Green Data Center Blog

Are multi-taskers the high tech version of Emperor New Clothes? PBS show digital_nation: life on the virtual frontier

PBS Frontline has a show “Digital Nation: Life in the Virtual Frontier”, showing Feb 2, 2010

Going through the synopsis I found this interesting discussing bright students and multitasking.

"I teach the most brilliant students in the world," says MIT professor and clinical psychologist Sherry Turkle, who describes the challenges of teaching students who are surfing the Internet and texting during class. "But they have done themselves a disservice by drinking the Kool-Aid and believing that a multitasking learning environment will serve their best purposes. There are just some things that are not amenable to being thought about in conjunction with 15 other things."

A multitasker herself, Dretzin travels to California to the Communication Between Humans and Interactive Media (CHIMe) Lab, where Stanford professor Clifford Nass has been studying the effectiveness of self-proclaimed multitaskers. After taking one of Nass' tests, Dretzin is shocked by her poor results. "It turns out multitaskers are terrible at every aspect of multitasking. They get distracted constantly. Their memory is very disorganized. Recent work we've done suggests they're worse at analytic reasoning," Nass tells Dretzin. "We worry that it may be creating people who are unable to think well and clearly."

Which brought up an interesting observation of multi-taskers.  We all know people who are proud how of how many things they can do at the same time.

But, are they living in an illusion, like The Emperor’s New Clothes

An Emperor who cares for nothing but his wardrobe hires two weavers who promise him the finest suit of clothes from a fabric invisible to anyone who is unfit for his position or "just hopelessly stupid". The Emperor cannot see the cloth himself, but pretends that he can for fear of appearing unfit for his position or stupid; his ministers do the same. When the swindlers report that the suit is finished, they dress him in mime and the Emperor then marches in procession before his subjects. A child in the crowd calls out that the Emperor is wearing nothing at all and the cry is taken up by others. The Emperor cringes, suspecting the assertion is true, but holds himself up proudly and continues the procession.

Douglas Rushkoff makes the point of fooling ourselves.

So what does it mean if we multitaskers are actually fooling ourselves into believing we're competent when we're not? "If multitasking is hurting their ability to do these fundamental tasks," Nass explained matter-of-factly, "life becomes difficult. Some of studies show they are worse at analytic reasoning. We are mostly shocked. They think they are great at it." We're not just stupid and vulnerable online—we simultaneously think we're invincible. And that attitude, new brain research shows, has massive carryover into real life.

If you believe this, then the next step is to think what is a better way than being an obsessive multitasker.  One place to look is Matthieu Ricard a famous Tibetan monk.

Matthieu writes on dealing with stress and anxiety, and interesting enough he quotes the same Stanford research.

Tip #2: One thing at a time
If you have many things to do, do them one at a time. You will work faster and better this way. Recent studies conducted at Stanford University revealed that multitasking actually reduce people’s ability to concentrate and even slows down the capacity to switch between several tasks. Multitaskers perform worse and non-multitaskers in all attention tasks that have been studied. In other words, multitasking takes us more time to achieve worse results.

The other two tips are:

Tip #1: Do away with your worries
If there’s a solution, then there’s no need to worry. If no solution exists, there is no point to worry.
…
Tip #3: A bit of meditation
If you are gripped by anxiety, pause for a moment and simply try to be aware of this anxiety. As you «examine» your anxiety with the eye of mindfulness, it will loose its potency. Why? Because the part of you mind that is aware of the anxiety is not itself anxious. It is simply aware. As mindfulness expands, the anxiety that upset you will gradually fade and make way for renewed inner peace.

Are you going to spend more time muiltasking or meditating?

Confession: I”ve been mediating since I was fourteen.  So, I am biased on this subject. :-)

Mike Manos is Nokia’s New VP of Service Operations, competes against GOOG, AAPL, RIMM, and MSFT

I wrote a post asking “is Mike Manos Crazy?”, knowing full well he has a plan.

Is Mike Manos Crazy? Makes a job change in less than 9 months leaving Digital Realty Trust for where?

Mike Manos just announced he was leaving Digital Realty Trust.

