Software Enabled Earth

Microsoft Survey: Small Businesses Increasingly Use Technology to Help Achieve Sustainability

Sustainability (or Green IT) is on everyone’s minds these days. This is not a problem that applies to Enterprises only but small businesses are also looking to technology to help them save costs and reduce their carbon footprint. Microsoft conducted a survey to better understand how small businesses are using technology to support environmentally friendly practices. We know that technology can drive cost-saving green practices on many levels, whether reducing power usage of computers, or enabling email while taking public transportation. Find out more here.

Any small businesses reading this blog that want to comment on the findings or best practices?

Microsoft Eliminating 6.3 million pounds of Carbon Emissions annually in Puget sound from Employee Car Travel

Microsoft today announced an expansion of the Connector bus system into nine new neighborhoods in the Puget Sound region.  The Connector is the company provided transportation bus system, which is free to ride for Redmond-based full-time employees.   To date the Connector has provided more than 380,000 rides to 8,650 employees, and has reduced carbon emissions by 5.5 million pounds.    With this expansion, estimates suggest the Connector will eliminate annually 6,730,020 employee car miles and 6,387,550 pounds (or 3,194 tons) of carbon emissions. 

Launched in September 2007, this is the second expansion in 2008 and the system now operates 19 routes.  With more than half the global workforce of Microsoft based in Redmond, the Connector is making a significant reduction in employee fuel consumption, greenhouse gas emissions and traffic for single occupancy vehicles.   It’s estimated that each Connector rider can reduce about 30 pounds of carbon emissions each day.  While Microsoft does not report the carbon emissions from its employees’ commutes on the Carbon Disclosure Project, by considering the impact of how our employees get to and from work,  we are committed to making a significant impact to improve the environment and the area.      

The company offers a number of commuting options like carpool, van pool and the Flexpass for Metro and Sound Transit, but as a Connector rider myself, this is a fantastic alternative for Microsoft employees and I’m glad to see it reaching more area regions.   Not only is it smart for the environment, but the buses are Wi-Fi–enabled and equipped with AC power, so I can check mail or the Internet on the way to or from work. 

Microsoft opens San Antonio data center

Today we announced the official opening of Microsoft’s newest data center in San Antonio, TX. Environmental Sustainability plays a key role in our site selection for Data Centers. The environmental sustainability approach for the San Antonio data center has been extensive, including:

• The San Antonio facility is the most power-efficient data center we’ve built to date.
• The facility will use 602,000 gallons of recycled waste water (from San Antonio’s waste water system) a day to cool the facility during peak cooling months or approximately 8 million gallons of water a month.
• Some improvements include the ways the servers are laid out in the rooms, the lighting in the building and other materials used for construction.
• Advantage of site selection:  Future plans for the facility include making use of availability of wind as part of the power mix in Texas and capturing abundant sunlight with solar panels. 
• Old-growth oak trees saved – shade provided has benefit in reduction of cooling costs. One such tree was named after the Data Center team’s General Manager, Michael Manos
• In addition to building the data center as sustainably as possible we run them as efficiently as possible as well. The efficient use of power is one of the metrics our data center managers are measured by.

This new data center builds on the learning's from our recently opened facility in Quincy, WA. Find out more at http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/cc546560.aspx

The Role of IT To Address Sustainability and Climate Change

I wanted to share two interesting reports on the role of the ICT industry to help bring solutions that can help address broad environmental issues.

Smart2020 - Enabling The Low Carbon Economy In The Information Age

This is a great report that describes ways that the ICT industry could enable significant reductions of emissions in other sectors of the economy and has quantified these in terms of CO2e emission savings and cost savings. Overall, this report finds that ICTs could enable emissions reductions of 7.8 Gt CO₂e in 2020, or 15% of business as usual emissions. The ICT-enabled energy efficiency translates into approximately $946.5 billion of cost savings. Here are some of the biggest opportunities identified in this report:

