G202 - Facebook Case

60

Greenpeace criticized Facebook because its new Prineville data center would receive electricity that was ________% coal-powered.

platform

Greenpeace launched the Unfriend Coal campaign by using Facebook’s own ________ against the company.

kid

The “So Coal Network” video used child-like narration to make the energy issue simple enough that even a ________ could understand it.

fifth

Greenpeace argued Facebook had a responsibility to lead because their global data centers would rank ________ worldwide in energy use if considered a country.

defended; less

Facebook ______ its location choice by noting the Prineville data center’s extremely efficient Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) score was ____ than the national average.

cooling

Facebook selected Prineville partly because natural cooling from the Pacific Northwest climate reduces the high energy use needed for data-center ________.

20

Prineville offered Facebook cheap land, low taxes, and a labor force weakened by ________% unemployment.

energy

Facebook defended its Prineville decision by arguing it could not control the regional ________ mix provided by PacifiCorp.

open-ended

Greenpeace demanded Facebook “increase clean energy,” a phrase intentionally left ____-_____ to allow flexibility in compliance.

binding

Facebook was asked to “develop a plan” for going coal-free by 2021, but Greenpeace recognized that plans can change over time without being ________.

solution

Greenpeace demanded that Facebook educate users on its power sources and carbon footprint. However, this was risky because it would expose environmental problems before a ________ existed.

issue; other

Greenpeace asked Facebook to “advocate” for clean energy, but that exposed Facebook to _____-creep, where one cause leads to pressure to advocate for ________ causes.

independence

Facebook argued that maintaining platform neutrality was essential because activism could compromise the site’s perceived ________.

0.1

Only ________% of Facebook users followed the Greenpeace campaign, weakening Greenpeace’s consumer-pressure leverage.

letter

Despite Facebook’s defenses, Greenpeace escalated by publicly posting a ______ from Executive Director Kumi Naidoo to Mark Zuckerberg.

offsets

Facebook’s eventual “Plan, Invest, Offset, and Educate” strategy included purchasing renewable energy through PPAs and using carbon ________ to reach net-zero.

leverage

The dispute outcome depended on two factors: the reasonableness of Greenpeace’s demands and the amount of NGO ________ over Facebook’s profits.

hypocritical

NGOs target firms that have shown past interest in social issues; in Facebook’s case, its emphasis on community-building made environmental neglect look ________.

negotiable; compliance

Greenpeace left its demands open-ended and largely ________ to not put Facebook in a corner where they have no control on how to comply. Firms are more willing to agree to change when they can control some of the agenda and minimize their __________ costs.