A Digital Adieu

January 29, 2010 by mmanos

Those who follow the news from Digital Realty Trust closely may have recently read that I have decided to leave the company to focus a bit more on some personal work/life balance issues.  With this move comes a new role that I will talk more of in the coming days and weeks.

Mike Manos just announced his new job at Nokia as VP of Operation Services worldwide.

Rolling Clouds - My Move into the Mobile Cloud
As many of you saw in my last note, I have officially left Digital Realty Trust to address some personal things.   While I get those things in order I am not sitting idling by.   I am extremely happy to announce that I have taken a role at Nokia as their VP of Service Operations.  In this role I will have global responsibility for the strategy, operation and run of infrastructure aspects for Nokia’s new cloud and mobile service platforms.

I have a friend who is an ex-Nokia employee working in Finland and London. He talks highly of the company culture which got me thinking about Nokia’s latest move to ship free navigation SW.  Going back there is a point made by Nokia’s CEO

Nokia Chief Executive Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo aims to build the world’s biggest mobile Internet services platform to protect market share and create new revenue streams. The company is trying different payment models including bundling with consumer handsets and pay-per-download. Google also has a diversified services business model, with most of its revenue coming from advertising.

So, why would Mike Manos make the move to Nokia?  Because he gets to be the man who builds the future of Nokia's mobile cloud services.  Would Google, Apple, RIM, or Microsoft offered him that job?  And, were they organized to include the data center, applications, and operations for mobile under one VP?  Most likely not.  My bet is on Mike transforming what we think of mobile data centers. We'll see if these companies regret not being able to throw their names out there to recruit Mike to change mobile data center services. 

I am very excited by the fact that there are some fierce competitors in this space as well. Once again I will be donning my armor and doing battle with my friends at Google. Their Droid platform is definitely interesting and it will be interesting to see how that develops. I have a great amount of respect for Urs Hoelze and their cloud platform is something I am fairly familiar with . I will also be doing battle with the folks from Apple (and interestingly my good friend Olivier Sanche). Apple definitely has the high end market here in the US, but its experience in Cloud platforms and operations is not very sophisticated just yet. On some levels I guess I am even competing against the infrastructure and facilities I built out at Microsoft at least as it relates to the mobile world. Those are some meaty competitors and as you have seen before, I love a good fight.

So, Mike isn’t so crazy after all.  But sees something most of us don’t as most of us have discounted Nokia as mobile competitor as Google, Apple and RIM slug it out in the US. 

Personally, some of my best stock market investments have been in the emerging market category.  So, I get Mike’s statement of growth and penetration.

In my opinion, Nokia has some very interesting characteristics that position it extremely well if not atop the fray in this space. First there is no arguing about Nokia penetration of hand-held devices across the world. Especially in markets like India, China, South America, and other emerging Internet using populations. Additionally these emerging economies are skipping past ground-based wired technologies to wireless connectivity. As a result of that Nokia has an incredible presence already in those markets.

Taking the leap thinking about mobile data centers reminds me of a fun discussion with ARM and what could be done with small low power data centers colocated with cell towers to change the delivery of mobile data.

Isn’t the highest growing market mobile devices and the services for those devices?

Ahh, so Mike switched from building colocation data centers for others who are living in the present to a future scenario where data centers look different to support a worldwide market for mobile device data services.  Who wouldn’t make the switch?

Now I can see the reasoning behind the change and maybe it isn’t so crazy after all.  But a leap to be innovative in a company who knows they have to innovate to be successful.

GigaOM made this point comparing Google’s map services vs. Nokia.

In comparison, Google Maps Navigation has to download maps constantly over a network connection.  It doesn’t matter if your don’t have a 3G connection or have lost data connectivity, the basic functionality of Ovi Maps will work, Nokia claims. This low data consumption model is something carriers are going to love, Ojanperä said. Why? Because it will save them money on network costs, as explained by this image.

Another reason why carriers are going to love Ovi Maps: It will help them sell data upgrades to voice-centric customers, even in emerging markets such as India and China where standalone GPS devices have yet to become commonplace, unlike in the U.S. and Europe. To me, this is Nokia’s big opportunity.

