Facebook Goes Green

Unveiling “Green on Facebook,” a site meant to enable users to share environmentally-friendly living tips, Facebook (News - Alert) has taken a turn for the green. Could this possibly have anything to do with the fact that Facebook is under fire from Greenpeace activists for its latest data center in Portland which will run on coal-powered electricity? Is this like that time that Mark Zuckerberg (News - Alert) donated $100 million to Newark schools, announcing it on Oprah, just as The Social Network came out damning him to executive tyrant hell?

Perhaps. Or perhaps Facebook is actually joining the ranks of environmentally-conscious corporations. The company recently joined the Digital Energy Solutions Campaign, a group dedicated to placing standards in public policy for energy efficiency. In some ways, this just plainly makes sense as Facebook is constantly in the spotlight, is a gigantic, global, growing company. To be environmentally aware is to be “trendy.” And what’s trendier than a glowering, artsy Facebook status?

 Jonathan Heiliger, vice president of technical operations for Facebook stated, “Our ongoing philosophy has been to improve the efficiency of our infrastructure, and we continue to invest tremendous resources to improve our own operations. By creating and sharing innovative technology solutions, we hope to help raise the visibility of the importance of environmental sustainability across all industries.” 

Everyone knows that data centers are enormous energy guzzlers, so Greenpeace freaked out with Facebook announced its new plan for the center. Demanding Facebook change its plans, it put up a video on Youtube about it. See here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QPty-ZLbJt0.

Juliana Kenny graduated from the University of Connecticut with a double degree in English and French. After managing a small company for two years, she joined TMC (News - Alert) as a Web Editor for TMCnet. Juliana currently focuses on the call center and CRM industries, but she also writes about cloud telephony and network gear including softswitches.

Edited by Juliana Kenny