Facebook makes a partial bow to green pressure

Facebook launched a new site in October, called Green on Facebook, in order to track its efforts to be more sustainable. Many say this act is a reaction to recent criticism from the environmental group Greenpeace.

Greenpeace called for Facebook to “unfriend” coal. Its proposed new data center in Prineville, Oregon, receives most of its electricity from coal plants. The Greenpeace site, which provides the public a chance to sign a petition of sorts not to mention “liking” the article on Facebook, states that by electing to build their data center in central Oregon, Facebook is choosing to endorse coal-produced energy.

The conservation organization offered four actions that it wanted Facebook to take:

1. Commit to stop using polluting coal power.

2. Use its purchasing power to choose only clean, renewable sources of electricity.

3. Advocate for strong climate and energy policy changes at the local, national and international level to ensure that as the IT industry's energy demand increases, so does the supply of renewable energy.

4. Share this information publicly on its website so its millions of users know the company is a climate leader.

In October Facebook launched its green page, and it currently has over 50,000 friends. It lists many steps the company is taking to reduce its footprint, including operational initiatives that have reduced its water consumption by 60 percent, lighting efficiency measures and a transportation-sharing program. The company says it is also taking steps to reduce energy consumed by its data centers, including designing a new programming language that can reduce server use by 50 percent.

Social pressure seems to have increased awareness in this instance. Of course the plant in Prineville is still being built, and it will use mostly coal-produced power. Using less coal-produced power is at least a step in the right direction.

Related News

Pennsylvania Clean Energy Employment Report

Clean energy jobs energize Pennsylvania: Clean Energy Employment Report

PITTSBURGH - The 2020 Pennsylvania Clean Energy Employment Report has been released, and Gov. Tom Wolf is energized by it.

This "comes at an opportune time, as government and industry leaders look to strengthen Pennsylvania's workforce and economy in response to the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic," Wolf said Monday in a prepared statement. "This detailed analysis of data and trends in clean energy employment ... demonstrates the sector was a top job generator statewide, and shows which industries were hiring and looking for trained workers."

Foremost among the findings, released Monday, is that the clean energy sector was responsible for adding…

READ MORE
europe pollution

European responses to Covid-19 accelerate electricity system transition by a decade - Wartsila

READ MORE

electricity

Physicists Just Achieved Conduction of Electricity at Close to The Speed of Light

READ MORE

uk wind power

Biggest offshore windfarm to start UK supply this week

READ MORE

ontario-breaks-ground-on-first-small-modular-nuclear-reactor

Ontario Breaks Ground on First Small Modular Nuclear Reactor

READ MORE