Google says it is embarking on new plans to make its hardware greener. Anna Meegan, head of sustainability for consumer hardware at Google, wrote a blog post outlining the company’s goals for improving the environmental impact made by its devices.
Google’s sustainability commitments include making 100% of shipments to or from customers carbon neutral by 2020 and including recycled materials in 100% of Made by Google products starting in 2022.
The industry giant also wants to maximize the amount of recycled content wherever possible. The final commitment is a more-general statement that Google “will make technology that puts people first and expands access to the benefits of technology.”
The statement about recycled materials is a positive one, although its language is vague. Using recycled plastic in a smartphone doesn’t necessarily make a huge difference when there’s so little plastic in the device to start with. A broad promise about making an effort “wherever possible” can cover a whole range of outcomes. The specific wording about the carbon neutrality of Google’s shipments makes for a clearer metric of how successful the company is in meeting its goal.
More and more consumer technology companies have begun sharing updates about the importance of sustainable practices, although plenty talk the talk without walking the walk. Google has been pretty transparent about several different areas of its vast business. It releases reports on its individual hardware products outlining information about greenhouse gas emissions, energy efficiency, and materials used. It also boasts that it purchased enough renewable energy to match 100% of its global consumption for operations in 2017.
For years, Google has been making efforts in corporate responsibility beyond environmental impact. It releases annual statements about combatting modern slavery and avoiding conflict minerals.
Just about every major tech company shares some of its vision for curbing negative impact on the globe. Apple, Samsung, Amazon, and more have online hubs outlining efforts for running more environmentally friendly data centers, protecting human rights in the supply chain, and the like. Some are more aggressive in this arena than others. For instance, Amazon talks up sustainable packaging, but most deliveries still come with lots of plastic wrapping. And Apple has one of the boldest visions for a closed-loop supply chain. But when its smartphones are also a closed loop, they usually have to be replaced rather than repaired if something breaks.
Sustainability efforts in tech are completely self-guided. In most cases, companies have no requirement to share their progress and no accountability other than to potential customer outrage. Businesses don’t have to provide context for whether their goals are attainable or meaningful, and they can be as transparent or opaque as they choose in sharing their data. And no matter how much recycled material or carbon offsets go into a smartphone, the device can still wind up in a landfill just a year or two after purchase.
