They claim they have net zero carbon footprint, or carbon neutrality.

In reality what they do is pay "carbon credits" (money) to some random dude that takes the money and does nothing with it. The entire carbon credit economy is bullshit.

Very similar to how putting recyclables in a different color bin doesn't do shit for the environment in practice.

They don't have it. They aimed for it. However:

"Google deletes net-zero pledge from sustainability website"

as noticed by the Canadian National Observer

https://www.nationalobserver.com/2025/09/04/investigations/g...

They know the credits are not a good system. The 1st choice has always been a contract with a green supplier, often helping to build out production. And they have a lot of that, with more each year. But construction is slow, in the mean time they use credits, which are better than nothing.