Google ‘tops the table’ in Greenpeace report for investing in renewable energy

Google is starting 2012 with a green outlook.

The Mountain View, Calif.-based search engine took to its social network platform today to celebrate landing the No. 1 spot on Greenpeace’s Cool IT Leaderboard.

As described in the announcing Google+ post, Greenpeace analyst Gary Cook said “Google tops the table because it’s putting it money where its mouth is by pumping investment into renewable energy.”

Google has a stellar record in going green, and it scored 13 points for Climate Solutions, 17 points for Energy Impact, and 23 points for Political Advocacy in Greanpeace’s report. The organization cited Google’s “clean energy investments” as standing out “among the crowd.”

More information is available below.

Google heavily invests in renewable energy projects centered around geothermal, wind and solar. The technology giant made a substantial $94 million investment into four solar photovoltaic projects established in California at the end of 2011 that brought its total renewable energy investments to more than $915 million. The company also set up a research project that focused on making renewable energy more cost effective than coal. However, the project ended recently.

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According to Google Green’s website, the search engine relies on energy to “power data centers that deliver more than a billion search results each day, mobile phone platforms like Android, Google Apps used by more than 40,000,000 active users, and beneficial tools like Google Maps and Google Earth—not to mention workplaces for more than 28,000 Googlers around the world.”

Google Green also believes in putting “substantial resources” toward the future of renewable energy sources:

We also place big bets—and take calculated risks—on promising new technologies in order to accelerate the development and widespread deployment of renewable energy.

Greenpeace’s Cool IT Leaderboard report is available online for the public.