Google's commitment to the environment

I knew Google was green or whatever, but hadn't looked into what that actually means until very recently. Here are some highlights:

1. RechargeIT: Google has been keeping track of how many MPG its fleet of hybrids and electric cars get and publishing the results. One goal is to demonstrate how plug-in hybrids work. Here's an excellent video on just that.
2. Solar Panels: the campus in Mountain View sports a 1.6 megawatt solar panel installation, apparently one of the largest corporate installations in the US (see here).

Links:
Google's green initiatives
Google.org (Google's philanthropic arm)

EDIT: This week, at the National Clean Energy Summit, Google announced its plans to finance research into EDS (Enhanced Geothermal Systems). It's touted as a reliable, consistent, global energy source (as compared to wind, which is intermittent and available in fewer places). Anyway, here's a Dot Earth post on the subject.

Climate Counts

Emilie sent me an email about this website called Climate Counts (yay Emilie!). It's basically a rating service that assesses "how serious companies are about stopping climate change."

Climate Counts use a 0-to-100 point scale and 22 criteria to determine if companies have:

• MEASURED their climate "footprint"
• REDUCED their impact on global warming
• SUPPORTED (or suggest intent to block) progressive climate legislation
• Publicly DISCLOSED their climate actions clearly and comprehensively

Seems cool. They have info for 60 companies at this point. I was confused at first because this seems like a relatively small number--but once you take into account the fact that most of the companies listed are mega-corporations and that therefore lots of well-known products fall under them...it's a pretty decent list. Each company's info page features a list of "representative brands" (for example, Odwalla is owned by Coca-Cola so it's listed there). I also found this interesting list of what media companies own (like General Electric owns Universal Pictures...?). Actually, now that I'm getting on a tangent, if you're interested in corporate issues i've been reading a book called No Logo by Naomi Klein for like, a year (I think I actually left it at home this semester because I really just don't have time to read it). But from what I've read I would recommend the book. Aaaanyway, back to Climate Counts: they have a nice pocket-sized shopping guide, if you're into that.