Straight from the Official Google Blog… The company owned by Pinky and the Brain swears that they only think green, that they will be a “carbon neutral” company and that they have a public plan that everybody can follow. I couldn’t resist so I went there to do some digging…

Google’s mission is to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful. Hundreds of millions of users access their services every day, and handling this traffic (many terabytes of data transfers) requires many computers. It’s not an easy equation: making the best use of energy and providing a good service to everybody. They began their efforts to make this structure as sustainable as possible ten years ago. Today they believe that their data centers are the most sustainable in the world—and this is what they will state at CeBit, in Hannover, Germany, at the beginning of March.

Take a look at the graph that they present

Their history is based on five main points:

1. Minimize electricity used by servers
How? (Free translation of the site content) We took away all of the unnecessary parts, such as the graphic chips. We also optimized our rack servers to use coolers (fans) as little as possible. In addition, they are set to rotate only as fast as necessary to maintain a stable server temperature. We encourage all of our suppliers (all of them) to produce components that operate efficiently, whether they are idle or operating at full or minimum capacity.

2. Reduce the energy used by the data-center facilities as a whole.

Data-center is a fancy name for a warehouse-like building that holds thousands of servers. Since these machines consume loads of electricity, they require a great deal of electrical equipment to power the servers, including power generators to supply energy in case of a power failure. Typically, 10 to 20 percent of this energy is wasted. Our first goal is to eliminate this loss.

All of the energy that goes into a data-center ends up as heat, that’s why there are fans, pumps and lots of air-conditioners to eliminate all of this heat. In many data centers, cooling alone is responsible for 20 to 70 percent of the energy consumption. Fortunately, there is an easier way to solve this problem: let water evaporate.

This is how our body maintains its temperature when the outside temperature exceeds 36 degrees Celsius. How? Energy changes water into vapor. This energy is heat, which removed from the surroundings causes a cooling effect. This is how Google’s data centers work. Below is a simple representation of their cooling towers:

Cooling towers

When this set-up isn’t enough, chillers go into action—and they consume much more energy—not to mention water… With these towers, Google’s data centers spend most of their time running in a mode called “free cooling.” This means the chillers are off. Of course, free cooling isn’t technically “free,” but it is much less expensive and more efficient.

This is why their data centers consume (at least this is my understanding… you might want to check) 16% energy, while the EPA can use up to 96%… This meant a lot of work, but they were able to reduce their environmental footprint—while lowering their costs.

Note from Ladybug: Why was it again that I didn’t buy their stocks when I could have?

3. Conserve water by using recycled water for refrigeration.

In the United States, this energy savings has a counterpart: for every kW saved, two gallons of water are also saved. This means that those guys were also able to save a lot of drinking water. And more: by the end of 2008, two facilities were already running on 100 percent recycled water. Their new goal is to have 80% of their total water consumption made up of recycled water in ALL of their data centers by 2010 (next year). To get there, anything goes: industrial sewage, rainwater, city sewage. They treat it and dump it in the cooling towers… Just a small detail: the location of the Belgian data center was chosen due to the possibility of using recycled water…

Note from Ladybug: aren’t these guys smart?

4. Reuse or recycle all electronic equipment that leaves the data centers.

Wow, they reuse or recycle 100% (everything) that leaves the data centers. According to the EPA in the United States, the average is only 18%. Everything else goes to landfills… (good heavens!) According to them, 68% of the material is reused right there. The rest is sent to institutions that need computing equipment. Some parts, however, can’t be reused. What now, uncle Google? They are sent to resellers. Note:  these companies must sign a document promising to adopt fair and socially responsible labor practices and a zero tolerance policy for e-waste, landfills, incineration, or export to developing countries.    Their commitment is to the sustainable management of their computing infrastructure during the entire lifecycle of each machine.

5. Engage our peers in the use of smarter energy practices.
To do this, Google has adopted the Climate Savers Smart Computing initiative—created by the company and Intel in 2007—which started in the spirit of WWF climate savers and led dozens of business to reduce their carbon emissions by showing them that this is a great business.   The goal of CSSC is to promote the development and the adoption of technologies that are able to increase computers’ energy efficiency and reduce their energy consumption while they are idle. Is their mission possible? Reduce their computers’ energy consumption in 50% by 2010 (next year…)

And it gets better: They encourage the use of renewable energies (which are a minority in the US, let’s not forget this), have a guide to help we poor mortal consumers to select efficient machines, and have a whole lot of other cool campaigns, such as Power Down the Planet, which invites college students to reduce their energy consumption…

Tip from Nospheratt.

Read this post at the Ladybug Brasil Blog: Google swears that it is green