In the spring of 2009, Google hired a local company that brought in some 200 goats for a week to eat (and simultaneously fertilize) the grass surrounding its campus.
The goats were less noisy than traditional lawnmowers, and because they didn’t use gasoline or spew out exhaust, they were thought to be a more “low-carbon approach” to something that needed to be done anyway.
Google claimed it cost about the same as hiring a landscaping company, but were “a lot cuter to watch.”
The Googleplex in Mountain View, California, sprawls across 12 acres, with grass and trees mingled amidst its many buildings.
Many California-based companies take up green initiatives and do what they can to offset humankind’s carbon footprint because there’s always the persistent threat of working in what amounts to a year-round fire season.
So, when a company comes up with a novel way to help combat the changing climate, we may not want to brush it off as a silly extravagance.
Such is the curious case of Google’s goats.
[Source: Slashgear]
