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What Google’s latest environmental reports tell us about sustainability of Pixel phones.
Written by Sneha Kashyap, Content and PR Executive | Conscious Consumption and Tech Trends
Last updated on 12 December 2025
As Google releases the latest Pixel environmental reports, we take a look at its environmental updates till date to decipher what steps the tech giant is taking to improve Google Pixel sustainability, and what the total predicted greenhouse gas emissions are over the lifetime of each Pixel phone.
Apple’s timely release of its product environmental reports is to be commended. While it isn’t always the first tech giant to dial down iPhone carbon emissions, Apple is taking steps when it comes to supply chain, facility management, and most importantly, transparency. On the other hand, Samsung and other phone manufacturers provide very little data about the environmental cost of creating and using their smartphones.
Google, likewise, should be held to a high standard. As a tech giant that positions itself as socially and environmentally conscious, the environmental performance of its entire Pixel range should be scrutinised.
Note: This article is regularly updated with every new Google Pixel release.
Due to CO2 data of the first generation Pixel still pending, we have included product specific data starting from Pixel 2 to Pixel 10 in our featured graph. The graph shows the CO2 data available for all the Pixel phones from 2017 to 2023.
Hitting the market in August 2025, the Pixel 10 and Pixel 10 Pro XL push Google’s hardware into new territory, but sustainability is once again mixed.
With both phones featuring the energy-efficient Tensor G5 chip and increased use of recycled materials, the Pixel 10 series could likely be the most carbon-intensive Pixel phone with the Pixel 10 Pro Fold having the highest ever carbon footprint at 123 kg! Other models in the range also have some of the highest ever carbon missions between 82-89 kg.
While Google has introduced recycled rare earth elements in its magnets - a small but meaningful advancement - sustainability in the Pixel 10 era seems more focused on innovation than emissions reduction. Until repairability and total lifecycle impact improve, these models carry forward the same concerns seen in previous generations.
The Pixel 9 lineup highlights Google’s continued focus on sustainability, using recycled materials like 100% recycled aluminium, plastic, and rare earth elements, alongside plastic-free, fiber-based packaging. Repairability has improved too, with easier access to parts through iFixit, supporting a longer device lifespan and reduced e-waste. However, the most telling indicator of environmental impact is carbon emissions — and here, the data is mixed.
According to Google’s environmental reports, the Pixel 9 has a life-cycle carbon footprint of 64 kg CO₂e, while the Pixel 9a, the most efficient in the series, comes in at 56 kg CO₂e. The Pixel 9 Pro and Pixel 9 Pro XL step up to 72 kg and 73 kg, respectively. At the top of the range, the Pixel 9 Pro Fold registers a substantial 100 kg CO₂e, reflecting the environmental cost of its foldable complexity and materials. These figures underscore the reality that while Google has made strides in material choices and repairability, manufacturing remains the biggest driver of emissions.
In 2023, Google entered the foldable smartphone market with its first foldable device, delivering strong hardware. The story changes regarding environmental impact: the Pixel Fold has one of the highest carbon footprints among made-by-Google smartphones, second only to the Pixel 10 Pro Fold at 91kg of CO2-e. It is also Google's heaviest smartphone, and only 17% of its materials are recycled. Unlike the Pixel 8 and 8 Pro flagships, the Fold does not use recycled tin in the solder of its circuit or logic boards, representing a step back compared to those models.
The Pixel Fold has obtained UL 110 certification and is made without restricted substances such as lead and mercury. The environmental impact of producing the Pixel Fold is 76.44kg of CO2-e (84% of lifetime carbon footprint), which is similar to the rest of devices in Google portfolio.
Packaged in 100% plastic-free boxes, the Pixel 8 duo is reportedly the first flagship model in five years to have the lowest lifetime CO2 emissions. Like the Pixel 8 series, they have received (registered in the US only), but have lost the Gold rating. Google reduced the Pixel 8's lifetime carbon emissions to 68kg of CO2-e (compared to 70kg for the Pixel 7), and the Pixel 8 Pro's emissions throughout three years of use is 79kg CO2-e (6kg lower than the Pixel 7 Pro).
Google has made progress in reducing the proportion of emissions tied to manufacturing, with both Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro attributing 81% of their total carbon footprint to this phase. However, emissions from transportation and customer use have seen slight increases, accounting for 4% and 14% of the devices' lifetime footprint, respectively.
On the materials front, the Pixel 8 series builds on previous sustainability efforts by using 100% recycled aluminum in the housing and introducing 100% recycled tin in the solder of both the printed circuit boards and the main logic board. Despite these gains, the environmental report omits any mention of repairability, and iFixit’s verdict is still pending. Based on past models, it’s likely the Pixel 8 devices continue to feature glued-in batteries and displays that remain difficult to replace.
Image: Google
his genereation of the budget Pixel phone produces 6kg of CO2-e less over its 3 years life than the Pixel 6a - Google reported that the carbon footprint of the Pixel 7a is at 59kg of CO2-e. Google has added the use of recycled plastics with 67% of recycled material used to make the back cover. Less plastic is used in the packaging where 99% of materials are plastic-free. Recycled aluminium makes up 15% of the weight of the Pixel 7a which is slightly more than what Pixel 6a contains.
