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...

On June 20th 2012, in the presence of Prime Minister of Denmark Helle Thorning-Schmidt, sustainability legend Gro Harlem Brundtland, IPCC Chair Rajendra K. Pachauri, EU Commissioner for Climate Action Connie Hedegaard and 150 VIP guests at Rio+20, Eye on Earth has been chosen for the prestigious SUSTAINIA 100 list of solutions. For more information, you can visit:...

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.

We have recently run a pilot programme on our corporate campus in Redmond, Wash., USA, aimed at using technology to improve the energy efficiency of the buildings.

Several months ago, we released a new whitepaper, The IT Energy Efficiency Imperative, which explores the critical importance and substantial benefits of embracing IT energy efficiency in a world where almost every facet of business and society is dependent on IT-based services. Added to this we’re also releasing a new video featuring Mark Aggar, Senior Director of Technology Strategy, talking about...

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.

When Richard Banks’ grandfather died about five years ago, he left behind a suitcase filled with hundreds of photographs, many depicting his time as a pilot during World War II. Looking through those images made Banks think about the legacy he would leave his daughter, and about the physical limitations of photos and floppy disks that become obsolete as images and information are increasingly stored...

Governments around the world are racing to invest in smart electricity grids to reduce energy consumption and battle climate change. The European Union’s Strategic Energy Technology (SET) Plan includes a €2 billion investment in smart grids over the next ten years. By 2020, the EU aims to have smart meters in 80 per cent of homes.

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.

I was recently at a roundtable meeting with Connie Hedegaard, the European Commissioner for Climate Action and many companies representing the financial, manufacturing, technology and transport sectors and NGOs. Part of the discussion was on the EU’s carbon emissions reduction target for 2020 and a move from 20% to 30%.

Cloud computing brings great benefits to Europe’s start-ups and SMEs in terms of cost benefits, ease to up-scale their businesses and efficient computing capabilities. Besides using the cloud power to operate their own business, SMEs also have the opportunity to widen their portfolio and innovate by building new applications and services on the cloud platforms.

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...

The global scale of climate and energy challenges is daunting. As world population approaches the 7 billion mark a growing majority people now live in cities. These billions of new urbanites need energy; energy for lights, for heating, for cooling; energy for transportation, housing and emergency services, energy for water systems and sanitation, and they want the same conveniences and luxuries that city...

Electricity companies around the world are racing to develop equipment to help homes and apartments automatically slash energy use. These “smart home” technologies are being tested from San Francisco to Seoul, but many of the do-it-yourself kits are complicated to install and configure. More sophisticated systems are expensive and require professional installation. As a result, global rollout of...

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

The EU’s Sustainable Energy Week is in town: Brussels and 44 European countries are hosting a wide range of events and attracting thousands of people to take part in sessions which highlight the urgent need to improve energy efficient as part of global efforts to combat climate change.

Last week, I was in Nairobi, Kenya for the United Nations Chief Executive Briefing, where Ban Ki-moon, the UN Secretary General, launched the UN’s new energy neutral Nairobi office building. The building is the first of its kind for the UN in Africa and is a global showcase of sustainable design and technology.

Microsoft’s Chief Environmental Strategist on ICT, Rob Bernard, passed through Brussels again last month. I had the chance to continue from our  previous discussion on how ICT can contribute to a cleaner economy, and get his views on how cloud computing can reduce a European company's environmental footprint.

An article in the French newspaper Le Figaro, began with the words ‘Smart grids will be to energy what the internet was for computers’. In other words, a revolutionary concept.

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.

I wanted to share with you an interview in The Guardian with Rob Bernard, Microsoft’s Chief Environmental Strategist.

A recent article in The Guardian has profiled how, thanks to an Oxford University project supported by the European Commission and Microsoft Research, citizens now have the opportunity to help scientists track the regional and local weather events caused by climate change. 

At Microsoft, we are committed to software and technology innovation that helps people and organizations improve the environment. We work closely with governments, NGOs, businesses and academia, on the best ways to use technology with the aim to resolve issues facing the environment such as climate change and energy sustainability.

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...

