Executives' Club of Chicago Conference: Interview with Rob Bernard

As I mentioned in my last post, after the insightful and inspirational morning panels at the Executives' Club of Chicago Conference, I had the opportunity to sit down and chat with Rob Bernard, Chief Environmental Strategist for Microsoft Corporation. What does the Chief Environmental Strategist do? Rob works with both internal and external constituents to help reduce their overall impact on the environment, whether it's software, hardware, or business processes. Here's a quick Q&A Rob was able to provide in between the morning panels and a client meeting he had to run off to.

1. So Rob, how did you get into this position and what were you doing prior to this position?
   I've been working at Microsoft for 11 years. I was working on a project called Project 2 Degrees at Microsoft before they created this position. Now, I work on an environmental sustainability team, which is a virtual working team across several different groups, totaling 100 people across the company.
   
   
2. Are you working with any hardware vendors to improve energy consumption?
   In terms of hardware, currently, we're working with the XBOX team to reduce energy consumption. Current generations of the XBOX use half as much power as previous generations. We're also working with waste companies to help recoup materials after they have reached the end of their life cycle even though a typical XBOX has a fairly long shelf life.
   

3. The Chicago Auto Show is just about to start and I know Microsoft launched “Sync” two years ago. Do you see “Sync” having an impact on fuel consumption in the future?
   Currently, we're working with Fiat in Europe and Sync is helping analyze driving behavior and make recommendations to improve overall fuel consumption.
   
   
4. With everyone talking about green these days, do you find it a challenge to breakthrough the noise or do you think that everyone talking about it, in general, benefits everyone?
   We frame it more in the context of "environment sustainability" as opposed to green. You're right, the "green" hype is easy to get caught up in. Right now, we're working with companies to significantly reduce their energy usage and we have a big initiative for energy usage in data centers.
   
   
5. When should we expect to be able to download operating systems, software packages, etc. entirely, thus avoiding CD’s and DVD’s from being pressed?
   Microsoft currently has Digital by Choice, a service which allows you to download software direct from the web. Digital by Choice has already eliminated 10 million DVD’s annually. Some of our customers still prefer to have a pressed copy of software though for various reasons. We're trying to wean them off of it, but it's hard. We even reimburse customers not to take DVD’s in some cases.
   
   
6. Do you have any tips for a company who wants to go green, but just doesn’t know where to start?
   The first step is to track, measure, and record what you’re doing with your power. Fewer than 20% of IT professionals ever see the energy bill.
   

And here's 10 tips that Rob's green team was able to send along after the interview.

1. Power up using Power Management tools: Use the Power Management tools in your laptop or PCs control panel to select energy reducing settings. If you and nine of your friends do this, it becomes the equivalent of taking one car off the road. 
2. Unplug devices to avoid phantom energy: Make sure to unplug any devices you’re not using to avoid “phantom” energy costs. Power cords for SmartPhones, laptops and PDAs still consume energy when plugged in.  Stay unplugged and not only will you reduce your consumption, but you’ll save on your energy bill.
3. Shut down at the end of the day: An Energy Awareness Campaign found that more than 31 million of the country’s 104 million office computers are left on overnight.  According to the campaign survey, this adds up to more than $1.72 billion dollars and almost 15 million tons of CO2 emissions across the nation yearly.
4. Implement a remote working program in your business: Businesses that implement unified communications tools can reduce travel from 10-30 percent.
5. Choose a laptop over a desktop PC: Many modern laptops consume less than 30 watts when running at full performance, compared with a modern desktop PC that idles around 60 watts and can consume in excess of 150 watts at full tilt -and that’s not including the monitor. Many new small form-factor laptops idle at less than 15 watts – less than the power used by a typical compact fluorescent light bulb.
6. If you do want a PC over a laptop, choose ENERGY STAR rated PCs and monitors: ENERGY STAR rated devices earned their rating by meeting a rigorous set of energy use guidelines in three distinct operating modes: standby (off mode), sleep mode, and active. Also, qualified computers must include a more efficient power supply (typically an 80 Plus rated version).
7. Pick a LCD monitor: An LCD monitor can consume one-half to two-thirds as much power as the equivalent-sized traditional analog monitor. Simply turning down the monitor’s brightness can save a significant percentage of energy.
8. Recycle or donate old PCs and monitors: Today, about 28 million computers are refurbished and resold or freely distributed. Tens of millions of still-usable computers are discarded each year by businesses, individuals and organizations, mostly in the developed world.
9. Work toward making your office a ‘paperless office’: Backing up your files on an external hard drive instead of filing hard copies will significantly reduce paper consumption
10. Educate yourself: Calculate your personal carbon footprint at http://green.msn.com/tools/calculator.aspx.

Have any more office green tips? Leave them in the comments and we'll send them back to Rob to get his input.

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