San Francisco commuters were greeted with another group of tech protesters Wednesday morning but, this time, private shuttles (a.k.a. Google buses) were not the target.

This protest, carried out by Greenpeace demonstrators outside Twitter's San Francisco headquarters, attempted to raise awareness of a different matter: renewable energy.

Greenpeace "hatched" a green Twitter bird from a large green egg on the sidewalk in front of Twitter's office, attracting attention from passersby while passing out small green easter eggs to Twitter employees as they walked into work. The eggs, which were made not of plastic but of compostable, recycled plant material, contained notes calling on Twitter to increase both its transparency and use of renewable energy to power its data centers.

Image: Mashable, Kurt Wagner

"We’re asking Twitter to join some of their peers in Silicon Valley to make the Internet clean,” said Gary Cook, a senior IT analyst for Greenpeace and the organization's spokesperson at the event. “Unfortunately Twitter has not joined that race ... Twitter’s been a very transformative platform. Literally it’s helping to change governments. We want them to change their energy and join others to help build a green Internet.”

The protest comes on the heels of a recent Greenpeace report [PDF] published last week found Twitter is lagging behind other major tech companies in utilizing renewable energy to power company data centers. Twitter does not own any of its own data centers, but reportedly rents from third-party companies that aren't making renewable energy a priority, the report found.

According to the Greenpeace report, Twitter's facilities combined use 21% renewable energy, well below Facebook (49%), Google (48%), and Apple, which now uses 100% renewable energy to power its iCloud.

A Twitter spokesperson responded to the protest in a statement given to Mashable: "As we build out our infrastructure, we continue to strive for even greater efficiency of operations. We welcome any constructive feedback that helps us get there."

.@Greenpeace protester is taking a #selfie with the green #Twitter bird. This is great. pic.twitter.com/AXi04PRgCV

— Kurt Wagner (@KurtWagner8) April 9, 2014

 

San Francisco has been the breeding ground for a number of protests targeting tech companies in recent months, but those have mainly centered around Google Buses, the fleet of tech shuttles that transport employees from San Francisco to tech campuses at companies like Google, Apple, Facebook, and Cisco, which residents blame as a symbol of the rapidity with which neighborhoods here are gentrifying.

Those protests have been getting more aggressive as of late, with private homes picketed and buses vandalized. Wednesday's Greenpeace demonstration was peaceful, however, and did not carry the same animosity that Google Bus protests have generated.

The Greenpeace report awarded poor grades to Twitter, which got three "F" markings and one "D" in categories like transparency, renewable energy commitment, and renewable energy deployment.

Image: Greenpeace

The report called out Twitter for failing to share its energy data publicly, and for failing to commit to to any longterm renewable energy plan, a commitment made by other tech companies in Silicon Valley, including Facebook, Google and Apple. It reads:

As it was two years ago, Twitter remains at the bottom of the industry for energy transparency, disclosing no information about its energy footprint. Twitter lags behind companies like Salesforce and Box, which have shown that it is possible for those leasing data center space to commit to a long-term goal of being 100% renewably powered. Twitter also lags behind its peer and competitor in social media, Facebook, which took steps to adopt clean energy soon after it went public.

Twitter was not alone in receiving poor grades from Greenpeace, however. Oracle was awarded two "D" grades and one "F," and Amazon received the same markings as Twitter on its report card.

Cooks says that there are other companies in San Francisco who may be targeted by Greenpeace as well, but the organization is hoping to start with a commitment to work toward renewable energy from Twitter.

“It’s not going to happen overnight," he says. "If they don’t adjust their trajectory now, they’re going to become more and more reliant on dirty energy, and that’s going to be harder and harder to change further down the road.”

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