• Smart motor systems: A review of manufacturing in China has identified that without optimisation, 10% of China’s emissions (2% of global emissions) in 2020 will come from China’s motor systems alone and to improve industrial efficiency even by 10% would deliver up to 200 million tonnes (Mt) CO2e savings. Applied globally, optimised motors and industrial automation would reduce 0.97 GtCO2e in 2020, worth €68 billion ($107.2 billion).
• Smart logistics: Through a host of efficiencies in transport and storage, smart logistics in Europe could deliver fuel, electricity and heating savings of 225 MtCO2e. The global emissions savings from smart logistics in 2020 would reach 1.52 GtCO2e, with energy savings worth
  €280 billion ($441.7 billion).
• Smart buildings: A closer look at buildings in North America indicates that better building design, management and automation could save 15% of North America’s buildings emissions. Globally, smart buildings technologies would enable 1.68 GtCO2e of emissions savings, worth €216 billion ($340.8 billion).
• Smart grids: Reducing T&D losses in India’s power sector by 30% is possible through better monitoring and management of electricity
  grids, first with smart meters and then by integrating more advanced ICTs into the so-called energy internet. Smart grid technologies were the largest opportunity found in the study and could globally reduce 2.03 GtCO2e , worth €79 billion ($124.6 billion).

Read the full report at http://www.smart2020.org

Business for Social Responsibility - Can Software Save the World?

This paper articulates how software features can have a widespread impact to accelerate sustainable development by enabling people and institutions to address the most urgent sustainability challenges we face today. The report highlights key ways that software can contribute to sustainable development:

• Addressing Environmental Crises – Climate, water and food crises put enormous strains on people and societies and only through large-scale transformation enabled by interoperable systems can we achieve a low-carbon economy that provides access to food and water and protects these vital human rights.
• Bringing Information to Life and Putting It to Good Use – Whether for improved governance, optimized environmental performance or increased social benefit, software can help to illuminate patterns in the real world, to consider a broad range of options, and to make decisions that are definitively beneficial to stakeholders.
• Enabling Collaborative Problem Solving – Individuals and organizations are empowered by software to work collaboratively across traditional boundaries, to leverage knowledge and expertise outside their own specializations, and to become part of a collective brain that can result in multi-stakeholder governance, development leapfrogging and innovation for sustainability.
• Democratizing Global Commerce and Ensuring the Integrity of Markets – Scalable, low-cost transactions can mean the difference between fanciful ideas and workable business models. Software is the key to extending many kinds of services and creating new markets to drive social and environmental objectives.
• Broadening Access to Healthcare, Education and Financial Services – These are fundamental drivers of sustainable development; a healthy, educated and prosperous global population has the capability to make a future that is more sustainable and software can play a key role in enabling easy and affordable access to these services.

Read the full report at http://www.bsr.org/reports/BSR_Software_Accelerates_Sustainable_Development.pdf

Get VIRTUAL Now - Virtualization and "Green IT"

Today is the official launch of Microsoft's virtualization technologies which includes Windows Server 2008, System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008, Microsoft Application Virtualization 4.5 and the new Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008.  Get more details on the announcements we made at http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2008/sep08/09-07GetVirtualNowPR.mspx.

Microsoft’s Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 provides an optimized virtualization solution that can help reduce the number of physical machines by allowing you to consolidate Windows or Linux workloads onto a single physical server. System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008, part of the System Center suite of products, enables customers to configure and deploy new virtual machines and centrally manage their virtualized infrastructure, whether running on Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V, Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 R2, Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 or VMware Virtual Infrastructure 3. Microsoft Application Virtualization 4.5 gives desktop users a boost by streaming resource-heavy applications to the desktop, enabling IT managers to centrally control key applications and their use. When combined with Windows Vista’s power management and centralized group policy management settings and Windows Server already seeing up to 10 percent power savings, these offerings allow customers to optimize resources, proactively manage energy consumption and reduce the environmental footprint of their physical servers and virtual IT environment.

One customer realizing an environmental benefit mentioned in today’s press release, TALX, a web-based human resource, payroll and employment verification services provider who are developing a new advanced data center, said they expect to save approximately 50 percent in annual power and cooling costs by consolidating its server environment with Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V. By using Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V to enhance virtualization performance and host more virtual machines per physical server, TALX will be able to further consolidate its server environment, reduce hardware costs, save power and cooling costs, and conserve data center space.

You can read more about the energy, cost and environmnental benefits of Windows Server 2008 and Virtualization in the following white paper which was published recently. For example, the following chart shows the energy savings of virtualization 10 servers onto 1 server.

For more details on Microsoft's virtualization offering, please visit http://www.microsoft.com/virtualization

Microsoft becomes first US corporate campus to achieve Green Restaurant Certification for its cafeterias

By implementing a variety of new environmentally sustainable practices, including a new recycling program, Microsoft’s Redmond campus has become the first United States corporate campus whose foodservice has achieved Certified Green Restaurant™ status by the Green Restaurant Association (GRA). Microsoft has cafeterias that serve over 27,000 employees at our Redmond, Washington location and has set a goal of featuring Zero Waste restaurants, making it one of the largest facilities in the country to establish a goal of this nature.

