Sun shines on energy efficiency

Posted January 11, 2007 at 06:12 AM by PJ Hruschak

Section: News, Computers, Trade Shows, CES, Miscellaneous

While everyone is plugging in and going online to read about CES 2007 and future energy-sucking electronics, TreeHugger stays the course with an interview with Sun Microsystem’s Vice-President of Eco-Responsibility, Dave Douglas.

Douglas oversees the environmental friendliness of Sun’s products and internal operations, so according to Douglas, Sun can “...do business in a way that’s good for the environment and for the company’s business at the same time.” That includes producing energy efficient devices while saving the company money.

“Technology isn’t that different from any industry - it will build what customers will pay for,” Douglas said. “What’s unique about the networking and computing space is that a big part of the environmental impact is front and center on our customers’ electric bills. So with rising energy usage and energy prices, going forward you’re going to see a tremendous amount of activity, some of it with real substance and some of it will be marketing hype.”

One program noted in the interview is OpenWork, which makes it possible for Sun’s employees to use networking to their advantage to work from the most convenient location, be it home or an office (or, heck, the beach).

I applaud Sun for having a dedicated, high-ranking corporate officer to keep companies thinking green, purposefully developing more efficient products and allowing forward-thinking programs such as OpenWork into their business plan. In such an Internet-savvy society, it doesn’t make much sense to dedicate so many bricks, so much gas and so many energy-sucking resources to drive to and work from a far-away office when so many people can just as easily, and often more efficiently, work from home. Keep it up, Sun!

Read [TreeHugger] CES Session [Saving Energy with Electronics]