As we continue to build our most diverse, representative workplace yet, we’re educating our entire workforce about racial equity to create a more inclusive and informed Google for everyone. Here are some global highlights from 2022:

• In Northern Europe, we piloted the Beyond Black&White Allyship programme, a self-study education platform to help Googlers understand and contribute to our diversity, equity, and inclusion goals. Interest quickly grew worldwide, and we’ve now had nearly 2,000 participants.

• Employees in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa took part in Untold, a series of eight films on the history of race. It digs deep into the pasts of these regions, illuminating how Black history – and more broadly, the history of race – impacts attitudes, actions, and policies to this day.

• In Spanish-speaking Latin America, we responded to employee feedback with our first internal anti-racism education programme designed for the region. The first part of the programme educates Googlers on the history of racism in Spanish-speaking Latin America and basic concepts of racial equity, especially as they relate to Black and Indigenous communities. The second teaches participants how to apply that knowledge at work and in the world.

• We worked with Google community groups and Coqual, a think tank focused on workplace-based DEI initiatives, to create two research reports that shed light on the experiences of groups that have been overlooked: “Being Black in the United Kingdom” and “Strangers at Home: The Asian and Asian American Professional Experience.”

Googlers need safe, welcoming, and inclusive spaces to come together and explore racial equity and anti-racism, learning from each other’s experiences in the workplace and beyond. Here are just a few of our recent efforts to build community and spark conversations about tough topics:

• In Latin America, a group of Googlers created Movimiento Anti-Racista (MAR), the first formal Googler community centred around racial equity for Black and Indigenous Googlers in the region. The initiative has already brought together members from Mexico City, Lima, Buenos Aires, Santiago de Chile, San Francisco, Seattle, and Toronto. It’s also helping the Black Google Network (BGN) and the Google Aboriginal & Indigenous Network (GAIN) start operations in Spanish-speaking Latin America.

• In Asia Pacific, we started “You Can’t Ask That” in 2020. This programme creates a brave and respectful place for any Googler to share stories about their own experiences and communities.

• In 2022, the Mixed@Google employee resource group formed a Mixed Parenting committee to address the joys and complexities of raising Mixed children. Mixed@ is a dedicated community for multi-racial, multi-ethnic, and multi-heritage Googlers and allies, and is the first resource group of its kind among large companies.

We’re building tools that make it easier to support Asian-, Black-, Latino-, and Indigenous-owned businesses. Business owners in the U.S. can add an Asian-owned, Black-owned, Latino-owned, or Indigenous-owned attribute to their Business Profile, which customers can see on their listings on Google Search and Google Maps. People can also see if businesses are women-owned, disabled-owned, LGBTQ+ owned, wheelchair-accessible, and LGBTQ-friendly.

Indigenous communities are using technology to celebrate and preserve Indigenous language, customs and culture. Here are a few ways we’re working to support Indigenous communities through technology:

• Woolaroo is a Google Arts & Culture experiment that uses machine learning to preserve and help people explore endangered languages.

• We’ve built a language model for Bambara, one of West Africa's most widely spoken languages, to make the world’s information more accessible to its speakers.

• The 1,000 Languages Initiative is an ambitious commitment to build an AI model that will support the 1,000 most spoken languages and bring greater inclusion to billions of people in marginalised communities all around the world.

• With support from the Google Aboriginal and Indigenous Network, the Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development used Google tools to build a set of Nation Building Toolboxes to help tribal nations connect and share solutions related to subjects like business enterprises, constitutional reform, justice systems, and COVID-19 recovery and distance learning.

• The Navajo Nation is using Plus Codes in Google Maps to provide addresses for its residents, improving their access to emergency health services and mail deliveries. Plus Codes have been used to support people around the world who do not have street addresses.

People from underrepresented groups are far less likely to have access to digital skills training, and this can limit opportunities for career growth. Here are some of the ways we’re working to close that gap:

• Tech Equity Collective (TEC), an initiative started by Google employees in the summer of 2020, accelerates Black innovation and representation in tech by bringing together community and industry partners to create programmes and experiences that lead to tangible progress for Black tech innovators. For example, TEC oversees a $1 million commitment to organisations dedicated to forging career pathways for aspiring Black technical talent.

• Our Skills Ignition SG training programme is helping thousands of Singaporeans and permanent residents get the skills they need for changing technology and a shifting job market.

• In 2022, we launched the Japan Reskilling Consortium, which brings together more than 40 partners from business, local government, and the nonprofit sector to address Japan’s digital skills gap through training and business support.

• In Brazil, the Black Ads Academy programme offers certifications to equip Black entrepreneurs and professionals with digital marketing skills and knowledge of Google advertising solutions. We also partner with the nonprofit Instituto Rede Mulher Empreendedora, which has trained over 200,000 Black Brazilian women in digital skills and entrepreneurship.

In 2021 we announced a $1 billion investment in Africa to cover a range of initiatives, from improved connectivity to assistance for startups, over five years. These investments will support the continent’s digital transformation in four key areas:

• Enabling affordable access and building products for every kind of African user

• Helping businesses with their digital transformation

• Investing in entrepreneurs to spur next-generation technologies

• Supporting nonprofits working to improve lives across Africa

This investment represents our commitment to Africa’s role in creating the next wave of innovation, and we’re partnering with African governments, policymakers, educators, entrepreneurs and businesses to bring these efforts to life.

At the same time, our philanthropic arm, Google.org, has allocated millions of dollars in grant money to promote sustainable and inclusive development around the world. This includes:

• $10 million for digital skills training in Mexico's Southeast region, home to more than 50% of the country's Indigenous population

• Support to help small businesses in Southeast Asia rebuild after the COVID-19 pandemic, gain the digital knowledge they need to grow, and create jobs for people from marginalised communities

• Our longstanding support for the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including a $25M open call for organisations using AI to accelerate progress on the SDGs