As many of you are likely already aware, the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland, kicked off this week.  WEF was created to serve as a catalyst for cooperation across business, government, the media, science, the arts, and civil society to address pressing challenges and future risks as one community.  Aligning with this mission, Yahoo! and other industry leaders today announced an initiative called GreenXchange (GX), a program designed to help address sustainability in the digital age.

As a founding member of the GreenXchange, Yahoo! is collaborating with Best Buy, Creative Commons, IDEO, Mountain Equipment Co-op, Nike and nGenera to create a web-based marketplace for sharing intellectual property which is intended to lead to new sustainability business models and innovation.  Businesses are in a unique position to use collaboration and open innovation as powerful tools for combating climate change.  The goal is to accelerate the learning curve for energy efficiency and sustainable business practices by making patented technologies for research and licensing available, in a manner that’s good for our individual businesses and the planet.

As an active participant, Yahoo! is planning to license patented technologies that we have developed to improve performance and increase efficiency in our data centers around the world.  Today, the members of the GreenXchange are hosting a CEO breakfast at WEF.  We are calling on other corporations to join the GlobalXchange commitment to fast track the development of innovative solutions to sustainability challenges.

The GreenXChange is part of Yahoo!’s 360 degree approach to advancing sustainability through internal commitments to drive change in cooperation with other institutions (including the Department of Energy) and work collaboratively with other influencers setting sustainability as a priority.

David Dibble, EVP of Service Engineering & Operations, Yahoo! Inc.

Seventy-five years ago today, a guy in New Jersey advertised his new movie theater with: “The whole family is welcome, regardless of how noisy the children are.” That’s because he was pioneer of the drive-in movie. After you finish feeling nostalgic about flicks al fresco, check out what we put up on the screen this week:

• Flickr groupies: If you’re a Flickr user who loves to share and share alike, you’ll dig the new groups feature that just debuted. Now when you visit any group, you’ll see an “Add Photos” link that launches a new tool that lets you add up to 6 photos or videos at a time from your photostream, your sets, tagged items, geo-tagged items, items uploaded on a specific date, etc. It makes it a whole lot easier to participate in groups that float your boat — whether you’re into photos of Utrecht, spiderwebs, backpacking the Northwest, polydactyl cats, or altered street signs.
• Opening your address book: Personal information geeks just scored big time. We’ve released the API for Yahoo! Address Book. What, you’re not schooled in browser-based authentication? Well, let’s just say the developer world is going to have a lot of fun building useful products and features for you by gaining authorized access to Yahoo! Address Books. Imagine taking your Address Book with you whenever you shop for gifts online. Or confidently allowing a third-party social network site to make it easy for you to send invitations to your contacts. Or being able to look up phone numbers for mobile applications. We can’t wait to see what those developers come up with.
• My (green) Yahoo!: With oil reaching an historic $140 a barrel, who doesn’t want to become obsessed with greener alternatives? Time to populate My Yahoo! with pertinent goods. The Hybrid Cars module lets you stay on top of all things Prius, plugin hybrid, and beyond. And the green-travel module from Yahoo! Groups lets you keep tab on tips from other environ-enthusiasts. It’s good for you, it’s good for the Earth.

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Winston Churchill said: “We shape our buildings. Thereafter, they shape us”.

On Tuesday, I watched Jerry Yang and his wife Akiko Yamazaki speak in the sunny main atrium of the Yang and Yamazaki Energy and Environment Center at Stanford University. The newly dedicated building will house scholars whose mission is to solve difficult environmental problems. Jerry and Akiko contributed $50 million toward the construction of this state-of-the-art, day lit building that represents the cutting edge of sustainable design. Made with recycled steel and other green materials, the building will use an estimated 56% less energy and 90% less water than comparable non-green buildings.

The building also encourages collaboration, an especially critical feature when you consider the diverse disciplines it will require to tackle problems such as climate change and growing water shortages. People are more likely to write papers or conduct research together if they regularly bump into one other in the hallway. The open floor plans at Yahoo! are based on the same principle of open communication. Jerry and Aikiko’s building brings professors from a staggering range of departments together with students in a building that is green, beautiful and invites interaction and cross-pollination.

Y2E2 reflects green design at the most thoughtful level: low impact in its initial construction and ongoing operations; consideration for the health and productivity of the students and faculty who will spend their time within its walls; and a place that will encourage playful, unconventional, creative thinking that is the hallmark of Silicon Valley at its best. It’s also exactly the sort of living and thinking that that has to happen in order to solve some of the planet’s most pressing challenges.

Standing in the building’s atrium that evening, surrounded by a cross-section of scholars, business people, students, and other greenies, I was reminded why Yahoo! is so committed to the environment and energy efficiency. The guy at the top obviously cares quite a bit about this stuff, too.

Here’s a video of the dedication.

Chris Page
Director of Climate and Energy Strategy