We were expecting to see a significant reduction in the proportion of carbon generated by the use given the modifications Google's Tensor chips have had, but no, it's still at steady 15%. Once again, Google's A lineup of phones is the most environmentally friendly and consistently reports much lower carbon footprint than that of Pixel flagships.
The 2022 flagships were first to receive a Gold UL 110 certification (US) for mobile phones which assesses materials and energy use, manufacturing and most importantly extension of useful life (repairability) and end of life (recycling) management.
We expected the Pixel 7 lineup to cross the 90kg of CO2-e mark once again, but Google delivered a Pixel 7 with 70kg of lifetime CO2-e which is 25kg less than the 2021 model and the Pixel 7 Pro has seen a reduction of 10kg of CO2-e compared to the Pixel 6 Pro.
The difference in carbon footprint between the two 2022 models is more pronounced in this generation and represents a gap of 15kg of CO2-e. If you're keen to have a phone with a smaller carbon footprint, we'd recommend choosing the Pixel 7 over the Pixel 7 Pro.
Other noticeable changes in the Pixel 7 lineup's carbon profile is the consumer use and emissions associated with it which now contribute 12% to the Pixel's total footprint (down from 14% on the Pixel 6) and is the lowest percentage it's ever been. However production emissions are still on the rise, reaching 84% contribution of the Pixel's total carbon footprint.
Although the Pixel 6a has been designed with recycled aluminium in its housing with the aim to "reduce its carbon footprint" as Google highlighted it in Pixel 6a's report, the carbon footprint reduction was not achieved when compared to the Pixel 5a (5G). Instead it grew back up to Pixel 4a (5G) levels, amounting to 65kg of CO2-e.
Google's Tensor chip's technology and software efficiencies are bringing the carbon footprint of using the phone down, but these reductions are wiped out by increasing emissions in production and more often than not leads to evergrowing carbon footprint of Pixel devices.
With the Pixel 6 series Google once again delivered a Pixel phone with the highest lifetime carbon emissions. The Pixel 6 Pro's emission total at 95kg which is an increase of 31% over the Pixel 2 released in 2017 and a 10% increase compared to Pixel 5.
In terms of repairability, it appears Pixel phones have been stagnant with a 6/10 score from iFixit for several generations. Google's lack of attention to boosting modularity and repairability of its Pixel lineup is concerning as it does not align with their commitment of being a carbon-free company.
The Pixel 6 duo uses 100% recycled aluminium in its housing which is one of the structural components in a phone. But the weight of materials used to make Pixel phones is growing, from 151g for the Pixel 5 to 210g for the Pixel 6 Pro, which negatively impacts the energy consumed during manufacturing. With phones becoming larger and more complex, Google's efforts of incorporating recycled materials are lacking behind.
Image: Google
We're seeing a reduction of 5kg in lifetime CO2 emissions with the Pixel 5a (5G) over its predecessor, the Pixel 4a (5G). This reduction mainly comes from Google cutting the emissions from transportation and not the introduction of more recycled metals in the build or changes in production processes. In comparison to its flagship sibling the Pixel 5, 5a emits 25kg of carbon less which once again highlights that budget lineups are less carbon intensive than more premium handsets. This is something we have also observed in iPhones.
Using the Pixel 5a is where 19% of its carbon emissions come from, which is a slight increase over the 2020 model (17%). Where Pixel 4a was built with 47% post consumer recycled plastic in its mechanical parts, 19% of materials used to make the Pixel 5a are recycled.
The Pixel 5a has been awarded with EPEAT Gold rating, but this isn't a trustworthy indication of its sustainability, given that it has a poor repairability score of 6/10.
As you might expect the Pixel 5 continued the flagship trend of ever-increasing lifetime emissions per device, despite the improvements to the charging mechanism and the incorporated power management in Android. But again, no real improvement to be found in the production or manufacturing of the new Pixel 5.
This continuous increase of the total emissions of the device is clearly unsustainable. In a year when most countries are agreeing to limit their carbon and companies are clambering to buy carbon offsetting, wouldn’t it be more beneficial to see a reduction in the actual impact they are having by producing these yearly updates?
Google took a long time to release the environmental report for the Pixel 5, which suggests they were not keen on making buyers aware of the device's impact, at least not at launch. The team at iFixit have ranked Pixel 5's repairability with 6/10, which is a slight improvement over 2019 flagships.
With the Pixel 4a and the 5G version, we would have been able to see the direct impact of introducing 5G, however, the 5G version had a larger screen, different camera modules and even a larger battery, so a direct comparison can’t be made despite the similarities in the name.
The Pixel 4a 5G saw a sharp increase to 65kg total emissions, which is a 44.4% increase on the base Pixel 4a. When a Pixel 5a gets released later in 2021, we expect it to come with 5G support as standard, so the emissions either will stay the same or increase.
