Facebook unveils green page

Facebook made a point of calling attention to its Green on a page that highlights its efforts to cut its own energy use, while also telling others how to do the same, writes Reuters.

At the same time, Facebook says it has joined the research group the Digital Energy Solutions Campaign, which looks at how information technology can be used to fight climate change (like our Green:Net annual event).

The announcements came after it ran afoul of Greenpeace, which has waged a campaign to convince Facebook to add in clean power to run its data centers. Facebook is building a data centre in Oregon that will get its electricity from mostly coal-fired power plants.

Turning 'green' has caught on with more big businesses globally and, for some, their initiatives are not only saving costs and the environment, but can also be a source of new income for companies that sell their green technology to other companies, says Channel News Asia.

This is a growing trend highlighted by industry watchers at a conference for environmental sustainability and business practices. Singapore company Senoko is generating more than just electricity by using its environment-friendly combined cycle plant.

The plant uses natural gas, which produces less carbon emission compared to the traditional fuel oil. The plant has also been generating cost savings due to the higher efficiency of using natural gas.

The potential of intellectual property (IP) rights to impede the cleantech revolution has sparked a lively debate full of heated rhetoric, states Renewable Energy World.

US Secretary of Energy Steven Chu jump-started this discussion last year during a discussion of the Obama administration's goals to promote development of green technologies. Addressing the importance of international collaboration, Chu said: “We should work very hard in a very collaborative way - by very collaborative, I mean share all intellectual property as much as possible.”

This suggestion, extreme on its face, reminds us that IP rights play an important role in the climate change debate and must be meaningfully addressed at a global level, the report says.