Originally published June 3 2011
Apple named least green technology company
by Nicole Parsons
(NaturalNews) As a company, Apple has become a household name in such a way that one would be hard-pressed to find many people in the Western world who aren't at least somewhat familiar with the words "ipod" and "iphone". However, what you might not know is that Apple has found a place at the bottom of a list compiled by Greenpeace detailing the least environmentally green technology companies. Apple has earned its place on the list due to its "dirty data" practices, as their energy centers use a highly polluting coal power at the sites that are home to their servers instead of finding more ecologically friendly alternatives. Most recently, Apple's new North Carolina facility is being powered by Duke Energy using a mixture of coal (62%) and nuclear power (32%).
In this day and age people are becoming more socially and environmentally conscious. No longer are they happy to sit idly by, blissfully unaware of how the companies they support do business. As author of the list and IT policy analyst for Greenpeace, Gary Cook stated that "consumers want to know that when they upload a video to Youtube or change their Facebook status that they're not contributing to global warming or future Fukushima's."
With that in mind, however, Greenpeace also says that the impact from the power used at data centers is hard to measure. The same data centres that are relying on servers instead of physical retention of data centres are reducing reliance on paper and other energy inefficiencies.
As things stand right now it is not required for companies to have to disclose the amount of energy they use or their carbon emissions. Molly Webb, the head of Smart Technology at the Climate Group in London says, "Greenpeace is calling for transparency from companies which rely heavily on data centers, and that would ideally highlight the need for investment and ambitious government policy to ensure enough clean power is available to green our tweets."
With so many renewable energy sources it seems mind boggling that a company with so much at their disposal would not be willing to find greener ways to power their data centers. Solar, wind, or even geothermal power sources provide possible environmentally friendly solutions.
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