Author's entries

Are managers still measuring productivity by how long an employee is seen at their desk and in the office? The nature of doing business has changed in an increasingly competitive world, demanding employees to travel and produce more. The mangers of yesterday used to live by the mantra ‘out of sight, out of mind’. However, modern managers are increasingly valuing the need for their employees to...

Earlier this year our colleagues in Global Foundation Services shared a concept for what they called a Data Plant, a fuel cell-powered data center designed to run on biogas generated from landfills or water treatment plants. 

The United Nation’s arm for Telecommunications, known as the ITU, the information and communications technology (ICT) industry, global thought leaders in government, and NGOs came together in Paris to understand what role ICT can play to tackle threats to our planet and ecosystem. The objective of the 2nd Annual Green Standards Week provided detailed analysis on how to measure the carbon emissions...

In the next 10 years, Europe’s demographic landscape will change dramatically with the population aged 65 years and over reaching 148 million, which is double the figure in 2010. This change will increase the burden on economies, increase the cost of healthcare expenditure, strain pensions and reduce the quality of life of citizens, as noted by Commissioner Kroes on her speech on Active and health...

Microsoft Ireland Research has been working on electricity grid research that allows the exact energy consumption and emissions to be measured for any piece of computation performed in a data centre. This allows past or predicted emissions to be calculated for any computation performed in the cloud and opens the doorway to measuring and reducing the emissions produced by data centres around the world.

In the run up to and during the UN’s 17th Conference of Parties on climate change (COP17), Microsoft has been addressing a key concern of participants: what is becoming increasingly known as ‘virtual participation’. This refers to the use of technology to attend and follow climate discussions from afar, reducing the need for international travel and the carbon emissions that are related to...

It is strange for me to talk about my own interview (starts at 01:16) but I had the honour of speaking on TV2 Danish National television on an initiative called Sustainia. The book entitled “Guide to Sustainia, Exploring the sustainable society of tomorrow” imagines a fictitious place in 2020 that hopes to inspire us into making it a reality.

Information technology (IT) departments in organisations across sectors are facing difficulties in meeting the growing demand for IT services, due to tight budgets, rising energy costs, and limits on electric power availability. To answer the existing and new demands while remaining productive and competitive, it is important for organisations to embrace IT energy efficiency principles and practices.

EU Energy Commissioner Gunther Oettinger has said that “The cheapest energy is the one we don’t consume”. Private households also need to reduce their energy needs, and doing so makes economic sense too: lowering your room temperature by just three degrees can save 20 percent on heating costs. Even reducing temperature by a single degree can cut consumption by 6 percent.

Microsoft’s latest products are geared towards enabling users to be more productive and to do their work faster and more efficiently. But as well as being user-friendly, its products have also been specifically crafted to manage power efficiently, reducing both energy use and your overall electricity bill.

Climate change is a global problem and therefore requires a global answer, as rightfully stated by James Lovegrove in our video interview. James is the Managing Director of TechAmerica Europe, leading US high-tech companies operating in the EU. Indeed, answering the environmental challenges requires a unitary effort across industries, governments and citizens. Through his leadership TechAmerica Europe has...

I underlined in several of my previous posts that cloud computing brings great benefits such as scalability and increased energy efficiency, but what about the next phase? As data centers grow in capacity and the rate of adoption increases, we need also to look to the future.

I had the pleasure some weeks ago to attend the first Green Growth Council meeting in Copenhagen, led by Monday Morning a leading independent think tank in Scandinavia. The Council gathered leading scholars, politicians, as well as representatives from the business sector that discussed the state of green growth, barriers, policy frameworks and best practices in transitioning to a low-carbon...

Environmental futurists have said smart cars will increasingly be able to provide drivers GPS information that will help avoid and create traffic.

I would like to highlight a recent example from the Netherlands where, Microsoft Partner, Capgemini, will provide a ground-breaking pilot of a smart public lighting system based on Microsoft’s cloud environment, Windows Azure in the Dutch city of Texel.

The Greek government created the Public Power Corporation (PPC) in 1950 to implement a national electric energy policy and utilise domestic energy resources. Today, PPC provides 93 percent of the power capacity in Greece, generated by lignite, fuel oil, hydro-electric, and natural gas power plants and wind and solar energy parks. PPC is the largest business in Greece in terms of assets, with 98 power plants...

