IBM and the Environment

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[[Category:Copied 2007 week 29]]
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[[Category:Not yet summarised by MI]]
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=MI Summary=
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====Full article: [[IBM and the Environment]]====
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=Coverage in the Press=
=Coverage in the Press=
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* [[IBM Offers Green Certificates to Data Centre Power Misers (1-Nov-07)]]
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* [[IBM Transforms Wasted Chips into Solar Cells (30-Oct-07)]]
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* [[IBM Puts its Talents to Green Use (29-Oct-07)]]
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* [[Internet Credited for Cleaner Environment (26-Oct-07)]]
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* [[IBM Touts Mainframe Power "Gas Gauge" For Greener Data Centres (16-Oct-07)]]
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* [[IBM Plotting Green Sigma Service]]
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* [[How Big Blue Went Green]]
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* [[Smartbunker Selects IBM Blades For UK's First Renewable Energy Data Centre]]
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* [[IBM Wins CNET's Green IT Initiative of the Year Award]]
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* [[IT Goes Green to keep Companies Growing (6-Sep-07)]]
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* [[IBM's Big Green looks to solar (1-Sept-07)]]
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* [[Environmentalism, Phase II (23-Aug-07)]]
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* [[Congestion management and IBM (23-Aug-07)]]
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* [[IBM moves into carbon consulting (23-Aug-07)]]
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* [[Is IBM Reinventing itself as a green giant? (28-Aug-07)]]
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* [[Performance Per Watt on Power6: Same Thermals, More Work (22-Aug-07)]]
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* [[Could IBM Be the World's First Green Business Behemoth? (22-Aug-07)]]
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* [[Ecologists and IBM join hands to monitor river (16-Aug-07)]]
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* [[IBM's Project Big Green Spurs Global Shift (9-Aug-07)]]
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* [[IBM Linux Initiative Greens Data Centers (9-Aug-07)]]
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* [[IBM unveils green Linux push (8-Aug-07)]]
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* [[IBM aims to become Big Green, says Butler Group (7-Aug-07)]]
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* [[IBM sees green in environmental tech (6-Aug-07)]]
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* [[IBM: Dinosaurs were green (1-Aug-07)]]
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* [[System i and the green skeptic (16-Jul-07)]]
* [[IBM touts greener and safer tape storage (11-Jul-07)]]
* [[IBM touts greener and safer tape storage (11-Jul-07)]]
=Text of IBM Articles on IBM and its close partners=
=Text of IBM Articles on IBM and its close partners=
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==Turning your Servers green==
 
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IBM, HP, Sun and AMD have united to launch the Green Grid (www.thegreengrid.org), a non-profit global consortium which aims to cut energy consumption at computer data centres by encouraging and improving power-saving measures. The alliance says that energy efficiency in data centres is the single biggest issue facing technology providers and their customers today. As a result, it has released three White Papers that directly focusing on cutting energy use. These include:
 
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* The Green Grid Opportunity,
 
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* Guidelines for Energy Efficient Data Centers, and
 
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* The Green Grid Metrics: Describing Data Center Power Efficiency.
 
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For details of IBM and the Green Grid, read Green IT: the next burning issue for business at ibm.com/businesscenter/uk/thinktank
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* [[Servers move from a guzzle to a sip, on w3 (1-Aug-07)]]
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*Source: [http://www-304.ibm.com/jct03004c/tools/cpeportal/fileserve/download0/90622/Thinktank_newsletter.pdf?contentid=90622 ThinkTank issue 1]
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* [[Lisa Lindblom on 2007 Market Outlook – 2Q07]]
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* [[Andy McFarlane on Climate Change (25-Jul-07)]]
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* [[Larry Hirst on areas of interest for IBM UK: Energy and Climate (23-Jul-07)]]
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* [[Hursley leads the way in efforts to go green (4-Jul-07)]]
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* [[Welcome to Green Driving]]
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* [[Turning your Servers green]]
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* [[Lenovo tops eco-friendly league]]
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* [[Green champion Ecotricity moves ahead with IBM]]
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==Lenovo tops eco friendly league==
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=Analyst Views and IBM=
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Chinese PC maker Lenovo is the greenest electronics manufacturer, Apple is the least eco-friendly, according to a recycling and toxic content ranking by Greenpeace. Lenovo displaces Nokia
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* [[Big Blue Focuses Attention on "Big Green" (11-May-07)]]
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from the top spot it has enjoyed since the rankings began. It scores top marks on its e-waste policies and practice; the company offers takeback and recycling in all the countries where its products are sold. Lenovo also reports the amount of e-waste it recycles as a percentage of its sales.
