Sept. 25, 2007 Sun Microsystems has launched a new online community to help organizations calculate, compare, and reduce their greenhouse gas emissions.

OpenEco.org enables organizations to benchmark against one another, set realistic reduction goals, and share best practices to meet them. Free and open to all organizations, the site allows companies to share data either transparently or anonymously.

Ceres, a leading coalition of investors and environmental groups, has joined OpenEco.org as an early participant. "The OpenEco framework holds great promise in helping companies and organizations work together to reduce global warming pollution," says Andrea Moffat, director of corporate programs at Ceres. "Social networks and technology are becoming increasingly important in addressing social and environmental problems."

Typically, GHG analysis is done with home-grown or proprietary tools and often requires significant internal resources or expensive consulting services. OpenEco.org provides a platform for companies to easily share their carbon accounting data. according to Sun.

"Sun was built on the philosophy of openness and building communities to solve problems, which we're now applying to the environment," says Dave Douglas, vice president of eco responsibility at Sun. "Working together drives progress faster than working alone."

Earlier this week, Intel launched an open-source online community focused on promoting energy-efficient computing. The new LessWatts.org initiative brings together the community of Linux developers and end users to facilitate technology development and share information about Linux power management.