Facebook Vs Greenpeace

Case Background:

• Facebook experienced many consecutive years of growth
• On Jan 21 2010, it had announced to set up new data center at Prineville, Oregon to house thousands of computer servers.1 
• Following the announcement an NGO named Greenpeace has launched a social media campaign to protest against the decision
• The electricity that will be used to power the data center will be supplied by Pacificorp that sources 60% of its energy supply from burning coal, one of the largest contributor to global warming.2

Objective:

• How should Facebook respond publically to the mounting pressure from Greenpeace

Situation Analysis:

• What does Greenpeace want from Facebook?

• Greenpeace has asked Facebook to increase the use of clean energy.
• In a letter, Kumi Naidoo, Executive Director of Greenpeace International has asked Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook to choose locations that allow them to rely on clean energy. He also asked him to disclose greenhouse gas emissions inventory of Facebook.
• The idea behind this was that, Greenpeace and Naidoo believe that if Facebook shifts its data center’s location from Prineville to some other location were cleaner, renewable source will be utilized then it will pressurize others like Apple, Google, Yahoo and Microsoft who had data centers running on coal power.

• What made Facebook choose Prineville?

• According to Tom Furlong, director of site operations for Facebook, Prineville offered the best package-

• suitable climate for environmental cooling
• renewable power resources
• available land
• talented regional workforce
• supportive business environment3

• Location provided cool and dry air which can be used to cool internal system using airside economizer
• Airside economizer could be used most of the year due to altitude and cool climate
• Governer of Oregon open to work with Facebook.

1 Jonathan Heiliger, “Breaking Ground on Our First Custom Data Center”, Facebook, Jan 21, 2010, http://www.facebook.com/blog.php?post=262655797130, accessed Nov 15, 2011

2 “Facebook update: Switch to renewable energy now”, Greenpeace, Feb 19, 2010

3 Rich Miller, “It’s Official: Facebook is Oregon’s Company X”, Data Center Knowledge, Jan 21, 2011, http://www.datacenterknowledge.com/archives/2010/01/21/its-official-facebook-is-oregons-company-x/, accessed Nov 15, 2011