Since we started our campaign in February 2010, over 600,000 Greenpeace supporters like you have called on Facebook to unfriend coal and embrace renewables to power their massive data centres. Thank you.
Just last week, I met with Randi Zuckerberg, marketing director at Facebook and sister of CEO Mark Zuckerberg, and invited her (and her brother) to commit to become a clean energy leader.
Her response was positive: "As a company, we've had a lot of discussion about how we can use more sustainable, renewable energies…we will love having you as a partner in that."
We at Greenpeace fully embrace this offer.
It’s clear that Facebook is paying attention to our campaign and is starting to recognize their responsibility – now what we need is a real plan to unfriend coal. So, to encourage them along, we are giving them a deadline:
Facebook: unfriend coal by Earth Day, April 22!
On this day, we want to celebrate with Facebook their commitment to a clean, renewable energy future.
Please join me in the campaign here and don't forget to invite your friends!
Facebook needs to commit to a plan to grow without dirty coal, and to use their huge purchasing power to choose clean, renewable energy sources. The longer they continue without a public plan, the more our campaign will heat up - and the more we'll be asking you to participate.
In September, I sent Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg a formal letter (to which Facebook responded in the comments). You've sent messages to Mark though his own Facebook page, and you've been present on their 'Green on Facebook' page making sure that they don’t ignore their responsibility. We all want to know that every time we post new photos or “like” a status, Facebook data centers and servers are buzzing on clean renewables, not coal-fired power.
In response to our campaign so far, Facebook has showcased their efficiency initiatives and they have even invited Al Gore to their Palo Alto headquarters to address Facebook staff. But now it's time for Facebook to address their biggest eco-problem: coal. Words alone are not good enough; we want a plan for real action.
We've outlined the steps that Facebook needs to take - both for their current data centres in Oregon and North Carolina, and for all their future data centre growth, and we have provided this information directly to the company.
Right now, we have a chance to drive the global Energy [R]evolution forward. As a major energy user, Facebook's energy choice matters. They can help usher in the new era of 21st-century, clean, renewable energy that will create millions of green jobs. If Facebook unfriends coal, their leadership could spark a wave of responsible energy choices across the IT industry - forecast to be the most rapidly-growing electricity consuming sector of the next decade.
