Greenpeace urges Facebook to lead a change towards green energy

By siliconindia   |   Thursday, 31 March 2011, 14:09 IST
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Bangalore: In a renewed campaign, Greenpeace has released a video urging Facebook to stop using coal power in its data centre which it plans to build in Oregon. The massive 300,000 square foot plant is expected to cost as much as $50 million a year to lease, Facebook has reportedly decided to run the center on electricity made by burning coal. Terming coal as the dirtiest source of energy and largest single source of global warming pollution in the world, Greenpeace has began the campaign calling for the social networking site to show better commitment to the nature and the society. "Facebook can control where it builds its infrastructure; the power purchasing agreements it enters into; and how it uses its brand's power to advocate for strong policies that promote clean energy. Given all of the control Facebook does have, it can make a commitment to phase out coal and show the rest of the IT sector that it can be done," a Greenpeace statement said. Greenpeace has further urged Facebook to bring in a revolution in the IT industry to cut short on energy use because about 2 percent of global emissions are from IT services. It says that the social networking site should be leading a charge toward sources of renewable energy in the 21st century, and not 19th century fuels like coal. The organization claimed that as of now, over 680,000 people have joined the campaign to get Facebook to go green.