Software Enabled Earth

TechSoup Webcast on Green Tech Tips

FrancoisAjenstat — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 00:02:58 GMT

This Wednesday, November 4th, TechSoup Talks and Microsoft will be conducting two free webinars which will help nonprofits and libraries learn how to reduce the environmental impact of their information technology and how to effectively use IT to improve their organizations’ efficiency. We’ll discuss ways that greening IT can help reduce energy, resource usage and costs.

One webinar is best suited for small organizations with fewer than 10 PCs and <2 servers and the other is for larger organizations with more complex IT infrastructures and dedicated IT staff.

Click below to register: Both will be held on Wednesday, November 4th for 45 minutes:

Green Tech Tips from Microsoft for Small Organizations https://cc.readytalk.com/r/5gww010jo94p (10:00 a.m. Pacific time)

Green Tech Tips from Microsoft for Large Organizations https://cc.readytalk.com/r/4wlca36vxzsh (11:00 a.m. Pacific time)

Intel: Windows 7 improvements gain laptop users an additional 1.4 hours of battery life

tmcdowd — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 20:48:00 GMT

Joakim Lialias, a Microsoft Alliance Manager for Intel recently wrote on the Windows Partner Blog about our work with Intel to “Make PCs Run Faster and Longer.” We’ve talked a lot about the work we did around power management in Windows 7, but Joakim goes into more technical detail about the partnership with Intel to drive reductions in power. He suggests that “by applying such power saving techniques throughout the system and reducing resource utilization, Microsoft and Intel engineers were able to reduce power usage of a Windows 7 laptop nearly 20 percent over an identical laptop running Windows Vista SP2. That gained an additional 1.4 hours of battery life.” Looking at this through the environmental lens, that additional battery life helps prevent you from having to plug in your laptop for an additional 1.4 hours. If you have hundreds or thousands of laptops running in your enterprise, those energy savings (and costs) will add up. This is great example of the industry working together to drive energy efficiency in computing!

7 Ways to Change the World Competition

FrancoisAjenstat — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 22:57:00 GMT

To celebrate the launch of Windows 7, we have launched a new online competition called 7 Ways to Change the World. It encourages people to create a two minute video explaining how they believe a Windows PC could help a nonprofit to make a greater impact in the community.

There will be 7 winners, and each person who submits a winning entry will receive a new PC with Windows 7 and a $7,000 grant for their chosen NGO. We also plan to keep all the entries online, providing NGOs with a great resource of ideas on how they can use technology.

Visit: http://www.7waystochangetheworld.com to find out more, encourage people to participate, the closing date is November 11^th 2009!

PS: You can get the latest news on the event via Twitter and Facebook

Please note this is a US based only competition.

Top 5 Environmental Considerations to make the move to Windows 7

FrancoisAjenstat — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 16:58:34 GMT

Windows 7 has officially arrived and is available in retail or for download online at the Microsoft Store. We’ve posted earlier about the power management improvements in Windows7, and as we stated energy efficiency was a core principle in the design of Windows 7 as designers considered scenarios both when the PC is in use and when it is turned off. All of these improvements will help you save energy and save money.

With many of the improvements considered to be “under the hood”, we wanted to highlight them again today on the big launch day. We thought we’d provide you with our top 5 environmental considerations for upgrading to Windows 7:

When a Windows 7 PC is idle (i.e. not in use) for more than a few minutes, Windows 7 begins to take action to save energy. First, thanks to a new feature called Adaptive Display Brightness, the display dims. A short while later the display turns off and finally because the Sleep feature is on by default, your PC will go into a low power state, saving you money on your energy bill and reducing your carbon footprint. All within a 15 minute time period, as defined by Energy Star 5.0.
Why should a PC draw power from the network adapter if a network cable is not plugged in? With new networking power improvements, Windows 7 will automatically place the network adapter into a low-power state when a user disconnects his or her network cable. This is just one example of many including savings with DVD and audio playback all resulting in lower power consumption and helping extend your battery life.
New diagnostics tools in Windows 7 will help improve IT administrators’ ability to diagnose and troubleshoot power problems across their enterprises. For example, the diagnostic tools can help 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 are for more technical users and will enable more efficient power management of PCs across organizations.
If your PC is less than a few years old, you can simply upgrade to Windows 7 and do not need to purchase a new PC. According to Softchoice, 88 percent of corporate PCs it has under management meet the minimum system requirements of Windows 7. Of those not equipped to run Windows 7, the majority would simply need more RAM and hard drive upgrade. Only one percent of their PCs would require replacement.
If you are in the market for a new PC, there’s a wider selection of EPEAT and Energy Star rated PC’s on the market and you won’t have to pay a premium for a “greener” PC.

