As a part of its pledge to combat climate change, Facebook has recently announced that it will be reducing its greenhouse gas emissions by 75% and will power its global operations with 100% renewable energy by 2020.
According to sources familiar with the matter, the social-media behemoth has signed agreements & contracts for over 3 gigawatts of new wind and solar energy, since it has instigated efforts from 2013. The wind and solar power projects are built on the same grid as Facebook’s data centers in New Mexico, Oregon, Sweden, and Virginia.
In a company statement, Facebook claimed that it has met its target for 2015 to support 50% of its data center facilities with renewable energy by 2018. According to reports, last year the company surpassed 51% renewable energy.
Apparently in 2017, Facebook’s carbon footprint was recorded around 979,000 metric tons of CO2. This amount is roughly equivalent to the emission from more than 100,000 households. The company’s data centers contributed to around two-thirds of the footprint, while other business activities such as employee commutes, travel, and construction accounted for 38%, claim credible sources.
Facebook’s efforts toward sustainable energy expansion is not new among the tech-giants of the Silicon Valley. The industry has already witnessed Apple and Google betting big on harnessing renewable energy from wind & solar to offset their overall energy consumption, cite sources.
If industry experts are to be believed, the growing participation of the tech-giants toward harnessing clean energy is not only good for the world as a whole, but also equates to valuable business sense.
Meanwhile, following the trails of Facebook, several other companies are also walking alongside the ‘go green’ path. Recently in June, Samsung vowed to make its operation in China, Europe, and the U.S. to run on 100% clean energy by 2020.