Company Profile – Microsoft
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Microsoft. The company everybody loves to hate. Whatever you think of their business practices, the world’s largest software maker has a big role to play in helping us cut our carbon footprint.
Microsoft likes to emphasize, and rightfully so, that software can help us all reduce our energy consumption. Microsoft has set some of their programmers on projects in this area. A recent partnership with the William J. Clinton Foundation will see Microsoft help develop a web-based program that helps cities track their carbon emissions and share strategies to reduce their carbon footprint.
Microsoft is also looking at ways of using software to help individuals cut their carbon footprint. Imagine if your thermostat was linked to the internet and could adjust based on the weather forecast to help you save your energy? While nothing is available for purchase, this is the type of role Microsoft sees themselves playing in the fight against global warming.
But what about the rest of their business and its carbon footprint? One of their most successful initiatives has been helping employees avoid individual commutes to work at the main office in Redmond, which hosts over 45,000 employees. The company provides bus and shuttle service to and within their campus, and has showers for people how walk or bike to work. This program has resulted in a decrease of over 32,000 commuter miles each year – a big drop in their carbon footprint.
Microsoft designs their buildings to a high specification for energy use and efficiency. Though they do not seek out LEED certification for their buildings, they maintain that all new buildings are designed to match the LEED Silver level. But we can’t help but wonder why they don’t get certified if they are in fact already doing it?
Inside their offices, Microsoft seems to have an eye for detail implement a variety of energy saving measures to cut their carbon footprint, including double sided printing, energy saving light bulbs, sending grease from the cafeteria to a biodiesel plant, using rain water irrigation for their lawns, and more.
They have also used a variety of renewable energy sources at different locations around the world. Twelve percent of the energy at their Mountain View location comes from solar panels, all the energy used at the office in Reading, UK, is bought from renewable sources, and a new data centre in Washington is to be powered completely by hydroelectricity.
Outside of their regular operations, Microsoft has been actively involved in founding organizations that help tech companies be more energy efficient, including Green Grid, which seeks to improve efficiency in data centers, and the Climate Savers Computing Initiative (CSCI), which promotes the development and deployment of smart tech to help reduce their carbon footprint.
However, despite these many measures to cut their carbon footprint, the biggest source of energy use relating to the company comes from people using their products, an this is an area badly in need of improvement. With XP and Vista installed on millions of machines around the world, thousands of kilowatts of energy are being wasted to due the energy settings that come on most computers. Most people never get around to changing the settings on their own PC, wasting power as long as their computer is plugged in.
So how do they stack up?
Business Strategy: 3.5/5 – there have been many strong efforts at Microsoft sites around the world, but these could be standardized to help all offices reduce their carbon footprint
Products & Services: 1.5/5 – their only saving grace here is the work on using new software to help people and companies be more energy efficient and XP and Vista continue to draw far more power than is really necessary
Leading by Example: 2.5/5 – some good gestures, but until they get their own products in order, they will not be a green leader
Overall: 2.5/5
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