On the surface, it might not seem that a web company like Facebook could be all that damaging to the environment.
After all, they don’t mine or farm or manufacture anything, right? It’s just a website, it’s so intangible, it’s just made up of millions of 0s and 1s buzzing around the globe.
Well, don’t tell that to Greenpeace, who had been rigorously protesting Facebook for their data centers, facilities that consume massive amounts of electricity, most of which had been generated in coal-burning plants.
Today’s Celebrating Eco-Progress installment, however, brings good news (via PC Magazine)
Facebook has announced a partnership with Greenpeace that will see the two organizations improve the social network’s renewable energy efforts.
Few actual details were revealed, but in a joint statement Facebook said that the company would begin enforcing a new policy that would see a shift towards “clean and renewable energy.” This includes continuous research into energy efficiency through its Open Compute Project as well promoting sustainability and efficiency practices alongside Greenpeace.
“Facebook is committed to supporting the development of clean and renewable sources of energy, and our goal is to power all of our operations with clean and renewable energy,” the statement read. “Building on our leadership in energy efficiency (through the Open Compute Project), we are working in partnership with Greenpeace and others to create a world that is highly efficient and powered by clean and renewable energy.”
Greenpeace is not known for falling for political and corporate smoke and mirrors, and so it’s highly significant that Facebook’s sustainability initiatives have met with their approval.
Keep up the good work, Facebook!
Fish & Bicycles 
If only it was this easy to get all companies on board with becoming clean and renewable!
So true! And yet, the whole reason why I started this Celebrating Eco-Progress series was to identify the efforts companies ARE making, to celebrate them, and to let them see how appreciated those efforts are in hopes that they will continue and do more.
That is great news. Thanks for sharing these “positive” finds. With so much bad news out there it is nice to see some progress environmentally.
Well, I’ll be honest, I started looking for and sharing these “positive finds” for purely selfish reasons. It gets WAY too depressing reading the news that gets most of the front page attention.
Enlightening – didn’t know anything about this aspect of the Facebook phenomenon. Thank you!
My pleasure! š