Google is empowering cities with new sustainability resources

By Anna Williams, Solutions & Go-to-Market Lead, Environmental Insights Explorer

Cars driving through a neighborhood, a construction worker installing solar panels, and electric buses.

In order to bring about sustainable transformation, city decision makers need access to robust, high-quality environmental data. As more than half of the world’s population today live in cities, where these areas account for more than 70% of global greenhouse gas emissions, city and regional decision-makers have an important role to play when it comes to progressing decarbonization and climate adaptation efforts for their constituents.

Also, the reality today for many cities is that the data they need is often expensive, time-consuming to procure, and resource intensive. Addressing these challenges helps support cities in data-driven decision making, which can accelerate their progress towards climate commitments and improve the safety and wellbeing of their communities.

Which is why we built our sustainability solution for cities, Environmental Insights Explorer (EIE). The platform is intended to help local governments understand how their regions emit greenhouse gases and areas of opportunity for improving climate resilience, and it is available at no cost to government professionals. EIE also covers over 40,000 cities and regions globally.

Introducing our new Resource Center for cities

To help cities get more from Environmental Insights Explorer, we’re excited to share our new Resource Center, designed to help cities:

• Get the resources they need to understand the full breadth of EIE Insights
• Gain inspiration from other cities on how they accelerate their climate goals using Google’s data
• Deep dive into our data, methodology, and innovations

EIE Resource Center for cities

In our Resource Center, you will find:

• Articles: In-depth blog pieces exploring new or updated EIE Insights
• Case studies: Deep-dives into how cities have used EIE in emissions reduction, adaptation, and monitoring efforts
• eBooks: Guides on how to incorporate EIE in city climate action planning
• Tutorials: Easy-to-follow walkthroughs explaining how to make the most of EIE data
• Videos: Interviews, case studies, and testimonials about EIE’s impact

You can also filter or search by EIE’s supported sectors: Air Quality, Building Emissions, Rooftop Solar Potential, Transportation Emissions, and Tree Canopy.

See it for yourself here.

To celebrate the launch of our Resource Center, we’ve also launched a new guide: An Introduction to Environmental Insights Explorer

Cover image for Google EIE’s Introductory Guide for Cities

Our EIE Intro Guide is the best place to get started with EIE, as it’s intended to provide city sustainability professionals with an overview of the platform, our Environmental Insights, our methodology, and common use cases for cities using EIE to help accelerate progress towards their climate goals. You’ll also learn how EIE supports a city’s entire climate action journey: measuring, planning, tracking, and acting toward reducing the impact of climate change within urban environments.

Check it out here.

Don’t just take it from us, hear from other city professionals:

The insights on private cars are interesting for our city because they can help us show to the public how public transport, and active mobility — like walking or cycling — are so much more efficient compared to using a car, when going from point A to point B in the city. And how public transport is exponentially more sustainable: we can tell people that buses are not the villains, and that a car produces 28 times more GH that a bus, per passenger and km.

— André Soares, Head of Mobility, Belo Horizonte, Brazil

Environmental Insights Explorer’s Tree Canopy data is so exciting as it offers accuracy and ease of availability. EIE Tree Canopy data will now be part of our database to support the city’s sustainability policies, environmental management and planning.

— Maria Telhado & Celia Jeremias, Department of Environment, Energy & Climate Change, Municipality of Lisbon.

Aerial overview of city showing EIE’s Environmental Insights: Air Quality, Building Emissions, Transportation Emissions, Tree Canopy, & Solar Rooftop Potential

Curious for more?

If you’re government-affiliated and you haven’t signed up for EIE’s Insights Workspace, sign up today to explore your city’s annual carbon emissions data, analyze year-over-year mobility trends, evaluate scenarios based on adjusted values, and more. Or, fill out this form to stay informed about EIE’s latest updates.