Tropophilia

After the Apple worship buzz on this blog all week, you might have expected us to go with Steve Jobs and Co. for our change agent of the week award, the Tropophy. But in hopes of moving on to new topics, and highlighting an effort that flew somewhat under the radar in the midst of the Macworld Expo frenzy, this week’s Tropophy instead goes to Google’s philanthropic arm, Google.org.

The aptly-named Dr. Larry Brilliant describes the focus of Google.org’s investments and R&D for 2008:

Today Google.org announced five initiatives that we will focus on in the coming years. Predict and Prevent will seek to identify hot spots and enable rapid response to emerging threats, beginning in the area of infectious diseases. The other two efforts, Fuel the Growth of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs) and Inform and Empower to Improve Public Services focus on building jobs and improving the delivery of basic services, such as education and clean water, in the developing world.

These efforts join our climate change-related initiatives announced in 2007: to Develop Renewable Energy Cheaper Than Coal (RE-C) and Accelerate the Commercialization of Plug-In Vehicles (RechargeIT).

Google.org’s $75 million to-date investments in support of these initiatives are laudable, and its roster of partner organizations is both impressive and exciting. While the actual funds are pennies compared to some of the largest foundations in the US, what makes Google’s commitment to these issues so important (and so worthy of the coveted TROPOphy) is the sheer magnitude and breadth of resources devoted to its initiatives.  By taking ownership of these problems, both internally (through R&D and an “inspired workforce“) and externally (through investments in non-profit organizations and for-profit social benefit companies), Google sets a high standard for companies engaging in environmental and social change.

And so in honor of Google.org’s impressively ambitious goals, we salute its efforts to not only improve how we find and manage information, but also how we respond to climate change, economic globalization, and disease.