Google deletes net-zero pledge from sustainability website

Posted by voxadam 9/4/2025

Google deletes net-zero pledge from sustainability website(www.nationalobserver.com)

349 points | 176 commentspage 2

neuroelectron 9/4/2025|

I feel like I should delete my gmail account but the way I use it is probably costing them more to maintain it than it's worth.

gmuslera 9/4/2025||

Don't worry, in 100 years whatever remains of human civilization will be net zero.

arm32 9/4/2025|

This is what helps me sleep at night.

stuaxo 9/5/2025||

Bring back "don't be evil".

4ndrewl 9/4/2025||

I mean, if there's one thing we know about Google - give it a few years and they'll ditch that thing they were _so_ into. Products, principles, whatever.

some_random 9/4/2025||

To be somewhat pessimistic, these pledges always struck me as being fairweather, politically motivated, and deliberately gamed. That's not to say that it's meaningless there's definitely some good work being done, it's just that I don't think that work is all that connected to the pledges.

matthewdgreen 9/4/2025||

Pledges are good. They give executives something to point to when they make short-term less-profitable decisions, and insulate them from shareholder lawsuits. Essentially then (and ESG) are a very lightweight opportunity to drive some long-term decision making into what is otherwise a relentlessly selfish and short term process.

And as the expression goes: who knows, perhaps the horse will learn how to sing.

gosub100 9/4/2025|||

Case in point: the work from home policies that have been largely rescinded since COVID.

_mlbt 9/4/2025||

They were primarily motivated by ESG scores…

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environmental,_social,_and_gov...

phendrenad2 9/5/2025||

Now that the pressure has subsided from institutional investors who used ESG as a regulatory capture mechanism, you can go ahead and 0% believe what corporations have on their website, rather than the 25% you could trust it before.

themgt 9/4/2025||

We made a pledge "to prove that a carbon-free future is both possible and achievable fast enough to prevent the most dangerous impacts of climate change", but it turned out generating a short AI slop video uses 110kWh of energy. Anyhow, ...

Simon_O_Rourke 9/4/2025|

[flagged]

tomhow 9/5/2025||

Please don't fulminate on HN.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

goku12 9/4/2025||

I don't think they started that way. Most companies start with lofty idealistic goals that motivate them to reach financial self sustainability. However from that point of time, any company is at risk of being taken over by people whose only motivation is wealth. They crossed that landmark a long time ago.

Not a week goes by without another news of one of their latest transgressions. At this point, news like this isn't a sign of something worsening over there. It's just them carrying on with their mission to subvert each safeguard in the pursuit of that little bit extra profit.