The Green Restaurant Association worked with Microsoft to assess our existing sustainable practices and then created an individually-tailored plan to become a Certified Green Restaurant™.  To achieve certification, we launched several new environmental practices in accordance with the Green Restaurant Association’s rigorous guidelines, including:  removing all Styrofoam from campus, continuing and expanding our full scale recycling program, adding a composting program.

In addition, Microsoft will maintain the marks provided by the Green Restaurant Association by implementing four new environmental steps per year for the next five years. Microsoft and the GRA have identified the following improvements for 2009.

• Sustainable Food: Increase organic and sustainable seafood offerings, to reach a goal of 30% of the menu.
• Water Conservation: Install low flow aerators for hand washing and kitchen sinks, and install low flow pre-rinse spray valves on all kitchen sinks.
• Waste Reduction: System of warewashing chemicals that results in less packaging and chemical waste.

Find out more at http://www.dinegreen.com/ and of course http://www.microsoft.com/environment

Microsoft’s new recycling program cuts Redmond headquarters waste in half

As part of Microsoft’s goal to minimize our operational impact on the environment, we recently implemented a new recycling program that is helping to cut our Redmond corporate campus waste in half. Launched by our Real Estate & Facilities team, these new sustainable waste-management programs include the following key areas:

• Changing the tableware, food containers and flatware to more eco-friendly, non-petroleum based compostable products.
• This has removed from the landfill stream 20,300,000 pieces of cutlery, 18,500,000 plates and bowls, and 22,125,000 cups resulting in a total of 109 tons of plastic each year.
• Converting kitchen grease/oil to biodiesel for all cafés and kitchenettes.
• Each month, approximately 833 gallons of used fryer oil is shipped from Microsoft to biodiesel refineries. That’s around 10,000 gallons of Microsoft’s used kitchen oil converted each year to biodiesel fuel. 
• Expanding waste management practices to include all paper waste, milk cartons, glass, metal and composting.
• Composting food waste from cafés and kitchenettes
• This year Microsoft waste reduction program will convert 400,000 gallons of food waste to compost material through the use of a Compass corporation product called Trim Trax. Approximately 285,000 pounds of food will be composted at the Redmond campus this year.
• Composting of food and packaging
• 407 Campus kitchenettes and 35 Cafes are adding organics recycling.
• 4.7 million milk cartons a year will be recycled.

It's exciting to see these changes take place across the company. With the installation of new compostable trash bins in kitchens and cafeterias it's now up to employees to take part in helping reduce corporate waste.

Microsoft Provides Online Stage for Leaders to Share Opinions on How Technology Can Address Climate Change

All over the world, people are using technology to reduce dependence on fossil fuels, protect endangered species, and help businesses operate more efficiently.

To promote the sharing of information on this topic, Microsoft has invited environmental and business leaders to contribute their individual opinions on how technology can help the global community achieve environmental sustainability in the 21st Century.

The authors' views are shared through the Microsoft Environment site, under a section entitled Perspectives.

• Current authors featured include Carl Pope (Sierra Club Executive Director), Marc Gunther (Senior writer at FORTUNE magazine), and Mindy Lubber (President of Ceres).
• In addition, the section features a link to “The Carbon Productivity Challenge: Curb Climate Change & Sustain Economic Growth” from the McKinsey Global Institute.

Alongside these prominent global and regional leaders, the section also highlights the perspectives of local leaders.

This quarter, the section showcases the Hawaiian Islands; featuring Jeffrey Mikulina (Director of the Sierra Club, Hawai‘i Chapter), Brian Kealoha (Senior Vice President for Energy Industries), Paul E. Stevens (President & CEO Marine Resources Group), Hannah Bernard (Hawai’i Wildlife Fund), and other writers from Hawai'i.

If you are interested in what these local business and NGO leaders have to say about how technology can help their island state combat the effects of climate change, please take a moment to read their opinions and keep in mind, "A'ohe hana nui ka alu'ia." (Hawaiian: "No task is too big when done together.")

