In the world of high technology, it is an accepted rule of thumb that computing technology undergoes a revolution about every 7 years. If we agree that the Internet was launched 14 years ago and that today we operate on its third iteration, then the math holds.

One of the most influential companies which relies on the Internet for their existence, Microsoft, is undergoing its own revolution, into a kinder, gentler giant. Where once it was a tyrannical exemplar of greed gone wrong, now what is known affectionately as the Evil Empire has an undeniable humanitarian streak and earns even greater profits than when it tried to grind each and every competitor into the ground.

In no area is this more readily apparent than the Microsoft environmental initiatives which were begun a decade ago. While much work remains to be done, data center energy efficiency plans and advocacy, among other Microsoft environmental initiatives, have set the standard by which the rest of the high-tech industry should operate.

Here’s a relevant quote from the top executive...

Last time, I shared with you some of the rhetoric behind Microsoft’s bold moves into container data center design, which they call C-Blox, in the quest for greater energy efficiency. Now, I’d like to share some specific details of what the company has done so far and what these sustainability gains spell for the next wave of expansion of the backbone of the Internet, including data center architecture which facilitates acclimatization to hot desert environments.

Here, once again, is a quote from Steve Ballmer...

“Sustainability is an important issue, really, for all of us. I think, more and more as a social issue around the globe, this has gotten embraced. It’s a big issue at Microsoft also because if you look at non-travel power consumption in the world today, perhaps PCs (and information technology) is one of the most rapidly growing power consumers on the planet and we think that we have a real responsibility as well as some real innovation that can really help focus in on the opportunities to reduce the power consumption by the I.T. industry, to use I.T. to help people reduce their overall power consumption needs and to use I.T. as a tool for some of the core scientific research that will fundamentally change the way energy gets produced and used in the years to come.

We formed an entire group at Microsoft just dedicated to drive our products to be more and more suitable for scientific research, whether that’s in areas of energy and environment, pharmaceutical research or many, many others. There is a very long list which our team has come up with as we’ve partnered with scientists in academia, scientists in corporations, scientists in government … there is a very long list of improvements that we need to make in the modeling tools, the performances tools, etc., and at the end of the day, many of the most important advances won’t just come from all of our conservation efforts but if we really want to be more green, we need the scientific research that powers green energy.”

- Steve Ballmer, Chief Executive Officer

Microsoft Corporation

March 3, 2008

Mr. Ballmer’s words sound good. However, as environmentalists know too well, the high technology industry can be an ally of the Earth and among its worst enemies at the same time. Indeed, as of this writing, Microsoft is the target of environmental protests because of its use of toxic substances in the design and manufacture of the Xbox gaming console.

In less than fifteen years’ time, the Internet has gone from being a commercial novelty, limited in use to the military and university system, to an integral part of global commerce and daily life for roughly a billion people. Extending its reach to the next billion will require enhancement and expansion of the backbone of the Internet. A key player in those efforts is Microsoft, particularly in the areas of software and data center design.

While far from being a green company (but working at it every day), Microsoft’s innovations in energy efficiency and the C-Blox container data center allow for greater flexibility in the choice of power source. For example, in Boulder, Colorado, the addition of C-Blox container data center design to supplement the processing power of Microsoft’s Virtual Earth hub increased energy efficiency by a factor of 100. Consequently, Microsoft was able to specify the use of 100% wind power not just within the C-Blox container data center but throughout the first floor of the facility.

The flexibility born of innovations such as the C-Blox container data center produces new opportunities for enhancement and expansion of the backbone of the Internet into areas ordinarily deemed impractical because of local weather conditions or other climatic concerns.

It goes without saying that without the Internet, you would not be reading these words. Hence, this environmentalist has a vested interest in seeing the backbone of the Internet remain up to the challenge of the huge increases in traffic and content which occur every day. Microsoft is a leader in maintaining a stable Internet but not without a cost to the planet.

With innovative programs such as Microsoft has implemented in order to reduce the impact of the hardware and energy needed to provide for Internet stability, the impact is mitigated but not enough. Hence, it is up to each Internet user to be part of the solution.

Purchasing carbon offsets is a good way of helping but now there is an easy way to do more at absolutely no cost to you. The good folks at FightGlobalWarming.com have made available a search tool for your browser which allows you to submit a portion of the revenue from each of your Web searches.

It’s a simple process which is compatible both with the Firefox and Internet Explorer web browsers. Just download it, install it and use it whenever you conduct a search on the Internet. That’s it! Every time your search results generate revenue, FightGlobalWarming.com will receive a portion.

The URL is

http://www.fightglobalwarming.com/page.cfm?tagID=29325

Fomenting the Triple Bottom Line

Corbett Kroehler

On January 20th, I had the distinct honor and privilege of attending in person the inauguration of President Barack Obama. Despite arriving on Capitol Hill before dawn, my friends and I had to participate roughly 2 miles away next to the Washington Monument. Nevertheless, the experience is one I will cherish for decades.

