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For more than 20 years, Google has improved our lives and along the way has become one of the most powerful tech giants in the world. (At the time of writing this, Alphabet, its parent company, owns over 200 companies across various sectors and industries.)
Now, Google is launching a new type of sustainable and social bonds (a staggering ten billion dollars) that will be used to fund new and existing projects that are socially and environmentally sustainable, and that address critical issues in areas such as energy efficiency, clean energy, efficient buildings, green transportation, circular economy and design, affordable housing, racial equity, and support for SMEs as a response to COVID-19.
Looking at the areas of focus, we can clearly see the differentiation between the sustainable bonds ($5.75 billion) and the social bonds ($4.25 billion). The former would directly benefit the giant, which in 2018 consumed 11 million MWh, equivalent to 83% of the electricity consumed by all of Madrid in the same period.
Two points pleasantly surprise us: sustainable housing and the area of 'circular economy and design,' where their commitment seems to focus on recycling and the reuse of recycled materials, but is also consistent with the needs of Alphabet as a business group, due to companies involved in manufacturing, as announced in their 2019 report. Regarding sustainable housing, we understand that they are joining other giants like Salesforce and its CEO Mark Benioff, who are launching projects to combat the social problems caused by the gentrification of large companies in cities like San Francisco, which led Mark Zuckerberg (CEO of Facebook) to make his famous statement, 'I wouldn’t create Facebook in San Francisco today.' In this regard, Google is including activities such as rezoning land that it owns today, with the goal of building affordable housing and creating investment funds for accessible residential developments.
Ruth Porat, the group’s CFO, added in a statement: 'Although several companies have issued green bonds (exclusively aimed at environmental uses), sustainability bonds differ in that their proceeds support investment in both environmental and social initiatives.' [...] 'We are pleased that there is such strong demand for these bonds, as they were significantly oversubscribed.'
Now we will have to wait until the company announces the results of its sustainability bonds.
Omar Sequera
Technology Consultant specialized in energy
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