Google's Internal Company Goals 144
Rockgod writes to mention a Google Blogoscoped article about an internal company paper. The paper details Google's big goals and directions for 2006. From the article: "The list included several items, for example: Google wants to have an improved infrastructure to make their engineers more productive. This includes allowing employees to have a universal search tool "containing all public Google information searched on all Google searches." Google also wants to build 10MW of green power to be on track to be carbon neutral. (They also want to reduce "Borg disk waste" by 50%... hmmm, Borg?)
green power (Score:5, Insightful)
What makes me happiest about seeing Google do this is that they are such a role-model for next-generation businesses. If Google achieves carbon neutrality, even partially, the message it will send to corporations, start-ups, and individuals will be, "You can be environmentally conscious and financially successful; the two are not mutually exclusive." That's an important message that is only beginning to spread.
Carbon Nuetral?...Google really is a good company (Score:3, Insightful)
This isn't that much of a suprise though. When you have such a great product & a motivated team, you tend to attract the best & brightest. The best & brightest usually have the best ideas....
Brad
Heard this one before (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:green power (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:The payoff is PR (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Carbon Nuetral?...Google really is a good compa (Score:5, Insightful)
Environmentally friendly practices are cheaper mid/long term. They're also more reliable if you consider the rate of electricity generating capacity being added in North America.
Re:Products being reduced by 20% (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Heard this one before (Score:2, Insightful)
If Snapon were MS, it would be ONLY Snapon tools, which fit specially in the Snapon drawers which are installed in every mechanic's toolchest. Craftsman and SK tools never really fit correctly when stored in a Snapon drawers.
Re:Don't you read Slashdot? (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:green power (Score:5, Insightful)
I saw a promotional advertisement video on 'green' manufacturing, and while I do not buy into a lot of the whole 'save the world before it is too late' fear, I do believe that the concepts of green manufacturing just plain make sense to some degree.
Maybe being a programmer and being stuck in too many 'dungeons' makes me feel this way, but adding large windows, more greenery(plants) inside offices and plants (where they do not risk safety obviously) just makes employees feel such much better, that they're happier and more productive, aside from reduced heating bills due to solar heat (though, some factories don't have to worry about producing heat, hehe).
On the other hand, I doubt there is a lot of start-ups who could afford to invest their startup money on an expensive building, when that capital needs to be spent on... well, getting their company started. The problem always comes down to money, sure long term, it can save you money, after like 20+ years, but the premium on these places are high and most start-ups will move into pre-existing space. And when you want to start a business, you look at a $1 million building or a $10 million building, you're probably going to go for the $1 million building. Of course, if you become Google and light cigars with $100 bills, then you could probably afford a green building.
Cheers,
Fozzy
Re:Don't you read Slashdot? (Score:2, Insightful)
They didn't "announce" it... (Score:3, Insightful)
If you think that someone is posting "internal" goals on the Internet without at least the tacit approval of the company, you're drinking Google's cool-aid. On top of that, you don't get as much bang for your buck if you announce in 2006 "We're going to strive for carbon neutrality sometime in the next couple of years" as you do announcing in 2007 "This year, Google met an 'internal' goal of becoming carbon neural."
I'm not saying that there isn't some portion of this that's genuinely driven by the desire to be a "good corporate citizen." Certainly it is possible, especailly for a company, to have multiple motives in pursuing this sort of goal. I'd even go so far as to suggest it's more likely that this sort of thing is done for many reasons instead of merely one.
As mentioned before, they have a good product. But their provision of an adequate search tool (for profit) hasn't completely eliminated my interest in rationally assessing their motives.
Re:green power (Score:1, Insightful)
Everybody is partially carbon neutral.
You are full of shit (Score:5, Insightful)
-B
Re:I work at google (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Heard this one before (Score:2, Insightful)