At Monday’s Sustainability Summit, Google Cloud unveiled its suite of sustainability solutions — a combination of public information and internal data visualization tools that businesses and governments can use to set goals. Jenn Bennett, Technical Director of Sustainability in Google Cloud’s Office of the Chief Technology Officer, said that as an important topic, the company wants to help customers understand the current state to prioritize certain pressing issues.
Notably, Google Cloud has opened up a new version of Google Earth Engine for enterprise customers, which was previously only available to scientists and NGOs. But now, enterprise clients can also access complex data to build advanced visualizations—such as showing how the use of raw materials affects a specific region and how it spreads across the globe.
Rebecca More, head of Google’s geospatial program, said the abundance of satellite data helps companies understand their environmental impact in real-time. Originally dating back to 2010, Google Earth Engine is at the forefront of planetary-scale environmental monitoring and has one of the world’s largest catalogs of publicly available Earth observation data.
In addition, Google Earth Engine combines data from hundreds of other satellites and sources, and as this content continues to flow in, Google is able to combine massive amounts of data with geospatial cloud computing resources. By turning this raw data into timely, accurate, high-resolution, decision-relevant insights into global conditions, helps us understand the evolution of forests, water sources, ecosystems, and agriculture over time.
Using data-driven tools like these with Google BigQuery and the Maps platform, the Google Cloud team hopes to help businesses manage natural resources more responsibly while building sustainable business practices.
The company has also set an even more ambitious goal of achieving completely carbon-free energy by 2030, not just carbon neutrality. To do this, Google internally uses a tool called the 24/7 Carbon-Free Energy Insights Program, which is due to begin a pilot rollout this week.
Maud Texier, head of energy development at Google, said the plans would be moot if only one company could hit the mark. That’s why they decided to share valuable experiences and insights with others along the way.
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