Facebook is good for a lot of things, whether you just want to play some FarmVille or you have a hard time remembering birthdays. But now the social network is looking to use its influence to help the environment with the new Green on Facebook initiative.

By partnering with groups including the Alliance to Save Energy, the Digital Energy Solutions Campaign, and The Green Grid, Facebook is hoping to spread awareness of environmental issues using its considerable reach. Not only that, but the social network is also making changes itself. This includes creating a new programming language that cuts down CPU use by around 50 percent. This process is in use at Facebook, but the company also released the software as an open source project so that other companies can do the same.

"One of our core values at Facebook is the responsibility to do everything we can to reduce our environmental impact on the planet," reads the Green on Facebook page. "We are proud that Facebook plays a unique part in promoting efforts to achieve a clean energy future. By enabling millions of people from diverse backgrounds to easily connect and share, we believe we can help unleash innovative environmental initiatives across the globe."