back to article Microsoft makes carbon neutrality pledge

Microsoft’s efforts to improve its less than stellar environmental credentials have received a boost with the news that the entire firm will be going carbon neutral as of 1 July. Announcing the decision, which kicks in at the start of Redmond’s new financial year, COO Kevin Turner said the commitment would cover all of the …

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  1. Jeroen Braamhaar
    Mushroom

    I'm already carbon neutral - I think it's a waste of time to deal with it!

    Seriously, "carbon neutral" or "green" or whatever is the new Medieval Leniencies/Indulgences you bought from the Church to be able to live your life ...

  2. Phil_Evans

    Bunk.

    Relative carbon footprints never get smaller, only larger with the cloud. Measures as a percentage of operations are meaningless unless divulged as true tons of carbon disclosed.

    Cloud computing by it's definition is focussed on centralised, high intensity (power) plant that requires even more network carbon to shove the data around. And given the growth stats, Microsoft, like other cloud players, should not be crowing over non-achievements or goals that simply mean nothing.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Agreed

      So given its convenience all the more onus on companies to take green energy and low-energy cooling seriously. There is a balance, though: it's lot easier to stick solar panels on the roof of a cloud computing centre than on top of my house...

  3. Tim Jenkins

    Hmmmmmm; choices, choices......

    Say I'm heading a major tech company, cloud provider, web host etc. Do I choose to run my new data centre or power my office facilities, which represent the best of 21st century technology, from available, potentially unlimited low-carbon renewables; say hydro (Norway), wind (Germany), geothermal (Iceland), solar (Nevada) and/or nuclear, or do I tie myself to 18th century fossil sources which maim, poison and kill miners (Virginia), pollute indigenous peoples (Nigeria), fund repressive regimes (all the Gulf states) and enrich ex-KGB thugs, and which are on an ever ascending price, with finite availability and tenuous supply lines.

    Frankly; who cares if climate change is human-influenced, or even happening at all? Renewables (and nuclear) for electricity is the future, if only so we can still have enough oil to have some cars, flights, plastic...

  4. yoinkster

    I really hope this is just a press release to appease the green crackpots. No-one who matters gives a shit about your carbon footprint, MS, you carry on doing what you're ... well not what you're good as that's a short list but you just carry on regardless (:

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Alchemists?

    "make every Microsoft business unit responsible for the carbon they generate"

    If they are generating an element I think that they might be better off by generating gold rather than carbon.

    Or maybe they actually meant that they are intending to voluntarily add cost to their business by giving bungs to some rent seeking "carbon offset" outfit. Corporate stupidity. I guess they haven't noticed that the wheels are falling off the "carbon" bandwagon.

  6. adam payne
    Joke

    What ever will they do next?

    Offset the hot air that comes out of their marketing department?

  7. nijam Silver badge

    And what about the CO2 their employees breathe out?

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    And as the world when "carbon neutral"...

    ...All plants died from lack of 'food'.

    Seriously; it is a good thing that companies put some interest into all this and try to thwart any waste going on in their offices. But this looks odd to me; seems all they're doing is trying to generate income from their own remote offices.

    I'd be more impressed if they tried to cut back on waste. You know; re-use paper and clipboards instead of writing on one side and throw it all away, that sort of stuff. May sound small and insignificant, but you'd be amazed what all such small things combined (throughout an entire company) can actually accomplish.

    Still, its a good step in the right direction so it seems.

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Why don't they do something useful?

    Like de-bloat their products in order to reduce the carbon footprint of Winows PCs...

  10. Charles Manning
    Thumb Up

    Great: The end of AGW!

    Given Microsoft's history of embrace, extend and extinguish this can only mean one thing: The end of AGW!

  11. Rohit writes

    Web 3.0 goes environmental

    Tablet computers marked the beginning of Web 3.0 and the environment will be an indispensable part of this future. The earlier that companies catch up the better it is.

    As a Business Analyst at ValueNotes business research firm, I am writing a series of articles on Web 3.0. Pls read further at the following link:

    http://www.valuenotes.com/xchange/blogs/53/183

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