Facebook Caves to Greenpeace, Plans to Run on ‘Clean, Renewable Energy’

by | Dec 16, 2011

This article is included in these additional categories:

After months of being bashed by Greenpeace (what Facebook now calls a “unique and creative campaign”) over its environmental practices – specifically the use of coal power to fire up its data centers – Facebook has announced, in a joint statement with the activist group, that it plans to run on “clean, renewable energy.”

In addition, Greenpeace climate campaigners and Facebook’s head of sustainability will collaborate in the promotion renewable energy and encourage major utilities to develop renewable energy sources.

Facebook has also committed to develop programs with Greenpeace so that Facebook users can save energy and engage their communities in clean energy decisions.

Here’s what the two organizations have agreed to:

By Facebook
• Adopting a siting policy that states a preference for access to clean and renewable energy supply.
• Ongoing research into energy efficiency and the open sharing of that technology through the Open Compute Project.
• Ongoing research into clean energy solutions for our future data centers.
• Engaging in a dialogue with our utility providers about increasing the supply of clean energy that power Facebook data centers.

By Greenpeace
• Active support for the Open Compute Project, including encouraging companies to join the effort, use the technology, and share their efficiency technology.
• Encouraging utility providers to offer ways for customers to get their utility data, including by joining the partnership with Opower, Facebook, and NRDC.
• Recognize company leadership in advancing best practices in efficiency or sustainability technology through the open source sharing of design and technology advances.

Together
• Working together to develop and promote experiences on Facebook that help people and organizations connect with ways to save energy and engage their communities in clean energy issues.
• Co-hosting roundtables and discussions with experts on energy issues.
• Jointly engaging other large energy users and producers to address the energy choice they are facing and develop new clean energy rather than recommission coal plants or build new coal plants.

On its own, Facebook has already made a number of clean energy decisions:

Facebook is planning to create both electricity and hot water with a solar energy system at its new Menlo Park, Calif., headquarters.

Facebook has unveiled a green data center that it says uses 38 percent less energy to do the same work as its existing facilities, while costing 24 percent less – and the company says it wants other companies to adopt its technology.

Facebook engineers developed a programming language, HipHop for PHP, which allowed its servers to do the same amount of work with half the number of servers.

Additional articles you will be interested in.

Stay Informed

Get E+E Leader Articles delivered via Newsletter right to your inbox!

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.
Share This