Google is taking a step in the direction of future sustainability in its heating and cooling utilities, a trend that has become a large factor in today’s society. The growing research and development of sustainable energy is a growing market. According to Fast Company, “The company’s Bay View campus will have the largest ground-source heat pump system installation in North America, using the heat from the surrounding ground to power the building’s climate control–and no fossil fuels.”
This movement is important for the responsibility of big businesses involving their stress on the planet. It is a highly respected move and has a lot of impact on certain customer’s choice to participate with these companies.
There are many positive repercussions for the planet with these decisions to use renewable energy:
Without the heat pumps, the buildings would have been heated with natural gas; the heat pumps eliminate the use of gas completely. (Though the ground temperature hovers around 65 degrees, the buildings can be warmer because the heat pumps concentrate the heat.) In the summer, a standard design would have used cooling towers that rely on piping in huge amounts of water to transfer heat. The heat pumps can provide 95% of the cooling necessary–cooling towers will still be used 5% of the time, on the hottest days of the year–and will save approximately 8 million gallons of potable water every year, critical in a region that’s already prone to drought and likely to become more so as climate change progresses.
The switch to renewable energy for corporations will increase their approval ratings and help build a positive reputation. Companies gain a larger respect by society by showing a caring effort towards showing compassion towards the health of the environment. Google is taking a step into the right direction with this move with geothermal energy.
Leave a Reply