Software Enabled Earth

Microsoft Tops CSR Brand List

A new Corporate Citizenship Study was just released by Penn, Schoen & Berland Associates, Burson/Marsteller and Landor. When asked to rate which companies they see as the best corporate citizens, survey respondents put Microsoft and General Mills at the top of the list.The citizenship report urges companies to associate their CSR efforts with their brands in order to maximize the investment in CSR reporting and compliance.

The full study is available at http://www.burson-marsteller.com/Innovation_and_insights/blogs_and_podcasts/BM_Blog/Documents/Corporate%20Citizenship%20Executive%20Summary.pdf

You can read more about this at Environmental Leader -

http://www.environmentalleader.com/2009/07/07/microsoft-general-mills-top-csr-brands-list/

Technology Is Enabling a Green Business Revolution in Europe

John Vassallo, Microsoft’s Vice President of EU Affairs, posted an entry on Microsoft’s On the Issues blog about our participation in the EU Green Week conference in Brussels. Below is a repost of the article.

This week I have been lucky to be one of a handful of business executives speaking at the European Union’s Green Week conference in Brussels.  A recurring theme among all attendees, whether from business, politics, science or non-governmental organizations, has been that technology has a major role to play in solving vexing environmental problems such as climate change.

Information technology will be one of the principal enablers of environmental innovations, and Microsoft is devoting a lot of time, hard work and investment to advancing green technologies.  We are increasing our R&D spending by over 15 percent this year, to $9.4 billion, including spending on several promising environmental applications.  

I took part in Green Week previously when I worked for GE, which produces equipment used in several environmental sectors, from water desalination to vehicle fleet management systems.  I was not fully aware at the time how much of the equipment actually was made up of software and information technology (IT) systems. It is the IT embedded in products that enables much of the energy savings, emissions reductions and carbon capture that society and the environment need.

Improving and expanding environmentally-friendly IT in devices commonly used by average citizens will help us change attitudes and lifestyle.  The applications could range from intelligent cars and household appliances, to smart utility grids or simple improvements to PCs.  They could range in sophistication from small apps to computer-modeled, macro systems that measure the carbon footprint of entire cities or predict the water quality at European beaches.

We are at the start of a journey.  It begins with our own homes and setting personal targets for reducing energy, recycling and increasing efficiency.  That is why Microsoft earlier this week announced Microsoft Hohm, a new online application that enables consumers to better understand their energy usage, get recommendations and start saving money.

Inside Microsoft, we are striving to raise the environmental awareness of our 90,000 employees and to operate in a more eco-friendly manner.  But we are not alone.  All around us small and mid-sized businesses are developing their own green initiatives and developing green solutions for their customers.  This type of widespread activity is what the green revolution looks like, and it may help take the EU out of recession.

Manufacturers of environmental goods and developers of applied eco-software have the potential to become some of Europe’s strongest businesses, especially if we achieve a global agreement on climate change in Copenhagen later this year that energizes the field.  Yet these businesses can only keep growing if a steady stream of inventions continues to invigorate the market, and this stream will only keep flowing if inventors have the right support.  Among the most important supports that Europe can provide to the growing field of green technology are economic rewards for intellectual agility and creativity, development of clustered centers of excellence across Europe, stronger investment in education and skills programs and political advocacy on behalf of the budding industry.

Microsoft Brings Two More Mega Data Centers Online in July

Today Microsoft announced that our 2 newest data centers will be opening this month. Together these Generation 3 facilities demonstrate Microsoft’s continuing commitment to improving data center efficiency with a focus on environmental sustainability.

The Dublin, Ireland, data center makes extensive use of outside air economization to cool the facility year round, resulting in greater power efficiency with a resultant reduction in carbon footprint.

The Chicago, Illinois facility is optimized for housing containerized servers which conserve energy and will help us realize new advancements in power efficiency with a PUE yearly average calculated at 1.22.