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The full report is at www.greenpeace.org/electronics. It ranks PC manufacturers on their policies and practices on eliminating harmful chemicals.
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*Source: [http://www-304.ibm.com/jct03004c/tools/cpeportal/fileserve/download0/90622/Thinktank_newsletter.pdf?contentid=90622 ThinkTank issue 1]
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===Big Green: IBM and the ROI of Environmental Leadership===
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Tuesday, April 17, 2007 John Davies
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Saving more than $100M since 1998 by conserving energy, IBM continues to set environmental goals while openly reporting its performance, proving good practices generate good money.
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“Can we leverage our experience as a responsible company to make money?” Over the past several years, AMR Research has seen a rise in inquiries like this from senior executives regarding the social and environmental questions that face global corporations and their roles as leaders in addressing some of the world’s most difficult problems.
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Industry leaders understand the need for building a sustainable business. Few, if any, question the impact of global warming. They all have concerns about energy security, and the role of globally responsible citizenship is taken seriously. Progressive business leaders also see unique opportunities for new products and services for the emerging green economy. For many executives, it is not what they can do individually, but how they can affect change within their organizations as well as the world at large. They are looking for lessons from the front lines that demonstrate a broader set of leadership principles.
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IBM’s approach to the environment offers one such set of lessons. As a result of our research into Big Blue’s approach, we have identified three fundamental cultural traits that have informed IBM’s environmental initiatives of the past, present, and future:
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Leadership responsibility—While its internal environmental stewardship initiatives have been broad, IBM has also participated as a founding member of numerous industry and governmental organizations and helped develop global standards for environmental excellence.
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Open communication—Since the publication of its first environmental progress report, IBM has not only reported on its impact and progress in a clear and transparent manner, but has consistently communicated performance against its internal targets, which typically exceed government laws and regulations.
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Values-driven organization—Throughout the organization, a concern for IBM’s impact on the environment is apparent, from product design to the establishment of business practices. Beyond merely “doing the right thing,” a concern for the environment is embedded at all levels of the organization.
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For the purposes of this Report, we reviewed documents from the past 35 years and conducted numerous interviews to understand how IBM achieved its leadership position in environmental stewardship and what this might mean for the future.
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Global challenges for global leaders—an IBM case study
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In 1970, economist Milton Friedman argued in The New York Times that “the social responsibility of business is to increase its profits,” elaborating that “only people can have responsibilities…business as a whole cannot be said to have responsibilities.” He goes on to question whether it is the role of the corporate executive “to make expenditures on reducing pollution beyond the amount that is in the best interests of the corporation or that is required by law in order to contribute to the social objective of improving the environment.”
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Since that time, public perception has shifted. Many now believe that businesses do have social responsibilities beyond increasing profits. But at the time when Friedman wrote his opinion, the people of IBM—executives and employees alike—already saw environmental stewardship as integral to their business. Their view was not only to meet regulatory requirements, but to set the standard for business while saving money and, eventually, discover new sources of revenue.
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Creating the foundation for a higher standard
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In 1990, IBM was one of the first companies to publicly issue an environment, health, and safety report, a forerunner of what we now refer to as a sustainability or corporate citizenship report. This initial document described its progress in addressing environmental issues, which coincided with the establishment of a corporate staff dedicated to environmental affairs. But this action and the 1990 report didn’t represent the beginning of IBM’s formal efforts to communicate the importance of environmental responsibility. A corporate policy issued by then chairman and CEO Thomas J. Watson, Jr. on May 26, 1971, instructed that “line management in IBM must be continuously on guard against adversely affecting the environment. This effort must include constant attention not only to the waste incident to producing a product, but also to the consequences of the processes established during product development.”
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While this may be the first documented evidence of IBM’s perspective on the environment, executives who began their careers with the company at that time or earlier state that a concern for the environment was already a value embedded in the company’s culture. Several of the executives we interviewed reaffirmed that environmental policy at IBM was not a CEO mandate, but a part of the fabric of the culture. According to one source, IBM was communicating information about chemicals used in the workplace to employees and chemicals used in products to customers since the 1960s, 20 years before it was required by law.
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“Perhaps the first of IBM’s environmental efforts was industrial wastewater treatment at our plants, back in the 1940s, years before treatment was required by law.” —John Serino, director of corporate environmental programs, 1989
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From environmental reporting to Big Green innovations
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In order to understand IBM’s position as a business with a strong sense of environmental stewardship, the evolution of the company’s role in this regard can be viewed in three overlapping phases. The values (and value) associated with environmental stewardship are central to all three phases (see Figure 1).