With 45kg total emissions, the Pixel 4a is the most environmentally friendly Google Pixel phone right now, and with the emergence of 5G, probably ever. A stripped back “a” model with fewer high specifications and a plastic back naturally requires fewer resources to create and has a lower impact on the environment which is why the Pixel 4a actually hasn’t increased in total emissions compared to the Pixel 3a.
This is positive news when other models in Google's portfolio have ever increasing environmental impact and carbon emissions of flagship phones across all manufacturers are still on average increasing, yearly, despite optimisations.
The Pixel 4 was came out with very similar specifications to the Pixel 3, top of the range internals and glass back. Again, with the increase in size and capacities, the Pixel 4 was always going to have higher emissions than the plastic Pixel 3a. However, to feature an increase by 30kg of CO2-e and to still be included in the EPEAT Gold certification without official responsible takeback programmes, Google are failing their sustainability standards.
The Pixel 4 XL has the same ethical sourcing and 100% recycled packaging, but has an increase of the total carbon emissions throughout its 3 year projected lifetime by another 5kg, bringing its total carbon footprint to 80kg CO2-e.
Image: iFixit
Sustainability was a massive focus at the Pixel 4 event in 2019, with Google promising $150 million on renewable energy projects and detailed the developments they’ve made in their NEST products. However, very little was mentioned in regard to the environmentally friendly aspects of the Pixel 4 and Google's plans moving forward with their Pixel lineups.
The Pixel 3a is another EPEAT Gold rated device, with total emissions of 45kg. To put that into perspective, only the iPhone SE from 2016 has a lifetime carbon emission as low as that.
The Pixel 3a would be a serious contender as one of the most environmentally friendly smartphones available today if it was built with some durability and repairability in mind. It has no IP rating and the inconsiderate placement of the internal ribbons make repair that much more hazardous.
With the Pixel 3 and the Pixel 3 XL, Google supposedly improved their operations to get the gold EPEAT rating. We have discussed our concern of the United States sustainability certification and there are very minimal changes from the Pixel 2 to Pixel 3 from the surface point of view. iFixit is also considering the Pixel 3 range less repairable than the Pixel 2 is and, in our opinion, Pixel 3 isn't worthy of the upgrade to the Gold rating.
Registered with the EPEAT silver award for sustainability, the Pixel 2 was a positive step for the Search Engine giant, providing more detail about the key features that reduce the devices impact on the environment. These include a mercury free display, arsenic free glass and no PVC. Google has voluntarily reduced the usage of these substances as well as meeting global regulations to restrict the use of harmful substances such as cadmium, hexavalent chromium, polybrominated biphenyls and many more.
With 66.4kg total emissions over the three-year life cycle, the Pixel 2 has emissions lower than 75% of released iPhones.
The Pixel 2 XL is expected to emit 71.5KG over the course of its three-year lifecycle, the same three-year lifecycle as Apple expects from their products. So seeing the XL model has a much lower emissions than the Plus models of iPhone is really encouraging.
Unlike the later products, a specific product environmental report for the first generation Pixel phone has not been released to this day, 6 years post release. That’s not to say that Google hasn’t always tried to optimise their processes, in fact they have recorded their efficiencies as far back as 2007. But it is only recently that companies are taking a more granular approach at assessing environmental impact of their products, making sure that all their supply chains are also compliant with their increasing environmental standards. So seeing no report about the original Pixel is concerning at least. What's the hold up, Google?
Beyond smartphone design, Google is expanding its sustainability efforts into biodiversity conservation through AI-powered tools and environmental sensors.
Using acoustic data captured by Pixel hardware and deployed in natural habitats, Google is helping scientists monitor the presence of endangered species — from birds and frogs to forest-dwelling mammals. This initiative, part of Google’s “Ecoacoustics” program, is detailed in their 2025 Environmental Report and showcases how the company is using Pixel’s core technologies for environmental protection.
Read more about Google’s sound-based conservation tech .
This step into biodiversity tech marks a significant pivot, and shows that Google Pixel sustainability could extend far beyond carbon figures and packaging materials.
Google’s sluggish pace in releasing Pixel environmental reports continues to raise questions about its prioritisation of product sustainability. For a company with the global influence of Alphabet, timely transparency should be non-negotiable, especially in an era when consumers increasingly value eco-conscious design. While Apple’s Lisa Jackson champions public climate leadership, Google’s Kate Brandt remains largely absent from the spotlight, and the company’s 2030 targets still feel distant and abstract.
That said, progress is visible. The Pixel 8 series shows no increase in lifetime carbon emissions—marking a positive trend for flagship models. However, the Pixel 10 Fold stands out for the wrong reasons, as one of the most carbon-intensive devices Google has made, at 123 kg CO₂e.
The Pixel A-series remains Google’s most sustainable offering, with the Pixel 9a emitting just 58 kg CO₂e. Encouragingly, environmental reports are now published much faster post-launch, suggesting Google is aligning sustainability more closely with the customer journey.
Despite a smaller product range than Apple, Google’s scale and resources should enable faster, bolder action. The foundation is there but needs stronger leadership and public accountability to make Google Pixel sustainability more than a behind-the-scenes effort.
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