Sun Microsystems Launches First-of-Its-Kind, Open Web Community to Help Organizations Reduce Environmental Footprint


Global Sustainability Leader Ceres Joins OpenEco.org Community, Which Features First-Ever Tool for Calculating and Comparing GHG Emissions Data

NEW YORK, Sept. 24 / -- Drawing on its history of building online communities, Sun Microsystems (NASDAQ:JAVA) today launched OpenEco.org, a new community to help organizations calculate, compare, and reduce green house gas (GHG) emissions. OpenEco.org is free and open to all organizations. The only cost of admission is sharing data, transparently or anonymously, with other community participants. Sun will publicly introduce OpenEco.org today at an event the company is sponsoring with the Carbon Disclosure Project featuring President Bill Clinton in New York.

In the age of social networks such as Facebook and MySpace, OpenEco.org provides a community for organizations to address climate change together. OpenEco.org fills an important need as companies, government institutions and non-governmental organizations are facing increasing pressure to set improvement goals and invest in projects to meet them. Increasingly, GHG analysis is done with home-grown or proprietary tools and often requires significant internal resources or expensive consulting services. With OpenEco.org, carbon accounting data that might ordinarily remain in a company's spreadsheet can be easily shared using the site's unique GHG emissions tool(1). The tool enables organizations of all kinds to benchmark against one another, set realistic reduction goals and share best practices to meet them.

Ceres, a leading coalition of investors and environmental groups, has joined OpenEco.org as an early participant. Natural Logic has been an early OpenEco.org participant as well, and the company's Founder and CEO Gil Friend has served as a key technical advisor to the site.

"Working together drives progress faster than working alone," said Dave Douglas, Vice President of Eco Responsibility at Sun Microsystems. "Sun was built on the philosophy of openness and building communities to solve problems, which we're now applying to the environment. When we share, sustainable business can be more attainable -- and prosperous -- for everyone."

For over a decade, Sun has built vibrant communities for software developers that now total two million members worldwide. Sun is now developing new networks to help solve some of the world's most pressing problems. Earlier this year Sun teamed with the TED Prize partners to unveil the Open Architecture Network, which brings together architects, designers and community organizers to freely share blueprints, ideas and resources for improvement projects in areas affected by hardship.

"The OpenEco framework holds great promise in helping companies and organizations work together to reduce global warming pollution," said Andrea Moffat, Director of Corporate Programs at Ceres. "Social networks and technology are becoming increasingly important in addressing social and environmental problems. We joined OpenEco.org because Ceres views Sun as a leader in building web communities and using technology to drive society forward."

Prior to launching OpenEco.org, Sun began sharing its own emissions data and best practices online to help other companies reduce their footprint as well. Sun also posts case studies and best practices about how it has greened its own datacenters worldwide. For more, please visit the Sun Eco Center at www.sun.com/aboutsun/environment or the OpenEco press kit at www.sun.com/aboutsun/media/presskits/2007-0924/index.jsp

For more information or to be part of the community, please visit OpenEco.org or contact Sun Microsystems at openeco-info@sun.com

About Eco Responsibility at Sun

Sun's Eco Responsibility Initiative is guided by three principles: Innovate, Act and Share (http://www.sun.com/share/.) Sun innovates by making products and services that are both good for the environment and good for business. Sun acts by operating in an open, eco-conscious way. Sun shares by making information and technology available to others so that we can all move forward and participate in an increasingly sustainable way. One of Sun's Eco Innovation(SM) products is the Sun Fire(TM) SPARC(TM) Enterprise T1000/T2000 server, which is three to five times more energy efficient than its nearest competitor and was the first server ever eligible for a major utility company rebate. Sun is greening its own operations through programs like Open Work, which saves our environment 30,000 metric tons of CO2 a year by allowing employees to work from home or in a flexible office. For more information on Sun's Eco Responsibility Initiative, please visit www.sun.com/eco.

About Sun Microsystems

Sun Microsystems develops the technologies that power the global marketplace. Guided by a singular vision -- "The Network is the Computer" -- Sun drives network participation through shared innovation, community development and open source leadership. Sun can be found in more than 100 countries and on the Web at www.sun.com

Sun, Sun Microsystems, the Sun logo, Eco Innovation and Sun Fire are trademarks or registered trademarks of Sun Microsystems, Inc. in the United States and in other countries. All SPARC trademarks are used under license and are trademarks or registered trademarks of SPARC International, Inc. in the United States and other countries. Products bearing SPARC trademarks are based upon an architecture developed by Sun Microsystems, Inc.

(1) OpenEco.org's GHG emissions tool incorporates standard, approved
carbon accounting practices to ensure that GHG calculations will be
suitable for reporting under widely accepted systems, such as the
World Resources Institute GHG Protocol.

FOR MORE INFORMATION:

Erica Jacobs
Sun Microsystems
(415) 233-1566
Erica.Jacobs@sun.com

Kristin Maverick
Bite Communications
(212) 857-9373
Kristin.maverick@bitepr.com

Source: Sun Microsystems, Inc.

Web site:
http://www.sun.com/
http://www.openeco.org/

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