Centralizing systems to support Google's 2030 sustainability goals

Google’s corporate real-estate organization (REWS) is committed to meeting ambitious climate action goals and needed a way to operationalize reporting. Workshop stewarded discovery and design for a centralized reporting system that not only tracks metrics but also supports actionable insights and cross-functional accountability.

As one of the leading tech companies in the world, Google is determined to be at the forefront of sustainable business practices. Google views its internal real-estate organization (REWS) as a key strategy to meet sustainability goals. To track toward goals, REWS needed to develop a centralized system to monitor metrics, improve data reliability, and support collaboration across multiple departments.

Discovery & Research

• Conducted input sessions with REWS teams — food, transportation and facilities — to map current activities and metrics
• Built a full inventory of sustainability activities and recorded how each team was tracking progress

Mapping & Roadmap Design

• Connected operational activities to sub-metrics and 2030 outcomes, surfacing gaps in what teams were tracking

Systems Translation

• Translated subject matter expertise into clear business requirements for vendor software development team
• Helped interpret REWS teams requirements to software engineers building N automated reporting platform

Cross-Functional Alignment

• Structured a cross-functional core team to create a central coordination hub with clear accountability
• Facilitated workshops to build alignment across departments and engage teams in co-design

• Qualitative research: Conducted input sessions with internal stakeholders to understand challenges and opportunities.
• Cross-functional core team: Helped charter and structure a cross-functional core team, creating both a central hub for coordination and the structures for productive team culture.
• Stakeholder workshops: Organized workshops with stakeholder groups to build alignment and engage in co-design.
• Tech strategy: Assisted client partners in evaluating technology pathways and stewarding system integration.
• Rollout and adoption: Supporting launch planning with a change management strategy and internal communications kit.
• Continuous iteration: After launch, we’re committed to refining the system and expanding it to support additional sustainability metrics.

• Established a centralized sustainability reporting framework that created greater consistency, transparency, and confidence across environmental data related to carbon, water, waste, circularity, and biodiversity.
• Moved teams away from fragmented spreadsheets and manual processes toward a more streamlined and accessible reporting system, improving participation and making sustainability data easier to manage, access, and share across teams.
• Enabled leadership to make more informed decisions with greater trust in the underlying data, while creating a clearer cadence for reporting progress toward Google’s 2030 sustainability goals.
• Supported more effective long-term planning by helping teams define annual pathways toward sustainability targets and identify opportunities for course correction and performance improvement over time.