Greenpeace ended its war against Facebook (News - Alert) on Thursday after the two organizations agreed to work together to support the development of clean and renewable energy, particularly in data centers.

The tussle began last year when Facebook opened a data center in Oregon powered by a company that utilizes coal, rather than renewable energy, to keep the thousands of servers running. Greenpeace responded by launching an "Unfriend Coal" campaign on – with a small twist of irony – its own Facebook page.

The group said that the initiative attracted around 700,000 supporters, which probably helped urge Facebook to make a few green pledges on Thursday.

The social network said in a joint statement that it will adopt a siting policy that indicates a preference for access to a clean and renewable energy supply (note the word preference). In addition, Facebook will conduct its own research into energy efficiency through it Open Compute Project.

The two organizations will also work together to encourage other large energy users to rely on clean, renewable energy rather than less sustainable options like coal. Facebook also said that it will hand the power of its platform over to Greenpeace to assist in these efforts.

"We will be working with Greenpeace to move everyone closer to a world powered by clean and renewable energy, and to use the Facebook platform to engage people on energy and environmental issues," Facebook noted on its Green page.

Tzeporah Berman, co-director of Greenpeace's International Climate and Energy program, said that the move sets an example for other large technology companies to follow. Chances are good Greenpeace will now move its target to other violators.

Casey Harrell, senior IT analyst for Greenpeace, noted that the bar has been raised for other tech companies like Apple (News - Alert), IBM, Microsoft and Twitter.

Beecher Tuttle is a TMCnet contributor. He has extensive experience writing and editing for print publications and online news websites. He has specialized in a variety of industries, including health care technology, politics and education. To read more of his articles, please visit his columnist page.

Edited by Rich Steeves