Facebook Shakes Hands With Greenpeace To Axe Dirty Data
When you think about Facebook, your thoughts are almost certainly stuck in the notions of updates, privacy, and tagging of unfortunate party photos – thats why it may well come as a surprise to you that today's news isn't about any of those things, it's about the social network teaming up with Greenpeace for a truce that says the former will adhere to the latter's renewable energy agreement. The announcement comes down today in a way that allows us much in the way of high-fives and handshakes and not so much in the way of actual hard facts on what'll be done in the future, but the outlook is positive. Facebook's previous use of "dirty data" as they call it is set to be no more if all goes well in this particular situation.
What we've got here is, again, a truce between Greenpeace and the social site, as the environmental organization previously used Facebook as a rally cry for the fact that many websites of such mass as Facebook use physical technology here in the non-digital space that's not as environmentally friendly as they would hope. This week Facebook took the situation to heart and has started its way back out of the grime. As Marcy Scott Lynn of Facebook's new sustainability program says:
"Facebook looks forward to a day when our primary energy sources are clean and renewable, and we are working with Greenpeace and others to help bring that day closer." – Lynn
Continuing to explain exactly what's going on in this situation is Tzeporah Berman, co-director of Greenpeace's International Climate and Energy Program, who notes:
"Greenpeace and Facebook will now work together to encourage major energy producers to move away from coal and instead invest in renewable energy. This move sets an example for the industry to follow. This shift to clean, safe energy choices will help fight global warming and ensure a stronger economy and healthier communities." – Berman
What Facebook will be doing is using clean and renewable energy in its data centers, with a "Green on Facebook" initiative and an Open Compute Project starting up soon that'll aim to create new low-cost, high-efficiency technology for data centers through the future. Greenpeace says this initiative "raises the bar" for Apple, Microsoft, Twitter, and the whole gigantic website team. Do you think the love for our environment will spread to the biggest beats in the industry?