Tech giant Google announced today a series of new features across its consumer product suite, aimed at enabling users to make sustainable choices and address their own climate impact.
The new features include solutions for products including Google Flights, Google Maps, Google Search and Nest. Within Google Flights, users provide carbon emissions information down to the per seat level in flight search results, and help travellers find lower-carbon options. Users will also be provided with sustainability information when looking for hotels.
Google Maps will include features that enable users to choose the most fuel-efficient routes. The company is also introducing updates to Maps’ biking directions and adding bike and scooter share information to help find more sustainable transport options.
Google Search will show authoritative information from sources like the United Nations when users search for information on climate change, and will add features in its shopping tabs to help find sustainable options when searching for energy-intensive products like furnaces, dishwashers or water heaters.
For its Nest thermostats, Google announced the launch of Nest Renew, a new service that enables users to automatically shift electricity usage for heating and cooling to times when energy is cleaner or less expensive. Google is also rolling out Renew Premium, a paid subscription service that will match users’ fossil fuel electricity at home with high-quality renewable energy credits. Google announced partnerships with several major US energy providers, including AES, Consumers Energy, Duke Energy, NRG, Portland General Electric, Southern California Edison and Southern Company, to help roll out and provide insight and feedback on Nest Renew.
Google CEO Sundar Pichai said:
“Companies aren’t the only ones asking what more we can do to help the planet — increasingly people are asking themselves those questions, too. So today we’re sharing several new ways people can use Google’s products to make sustainable choices.”
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