Page - September 16, 2010
Greenpeace is working to phase out the use of fossil fuels across the globe, including within its own operations.
Greenpeace has modeled an Energy Revolution Scenario that demonstrates how we can phase out fossil fuels,thereby cutting carbon pollution, stopping climate change, and creating new green jobs. To help move us toward a day when we have achieved a peak then decline in global emissions, Greenpeace is campaigning to get the IT sector to join us in this crucial effort.
IT companies, always at the vanguard, are uniquely situated to drive changes in government policy and market conditions that will increase the deployment of renewable energy and decrease carbon pollution.
Greenpeace uses a wide variety of IT services hosted either in-house or with hosting providers and software companies. We have set for ourselves the following targets:
- All our offices and in house IT services globally are powered by electricity from renewable sources by the end of 2012.
- Wherever possible all IT outsourced hosting services provided by companies to Greenpeace will be using 100% renewable electricity by 2014.
Greenpeace is already sourcing renewable energy for as many of our offices as possible and is including renewable electricity requirements in procurement of external IT services. As a global organization (with a presence in 40 countries across Europe, the Americas, Asia, Africa and the Pacific) the above dates reflect both the lack of renewable electricity in some countries and the need for many more major IT companies to offer services based on renewable energy.
While we make every effort to secure the greenest IT services in our procurement decisions, as a relatively small customer we do not have the purchasing power large IT companies have when making procurement decisions. These huge investment decisions can significantly increase the demand for renewable energy, and can make it easier for smaller businesses, organisations and individuals to do the same because the supply chain will look to meet the needs of the large, iconic customers first.
This is exactly why we campaign for the biggest global IT companies to use more renewable energy so there is more choice for the thousands of small customers like Greenpeace that use their IT services.
Only if the biggest global IT companies drive increased demand for renewable power in all their decisions will the massive growth in internet use be more sustainable for all.