Google on Thursday announced [1]that it's increasing its worldwide wind and solar energy portfolio by more than 40 percent to 5,500 megawatts (MW), the equivalent of the capacity of a million solar rooftops. The deal, Google boasted, is the biggest corporate purcahes of renewable energy in history.
Meanwhile, Amazon on Thursday made its own renewable energy announcements[2], promising to reach 100 percent renewable energy by 2030 and to net zero carbon across its business by 2040. The e-commerce giant also announced it's ordering 100,000 fully-electric delivery vehicles and is investing $100 million in reforestation projects around the world. To let customers, employees, investors and anyone else track its progress in reaching these commitments, Amazon also launched a new sustainability website.
The new investments and promises come a day before employees from Google, Amazon and other tech companies stage a walkout for "climate justice." The walkouts are timed to coincide with the Global Climate Strike[3], as well as the UN General Assemby and the UN Climate Action Summit in New York. This weekend also marks the start of the first-ever UN Youth Climate Summit[4].
Tech workers over the past year have shown increasing concern over the outsized impact their employers have on the environment, the economy and society in general. While tech workers have staged protests over other issues -- Google employees, for instance, held a walkout to protest the company's handling of sexual harassment[5] issues -- Friday's events mark the first tech industry walkout over climate issues, according to activist organizers employed by Amazon. It's also the first walkout ever staged