All the major tech giants are going green. Google, Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Netflix, and IBM have all launched plans to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by the next decade.
Now, just in time for Earth Day, Facebook has announced it’s achieved its goal of powering its global operations on 100% renewable energy. It’s also reached net-zero emissions, a goal it set three years ago.
The company has achieved this by investing $8 billion to build a network of 63 new wind and solar plants, all located on the same power grids as Facebook’s data centers.
“Although we’ve reached our latest goal, the work isn’t over,” the company said. “We will contract new solar and wind projects to remain at 100 percent renewable energy, even as we continue to grow.”
“We’ve already set a new goal that in 2030, we will reach net zero emissions across not only our own operations but also our value chain — our suppliers, as well as items like business travel and employee commuting.”
To reach that goal, the social media giant is working with its suppliers to invest in high-quality carbon-removal projects and continue to find innovative ways to reduce emissions.
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In the meantime, Facebook has become one of the world’s largest corporate buyers of renewable energy. Today, it has contracts in place for more than 6 gigawatts (GW) of wind and solar energy across 18 states and five countries.
In 2020 alone, Facebook contracted for 1 GW of new renewable energy and brought 2 GW of renewable energy projects online to support its operations.
Virtually all the major players in the American tech world have launched large-scale green initiatives in recent years.
Netflix recently announced that it’s pursuing a net-zero carbon strategy. The streaming giant will join IBM, Apple, and Microsoft in their green initiatives, which they aim to complete by 2030.
“We believe that climate change is an urgent issue facing the world today,” Facebook said, “and we are committed to doing our part to address this challenge.”
