A video still from Greenpeace's new TV ad asking Facebook to "unfriend coal"
(WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) – Environmental organization Greenpeace (www.greenpeace.org) released an ad urging social media firm Facebook (www.facebook.com) to “unfriend coal” power in its data centers by Earth Day on April 22. The ad will be broadcast in California Wednesday, where Greenpeace hopes to reach many of the company’s 2,000 employees in Silicon Valley, according to a blog post by the Guardian.
Realistically, would be highly unlikely for Facebook to change its power source, let alone by the tight deadline set out by Greenpeace. The environmental organization is likely trying to gain publicity through this campaign by targeting a site with more than 500 million active users.
“We love Facebook. Its employees are young and share a lot of our values; they want the world to be a better place,” Casey Harrell, senior campaign specialist in Greenpeace’s San Francisco told the Guardian. “But Greenpeace is saying to Facebook employees that you’re part of a lot of social revolutions, but you need to help join the energy revolution.”
A year ago, Greenpeace issued a study that singled out Facebook’s coal-powered Oregon facility. Data Center Knowledge pointed out that “Greenpeace is calling data center operators to a standard the environmental group itself doesn’t fully meet” since some of its own servers are housed in facilities powered by coal and nuclear power.
Greenpeace says it is focusing on Facebook since it has “revolutionized the way the world communicates, so it can revolutionize the IT sector’s current reliance on coal. Facebook’s reputation for innovation means that wherever it goes, other IT companies will follow.”
In September 2010, Greenpeace released an animated video on YouTube criticizing Facebook’s use of coal to power its Prineville, Oregon data center. The video, called “The So-Coal Network,” was timed for release of the blockbuster The Social Network about Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
According to Greenpeace, 680,000 people have joined the campaign, pleading with Facebook “to disclose its carbon footprint and to act as advocates for clean energy.”
Greenpeace says Facebook’s data centers each require the power equivalent to about 40,000 US homes and that coal is the number one contributor to climate change.
Facebook says it chose Oregon for one of its data centers because of its temperate climate that enables the use of outside air to cool the facility, and lessen the need for chillers.
“Efficiency in itself is not enough to equal green considering the power that the Internet requires. We’re not asking Facebook to power their data centres with rainbows and unicorns, but we want them to ask these questions of the utility companies that power data centres,” Harrell added.
The video is subtitled in 14 languages, Greenpeace says.
Greenpeace is counting down until April 22 on its Unfriend Coal website, where it provides more detail into the campaign.
About Nicole Henderson
Nicole Henderson writes full-time for the Web Host Industry Review where she covers daily news and features online, as well as in print. She has a bachelor of journalism from Ryerson University in Toronto, and has been writing for the WHIR since September 2010. You can find her on Twitter @NicoleHenderson.
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