Google had a blog post on its carbon offsets as part of their carbon neutral commitment.
Carbon offsets at Google
12/17/2009 06:38:00 PM
As leaders from around the world meet in Copenhagen to address global climate change this month, we thought it was a good time to reflect on our own carbon footprint. In 2007, we committed to become a carbon neutral company. We know that it isn't possible to write a check and eliminate the environmental impact of our operations. So what does “carbon neutrality” mean to us?
The 2nd paragraph after this introduction discusses Google’s data center work.
First, we aggressively pursue reductions in our energy consumption through energy efficiency, innovative infrastructure design and operations and on-site renewable energy. Our Google designed data centers use half the energy of typical facilities.
With Google’s resources it was interesting to see they have the same problem we all have in what are the right carbon offsets to buy?
Here at Google, we have set a very high bar to ensure that our investment makes an actual difference in reducing greenhouse gas emissions by purchasing offsets that are real, verifiable, permanent and additional.
Based on Google’s research, they have a primary focus on methane gas.
To date, we have selected high quality carbon offsets from around the world that reduce greenhouse gas emissions — ranging from landfill gas projects in Caldwell County, NC, and Steuben County, NY, to animal-waste management systems in Mexico and Brazil. Our funding helps make it possible for equipment to be installed that captures and destroys the methane gas produced as the waste decomposes. Methane, the primary component in natural gas, is a significant contributor to global warming. We chose to focus on landfill and agricultural methane reduction projects because methane's impact on warming is very well understood, it's easy to measure how much methane is captured and the capture wouldn't happen without our financing (for the projects we're investing in, they couldn't make enough money selling the gas).
One area I want to investigate further is Google'.org’s carbon offset projects.
We need fundamental changes to global energy and transportation infrastructure to stabilize greenhouse gas emissions over the long term. In the meantime, the projects to which we contribute offer measurable emissions reductions and allow us to take responsibility for our carbon footprint. To that end, we're always looking for good emissions-reduction projects to support. If you have a landfill gas or agricultural methane carbon offset project you think we should consider, please visit this page for more information about how to participate in our latest carbon-offset procurement round.
The submittal page states Jan 6, 2010 is the deadline for submittals.
Request for Proposals
Carbon Offsets
In order to participate in Google's Carbon Offset procurement round, please submit the following web form by 12:00pm PST on January 6, 2010. After we receive your information, we will send a link to our standard Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA). Once we have your signed NDA, you will receive our Request for Proposal (RFP) document. NDA acceptance along with any questions related to the RFP are due by 12:00pm PST on January 13, 2010. All responses to the RFP are due by 12:00pm PST on February 1, 2010.