Please note: Contributions to the Perspectives section represent the opinion of the author. The section exists to encourage discourse on the topic of climate change and the potential of technology to enable the global community to take action and sustain the environment in the 21st Century. The section therefore encourages a diversity of opinions to be shared.

Microsoft Australia: Advancing Environmental Sustainability through Software

Environmental sustainability is an important issue at Microsoft Australia. From developing online resources that share environmental news and information to recognizing innovative environmental software solutions by partners, Microsoft Australia is helping to advance environmental sustainability through software.

ninemsn

The Green Generation channel on ninemsn provides Australian consumers with news and information that helps promote a greener lifestyle. The channel also provides a number of valuable environmental tools to visitors, including an eco-footprint calculator that enables users to calculate their personal environmental footprints.

Microsoft Australia Partner Conference

At the 2008 annual Microsoft Australian Partner Conference, Microsoft Australia awarded the first Australian Partner Award for “Environment and Sustainability Solution of the Year.”

According to Nick Mayhew, Microsoft Partner Strategy Lead for Australia, the strength of the entries in the inaugural year of the environmental solution category demonstrated that partners throughout Australia are committed to helping customers realize the potential of Microsoft technology to help solve global environmental issues. “We were truly delighted with the quantity and quality of the entries and it was great to see partners genuinely making a difference using leading edge Microsoft technologies, and growing their businesses at the same time.”

In the end, Prima Consulting was selected the winner from a group of finalists from around Australia – with Fujitsu Australia Limited and DSC-IT recognized as fellow finalists in the competition.

(See the official event press release and CRN’s news coverage of the event for more information.)

Where to Find Resources on Microsoft’s Environmental Business Practices

Interested in learning more about Microsoft’s Environmental Business Practices?

If so, check out the Our Commitment section of the Microsoft Environment site.

Here, you can:

• Review Microsoft’s Climate Change Policy Statement;
• Access Microsoft’s Carbon Disclosure Project Report;
• Read Microsoft’s Environmental Principles;
• Find Microsoft’s Sustainability Fact Sheet;
• Download Microsoft’s Restricted Substances for Hardware Products White Paper;
• Obtain the August 2008 Open Letter on Environmental Compliance; and
• Discover articles on Microsoft’s commitment to alternative commuting, sustainable building practices, and computer refurbishment programs.

The Microsoft Environment site also provides a number of resources under Make an Impact that help consumers and information workers reduce their own environmental impact, including how to:

• Buy energy efficient, environmentally-friendly computers;
• Recycle Electronics Waste;
• Manage Computer Power Use;
• Discover Microsoft Environmental Initiatives;
• Take Advantage of Low Carbon IT Resources;
• Learn About the Environment and Sustainable Computing;
• Calculate A Carbon Footprint; and
• Obtain Shared Best Practices for Sustainable Computing.

Other Microsoft sites with interesting environmental information include:

• MSN Green, which providers resources, such as a local green directory, that support greener consumer lifestyles;
• Microsoft Office Online's Lighten Up site, which highlights resources that minimize the environmental impact of the workplace; and
• TechNet's Sustainable Computing topic area, which offers resources for IT professionals on environmental sustainability and computing.

Unleashing Power Management Features in Windows Vista

Last week, Microsoft made two major announcements with respect to PC power management: endorsing a free power management application for consumers and launching a free ENERGY STAR solution for licensed System Center Configuration Manager 2007 users.

These announcements generated a lot of interest in PC power management and led some of our blog readers to ask: "These new tools are great, but what power management features does Windows Vista offer out-of-the-box?"

There are a number of resources available on the Microsoft Environment site that help answer this question, including:

• Windows Vista: Powering Down Grows Up, which provides a broad overview of power management features in Windows Vista;
• Technical Guidance - Power Management, which features power management resources for IT professionals and developers on the sidebar.

TechNet also features a number of Windows Vista related power management articles in its Sustainable Computing section –which also are featured in the Technical Guidance section of the Microsoft Environment site:

• Sleep or Hibernate?, which provides an overview of the different power states in Windows Vista to consumers;
• Conserving Energy with Group Policy, which explains how IT professionals can develop custom power plans using Group Policy Settings.

Finally, Windows Hardware Developer Central features a white paper on energy conservation in Windows Vista. This paper outlines the potential energy savings available when deploying Windows Vista and the significant changes from Windows XP. These savings are presented in terms of both financial and environmental impact.

