Greenpeace has decided to confront a network giant like Facebook to ask for a plan to be prepared and made public to abandon the use of electricity produced from coal.
He is about to end up run over, his mother saves himClick challenge, tag, share e post! Greenpeace has decided to face a giant of the network like Facebook, and it did so starting from a video interview that is spreading right on the offending social network. It is called "Facebook: Unfriend coal" and asks the leader of the "online friendship" to prepare and make public a plan to abandon the use of electricity produced by coal.
Deadline for delivery of the programmatic plan? On April 22, the day on which Earth Day is celebrated.
Already supported by over 600 users, the environmentalists' initiative sees two protagonists compared: Kumi Naidoo, Executive Director of Greenpeace International e Randi Zuckerberg, Marketing Director of Facebook. The two met at the World Economic Forum in Davos and addressed various issues.
The main ones, which can be summarized in four requests, are:
- increase the use of renewable energy for the operation of the servers;
- develop a plan for reduce the climate footprint and become "carbon free" by 2021;
- inform Facebook users about how their servers are powered;
- promote the use of renewable energy locally, nationally and internationally.
The main problem identified by Greenpeace concerns the use of technologies that are too old and harmful to the environment. In 2010, Facebook chose to build its two new data centers in Oregon and North Carolina, entering into electricity supply contracts with companies that generate most of their electricity from coal. Greenpeace calls for a review of this choice in favor of clean energy from renewables.
"In recent years Facebook has become a household name for tens of millions of people but, sadly, it uses energy produced by 19 coal-fired power plants, nineteenth-century technology, to power tools and provide services of the twenty-first century," said Casey Harrell, activist. by Greenpeace - the many fans of the social network, around the world, are asking the company they love to lead the green energy revolution. Will Mark Zuckerberg be up to the challenge? ».
With the growth of the information technology sector, consumption and therefore emissions also grow. According to the association, the rapid increase in IT companies is leading to a substantial growth in the demand for electricity. Now, for example, the amount of electricity consumed by the Internet would place the grid in fifth place among the countries with the highest consumption.
In the wake of virtuous examples such as that of Pepsico, and Procter and Gamble, Greenpeace's battle in the name of sustainability continues. «Facebook - continues Harrell - has changed the way we understand and experience the network. Today the company has the opportunity to lead by example and, only by extending its innovative approach to climate and environmental issues, will it be able to demonstrate that businesses thrive even when they choose the “green way” ».
Serena Bianchi
