Our contribution to climate protection

Doing no harm to the environment is not enough. Businesses need to be part of the solution. We are therefore pursuing a regenerative business model that makes a positive contribution in tackling our environmental and climate crisis.

Reducing our carbon footprint

Shared office, no air travel, climate-neutral data centres for our search

Double CO2 compensation

Offsetting all CO2 emissions of the search irrespective of the climate protection efforts of our partners

Social innovations for climate protection

Promotion of innovative climate protection solutions with social impact via our Impact Portfolio

Our CO2 balance: climate-positive

We calculate the CO2 emissions along the entire value chain and take a conservative approach:

We calculate a value of 1.45g per search query, although the emissions directly attributable to a search are only 0.2g per search query according to Google’s calculations.
Many of our partners are on a journey to net zero emissions, operate climate-neutral data centers or – as in the case of Deutsche Bahn’s long-distance travel – run their trains on green electricity. We ignore these positive impacts and calculate our CO2 footprint as if these emissions took place on our end.

Based on these rigid assumptions, we calculated total emissions since we started our first beta version in 2019 of 68 tons CO2. These are offset by climate contributions amounting to 72 tons of CO2. The innovative climate actions of our GOOD portfolio such as the solar containers from Africa Green Tec or the mobile solar kiosks in Rwanda, are not included in our analysis. We only count in externally verified contributions which can clearly be assigned to us. This way, we build in multiple buffers which ensure our climate neutrality even if one of the supported climate actions does not perform as planned.

CO2 Balance (PDF)

SIDE NOTE

How CO2-intensive is a GOOD search?

A search query with GOOD requires relatively little energy. The directly attributable emissions are 0.2g. If you also include storage and indexing and apply this to the number of search queries, you can calculate up to 1.45g per search query. In contrast, streaming videos (Netflix, Instagram) or phone calls (Zoom, Teams, FaceTime etc.), for example, consume drastically more energy.

CO2 consumption depends on: Origin of electricity (water / solar/nuclear etc.), internet connection (DSL / fibre optic/mobile: UMTS, 5G etc.), characteristics of car (size, model etc.), origin and rearing of animal, method of production

CLIMATE ACTION

Rainforest conservation in the Amazon

We have offset our emissions since the launch of our beta version in 2019 till the end of 2023 by supporting two rainforest conservation projects in the Amazon basin. It was not an easy decision, as we cannot control all the variables within complex project structures, and the control mechanisms for voluntary CO2 offsets have been repeatedly criticized. The two projects we opted for the time being have been observed by us for a long time and we know the project leaders personally and appreciate their purpose-drivenness. We know the background, the uniqueness and the challenges of both projects well. We will compile more information here shortly. The map on the right shows the outline of Jacundá, the first of the two projects.

The project is certified with the Community Climate and Biodiversity Standard, among others, and – unique in the Amazon – was developed together with smallholder farmer families and not with large landowners who threaten to cut down rainforest if not compensated through carbon finance.