2013 has been a whirlwind of exciting developments for the
growing idea that the Internet should be powered with clean energy, and
it couldn’t happen at a better time. As access spreads around the world and people watch more
streaming videos and share more photos, the Internet has the potential
to become either a big cause of global warming pollution, or a driver of
the clean energy transition we need, depending on what the companies
behind it decide to do.Here are our top 11 stories about the Green Internet in 2013:
1. Apple report reveals new progress in path to 100% renewable energy
Apple released an environmental report in
March showing that it had made real progress in its effort to power the
iCloud with renewable energy, and not coal. Apple had already committed
to 100 % renewable energy for its data centers, but this report
disclosed how Apple plans to do it, allowing customers to have faith
that Apple is meeting its ambitions with real action. Read more.
2. Salesforce commits to 100 % clean energy
Salesforce became the latest company to commit to powering
its cloud with 100 % clean energy in March. The company’s rapid growth
means that it will need more data centers soon to store its clients’
data, which is why it’s so important that Salesforce has committed to
grow using renewable energy. Read more.
3. Apple chooses solar for Nevada data center
Apple announced in July it would be building a solar array
to power its data center near Reno, NV. Apple is using an advanced
technology that includes mirrors to concentrate sunlight, and the deal
was also the first that took advantage of utility NV Energy’s “Green
Rate tariff” in Nevada, which allows any customer to buy explicitly
renewable energy. Read more.
4. Rackspace commits to 100 % clean energy
Rackspace, the Texas-based tech company who offers data
services to a range of businesses, committed to a goal of powering its
data centers with 100 % clean energy in February. The company’s
sustainability director described why they’ve set the ambitious goal at a
Greenpeace forum in November, saying: “Our customers simply expect
green energy.” Read more.
5. Microsoft joins the race to be the greenest Internet company
The competition among Internet companies to power their operations
with clean energy gained a new entrant in November. Microsoft announced
that it would take a page from the book of its chief competitor, Google,
when it announced that it will purchase wind energy in Texas to power
its data center there, marking its first ever large-scale purchase of
renewable energy. Read more.
6. Box becomes sixth company to commit to 100 % renewable energy
Box became the sixth and latest company to join the growing
club of global technology firms who have committed to powering their
cloud computing operations with 100 % renewable energy. Box houses its
customers’ data in rented co-location facilities, and its new policy
shows that all cloud computing companies can make the smart decision of
moving toward renewable energy, whether they own their own data centers
or not. Read more.
7. Your iPhones, iPads, MacBooks get a dose of solar energy in Arizona
If you own an iPhone, iPad, or MacBook, Apple made an
announcement in November that should make you feel pretty great: at
least some part of your Apple products will soon be built using clean,
renewable solar and geothermal energy. Apple announced that it will
start building high-tech glass for its products in Arizona, at a
facility that will be 100 % powered by solar and geothermal energy. Read more.
8. Facebook friends wind energy in Iowa
Facebook announced in November that it will use 100% wind
energy to power its data center in Iowa. In 2012, having heard from
hundreds of thousands of its fans as part of Greenpeace’s Unfriend Coal
campaign, Facebook committed to a goal of powering all of its data
centers with 100 % clean energy. It’s now building two 100 % renewable
data centers, in Iowa and Sweden, and is working with its utility in
North Carolina to increase the amount of clean energy available for its
data center there too. Read more.
9.Google and Facebook join group that undermines their clean energy records.
Despite all the good news stories here about Google and
Facebook powering with clean energy – and pressuring their electric
utilities to do the same – we learned in 2013 that the companies both
joined the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), a powerful
corporate “bill mill.” ALEC offers corporations the chance to ghostwrite
bills for state legislators, and has led a charge around the country in
the past year to attack successful clean energy laws. Google and
Facebook say they’re ALEC members for other, non-energy related reasons,
but they shouldn’t be lending their good name or their money to a group
that is undermining all the good they’ve done. Read more.
10. Apple, Facebook, Google Team Up to Push Nation’s Largest Utility to Clean Energy Offering
If you want to watch the new clean energy economy shake off
the weight of the old polluting one, North Carolina provided a good
glimpse into how that transition is unfolding in real time. Apple,
Facebook and Google teamed up to compel their electric utility in North
Carolina, Duke Energy, one of the nation’s biggest emitters of global
warming pollution, to offer a new breakthrough renewable energy program
in November. Read more.
11. The green Internet story that never happened: Amazon bucks trend, sticks with coal
Despite all the good news above, the company that may power more of
the Internet than anyone, Amazon, remained addicted to coal. Amazon
stores the data for some of the biggest Internet services in the world,
including Netflix, Yelp, Pinterest, AirBnB, Reddit, Spotify, Instagram,
SoundCloud, Tumblr and others. So its refusal to budge leaves a dark
cloud over the otherwise increasingly sunny future of how the Internet
will be powered. Read more here, tell Amazon to get on the clean energy bandwagon here,
and look for more ways in 2014 that you can tell Amazon and its
customers to power their wonderful services with equally wonderful
energy from the wind and sun.
read more at greenpeaceblogs.org
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