You have to hand it to Google. They keep coming up with innovative ideas to reduce the consumption of fossil fuels and the harmful emissions that go along with them. Unfortunately some of the efforts that they trumpet as “low carbon”, “green” or “renewable” don’t pass the common sense test.

You may remember that one time Google turned their home page black in order to help people conserve energy. The only problem with the approach was the fact that computer monitors use the same amount of energy to render a pixel regardless of the color. Google even admits that a black page background, “saves no energy.”

Google’s latest energy saving scheme is just as dubious. They have enlisted a herd of goats to handle the mowing of weeds and brush at Google headquarters. Google calls the goat initiative, “a low-carbon approach” to meeting their needs. Is it really a low-carbon approach?

Consider the fact that the goats need to be transported from their home ranch to Google and back. Our guess is that the truck transporting the goats to and fro runs on diesel fuel. How much fuels is used and how many harmful emissions are created will depend greatly on the travel distance between the home of the goats and Google HQ. At best we think it’s fair to say that it would end up being a wash.

Instead of enlisting goats that will also require care and feeding while onsite, Google should consider investing in the Hustler Zeon which is billed as, “The World’s First All-Electric Zero Turn Riding Mower.”

While this initiative appears to contain more noise than signal Google has made some laudable investments into alternative energy via Google.org with their RechargeIT and Power Meter programs.