You can read the full details here.

Craig Mundie Speech Transcript from the Edison Electric Institute Annual Conference

Presspass has posted the transcript from Craig’s speech at EEI where he discussed the need to zero-carbon energy sources and announced Microsoft Hohm. Check it out here.

External Research Symposium 2009

Each year, Microsoft Research invites academic investigators with whom it has been collaborating to present their research progress and findings at an overall project review meeting. At the External Research Symposium held on March 30–31, 2009, more than 130 researchers joined colleagues at Microsoft Research in Redmond, Washington, to review these projects, compare findings, and discuss their investigative goals and strategies.

The event included 30 major presentations, as well as poster sessions where more than 100 projects were explained and reviewed. The researchers fielded numerous questions about the technologies developed, next steps planned for their investigations, and any new directions indicated by the findings. One of the major categories examined focused on Earth, Energy, and Environment.

You can find more information about the symposium here. I included the link to the environment related sessions below. There are some really fascinating sessions. Enjoy!

• Keynote: Fighting Emissions with Nuclear Magnetic Resonance | Lynn Gladden | Webcast
• Seamless Astronomy | Alyssa Goodman | Webcast
• A Regional climateprediction.net Experiment for the Western United States | Eric Salathé | Webcast
• Regional Climate Modeling Using Distributed Computing | Simon Wilson | Webcast
• Health–e-Waterways: Data Integration for Smarter, Collaborative, Whole-of-Water Cycle Management | Abdul Alabri | Webcast
• Data Interoperability for Cross-Domain Modeling | John McGee | Webcast
• Storage, Mining, and Visualization of Environmental Data Archives | Mikhail Zhizhin | Webcast
• Data Mining for the Development of Scaling Laws in Hydrology | James R. Hunt | Webcast
• Swiss Experiment: Advanced Technologies for Collaborative Environmental Research | Michael Lehning | Webcast

Craig Mundie on Microsoft's 'Hohm' energy push

CNET posted a great interview with Craig Mundie, Microsoft's chief research and strategy officer, focused on the background for the Microsoft Hohm application. Check out the full article here – and see the video interview below.

Microsoft Hohm to help consumers understand energy usage and reduce their impact on the environment

Today Microsoft announced a new online application, Microsoft Hohm that helps consumers to better understand their energy usage, get recommendations and start saving money. Microsoft Hohm is an easy-to-use tool that helps consumers lower their energy bill and reduce their impact on the environment.

In these tough economic times, consumers today are motivated to save energy to reduce their spending and do their part in conserving the environment. According to a May 2009 utility consumer survey from Gartner Inc. (conducted with households in the U.S. and U.K.), 80 percent of consumers in the U.S. would participate in an energy program if it were offered by providers. Data also showed that cost reduction is the key driving force behind participating in an energy efficiency program.

Microsoft Hohm provides savings recommendations, which can range from placing new caulking on windows to removing air leaks to installing a programmable thermostat. These recommendations are tailored based on specific circumstances in the consumer’s home including house features, usage patterns and appliances. If consumers don’t provide their data, Microsoft Hohm will base its recommendations on local and national averages.Microsoft Hohm uses advanced analytics licensed from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the U.S. Department of Energy to provide consumers with personalized energy-saving recommendations.

The beta application is available at no cost to anyone in the United States with an Internet connection.

Follow Hohm here:

· Website: http://www.microsoft-hohm.com

· Blog: http://blog.microsoft-hohm.com

· Give us feedback: www.getsatisfaction.com/microsoft_hohm

· Follow us on twitter: http://twitter.com/microsofthohm

· Become on Fan on Facebook: http://tinyurl.com/hohmfb

Windows 7 and Power Management

With the upcoming release of Windows 7 we wanted to provide you with more information on the new power management features in the product and ways that we’re driving energy efficiency across the PC ecosystem.

