Better Health for All

A lawsuit alleges that Verily, an Alphabet subsidiary, covered up 14 separate HIPAA breaches affecting more than 25,000 patients between 2017 and 2021, and concealed these breaches during contract negotiations.

This indicates serious health data protection failures and a lack of transparency regarding health risks. Additionally, Google's total greenhouse gas emissions increased 1,515% between 2010 and 2024, and its water withdrawal increased 27% between 2023 and 2024, reaching 11 billion gallons, representing major negative health externalities. Conversely, Alphabet's core products and services demonstrate significant positive health impacts. Google Search and YouTube expanded information for crisis hotlines to dozens of countries and languages, and offer clinically validated self-assessments for depression and anxiety in Japan, Mexico, and India. Fitbit and Pixel devices provide stress management features. Google.org provided over $10 million over five years to mental health nonprofits and committed $20 million to digital wellbeing for kids and teens. The company also partnered with the WHO, awarding over $320 million in donated Search advertising to enhance global healthcare information accessibility and expand health-related Knowledge Panels. Initiatives like the Health Equity Research Initiative target various marginalized communities, and the Open Health Stack aims to support digital health solutions in under-resourced areas.

Fair Money & Economic Opportunity

No specific, quantifiable data points were found in the provided articles that could be mapped to the quantitative thresholds of any KPI in the 'Fair Money & Economic Opportunity' rubric. While Alphabet Inc. engages in initiatives related to economic opportunity, such as providing microloans through Google.org

, facilitating credit access via Google Pay partnerships , and offering financial literacy programs , the articles do not provide the necessary percentages of total customers, loan book shares, APRs, revenue from high-cost products, or other specific metrics required by the rubric's scoring tiers. Therefore, all KPIs have been omitted.

Fair Pay & Worker Respect

Google settled a $50 million class-action lawsuit in May 2025 alleging systemic racial bias

and a $28 million class-action lawsuit in March 2025 for racial favoritism, affecting over 6,600 employees. In January 2024, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) ruled that Google must bargain with YouTube Music workers who had unionized. Google and Modis were forced to publicly declare wrongdoing for the unlawful termination of a worker for discussing wages. Additionally, Google contractors fired for speaking out about working conditions were reinstated after the Alphabet Workers Union (AWU) filed Unfair Labor Practice charges.

Fair Trade & Ethical Sourcing

No specific, quantifiable, company-wide data was found in the provided articles for the defined KPIs related to Fair Trade & Ethical Sourcing. While Alphabet Inc. has policies and initiatives regarding conflict minerals, such as 99% of identified smelters being compliant with the Responsible Minerals Assurance Process (RMAP) in 2023, this does not translate into a percentage of tier-1 spend covered by fair-trade certifications.

Information regarding supplier assessments and ethical clauses for 'international vehicle-related suppliers' pertains to a subsidiary (Alphabet International GmbH) and is not representative of the entire company's diverse supply chain. There is no specific data on audit frequency, forced or child labor incidents, traceability coverage for the overall supply chain, remediation speed, or supplier diversity spend.

Honest & Fair Business

Alphabet Inc. incurred over $3 billion in ethics-related regulatory fines in the past three years, including a $3.0 billion payment in Q3 2024 for a European Commission Shopping fine

and a $12.4 million fine imposed by Indonesia's antitrust agency in January 2025 for abusing its market position. The company has a comprehensive Code of Conduct, updated January 17, 2024, which applies to all employees, board members, and the extended workforce. It includes a Helpline for reporting concerns, permits anonymous reporting, and explicitly prohibits retaliation against whistle-blowers. Misconduct concerns about senior executives can be reported to the Audit Committee. Alphabet has not indicated any financial restatements in its 2024 and 2025 10-K filings. Its anti-corruption policy, detailed in the Code of Conduct, strictly prohibits bribery in all commercial settings and requires pre-approval for moderate expenditures on gifts and business entertainment for government officials. The company also states compliance with anti-corruption laws such as the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. However, there is no evidence regarding the frequency of training or effectiveness metrics for this policy.

Kind to Animals

Alphabet created 20 acres of new habitat on its California campuses between 2021 and 2023, which resulted in a tenfold increase in monarch caterpillars.

The company also restored over 15 acres of native habitats on its Bay Area campuses to support local wildlife. Additionally, Alphabet developed AI tools, SpeciesNet and Wildlife Insights, to identify animal species from camera trap photos and monitor wildlife populations, aiding in the protection of endangered species.

No War, No Weapons

Google revised its AI principles in February 2026, removing its previous commitment not to pursue AI technologies that "cause or are likely to cause overall harm," including weapons and surveillance that violates "internationally accepted norms."

