Facebook Goes Green

Facebook 'friends' the green movement

Boosting its green profile, Facebook's new ‘Green on Facebook’ page shares green news and touts the site's own sustainability initiatives.

Eco-conscious Facebook users have a new page to “like” on the ever-popular social networking site: a Green on Facebook page that outlines what the company is doing to promote a sustainable environment.

Facebook launched the green page as a resource for people who not only want to know what the company is doing to go green, but also to share green news from around the Web, according to CNET and the Environmental Leader.

“By enabling millions of people from diverse backgrounds to easily connect and share, we believe we can help unleash innovative environmental initiatives across the globe,” states the Green on Facebook page. “When it comes to the environment, we are always looking to do more.”

The new Green on Facebook page coincides with strategic new partnerships for Facebook. The company has joined the Alliance to Save Energy and the Digital Energy Solutions Campaign (DESC), a group of tech companies working on environmental issues. Through the Alliance-Facebook partnership, Facebook will donate $500,000 worth of advertising and help promote the Alliance’s site, LivingEfficiently.org. Through its partnership with the DESC, Facebook will share best practices, the Environmental Leader reported.

Focusing on its green efforts could boost Facebook’s reputation, particularly after Greenpeace launched a campaign earlier this year to convince Facebook to use renewable energy instead of coal at a planned data center in Oregon, according to the Environmental Leader. (The “Unfriend Coal” campaign got support from 500,000 Facebook users.)

The new page pushes hard to convey Facebook as an eco-conscious company. In its own facilities, Facebook has reduced water consumption with dual-flush toilets and motion-sensor faucets. It has motion sensor-controlled lighting. In addition, Facebook’s green transportation program offers shuttles, carpooling, bike racks and subsidized public transportation for employees.

On the tech side, Facebook engineers have designed programming language, HopHop for PHP, which provides 50 percent CPU savings. (In other words, they can do the same amount of work with half the servers.) Facebook has also created programs to make photo storage more efficient; meanwhile, its data centers have reduced Facebook’s energy consumption by 2.42 million kilowatt hours annually.

“As our business continues to grow, we are committed to doing all we can through our people and innovation to help deliver a clean energy future,” Facebook said. “We only have one planet. Let’s do all we can to protect it.”