What Does Google's 2025 Environmental Report Say About Tech?
Itâs no secret: the carbon footprint of many of the worldâs largest tech companies is growing, rather than shrinking.
Despite making commitments to achieve net zero emissions, companies like Meta, Microsoft and Google are having to recalibrate their sustainability efforts as their emissions grow.
In large part, this is down to investments in AI, a technology that is extremely energy and resource intensive.
Google, one of the worldâs largest AI investors (US$75bn in 2025), is looking to address its expanding emissions transparently through its 2025 Environmental Report.
The report offers an in-depth examination of how it plans to confront its newfound sustainability challenges while also maintaining the growth AI has afforded its services, such as Search, YouTube and Gemini.
- Reduced data centre emissions by 12%
- Replenished 4.5 billion gallons of water
- Procured more than 8 GW of clean energy
- Improved the efficiency of its Ironwood TPU AI chips 30 times over
- Enabled 26 million tCOâe emissions reductions through its to-market AI products
- Signed the worldâs first corporate agreement for nuclear energy from small modular reactors (SMRs)
The impact of data centres
Data centres are the engine room for Google’s AI technologies. Generally, as a tech company grows, so too does its data centre network.
But despite an overall 27% increase in its consumption of electricity, Google managed to reduce its data centre energy emissions by 12% in 2024.
That reduction, the company claims, was achieved through efficiency gains and a significant ramp-up in clean energy procurement.
"We reduced our data centre energy emissions by 12%, even with growing energy demands," Google’s report states.
The tech giant’s data centres now deliver six times more computing power per unit of electricity than five years ago, an advancement that is largely down to Google’s new Ironwood AI chip, which is around 30 times more energy efficient than its 2018 predecessor.
Google’s relationship with renewables
Elsewhere, Google has doubled down on its renewable energy deals, signing contracts for more than 8 GW of new generation capacity in 2024.
This is the largest annual volume of clean energy in Google’s history, including projects in solar, wind, nuclear and geothermal energy.
Some highlights include a partnership that Google has struck with BlackRock for 1 GW of solar in Taiwan and its collaboration with Kairos Power to build small modular nuclear reactors.
Notably, nine of Google’s 20 grid regions hosting data centres reached at least 80% carbon-free energy, though this differs wildly from region to region. In APAC, for instance, carbon-free energy makes up just 12% of Google’s energy usage.
The supply chain problem
However, while Google’s operational emissions are on the wane, its supply chain remains a stubborn problem. Many of the US company’s suppliers — especially in Asia — have a difficult time accessing renewable energy.
Google is trying to address this, though, through initiatives like the Clean Energy Addendum.
The Addendum is essentially a contract provision, asking suppliers to match 100% of the electricity used in manufacturing Google products with clean sources. By the end of 2024, several of its major suppliers had signed on.
“This is about building for the future through new advanced energy innovations and deeper supplier engagement, both of which are core parts of our strategy as we work toward our climate moonshots, 24/7 carbon free energy and Net Zero by 2030,” explains Kate Brandt, CSO at Google.
AI as both cause and cure
Google insists that AI is not only contributing to energy demand — it’s also helping reduce emissions elsewhere.
“In 2024, five of our AI-powered solutions – Nest thermostats, Google Earth Pro, Solar API, fuel-efficient routing in Google Maps, and Green Light – removed 26 million metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions,” says James Manyika, SVP at Google.
For context, Google’s total emissions in 2024 were 11.5 million metric tonnes.
Google estimates that if AI applications become widely adopted they could reduce global energy-related emissions by 4% by 2035, potentially delivering emissions cuts three to five times greater than AI's own projected footprint.
“We know there is much more work to be done, but I remain hopeful given the positive impact enabled by AI,” Kate says.
“It's possible to advance the two great transformations of our time — the AI revolution and clean energy growth — hand in hand.”
What Google's 2025 Environmental Report says about...
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