Google, a huge corporate purchaser of renewable energy, announced Dec. 6 that it will be powered 100 percent by renewable energy by the end of 2017, closing the book on a series of commitments first made in 2007 to transform how the company approaches sustainable business.

Nearly 10 years ago, Google made a commitment to go carbon neutral by the end of 2007. This kicked off a broader sustainability effort within one of the biggest companies in the world that resulted in commitments to purchase more than 2.5 gigawatts of renewable energy and, separately, to invest nearly $2.5 billion in clean energy projects globally.

“The science tells us that tackling climate change is an urgent global priority,” says Urs Hölzle, senior vice president for technical infrastructure at Google. “We believe the private sector, in partnership with policy leaders, must take bold steps and that we can do so in a way that leads to growth and opportunity.”