Microsoft recognizes that software can play a critical role in helping companies reduce operational costs and their carbon footprint. We also understand the importance of energy efficiency for our customers and for the broader environment, and we are designing our products to minimize environmental impacts. We designed our latest operating system, Windows 7, with a strong focus on reducing the overall power consumption by investing in key areas of the platform including performance optimizations, idle resource utilization, device power management, and key end-user scenarios.

Energy efficiency — both when the PC is in use and when it is turned off — has been a guiding principle in the development of Windows 7. We’ve built on previous Windows versions and the core design of Windows 7 incorporates energy efficiency features that enable IT Pros to manage energy consumption in their business. IT professionals can easily deploy a power management policy within their enterprise, such as turning off the display and enabling Sleep after a period of inactivity Windows 7 also includes new diagnostics, Idle Power Management, Active Power Management and Wake on LAN for Remote Management to help IT professionals identify and resolve PC power management problems in their enterprise. Windows 7 can also help extend battery life and reduce energy use in key user scenarios.

Dramatic improvements in energy efficiency also requires a close collaboration with others in the IT industry and we’ve worked actively with our partners in the Windows ecosystem, including PC manufacturers, other device manufacturers, and software vendors, to help ensure that their products are optimized for Windows 7 and can take advantage of the energy efficiency improvements in Windows 7.

The energy efficient features of Windows 7 include:

· Idle Power Management: Windows 7 helps to save energy by ensuring that the PC is not performing unnecessary activities when it is idle. For example, if a user walks away from a computer, Windows takes advantage of idle time to scale the hardware down to the lowest available power consumption level. Another feature that helps reduce idle power consumption is Adaptive Brightness, which allows the display to dim after a short period of inactivity and, in turn, reduces the amount of power used.

· Active Power Management: Windows 7 also includes new features to help improve energy efficiency when the PC is in use, as well as extend mobile PC battery life. For instance, with new networking power improvements, Windows automatically places the network adapter into a low-power state when a user disconnects his or her network cable.

· New Diagnostics: new tools will help improve IT administrators’ ability to diagnose and troubleshoot power problems across their enterprises. For example, the diagnostic tools in Windows 7 can help IT professionals determine which applications or devices are negatively impacting energy efficiency and how much normal degradation has occurred to the battery of a mobile PC. These tools will enable more efficient power management of PCs across organizations.

· Improved Remote Management: IT administrators deploy policies that place PCs automatically in “sleep mode” when they are not in use. Windows 7 also improves the IT administrators’ ability to manage such PCs remotely by enabling as default a function that allows the PCs to be “woken up” through a simple network message.

I encourage you to read the Windows 7 Power Management whitepaper for more information.

UPDATED ON JUNE 16: fixed broken link for white paper. The correct link should be http://download.microsoft.com/download/8/5/4/854F66B6-8C09-4F8A-986E-38E9EBAC1677/Windows7_Power_Management_Whitepaper.pdf

Case Study: Energy Company Promotes Environmental Responsibility, Lowers Costs with “Green IT”

MidAmerican Energy Company is highly focused on environmental responsibility, including energy generation from renewable resources. The company also promotes this responsibility within IT, relying on Microsoft® products and technologies to help reduce its energy usage and lower costs. With its “green IT” strategies, the company has reduced power consumption, minimized travel, and is working to generate energy more efficiently.

Some of the highlights from the case study:

· “With the help of Microsoft products and technologies, MidAmerican Energy is working to reduce PC power consumption, minimize travel, and generate energy more efficiently.”

