Green Effort versus Green Washing? By Doug Mohney

Views and Opinions on Green IT (Mar 19 2010)

1. 

   When does talk about being green become greenwashing, using PR and marketing speak to appear environmentally sensitive?  A couple of highly visible organizations have crossed the line between good works and bad policy, in my humble opinion.

   Most certainly Greenpeace drew a "Don't throw stones in glass houses" award for its recent faux pas in doing a full-press PR roll on Facebook's datacenter in Oregon for buying electricity from a utility getting the majority of its energy from coal-fired power.  Of course, Greenpeace apparently didn't do as much legwork in its own backyard when word came out that the company had a number of servers in a coal facility in Northern Virginia.  Dominion Virginia Power creates 46 percent of its electricity from coal, 41 percent nuclear -- an energy source not exactly blessed by current Greenpeace doctrine -- and just 4 percent from renewables.

   A Greenpeace policy advisor speaking to Data Center Knowledge said it's ok for the organization to practice "Do as I say, not as I do," because Facebook has a much bigger energy choice to make because the size of its data centers while it is looking for "stronger leadership" out of the data center industry. 

   In my book, if Greenpeace wants to hold Facebook to a higher standard, it should practice what it preaches.

   For its part, Facebook pointed out that it worked to design the most efficient data center possible and that it doesn't go out of the way to choose coal and that the real issue is that every data center plugs into the grid and gets power offered by the utility or power provider.  The real issue, feels the company, is to use energy "as wisely and as efficiently as possible."

   I am a bit more annoyed at eBay's new Green party line -- famously parroted by John Doerr at the Bloom Energy press conference -- of it being a "Green" company because people use the auction site as a recycling mechanism.   EBay, suffering from red ink the last few quarters and looking at shrinking market share, is now pitching its' service as a way to conserve energy and recycle goods rather than simply buying a new widget.   It even has green.ebay.com to specifically target eco-minded consumers.

   EBay has been the auction warehouse - not a green company. If anything, the company encouraged the habits of packrats and shoppers who were looking for a bargain -- enabling more consumption, not encouraging frugality and conservation.   If you want to find a greener way to buy things, go to Craig's List and shop for bargains locally. 

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