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As IBM’s approach to environmental stewardship continues to evolve, the company has moved from sharing its experiences with external organizations and clients to identifying new business opportunities. The past few years have placed IBM at a turning point: the company’s initiatives are no longer focused solely on cost-cutting, but on providing a foundation for generating new sources of revenue.
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Here are the overlapping phases that describe this journey:
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Values-based environmental reporting—Critical to IBM’s environmental stewardship has been its long history of operational transparency. The firm is one of the first to publish aggressive goals in terms of lowering its impact on the environment as well as its performance against those goals. As a leader in reducing its environmental footprint, IBM has helped governments and other businesses by sharing its approaches through participation in a number of programs and organizations. This has resulted in the company winning the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Climate Leaders Award twice, among many other awards.
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Tying values to products and initiatives—As IBM pursued projects associated with environmental stewardship, the company began to integrate its design efforts more closely to reflect a concern for its products’ environmental impact. This led to designing products based on their entire lifecycles, beyond end of use to reuse and recycling. As a result of incorporating environmental criteria in its product stewardship efforts, IBM incorporated increasing amounts of recycled materials into its products, designing them for disassembly and reuse, and making them even more energy efficient.
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Creating products from values—More recently, IBM has embarked on programs that leverage its longstanding experience in environmental stewardship and applies its knowledge and experience to some of the biggest problems facing the world. These initiatives involve overhauling the technology used in utility networks, decreasing pollution resulting from transportation, and, perhaps most importantly, averting a looming international water crisis.
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During the early 1990s, IBM underwent a difficult period as markets shifted and the company needed to reinvent itself to compete across a new landscape. However, in 1994, while this transition was underway, then CEO Lou Gerstner asserted, “In the past two years, we in IBM have had to rethink much about the way we do business. In the process, it has become clear that there are certain things that should not change. One of them is our responsibility to run a business mindful of the world in which that business operates. When it comes to the environmental well being of that world, this responsibility takes on added weight for a company such as ours: a multinational organization whose technology represents a powerful engine of change.”
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The foundation of environmental stewardship IBM established several decades ago continues to bear fruit. Although the savings have been dramatic, the results are not only from cutting costs. IBM has benefited from employee innovations, in both technology and advanced processes, that have not only improved the company’s revenue and profitability, but also contributed to a less polluted and greener world.
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Values-based environmental reporting
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Many global business issues, ranging from global climate change to tracking greenhouse gas emissions, which are beginning to be recognized for their broader public and investor interest, have a legacy of being addressed proactively within IBM’s internal operations. However, issues associated with business impacts on the environment are often difficult to navigate. While environmental issues can often be deeply technical, they can also be a lightning rod for public policy as well as public perception. For that reason, IBM has long sought to be ahead of the curve when it comes to environmental issues.
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In interviews with Wayne Balta, vice president of corporate environmental affairs and product safety, he noted that “IBM’s outlook in terms of environmental leadership encompasses all business units within the company. This includes how the environment is considered in relation to research, product design, manufacturing, procurement, distribution, and logistics as well as other areas such as health, medical, marketing, and branding.”
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The core internal initiative for dealing with environmental issues within IBM is its global environmental management system (EMS). As stated by the International Standards Organization (ISO), a properly implemented environmental management approach can provide assurance that good performance is not an accident. A company’s EMS can identify environmental risks, helping to manage any required resolution.
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While most companies certify their EMS on a per-plant basis, IBM was the first company in the world to achieve a single global registration to the ISO 14001 standard when it earned the certification in 1997. IBM’s environmental management system is defined by a set of documents that includes policy directives, instructions, internal regulations, and governmental regulations around the world. The system, maintained on a corporate intranet site, allows access for all IBM employees.
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Corporate Policy 139 (summary of current revision)
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The primary policy directive issued by IBM is Corporate Policy 139, which establishes the following policy objectives (presented here in an abbreviated format):
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Provide a safe and healthful workplace.
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Be an environmentally responsible neighbor.
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Maintain respect for natural resources.
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Develop, manufacture, and market products that are safe for their intended use, efficient in their use of energy, protective of the environment, and can be recycled or disposed of safely.
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Use development and manufacturing processes that do not adversely affect the environment.
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Ensure the responsible use of energy.
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Assist in the development of technological solutions to global environmental problems.
