Anthony Ravitz, Project Coordinator, Real Estate & Workplace Services, Google, Inc., talks about some initiatives undertaken at the company to foster a healthy and productive workspace. In particular, he focuses on the steps Google took in setting up solar power that it believes will last for decades and pay for itself in just seven years.

From measures such as non-toxic carpeting, and eliminating PVC in construction of building materials, Google's green design team has adopted cradle-to-cradle designs that reuse and recycle worn materials. Solar is just one of the solutions that Google is using to help minimize its impact on the environment.

There are a number of tax incentives that diminish the costs of this investment. The setup scales to provide energy at peak times, while generating surplus at non-peak times, which is then sold back to the utility provider at market rates.