February 1, 2007
Microsoft on Vista Landfill Effect: ‘Environmental Issues Important to Us All’
Microsoft has responded to UK Green Party claims that Microsoft’s latest operating system, Vista, could lead to a mass upgrade of PCs that will result in old machines being dumped in landfill sites, ZDNet UK reports.
In a statement sent to ZDNet UK, Microsoft director of government affairs, Matt Lambert, said the company was doing its best to improve its environmental standing. “Environmental issues are important to us all and we believe we are making important steps towards reducing the environmental footprint of our products and the hardware on which they run,” Lambert said.
Lambert added that Microsoft is happy to meet with the UK’s Green Party to discuss its environmental record.
Stay Up-to-Date On Environmental Management, Energy & Sustainability News with EL's Free Daily Newsletter
Advertisers
Can you accelerate your sustainability efforts?
Complimentary 5 Step Best Practices Guide >>
Renewables Briefing: World’s Biggest Offshore Wind Farm, 1.3 MW Solar Installation at Navy's SPAWAR
Reader Comments
So far I have owned vista for 2 months and had 20+ upgrades. Today the upgrade took nearly 40 mins and i could not access the machine. This implies that , if multiplied by the number of Vista users (increasing at > 10 million per month according to microsoft), then 100,s of megawatthrs of electricity is being used per year to support these updates. As the generation of a megawatthr of electricity puts several 100 kgs co2 into the atmosphere , Microsoft cannot claim a low carbon footprint for Vista, they should have sorted it before sending it out.I am changing to linux, a lower carbon operating system.
Richard Creasey | August 2nd, 2008