LONDON -- European networking company Easynet has achieved CarbonNeutral status, as part of British Sky Broadcasting. The company has begun a series of initiatives designed to increase energy efficiency and reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions.

Technology companies have a specific role to play in energy consumption, often running vast amounts of energy-consuming hardware. Working with The CarbonNeutral Company, Easynet and Sky have measured the amount of CO2 emissions created by their business from their premises, company owned vehicles, business travel and waste to landfill, and have looked to reduce these where possible.

The companies then offset the unavoidable emissions that remain, through two renewable energy offset projects. These will save 1 tonne of CO2 for every tonne Easynet and Sky create. These projects are a wind power project in New Zealand and a micro-hydro scheme in Bulgaria, which will be supported to offset Easynet's CO2 emissions from the first year of its CarbonNeutral status.

In addition to working with Sky and the CarbonNeutral Company to make these changes, Easynet has identified where it can make further effective changes across its business, with maximum and immediate impact. It is reducing energy consumption in its data centres through improved hardware management, and now uses highly energy-efficient servers Easynet has also invested in new disk storage systems, using disks that store up to ten times as much data as previous disks, for the same power consumption.

David Rowe, Easynet's chief executive officer, says: “We all have a responsibility to reduce carbon emissions, not just for the short term but for future generations Easynet operates sophisticated data centres across Europe and so we are in a position to make an impact by reducing power consumed and by sourcing low emission power where possible. This is a process of continual improvement”.

Jonathan Shopley, CEO of the CarbonNeutral Company, said: “Global emissions need to be reduced by 60% by 2050 if we are to begin to stabilise CO2 levels in the atmosphere. It is absolutely critical that more companies translate vision into action”.

Sky