WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Facebook Inc. (FB) on Thursday announced its latest initiative aimed at climate change. The company proposes to restore more water than it consumes by 2030.
The company mainly uses water for cooling the banks of the computers, which operate in its data centers. Commenting on the initiative, sustainability water lead at Facebook, Sylvia Lee, said, 'The company intends to focus its efforts in regions where it uses local water resources, but it will also look at high-risk areas that face the most challenges in terms of their water supply.'
The company said that in the year 2020, it used up to 3.7 million cubic meters of water, equivalent to nearly 1,500 Olympic-size swimming pools or a total consumption of 2.2 million cubic meters.
Facebook proposes to verify its water restoration efforts through LimnoTech, a sustainability consulting firm and the company will keep the public posted about its sustainability efforts through its annual sustainability reports.
The company will also begin water restoration efforts outside of the U.S, in countries like Ireland, Singapore, India, the U.K. and Mexico.
The problem of climate change is real and if you look at the biggest impact as a result of climate change, some of the really big ones like wildfires, droughts, floods at the end of the day, it's actually all tied to water,' Lee said.
Earlier this month, the U.N climate panel had given a grim warning about climate change and called for swift and concrete action. The agency warned that limiting global warming to close to 1.5 degrees Celsius or even 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels 'will be beyond reach' in the next two decades without large-scale reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. It is in the backdrop of such an environmental crisis that Facebook announced its latest initiative.
The company had earlier initiated water restoration projects in areas like New Mexico, Arizona, Texas, Utah, Oregon and California. These include funding to support the Colorado River Indian Tribes System Conversation Project to conserve and stabilize the water levels of Lake Mead in Arizona.
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