To learn more about upgrading or to purchase a copy, visit the Windows 7 page.

Study on Digital Distribution of Software Shows Significant Environmental Benefits

tmcdowd — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 16:57:59 GMT

Through a campaign called Digital by Choice, Microsoft has offered its Volume Licensing customers the option to download Microsoft software rather than receive DVD/CDs. To show the environmental benefits, Microsoft recently commissioned Accenture and WSP Environment & Energy to complete a carbon footprint Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) study to compare the carbon footprint of traditional DVD/CD distribution with digital distribution of software to our business customers. The study, entitled “Demonstrating the Benefits of Electronic Software Distribution: A study of Greenhouse Gas Emissions Reduction,” indicates that digital software distribution can reduce carbon emissions by 91% when Microsoft Volume Licensing customers switch to electronic software distribution. In addition to the environmental benefits, Digital by Choice customers also receive faster access to software updates and save time and effort by no longer having to manage physical media.

The NRDC’s senior scientist, Noah Horowitz, notes from the study, “Until now, we had assumed there would be benefits in moving away from all the plastic and paper found in physical media, but we were in the dark as to how this would pencil out from a carbon perspective. The good news here is that despite the incremental energy use at the data centers, the results heavily favor digital distribution on all fronts—global warming, raw material usage, waste reduction, and energy consumption.”

To learn more about Digital by Choice and to download the white paper, click here.

Microsoft Launches Software Architecture for Smart Grid Development

tmcdowd — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 22:30:00 GMT

Microsoft announced it has developed a software reference architecture to help the Utility industry take a significant step in smart grid development. Called Microsoft Smart Energy Reference Architecture (SERA), this reference architecture addresses technology integration throughout the full scope of the smart energy ecosystem. The Microsoft SERA for the smart energy ecosystem will help create a world where thousands of smart devices can seamlessly plug into the grid thanks to common standards and interoperability frameworks, just as the plug-and-play model allows thousands of devices to seamlessly plug into PCs today.

The Microsoft SERA provides a road map for utilities to help identify and solve the integration issues facing grid and energy ecosystem advancement. SERA helps utilities by providing a method of testing the alignment of information technology with their business processes to create an integrated utility. As a result households and businesses will have ready access to timely, user-friendly information that can help them make smarter choices about their energy use,

This is the second utility offering to be released from Microsoft in four months, following the announcement of Microsoft Hohm, an online application developed to enhance the experience of utilities’ customers and provide further insight into the supply and demand of residential energy use.

Visit here for more on Microsoft’s work with Utilities.

Environmental Sustainability at Tech·Ed Europe 2009

tmcdowd — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 01:33:00 GMT

This year’s Tech•Ed Europe 2009 in Berlin, Germany (November 9-13) will for the first time have a Green IT virtual track that covers a spectrum of Microsoft technologies that you can use to improve efficiency, save money and reduce your organization’s impact on the environment. Some of the sessions available include:

· Application Models for Utility Computing

· Windows 7: The Power Management Workout!

