Microsoft recently opened a new 500,000 square foot data center in Quincy Washington.

Most of the focus has obviously been on the sheer computing and storage capacity that this facility (one of several that are coming on line) contains, but not much gets said about the environmental impact of the infrastructure.

As you can imagine a data center that size is going to use more electricity than your average home to keep the machinery ticking over and the air conditioning running.

The great news is that both the Quincy and new San Antonio facilities are pretty much carbon neutral.

They don't rely on coal or nuclear power to run the facilities, relying instead on hydroelectric power, and even the vehicles used by the construction crew were fueled with biodiesel (you can tell when a truck running biodiesel passes you - it smells like a fast food restaurant!)

At the moment the only 'traditional' fuel source used is the supply for the backup generators - they still use petrodiesel because it has a much better shelf life than biodiesel so until a better alternative can be found a compromise had to be made.

The thought that goes into planning one of these data centers is astounding with so many factors to consider. The fact that Microsoft (like Google, Yahoo! and others) are putting so much effort into making sure these behemoth projects have minimal impact is great.

It's not just data centers where Microsoft has an eye on the future. From packaging through to our campus shuttle fleet they take environmental stewardship seriously.