Microsoft’s Chief Environmental Strategist Introduces Free Power Management Application for Consumers

Earlier today, Microsoft’s CES Rob Bernard, Verdiem’s CEO Kevin Klustner, and the Climate Savers Computing Initiative’s President Lorie Wigle announced the launch of Verdiem's Edison, a power management application offered free to PC users around the world! A video recording of the announcement is now available on-line. The video provides a demo of the software and a great overview on the importance of power management in computing. Watch the video and download the application on the Microsoft Environment site.

Microsoft Launches ENERGY STAR Compliant Power Management Tool for IT Administrators

Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager (ConfigMgr) 2007 has launched a new Desired Configuration Management (DCM) pack that fully complies with ENERGY STAR configuration guidelines! The new pack, which is endorsed by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), enables customers to assess their client settings against the following ENERGY STAR defined efficiency levels and recommendations:

• Ensure computers enter system standby or hibernate after 30 to 60 minutes of inactivity.
• Ensure monitors enter sleep mode after 5 to 20 minutes of inactivity.
• Create a warning notification report if screen savers are not disabled. If one is enabled, the wait timeout period should be less than the monitor sleep setting.

This ConfigMgr 2007-based solution makes it easier for IT Professionals to ensure that PCs are configured with the appropriate energy savings - driving improved power management implementations that can lower operational costs for ConfigMgr 2007-supported organizations. The solution also provides a basis for compliance reporting against various pledge programs, such as Climate Savers Computing Initiative and ENERGY STAR Low Carbon IT Campaign.

For more information and/or to download the pack, please visit the System Center ConfigMgr 2007 ENERGY STAR Config Pack page on the Microsoft Environment site.

Verdiem Launches free energy monitoring app – Edison

Today Verdiem announced Edison, a free energy monitoring application that allows eco-conscious consumers to actively control their PC’s energy consumption – and their household’s carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions.  Microsoft and Climate Savers Computing Initiative (CSCI) are supporting Edison as an easy way for consumers to become active to reach the Climate Savers Computing Initiative’s goal of reducing global CO2 emissions from the operation of computers by 54 million tons by 2010. Verdiem and Microsoft are both members of the Climate Savers Computing Initiative, a nonprofit group of eco-conscious consumers, businesses and conservation organizations committed to reducing the power consumption of PCs and servers.

Verdiem is challenging PC consumers to download 10 million copies of Edison (approximately 1 percent of the global PC population) in the next year. Made for the Windows operating system, Edison enhances existing PC power settings and provides a consumer-friendly interface that is easy to set up and manage.

EDISON Features

Edison offers a simple solution for the individual PC user. The software features include:

• Scheduling – allows users to identify work and non-work schedules to optimize power schemes based on when the PC is in use or on standby.
• Settings – provides several options of desired power savings and settings. Simply choose the most appropriate and it applies 24x7x365.
• Estimated Savings Reports – offers information that correlates PC power settings to money, kWh and CO2 savings.
• Intuitive User Interface – easy to use sliding bars help consumers choose settings and instantly see the power and monetary savings. Clearly marked tabs help users navigate through the interface.

Help reduce your household’s greenhouse gas emissions and download Edison free today!   

Partners Leverage Virtual Earth to Deliver Environmental Solutions

In the last year, a number of partners have leveraged Virtual Earth technology to deliver innovative environmental solutions:

• Sungevity designed a global mapping platform, based on Microsoft’s Virtual Earth, which lowers the cost of solar energy installation, helps homeowners easily see the value of solar energy, and aims to make solar usage more widespread. For more on their solution, see "Sungevity uses Virtual Earth to quickly, remotely assess customer sites."

• Geomatic Technologies delivered a Virtual Earth-based groundwater management tool to map out areas of intensive groundwater use for the Department of Environmental Sustainability in Victoria, Australia. The solution will help their customer determine optimal management actions for stressed aquifers and makes information on the aquifers quickly and widely available to stakeholders. For more information, see "Virtual Earth Brings Limited Water Resource into Focus."

• Infusion Development combined Microsoft Virtual Earth with the data power of Microsoft SharePoint to develop JEPRS an extremely effective tool for managing environmental events. The solution will empower more effective environmental disaster management. For more information, see "Microsoft Technology Powers Environmental Crisis–Response Tool."

These partners not only demonstrate that the Microsoft Virtual Earth platform enables environmental solutions for a number of critical environmental issues but, more importantly, that the partner ecosystem is moving towards realizing the potential of VE to deliver these solutions.