Watching Nokia, Apple, Google, RIM, and Microsoft compete in the mobile data center space should be an interesting competition that is the future for each of these companies.  Losing the mobile battle is expensive.

Is Mike Manos Crazy? Makes a job change in less than 9 months leaving Digital Realty Trust for where?

Feb 1, 2010 – new blog post on Mike’s Move to Nokia.

Mike Manos just announced he was leaving Digital Realty Trust.

A Digital Adieu

January 29, 2010 by mmanos

Those who follow the news from Digital Realty Trust closely may have recently read that I have decided to leave the company to focus a bit more on some personal work/life balance issues.  With this move comes a new role that I will talk more of in the coming days and weeks.

The official press release is here.

Digital Realty Trust Announces Organizational Changes

SAN FRANCISCO, Jan 29, 2010 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- Digital Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE: DLR), the world's largest wholesale datacenter provider, announced today that Mike Manos has resigned from the company as Senior Vice President of Technical Services, effective January 29, 2010. Mr. Manos joined the Company in 2009.

"Mike has made a tremendous contribution to Digital Realty Trust and we greatly appreciate his efforts," commented Michael F. Foust, CEO of Digital Realty Trust. "We understand that this was a difficult, personal decision for him and we wish him the very best in his future endeavors."

DataCenterKnowledge covers the news as well.

Manos has been one of the data center industry’s most visible executives, and been a regular speaker at major industry conferences and events.  

The first thought that came to mind “is Mike Manos crazy?”  He just left Microsoft in Apr 2009 to Digital Realty and in Jan 2010 announces he is leaving Digital Realty Trust.

Here is Mike’s post saying goodbye to Microsoft.

Farmers, so long

April 13, 2009 by mmanos

This post represents a bittersweet moment in my career. As you have no doubt heard I am moving on from Microsoft to take on an exciting senior role at Digital Realty Trust. I will save the specifics on my new role and its mission for a future post on my personal Loosebolts blog. But for now, I want to reflect a bit on my work here at Microsoft, our team, and a little bit on what it means to be a farmer.

The demand for data center expertise is high, but what got Mike to leave so soon.

This reminds me of the movie “The Gods must be Crazy” trying to figure out what motivates Mike.

If you have never seen The Gods Must be Crazy here is the first 15 minutes of the movie

After having a laugh, I thought “well Mike must have some logic to his actions and I can’t see it.”  The movie uses this technique well to show how an outsiders view of what you do can be funny.

I am sure we’ll hear soon what MIke’s plans are.

And, maybe in the same way that the Coke bottle from “The Gods Must be Crazy” didn’t quite fit in the culture of the tribe.

Xi and his band of San/Bushmen relatives are living well off the land in the Kalahari Desert. They are happy because the gods have provided plenty of everything, and no one in the tribe has unfulfilled wants. One day, a glass Coke bottle is thrown out of an aeroplane and falls to earth unbroken. Initially, this strange artifact seems to be another boon from the gods—-Xi's people find many uses for it. But unlike anything that they have had before, there is only one bottle to go around. This exposes the tribe to a hitherto unknown phenomenon, property, and they soon find themselves experiencing things they never had before: jealousy, envy, anger, hatred, even violence.

Since it has caused the band unhappiness on two occasions, Xi decides that the bottle is an evil thing and must be thrown off of the edge of the world. He sets out alone on his quest and encounters Western civilization for the first time. The film presents an interesting interpretation of civilization as viewed through Xi's perceptions.

Maybe Mike was just too good of a thing that there was only one of.  It is quite interesting how organizations behave when there is a resource that drives disruptive changes like Mike.  Look at how much he has done on Digital Realty Trust’s home page.

Personally, I’ve gone through quite a few circumstances where being innovative is something that doesn’t fit.

Was Mike too innovative at Digital Realty Trust?

Or maybe someone said “Mike let’s let you be really innovative over here?”

My bet is MIke has something very cool he is up to.  It may seem crazy now, but after we learn more, it will most likely make sense.

Bill Gates 2010 Annual Letter’s Environment Position is Similar to Google.org’s RE<C

Bill Gates posted his 2010 annual letter which discusses his primary focus on health and education today.  On the last/conclusion page Bill discusses his own personal interest in the environment.

