When you think of the greenest businesses in the world, do you think of tech companies? Greenpeace's latest report has examined the Internets growing energy footprint and how the leading data operators have taken big steps to clean up their energy act. The infographic above details the information from the report and rates the largest cloud-based companies from everything from transparency, green energy index rating, nuclear power and more, so see who is top of the green energy class.

1. The
GREENEST
TECH COMPANIES
6%
Renewable Energy
Commitment & Siting Policy D
Energy Transparency A
B
Energy Efficiency &
Mitigation
C
Renewable Energy
Deployment & Advocacy
27%
Renewable Energy
Commitment & Siting Policy B
Energy Transparency
C
C
Energy Efficiency &
Mitigation
C
Renewable Energy
Deployment & Advocacy
100%
Renewable Energy
Commitment & Siting Policy A
Energy Transparency A
B
Energy Efficiency &
Mitigation
A
Renewable Energy
Deployment & Advocacy
49%
Renewable Energy
Commitment & Siting Policy A
Energy Transparency A
A
Energy Efficiency &
Mitigation
B
Renewable Energy
Deployment & Advocacy
59%
Renewable Energy
Commitment & Siting Policy B
Energy Transparency C
B
Energy Efficiency &
Mitigation
B
Renewable Energy
Deployment & Advocacy
18%
Renewable Energy
Commitment & Siting Policy D
Energy Transparency
C
B
Energy Efficiency &
Mitigation
C
Renewable Energy
Deployment & Advocacy
21%
Renewable Energy
Commitment & Siting Policy D
Energy Transparency
F
F
Energy Efficiency &
Mitigation
F
Renewable Energy
Deployment & Advocacy
17%
Renewable Energy
Commitment & Siting Policy B
Energy Transparency A
B
Energy Efficiency &
Mitigation
C
Renewable Energy
Deployment & Advocacy
15%
Renewable Energy
Commitment & Siting Policy D
Energy Transparency B
B
Energy Efficiency &
Mitigation
C
Renewable Energy
Deployment & Advocacy
15%
Renewable Energy
Commitment & Siting Policy F
Energy Transparency C
D
Energy Efficiency &
Mitigation
D
Renewable Energy
Deployment & Advocacy
Renewable Energy
Commitment & Siting Policy F
Energy Transparency F
D
Energy Efficiency &
Mitigation
F
Renewable Energy
Deployment & Advocacy
15%
Renewable Energy
Commitment & Siting Policy C
Energy Transparency
C
C
Energy Efficiency &
Mitigation
C
Renewable Energy
Deployment & Advocacy
Renewable Energy
Commitment & Siting Policy B
Energy Transparency
B
C
Energy Efficiency &
Mitigation
C
Renewable Energy
Deployment & Advocacy
Renewable Energy
Commitment & Siting Policy B
Energy Transparency
B
B
Energy Efficiency &
Mitigation
A
Renewable Energy
Deployment & Advocacy
Google continues to lead the pack
with its commitment to a
renewably powered
Internet.
Energy transparency is on the rise with significant improvement
from Facebook and Apple.
Amazon and Twitter are both still
lacking in the transparency department.
0% 0% 0% 6% 20% 12% 7% 25% 16%
13% 22% 15% 21% 32% 18% 17% 22% 26%
26% 30% 17% 42% 22% 15% 37% 25% 15%
29% 28%48%
Not
available
Not
available
Not
available
25% 28% 27% 37% 32% 12%
20% 44% 10% 47% 24% 14%
September 2011
Google increases transparency on its data centre energy use.
December 2011
Facebook are to use a renewable energy siting policy for data centres.
May 2012
Apple commits to 100% renewable energy for iCloud.
August 2012
Facebook publishes its energy and carbon footprint data for the first time.
February 2013
Rackspace commits to 100% renewable energy.
March 2013
Salesforce commits to 100% renewable energy.
An Apple report reveals its path to 100% renewable energy.
April 2013
Apple, Facebook, Google team up to push the United States’ largest
utility supplier to provide a more renewable energy offering.
June 2013
Apple chooses solar power for it’s Nevada data centre.
November 2013
Microsoft makes its first large-scale purchase of renewable energy
to power a data centre.
Box becomes sixth company to commit to 100% renewable energy.
Apple begins powering manufacturing with renewable energy too.
Facebook powers new Iowa data centre with 100% wind energy.
Facebook continue to show commitment with the location of a data
centre in Iowa - resulting in the biggest purchase of wind turbines ever.
Apple is the most significantly improved company since the last index was run.
Recently,
6 major cloud
brands have committed
to 100% renewable energy...
...which could
result in a renewable
powered Internet.
(Apple, Box, Facebook, Google,
Rackspace, Salesforce)
Timeline of
Green Energy Adoption
June 2012
eBay quits the coal grid for its Utah data centre.
Brought to you by:
Data Sources:
greenpeace.org | techcrunch.com | macrumors.com
Resources:
Magnifying glass icon by Icomoon on flaticon.com
Refresh icon and Sun Icon by Yannick on flaticon.com
Gas icon, Wind mill icon, Footprint icon and Green energy icon by Freepik on flaticon.com
Green energy index rating
Coal use rating Nuclear power use rating
Natural gas use rating