Did you ever wonder what mathematics has to do with saving the planet? Well a group in France has been working on things like “multi-objective and stochastic constraint programming” for optimising resource usage. This sounds very technical but a lot of the innovative  solutions being looked at today will require smarter methods to make new environmental technologies work.

Stockholm is one of the most networked cities in the world. It is also considered one of the happiest and one of the most environmentally aware. In fact, the city was recently named European Green Capital of 2010. Now, Stockholm is using Microsoft Windows 7 to achieve even better results.

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.

In this case study, you can read about how HCL Technologies is enabling enterprises to easily monitor its carbon footprint which is helping businesses and governments’ better account and manage carbon emissions.

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.

Dr. Peter Thomond, from Imperial College provides a fascinating insight into the behavioral changes needed for Europe to become the seat of real environmental change.

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.

On November 8-11, I took part in the 2010 Care Innovation summit on ‘Going Green’, held this year in Vienna. Participants from across the ICT sector attended the two-day event to better understand how our sector should be part of the answer to reduce greenhouse gases and not part of the problem.

The first Belgian National Homeworking Day was organized on October 28th by Microsoft, Getronics, AOS Studley and PricewaterhouseCoopers.

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.

We’ve been underlining this idea many times before, the ICT industry has the power to contribute to the worldwide carbon reductions not only within the ICT sector itself, but also to help other sectors and industries such as production, transport, construction and logistics become more sustainable.

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.

It’s a clear message my colleagues gave me at a recent event: the ICT industry and cloud computing are key components in helping to reduce the carbon footprint in Europe.  But of course ICT people would say that, I hear you cry!

Similar to other industries the Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) industries has been challenged to prevent its carbon emissions from increasing. ICT also has the incentive to demonstrate the potential for reductions in carbon emissions through increased use of technology within other 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...

On June 20th 2012, in the presence of Prime Minister of Denmark Helle Thorning-Schmidt, sustainability legend Gro Harlem Brundtland, IPCC Chair Rajendra K. Pachauri, EU Commissioner for Climate Action Connie Hedegaard and 150 VIP guests at Rio+20, Eye on Earth has been chosen for the prestigious SUSTAINIA 100 list of solutions. For more information, you can visit:...

Learn how the government agency - European Environment Agency - is raising environmental awareness across Europe through Eye On Earth, a platform based on Windows Azure.

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.

Computer science can play a major role in fuelling scientific breakthroughs in other fields, but only if it can meet its own grand challenges, said Craig Mundie, chief research and strategy officer of Microsoft at a symposium in Brussels debating how best to use EU-funded research programmes to solve grand challenges.

In this case study, you can read about the partnership between the European Environment Agency (EEA) and Microsoft to develop the “Eye on Earth” application on cloud to give Europeans data on water and air quality. An agency of the European Union, the European Environment Agency (EEA) provides independent and reliable information on the environment for policy makers and the general...

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.

Fiat Ecodrive lets you record your driving information on a usb stick and then use this information find out how to lower your driving emissions on your PC.

The European Commission as part of the EU Sustainable Energy Week (23-25 March) will once again run the Sustainable Energy Europe Campaign which contributes to realising the European Union's energy policy to amongst other things promote energy efficiency, new renewable energy sources, energy efficiency, and clean transport. The 2009 EU Sustainable Energy Week will sponsor 149 events inside and outside of...

I recently attended the European Commission’s ICT for Energy Efficiency event in Brussels where four associations representing information and communication technology companies have come together to ensure our industry will be part of the solution instead of the problem.

Hear me talking about the Eye on Earth online tool. This website shows data from thousands of air and water quality stations from across Europe in real-time. (By the way, I say 60,000 stations in the video but I was told I got a little ahead of myself - it's actually 6,000!).

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

New and unique climate site illustrates for the first time in 3D how climate change affects you, your city and your home - and what you can do to protect the global environment Map My Climate by MicrosoftEurope

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.

Volvo chose Microsoft technology to help improve the company's collaboration, communication and environmental sustainability efforts. Unified Communications enable reductions in costs and CO2 emissions as well as decrease the need for business travel.

Major advances in data availability, together with recent advances in computational modeling and data analysis techniques, are enabling Microsoft Research to shed light on climate change and the implications for European forest dynamics.

