by Katherine Mangan
Ever worry about the carbon footprint you leave behind when you fire off an instant message to your professor or student? Probably not, but, in case you did worry, a company called Wimba Pronto has retooled its instant-messaging platform to put your mind at ease. It’s now powered by wind, the company announced today.
The education-technology company has purchased renewable energy credits from a wind-power supplier called Community Energy to subsidize the electricity its servers and routers consume.
As a result, the company says, it now offers the world’s first wind-powered instant-messaging system for education.
Wimba Pronto says the wind-power switch reflects the company’s commitment to sustainability. More than 200 academic institutions use the company’s instant-messaging products, many of them for distance education.
The company says one user, the University of Georgia Cooperative Extension, saved 2,328 gallons of gas and cut carbon emissions by 5.7 tons in one semester by teaching 35 sessions online using Wimba.