Microsoft's "green" initiatives have generated quite a bit of buzz lately. What does this mean for Microsoft employees? Francois Ajenstat, Director of Environmental Sustainability here at Microsoft, stopped by JobsBlog to answer a few of my questions.  Who are the Greenies?  And what's with those new compostable forks and green cups in the Microsoft kitchens?  

If you have more questions for Francois, leave them in the comments!

JobsBlog: Hi Francois!  Thanks for stopping by JobsBlog!  You're on the Environmental Sustainability team. What does your team do?

Francois: Hi everyone – our team is focused on looking at broad Environmental Challenges and how Microsoft can help address them. The big area of focus these days is obviously Climate Change and reducing greenhouse gases but we’re also looking at broader issues such as smart transportation, deforestation, and water issues. People around the office called us the “Green Team” or “Greenies”. :)  We’re looking at how technology can be applied for positive impact; driving partnerships for global impact; and of course driving sustainable practices within our own operations.

JobsBlog:  So you're green geeks. :) The “Greenies” partner with other teams at Microsoft to help us reduce our impact and positively affect the environment … like partnering with research teams to advance science and with product teams to produce more efficient code. 

Francois: The issue of environmental sustainability is something that many different teams at Microsoft are focused on – from the product groups to research to our own facilities and operations. For example, the Windows group is focused on efficiency and power management. The Unified Communications team is promoting telework and remote meetings to reduce travel. Groups within Microsoft Research are looking at complex climate change models to predict various environmental issues. Our data center team is focused on bringing “Moore’s Law” to Energy Efficiency in data centers – doubling output while keeping energy demands constant or lower. Real Estate & Facilities is looking at our own operations to reduce waste on campus, provide travel alternatives such as the Connector, and “greening” our events. As you can tell, this is an area that spans all facets of the company.

JobsBlog: On the topic of greening our own workplace, I heard that – due to your team’s partnership with Real Estate & Facilities – Microsoft is on track to reduce solid waste by 50% and the Redmond campus’ cafeterias and kitchens recently became the first in the US to be earn Certified Green Restaurant status.  Plus, employees can’t get enough of the Connector!  Any other green workplace initiatives you can share with us?

Francois: We actually drove a 50% reduction in solid waste in the first month. Our goal is to become zero waste. That’s ambitious but achievable if everyone does their part. There are quite a few other activities that we’re doing from a workplace standpoint. All of our new buildings are being built to LEED standards and consume over 20 percent less energy than traditional buildings. In our Mountain View, CA campus we’ve installed 2,288 solar panels covering more than 31,000 square feet of rooftop which generates 480 kilowatts of power. We’ve built our data center facility in Quincy, WA site to use 100% renewable hydropower from the Columbia River Basin. 

And of course, our employees are our key assets in making a difference in our workplace.  We have an employee community group called MSGreen which drive discussion, education, awareness and engagement in environmental activities around the world.  MSGreen has over 1000 members worldwide.  Also, through the annual Employee Giving Campaign employees are encouraged to partner with Microsoft to promote the causes and organizations that for which they are inspired, and Microsoft will match any donations through the campaign.

JobsBlog: On a personal front, you’ve worked at Microsoft since 2000, and most recently, you were the Director of Product Management for SQL Server.  What motivated you to make the switch from SQL Server to the “greener” pastures :) of Environmental Sustainability?  

Francois:  One of the great things about Microsoft is the fact that we are working on so many different areas that it provides employees with a ton of personal and career development opportunities. There were many reasons that led me to the Environmental Sustainability team. First, I have a personal passion on the topic so it’s great to be able to combine those two worlds.

Second, it’s about the people. Everyone on the team is deeply passionate about the environment and want to make a difference. It’s invigorating to be surrounded by people who want to change the world.

Next is that when I look at this market there is so much opportunity for growth. So many new solutions being developed and I love being on the ground floor of such a big market shift.

And then finally, a major reason for the shift is that I truly believe that Microsoft has a very unique opportunity to have a huge positive impact here on the planet and on people and businesses around the world. With all of that, it became a no brainer for me and an opportunity that I couldn’t resist.

JobsBlog: Thanks for stopping by!  Any closing thoughts?

