Helping others go green

Posted by Bill Weihl, Green Energy Czar

Happy Earth Day! I'm sure some of you are wondering how Google is celebrating, and we want to know what you're doing too. We work to make our business more environmentally sustainable throughout the year, but this month, we want to support the hard work you're doing to fight climate change. Last week we blogged about some of Google's new green tools, and now we have even more ways to help you observe Earth Day 2008:

• Today we're launching the largest batch of new Google Transit cities yet. Travelers in San Francisco, Denver, Milwaukee, Kansas City, Rhode Island and other locations across the country can now use Google Maps to plan trips using public transportation.
  

• Google Checkout continues to help you and your friends and family team up and donate to environmental organizations. We have a new video to help you learn how to donate and see how easy it is to map your network of generosity.

• The Google Desktop team has developed a handy little gadget that will help those of you making Earth Day pledges to reduce your energy consumption. Install the Energy Saver gadget to enable and optimize your computer’s power management settings, putting it to sleep when you're not using it.
  
  
• Google SketchUp has created a new site for green design professionals, and Google for Educators has put together some [recommendations] for teachers who want to use Google Earth and Maps to teach about environmental issues in the classroom.
  
  
• Several more Google blogs are celebrating Earth Day as well, so be sure to read about the teacher who has cut his paper use by using Docs and Spreadsheets, advertising best-practices for environmental organizations, eco-trendspotting on YouTube and Google.org's tribute to the green collar economy.

Finally, I'll leave you with some photos of our team's trip to Washington, D.C. for this past Sunday’s Earth Day concert on the National Mall. It got a bit soggy, but we had a blast showing attendees how the Google Checkout donation campaign works. We're especially proud of our booth, which was made of sustainable materials and powered by energy from clean hydrogen fuel cells.