· Smart Metering As an Enabler for Home Automation and Customer Interaction

· Microsoft Data Centers: From Buildings to Building Blocks

· Microsoft's Mission for Efficient Data Centers

· Virtualization 360: Microsoft Virtualization Strategy, Products, and Solutions for the New Economy

· What's New in Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager: SP1, R2, and R3

· Microsoft System Center and the Green Client

· Microsoft Visio 2010: A New Generation of the Tool for Corporate Diagramming and Greening

· Planning for Windows Server 2008 R2, Virtualization and Server Consolidation with Windows Server Solution Accelerators

· Storage and Hyper-V: The Choices You Can Make and the Things You Need to Know

· Power Efficiency and Power Management with Windows Server 2008 R2

Additionally, as part of the company’s effort to reduce the impact of our events on the environment, the Tech·Ed Europe event team is implementing a number of more sustainable activities:

· To help reduce water, attendees will receive reusable water bottles to fill at water cooler stations throughout the conference area.

· Recycling bins are being stationed throughout the venue to help divert waste from landfills.

· Sponsors and exhibitors are encouraged to minimize disposable materials they bring to the event and to use recycled and recyclable materials where possible.

· Tech·Ed Europe 2009 will use plasma screens to help reduce waste created by disposable signs.

· Public transport passes will be provided for all people using hotel service for travel between the airport and hotel

For registration to Tech•Ed Europe 2009, please visit here.

Seattle City Light Begins Offering its Customers Consumption Data for use with Microsoft Hohm

FrancoisAjenstat — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 21:04:16 GMT

Today Seattle City Light became the first utility to announce that it is offering customers the ability to link their electricity consumption data with Microsoft Hohm, an online application that tracks energy use and provides personalized energy conservation recommendations.
Seattle City Light, the ninth largest public electric utility in the United States, was one of four launch partners when Microsoft Hohm debuted in Beta version in June and is the first utility to announce its customers can connect with a convenient, automatic data feed. Hohm users who do not have a data feed can enter their energy use information manually.

Hohm uses advanced analytics licensed from Lawrence Berkeley Labs and the Department of Energy to assess users’ energy data, home features and appliances and then identifies personalized energy saving recommendations. Those recommendations could range from placing new caulking on windows and removing air leaks to installing a programmable thermostat.

Troy Batterberry, principal product unit manager for the Microsoft Hohm team said -
“We are proud to work with organizations like Seattle City Light who share a belief that their customers can and want to be responsible consumers of energy. Providing this kind of data connection through Microsoft Hohm makes it easy for customers to gain insight into how their decisions and actions impact their energy usage and cost. It also demonstrates Seattle City Light’s commitment to improving energy efficiency throughout the community.”

Microsoft IT standardizes on Energy Star 5.0 and EPEAT for company purchased PCs.

FrancoisAjenstat — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 21:18:48 GMT

Microsoft recently updated our computer purchasing standards to make sure that all the PCs we buy for our employees meet the latest energy efficiency standards from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Microsoft now requires that all PCs purchased through our standard MS IT channels will meet EPA Energy Star 5.0 requirements.

In addition, we’ve also required that the PCs we buy are registered with a green computer rating initiative called EPEAT. The EPEAT (Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool) program evaluates computer desktops, laptops, and monitors based on 51 environmental criteria developed through an extensive stakeholder consensus process supported by US EPA. The EPEAT system is managed by the Green Electronics Council, a nonprofit organization headquartered in Portland, OR.

Compared to traditional computer equipment, all EPEAT-registered computers have reduced levels of cadmium, lead, and mercury to better protect human health and the environment. They are more energy efficient, which reduces emissions of climate changing greenhouse gases. They are also easier to upgrade and recycle. In fact, manufacturers must offer environmentally responsible recycling options for all EPEAT-registered products.

This is an important milestone as part of Microsoft’s internal Green IT program and also as part of our commitment as a member of the Climate Savers Computing Initiative.

To learn more about the EPA Energy Star program please visit http://www.energystar.gov/. I also encourage you to read the following Q&A with Jeff Omelchuk, founder and executive director of the Green Electronics Council (GEC) why “going green” is so important. When you’re done, be sure to hit www.epeat.net to find yourself the perfect green PC.

New Chicago Data Center One of World’s Largest to use Containers

FrancoisAjenstat — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 18:00:14 GMT

Microsoft is celebrating the grand opening of our new Chicago data center today. The 700,000 square feet facility will help Live, Online and Cloud Computing services offerings for customers throughout North America.

