A year ago, Sundar Pichai, Google’s chief executive officer, pledged that his company would spend the next decade eliminating carbon emissions from its offices and data centers. This means that each Google search, Gmail message, and YouTube video will be powered, every hour of the day, only with locally sourced clean energy—an unprecedented accomplishment in the corporate world.

In certain places, Google’s path is clear. At Bay View, its newest Mountain View, Calif., campus, which is set to open next year, the buildings are slathered with solar panels in a design Google calls “Dragonscale.” The company expects to get around 90% of its energy without emitting greenhouse gases. Google has purchased enormous amounts of renewable energy in South America and Europe, including a 92-megawatt deal for a towering offshore wind farm off Belgium’s north coast.