I wanted to share with you an interesting article that my colleague Rob Bernard, Chief Environmental Strategist for Microsoft, recently wrote. His piece offers up some insightful thoughts on a recent study ran to better understand the potential that cloud computing may have to abate carbon emissions and reduce energy consumption for small to large companies.

The press coverage has been unanimous that the COP 16 in Cancun Mexico exceeded expectations in delivering some tangible results in the effort to combat climate change. As I said in my earlier blog, there was optimism for some sort of success and it is now apparent this optimism was not misplaced. One can only aspire for greater things next year in Durban, South Africa where the COP 17 will be held.

After shaking off the jet lag and escaping the European chill I am walking into the UN Conference for Climate Change also known as COP 16 (Conference of the Parties) being held this year in sunny Cancun, Mexico and in its 3rd day.

The Europe 2020 strategy is driving massive change across European life. The Barroso Commission is not only striving for a stronger economy and more competitive Europeans but it  demands that we act smart in the process.

I just saw Rob Bernard our Chief Environment Strategist in an interview on CNN on how we and the ICT industry are trying to tackle the increasing energy consumption of data centers.

The Global e-Sustainability Initiative (GeSI), just released its latest recommendations in a recent report on the role of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in reducing global carbon emissions by increasing use of technology across varied sectors.

How do you hit a carbon emissions target if you don’t know how much you are producing? This question was answered by the Carbon Disclosure Project that transparently publishes the carbon emissions of 2,500 organizations in some 60 countries around the world.

Europe’s own environmental visionary Dennis Pamlin (Senior Associate Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and senior Advisor B4E) reminds us of the power of technology to not only lead to solutions but generate tremendous wealth for Europe. For Pamlin the next major investments in urban infrastructure over the next 30 years needs to be done in a smarter and more efficient way.

During one of his visits in Brussels, we got the chance to interview Rob Bernard, the Chief Environmental Strategist for Microsoft. Rob is responsible for defining and implementing the global strategy for the company’s environmental efforts.  We talked to him about Microsoft’s environmental stewardship and got his views on the role that the ICT sector plays in enabling solutions for...

I'm often asked why Microsoft is getting involved in environmental issues: people assume it is not our issue or that internet and communication technologies can help. Wrong! Technology is not the solution but an important enabler for energy efficiency and reductions in greenhouse gases.

40 years ago Earth Day started as a grassroots movement to build ecological awareness on an issue largely misunderstood as anti-economy.

Developers are the lifeblood of Microsoft. I know, I know, it’s a well-worn Microsoft mantra but believe me, it’s never been more true. Today, the hunger for new technologies is only growing.

Innovation is now the catch phrase for the European Commission but an important one to try and resolve issues facing the EU and the world. From climate change to healthcare society faces many ‘grand challenges’ that will demand the brightest minds in both government, academia and the private sector.

I've just re-watched this video of Jean-Philippe Courtois talking to INSEAD about the role that IT can play in mitigating climate change, answering that age-old question: what does the ICT industry have to do with climate change?! It's nearly a couple of years old, but still relevant

As you may have read before on this site, we opened one of the largest data centres in Europe just last year in Dublin. Large-scale facilities such as this can play a big role in the development of cloud computing, providing companies with better and cheaper computing facilities. Great news to resource-strapped companies in particular.

Think industry is the biggest emitter of C02?

It’s not a new story, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t deserve to be told again! In 2008, Fiat introduced eco:Drive for Fiat Blue&Me powered by Microsoft, the first tool in the world to actually interact directly with drivers to analyse their habits at the wheel and make recommendations on how they can drive more efficiently.

The European Environment Agency and Microsoft launched their latest project this month - the Environmental Atlas of Europe (Atlas) at the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP15) in Copenhagen.

We were very proud to announce the grand opening of our Dublin data centre last month. This state of the art facility helps to improve cloud computing capacity and network infrastructure throughout Europe to meet the demand generated from Microsoft’s online, live and cloud services (like Bing, Windows Live and the Azure Services Platform).

We at Microsoft are delighted to see the opening of the first "mega data center" here in Europe. The Dublin Data Center is part of Microsoft’s long-term commitment in the region, and is a major step in realising Microsoft’s Software plus Services strategy.