Sustainable IT | Ted Samson » Yahoo's carbon-neutrality is a smart investment

April 19, 2007 | Comments: (0)

Yahoo's carbon-neutrality is a smart investment

TAGS: Sustainable IT

Yahoo has raised the green bar substantially amongst IT companies, announcing ambitious plans to become carbon-neutral by the end of this year.

What that means, basically, is the company is measuring its environmental impact, reducing that impact where it can, and, for what remains, investing in projects that reduce greenhouse gases (GHGs) in amounts equal to what it's still emitting, according to the company's announcement.

"We measured our carbon footprint and discovered that Yahoo going carbon neutral is equivalent to shutting off the electricity in all San Francisco homes for a month. Or, pulling nearly 25,000 cars off the road for a year," writes Chief Yahoo David Filo in the Yodel Anecdotal blog.

Yahoo isn't alone among major IT players in making a public display of its goals to cut energy usage and reduce GHG emissions. IBM recently announced plans to cut its greenhouse emissions 7% by 2012, while HP said it would cuts its total energy consumption by 20% by 2010.

But what Yahoo is doing is a little different, as I interpret it, and frankly, I think it's a great move.

Essentially, the company first is going to do all it can to cut energy costs within, something that any organization with huge datacenters needs to do anyway, given the power crunch and soaring energy bills companies are facing. Putting a dent in its energy bills -- and doing it sooner, rather than later, thanks to its self-imposed 2007 deadline -- may just help Yahoo reduce those operating expenses that resulted in a sub-par quarter.

After the company has made internal adjustments to reduce its carbon footprint, it says it's going to invest in projects around the world that cut emissions by the same amount that it's emitting.

But here's the important bit: Yahoo doesn't appear to be poised to simply throw money at feel-good, green-hued pigs in pokes, such as organic soybean farms in Malaysia run by vegans, or free-range, guinea-pig-powered server farms (patent pending). Rather, Yahoo has set some pretty strict criteria as to where its dollars will go, and expects to see actual returns on its investment.

The criteria Yahoo is using are:

Measurable results: We want to see real, measurable, direct emissions reductions.

Verification: We'll put potential projects through a third-party verification process to ensure they're actually delivering their expected environmental benefits.

Additionality: We want our investment to fund a project beyond business as usual. In other words, we wouldn't invest in a program that would occur anyway without our support. Some offset projects have been recently criticized because they merely provided additional revenue without environmental improvements.

High quality: We want to invest in projects that are wise investments with strong environmental returns but which also help other businesses and consumers build faith in this new and emerging market.

The Purple Gene: We want to do this in a way that's innovative and authentic.

And that's what I like so much about Yahoo's plan. Essentially, it's implementing a short-term strategy to cut costs and energy usage, which are both good for its bottom line and for the environment, and it has devised a long-term strategy for investing in the future of clean, sustainable technology -- an industry that companies like Yahoo will ultimiately profit from, and one that is bound to boom in a big way.

Yahoo's Filo has started a thread on Yahoo Answers, asking for suggestions from the public as to what it might to do reduce its carbon footprint. It makes for some interesting reading, really: Some people commend the company for its plans while others scoff that the company is wasting its time and money buying into the "global warming hoax."

What do you think of Yahoo's move?

Posted by Ted Samson on April 19, 2007 12:18 PM

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