Some of the worlds biggest tech companies got together yesterday to agree on at least one thing: they all think that clean energy is increasingly essential to their business.
Google, Facebook, Rackspace and Box are rivals in some areas, but representatives from those companies attended Greenpeaces Greening the Internet forum in San Francisco yesterday to discuss their shared goal of powering their data centers with 100 % renewable energy.
Those four companies, as well as Apple and Salesforce, who have made similar commitments to 100 % renewable energy, are at the vanguard of a growing number of leading technology companies who are racing toward clean energy.
Here are some of the best quotes that we heard from these tech leaders yesterday:
Utilities are now much more interested in collaborating with us, and I think we are at the beginning of a period in which we could see a very rapid change in the energy mix utilities are providing in just a few short years,
– Bill Weihl, Facebook Manager of Energy Efficiency and Sustainability
We are planting the seeds of sustainability now while the company is young,
– Andy Broer, Senior Manager of Data Center Operations at Box
The wonderful thing about power purchase agreements for clean energy is that theyre at a fixed price, unlike brown power costs which are going up.
– Gary Demasi, Google Director of Global Infrastructure.
Our customers simply expect green energy.
– Melissa Gray, Rackspace Sustainability Director
Within hours of the forum on either end, we saw the power of these companies to power the Internet with clean energy – and to make the rest of the electric grid greener too in the process. Facebook announced yesterday that its data center in Iowa will be powered by 100 % new wind energy thanks to a collaboration between the company and MidAmerican, the utility there. And this morning, in addition to its procurement of clean energy to power its data centers, Google announced that it will invest approximately $80 million in six utility-scale solar facilities in California and Arizona.
If you think other tech companies like Amazon and Microsoft should be powering the Internet with clean energy too, let them know by adding your voice here!
