“Green,” in this case, might be the color of envy, not a healthy environment; a website’s existence doesn’t really outdo Google’s $10 million contribution towards sustainable transportation or Yahoo’s connections to a hydropower project in Brazil.  Microsoft gets points for trying, though – one section of the site is titled “Take action now!”

Elsewhere, you’ll find articles about climate change, Daylight Saving Time, and some sort of ratio between trees and baseball bats.  There are “green facts,” photo galleries, and environmentally relevant news, as well.

At this point, you may remain on the fence – MSN Green is well put together, but doesn’t seem to offer anything revolutionary, or even special.  But the site is more than a PR stunt – National Geographic, Conservation International, and Grist are all partners in the effort.

Microsoft’s still got a long ways to go.  It’s nice to see the corporation trying, though, and hopefully those partners can lead it in a productive direction.

Even setting aside the environmental impact, this qualifies as a good deed; in a post on the Yodel Anecdotal blog, Chris Page noted that the Brazilian village most affected by the hydropower only had access to diesel generators before.

Still, the main motivation was the company’s drive to go carbon neutral.  Page wrote, “Yahoo! has decided to offset its 250 thousand metric ton carbon footprint from 2006 . . . .  What does 250 thousand metric tons look like?  Think of taking 35,000 cars off the road for a year, or turning off the lights on the Vegas strip for two months.”

This is a fairly big deal, in other words.  And it’s also a fairly smart PR move – Yahoo’s getting some publicity and “green cred” even as it accomplishes its pre-established goals.

On a less serious note, I have to point out that we all figured Google would be the world power within 20 or 30 years.  If Yahoo’s generating electricity, though, it could change that outcome.