Dive Brief:
- Google released its latest environmental report Tuesday, which found that its overall carbon emissions — which are counted towards its climate targets — increased 18% year-over-year, as its artificial intelligence buildout continues.
- The tech giant said the increased emissions were “primarily driven by increases in supply chain activities that supported the rapid expansion of [its] business." Google estimated in the report that without its decarbonization initiatives, its 2025 carbon footprint “would have been five times larger.”
- Google has set a goal to reach net-zero across operations and value chain by 2030, but the latest report documents a 81% increase in emissions from the 2019 baseline year. “We recognize that our climate impact has been growing alongside the unprecedented growth of AI, and we’re actively working to minimize this impact,” the report said.
Dive Insight:
Google’s net-zero goal includes 2030 targets of halving its scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions, from a 2019 baseline, and running all of its operations and data centers on 24/7 carbon-free energy. The tech company is also aiming to replenish 120% of the water used by its operations and data centers by the end of the decade. The latest report comes after shareholder proposals seeking additional climate and water disclosures on the company’s net-zero plans and AI usage failed at Google’s annual meeting last month, according to securities filings.
Google’s scope 3 emissions — which account for 80% of the company’s emissions — increased 25% in 2025 from the year prior. The tech company said in the report that the jump was “primarily due to technical infrastructure hardware manufacturing and their logistics as well as data center construction.”
While Google’s direct, or scope 1, emissions represent less than 1% of the company’s carbon footprint, these emissions increased 20% in 2025 from the year prior. The company attributed the increases to its “expanding data center portfolio and associated increases in fuel consumption for backup generator utilization.”
“While the path to achieving our climate ambitions will not be linear — given our AI infrastructure buildout is currently accelerating faster than the grid is decarbonizing — we remain focused on scaling abundant and affordable clean power globally and progressing technological innovations that drive down emissions across our operations and the broader industry,” Google Chief Sustainability Officer Kate Brandt said in a Tuesday company blog.
Google reported missing a 2025 goal of using recycled or renewable materials in at least 50% of plastic used for consumer hardware products, as only 48% of the plastic the company used in products it manufactured in 2025 was recycled content. The company said it narrowly missed the goal due to changes in its product mix. The company also fell short of a 2025 goal of diverting all of its food waste from landfills, diverting 84% of all food waste from landfills — it diverted 85% in 2024. The tech company said it faced headwinds including “changes to municipal waste policies and limited access to food waste processing infrastructure, particularly in parts of Asia Pacific.”
Google’s scope 2 emissions decreased 3% last year, while overall electricity use increased 37%., The company said it’s made progress “sourcing more clean energy in key grid regions” like the U.S. and Japan. Google said it signed agreements for more than 12 gigawatts of “net-new” clean energy in 2025 and used an average of approximately 65% of carbon free energy across its operations; the latter figure remained nearly unchanged compared to the 66% of carbon free energy it used in 2024, despite the increased electricity needs.
With regards to its water replenishment goals, Google said it replenished approximately 7.7 billion gallons of water through stewardship projects, accounting for around 78% of its freshwater consumption. The company called scaling its water replenishment portfolio to keep pace with the business’ growth “an increasingly complex task.”
Google’s carbon emissions portfolio it counts towards its goals includes a GHG Protocol-aligned accounting of its scope 1 emissions, its market-based scope 2 emissions and scope 3 emissions. However, Google’s scope 3 reporting excludes certain food purchasing and purchased goods and services for its parent company Alphabet that are “peripheral to [Google’s] core operations or where [Google’s] ability to influence emissions reductions is limited,” according to its methodology.
The tech company’s scope 3 emissions calculations also take into account purchased environmental attribute credits to “cover a portion” of its supply chain electricity emissions and sustainable aviation fuel certificates, which are used to account for a portion of air transportation of its products from logistics providers. The company recently announced a long-term corporate SAF deal with American Airlines, in which Google will receive resulting certificates to help offset employee travel.
Google’s emissions inventory does not currently include any carbon credits application, following a change in methodology in 2023. From 2007-2022, the tech giant had claimed carbon neutrality by purchasing carbon credits to offset any emissions it could not avoid through energy efficiency or renewable energy credits.
However, its 2025 sustainability report noted that it would begin counting carbon removal or superpollutant credits in 2030, and will release methodology prior to its incorporation. The company has contracted the removals of 1.38 million tons of carbon dioxide equivalent of carbon dioxide and over a 1 million tons of carbon dioxide equivalent of superpollutants, according to the report.
