Greenpeace 'likes' Facebook for 'unfriending' coal

Environmental activist group Greenpeace has made a lot of friends over the years through its campaigns and communication efforts on Facebook, but up until now, Facebook itself wasn’t among them.

Blame it on the social networking giant’s 2010 decision to choose coal-fired power for its new Oregon data center. That decision prompted Greenpeace to launch a spirited “Unfriend Coal Campaign” that ended up earning more than 700,000 supporters around the globe. (The campaign even broke a world record for most comments on a single Facebook post in 24 hours: more than 80,000 in April of this year.)

That’s all in the past now. Greenpeace announced last week that it was ending the Unfriend Coal Campaign after Facebook agreed to chart a future course based on greater use of renewable energy.

“This move sets an example for the industry to follow,” said Tzeporah Berman, co-director of Greenpeace’s International Climate and Energy Program.

The new direction for Facebook includes collaborating with Greenpeace to promote clean-energy activities, discussions and research. Facebook has also agreed to adopt a siting policy for data centers that gives preference to renewable-energy sources, conduct research on energy efficiency, share its developments through the Open Compute Project, study clean-energy options for future data centers and talk with its energy providers about increasing their supplies of renewables.

“Another important step will be to work with Greenpeace to put the power of our platform to use for the environment,” said Marcy Scott Lynn of Facebook’s sustainability program. “Greenpeace has been particularly effective using Facebook to spark environmental awareness and action, we are excited to work with them to explore new ways in which people can use Facebook to engage and connect on the range of energy issues that matter most to them — from their own energy efficiency to access to cleaner sources of energy.”