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Google debuts new sustainability tools for consumers and municipalities


Google LLC is rolling out new sustainability features designed to help consumers and municipalities reduce their carbon footprints.

Sundar Pichai, chief executive of Google and its parent company Alphabet Inc., detailed the features during a Tuesday product event in Brussels. He also announced that the company is expanding the availability of Flood Hub, its artificial intelligence-powered flood forecasting service.

Sustainability-focused purchases

The first new sustainability feature Pichai announced is geared toward consumers and will roll out for Google’s flagship search engine. According to the company, the feature will help users who plan to buy an electric vehicle more easily find information about the available shopping options.

When a consumer looks up an electric car, Google can now display information about any tax incentives for which the vehicle qualifies. The search results page also includes information about the vehicle’s battery range. For consumers seeking more granular information, Google has added a tool that makes it possible to specify a driving route and see how many charges would be required to cover it.

The company is also making it easier to find sustainable home cooling and heating options. When consumers look up a term such as “heat pumps” or “air conditioning,” Google can now display sustainable products that are eligible for tax credits. The search results page also highlights local stores where such systems can be bought and provides various related data points.

Greener cities

Google offers a growing lineup of sustainability tools geared towards municipalities. One of those tools, Green Light, uses artificial intelligence to help city planners optimize traffic lights at intersections. The tool can be used to reduce the number of stops that cars have to make at red lights and thereby lower emissions.

At the Brussels event where it detailed the new search features, Google announced that it’s expanding the availability of Green Light. The company is making the software accessible in 12 cities across four continents and plans to add more locations next year. On the occasion of the move, Google disclosed that early data indicates the technology can reduce emissions at intersections by up to 10%.

The search giant also introduced a new AI tool geared toward city planners. Available as part of the Google Earth mapping service, the tool can help architects identify the best way of installing solar panels on new buildings’ roofs. The AI can automatically generate roof design suggestions based on technical and budget parameters imputed by the user.

“Through our products, we want to help people, cities, and other partners collectively reduce 1 gigatonnes of carbon-equivalent emissions annually by 2030,” Pichai said.” That’s equal to the emissions of a major country such as Japan.

Expanded Flood Hub availability

In 2018, Google introduced a service called Flood Hub that uses AI to predict when a river is about to overflow. The company says the service can forecast floods up to a week in advance. Earlier this year, Google made Flood Hub available to more than 460 million users in 80 countries.

The search giant is now rolling out the service in 800 locations throughout the U.S. and Canada. Those regions are home to more than 12 million people who live in proximity to rivers. In conjunction with the move, Google detailed that it’s working with the U.S. Forest Service to enhance the forecasting model the agency uses to track wildfires. 

Photo: Google

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