In a post on the Global Foundation Services (Data Centers team) by Arne Josefsberg, General Manager, he suggests “environmental sustainability is in Microsoft’s DNA and the Chicago data center serves as a great example.”

The Chicago data center uses pre-manufactured, standard shipping containers, each of which house approximately 1,800 to 2,500 servers. The use of containers allows for greater conservation of energy and power efficiency. In addition, the isolated nature of containers enables Microsoft and its vendors to research new approaches around power and cooling alternatives to reduce energy consumption even more in the future.

Another interesting feature in Chicago is the use of “water-side economization,” which enables us to cool the facility without requiring the high levels of electricity typically needed to power large chillers.

Last week Microsoft celebrated the opening of a new data center in Dublin, Ireland. The Ireland data center was uniquely situated to take advantage of Ireland’s cool outside air to help cool the facility.

More details on the Chicago data center are available here.

The Climate Mystery

FrancoisAjenstat — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 19:50:26 GMT

On Sept 15th, in partnership with Congin, we launched “The Climate Mystery”.

For students, The Climate Mystery is an exciting online story that they and their fellow students can experience together as they learn about the global climate challenges. For their teachers, The Climate Mystery supplies a strongly motivating framework and easily distributed teaching materials – without making undue demands on their time and resources. The subjects are chosen on the basis of UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change - the leading forum publishing scientific climate reports on the most significant climate issues facing the earth.

The Climate Mystery combines education and entertainment to inform and teach about global climate challenges. The online story begins on 14th September, 2009, and climaxes in December, 2009, at exactly the same time as the COP15 United Nations global climate summit in Copenhagen. By letting new story episodes unfold each week, and combining this with social networking and learning games, the students become engrossed in solving the mystery as they learn.

The Climate Mystery is completely free to use. Downloadable teaching materials focus on new climate-related subjects each week for 16 weeks. Teachers can access the online universe for as many or as few weeks as their needs and preferences dictate.

Learn more at - http://www.climatemystery.com/

Achieving Climate Sustainability - Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society

FrancoisAjenstat — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 21:11:16 GMT

Bill Gail from Microsoft wrote a very interesting article that was just published in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society.

Here’s the abstract:

It is often assumed that climate change policies, including the Kyoto Protocol and the follow-on Copenhagen agreement now being negotiated, align well with sustainability's tenets. A closer look reveals this is not the case. First, they treat climate change as a one-time problem - anthropogenic greenhouse gases - with a one-time solution. In contrast, research has begun to reveal that human-caused climate change is far from monolithic. Moreover, the clear trend is for societal climate influence to increase and diversify, not decline and simplify. Second, they fail to address the impact of natural climate change on ecosystems and society, an area that is less-well understood than the public commonly believes. A sustainable framework that guides human interaction with Earth's climate system must encompass the broader aspects of climate change and reconcile the reality of ongoing human influence. This includes the highly-controversial use of overt human influence to benefit society and ecosystems.

Achieving climate sustainability will be far from straightforward, if we even choose to proceed. The concept unearths deeply-held philosophical and religious conflicts, stretches our scientific capabilities, and forces us to address a considerable spectrum of practical concerns. Should we not choose to embrace it, we will find that our policies become less and less effective with time as climate problems expand beyond society's ability to avoid or eliminate them individually. This article elaborates on the need to include sustainability within the climate dialogue and explores the complex considerations that will quickly become part of the public debate.

You can read the full article here. This is a fascinating read.

Microsoft Partners with Carbon Disclosure Project to build Climate Change Data and Reporting Platform

FrancoisAjenstat — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 18:28:43 GMT

Today at the Clinton Global Initiative in New York, Microsoft and the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) announced the creation of the next generation online solution for the CDP’s global climate change data system. Microsoft will provide its software platform technology for all aspects of data capture within the new version of the CDP system, which will enable companies to report more detailed climate change information.

Measurement, reporting and verification of a company’s carbon emissions is a vital step for organizations looking to increase awareness of the impact of climate change.