Visiting an Eko financial services shop in the suburb of
Uttam Nagar with my dad (Delhi, India, 2008).

There are a lot of important topics I didn’t get around to in this letter. One area that I have been spending a lot of personal time on is energy and its effect on climate. The most important innovation required to avoid climate change will be a way of producing electricity that is cheaper than coal and that emits no greenhouse gases. There will be a huge market for this, and governments should supply large amounts of funding for basic R&D. Because the foundation invests in areas where there is not a big market, I have not yet seen a way that we can play a unique role here, but I am investing in several ideas outside the foundation. I am surprised that the climate debate hasn’t focused more on encouraging R&D since it is critical to getting to zero emissions. Still, I think it is likely that out of the many possible approaches, at least one scalable innovation will emerge in the next 20 years and be installed widely in the 20 years after that.

Note the “electricity that is cheaper than coal and that emits no greenhouse gases.”

Doesn’t this sound like Google’s RE<C project?

RE<C will work to develop electricity from renewable energy sources that is cheaper than electricity produced from coal with a goal of producing one gigawatt of renewable energy capacity – enough to power a city the size of San Francisco – in years, not decades. As part of this effort, Google.org is making strategic investments and grants, advancing key public policies, and using Google products to unlock critical information.
Renewable energy is clean, abundant, and inexhaustible. However, electricity from renewables today is generally more expensive than electricity from coal. RE<C is focused on making renewable energy cheaper than coal-fired power which today is the predominant source of electricity worldwide and a large contributor to global warming pollution.  

Google founders are behind the idea.

The decision to pursue this initiative reflects the strong commitment of Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin to help realize the promise of renewable energy.

Can you imagine the marketing people trying to get a Renewable Energy event where Bill Gates, Larry Page, and Sergey Brin are all in the same room?

Bill Gates goes Green Finally, podcast and investment in Khosla Ventures

For past 3 years I’ve talked with a variety of people at Microsoft and the Gates Foundation about Bill’s interest in the environment and Green.  The resounding past answers has been “the environment is not on Bill’s priority list.

I was skeptical when Bill launched his podcasts on Energy and Climate Change.  Listening to them I didn’t hear anything really mind blowing.

What’s been on my mind lately

Podcast Series: Energy and Climate Change

Posted 01/20/2010

Finding carbon-free energy sources that will provide affordable power for people around the globe is a complex and difficult issue. Bill shares his thoughts on the challenges of developing alternatives to fossil fuels.

In this series of podcasts, Bill talks about why we need to develop new sources of energy that provide power without generating CO2. Among the topics he covers are the challenges with potential solutions such as carbon capture and sequestration, nuclear, wind, and solar; and why he believes the U.S. government should increase its funding for basic research in energy.
To download the podcast as a .wma file for Windows Media Player, click below.
1. Alternative energy Part 1
2. Alternative energy Part 2
3. Government’s role
4. Learning about energy

Click below to download this podcast series as an mp3.
1. Alternative energy Part 1
2. Alternative energy Part 2
3. Government’s role
4. Learning about energy

But, today cnet news reports an Bill’s investment in Vinod Khosla green-tech firm.  Now that Bill has put his money in and he is hanging out with Vinod, I tihnk we can expect some big changes coming from Bill and the Gates Foundation.

Bill Gates investing in Vinod Khosla green-tech fund

by Martin LaMonica

Bill Gates, whose philanthropy is aimed at improving the lives of people in poor countries, is also taking a interest in clean energy, both intellectually and financially.

In an interview published Sunday, Gates said he has invested in Vinod Khosla's green-technology fund, which is aimed at incubating breakthrough technologies.

"He is backing some great entrepreneurs. I get some exposure to them as part of that. Innovation is called for in a big way," Gates said.

If you are not familiar with Khosla Ventures here is their site. I found Xsigo and Seamicro through his site.

