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May 14, 2007

Google v. Yahoo: Who Cares The Most About The Environment?

Michael Arrington

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SouthPark dedicated an entire episode to the smugness of hybrid car drivers and San Francisco residents in general. The episode is funny because its largely true - Silicon Valley is well known for having a left-leaning, environment-loving population that sometimes feels superior to the rest of the country. They cheered when Al Gore won an Oscar for his movie about global warming, and they are cheering again as some of the largest Internet companies in the valley are jumping very publicly on the “green” bandwagon.

Google and Yahoo in particular seem to be in a race to prove who’s the greenest.

Google

Google is investing a lot of money in solar technology, saying that they will partially power their huge data centers with solar power. They are also installing 1.6 megawatts of solar photovoltaic panels at their headquarters in Mountain View. The panels will cover the roofs of the buildings, and Google says it is “the largest solar installation on any corporate campus in the U.S.”

There are frequent references to the benefits of being carbon neutral on the Google blog as well, and last year Google launched the “Summer of Green” website to help people travel in an environmentally friendly way.

Last week CEO Eric Schmidt said the solar energy policy is not only the right thing to do, but that it will save the company money as well. While it is certainly true that Google’s energy costs will decline, the savings will come nowhere near to offsetting the cost and maintenance of the panels themselves. Google is doing this because they think it’s right, and because they will get positive press out of it.

Yahoo

Not to be outdone, Yahoo has gone green in a big way, too. Earlier this year, co-founder David Filo pledged that Yahoo would go carbon neutral, basically by purchasing carbon offsets for their massive electricity usage.

Today Yahoo will go one step further, and they are bringing in actor Matt Dillon to help them. They (Yahoo and Dillon) are announcing the “Greenest City in America” challenge, and will search for the most environmentally friendly city in America. The winner gets a whole fleet of hybrid taxis (or the cash equivalent). Another fleet of taxis goes immediately to New York City.

Yahoo will also urge people to become more environmentally friendly via two handy websites -Be a Better Planet and Yahoo Green.

So who’s the greenest? No idea. But more hybrid cars and solar panels are popping up around around silicon valley, giving the SouthPark guys plenty of material for a follow up episode or two.

  • Sphere It

This entry was posted on Monday, May 14th, 2007 at 6:43 am and is filed under Company & Product Profiles. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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Comments

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  1. Steven Price

    May 14th, 2007 at 4:41 am

    Isn’t that publicity gone too far, for a change?

  2. Ali

    May 14th, 2007 at 4:54 am

    “Be a Better Planet” and vote for the “Greenest City in America”. Maybe people at Yahoo don’t get out enough.

    I guess it couldn’t be better fitting, since America gives the world most of the pollution anyway.

  3. Jason Cianchette

    May 14th, 2007 at 5:21 am

    It will take a lot of photovoltaics to offset the carbon deficit that Sergey and Larry have dug themselves in to with their ‘party plane’.

  4. Jay Adair

    May 14th, 2007 at 5:42 am

    Why do people think solar-power is green? It’s not green at all. Just because it burns no fuel, doesn’t mean it’s green. Solar panels require a hugely industrial and toxic process to manufacturer. The toxic chemicals they use are just that, toxic to the environment.

    If they invested in wind turbines or other greener technologies then this would have more credibility than just being a PR stunt. IMO :)

  5. Paul Freet

    May 14th, 2007 at 5:48 am

    Carbon offsets sound great, but they do not do what most people think they do. Here is a quote from Wikipedia: “carbon sequestered in the newly planted trees will be again released as CO2 when the tree dies and decays, thus merely postponing the negative impact of the man-made increase in CO2″. Circle of life.

    Helping drive research and adoption of solar power is a better long term solution. I say Google wins this round.

  6. ptinfrance

    May 14th, 2007 at 6:11 am

    i’m not sure how much google really cares. i think if they really wanted to make a difference, they would not have removed “Future of Food” from Google video. See: Future of Food

    Or is it just that Monsanto is more powerful than Google? Say it ain’t so!

  7. pr0xy k1ll3r

    May 14th, 2007 at 6:18 am

    Carbon offsetting.. does it help? Maybe temp. Look at the big picture, you are still releasing CO2. If they want to go green, ask google to invest a Billion in alternative fuel research, that will yield more ‘green’ results.

