Introduction Empowering individuals Working together Operating sustainably Governance and engagement Appendix 2023 Environmental Repo爀琀 The journey ahead At Google, we believe that realizing a sustainable world The challenge is large, but so is our ambition. We seek means that we must accelerate the transition to a circular to enable others to embrace circularity, which is why we economy where people, the planet, and businesses thrive. share knowledge and insight through research, product This is a large and complex global challenge, but we’ve examples, and case studies with our pa爀琀ners, customers, always viewed a challenge as an oppo爀琀unity to be helpful and billions of users around the world. Examples include: and make things be琀琀er for everyone. • Closing the plastics circularity gap While we’re excited about our journey to a circular • Understanding barriers to electronics recycling economy, we recognize that we’ll face many challenges along the way. For example: • Accelerating commercial deconstruction and reuse • Recovering and dive爀琀ing resources from land昀椀lls Our goal with this work is to accelerate progress towards requires robust collection and recycling infrastructure a fully sustainable technology industry and real estate around the world, beyond what exists today. footprint operating on clean, e昀케ciently used energy and A Googler swaps out a motherboard at our data center in The Dalles, Oregon. When server pa爀琀s break, • The lack of 昀椀nancially healthy end markets and local made with safe and circular materials. reuse infrastructure for salvaged resources o昀琀en we 昀椀rst try to repair them. If we can’t, we break them up into raw materials and recycle the components. prevents or prohibits materials from making their way LEARN MORE back into the economy. • How Google is suppo爀琀ing the circular economy Enabling others • The circular economy requires be琀琀er data to enable markets to identify, manage, and value available • A new accelerator for circular economy sta爀琀ups resources. More and higher-quality data is needed to and nonpro昀椀ts The circular economy requires everyone to pa爀琀icipate to using AI technology for waste identi昀椀cation. Our goal inform capital investments, infrastructure priorities, • Restricted substances speci昀椀cation with CircularNet is to develop a robust and data-e昀케cient to reach its fullest potential. That’s why we’re focused on business plans, policies, and other interventions. model for waste/recyclables detection, which can suppo爀琀 sharing insights about our e昀昀o爀琀s so others can adopt • Accelerating the switch from using single-use plastics the way anyone in the waste management ecosystem can them, and why we invest in creating technologies that to more reusable solutions requires additional identify, so爀琀, manage, and recycle materials. enable everyone to have an impact. innovation with the potential to scale across large real estate po爀琀folios. We also suppo爀琀 our pa爀琀ners to help discover, accelerate, For example, in 2022, we introduced product features and scale ecosystem solutions that can bene昀椀t everyone • We’re exploring the connection between low-GHG that help people and businesses recycle clothing and tackling waste and reuse challenges. In 2022 and early construction materials and the circular economy, other goods, and that help hardware customers keep 2023, we worked to jumpsta爀琀 pa爀琀ner innovation by recognizing that recycled materials o昀琀en have lower their products in use longer. We’re also helping to improve  133 launching multiple accelerators focused on circular carbon footprints than virgin resources. recycling through accurate measurement and data-led economy solutions. Additional details can be found in the insights using machine learning. In 2022, we shared details Working together and Empowering individuals sections. about CircularNet, a set of models that lowers barriers 66