectiveness (PUE) which is a measure of how much extra power is required to provide each unit of computational power. Google boasts a PUE of 1.12 vs an industry average of 1.7 and has continuously improved on this key metric since 2008. [4]<\/p>\n Google has achieved this improvement with several innovations over time:<\/p>\n #2 Sustainability:<\/em> The second pillar of Google\u2019s data center strategy is to promote the development of clean energy projects by purchasing sustainable energy from local providers near its data centers. Google enters into long term power purchase agreements (PPAs) with providers to encourage creation of new wind and solar farms. By providing developers with a long term buying commitment, Google is essentially financing clean energy projects around the world.<\/p>\n Google\u2019s innovative data center strategy combined with its continued purchasing of carbon offsets has enabled it to reach a 0 emission footprint. But of course Google\u2019s has higher ambitions and is hungry to do even more in the future. Google is aiming for 100% renewable power and has committed to invest nearly $2.5 billion in renewable energy projects, which produce enough electricity to power over 1 million US homes. [6]<\/p>\n The Future is in the Clouds<\/u><\/p>\n Google has a portfolio of products and resources that uniquely enables it to reduce emissions in creative ways. Google should take on the responsibility to identify existing and new products that can result in net energy savings.<\/p>\n For example, a quick win with an existing product involves converting more small businesses that use locally-hosted email to use Gmail. Studies have shown that there are significant savings (172.8 kWh of energy and 101.6 kg of carbon per user per year) for small businesses with less than 50 people if they use Gmail instead of locally-hosted email. [7] Google has the scale and resources to push such products and educate potential customers about the corresponding environmental benefits.<\/p>\n New products and innovations that reduce emissions are also on the horizon for Google. Experiments with using DeepMind artificial intelligence algorithms to optimize the hundreds of variables within data centers has shown promising early results of reducing energy consumption by 40%. Google\u2019s DeepMind technology could even have potential use cases beyond data centers, such as improving power plant conversion efficiency, reducing semiconductor manufacturing energy and water usage, or helping manufacturing facilities increase throughput. [8]<\/p>\n Google should undoubtedly be proud of its achievements in developing environmentally friendly data center operations. For a company with such a strong voice in the industry and an incredibly large arsenal of resources, Google must continue its leadership to close the carbon gap and open cloud computing\u2019s potential to a new and cleaner era.<\/p>\n Word count: 765<\/p>\n <\/p>\n [1] Google Green, \u201cA better web. Better for the environment.,\u201d https:\/\/www.google.com\/green\/bigpicture\/<\/a>, accessed November 2016<\/p>\n [2] Adam Vaughan, \u201cHow viral cat videos are warming the planet,\u201d The Guardian, September 25, 2015, https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/environment\/2015\/sep\/25\/server-data-centre-emissions-air-travel-web-google-facebook-greenhouse-gas<\/a>, accessed November 2016<\/p>\n [3] Reuban Yonatan, \u201cThe Incredible Environmental Impact of Cloud Technology,\u201d GetVoIP, January 19, 2015, https:\/\/getvoip.com\/blog\/2015\/01\/19\/environmental-impact-of-cloud\/<\/a>, accessed November 2016<\/p>\n [4] Google Data Centers, \u201cEfficiency, how we do it,\u201d https:\/\/www.google.com\/about\/datacenters\/efficiency\/internal\/<\/a>, accessed November 2016<\/p>\n [5] Google Data Centers, \u201cEfficiency, how we do it,\u201d https:\/\/www.google.com\/about\/datacenters\/efficiency\/internal\/#recycling<\/a>, accessed November 2016<\/p>\n [6] Google Data Centers, \u201cRenewable Energy,\u201d https:\/\/www.google.com\/about\/datacenters\/renewable\/index.html<\/a>, accessed November 2016<\/p>\n [7] Google Green, \u201cProducts,\u201d https:\/\/www.google.com\/green\/products\/<\/a>, accessed November 2016<\/p>\n\n