Facebook unveils energy use, carbon emissions data

SOURCE: GigaOm

Using Facebook actively for an entire year releases about the same amount of CO2 emissions into the atmosphere as drinking just one latte (mostly through the electricity consumed by Facebook’s servers). Yeah, that’s nothing, and shouldn’t scare off green-leaning, guilt-susceptible Facebookers (but maybe latte drinkers should think twice — the milk is the energy suck).

However, Facebook is becoming very serious about tracking data about the energy consumption and carbon emissions of its data centers and facilities, and on Wednesday unveiled detailed numbers about the use of these resources to the public. Facebook says in 2011 its data centers and operations used 532 million kilowatt hours of energy, and emitted 285,000 metric tons of CO2 equivalent.

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