Korea’s role in building green Internet

For the estimated over 2.5 billion people around the world who are connected to the Internet, it is impossible to imagine life without it. The Internet has rewoven the fabric of our daily lives ― how we communicate with each other, work and entertain ourselves ― and become a foundation of the global economy. Seemingly on a daily basis, new businesses that use the Internet as their foundation are disrupting and often replacing long-standing business models and industries. From music and video to communications and mail, more and more of our “offline” world is moving online.

But every time we post a Facebook status to our friends, send a message via Line or WhatsApp or tweet to our followers, that information is housed in giant data centers that require a lot of electricity. These data centers are a key part of the cloud, and a single one can require as much energy as a medium-sized city. If the internet were a country, it would rank sixth in the world on the basis of how much electricity it uses, and the amount of data shuttling around the world is expected to triple in the next few years as more and more people get connected.

The Internet we love, and the companies that run it, are at the crossroads in terms of where their energy comes from. For the past four years, Greenpeace has been working to challenge global Internet companies to build an Internet that is renewably powered, and have seen the start of a race among leading internet companies. Facebook became the first to commit to be 100 percent renewably powered, after 1,000,000 people asked the company to “Unfriend Coal” (2011), and Apple followed shortly thereafter in 2012 with its own commitment to move off of coal, in response to users around the world who asked Apple to clean its cloud.

Along with Google, we have now seen a total of eight global Internet companies that have committed to power their data centers with 100% renewable energy. Many of these commitments are already having a big impact in making our world greener, both online and offline, as IT leaders use their influence with monopoly utilities and government officials to disrupt the dirty energy status quo and shift investment to renewable sources of electricity.

Here is a great example. In 2012, Apple, Google and Facebook all had data centers in North Carolina, home of Duke Energy, the largest U.S. electric utility and almost entirely dependent on coal, natural gas and nuclear power. Because of their commitment to renewable energy, these companies were able to get Duke to commit to offering large customers the ability to buy renewable energy. And just this past month, these three tech giants sent a strongly worded letter to the heads of the state legislature expressing their shared concern about a bill that would roll back renewable energy policy, stating “the right and ability to access power from renewable resources is not merely a goal, but an expectation.” South Korea is in a similar situation, so what has driven Duke Energy can happen here.

Able to claim the fastest broadband speeds in the world, Korea is already a major engine behind the rapidly growing Internet economy. As homegrown Internet powerhouses such as Naver and Daum Kakao rapidly expand across Asia and beyond, the importance of having Korean Internet companies enter the race to build a renewably powered Internet cannot be overstated.

That’s why Naver’s announcement of its commitment to be 100 percent renewably powered is such an important step forward ― it’s the first Asian Internet giant to enter the global race to build an Internet that is renewably powered, and we certainly need other Korean IT leaders to make sure they are not the only one. This race is not a short one, and access to renewable electricity remains a significant hurdle in Korea and many countries in Asia. But as we have seen in the United States and elsewhere in the world, when IT leaders use their economic and political influence, they have the ability to shift even the most recalcitrant utilities to shift their investments toward renewable energy, at almost Internet-like speed. With the same commitment and leadership, Korean Internet giants can become a leading force not only in building an Internet that is renewably powered, but also opening the door for renewable energy in Korea and other major Asian markets.

By Gary Cook

Gary Cook has been Greenpeace’s Senior IT Analyst since 2009 and has over two decades of experience in government and corporate policy on climate and renewable energy, working with government officials and multinational corporations to strengthen policies to deploy energy efficiency and renewable energy solutions at the international, federal and state level.

While with Greenpeace, Gary first successfully campaigned to secure commitments to 100 percent renewable energy from Facebook in 2011, Apple in 2012 and Amazon Web Services in 2014, and has worked to secure 100 percent renewable commitments from a total of four additional major Internet companies.