Amazon has been accused of forgoing its green goals in favour of securing business from fossil fuel industries.

Previously, the tech giant had publicly shared its ambition of operating its vast data-centre network from 100% renewable energy sources. However, Greenpeace has claimed that one of its biggest data centres, located in the state of Virginia in the USA, is only using 12% clean energy.

Last year, Amazon only achieved a 50% clean energy usage. Since then, it has failed to publish any progress updates.

Gizmodo, a tech news platform, released a report recently to suggest that the reason behind this was because Amazon was courting large gas and oil businesses for membership of its board and as new corporate customers of its Amazon web service.

Elizabeth Jardim from Greenpeace said that the company was hoping that no one would pick up on the fact that it was using 'dirty' power to fuel its vast business. She added that, unless Amazon and other internet giants in the USA changed their direction, the growth of the internet could lead to more data centres, more carbon emissions and greater carbon problems.

Amazon's record on the renewables front contrasts starkly to other tech competitors such as Google, which is already using 100% renewable energy. Already, its data centres are able to operate 50% more efficiently than others in the industry.

Amazon responded to the Greenpeace criticism by saying that the green group had published 'incorrect' data about its infrastructure and renewables mix. It added that the company was still strongly committed to hitting its 100% green energy goal, saying that it had already hit a 50% renewables usage target in 2018. 

Furthermore, Amazon said that it had plenty of exciting renewable and environmental projects lined up for the current year.