The cards were issued by environmental group Greenpeace this past Wednesday

Apr 4, 2014 12:10 GMT  ·  By

It looks like the time has come for Twitter and Amazon to go sit in a corner and think about what they are doing to the planet. This is because, according to a new report released by environmental group Greenpeace this past Wednesday, both deserve having a great, big “F” adorn their green energy report cards.

On its website, the environmental group details that, according to information shared with the public and to the findings of its own investigation into the matter at hand, both companies still rely heavily on dirty energy sources.

Besides, members and supporters of Greenpeace accuse both Amazon and Twitter of not even putting their backs into upping their dependence on renewables and of being quite opposed to the idea of energy transparency.

On its website, Greenpeace details that, presently, Amazon Web Services, which is owned by Amazon.com, is one of the largest digital ecosystems online. The trouble is that, despite its growth in recent years, the company has done very little to reduce its ecological footprint.

“Amazon Web Services (AWS), owned by Amazon.com, has grown since its launch in 2006 into one of the largest digital ecosystems of the online world,” Greenpeace writes.

“Unfortunately, AWS has dropped further and further behind its competitors in building an internet that runs on renewable sources of energy, estimated at only 15%, and is the least transparent of any company we evaluated,” it adds.

As far as Twitter is concerned, Greenpeace says that, presently, the platform is one of the most opaque in the world when it comes to disclosing information concerning its energy consumption and the sources that it relies on in order to have its power demands met.

Since Twitter does not have any data centers of its own, the platform keeps up and running by renting data center space. According to the environmental group, “The microblogging platform has remained silent about the type and amount of electricity that is powering those data centers.”

“Twitter’s lack of transparency makes it impossible to know what, if any, notable efficiency measures the company employs,” members and supporters of the organization maintain.

The good news is that there are some Internet giants in this world that not only care about their environmental footprint, but that are also constantly trying to reduce it. Thus, Greenpeace says that both Apple and Facebook have made great progress in terms of embracing renewables.

Specifically, Apple is said to use 100% green energy, whereas Facebook is estimated to have 49% of its power demand met by renewables. Yahoo and Google, on the other hand, are said to use 59% and 34% clean energy, respectively.