Francois: Environmental Sustainability is something that everyone at Microsoft can take part in. Whether in how we act as employees or looking at reducing the environmental impact of our products. Although our team is “tasked” with bringing together the strategy, people and groups across Microsoft are a critical part of the solution.

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Looks like Sony Ericsson released the Project Capuchin SDK, including some new resources (tutorials, examples):

Project Capuchin SDK available for download, bridging Java™ ME and Adobe® Flash Lite™

Sony Ericsson’s Project Capuchin SDK is a set of APIs, a packaging tool, documents and getting-started tutorials that enables developers to bridge the Java™ ME and Adobe® Flash Lite™ programming environments and is available for download from the dedicated Project Capuchin Docs & Tools web section.

• Download Sony Ericsson’s Project Capuchin SDK>>

To make the Project Capuchin SDK as accessible as possible to both Java and Flash Lite developers, the components are available for download as the following separate files:

Tools

• Swf2Jar 1.1, Project Capuchin packaging tool and user guide
• Sony Ericsson Project Capuchin APIs

Technical docs

• Project Capuchin Product Information document
• Project Capuchin API Java documents
• Setting up the Java environment for Project Capuchin Development

Tutorials

• Getting started with Project Capuchin for Flash Lite and Java developers - includes reference applications

This SDK package will be added to with more tutorials and developer tools over time.

About Project Capuchin
Sony Ericsson’s Project Capuchin allows developers to combine the richness of both Java ME and Flash Lite by encapsulating Flash Lite content in Java ME applications making content created by Adobe Flash technology appear as Java ME applications.

The Project Capuchin API and the Swf2Jar tool make it possible to use Flash Lite as the presentation layer and Java ME as the application logic, meaning that Flash tools can be used for UI design while still having access to all the phone services available to Java ME.

Project Capuchin takes advantage of Flash’s strengths in fast UI deployment and well established designer tools, meanwhile Java’s strengths are in services, security and a well developed distribution infrastructure.

"Sony Ericsson is dedicated to providing its customers with a best-in-class user experience, and our dedication to Project Capuchin marks yet another milestone to help developers bring the richest applications to users on a mobile device," said Rikko Sakaguchi, CVP and Head of Creation and Development at Sony Ericsson.

"Innovation is at its best with open development, and today we are proud to invite new and old developer partners to take advantage of the latest addition to the resources of Sony Ericsson Developer World."

Rikko Sakaguchi, CVP and Head of Creation and Development at Sony Ericsson.

C905: first Sony Ericsson phone with Project Capuchin
The Sony Ericsson C905 Cyber-shot phone is the first phone to support Sony Ericsson’s Project Capuchin API. Developers who utilize the Swf2Jar 1.1 packaging tool will be able to test their applications on the C905 as it comes to market.

The C905 is a feature-rich, slider-style phone with an 8.1 megapixel camera and takes the number of phones supporting Sony Ericsson’s Java™ Platform 8 (JP-8) and the Mobile Services Architecture (MSA) umbrella standard (JSR 248) to 15. Read more>>

The first SE device to support the Capuchin technology is reported to be the C905 (I believe ETA is October).

The C905 Cyber-shot is Sony Ericsson’s first Cyber-shot slider-style phone and its most advanced camera phone yet. In addition to the 8.1 megapixel camera with Xenon flash and autofocus, supportive features include Smart contrast, Face detection, BestPic™, PictBridge™ printing, horizontal camera UI and illuminated icons for settings shortcuts. Sharing photos and videos is enabled through HSDPA network speeds, Wi-Fi, a DLNA (Digital Living Network Alliance) server to connect to compatible devices and the new Sony Ericsson TV-Out Cable ITC-60.

The C905 also has embedded GPS and aGPS support, 160MB internal memory, removable external storage with Memory Stick Micro and a 320×240 pixel 262K TFT QVGA display.

The C905 will be available in selected markets during Q4 2008.

Side Bar: I wonder if SE and Nokia would ever consider merging as a combined entity … it would be an interesting alliance to compete against the media capabilities from the likes of the iPhone, and other players. Just a random thought …

Scott Janousek \m/