When you think of environmentally-destructive companies, Facebook isn’t the first name that comes to mind. However, Greenpeace is unhappy with the social media giant over the fact that it uses coal-powered data centers as the backbone of their service. According to Reuters, the environmental group has posted a video on its Facebook page and on YouTube meant to urge Facebook to switch from coal power to alternative energy sources.
The video is timed to the upcoming release of David Fincher’s movie “The Social Network” which takes a controversial look at the founding of Facebook by Mark Zuckerberg. Greenpeace’s video is called “The So Coal Network” and is a cartoon narrated by a school-aged girl which takes Facebook to task for operating a “green” data center in Oregon which actually uses coal as its primary energy source.
According to Reuters, Greenpeace is calling on Facebook to take four steps to become more environmentally conscious:
- Commit to stop using polluting coal power,
- Use its purchasing power to choose only clean, renewable sources of electricity,
- 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,
- Share this information publicly on its website so its millions of users know the company is a climate leader.
Facebook has paid little attention to Greenpeace in the past and has in fact recently announced plans to double the size of its controversial Oregon data center.