Thousands of people are demanding that Amazon join Google, Apple, and Facebook in providing a green internet that uses 100% renewable energy.
Exciting news has emerged: Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos seems to have heard the voices of the people. On November 20, 2014, Amazon Web Services updated its Sustainable Energy webpage, explicitly stating its long-term commitment to using 100% renewable energy for its global web services.
This is a major breakthrough in GREENPEACE's long-term efforts to promote green networks.
Amazon Web Services (AWS), a subsidiary of Amazon Web Services, is the world's largest public cloud computing system. When you watch movies on Netflix, the largest online DVD rental company in the US, browse photos on Pinterest, read reviews on Yelp, book rooms through Airbnb, or post hyperlinks on Reddit, all this data is transmitted and stored through AWS data centers. According to a 2012 report, one-third of internet users visit at least one website using AWS daily.
Amazon's data centers consume enormous amounts of electricity, and their energy consumption is growing at an unimaginable rate. This is precisely why Amazon Web Services' commitment to using 100% renewable energy is a crucial and inspiring factor. Amazon Web Services, operating entirely on renewable energy, can be a catalyst for the growth of clean energy globally. In this era of climate change, this is exactly what we urgently need: a hero using 100% renewable energy and leading the economic trend of our time.
However, Amazon's consumers also need more information to prove that Amazon Web Services' (hereinafter referred to as Amazon) commitment to using 100% renewable energy is not just empty talk.
Amazon should present a concrete plan outlining how it will deliver on its commitment to 100% renewable energy across its facilities worldwide. Apple, Facebook, and Google, Amazon's three major competitors, have all released blueprints for achieving this goal.
Amazon has not yet provided a similar blueprint and needs to hurry up. Take Google, which is consistent in its words and actions, as an example. Just a few days ago (November 18th), Google signed another renewable energy contract, its eighth renewable energy purchase plan; it will utilize a new wind farm 20 kilometers from Emsmond, Netherlands, to power Google's newest data center there. This contract ensures that the data center will be 100% powered by renewable energy when it opens in 2016.
To demonstrate to consumers that Amazon is ready and determined to compete in this green network race, Amazon needs to further explain what actions it will take regarding the following three key areas:
1. Information transparency
Other internet companies see transparency as key to fulfilling their commitments to renewable energy, but this is precisely where Amazon falls short. Amazon should begin providing detailed information on its energy and greenhouse gas footprint and commit to updating this data regularly.
2. The not-at-all-clean East Coast of the United States
Nearly half of Amazon's servers are located in Virginia on the East Coast, where only 2% of the electricity supplied by Dominion Power comes from renewable energy; the remaining 37% comes from fossil fuels, 41% from nuclear power, and 20% from natural gas. However, the case of neighboring North Carolina demonstrates that information companies can demand renewable energy from power companies using polluting energy sources to serve their fastest-growing consumers; Google, Facebook, and Apple jointly pushed Duke Energy to provide more renewable energy. Amazon has a good chance of becoming the first state to do so in Virginia.
3. Practical Guidelines
While Amazon's competitors are setting long-term renewable energy use goals, they are also establishing practical guidelines to guide their actions. Recently, Amazon began to touting "100% carbon neutrality" in three of its global operating regions, including its newly established data center in Frankfurt, Germany. Will Amazon follow Google's example and purchase local renewable energy in the Netherlands? Or will it quietly maintain its existing electricity supply model, only beautifying its energy figures on paper by purchasing renewable energy allowances or carbon offsets? Amazon should clearly define to consumers what it means by "using renewable energy."
Sources: GREENPEACE (2014-11-21)
