Facebook Attained Net Zero Goal, 100% RE for Global Operations in 2020

California-headquartered social media giant  Facebook yesterday released its 2020 Sustainability Report, claiming that the company had met its goals of reaching net zero emissions and 100% renewable energy for its global operations.

“We also reduced our greenhouse gas emissions by 94% from 2017 levels, exceeding our goal of a 75% reduction”, said the social media giant.

Some of the highlights of the 2020 Sustainability Report are as follows:

• Facebook’s renewable energy portfolio totaled over 5.9 gigawatts (GW) of wind and solar projects under contract, and the firm increased its operating portfolio of wind and solar to over 2.8 GW spanning 15 US states, Europe, and Asia.
  Facebook restored nearly 5.8 million cubic meters of water in high water stress regions.
• Launching of the Climate Science Information Center, a dedicated hub for authoritative information from the world’s leading climate science sources.
• The firm’s renewable energy portfolio covered the electricity use of its employees while they worked from home. This was the first year in which the company incorporated work from home emissions into its environmental inventory.
• Facebook invested in high-quality carbon removal projects that removed 145,000 metric tons of carbon from the atmosphere, including reforestation projects in East Africa and the Mississippi River Valley.
• The report also introduces how the firm maps to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and shares its ESG priority topics.
• During last year’s global pandemic and economic recession, the health and resilience of workers in FB’s global supply chain was a leading priority. To that end, Facebook worked with its priority suppliers to address labor, human rights, and health and safety focus areas across our supply chain.

Last year, the International Energy Agency estimated that the data centres used by tech companies, including Facebook, consume around 1% of the world’s total energy. To support its many national and international data centres with clean energy, the company now finances 63 new renewable projects located on the same electrical grids as the data centres. In 2020, Facebook set a new goal: reaching net zero emission for its value chain in 2030.

The full report can be accessed here.