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The geek in question: Mark Aggar
Task title: Environmental Technologist
What's up with that profession title?
I'm Microsoft's only Environmental Technologist. My business card says "Director of Environment Technology Strategy," which is more a occupation description and just has too many syllables for every day use.
I function on the Environmental Sustainability team, and our charter is to look at Microsoft's footprint, the footprint of information technology, and how information and communications technology (ICT) can actually help the environment. I focus on the latter two areas, and while I don’t focus on Microsoft’s footprint directly, the fact that we are such heavy technology users means that I often get involved with internal “greening” projects – plus the fact that I'm passionate about reducing waste and it’s hard for me not to get involved!
Prior to starting this career this year, I was the Director of Windows Server Product Planning and had been a part of that group for six years. I also founded Vegetarians at Microsoft, and all the little signs in the campus cafeterias that indicate whether something is vegan or vegetarian were a result of the creation of that group. We have over 600 people on the distribution list now and I have the collective power of those people’s voices to thank for the increased number of environmentally friendly food options that are now available on campus.
What kind of green initiatives are you working on?
I've been working closely with the Windows Power Management folks. Power Management and energy efficiency on PCs and servers really takes a village. It requires not only investments in the operating systems, but also the applications. One application that is energy inefficient can undermine everyone else’s efforts.
Driving Windows client and server applications to focus on energy efficiency is a long term project of mine. I'm also looking at what software can do to help the environment. That's really the most interesting aspect of my role. The IT industry uses maybe 2% of the world's electricity -- the other 98% is used by other industries and activities, and software can play a strong role in making them more efficient. And its not just about efficient use of electricity – software can help make more efficient use of other resources as well, such as water and oil.
Take transportation for instance. There are lots of opportunities for software to help improve -- it's not just about avoiding transportation all together with things like Office Communicator and LiveMeeting,Microsoft Office Pro 2010, but looking at ways that software can make transportation itself more efficient. For instance, how can software make it easier to find a car pool match,Microsoft Office Professional 2010 Product Key, especially if you’re like me and have a variable commute schedule? Carpooling is an inexpensive way to save huge amounts of fossil fuel while reducing congestion at the same time, but its just too difficult, inconvenient or scary for many people to seriously consider. Software that builds on existing calendaring, social networking and location awareness technologies can change that. One of my jobs is to drive thinking in this direction.
How do you respond to critics who might say that your work and even your team are examples of Microsoft hopping on the green trend?
There's a natural tendency for marketers to want to jump on the bandwagon and “green-wash” their existing products. I'm very much of the opinion that it's much better to be up-front with the customer about the company's motivations for doing something and THEN talk about the environmental benefits, rather than claim you did it just for the environment. The original value proposition of many products probably had nothing to do with the environment, but if it has a nice environmental side effect, then there’s no harm in talking about it.
There’s a natural tendency for marketers to want to jump on the bandwagon and “green-wash” their existing products. I’m very much of the opinion that it’s much better to be up-front with the customer... For instance, I’m not big fan of the term “Green IT” because it’s really hard to assess whether IT is green in the sustainable sense – rather than simply being more efficient. As I read somewhere, unless your servers are literally sucking carbon out of the air and storing it underground, don't talk to me about how green they are,Office 2010 Professional Plus 64 bits!
The primary reason that businesses should be doing “Green IT” is simple economics -- it saves you lots of money. In an industry where the cost of energy and other raw materials is going up, that's just the right thing to do for the bottom line. That it also helps the environment to some degree is useful for boosting its priority versus other similar cost savings measures. Whether using a certain amount less of something is sustainable is another question altogether. That’s where computational science can help – to build virtual models of the world to figure out what how the world’s ecosystems are going to behave given certain volumes of inputs and outputs.
Oh and I hear you and your wife just had a baby. Congratulations!
Thank you! I had somewhat mixed feeling about being out on paternity leave for 6 weeks. It was very nice to be with my family, but although I did feel a bit guilty that I might be missing out on opportunities to help the planet at the same time,Office Professional Plus 2010 cl��gen! Having kids is a strong daily reminder that we have to leave this planet to them in as good, and preferably better,Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2010 Product Key, state than we inherited it.
Links, please?
• Mark's blog: blogs.technet.com/markaggar • microsoft.com/environment • Microsoft's Environmental Sustainability blog: blogs.msdn.com/see