What Google's Environmental Report Says About Data Centres

In publishing its 10th annual Sustainability Report, the technology giant is eager to address energy demands, efficiency, water usage and waste reduction across its data centre operations.

Despite having tackled rising emissions on account of its AI use last year, Google has been able to reduce its data centre energy emissions by 12% in 2024, compared to 2023. This is even as its data centre electricity consumption increased by 27% year-on-year due to business growth concerning AI.

“[We’re] showing it’s possible to advance the two great transformations of our time – the AI revolution and clean energy growth – hand in hand,” says Google Chief Sustainability Officer Kate Brandt, via LinkedIn.

“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.”

Investing in clean energy

Currently, data centres account for 1.5% of global electricity consumption, a figure that is expected to rise dramatically to roughly 3% in 2030. To tackle this, Google wants to decouple operational energy growth from associated carbon emissions. 

In 2024, the company signed contracts to purchase over 8GW of additional clean energy generation in 2024 – the largest annual total in its history and double the volume contracted in the prior year. Notably, from 2010 to 2024, Google signed over 170 agreements to purchase more than 22GW of clean energy generation.

This includes Google partnering with renewable energy developer Intersect Power and climate investment firm TPG Rise Climate at the end of 2024 to establish industrial parks combining data centres with clean power generation facilities.

Significantly, Google has maintained a 100% renewable energy match on a global basis every year since 2017 and continues to progress towards achieving 100% 24/7 carbon-free energy (CFE). As part of this, Google increased this percentage from 64% to 66% across its data centres and offices, with nine out of 20 grid regions with Google-owned and operated data centres achieving at least 80% CFE.

A significant aspect of Google’s recent data centre operations involved a pioneering agreement for small modular nuclear reactors (SMRs) with Kairos Power. The company is purchasing nuclear energy from multiple SMRs in efforts to accelerate the clean energy transition across the US and bring the first nuclear reactor online by 2030.

“We share encouraging progress – we’ve brought 25 clean energy projects online last year, adding 2.5GW of new clean energy to the grids,” shares James Manyika, SVP at Google/Alphabet, via LinkedIn. “We innovated across hardware and software to enable our data centers to deliver 6x more computing power per unit of electricity than they did just five years ago.” 

Reimagining operations to protect the grid

In order to optimise its operations, Google is reimagining its data centres as part of the electricity ecosystem, using its carbon-intelligent computing platform to shift computing tasks across locations and times of day based on local grid carbon intensity. 

The company says this helps reduce strain during peak hours and makes better use of clean energy.

James adds: “We pushed the frontiers of advanced energy development (e.g. in nuclear and geothermal) and in grid optimisation to ensure reliable, abundant power for more people, and to fuel the next wave of innovation and economic growth. 

“And we’re clear in the report about where we’re working to overcome hurdles, such as reducing the total emissions that include third parties in our supply chain.”

A significant part of Google’s sustainability efforts is water, particularly as data centres continue to rely on cooling systems. 

In 2024, Google consumed approximately 8.1 billion gallons of water across its data centres and offices, its report says, with 72% of freshwater withdrawals coming from sources at low risk of water depletion or scarcity.

Now, the company is eager to engage in water replenishment and reports that in 2024, its water stewardship projects replenished roughly 4.5 billion gallons of water, roughly 64% of its freshwater consumption.

Google says its aim is to replenish 120% of freshwater consumption by 2030.

Growing demand for digital services and AI has inevitably created a need for increased energy and water for data centres. This, alongside market barriers to sourcing CFE, have prompted companies like Google to look at new ways to lower their data center emissions.

The company says that AI applications enabled by data centres have the potential to reduce emissions on a much larger scale, with the International Energy Agency (IEA) estimating that by 2035, widespread adoption of existing AI applications could lead to emissions reductions nearly three to five times greater than projected data centre emissions.

Despite such progress, those paving the way at Google acknowledge that there is still much work to be done – particularly as AI causes data centres to consume greater levels of energy and water.

On this, Kate says: “We know there is much more work to be done, but I remain hopeful given the positive impact enabled by AI—from transforming how people engage with information, to enhancing business and economic growth, to enabling scientific breakthroughs and driving sustainable innovation for society."

Read more on Google's Environmental Report 2025

• What Does Google's Environmental Report 2025 Say About AI?
• What Does Google's Environmental Report 2025 Say About Data Centres?
• What Does Google's Environmental Report 2025 Say About Energy?
• What Does Google's Environmental Report 2025 Say About Procurement?
• What Does Google's Environmental Report 2025 Say About Supply Chain?
• What Does Google's Environmental Report 2025 Say About Sustainability?
• What Does Google's Environmental Report 2025 Say About Technology?

Explore the latest edition of Data Centre Magazine  and be part of the conversation at our global conference series, Tech & AI LIVE and Data Centre LIVE. 

Discover all our upcoming events and secure your tickets today.

Data Centre Magazine is a BizClik brand