Many of the major tech companies are racing to go green these days, implementing a variety of initiatives from more sustainable manufacturing practices to more eco-friendly overall operations and even products like the solar-powered smartphone we told you about on Monday.
On Monday, Google unveiled a sweeping pledge along these same lines, which includes the company’s promise to start including recycled materials in all of its Made By Google products. It’s a goal the company says will be achieved over the next three years and includes all the hardware in that product portfolio, from Pixel phones to Google Home Speakers, Nest devices, charging stands and much more.
In a company blog post penned by Google’s consumer hardware head of sustainability Anna Meegan, she noted several targets Google actually wants to hit with sustainability in mind, including 100% of Made by Google products including recycled materials by 2022.
This effort also includes 100% of all Google shipments going to and from customers being carbon neutral by 2020, as well as a more general pledge to make technology “that puts people first and expands access to the benefits of technology.”
“In 2018,” Anna’s post notes, “we began publishing our product environmental reports, which help everyone understand exactly what our products are made of, how they’re built and how they get shipped to you. And from 2017 to 2018, our carbon emissions for product shipments decreased by 40%.
“We’ve also launched our Power Project, which will bring one million energy- and money-saving Nest thermostats to families in need by 2023, and built much of our Nest product portfolio with post-consumer recycled plastic.”
Companies like Apple and Samsung have set out similar targets as part of a greater eco-friendly push within the industry, including the iPhone maker’s increasing use of recycled material in its own devices. Likewise, Samsung recently promised to make sustainable materials a feature of its own packaging for products. Google, meanwhile, had actually already started down this road before now, including recycled plastic in Chromecast products, for example.
