Google has ramped up efforts to curb its environmental impacts, with fresh promises yesterday to increase its use of recycled plastics and slash emissions from product shipments.
In a pair of pledges outlined by Google’s sustainability chief Anna Meegan, the tech giant promised that by 2022 all ‘Made By Google’ products will contain recycled plastic, and that by 2020 all product shipments will be ‘carbon neutral’.
The plastics pledge will see Google’s design team work to incorporate more recycled plastic into products such as the Google Pixel phone, Google Home speaker, and Nest devices.
The company is already using recycled plastic in its Chromecast streaming devices, the firm told Fast Company, while a new mystery product set for launch later this year will reuse a third of a plastic bottle per item.
However, the tech giant did not set a target to reach a certain proportion of recycled plastic, saying only it seeks to “maximise” its inclusion in products.
The announcement came as the company also promised to make its product shipments 100 per cent ‘carbon neutral’ by 2020.
Speaking to Fast Company, Meegan said the firm could reduce emissions by 40 per cent by switching from air shipments to cargo. “We definitely want to get to the underlying problems before paying for an offset,” she said.
In a blog post, Meegan added that Google is “designing in sustainability from the start and embedding it into the entire product development process and across our operations”.
Google’s sustainability pledges follow similar commitments made by its tech competitors. Apple has designed a robot that disassembles old iPhones, enabling components, such as cobalt and copper, to be used in new products. Earlier this year, Samsung pledged to use more “eco-friendly materials” in its product range. Meanwhile, Amazon recently launched a major new programme to cut emissions from its global logistics and delivery operations, pledging to halve the carbon impact of its shipments by 2030.
[“source=businessgreen”]