Microsoft president reveals proposals to reduce data centre energy use

President and chief legal officer of Microsoft, Brad Smith has written a blog about the company’s energy consumption. In 2010, Microsoft disclosed that its cloud computer data centres used power equivalent to a city composed of 180,000 homes. Smith acknowledges that the problem will increase, arguing that “data centers will rank by the middle of the next decade among the large users of electrical power on the planet”.  Microsoft already runs 100% ‘carbon neutral’ data centres and operates a carbon fee model, through which business units pay a fee based on emissions. Smith’s blog announced three further commitments – ‘transparency’, ‘accelerated transition to a clean energy infrastructure’ and ‘investments in research’.

Over the past few years much has been written about corporate sustainability policies in the face of large companies gobbling up the world’s energy resources. Thursday Brad Smith, Microsoft Corp.’s president and chief legal officer, wrote a startlingly open blog post about it.

Microsoft acknowledged in 2010 that its cloud computer datacenters consumed as much power as a city of 180,000 homes. And Smith notes that cloud computing is growing phenomenally. “Across the tech sector we need to recognize that datacenters will rank by the middle of the next decade among the large users of electrical power on the planet,” he says.