  8. pallet jack

    May 14th, 2007 at 6:21 am

    Does yahoo! always have to follow google? …

    - atleast if your going to follow, add something - worth - be taking a second look.

  9. Satish

    May 14th, 2007 at 6:25 am

    Don’t forget our friendly neighbourhood Apple folks - they’re on the “Green” bandwagon too.

    Link right off their homepage: http://www.apple.com/hotnews/agreenerapple/

  10. Kewtr

    May 14th, 2007 at 6:39 am

    Dammit Jay, you got to it first. Solar’s pretty gross actually, if you take the 2 seconds to look beyond whether there’s a literal smokestack on a technology or not. But PR-wise, it’s beautiful, and most ‘environmentalists’ equate visible smoke-free with pollution-free.

    Combine that with ‘offsets’, and you’ve got a lot of hype and little material change. I can spend $55 and ‘offset’ my personal driving, does anyone actually believe that changes anything?

    Last, I don’t think the valley is any more ‘environment-loving’ than anywhere else. They might make more noise that they do, or have more money to have the luxury of looking like they do, but nobody enjoys dirty air or water.

  11. Christian

    May 14th, 2007 at 6:56 am

    Greenest city in the country is a no brainer. My home town of Boulder, Colorado. Question is….does Boulder make the cut as a “city?”

  12. Clement

    May 14th, 2007 at 7:20 am

    I read from newspaper, Pepsi was on the first place in using green energy last year…. I think they both could do better….

  13. patricia

    May 14th, 2007 at 7:33 am

    I feel terrible saying this, but the best Yahoo could do was Matt Dillon??! there are TONS of green celebrities. Matt Dillon!

  14. Dan

    May 14th, 2007 at 7:41 am

    “Yahoo!-donated eco-friendly taxi fleet rolls out of multi-megawatt Times Square to kick-off Yahoo! challenge issued today in search of the greenest city in America. People”
    http://prn.newscom.com/cgi-bin.....&row=9

  15. jenn

    May 14th, 2007 at 8:07 am

    I think it’s obvious that, with Google’s popularization of text-based Web ads, that Google is the more environmentally friendly company of the two.

    Compare Yahoo’s fetishistic reliance upon huge animated ads on their own site vs. Google’s preference for text. How many more electrons and megabytes are Yahoo forcing over the Internets compared to google?

    @patricia, Matt Dillon is America’s Cabana Boy!

  16. secreeeeet

    May 14th, 2007 at 8:26 am

    If this is not a linkbait then nothing is.

  17. met

    May 14th, 2007 at 9:05 am

    Maybe Yahoo should give those taxis to the worst city.

  18. David

    May 14th, 2007 at 9:42 am

    Are Google and Yahoo just doing this for PR? Sure but who cares this is how capitalistism works. I would say that it is a step in the right direction, finally companies are realizing that people care about the environment and are willing to vote with their pocket book. While I do agree with Jay that solar is not the greenest of solutions at least companies are trying to get our attention and once we educate them that solar isn’t good enough they will adapt. Too many times we attach human characteristics to companies if we do this we will always be disappointed. The only way that companies will change their behavior is if society makes them! The good knews is that corporate boardrooms have their ears open as long as we continue to speak loudly!

  19. No Fortune

    May 14th, 2007 at 10:12 am

    Next we will hear google investing in solar satellites, and beaming energy to some collector station in the piece of desert land they will buy…

    Hey, why not go all the way, right?

  20. Jay Adair

    May 14th, 2007 at 10:28 am

    Kewtr, sorry :)

  21. Ed

    May 14th, 2007 at 11:03 am

    I agree with Satish. Check out this list of EPA Green Power Partners, I don’t see Google on the list, but Apple and Yahoo are there:

    http://www.epa.gov/greenpower/.....une500.htm

  22. Ed

    May 14th, 2007 at 11:08 am

    Another thing, although Google isn’t on that list, they seem to be pushing hard lately. Recently they had Dan Reicher (former Assistant Secretary of Energy for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy under Pres. Clinton) join Google.org More info here:
    http://googleblog.blogspot.com.....leorg.html

  23. Jason B.

    May 14th, 2007 at 2:49 pm

    I do know that Google was one of the first companies (follow Hyperion Solutions) to offer a huge discount to employees who purchased hybrid cars. I hybrid car is still a slight looser in the long run, and for a working class person a non-starter. If you have a company willing to throw 5 thousand dollars up front at the situation however, it’s a win for everyone. I hope that someday my company hops on the bandwagon, based in the city of Chicago, using a hybrid car is slightly more dangerous, I don’t know if anyone’ ever been up the Edens at 4pm on a Friday.