This policy change effectively eliminated a codified ethical red line against weapons and surveillance, allowing for potential military applications of AI. The company continues to be involved in military contracts, including the $1.2 billion Project Nimbus with the Israeli government and military for AI-based facial recognition and object tracking systems, and the $9 billion Joint Warfighting Cloud Capability contract with the Pentagon. , This involvement, coupled with the policy rollback, indicates opaque involvement in military surveillance and a lack of demonstrated zero exposure to weapons-related technologies. The shift in AI principles also suggests that dual-use R&D is no longer strictly vetted for civilian-first applications. Employee protests against Project Nimbus in April 2024 led to the termination of 28 employees, highlighting internal concerns about the use of AI technology for warfare.

Planet-Friendly Business

Alphabet's total Scope 1, 2, and 3 greenhouse gas emissions were 23,409,300 tCO2e in 2024, an increase of 16.31% compared to 2023.

The company has matched 100% of its global electricity use with renewable energy purchases since 2017. In 2024, 84% of operational waste was diverted from disposal across global Google-owned and -operated data centers. At least 20% of the material in new products launched and manufactured in 2024 was recycled content. Alphabet aims to reach net-zero emissions across its operations and value chain by 2030, with a goal to reduce 50% of its combined Scope 1, 2, and 3 absolute emissions from a 2019 baseline by 2030.

Respect for Cultures & Communities

Alphabet's YouTube platform has rolled back elements of its hate speech policy

and is linked to over 200 allegations of gender-based harm, including fueling gendered hate speech. Google has engaged in at least three formal partnerships: collaborating with the University of Western Australia on speech technology for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander languages , developing an 'Indigenous-owned' attribute with the National Congress of American Indians and Google Aboriginal and Indigenous Network , and launching the Indigenous Americas hub with over 40 cultural institutions. Google.org donated over $6 million to organizations supporting Indigenous communities in education, digital equity, and economic development. The UNESCO report highlights the risk of cultural appropriation by major technology firms, particularly when AI systems draw on material from indigenous or marginalized communities without consent , and notes the underperformance of multilingual large language models in low-resource languages. Shareholder proposals in 2024 called for third-party evaluation reports and impact assessments related to AI, including for Alphabet, focusing on human rights and cultural impacts.

Safe & Smart Tech

Alphabet settled a privacy lawsuit in April 2024 for illegally tracking over 136 million U.S. users via Chrome's 'Incognito' mode, requiring the purging of billions of files of personal data and enhanced privacy disclosures.

The EU initiated an investigation in September 2024 into Google’s compliance with EU privacy laws during the development of its AI model PaLM 2, further highlighting regulatory compliance concerns. In February 2025, Alphabet rewrote its AI principles, removing a pledge not to use AI for weapons or surveillance and no longer mentioning not pursuing technologies likely to cause overall harm, which represents a significant weakening of its AI ethics governance and digital rights advocacy. Employees reported in April 2023 that the rush to release AI products like Bard led to ethical lapses and insufficient safety checks. In February 2024, Google acknowledged its AI image-generator sometimes 'overcompensated' for diversity, producing historically inaccurate images, and temporarily removed the feature, demonstrating a standard approach to algorithmic harm remediation but also issues with AI audit practices.

Zero Waste & Sustainable Products

Alphabet achieved 100% plastic-free packaging for all new hardware products (Pixel, Fitbit, Nest devices) launched and manufactured in 2024, ahead of its 2025 target.

This represents a 100% reduction in single-use plastic for packaging from a 6% plastic baseline in 2020. In 2024, 84% of operational waste was diverted from disposal across global Google-owned and -operated data centers , and 85% of food waste was diverted from landfill, with food waste per Googler reduced by 39% compared to 2019. The company has a zero waste-to-landfill policy in its data centers, with 29% of campuses meeting this goal in 2023. Google aims to use at least 50% recycled or renewable plastic in its consumer hardware by 2025. In 2024, at least 20% of the material in new products was recycled content , and 40% of plastic used in products was recycled content. The company also reuses components, with 8.8 million harvested from decommissioned hardware in 2024 , and 44% of components for server builds from reused inventory. Pixel 8 and later phones receive seven years of software support , Nest devices five years , and Chromebooks ten years. Google partnered with iFixit in 2022 to provide Pixel spare parts and documentation. However, the Pixel 9 received a provisional iFixit repairability score of 5/10. Alphabet International includes clauses in agreements requiring vehicle-related service suppliers to use resources efficiently and minimize environmental impact , and 100% of international vehicle-related suppliers were assessed against sustainability criteria in 2024.