· “With nearly 5,000 PC’s in it environment, MidAmerican expects to save $30,000/year by entering PC’s into hibernate during off-hours”

· Other

• Predictive Wind Analysis with OSIsoft, Sharepoint, .net framework and Excel
  
• Web based meetings, collaboration & travel reduction with Sharepoint and Office Communication Server,

Read the full case study here: http://www.microsoft.com/casestudies/casestudy.aspx?casestudyid=4000004320

Microsoft signs EU Code of Conduct for data centers and targets PUE of less than 1.2

Reposted from DataCenter Dynamics article

Microsoft has signed up as a participant and an endorser of the EU code of conduct for data center efficiency.
To date the company is one of the largest data center operators to sign as a participant in the Code. The Code of Conduct offers two levels of engagement, participants are generally data center operators who must commit to monitoring and reporting of data center energy use and endorsers, generally suppliers, who promote the code.

Mark Taylor, Director of Developer and Platform Evangelism, Microsoft said “We need to do three things: Address the issues in our own industry, work to find technological answers to the environmental problems we are all facing today and tomorrow and help individuals and organisations change their behaviour. Signing up to the Code of Conduct is just a small part of Microsoft’s commitment to environmental sustainability, but with the projected growth of cloud computing it’s important. We are also working with our network of partners, customers, environmental groups, industry groups, and leading environmental scientists and academics to drive global action on climate change and share best practice.”

Microsoft cited the efficient design of its Dublin data center as a model of reduced energy usage. "The new Microsoft Data Centre in Ireland, due to come online this summer, will consume approximately 50% less energy than a traditional data centre of its output. In the Dublin facility, Microsoft’s has applied 100% of the ‘Expected’ and the large majority of the optional best practices outlined in the code of conduct and will employ artificial cooling on just one or two days per year.
Microsoft said its data centers are currently operating with an average PUE of 1.6 and that it is targeting a PUE of below 1.2. It has already, or is planning to implement, the majority of the Code’s best practices in its data centres in Europe and across the globe, it said.

Commitments included in the The Code of Conduct encourage data centre operators to:
· Measure both the total facility and IT power consumed at each data centre and through these measurements monitor the overall efficiency of the facility. DCiE or Power Usage Effectivenss (PUE) are commonly used methods for this measurement.
· Set future energy efficiency targets for their existing and future data centre facilities, and make these efficiency goals a part of the culture of the organization. 
· Explore and implement efficiency improvements to existing data centres either through environmental, operational, or infrastructure changes, or by applying best practices or innovative approaches to refurbishments or new data centres.

Designing Generation 4.0 Data Centers: The Engineers’ Approach to Solving Business Challenges

Microsoft’s data center team blog by Daniel Costello was posted this morning on: Designing Generation 4.0 Data Centers: The Engineers’ Approach to Solving Business Challenges, part 1. 

A couple of years ago, when our Data Center Services’ Research & Engineering team within Microsoft’s Global Foundation Services (GFS) group kicked off the Generation 4.0 Data Center design project,  we began with the question of: What are the primary business challenges facing data center deployments today? 

Challenge #1: Time to Market

Challenge #2: Cost

Challenge #3: Efficiency

Challenge #4: Flexibility and Density

Read the full post here.

And as always please visit http://www.globalfoundationservices.com/ for more info on Microsoft’s Data Center group.

Students talk “green” on the new Student Digital Experience site

Did you know that Students are environmentally conscious?  They are!  They care!  They drive change into the world. Check out some of their thoughts and perspectives on the new Student Experience website.  This is a cool site for students and a great segment on sustainability just in time to celebrate Earth Day!

“Going Green” with TechNet Magazine

To celebrate Earth Day and help you create a more energy efficient IT infrastructure, TechNet Magazine is publishing a special online-only edition dedicated to Green IT. Discover new tools for planning a virtual environment, learn how to easily enforce power management settings throughout your network using tools you already have, find out what goes into a green datacenter, and more. You’ll find it all on the TechNet Magazine homepage (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=149074).

Here’s a glimpse at some of the articles in this issue:

· Framework for Building a “Hyper-Green” Virtual Server System

· Planning Your Power Management and Virtualization Strategies

· Essential Tools for Planning Your Virtual Infrastructure

· Enforce Power Management Settings in your Organization with Group Policy

· Sleep or Hibernate?