  24. Jason B.

    May 14th, 2007 at 2:55 pm

    At #19. Those desert land solar towers are proving to be gold mines. I was just doing some personal research on them and was thinking about blogging about them. Basically, you have a few scattered about the world, and with each one they are more and more energy efficiency. Also, it’s important to note that the tech in the solar cells is still evolving. Heat is the final form of all energy and solar cells happen to be black to try to absorb the sunlight instead of reflect it, but in the process so much heat is made, that heat needs to be somehow harvested and then we would have even better savings. I think it would be sweet if these two companies were a heavy influence on congress to start enforcing this kind of stuff in the datacenter, and then more abroad.

  25. Peter

    May 14th, 2007 at 3:47 pm

    good thing those companies have good lawyers on their side - they might need them…

  26. Email

    May 14th, 2007 at 3:53 pm

    i agree with Met. shouldn’t the hybrid taxis go to the least-green city? seems to me like the greenest city would be doing pretty well already. the whole idea is a waste of time though. just more PR. make my Yahoo beta mail work better in firefox and i’ll buy some carbon neutral offsets.

  27. Gradiva Couzin

    May 15th, 2007 at 12:01 am

    Jeez folks, cynical lately? Why not celebrate baby steps and positive measures even if they are for PR? Other companies are still giving away Hummers in PR stunts.

    Seriously, people in these comments complaining that solar power isn’t green enough? Glass houses, my friends! There are problems with all energy sources including wind turbines (just ask the raptors).

    Plenty of good comes from corporations - even evil ones or semi-evil ones or ones that we’re a bit afraid of even though they are supposed to do no evil - doing good things just to get a little good press. Take it for what it is. Corporations are not people to be loved or hated, they are innately amoral entities that must be controlled and shaped (and regulated) into good behavior by the societies that support them. Public relations are one of the ways we do that. Let’s cheer the good stuff and then move on to bigger and better things.

    Gradiva

  28. Carl Sarnstrand

    May 15th, 2007 at 6:50 am

    It is great if Google and Yahoo is trying to be green. Yahoo might actually be the world’s second carbon free search engine if they succeed in doing what they are planning.

    The world’s first search engine is Picsearch who launched its environmental program a month ago. You can read more about Picsearchs carbon free search here: http://www.picsearch.com/menu......R_20070322

    Best Regards
    Carl Sarnstrand
    carl.sarnstrand@picsearch.com
    Picsearch

  29. Sean J

    May 20th, 2007 at 12:52 pm

    I’m actually back in school a second time in life and I’m in a 2yr global studies program that transfers to a univerity. However, my point is that I’ve learned so much inregards that todays society is so quick to slander anyones efforts yet they themselves do very little and/or know very little. Our school campus took something like 17yrs to approve the Kirsch Building, environmental studies.
    The builing is obviuosly a green building . It not only has the solar and thermal pannels and the coiled floors, it’s actually living what it’s teaching. Our classrooms are huge open rooms with giant windows looking out at the campus itself and all the trees surounding it. At the entrance is a big plasma that actually shows the energy being gained and used. Extra is sent to the main campus.
    I choose to further my education so I know the facts and what really is the format people should take to create a more sustainable living environment. To get a career that is actually in this arena of a newer generation that takes charge in seeing our responsibility as a species instead of following the masses thats made up of an imediate gratification mentality and a “someone else” can deal with it attitude.
    So basically I’m saying that each person is either a part of a solution or a part of the problem. Nobody is just here. I may not have all the answers now but I am getting an education to know what exactly I’m talking about and what the truth actually is inregards to our World our environment and the facts of global warming, people and the challenges of giant corporations that don’t really have a morality towards our world other that make money/profit. There’s my 2cents. Sean

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