Khosla Ventures has an interesting philosophy on what they can care about.

the things we care about

Making a difference is a core value of khosla ventures and we have pledged some of any investment proceeds to achieving this difference. In particular, Vinod will donate 100% of his general partner profit from khosla ventures to these and other similar causes. Some of our "social impact" interests also make for great businesses, such as alternative energy, or can at least be viable businesses ("no loss" self sustaining businesses that don't need continued outside support, they are impact maximizers instead of being profit maximizers) even if profit is not the primary goal, such as microfinance and affordable housing.

Some of the organizations we support are below. Some of these are traditional non-profit efforts. Others are "for profit" organizations. When we "invest" in ventures with these partners, we will put the equity in a non-profit trust to achieve social impact

• Microfinance - SKS, SHARE, ASA, CFTS, Jamii Bora Grameen USA, Unitus - with a goal to provide credit to over 25 million "below poverty line" borrowers. See also An Anti-Poverty Success Story; Video
• Environment - GE Ecomagination Advisory Council, Chairman of India Advisory Board of the Cleantech Network
• Education - Indian School of Business - a world class school of business, DonorsChoose.org - teachers ask for private funding on thousands of projects
• Health - Public Health Institutes of India, UNICEF
• ...others including eBay Giving Works - a marketplace for compassionate commerce supporting 9,000 charities

Also, just found this list of Green Papers from Kholsa Ventures.  More for my reading list.  :-)

green
White Papers

• 2008: Breaking the Climate Deadlock: Scalable Electric Power from Solar Energy (pdf)
• 2008: Global Carbon Caps Proposal (pdf)
• 2008: Policy and Perspective - the Scoping Plan for AB 32, and how to do it Right (pdf)
• 2008: Where Will Biomass Come From (doc)
• 2008: Hybrids (pdf)
• 2007: Food vs. Fuel (pdf)
• 2007: Biofuels Pathways (pdf)
• 2007: Biodiesel Commentary (pdf)
• 2007: Green Strategy (pdf)
• 2006: (Part 1): Imagining Tomorrow
• 2006: (Part 2): Is Ethanol Controversial
• 2006: (Part 3): Biofuels Policy Recommendations

eBay’s Data Center Team Cross Pollinates, Recruits Sun’ Dean Nelson to Join

Cross Pollination is proven as effective method to adapt to change.

Cross pollination introduces the plant to different genes which causes the plant to be able to deal with weather changes easier. Also, with cross pollination the plant is more likely to not be extinct because if one plant dies because of the weather or predators the new genes make it possible that the plant can still survive

eBay was able to use this strategy in its data center group and recruited Sun’s Dean Nelson.

Data Center Pulse Founder Dean Nelson to

Lead eBay’s Global Data Center Strategy, Architecture and Operations

San Jose, Calif.—September 9, 2009— eBay today significantly strengthened the leadership of its data center operations, appointing veteran industry thought leader Dean Nelson as its senior director of global data center strategy, architecture and operations.

Dean brings not only his experience and relationship with Sun’s data center teams, but also the Data Center Pulse organization.

Nelson is the founder of Data Center Pulse, an exclusive group of more than 1,100 global datacenter owners, operators and users in 41 countries that influence the industry from the perspective of the end user.  A long-time executive at Sun Microsystems, Nelson has distinguished himself with a long record of innovation managing the company’s global technical infrastructure portfolio.

As cross pollination has mutual benefits, Dean explains his views on leaving Sun.

A Geek In Training

The Sun Will Always Shine

I'm sure I will bore most of you with my historical ramblings, but today signifies a big change in my life. It is bitter sweet. I'm leaving the company that I have literally spent almost half of my life with.

…

My experience at Sun has been nothing but positive. Every one of my positions has been created from an internal need to solve a problem.  Each has given me a new perspective in considering how I approach and solve these problems. They have also stretched my skills, got me out of my comfort zone and made me grow personally and professionally.

What part of eBay appealed to Dean?

