“Environment is not a special, short-term project, not a fad or flavor of the month,” says Balta. IBM pursues opportunities in and out of the company, including “making brown green:” reducing waste in its business and industrial processes around the world; designing intelligent networks to improve the efficiency of electrical utility operations; developing systems for mitigating traffic congestion in cities; launching a Big Green innovation business unit; and creating an Eco Patent Commons, enabling users the free and unrestricted use of IBM technologies that help solve environmental challenges.