· Is It Time to Turn Off Your Servers?

· Conserving Energy with Group Policy

· Plan and Optimize Your Infrastructure to be Energy Efficient with System Center

· Build a Green Datacenter

The issue compliments a separate Green IT publication released by Microsoft earlier this year for strategic architects: The Architecture Journal – Green IT Computing.

Enjoy!

Why Earth Day Matters to Microsoft

I just wrote the following post on Microsoft's On The Issues blog. Cross posting here:

Earth Day and every day, we face significant environmental challenges tied to the way we live and use resources.  Effectively managing our scarce energy resources while addressing climate change - even as the world's population steadily rises - will be one of the great challenges of the 21^st century. Microsoft is working hard with our partners, customers and suppliers, as well as with governments and leading environmental organizations, to help address this critical environmental challenge.  This Earth Day, I want to share the latest information on our Environmental Sustainability Strategy, which focuses on three core areas:

Using information technology to dramatically improve energy efficiency.  Information and communications technology (ICT) products are responsible for around 2% of global carbon emissions, according to the analyst firm Gartner.  Microsoft is working to create new technologies and improve industry best practices to reduce the energy use of information technology devices.  In a recent webcast to employees our COO Kevin Turner set out as a benchmark that the world should triple productivity gains from computing by 2020 without increasing the energy consumed to power this expansion in technology. ICT hardware and software can also play a huge role in reducing the other 98% of greenhouse gas emissions, from all sectors.  A climate report by the World Wildlife Fund noted, "There is probably no other sector where the opportunities through the services provided holds such a reduction potential as for the IT industry." As just one example, Microsoft's own use of our Unified Communications virtual meeting and telework software is already reducing our employee travel by approximately 1 million air miles a year, and reducing our carbon footprint by 17,000 metric tons annually. We have plans in place to further reduce travel and energy use with even greater use of telework.

Accelerating research breakthroughs. Scientific research into the impact that human behavior has on complex environmental and biological systems provides the insights needed for effective policy change and increased environmental awareness. Research also yields improvements in energy use, resource management and environmental planning. Microsoft Research is working with leading scientists to expand the boundaries of our knowledge by creating tools, technologies and models to enhance scientific understanding on a global scale.

Demonstrating responsible environmental leadership at home. As I blogged last month, Microsoft is committed to reducing our global carbon emissions per unit of revenue by at least 30% by 2012 (compared with 2007 levels). We have undertaken several initiatives to decrease our environmental impact, from green-building-designs to the introduction of food composting on all our campuses. We operate one of the world's largest company-owned fleets of buses to reduce congestion, emissions and employee commuting miles at our Puget Sound headquarters.

These efforts are part of a long-term commitment to environmental stewardship at Microsoft.  We recognize that the technology industry can have adverse impacts on the environment that we and our partners are working to minimize.  At the same time, we know innovative technologies can help solve the environmental challenges we all face, and we are committed to achieving breakthroughs and putting them to use as quickly as possible.

For more information on Microsoft's sustainability work please visit http://www.microsoft.com/environment

Green IT webcast series

As I mentioned in a previous blog post, Microsoft is kicking off a Green IT webcast series on TechNet. We now register for the first 5 in the series. Here’s the full list and direct links to find out more and register:

· Transforming the Data Center with Energy Efficiency - http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032413055&Culture=en-US

· Cloud Computing Futures: Creating Greener Clouds with Microsoft Research - http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032413180&Culture=en-US

· Improving Energy Efficiency with Windows 7 Power Management - http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032414345&Culture=en-US

· How Microsoft does IT: Improving the Sustainability and Use of SQL Server at Microsoft - http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/WebCastEventDetails.aspx?EventID=1032408654&EventCategory=4&culture=en-US&CountryCode=US

· Hyper-Green Virtualization: Scaling Enterprise IT for Energy Efficiency - http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032414505&Culture=en-US