Google will show cloud customers their carbon footprint

Google’s cloud-computing division unveiled tools to help clients monitor and reduce their environmental impact, part of the company’s broader push to fight climate change.

Customers can now use a carbon-footprint feature to see the gross emissions associated with their use of the Google Cloud platform, the Alphabet-owned company said on Tuesday in a blog post. Google Cloud also is teaming up with Salesforce.com to let clients put their emissions data in the Salesforce Sustainability Cloud, a carbon accounting platform.

The move follows efforts announced last week to help users of Google’s search and maps services reduce their carbon emissions — say, by taking flights or driving routes that will cause less pollution. The internet giant, which also pledged to stop funding climate change misinformation with digital ads, has set a goal to become carbon-free by 2030.

It currently runs on 100 per cent renewable energy and became carbon-neutral in 2007. The company has declared its cloud, which delivers internet-based computing and storage to other organisations, to be the world’s cleanest. Cloud computing, with its sprawling facilities filled with energy-hungry machines, is seen as a key area for environmental improvements. Google has purchased renewable energy offsets the last four years to match the energy use of its server farms.

As part of Tuesday’s changes, Google will tell customers about the carbon footprint of idle or abandoned projects that continue to run on its servers, making it easier for businesses to only use the capacity they need.