Jeffrey Marlow for The New York Times

At Google’s London office, across the street from the bustling Victoria station, high- and low-tech strategies are used to minimize its environmental impact. As an example, an enormous video-conference network across Google’s 119 global offices has minimized the need for extensive inter-office travel and helped Google weather the current economic storm as other companies learn to adapt to business travel cutbacks.

“Hundreds of meetings per day are done via videoconference,” said Adam Banks, an audio/visual project manager. “The technology is primarily about making the company work better, but it has the nice effect of saving on carbon as well.”

Google London has also used decidedly low-tech approaches to drastically reduce waste and increase energy efficiency. The removal of under-desk trash cans was the brainchild of Benjamin Kott, Google’s operations manager for green business practices in Europe, and it encountered some initial resistance from employees who disliked having to make a journey to throw things away.

Still, it worked, leading to a 50 percent jump in recycling rates, according to the company.

“It makes people aware of what they’re doing,” noted Mr. Kott. “Rather than automatically throwing a bottle in with the landfill waste, they see there’s a choice and must make a conscious decision to recycle.”

As a technology company, Google has also taken a close look at how its own equipment is used. During a recent push to minimize electricity use, for instance, technicians prowled the office late at night to see who had left their computers on standby.

It turned out that 90 percent had, but personalized feedback and education have managed to reduce that number significantly. “You have to find some hook or motivation for people,” Mr. Kott said he has learned. Framing the issue as a competition or personal challenge, he said, often inspires action.

Still, the road to efficiency is a long one. “I think we’re going in the right direction,” Mr. Kott said, “but of course there’s always more work to be done.”

Next on his agenda: reducing landfill waste to less than 5 percent of overall office waste, and tackling the consumption of individually-packaged snacks and drinks.