The dark side of IoT: Greenpeace speaks out

Tech firms urged to go green as IoT and cloud see energy consumption rocket

The booming popularity of IoT and cloud will see the world's carbon footprint deepen unless tech giants act now, according to a new report which ranks firms on their green credentials.

According to its Click Clean report, Greenpeace claims new cloud-based online distribution models and the rocketing number of connected devices will see the amount of global pollution soar.

"The transition to online distribution models... appears to deliver a reduction in the carbon footprint over traditional models of delivery," it said. "However, in some cases, this shift may simply be enabling much higher levels of consumption, ultimately increasing the total amount of electricity consumed and the associated pollution from electricity generation. Unless leading internet companies find a way to leapfrog traditional, polluting sources of electricity, the convenience of streaming could cause us to increase our carbon footprint.

"The rapid transition to streaming video models, as well as tablets and other thin client devices that supplant on-device storage with the cloud, means more and more demand for datacentre capacity, which will require more energy to power."

In the report, Greenpeace estimates that back in 2011, the combined electricity useage of the world's digital infrastructure would have ranked sixth globally among countries.

Scorecard

Greenpeace analysed the green credentials of a number of tech giants in its report and ranked them on its "clean energy index".

Apple was awarded top place, scoring 100 per cent on the index thanks to its products not being powered by coal, nuclear or natural gas and gaining an ‘A' rating for its transparency and commitment to using renewable energy.

Microsoft and Facebook were mid-ranking on the table but HP, IBM and Oracle all scored less than 25 per cent on Greenpeace's chart thanks partly to their heavy reliance on coal.

Amazon Web Services (AWS) was singled out by the campaign group for what it claims was the company's lack of transparency on its green commitments.

"Amazon needs to provide more information about its datacentre footprint and how it will move toward 100 per cent renewable energy, as Apple, Google, and Facebook have done - its rapid expansion in coal dependent Virginia should be a concern to its customers... who are fully dependent on Amazon for their online operations," said Gary Cook, senior IT analyst at Greenpeace.

"Increased transparency will allow AWS customers to know where they and AWS stand on their journey to 100 per cent renewable energy."