Google now allows customers to select cloud regions based on CO2 emissions

Region picker option limited to the Cloud Run and Datastream for now, but Google says it will be rolled out to other services in time

Google has updated its region picker application, allowing customers to select cloud regions based on their CO2 emissions in addition to pricing and latency.

So far, the emissions option is only available for the Cloud Run container platform and Datastream stream replication services, but Google says it will be rolled out to others in time.

The move comes after Google noted an increased demand for sustainable options, with tests showing 19 per cent of Cloud Run customers picking a low carbon option when offered.

The region picker features three sliders allowing users to optimise for combinations of carbon footprint, price and latency.

At the time of writing, for a UK customer the lowest carbon offering was the Europe-West-6 region (Zurich) with a grid carbon intensity of 29 gCO2eq/kWh, whereas at US-West-1 (Oregon) the Google Compute Engine price was cheaper by a third, but the grid carbon intensity was 117 gCO2eq/kWh. These values will vary over time according to the prevailing renewables mix.

Workloads most suitable for directing to low-carbon data centres are those in which latency is less important, Google says, such as batch workloads and those that will be running for a long time.

Google claims its cloud services have been carbon neutral since 2007, with the company investing in renewable power and carbon offsets. For now, though, it uses a mixture of renewable and non-renewable sources, but the company says its data centres will run on 100 per cent clean power by 2030.

Carbon emissions from data centres exceed those from aviation and their electricity use is growing at 6 per cent a year, according to think-tank The Shift Project. As concerns grow and regulations tighten, sustainability is moving steadily up the corporate agenda.

See also: Delphix: Sustainable tech is 'definitely something that consumers want, it's not just clever marketing'

In March, Google started publishing emissions data from its data centres around the world, later saying that five of its major global data centres run on 90 per cent renewable power. And in May, the company announced a project to allow compute workloads to follow the availability of renewable power around the globe.

All the major tech giants are making moves to make their data centres more sustainable as the world faces an unprecedented climate emergency. In June, Oracle committed to 100 percent renewables by 2025, and Facebook, Amazon, Microsoft and Apple have all made similar announcements in recent months. European data centre firm REIT CyrusOne claims it is already running on 100 per cent clean power.

Computing will run the Tech Impact Conference this year, exploring the relationship between tech and the climate - including case studies about the road to net zero, how to go green in your data centre and supply chain, and how to make small changes with a big impact. For those who are passionate about the planet - and those who are more wary - there has never been a better time to get involved.