When I returned I met up with two of eBay's executives, the VP or Operations and the Sr VP of Architecture.  They articulated their strategy to reinvest in technologists to fuel the scale of their business.  As I listed to their vision and what role I could play to help it come to fruition, I started getting excited.  I had never truly appreciated the scale and impact of eBay. A huge population of people make their living on eBay. There are 88 million active users at any given point of the day - and the majority of the financial transactions that feed their 170 million listings, go through one of their companies - paypal.  They have also weathered the economic meltdown and are one of the oldest founding internet companies.  What resonated with me, was that their business lives and dies on the performance of their datacenters.  I had understood this before, but not at this level.  They are the epitome of Moore's law.  They have an aggressive tech-refresh program that enables them to keep up with user demand. But with great consumption, comes great responsibility. I witnessed a significant commitment to energy efficiency and environmentally responsible data center management through their green team. Their datacenters are core to the business in more ways than one. Their latest blog entry, eBay's Sustainable Data Center, highlights this. 

But after all the exciting conversations what I was most impressed with was how aligned and excited the leadership was.  They have retooled the approach from the top down and inspired their employees.  I felt the excitement, the energy and confidence in their future. They were experienced, focused, aligned and absolutely going after the market. I kept thinking to myself, that everyone I talked to seemed to be just like me - Geeks, excited by technology.  I could see many of them burning up their own car radios when they were kids!

What I got excited to see is this part on Green Data Centers.

At Sun I was able to beat our carbon reduction goal 5 years in advance and achieving 25% of the new goal within the first 3 months of 2009. Green is Green as long as it is an integral part of your daily thinking. This seems to be the case at eBay.

There is more and more cross pollination in the industry as Google recruited Chris Malone from HP, Microsoft recruited Chris Belady from HP, Amazon recruited James Hamilton from Microsoft, Digital Realty Trust recruited Mike Manos from Microsoft, and Apple recruited Olivier Sanche from eBay.

Individual companies may think the migration of data center executives is disruptive to business. This migration is disruptive, but in a good way as those companies who can attract the best talent have the highest probability of adapting to the changes in the data center industry.

Keep in mind attracting top talent is about providing the right opportunities to solve good problems. Dean made this point when he left Sun the first time.

The only reason I left Sun in 2000 was the lack of another challenging project.

Economy Down, Reading is Up, Less Energy Use

Ann Patchett writes in the WSJ about the Triump of Reading.

There will be those who attribute the rise in reading to our current decline of cash, and if that is actually the case I would at least be able to think I forfeited my retirement account to a worthy cause. It's true, as a source of entertainment reading ranks somewhere between cheap and free, depending on where you get your books. A movie can give you two hours of entertainment, but a book can go on for days or even weeks. My friend Lucy loved to point out that she started reading "War and Peace" on the first day of the first Gulf War and was still reading when the war was over. But I do not give all the credit for reading's rise to the collapse of the global financial markets. I believe as a nation we have touched the cultural bottom and are ready to be smart again. I think we're reading more because we've seen as many episodes of American Idol as our collective consciousness can bear and even if we weren't flat broke we'd still be in the mood for a book. Everyone improves under good leadership, which is why we all appreciate a teacher, a librarian, or a bookstore clerk who is willing to steer a child toward a copy of William Steig's "Doctor DeSoto." When Barack Obama, our soon-to-be-author-in-chief, announced on "60 Minutes" that he'd like to see poetry readings in the White House, I found myself thinking that change was going to come.

Adam Niklewicz

 

It is interesting to think why people are reading more.  Is it because of the economy, or Patchett points out “we have touched a cultural bottom, and ready to be smart again.”

Whatever your view, the good thing is all this reading is greener than most other activities. the NYTimes has a blog post about NRDC going after game consoles.

Consumption Study Takes Aim at Game Consoles

By JOE HUTSKO

In a new study about how much energy video game consoles consume, the Natural Resources Defense Council found that consoles in use today consume “an estimated 16 billion-kilowatt hours per year,” which, the report goes on to translate, is “roughly equal to the annual electricity use of the city of San Diego.”

Noah Horowitz, a senior scientist at NRDC and the study’s lead researcher, said gamers often leave consoles on when they’re not playing in order to return to the middle of a level that can’t be saved and reloaded in the same place if the power is turned off.

“That’s the main reason some people don’t turn it off,” Mr. Horowitz said, adding that “although Microsoft and Sony have added power settings options to automatically turn off the consoles after a set amount of time,” console owners often ignore the option “because they’ll lose their place when they’re done.”