The size of the crowd which filled the National Mall was mirrored on the Internet. My rough estimate is that 3 million people crammed into the area west of the Capitol but I know for certain that more than 26 million people watched the event live on the Internet via CNN.com. In addition to being a huge number, this is a record.

As a lover of technology, I am inspired almost as much by the fact that CNN.com had the scalability in place to serve more than 26 million streams of its content that historic day as I am by President Obama’s speech. However, as all of this relates to global warming, we must remember that the backbone which runs the Internet consumes vast amounts of electricity. It is a wonderful invention which has the potential to benefit all of humanity but it is far from green.

It is for this reason that I enjoy sharing with you details about Internet providers who are embracing green information technology practices. Last year, I told you about the Microsoft C-Blox Container Data Center design, an impressive achievement.

Although not announced until a few weeks ago, Sun Microsystems, another leading Internet provider, has been achieving great things in the same arena. Through its well conceived and implemented modular pod architecture for data centers in North America, Sun has cut its energy costs significantly and the overall environmental impact of its large facility in Broomfield, Colorado by two-thirds! This is highly commendable!

When Microsoft unveiled its C-Blox approach, the byline was, If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it. At Sun Microsystems, the byline is, What you can measure you can address. Not coincidentally, both of these philosophies apply directly to the fight against global warming, particularly carbon in our atmosphere.

With the equally commendable achievement of LEED Platinum certification for the Sacramento, California data center of another technology leader, Advanced Data Centers, a real trend has begun to emerge and I exhort everyone to consider the early work of these leaders in green information technology when making purchasing decisions.

http://www.sustainablelifemedia.com/content/story/greenIT/suns_new_green_datacenter_to_save_1_million_a_year

Fomenting the Triple Bottom Line

Corbett Kroehler

Electronic waste is a huge problem, both in terms of land pollution and the resulting loss of natural areas which absorb greenhouse gases. As a leading consumer and disposer of electronic equipment, the United States should lead the world in the safe and sustainable disposal of electronic waste. The opposite is true. Even worse is the fact that much of the electronic waste which is recycled winds up sold to unscrupulous disposal firms which often incinerate the waste, pumping unspeakable quantities of toxins into the air, or dumped in rivers, either on American soil or overseas.

Regulatory bodies have begun to intervene in the disposal of electronic waste in order to assure proper dismantling and component recycling but much more needs to be done in order to capture electronic waste at its source, the curbside residential collection site and the dumpster. Until we capture more there, we will fail to address electronic waste in a meaningful way.

The average American consumer lacks the time and convenience to research proper disposal sites and transport the waste to the destination. However, if given a convenient option, that same consumer might well take the effort to do the right thing. That’s why the participation of electronics retailers is so vital. The bankruptcy of Circuit City dealt a serious blow to the work of recycling advocates but Best Buy has initiated a broad expansion of its collection program which more than offsets this other large loss.

As of today, Best Buy has expanded its electronic recycling program to encompass all of its locations – a huge improvement! Better still, most consumer electronics will be accepted for free. This move by Best Buy is exactly the type of corporate leadership which must be shown in order to begin the cultural shift needed to achieve the large strides toward greener living and I commend Best Buy for expanding electronics collection to its entire retail network.

Fomenting the Triple Bottom Line

Corbett Kroehler

Compared with the environmental impact of burning fossil fuels for heating and transportation, computers are relatively benign. In fact, the Internet age has played only a fractional role in the larger, more devastating increase in energy consumption worldwide over the past 20 years. Nevertheless, computers have an impact and, as the scientists tell us that we already have passed the tipping point of irreversible global warming, every BTU of fossil fuels which we don’t burn is most welcome.

The largest portion of overall energy impact of the Internet age is from data centers, the fireproof buildings which house thousands, tens of thousands, even hundreds of thousands of servers or more, are the worst offenders. Fortunately, since those owners rack up unspeakable energy costs, pun intended, they often undertake concerted efforts to minimize their electric and climate control bills.

Average home computer operators generally are not so fastidious, present company excepted, I’m sure. Even if you pay close attention to how much energy your computer utilizes, while reading this blog, for example, unless you write your own software, you have little control beyond the power plan, which governs how long the monitor or overall system remains active when you have stepped away from the computer for a while.

This situation constitutes overkill. In other words, there are times when you need the maximum processing power of your computer but I guarantee there are other times when you don’t. For example, if you are decoding a movie but pause playback to answer the telephone, during that interval the processor likely remains at full power, consuming, well, full power. This is an unnecessary (and now avoidable) waste.

Enter Granola. Yes, it is named Granola. It offers guilt free computing because it scales processing to your needs in real time. Best of all, it is free. I have used Granola for some time and found it to be entirely unobtrusive. With this writing, I encourage all of my readers, whether they use Microsoft Windows or a version of Linux as their operating system, to install Granola today.

I promise you’ll be glad you did. The download URL couldn’t be simpler:

http://grano.la

Fomenting the Triple Bottom Line

Corbett Kroehler