The Environmental Sustainability Dashboard for Microsoft Dynamics AX enables midsize businesses to easily track their environmental impact and energy consumption from within their Enterprise Resource Planning solution.

Scientists from Microsoft Research in the United Kingdom and the United States and University of California have developed a prototype that allows computers to run low-energy tasks while in sleep mode.

Copenhagen has succeeded as Kyoto did to bring the world’s attention to issue of climate change.

The Environmental Sustainability Dashboard for Microsoft Dynamics AX enables midsize businesses to easily track their environmental impact and energy consumption from within their Enterprise Resource Planning solution.

Join our partner – EEA – and  help build a community showing how we can IMPACT and CONTRIBUTE to addressing Climate Change!!

With Eye On Earth providing near to real-time information on Water and Air quality, encouraging two-way collaboration with citizens, Environmental Atlas of Europe now extends our digital platform to educate on climate change. (See my previous post )

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.

A group of scientists from Microsoft Research in the United Kingdom and the United States and University of California have developed a prototype that allows computers to run low-energy tasks while in sleep mode. This saves both energy and money.

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).

There’s a new technology coming into your home. But unlike many, this one should save you money.

Big challenges can encourage big solutions, and at the end of last year there was no challenge bigger than Europe’s response to the economic turmoil caused by the global credit crisis.

Environmental scientists face many challenges in monitoring and understanding our planet’s changing climate.

In May 2009, a Brussels seminar examined the potential of computers to save energy – and the obstacles to realising that potential.

Software tools that help researchers to study the role of forests in climate change could make it easier to understand a wide variety of natural and artificial complex systems.

Microsoft’s first European “mega data centre”, which opened recently on the western outskirts of Dublin, uses 50 per cent less energy than a traditional data centre built some three years ago.

A new research group in Paris aims to use optimisation theory to find answers to the challenges of ensuring an efficient and sustainable future.

Earlier this week Microsoft joined with the European Environment Agency to launch a compelling example of how Microsoft’s cloud computing technology can be a real ‘change maker’ in the fight against climate change.

Through Eye on Earth, a repository for geographical environmental information created by the European Environment Agency (EEA) and Microsoft, Europeans can see and rate the air quality with an online application called AirWatch.

Prof. Jacqueline McGlade at EEA, Rob Bernard, Chief Environmental Strategist at Microsoft Corp and Ludo de Bock, Senior Director EU and NATO, Microsoft Corp. 

On June 20th 2012, in the presence of Prime Minister of Denmark Helle Thorning-Schmidt, sustainability legend Gro Harlem Brundtland, IPCC Chair Rajendra K. Pachauri, EU Commissioner for Climate Action Connie Hedegaard and 150 VIP guests at Rio+20, Eye on Earth has been chosen for the prestigious SUSTAINIA 100 list of solutions. For more information, you can visit:...

While living in a world of easily available mass market technology, it always strikes me how little we do with it in an interactive way to create broad awareness and collaboration on topics that will determine ours and the next generations future living conditions. 

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.

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. 

Eye on Earth allows governments, policymakers and individuals to compare the cleanliness of bathing water from sites across 27 European countries, giving people the power to choose where they swim and to influence their environment.

The internet is developing at a tremendous pace as more businesses and peopleworldwide gain access to an ever greater range of online services including online office functionality, video and music downloads and more. 

  Car Manufacturers have made tremendous progress in reducing vehicle emissions. Today’s cars create far less pollution and emit far less carbon dioxide compared with those built a decade ago.

As concerns about global warming grow, scientists are turning to sophisticated computational models to better understand and ultimately predict the impact of climate change and human activity on biodiversity.

The European Commission has called on national governments and companies to apply information and communications technology (ICT) solutions to improve their energy efficiency.

One of the gigs at this year's Roskilde Festival, the largest music festival in Europe, didn't take place on the stage but in the trash. Microsoft Development Center Copenhagen joined forces with its trusted partner Tegos, a solution provider for the recycling and waste management industry, to implement an innovative solution for “Garbage Information Gathering” (GIG) that simply cleared the...