Ctg sit23 hub banner.jpg

How sustainable is Google Cloud Platform?

Computing speaks to Google's UK Cloud Chief Pip White about her organisation's sustainability drive, and what Google is doing to lessen the environmental impact of its cloud platform

Sustainability is arguably the most important issue affecting businesses today, with governments and regulators increasingly demanding that organisations work to reduce their environmental impact, and buyers looking to source their purchases from greener outfits.

With data centres thought to account for around two per cent of the world's carbon emissions, cloud operators are under pressure to improve. Computing caught up with Pip White, Google's Cloud Managing Director for UK & Ireland, to find out what her company is doing to its improve sustainability.

Computing: How is Google addressing sustainability? Is there a formal policy and accountable owner?

Pip White: Sustainability objectives are, and always have been, central to every area of Google's operations. Spearheaded by our Global Sustainability Officer Kate Brandt, and overseen by regional directors, our sustainability goals are driven at an international level.

In 2007, Google became the first major company to go carbon neutral. Today, we remain the largest annual corporate buyer of renewable energy and the only major cloud provider to purchase enough renewable energy to match our electricity consumption, matching 100 per cent of our annual global electricity consumption for the fourth year running in 2021. Moreover, 90 per cent of Google Cloud waste is currently diverted from landfills, and we have achieved a Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) of 1.10, compared to the global average of 1.58.

Through innovations in artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML), we're increasing the efficiency of our data centres, introducing data-driven decarbonisation and the deployment of sustainability bonds. We recently announced our most ambitious sustainability goal yet. By 2030, we intend to be the first major company to operate on carbon-free energy, in all locations, at every hour of the day. This is far more challenging than the traditional approach of matching global annual energy usage with renewable energy, but we're working to get this done by 2030.

CTG: More specifically, what has GCP done to become a more sustainable product?

PW: Our data centres run on hyper-efficient infrastructure and are able to support exponential internet demand. What's more, they're twice as energy efficient as an average enterprise data centre.

Through recent developments in workload planning and applications of AI and ML, Google engineers have been able to cut data centre energy use significantly and make what we do use far more sustainable.

In applying smart AI and ML to cooling systems, we've been able to cut the energy used to cool our data centres by 30 per cent. For necessary energy consumption, our engineers have designed a first-of-its kind system to shift the timing of non-urgent customer compute tasks to when carbon-free power sources are most plentiful, optimising hour-by-hour guidelines to increase the level of lower-carbon energy consumed. This system also has the ability to shift workloads across data centres, depending on where carbon-free energy is most plentiful at any given time.

CTG: How important is sustainability to GCP customers, is it something many ask about in the pre-sales phase?

PW: Today, sustainability is a top priority for almost all businesses, and rightly so. 75 per cent of global IT leaders say sustainability is important when selecting a cloud provider, with 51 per cent stating it as a major consideration and an additional 24 per cent stating it is a must-have.

Whilst reducing Google's own emissions is vital, collaborating with our customers is central to our goal of bringing about a world powered entirely by carbon-free energy.

In the last year, we have worked with over 50 customers worldwide to assess the carbon impact of their IT estates, accelerating net-carbon reductions from a few thousand kilograms of CO2 to several kilotons. We measure our own progress through the newly developed Carbon Free Energy Percentage (CFE%), and empower customers to make greener IT decisions by sharing the hourly CFE% by region with them. Customers can opt to use this information to run their workloads in regions with a higher CFE%, thus decarbonising their IT footprints. Salesforce is just one of our customers leveraging our CFE% data to decarbonise its services. According to the company's sustainability lead, Salesforce considers the environment as a key stakeholder in its business and our CFE% has empowered it to prioritise locations that maximise carbon-free energy, supporting it to deliver all its customers a carbon-neutral cloud every day.

CTG: What sustainability drives or changes are planned for GCP over the next year or so?

PW: At Google, we're constantly exploring strategies to operate more sustainably and opportunities to collaborate with customers on their own sustainability objectives. Since developing the technology to cut the amount of energy used to cool our own data centres, we're now empowering customers to do the same. This year the world's largest industrial enterprises, building management software providers and data centre operators will be able to access the same AI technology, helping them to transition to less wasteful operations.

On top of that, we're proactively working with partners to leverage the vast volumes of data stored in our systems and advance sustainable business practices. Google Cloud's partnership with consumer goods brand Unilever is just one example of this. Announced in September last year, the partnership will combine the power of cloud computing, satellite imagery and AI to build a more complete picture of the ecosystems intersecting with Unilever's supply chain. In providing a more holistic view of these environments, we hope to raise sustainable sourcing standards and directly support Unilever's existing work with other technology partners to achieve a deforestation-free supply chain by 2023.

CTG: Are there any specific accreditations GCP has met or is targeting to attain relating to sustainability?

PW: Google Cloud is net carbon neutral today. We have also matched 100 per cent of our electricity consumption with renewable energy purchases on an annual and global basis - what is often referred to as a 100 per cent renewable energy target in the market. As part of our aim to operate on carbon-free energy 24/7 by 2030, we have set a number of ambitious targets both internally and for our partners. Working with governments, organisations and policymakers, we hope to achieve system-level change, and have invested almost $6bn in sustainability bonds towards clean energy, infrastructure and transportation in the last year. Furthermore, to help drive development of wind, solar and other renewable energy sources, the company is building on its previous investment to bring a total of five gigawatts online over the next ten years.

CTG: Which issue would you like your customers to understand about GCP and sustainability?

PW: Cloud technology presents a tremendous opportunity to accelerate meaningful and positive environmental change. From reducing the emissions of digital applications and infrastructure, to getting smarter about how you source and trace materials, the technologies available on Google Cloud can help organisations achieve their own sustainability goals. Public cloud technology is leading efforts to streamline and decarbonise business processes, but the drive for sustainability within technology is far from over. As we enter our most ambitious decade yet, collaborative innovation will be at the forefront of our sustainability efforts at Google Cloud. We will work to empower every one of our partners whether they be businesses, governments or individuals, to achieve a more sustainable tomorrow.

Earlier Computing spoke to Microsoft, who described sustainability as a 'team sport'.

Computing will run the Tech Impact Conference this year, exploring the relationship between tech and the climate - including case studies about the road to net zero, how to go green in your data centre and supply chain, and how to make small changes with a big impact. For those who are passionate about the planet - and those who are more wary - there has never been a better time to get involved.

How sustainable is Google Cloud Platform?

Computing speaks to Google's UK Cloud Chief Pip White about her organisation's sustainability drive, and what Google is doing to lessen the environmental impact of its cloud platform

Green

Cloud big three sign open letter urging datacentre kit suppliers to step up

Public Sector

National Grid is turning analogue to digital - Ctrl Alt Lead podcast

Law

Indian antitrust regulator finds Apple's App Store abuses market power