Amazon Web Services (AWS) should power its datacentres with 100 per cent renewable energy by 2020, according to campaigners who accuse the cloud giant of falling behind its rivals.
Green America has started an online petition to hasten AWS’s transition to renewable energy, claiming its servers burn through enough energy to power 600,000 homes each year.
It also wants the world’s biggest public cloud provider to open up about its green energy targets, starting by issuing an annual sustainability report and submitting annual energy data to the Carbon Disclosure Project.
The environmental group pointed out AWS is being outperformed by rivals like Google and Microsoft when it comes to renewable energy.
“Unlike Google, Facebook, and Microsoft, Amazon has disclosed virtually no information about its energy use and its impacts on the climate,” the group said.
“While Google and Apple have committed to running on 100 per cent renewables and are happy to flaunt their progress to the public, Amazon has done little more than state a goal of moving to renewables, with no plan or timeline for doing so.”
The online campaign follows an open letter signed by 19 AWS customers last month, calling on the company to commit to transparency over its energy usage, carbon footprint, and renewable energy goals.
In the letter, posted online by the Wall Street Journal, firms including Hootsuite, Tumblr and Upworthy wrote: “[AWS should] provide clarity on AWS’s principles for how it defines renewable energy, and what type of options it will prefer moving forward, so that we and our customers and users can have confidence in the integrity of AWS’s commitment.”
The cloud company recently announced it is helping build a 150 megawatt wind farm in Indiana to provide renewable electricity for its datacentres, winning Greenpeace's approval.
But for servers in its US East region, it also uses electricity that is up to 97 per cent coal-powered, according to Green America.
Jeff Barr, AWS’s cloud chief, said in a blog post last week that AWS customers use 77 per cent fewer servers and 84 per cent less power than they would operating their own datacentres.
He added: “AWS remains focused on working towards our long-term commitment to 100% renewable energy usage.
“The AWS global infrastructure is powered by approximately 25% renewable energy today, and that we expect to reach 40% by the end of 2016.
“We have several additional developments planned in the next 12 -18 months to help us get there and encourage our customers to check back on our sustainability page often to watch our progress.”
