The document, in format, is a frequently-asked-questions style Q&A covering about 1,000 words and two pages. In function, it's a pitch for SoftLayer's services ? not really an unexpected or unreasonable function for almost-a-whitepaper material such as this.

A screencap from the first page of SoftLayer's green data center FAQ PDF.

Issuing reports on the green status of their businesses may be developing as a fresh promotional tool for hosting companies. Earlier this week, we posted an interview with John Engates of Rackspace (rackspace.com), which had recently issued data from a survey analyzing the green attitudes of its hosting customers.

Of the six questions, however, only two deal specifically with SoftLayer and its services, and all of them are answered at length, and in great depth, making it a relatively useful little document to add to the growing pile of green hosting information out there.

(Incidentally, a good part of that figurative pile can be found at our green hosting micro-site greendatacenterinfo.com)

The document describes the main impacts of the data center business (and the major avenues for improvement) as energy consumption and waste.

"The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency," says SoftLayer, "estimates that U.S. data centers consumed 61-million megawatt hours in 2006 (1.5% of total U.S. electricity consumption), twice as much as in 2000."

Improving the recyclability of the materials used in IT is critical to reducing the environmental impact of data centers, SoftLayer says.

The data center and IT industries are right now in the process of going green, in some cases very vocally, and in many cases not yet all that comprehensively. The SoftLayer report quotes Microsoft chief environmental strategist as saying that company is "still in the first inning" of going green.

Nevertheless, the process has begun, Softlayer says. Enterprises are replacing older servers and cooling systems with more energy efficient versions. Processor manufacturers, in particular, have been working to increase the efficiency of hardware. Manufacturers in general have been working to reduce the hazardous materials being used in building IT equipment. And third-party companies have been working to create a market for recycling IT waste.

The company describes its "environmental impact philosophy" in the FAQ:

"SoftLayer believes that minimizing our environmental impact is essential - not just for being responsible corporate citizens but for providing our customers the best on-demand data center solutions available. Environmental efficiency is integral to our business model and our success. Practices such as maximizing energy efficiency allows SoftLayer to keep operational costs (and prices in turn) as low as possible. And minimizing our environmental impact provides our customers the opportunity to improve their environmental footprint too, as they replace inefficient internal operations with our optimized solutions."

The company's methods for minimizing its environmental impact include using energy efficient data center design practices; choosing the most energy efficient building components; maintaining a company-wide recycling program; collaborating with Supermicro on a "reduced packaging material" program; providing customers with a system for scaling up to energy-optimized systems; and engineering its systems to extend product lifecycles.

SoftLayer's green data center FAQ can be downloaded in its entirety (in PDF format) here.