Tag Archives: clean our cloud

Google’s new wind power deal shows real corporate leadership

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Google announced it is purchasing 48 megawatts of renewable wind power for US data center

When’s the last time you felt really good about something a corporation has done for the environment?

If you’re like me, it’s probably not recently. Big companies usually grace Greenpeace’s blog for destroying the environment.

Today though, we can feel good about at least one company’s actions: Google announced that it is purchasing 48 megawatts of clean, renewable wind power for its data center in Oklahoma, USA. That’s enough clean energy to power a small city! Continue reading →

New York Times shines spotlight on the Internet’s impact on the environment

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Data centers like this run off dirty diesel generators

On Sunday, the New York Times launched a new series called “The Cloud Factories” that examines the massive data centers that store the data that makes up the internet, and the effects they have on the environment. Continue reading →

Facebook means business in mission to ‘Unfriend Coal’

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Unfriend Coal

If you’ve followed the effort by Greenpeace International and hundreds of thousands of Facebook users around the world to get the social networking platform to Unfriend Coal, you’ll be heartened by today’s news.

Facebook published its 2011 energy and carbon footprint data and announced a 2015 goal of powering 25% of the platform with renewable energy, setting an important benchmark for the company to fulfill its goal to be fully powered by clean and renewable energy. Continue reading →

Apple’s Clean Energy Plans Still Cloudy Despite Coal-free Pledge

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by David PomerantzBlack balloons in one of Apple's flagship storesApple’s clean energy plans still cloudy despite coal-free pledge

Apple’s clean energy policies have significantly improved, but the company still gets low scores for its energy choices when compared with sector leaders, according to a new Greenpeace International analysis released today.

Despite a welcome commitment by Apple in May that its data centers will be coal-free and powered by 100% renewable energy, the analysis reveals that Apple still lacks a plan that outlines a realistic path to eliminate its reliance on coal to power its iCloud. Continue reading →

Apple Should Join North Carolinians and Tell Duke to Quit Coal

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by Emily EuchnerActivists block a train from bringing coal to a Duke coal plant in May, 2012

Throughout high school, I swam in Mountain Island Lake and the Catawba River every summer. It was only within the last year, after I graduated just a few miles from there, that I learned what a risk I had been taking with those swims, thanks to the pollution from Duke Energy’s coal ash ponds.

Coal ash – the waste produced from coal burnt at the Riverbend power plant – sits in unlined ponds next to the Catawba River, which provides much of Charlotte with drinking water. In addition to having to worry about contamination, two of the plant’s coal ash impoundments have been rated as high hazards by the EPA, meaning that a dam failure will “probably cause loss of human life”. Continue reading →

Apple states bold coal-free ambition for iCloud, now must explain how it will get there

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Apple's cutomers take action.Post Authored by Gary Cook, Greenpeace International

Apple has made a bold claim to make all three of its data centers “coal free” and has doubled the amount of solar energy powering its data center in North Carolina. Apple’s customers certainly appreciate boldness, and will love the ambition to be “coal free.”

“All three of our data centers will be coal free, which is an industry first for anybody of our size,” Apple’s CFO Peter Oppenheimer said last Thursday when announcing that the company is doubling the amount of solar energy powering its data center in North Carolina.

This is a clear sign that Apple is listening to the 220,000 customers who have asked for a clean iCloud. Apple now needs to show those customers how it will turn that rhetoric into reality, with further action and changes to its plans.

Continue reading →

Broadcasting live from Apple’s headquarters

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by Brandy Palm

My name is Brandy and I’m here in our “iPod” to send Apple your messages. We’re right in front of Apple’s headquarters in Cupertino, California, in an eight-foot tall, ten-foot wide pod broadcasting audio messages from people like you to Apple’s employees and executives asking the company to power its iCloud with clean energy instead of coal. Continue reading →

Apple: the writing’s on the wall

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by Kat Clark

Clean Our Cloud Projection

Greenpeace activists project Facebook posts, tweets, and photos from supporters of the Clean Our Cloud campaign onto Apple's Cupertino headquarters early Tuesday, May 15, 2012.


For over a month now, our supporters around the world have been helping us tell Apple that they want a clean iCloud. Apple’s executives have thus far ignored the hundreds of thousands of people asking them to use their influence for good by building a cloud powered by renewable energy. So it was time for us to take your messages to Apple’s headquarters in the heart of Silicon Valley.

Right now, Greenpeace activists are projecting Facebook posts, tweets, and photos from supporters of the Clean Our Cloud campaign onto a wall of the company’s famous Cupertino headquarters. Continue reading →

Photo of the Month – April 2012

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The April Photo of the Month by Michael Nagle shows the above ground entry way of Apple’s Fifth Avenue Store in New York after Greenpeace activists released black balloons with the message “Clean Our Cloud.”

Smoke Trails at Apple

I like the way the reflection of the black balloons trapped inside the glass cube seem to trail away from the Apple logo like dark sooty smoke merging with clouds outside and framed by the streetscape. The balloons evoke the air pollution caused by burning coal to create electricity. Continue reading →

Apple: Come clean about your coal problem, then start solving it!

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Guest blog by Gary Cook

The first step to solving most problems is admitting that you have one. Apple has a growing coal problem, and once they come clean about that, they can start applying their renowned innovation to solving it. Unfortunately, Apple has been less than forthcoming about the source and amount of energy that will be needed to power the iCloud. Now, Greenpeace has found new evidence (Apple’s permit application and permit) that provides additional clarity on Apple’s iCloud plans, and clearly shows that the company’s coal problem is on a trajectory to grow far beyond what Apple is currently willing to admit.

Continue reading →