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Happy Earth Day, Earthlings
April 22, 2009
Googlers around the world are celebrating
Earth Day
today by participating in events from green-themed film screenings in Singapore and Hyderabad, to a local food event in Kirkland, WA and Bike to Work Day in London. At our Mountain View campus, we're holding an environmental fair and hosting talks all week long as part of our Green@Google speaker series.
We're also giving employees in most of our offices around the world next-generation, super-efficient
LED
light bulbs to encourage energy efficiency. (LEDs use up to 90% less energy than incandescent bulbs and 50% less energy than a
CFL
.) In the average U.S. home, lighting accounts for about 20% of the electricity bill. If every Googler changes out one incandescent light bulb for one of these LEDs, the combined impact would be the equivalent of taking over 4,000 cars off the road for one year!
Of course, installing efficient light bulbs is just one way to cut down on energy consumption and costs. Just in time for Earth Day, the
Climate Savers Computing Initiative
's
Power Down for the Planet
pledge campaign aimed at colleges and universities wrapped up last week. More than 17,000 students took
the pledge
to support more efficient computing. The
University of Maine at Farmington
won the challenge, beating out 18 other schools with more than 24% of their campus community taking the pledge. You too can help save energy by enabling
power management
on your computer and buying
more efficient computers
.
As you take a moment today to think about how you can make our lovely patch of blue and green a little more healthy, we encourage you to explore a
special gallery
of Google Earth layers we compiled to inspire awareness and appreciation for the Earth's environment. With the power of Google Earth, we have the ability to visualize geo-spatial information and help us better understand the true impact humankind has on the planet. For example, you can visualize the
changes in glaciers over the years
,
rising sea levels
and
climatic change and rising temperature
from the feature KMLs in our Gallery.
Like
others have said
before us, we like to think that every day is Earth Day. But on this 39th anniversary of the official Earth Day, we're showing Mother Earth a little extra love and care, and hope that you'll be doing the same.
Posted by Lacy Caruthers, Green Business and Operations Strategy
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