Biking

By choosing the bike icon in Google Maps for any directions search, cyclists in over 200 US cities and 9 Canadian regions can get detailed bike trail and bike lane information to get to their destination. You can find recommended bike routes where streets with bike lanes are prioritized and see bike trails in green with the bike layer in Google Maps.

Walking

Pedestrians can choose the walking icon in Google Maps to get directions by foot. You can use StreetView to preview a route or view the terrain layer within walking directions to avoid hills (or take advantage of them to catch the best view).

Using public transit

Google Maps and Google Transit make it easier for millions of people around the world to take public transport. You can:

• Plan a trip: Available in over 475 cities around the world, Transit integrates route, stop, schedule, and fare information to make trip planning quick and easy.

• Compare the cost of taking public transit versus driving: In some results, you can see a comparison of public transit costs versus driving costs, as in this example.

• Customize your routes and departure and arrival times: You can use this feature (located under “show options” in Google Maps) to minimize walking or limit the number of transfers.

• Know when your bus is late: You can track bus and rail arrival times with live transit updates.

Driving electric vehicles

Have an electric vehicle (EV) or thinking of buying one? Search for electric vehicle charging stations in your area by typing “ev charging station” plus your location (e.g., “ev charging station in San Francisco”) in Google Maps to ensure you have the power you need when you want it.

Getting good driving directions

Good directions save gas and eliminate unnecessary carbon output from driving in circles. You can also save paper by sending directions to your car or GPS system. The Send-to-Car feature is available with more than 20 car brands worldwide, and the Send-to-GPS feature is available with more than 10 GPS brands, including Garmin, Magellan, and TomTom. Or use Google Maps Navigation—the GPS feature included on Android phones—to be automatically routed around real-time traffic.

Google Enterprise Apps

Using our cloud-based business services substantially decreases a wide range of costs—from IT infrastructure setup to management. In fact, our analysis suggests that a typical organization can achieve substantial energy and carbon savings—ranging from 65 to 85%—by migrating to Google Apps. How is the cloud so energy efficient? It’s all about reducing energy use for servers and server cooling. Check out our white paper.

And see how Genentech and JohnsonDiversey have benefited from switching to Google Enterprise products and how JohnsonDiversey won an award for cutting carbon emissions using Google Apps.

Gmail

Using Gmail is more energy efficient than using email hosted on local servers (such as on a server in your office or room). This is because Gmail is hosted in the cloud, which is large, so it can more efficiently distribute resources among many users. If you're interested in more detail, here's the math.

The study linked above demonstrates significant cost and carbon savings for the four million businesses that use Gmail. Switching to Gmail can be as much as 80 times more energy efficient than running email services on local servers. In fact, small businesses with less than 50 people can save up to 172.8 kWh of energy and 101.6 kg of carbon per user per year by using Gmail instead of locally-hosted email.

Video: Intro to Google Earth Outreach

Empowering users to change the world

Google Earth Outreach was founded in 2007 by Rebecca Moore, a computer scientist and software professional at Google who also then went on to lead the development of Google Earth Engine—a platform for mapping and monitoring real-time changes to the Earth’s surface. Earth Outreach began as a result of Rebecca’s personal effort using Google Earth to help stop the logging of 1,000 acres of redwoods near her home in the Santa Cruz Mountains. Using Google Earth, she was able to show the potential impact of logging and rally support. Her community won its fight against the logging company, and Rebecca realized that other organizations could benefit from Google’s mapping and visualization tools.

The Google Earth Outreach team and site are dedicated to teaching nonprofits how to bring causes to life, and measuring impact with Google mapping tools. The site offers a robust set of online tutorials, training materials, case studies about how others have used our tools, and community forums where users can connect with and learn from others worldwide. Eligible nonprofits who need to access advanced features of these mapping tools can apply for software grants of Google Earth Pro, Maps API Premier, and Sketchup Pro.

Driving understanding and action through Google Earth

Organizations use Google tools in ways we never imagined to bring their causes to life. Here are just a few powerful examples with many more found on our Lat Long Blog.

• Illustrating the impacts of climate change: At the 2009 United Nation’s Climate Conference in Copenhagen, Al Gore, Jane Goodall, Kofi Annan, and other global leaders spoke about the impacts of climate change using visualizations in Google Earth.

• Fighting mountaintop removal: Appalachian Voices, an organization fighting mountaintop mining in Appalachia, built My Connection using Google tools to show people across the country how mountaintop removal may be devastating their own communities. In the ten days following the release of the Appalachian Mountaintop Removal layer in Google Earth, more than 13,000 people from every US state and more than 30 countries signed the online petition created by Appalachian Voices.

• Defending the rivers of the Amazon: Narrated by Sigourney Weaver, this presentation animates the potential impacts of the proposed massive Belo Monte Dam Complex. The presentation uses multiple data sources in Google Earth to illustrate the close connection between hydroelectricity, mining, and the spread of malaria-bearing mosquitoes.

Video: Mapping Haiti earthquake response efforts with Google Earth

Helping to speed crisis response and relief

In addition to helping organizations bring causes to life through Google Earth Outreach, we have made critical information more accessible in crisis situations through Google Crisis Response. This includes uploading satellite imagery as quickly as possible to enable responders to assess damage; organizing emergency alerts, news updates, and donation opportunities; and supporting organizations on the ground in using Google mapping tools to speed response and relief efforts. In the video to the left, you’ll see how the International Medical Corps used Google Earth and Google Maps to visualize the Haiti Earthquake and map their response efforts.

Building a global, standardized platform to better understand our planet

Google Earth Engine enables scientists to access and work with satellite data in ways that were not possible before. In the past, they faced difficulties managing the massive scale of satellite imagery archives and lacked the computing power needed to analyze them. With Google Earth Engine, tasks that used to take scientists years only take hours, and some tasks that were previously unthinkable are now possible for the first time. For example, in collaboration with Matt Hansen and CONAFOR, Mexico’s National Forestry Commission, we produced a forest map of Mexico in one day using 15,000 hours of computing spread across 1,000 computers.

Combating deforestation in tropical nations

Google Earth Engine empowers communities to monitor, report, and prevent global deforestation. In the Amazon, we are working with the Surui tribe, who live on a 600,000-acre reserve in the forest. Our relationship with the Surui started with helping them map and share cultural information through Google Earth. When we launched Google Earth Engine, we gave the Surui Android devices so that they could upload critical information about the health of the Amazon forest, monitor suspicious activity, and detect illegal logging. Now, scientists can see a threat to the forest more quickly through Earth Engine’s satellite imagery and alert forest protectors to monitor and report on the situation from the ground.

Partnering to develop Google Earth Engine and track changes in the environment

Partners are critical to building out the Earth Engine platform, uploading data, and driving use. We’ve collaborated with several scientists who are at the cutting edge of forest monitoring, including Greg Asner of the Carnegie Institution for Science and Carlos Souza of Imazon. We’ve also partnered with the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, which has funded some of our partner scientists’ work and made it possible to transfer the US Geological Survey’s historical Landsat data to Google Earth Engine.

Putting the power of the internet into the hands of the world

Google Earth Engine is an example of how we can use the power of technology to bring information and people together to solve global challenges. It brings transparency and powerful data to global efforts like stopping deforestation. As Chief Almir of the Surui tribe says, "Technology plays an important role in building a better future. A future with a conscience."