Green is the flavor in the air as major tech firms ascertain their support for environment-friendly initiatives. It’s good to see the organizations that will benefit from increased hardware and software usage take steps to also care for dear Earth. On one side, you strive to cram those extra transistors and squeeze that extra bit of performance, optimize, and expand server farms for zero-delay response times, and on the other side, you support the initiatives to save power and work against pollution. It’s indeed an interesting balancing act.

Linux Foundation’s “Green Linux” initiative seeks to make the Linux OS more power efficient. This consortium was founded by Google and Intel, which includes AMD, Dell, Microsoft, HP, Lenovo, and a number of other technology majors . They seek to improve PC and server power utilization to 90% by 2010, thus saving up to $5.5 billion in energy costs (DigitalTrends). Google, through its philanthropic arm, provides incentives for promoting Hybrid cars, while IBM develops green data centers.

I don’t want to sound cynical like the article at iTwire about the “green” intentions of tech firms. The fact that all major firms agree on climate preservation (and cost benefits as a result) is a great sign.

It’s also obvious that, at the end of the day, business drives technology and technology thrives on innovation. Now, what is the “green” cost of innovation? We hope that the initiatives undertaken can significantly help preserve the environment. What is your take on this? Do you think “Go-Green” is a definite good sign, or are these projects developed just to earn public good-will (and some cost cutting) and then shoved aside later as bottom lines (and more sales) begin to matter? Share your comments here.