When we think of our environmental footprint we usually think about how we commute to work, if we recycle and how much water we use. But we never take into consideration how much energy we use when we surf the web or even use our Facebook profile. Facebook is the social networking site that is used by over 800 million people worldwide. In February 2010 the company announced that they were going to build a massive data centre in Oregon, US. The electricity for this centre was going to rely entirely on coal, the dirtiest source of energy in the world and the largest source of global warming pollution. Greenpeace, in April 2010, began campaigning for this company to drop coal and commit to 100% renewable energy. Facebook is a giant corporation which has the power to choose clean sources of energy to become a climate leader. Previously when Facebook users complained about the privacy settings, changes were made. So Greenpeace decided to use the same tactic by “greening facebook from within”, by providing awareness of this issue and gaining the support of the websites users. After 20 months of negotiation and hard work Facebook has agreed to run on clean, renewable energy. Over 700,000 people helped make this possible by using the Internet to voice their opinions.

*FUN FACT: Campaign supporters even set a Guinness world record (for the most Facebook comments in 24 hours).