Helping Google create pathways for climate action on a global scale

Workshop collaborated with Google’s Real Estate and Workplaces (REWS) team to craft global sustainability standards, ensuring clear guidelines, baseline requirements and performance reporting. The new standards clarify action for teams around the world and help Google stay on track for ambitious goals.

• Operationalized high-level sustainability goals for day-to-day implementation
• Established a reliable global-scale system that is maintained and updated on a regular product cycle
• Sparked internal engagement, advocacy and support to integrate sustainability practices
• ‍Empowered teams around the world, eager to contribute and now with a pathway to do that with clarity and confidence

Google’s real estate division (REWS) has ambitious sustainability targets, but they needed systems in place to support a coordinated effort across their global portfolio. Workshop was engaged to guide the REWS team through development of global standards to activate Google’s sustainability targets.

• Discovery phase: We reviewed best practices across multiple industries to learn from other global standards and identify potential pitfalls. We also conducted stakeholder interviews and facilitated focus groups across REWS to understand the problem in greater detail.
• Co-design phase: We formed dedicated working groups with stakeholders and end users to map out standards, solutions, and resources. This helped ensure efficacy for the solution, while building advocates along the way.
• Validation phase: We returned to the larger pool of initial focus groups to share early prototypes of the new standards and solicit detailed feedback for improvement before launch
• Launch phase: We treated the standards like a product with distinct launch phases including release, evaluation, and iteration. We helped our client partners conduct a roadshow to promote the new standards After initial release, we continued to support the REWS Sustainability team to track and tune the new system for the first year.

• Created a clear and consistent set of sustainability standards across Google’s global real estate portfolio, providing project teams with greater clarity around environmental expectations for new builds, renovations, and existing spaces.
• Enabled teams to align sustainability efforts across regions, project types, and impact areas including carbon, water, waste, and ecology, creating a more coordinated approach to achieving Google’s broader climate objectives.
• Improved visibility into portfolio-wide performance, helping teams better understand how projects were performing against sustainability benchmarks and where additional support or intervention was needed.
• Established a stronger foundation for long-term accountability and progress tracking by connecting project-level standards and reporting to Google’s larger 2030 sustainability goals.