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Meet or exceed all applicable government requirements.
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Conduct rigorous audits and self-assessments.
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Setting targets and promoting transparency
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While IBM’s certification of a global EMS is certainly a significant accomplishment, its approach to managing environmental issues goes far beyond a reporting system. Since its first corporate environmental report, the company has not only recorded its performance, but set targets for future achievements. Each site submits an environmental master plan that is then aggregated with plans from other sites for the company’s consolidated evaluation and reporting.
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An example of IBM setting corporate targets associated with the environment is its approach to the topics of ozone depletion and global warming. In a 1990 article in IBM’s Think magazine, Mason Southworth wrote that “even more serious has been the growing recognition of two potential threats to the whole Earth: global warming caused by gases that build up in the atmosphere and damage to the ozone layer by other gases that accumulate higher up in the stratosphere.”
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When the environmental report was issued, IBM was trying to determine how to deal with its use of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), which were later shown to cause depletion of the ozone layer in the atmosphere. The company set a target to eliminate the use of CFCs by 1993, six years ahead of the deadline set by the U.S. Clean Air Act. In a number of other instances, the company set a high bar and exceeded it. As Mr. Balta noted, “Continuing to raise the bar after our past accomplishments becomes incrementally more difficult, but it’s a challenge we embrace.”
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Most recently in the public arena is the issue of global climate change. As a founding member of the EPA’s Climate Leaders program, IBM has long identified addressing climate change issues as an important initiative for the company. “While some assume that cutting carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions costs businesses money, we have found just the opposite. Addressing climate change makes business sense,” said Mr. Balta.
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He goes on to state that IBM has “saved more than $100M since 1998 by conserving energy. When you consider the significant environmental benefits also achieved, cutting emissions is a win-win proposition. Climate Leaders presents an opportunity for IBM to continue its voluntary efforts to further conserve energy and reduce its greenhouse gas emissions, share best practices, promote cooperation between industry and government, and gain recognized leadership.”
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IBM has saved more than $100 million since 1998 by conserving energy.
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As far back as 1990, the company was reporting its energy savings, particularly of electricity, in terms of CO2 emissions eliminated. It then translated this to the equivalent number of cars taken off the road.
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In terms of performance since that time, IBM has reduced or avoided CO2 emissions by an amount equal to 39.88% versus a baseline of 1990. That accounts for avoiding more than 8.98 million metric tons of CO2 emissions. The company expects to extend this achievement by further reducing CO2 emissions associated with its total energy use 12% by 2012 (against a base year of 2005).
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IBM was also a founding member of the Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX), the world’s first voluntary, legally binding, rules-based greenhouse gas emission reduction and trading system. As a result of its longstanding environmental stewardship efforts, IBM is currently a creditor based on its aggressive stance on reducing CO2 emissions.
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Pollution prevention with community involvement
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Reducing greenhouse gases and CFCs is only one example of IBM’s approach to pollution and emissions. Since 1971 the company had formally established a pollution prevention program focused on reducing hazardous wastes and other pollutants at their sources. Then CEO Thomas Watson noted that, above and beyond vigilant corrective measures, the best way to fight pollution is to stop it before it starts.
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Stopping pollution before it starts can also mean holding yourself to a higher standard of measurement. Many years ago, IBM noted that its standards for safe water quality should not only be measured in parts per million (although it would significantly beat these requirements when established by internal and external regulations). The company’s internal rule is to ask sites to base their quality criteria on how the discharge would affect the ecology of the body of water they are using. By framing the discussion in this way, IBM engages more directly with the community involved and considers a broader range of contingencies and local impacts.
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Tying values to products and initiatives
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IBM was clearly an early leader in implementing environmental initiatives for managing its worldwide business operations. The values that drove environmental stewardship as a foundation for corporate-wide initiatives are also deeply embedded in the way that IBM views product stewardship. A corporate policy from then president Frank T. Cary on September 9, 1974, instructed the following: “I expect each operating unit to cooperate fully in national energy conservation programs, give high priority to conservation of energy, raw materials, and commodities in the design and manufacture of our products and—wherever practicable—develop substitutes for materials in short supply.”
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Mr. Cary’s policy directive amplified Mr. Watson’s 1971 memo, where he called for an assessment of the environmental impact of every IBM product and process. By 1991, IBM had established a formalized product stewardship program to address the company’s environmental management of the product development process and the products and services it offers. As a result of implementing this program, product design focused on the following features:
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Avoiding toxic substances
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Enabling easy disassembly and reuse
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Incorporating recyclable plastics or materials with recycled content
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Improving energy efficiency
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There are a number of effects that can be seen from IBM’s integration of environmental concerns with product stewardship, such as improved production methods, manufacturing processes, and equipment. Among the most significant efforts are IBM’s design for environment and design for recycling programs.
