The club recognizes that every person is a part of the world and has a distinct impact on it. Every decision makes a difference. Everything you do: the clothes you wear, the food you eat, the products and services you use, the sites you visit and the channels you watch; more than just who you elect into office; everything; they all influence and affect politics, society, the environment, etc. That's why it's important that we make our choices wisely and not shortsightedly. Google is a company like no other in the world. It's well known for it's upstanding corporate philosophy and original culture. Google has a unique and innovative approach to everything they do — their services, their office environment, and pretty much everything else. They support free speech, free content, network neutrality, open content, etc. In many respects, Google is also extremely environmentally friendly, which makes them the premier choice for any environmentalist looking for the best, and greenest, online services.
For one thing, Google is partnering with EI solutions to install 1.6 megawatts of solar photovoltaic panels at their Mountain View campus. This project will be one of the, if not the single largest solar installation corporate campus in the world. This will offset 30% percent of Google's peak electricity consumption at those buildings with the equivalent of powering 1,000 average California homes. All of Google's systems are highly efficient; they are custom designed in a fashion that is unlike any computers in the world today, and also don't run on Intel or Windows. Not only is their hardware designed to be highly efficient but the software that runs on them is also very efficient because their operating systems that they run on internally are mostly highly modified versions of linux, an open source operating system. They also take advantage of parallel processing and efficient components from companies like AMD and Sun Microsystems to increase efficiency and reduce the needed system resources.
Google is obviously structured with the future in mind. Their systems are set up with super-efficient DC power supplies and because of that are already at 90% efficiency and increasing instead of 70% like most. They are working to improve upon that even more and want that level of efficiency to reach consumer grade electronics. They are also working on the physical layout of data centers to increase efficiency in that area as well. Google has even been featured on treehugger (the webs most popular environmental blog) many times. Google's co-founders, Sergey Brinn and Larry Page, are investors in nanosolar technology.
Aside from the obvious benefit Google has from being so efficient, Googlers and Google users are also encouraged to be environmental. Google celebrates National Bike Month and Ride Your Bike to Work Week and many Googlers rode their bikes to work instead of driving. Google held a Google Environmental Fair for employees to learn about going green. They've promoted green buildings, clean air, and have even promoted terrapass which is a service that offsets your carbon emissions. For Earth Day of 2006, they teamed up with Scholastic to educate students from tens of thousands of middle schools and 100,000 more teachers about the environment. Google even created a service in partnership with the Earth Day Network to offer people a way to make environmental vacation plans with the popular Google Maps. They also promote using public transportation with transit search which shows you how much money you save (that you would have spent on fuel driving). Last but not least, the Google Foundation, google.org, now lead by Larry Brilliant, will be investing $1,000,000,000 along with one percent of the equity, 1 percent of the profits, and 1 percent of the people of Google to battle the climate crisis and other global issues. If you are an environmentalist looking for the best and greenest online services around, why not see if Google has what you need?
See: Why Google? - EEC