The new improved system, supported by Microsoft technology including Windows Server and SQL Server, will streamline information sharing between corporations, institutional investors and the world’s national regulatory systems to drive greenhouse gas emission reductions and performance improvements

Participating corporations will report GHG emissions to CDP through the new data system beginning in 2010. CDP is also partnering with Accenture and SAP on the new system.

The CDP is an independent not-for-profit organization holding the largest database of corporate climate change information in the world. Microsoft has voluntarily reported its carbon emissions annually to CDP since 2005.

For more information, please visit https://www.cdproject.net/disclosure-system.aspx

Microsoft’s New Ireland Data Center Using Outside Air to Cool the Facility and Drive Energy Efficiency

FrancoisAjenstat — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 17:16:27 GMT

Today Microsoft had a grand opening for its latest data center located in Dublin, Ireland which was built to deliver Online, Live and Cloud Services to customers throughout the world. With the demand of Cloud services such as Bing, Windows Live, and the Windows Azure platform, Microsoft is taking steps to anticipate demand and growth in the cloud while at the same time driving responsible environmental practices. In that effort we have made great strides towards the optimization of Green IT in the data center, including designing our new facilities more efficient than typical industry data center

A common theme you’ve heard here is that we continually look for ways to apply the power of software and information technology to support environmental sustainability and Dublin is a prime example. The new 300,000+ square foot Dublin data center is 50% more efficient than traditional data centers that were built 5-6 years prior. The new data center is based on Microsoft’s platform technology and was designed with efficiency and environmental responsibility in mind. The data center leverages Microsoft’s power management and server virtualization to reduce the energy used in the facility.

Much of the costs associated with the typical data center derive from energy to cool the servers. While Microsoft continues researching ways to run servers at higher temperatures, the Dublin facility uses outside air economization to cool the facility year round. This process of using the naturally colder Ireland climate to cool the facility will result in greater power efficiency, helping reach an annual Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) average of 1.25, where higher efficiency results in a lower number.

As part of the commitment to environmental sustainability, Microsoft is a proud participant and endorser of the European Union (EU) Code of Conduct for Data Centres, a voluntary program that encourages organizations responsible for the operations of data centers to utilize technologies, systems and processes that maximize the efficient use of electricity. The Dublin data center is was recently recognized by the European Commission’s Sustainable Energy Europe Campaign as a Best Practice for innovative achievements in design and operational strategies that are driving greater sustainability and efficiency at the Dublin facility.

For additional information on the new Dublin Data Center, see the Global Foundation Services blog for a new post by General Manager, Arne Josefsberg’s blog http://blogs.technet.com/msdatacenters/archive/2009/09/24/dublin-data-center-celebrates-grand-opening.aspx

Delivery & Smart Grid Solutions

FrancoisAjenstat — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 23:50:06 GMT

Microsoft and our partners are preparing for the increasing sophistication and automation of the grid, including the entry of a new type of energy consumer who is also an energy producer and source of stored energy.

Indeed, industry visionaries believe tomorrow's grid will need to adjust to bidirectional power flows as well as bidirectional information flows about consumption and pricing between utilities and their consumers. Once enabled with better communication flows, tomorrow's transmission and distribution system could very well become much more self-healing, as millions of new electricity flow monitors on the grid, along with end users' smart meters, send terabytes of data to control systems, seeking management and optimization. This will cause entirely new business models to develop in response to consumers' ability to produce and add electricity through distributed generation sources or the electric storage of their plug-in hybrid electric vehicles. This is the new face of the Smart Energy Ecosystem, one that is more advanced and complicated than those considering just a smart grid.

Microsoft and partners like AREVA, ESRI, Itron, OSIsoft, SubNet Solutions, and others are preparing utilities for a new era of integrated grid, transmission, and generation. Technology systems offer solutions to numerous energy delivery challenges, including:

Asset management
Distribution management
Energy management
Mobile workforce management
Network planning, design, and engineering analysis
Project intelligence/management
Regulatory compliance
Smart metering
Home Energy Management

You can learn more about the delivery challenges facing power and utility companies and the solutions that technology systems from Microsoft and our partners can offer here.