I predicted earlier that one of the big trends this year would be "green". I have seen it a lot more lately. Last night as I was waiting for dinner I was flipping through a Wired magazine and saw a few ads from IBM on how they can make the data center green.

It is not just technology companies that are getting into the act. For years I have been seeing signs in hotels that say something like "Millions of gallons of water are wasted washing towels that have only been used once. To save the planet please hang up any towels that you want to reuse." I have done this. I have also put a small piece of paper in one of the unused towels to see if it has been removed. Early on I noticed that all of the towels were changed out each day whether they were used  or not. The signs were really there to help me feel better but didn't change the way the hotel staff serviced the room. Over the last 6 months I have noticed that the unused towels are being left in the room. That makes me feel a little bit better about my contribution to living on this planet. I still haven't seen a hotel that leaves the towel I hung up on the towel rack but maybe with a few more years of training the staff will get to the point where they are not washing towels that have been used once.

Read the complete post at http://www.grokdev.com/Blogs/scott/2008/01/25/ItAintEasyBeingGreen.aspx