In recent years, big corporations such as Facebook, Google, and Apple have all made the push toward renewable energy. Despite these companies’ moves to more green sources for energy, Amazon failed to follow suit. On Wednesday, November 19, 2014, they finally changed their tune.
Gary Cook, a Greenpeace IT analyst, was one of the first to notice that Amazon has still failed to publish a timeline or roadmap that indicates a plan for its renewable energy transition. This has caused heavy speculation about whether or not Amazon is serious about the move.
There’s no doubt that the company’s decision to move towards green processes is a good one. For years, Greenpeace criticized Amazon for not following suit in making a transition to healthier practices. As a result, in their “Clicking Clean” report released last April, Amazon was regarded as one of the worst companies on the map.
At this point, Amazon’s data centers are located primarily in Virginia and are powered by coal, natural gas, and nuclear power. However, certain data centers built since 2011 claim to run off of 100% renewable energy sources.
Cook was quick to note that one of Amazon’s biggest pitfalls is its failure to be honest and outspoken about the energy sources it uses. Cook believes that if Amazon is sincere about taking a significant step towards green energy sources, the company will become much more transparent over the next few years.
