Google Spends More Than Government…on the Environment
Have you ever entered the URL google.org by accident? Me neither. But it does exist, in fact, it is a very noble site. In 2004, the shareholders of Google made a commitment to make a difference in the world the best way they knew how: by spending lots of money. So, they planned dedicate 1% of Google’s equity and profits (yes, that’s a lot) to try and save the environment and perform other charitable causes. Which brings me to my next fact: as of last month, Google.org has committed over $75 million in grants, planning to invest hundreds of millions of dollars and yes, that is a lot more than what the government has planned.
One of Google.org’s first projects was to develop a hybrid electric vehicle that would be capable of driving 100 miles per gallon. That is a lot more than I can say about how most cars perform these days. They have funded to research and produce a viable renewable energy from wind and solar sources, which they hope will be cheaper than the energy produced from coal. This would also help decrease any carbon footprint that energy sources like coal produce.
Google.org has four other initiatives that they are working and researching for. They want to make plug-in, hybrid and electric vehicles more widely used. The reasoning goes the same about the carbon footprint and to help reduce as much pollution as possible. They also have an initiative called, “Predict and Prevent” which in a nutshell, looks to use all their resources to educate communities from emerging threats and infectious diseases.
Inform and Empower goes along the lines of their previous initiative, but this is to help improve public services within third world countries. Like most companies that do community service, Google.org goes above and beyond with how they began this initiative. They wanted to focus on education, health and water and sanitation services in East Africa and India. Most companies just go to their local beach and do a beach cleanup.
The last initiative works to help Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs) grow. With Google being as big as they are, it would seem strange for them to actually try and help the little guy. But the way they see it (in a philanthropic standpoint), if they help SMEs, it will give more jobs to more people and help reduce poverty. This makes a lot of sense and since Google is at the top, and will be for quite some time, it is nice to see that they have this perspective.
This just shows you how, despite their best interests, the government is still not doing what they should be doing to help protect our country and environment. Google on the other hand, is going out of their way to help make advances in our already globally fragile world. We are at a point in time where action must be taken to protect our environment, and Google has taken the first step, if not, leaps and bounds.
