Google Rules Greenpeace Cool IT Leaderboard

By advocating for renewable energy and adding it into its business infrastrucure, search engine giant Google was able to overtake Cisco atop Greenpeace’s Cool IT Leaderboard 5. The environmental organization’s assessment of tech companies measures their clean-energy innovation and actions to combat climate change. In 2010, the top spot went to Cisco.

Google scored particularly well for its political advocacy work and for sourcing renewable energy to its infrastructure, according to Greenpeace. The Cool IT Leaderboard evaluates global IT companies on their leadership in the fight to stop climate change along with their technological know-how and political influence to bring about a clean energy revolution.

image via Greenpeace

“Google’s commitment to transparency, new investments in clean energy solutions, and success in powering a significant percentage of its operations with renewable energy is what we expect to see from leading IT companies,” Greenpeace International IT analyst Gary Cook said in a statement. ”Given their rapidly increasing energy demand, these companies must work to change the rules needed to drive greater investments in clean technology and renewable energy deployment.”

Because so many tech companies now rely on data centers to power their cloud applications, there is a growing demand for energy, much of which is coming from “dirty energy” sources like coal and diesel. In the latest ranking, Greenpeace said Google, Cisco and Dell all stood out for sourcing more than 20 percent renewable energy for their global operations.

[source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Earthtechling/~3/LFZkbBz_unw/]