…

In terms of overall energy use for the best-selling consoles — whether regularly turned off or not — the report describes Nintendo’s Wii, which draws 16 watts of power when in use, as a “juice sipper.” Microsoft’s Xbox 360, drawing 119 watts while active, sits in the middle. Sony’s PlayStation 3 was rated as the power hog, at 150 watts while in use.

Green Rating for Colleges, 11 Get Perfect Score (99)

Just last week I blogged about Universities being Greener than Corporations. And, this week Princeton review has a press release on its new Green College Rating.

The Princeton Review developed the Green Rating in consultation with ecoAmerica, a non-profit environmental marketing agency.  The criteria for the rating (which ecoAmerica helped formulate along with the rating's data collection survey and methodology) cover three broad areas: whether the school’s students have a campus quality of life that is healthy and sustainable, how well the school is preparing its students for employment and citizenship in a world defined by environmental challenges, and the school's overall commitment to environmental issues.   The institutional survey for the rating included questions on energy use, recycling, food, buildings, transportation, academic offerings (availability of environmental studies degrees and courses) and action plans and goals concerning greenhouse gas emission reductions.

11 Colleges scored a perfect 99.

Harvard’s Green Program is interesting for creating a Green Loan Fund.

Harvard College (Cambridge, MA)

Harvard has the largest green campus organization in the world consisting of 24 full-time professional staff and 32 part-time student employees all working to assist the Harvard community in greening all areas of its campus.

Harvard has committed to a 30% reduction of greenhouse gas emissions (below 2006 levels) by 2016.

It has established a $12 million revolving green campus loan fund to provide interest free loans to anyone at Harvard that has a green campus project with a payback of 10 years or less.
Since it’s inception in 2001, over $12 million has been lent out to fund 180 projects (lighting, HVAC, heating, cooling and ventilation, behavioral change, insulation, onsite renewable energy etc.).

Atlanta, GA has two colleges

Emory University (Atlanta, GA)

As part of Emory's Strategic Plan and its commitment to positive transformation in the world, sustainability was identified as a top priority of the university. Emory's vision is to develop a model for healthy living on campus that can translate to communities around the globe.

Sustainability initiatives at Emory include: building "green" with all new buildings constructed to LEED standards (with an emphasis on energy and water conservation), integrating sustainability into the curriculum (including the longest-running faculty development programs in sustainability in the country), promoting alternative transportation with a shuttle fleet that is 100% alternatively fueled; recycling Emory's waste stream (65% by 2015), and providing local and sustainably-grown food.

Georgia Institute of Technology (Atlanta, GA)

Located in the heart of Atlanta, the Georgia Institute of Technology is leading the charge in the green policy, practice, and academic arena as evidenced by:
• 21 endowed chairs and 23 research centers that include significant sustainability components
• A goal that every student takes at least one of more than the 100 courses with a sustainability emphasis
• Institutional environmental sustainability programs that embrace green cleaning, solid waste recycling, drought-tolerant vegetation, and storm water capture and reuse
• A Sustainable Food Project encouraging environmentally responsible dining habits and the implementation of a “green” portal providing a central resource to inform, showcase, promote green behaviors, activities, initiatives and events within the Georgia Tech community.

If you are selling Green Data Center solutions you may want to consider partnering with one of these colleges.

Can You Detect Internal Greenwashers? WSJ Discusses Made Up Problems

WSJ has an article titled Munchausen at Work.

'Munchausen at Work'

Employees Advance
By Fixing Problems
They Had Created

By PHRED DVORAK

In late 2005, the night manager of a suburban Atlanta restaurant called owner J.D. Clockdale to boast about how well she had handled an irate female customer. The customer "ranted and raved" about a botched order, but calmed down after the manager gave her a free meal, Mr. Clockdale recalls being told.

INVENTING TROUBLE

Experts say a good work environment can dissuade employees from creating "problems" that need to be solved. A few tips:

• Stress teamwork over individual problem-solving

• Be wary of creating office "heroes"

• Watch out for information hoarding

• Ensure bosses are attentive to employees' needs

Source: WSJ Research

The problem: the tale was untrue -- as Mr. Clockdale discovered by reviewing surveillance footage and phoning the customer, who was an acquaintance. He concluded the order mistake was minor and remedied without histrionics.

