By Mark Bergen
Oct 6, 2021, 9:01 AM
Word Count: 329
These features are part of a barrage of updates Alphabet Inc.’s Google introduced on Wednesday designed to steer people toward more environmentally friendly decisions. The overhauls include features for consumer searches on flights, hotels, finance, home appliances and electric vehicles. Google is also revamping search results for queries related to climate change, displaying select material from science agencies and news outlets rather than its standard links.
“Individually, these choices might feel small,” Sundar Pichai, Google’s chief executive officer, said during a virtual presentation. “But when you multiply them together across our products, it’s going to equal big transformations for the planet.”
Pichai has already made pledges to cut out Google’s use of fossil fuels and create clean energy jobs over the coming decade. According to the company, the new fuel-efficient routing options on Google Maps could reduce as much as 1 million tons of yearly carbon emissions.
The updates introduced Wednesday also include a feature letting owners of Google’s Nest thermostats sync their devices with available renewable energy on power grids. It’s hard to know how many people that will affect because Google doesn’t disclose Nest device sales.
Google is introducing at least one entirely new service: a data-crunching effort to help city governments make traffic lights operate more efficiently. Trials of the service in four Israeli cities trimmed fuel usage from cars by as much as 20%, Kate Brandt, Google’s chief sustainability officer, said in a press briefing. She said the service is being piloted in Rio de Janeiro and other cities.
Brandt also promised upcoming environmental features for Google’s business partners in cloud computing and advertising. “We need all hands on deck,” she said.
© 2021 Bloomberg L.P.
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What the likes of Patchai and Brandt will not tell you … is that such ‘initiatives’ will save let’s say between 5 to 10% on current consumption, they like their ilk Zuckerberg, want to see their businesses volume grow by 15 to 20% … meaning that the net gain is more profit for their operations … with greater consumption, resulting in the cost of a higher carbon footprint ! Not unlike the airline industry which wants to deploy more ‘fuel efficient’ crafts so that with greater consumption, leads us to a continued increase in carbon emissions ! No ‘business’ wants to advocate for less consumption … which would impact negatively on their ‘bottom line’ !