Greenpeace praises Facebook and Apples’ environmental efforts

A senior IT analyst at Greenpeace has welcomed efforts by Facebook and Apple to clean up their environmental footprints.

Speaking at an event on Wednesday, Gary Cook said changes being made at the companies had “given [him] hope”.

Greenpeace has in the past run campaigns against technology firms that it claimed used coal as their main source of power. It previously called on Apple to “clean [their] cloud” and Facebook to “unfriend coal”.

The Clean our Cloud campaign argued that Apple’s cutting-edge technology was not fitting with the 19th century energy source which it was using to power its operations. But Apple, along with Facebook and Google, has seemingly since pushed for wider availability of renewable energy sources in North Carolina, where it operates one of its data centres.

In addition to this, Facebook has pledged to open its newest data centres in Sweden, which was named the world’s “most sustainable” country back in August.

Google, which has been hailed as the top IT company for sustainable solutions by Greenpeace previously, is pledging to use 100% renewable energy, saying that it “[sees] renewable energy as a business opportunity and continue to invest in accelerating its development”.

This is the second consecutive year that Google has headed Greenpeace’s leaderboard, and both Facebook and Apple are still omitted from the list, indicating that despite this praise, there is still much to be done.

Large IT companies that are so integrated into modern society, and as such have a monumental influence over mass populations, are well placed to lead necessary changes within our energy systems.

Further reading:

Google heads Greenpeace IT ranking, but Apple and Facebook omitted

Google continues sustainability pioneering

The Guide to Limitless Clean Energy 2013