Mr. Clockdale confronted the night manager, who confessed that she invented the altercation to look good. "She wanted more responsibility," he says.

With the popularity of Green and problems of Greenwashing coming from suppliers, it is quite possible you have internal greenwashers who are either making up problems that they say they solve or even worse they create the inefficient operation and fix it, claiming success. This is scary to think about, but I am sure for people have been in data center industry for a while you have found problems under the category of Munchausen Syndrome.

In Munchausen syndrome, the affected person exaggerates or creates symptoms of illnesses in themselves in order to gain investigation, treatment, attention, sympathy, and comfort from medical personnel. In some extremes, people suffering from Munchausen's Syndrome are highly knowledgeable about the practice of medicine, and are able to produce symptoms that result in multiple unnecessary operations.

WSJ continues with how Munchausen syndrome manifests at work.

The story illustrates a troublesome workplace phenomenon that's now attracting attention: employees who quietly cause problems so they can later take credit for fixing them. Georgia Institute of Technology business professor Nathan Bennett dubs the behavior "Munchausen at work," because it resembles a rare psychological disorder in which sufferers seek attention by making up an illness or inducing sickness in others.

Mr. Bennett says most experienced managers he has interviewed have encountered Munchausen at work and consider it disruptive. Such actions can be hard to detect and eradicate; perpetrators may gain promotions or recognition, encouraging additional attempts. "You get the kind of behavior you reward," Mr. Bennett says.

Solving the problem like any problem first involves detection, and then monitoring the issues.

Spotting the deception is the first step toward stopping it. Health-care administrator Gary Barnes suspected an office manager was causing the problems she took credit for solving at a Pittsburgh clinic where he worked during the 1990s. The manager blamed computer glitches for a delay in depositing insurance checks, then claimed to have fixed the problem. Mr. Barnes searched the manager's desk and found she had kept the checks in her drawer; he fired her.

Keep this is mind when you architect the design of your energy monitoring systems. The problems you may have can be personnel behavior  in addition to your equipment. Few people think of tracking who is doing what in the data center.

Can you track efficiency improvements correlations to a person/group?

As mentioned in the WSJ article here is what else you can do.

INVENTING TROUBLE

Experts say a good work environment can dissuade employees from creating "problems" that need to be solved. A few tips:

• Stress teamwork over individual problem-solving

• Be wary of creating office "heroes"

• Watch out for information hoarding

• Ensure bosses are attentive to employees' needs

Source: WSJ Research

How Important is Green for Digital Realty Trust's New CTO Jim Smith? Green used 7 times in Press Release

Digital Realty Trust has a press release announcing Jim Smith's promotion to CTO. If you don't think Green is important for data centers, the press release has the word "green" seven times. 

Digital Realty Trust Promotes Jim Smith to Chief Technology Officer

In CTO Role, Smith Will Lead Digital Realty Trust's Use of Datacenter Infrastructure Technology

SAN FRANCISCO, Aug 18, 2008 /PRNewswire-FirstCall via COMTEX News Network/ -- Digital Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE: DLR), the leading owner and manager of corporate and Internet gateway datacenters, has promoted Jim Smith to the role of Chief Technology Officer (CTO). Mr. Smith has served as the Company's Vice President of Engineering. As the first person to hold the title of CTO at Digital Realty Trust, he will take the lead role in directing Digital Realty Trust's implementation of datacenter technologies.

"Jim's work has had a profound impact on the way we design and operate all of our facilities, and this promotion to CTO will allow him to play an even greater role in how we utilize technology to drive increasing value for our customers by reducing costs, increasing operating efficiencies, and developing Green operating environments," said Michael F. Foust, CEO of Digital Realty Trust. "He was recently recognized as one of the top technologists in the industry by InfoWorld, and we are proud to call him our own. Digital Realty Trust is changing the face of the datacenter industry, and he is a big part of our success story."

I've watched Jim Smith present multiple times and he has one of the better green data center presentations. When following up with phone calls, he has demonstrated a good understanding of how his facilities are committed towards being green.

Congratulations Jim.