Microsoft to Cut Carbon Footprint by 30%

March 16, 2009

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Microsoft says that it will reduce its carbon footprint by 30 percent compared to 2007 levels in the next three years.

Microsoft has outlined a plan to improve energy use in buildings, cut air travel, and increase the use of renewable energy. The company is also working on a $1-billion corporate campus expansion that will include under-floor cooling systems as well as lights that sense movement and turn on and off automatically, cites Fast Company.

According to a blog from the software giant’s chief environmental strategist, the company’s CEO Steve Ballmer set a goal to reduce the company’s carbon emissions per unit of revenue by at least 30 percent compared with 2007 levels by 2012. The company expects to achieve this goal by improving energy use in its buildings and operations, reducing air travel, and increasing the use of renewable energy.

Microsoft also says it will meet its goals by leveraging software and technology. The company will expand its use of the Unified Communications tools, which helped save the company over $90 million on travel last year, and will look for new ways to reduce its use of resources in data centers.

Most recently, Microsoft announced its virtualization software has saved some business customers an average of $470,000 annually by helping them reduce operations and capital expenses through reduced electrical power consumption and cooling in datacenters.

Microsoft can also use its own software to help its effort, reports Fast Company. Microsoft’s Environmental Sustainability Dashboard toolset helps businesses measure and reduce energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions as well as to cut costs.

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