Science & Technology

Facebook says it has reached carbon neutrality, uses 100% renewable energy

San Francisco, US, Jun 21 (EFE).- Facebook has achieved its goals of becoming carbon neutral and of using 100 percent of renewable energy, according to the company’s 2020 Sustainability Report published Monday.

The Menlo Park (California) firm achieved several of its environmental goals and commitments in 2020, such as the restoration of 5.8 million cubic meters of water in regions of the world that live under high water stress.

Carbon neutrality, also adopted by several other technology companies such as Amazon, Apple and Microsoft, means achieving net-zero carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by balancing CO2 emissions with its removal or by eliminating emissions.

By planting trees or using machines that suck CO2 out of the atmosphere, companies ensure that they are not contributing to worsening climate change, although these efforts are usually accompanied by measures to reduce emissions in the first place.

In the case of Facebook, carbon neutrality was achieved by reducing the emissions of greenhouse gases from its operations by 94 percent compared to 2017, in addition to participating in projects to remove CO2 from the atmosphere.

Most of the emissions of the social media company, which also owns Instagram and WhatsApp, come from its data centers (which host servers, large energy consumers), while a smaller percentage originates from offices.

In terms of the type of energy consumed, the company headed by Mark Zuckerberg went from using less than half of its total supply from renewable sources in 2016 to 100 percent in 2020, mostly from solar and wind. EFE

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