Greenpeace hammers Apple and its 'dirty data centers'

by Steven Mostyn - Apr 22 2011, 07:15

When we think of Apple Inc., we envisage beautifully elegant gadgetry, trend-setting technology, and a level of all-conquering brand power that most other electronics manufacturers would kill for.

However, if we remove our rose-tinted glasses for a moment, we find ourselves looking at a new Greenpeace report that dumps on Apple from a great height regarding its ecological credentials… or distinct lack thereof.

According to the ‘How Dirty is Your Data?’ report, Cupertino-based Apple ranks as dead last when it comes to evaluating the coal and nuclear-based pollution produced by tech company data centers.

The Guardian reports that Apple’s new iDataCeter in North Carolina stands to triple the gadget giant’s levels of energy usage (approx. 100MW of electricity) and relies largely on coal to create a power drain equivalent to some 80,000 homes in the United States.

“Consumers want to know that when they upload a video or change their Facebook status that they are not contributing to global warming or future Fukushimas,” commented Gary Cook, IT policy analyst at Greenpeace and lead author on the report.

Taking a closer look at the report’s findings, Apple’s combined server banks have a 54.5 percent reliance on coal-based electricity, while social networking giant Facebook has a 53.2 percent dependence, and IBM comes in at 51.6 percent.

Computer manufacturer Hewlett-Packard (HP) and micro-blogging phenomenon Twitter round out the top five anti-green offenders with respective percentages of 49.4 and 42.5.

“Many companies treat their energy consumption a bit like the Coca-Cola secret formula, because they don’t want competitors knowing how much they spend on energy,” added Cook.

“The amount of electricity they consume would give some indication of what kind of arms race they were in. They don’t really want this story to be told.”

With the steady rise of Cloud computing, which brings with it the increased necessity for expansive server facilities, the report projects that related energy demands could quadruple by 2021 with data centers accounting for as much as eight percent of global consumption.  

In terms of the report’s favored industry players, Yahoo, Google, Amazon and Akamai all emerged with positive results. Check out the report for yourself by clicking here.

Apple has not offering any official comment on its somewhat less than prestigious positioning.

Around the Web

comments powered by Disqus