Facebook Recommits to Renewable Energy With 2020 Pledge

By Anca Gagiuc

Facebook has committed to cutting its greenhouse emissions by 75 percent and powering its global operations with 100 percent renewable energy by the end of 2020. The new pledge follows the firm’s 2015 goal of supporting 50 percent of its facilities with renewable energy by 2018—that goal was reached in 2017.

Facebook started investing in renewable energy in 2013, when it made its first wind power acquisition. Since that moment on, the firm signed contracts for more than 3 gigawatts of new solar and wind energy, of which more than 2.5 gigawatts were acquired in the past year alone.

A notable fact about Facebook’s renewable purchases is that they are more than just offset agreements—deals where a company buys renewable energy in some godforsaken place to offset the power they’re buying in local markets that rely on traditional carbon-based fuel sources. “All of these wind and solar projects are new and on the same grid as our data centers,” the company said in a prepared statement. “That means that each of these projects brings jobs, investment and a healthier environment to the communities that host us—from Prineville, Ore., and Los Lunas, N.M., to Henrico, Va., and Luleå, Sweden.”

The targets Facebook made public are part of the company’s commitment to the Paris Agreement through the “We Are Still In” initiative.

Image courtesy of Facebook