Google introduces emission reduction tools for nest thermostat
- ByStartupStory | October 7, 2021
Google introduced new features for its Nest smart thermostat that will help users reduce their use of fossil fuels, the tech company’s latest consumer initiative to fight climate change.
The new search feature tells users which flights have the lowest carbon emissions, giving them the flexibility to choose flights based on carbon emissions, just as they would by price or number of stopovers.
A basic flight search gives an estimate of how many kilograms of carbon dioxide the flight will spew out from start to finish. Users can prioritize their search by shows just as they can by price, if they want to. Flights with emissions below the median are marked in green.
Google said the estimates are a combination of data from the European Environment Agency and flight-specific information it obtains from airlines and other suppliers. This data can include the age, model and configuration of an aircraft, the speed and altitude at which it flies, and the distance between the origin and destination of the flight.
Some flights may not have estimates due to a lack of data on certain aircraft or other missing information, Google said. The company added that the estimates do not yet take into account the direction the plane is heading – a potentially important factor whether the flight is in or with the jet stream, whether or not the flight uses biofuels or other alternatives.
Google says a more fuel-efficient aircraft may emit less on a multi-stop trip than an older aircraft on a non-stop route. Aircraft are responsible for a small fraction of the emissions causing climate change – about 2-3% – but their share has grown rapidly and is expected to triple by the middle of the century with global travel growth.
The new emissions tool follows Google’s introduction the previous month of a way for people to find “eco-certified” hotels. Also on Wednesday, Google showed off technology that will help drivers find more fuel-efficient routes on Google Maps and from Google’s Nest Thermostat, upgrades that will help people find power from the grid. like from wind and sun.
The new features are part of a sustainability initiative, Google CEO Sundar Pichai said Wednesday.
“Climate change is no longer a distant threat – it’s getting more local and personal,” Pichai wrote in a blog post. “We need urgent and meaningful solutions to address this pressing challenge,” he added, saying the company is committed to running its data centers and campuses with carbon-free energy by 2030.
Google, owned by Alphabet Inc., is located in Mountain View, California.
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