New Environment Site - Innovating to improve the world

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Microsoft has released a new global environment site. See Rob Bernard talk about it all here

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Here are very interesting quotes

· 'Smarter technology use could reduce global emissions by 15 per cent and save global industry EUR 500 billion in annual energy costs by 2020'

· A recent study found that the amount of electricity used by servers and auxiliary equipment worldwide more than doubled between 2000 and 2005, to more than 1.2 billion kilowatt-hours (kWh) yearly—a figure that represents 0.8 percent of the estimated world electricity sales1. This increase has come over a period when the cost of electricity itself has risen significantly. The U.S. Department of Energy reports that the average cost of electricity to the industrial sector has increased by more than 41 percent over the past seven years (2000-2007)—double the rate of inflation—and 33 percent for the commercial sector.2 Electricity costs in many other parts of the world have increased by as much or more. By taking all of these factors into account leads to the conclusion that the electricity cost of running servers is an increasingly significant expenditure for many businesses and other organizations, and will continue to grow in the future.

· Aside from the direct cost of electricity, the environmental impact of excessive power usage is a growing concern for governments, businesses, and organizations seeking to reduce the production of greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming.

· Microsoft conducted a series of tests to compare the power consumption of Windows Server 2008 against that of Windows Server 2003 (WS03). The tests revealed that Windows Server 2008 OOB achieved power savings of up to 10 percent over Windows Server 2003 OOB at comparable levels of throughput.

See also Bill Reed Thought Leadership Article on how to use “Computational science [to] capture and analyze unprecedented amounts of experimental and observational data to address problems previously deemed intractable or beyond imagination.”

"Addressing global warming is a responsibility we take very seriously at Microsoft."

-Steve Ballmer, CEO