Greenpeace Sets Deadline For Facebook To ‘Unfriend’ Coal

Greenpeace has asked social networking giant Facebook to make a promise on Earth Day (22 April), to stop using coal-fired electricity.

The environmental campaign group’s “Unfriend Coal” campaign has singled out Facebook in its war on dirty tech, because of the company’s decision to site its first wholly-owned data centre in Oregon, using electricity from PacificCorp, an energy company which makes two thirds of its power using coal.

Greenpeace wants Facebook to promise to increase its use of clean energy, develop a plan to mitigate its climate footprint and become coal-free by 2021. It has also asked the company to educate its users about how its services are powered, and advocate for clean energy at a local, national and international level.

“Facebook has become a household name used every day by millions of people; unfortunately, it’s relying on 19th century dirty coal power to deliver its 21st century services,” said Greenpeace energy campaigner Casey Harrell. “People from all over the world are asking the website they love to lead the Energy Revolution by un-friending coal. Will Mark Zuckerberg rise to the challenge?”

Greenpeace asks Facebook to ‘unfriend’ coal

The campaign against Facebook’s use of coal-fired electricity has been gaining momentum over the last year, with fans of the Facebook “unfriend coal” page numbering 33,514 at the time of writing. Students have been raising the issue in university campuses across the US, and the campaign has expanded into new countries, including France, Indonesia, New Zealand, UK and Turkey, said Greenpeace.

Facebook’s data centre is one of the most energy-efficient in the world, with a Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) rating of 1.15. The company claims it is concentrating on using power effectively, rather than getting involved in how it is produced, and said it chose the Oregon site because the “temperate” climate would allow it to operate without mechanical chillers – normally one of the biggest detractors from efficiency in a data centre.

“If we located the data centre most other places, we would need mechanical chillers, use more energy, and be responsible for more overall carbon in the air – even if that location was fuelled by more renewable energy,” said Facebook in September.

However, using electricity more efficiently has a smaller effect on the site’s s carbon footprint than the carbon intensity of the electricity it uses, according to some commentators. In a blog post, Liam Newcombe of Romonet explains that a centre with a PUE of 1.15 in Oregon could have a worse carbon footprint than one with a PUE of 1.5 in the UK.

PacificCorp’s electricity may produce as much as 0.8kg of CO2 per kWh, while the UK’s electricity typically has a carbon intensity of 0.5kg per kWh. If these figures are multiplied by the respective PUE ratings, the less efficient UK data centre would come out at a lower carbon footprint, according to Newcombe.

Increasing renewable energy

Facebook said in September that it had an “aggressive plan for increasing their renewable energy mix,” including plans to have more than 2,000 MW of renewable resources by 2013.

“Facebook’s visionary approach to business changed how we live our lives online,” said Harrell. “The company has a real opportunity to lead by example by extending this spirit of innovation to the environment, by showing that businesses can flourish by being clean energy-powered, like Pepsico, and Proctor and Gamble have pledged to do.”

Other companies to have been targeted in Greenpeace’s green IT campaign include Samsung, Dell and Apple. In March 2010, the group released a report to coincide with the US launch of the Apple iPad, criticising the cloud infrastructure which supports many mobile devices and social networks.

“At current growth rates data centres and telecommunication networks will consume about 1,963 billion kilowatts hours of electricity in 2020,” states Greenpeace. “That’s more than triple their current consumption and more than the current electricity consumption of France, Germany, Canada and Brazil combined.”