Green Wombat

After Green Wombat blogged this week about Google’s (GOOG) reluctance to disclose its carbon footprint for competitive reasons, Sun Microsystems’ Erica Jacobs emailed to say that the Silicon Valley computer and software maker publicizes its greenhouse gas emissions on its Web site. Sun (SUNW) is still calculating its worldwide carbon footprint, but the company lists its major U.S. facilities along with their individual electricity and natural gas consumption and resulting greenhouse gas emissions. In March, for instance, the eight facilities – which are responsible for about half of Sun’s global emissions – produced 10,515 metric tons of greenhouse gases. The company, which has pledged to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions 20 percent below 2002 levels by 2012, says 90 percent of its carbon footprint comes from energy usage. "We believe efforts like this start with showing all the warts so we can identify starting points, help each other improve and solve the problem," wrote Jacobs, Sun’s PR manager for Eco Responsibility.  The eight facilities represent cubicle farms, data centers and manufacturing plants, according to Jacobs. She said Sun will update its emissions reports monthly and begin adding more data to allow month-to-month and year-to-year comparisons.