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Design for environment
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Design for environment is a strategy historically employed by companies to probe for potential product hazards during the design phase. According to early work by the EPA, by following this philosophy it was possible for companies to substitute less toxic materials to make a product safer to build as well as use.
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In 1984, IBM initiated a program that specifically focused on the environmental impact assessment of all its products. By 1991, IBM developed an online environmental impact assessment system to provide an early review of any proposed product or process. According to then director of integrated safety technology, Diana Bendz, “This effort has focused the attention of IBM design engineers on all aspects of a product’s lifecycle, including packaging, material selection, energy efficiency, and recyclability.”
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Early impacts of this program were on the company’s packaging. IBM made the move to standard corrugated boxes and required greater recycled content. In 2000, it established a database to capture the cost savings of its various packaging initiatives. In the last five years, the company has realized over $80M in savings while reducing the environmental impact of its packaging. More recently these design for environment processes and IT tools have enabled IBM to report the compliance status of assemblies or full systems against regulations such as the European Reduction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS) requirements.
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Design for recycling
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In its global operations, IBM was an early leader in solid waste recycling. In 1988, IBM set a goal of recycling 50% of all wood, metal, paper, glass, and plastic from its manufacturing sites by 1992 (by 1990 the worldwide figure was 52%). IBM has since updated its nonhazardous waste recycling goal. Currently, the company's goal is to recycle 67% of the nonhazardous waste generated by locations owned or operated by IBM. In 2005, the last year the data was compiled, IBM recycled 77% of its nonhazardous waste.
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Its experience with recycling programs throughout the organization made it easier for design engineers to think about how to embed those same principles into the product development process. In 1991, IBM established the Engineering Center for Environmentally Conscious Products (ECECP) in North Carolina.
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As far back as the PS/2 Model 40 in 1991, IBM designed products based on a “design for disassembly” strategy that made manufacturing as well as disassembly much easier through the use of snap technology. At the same time, with the PS/2 E, the company was able to recover plastic covers from end-of-life computers and blend the recaptured plastic to make PS/2 covers with 25% recycled content. By 2006, 28% of all plastic resins procured by IBM contain recycled plastic content.
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“Maintain respect for natural resources by practicing conservation and striving to recycle materials, purchase recycled materials, and use recyclable packaging and other materials.” (from Corporate Policy 139)
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Managing product end of life
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In response to customer requests, IBM began offering product take-back programs in Europe in 1989. These programs, referred to as the Global Asset Recovery Service (GARS), have grown rapidly, and asset recovery and recycling is now offered to IBM’s commercial customers in 21 countries.
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IBM began to publicly report the volumes of product waste it collected and recovered 12 years ago. As of year-end 2005, the amount exceeded 1.3 billion pounds, making IBM the first IT company to exceed the 1 billion pound threshold. When it comes to managing the product waste it collects, IBM places top priority on reuse and recycling. In that regard, IBM has had a goal in place for many years to send no more than 3% of what it processes to landfills. For 2005, IBM sent less than 2% of what it collected to landfills (see Figure 2).
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On a global basis, the GARS program receives almost 40,000 machines each week weighing nearly 1.8 million pounds. In 2006, Global Financing sold more than $1.6B in preowned equipment. While IBM is providing an important service that prevents pollution and excess landfill use, the GARS business unit also acts as a profit center. As Mr. Balta noted, “IBM's GARS operation demonstrates the value of integrating environmental considerations into the fabric of our business. It also provides an example of how good environmental management makes good business sense.”
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Creating products from values
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One of the issues many companies are working to address is how to leverage the strengths of their research labs, brand equity, and organizational core competencies to develop more environmentally targeted products. As the awareness of consumers and businesses increases about topics such as global climate change and environmental stewardship, businesses realize these criteria could set the stage for the firms that will dominate in the 21st century.
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“Energy prices will be an issue, as will security concerns and concerns about climate change,” said Mr. Balta. “With our experience, we can help companies understand how good environmental practices make good business sense.” What he and others at IBM also see is their knowledge and experience in environmental stewardship can help the company develop new businesses.
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Already IBM has collaborated with its customers on a number of innovative projects. These span all areas of its business, from hardware to industry-specific solutions for various sectors. Consider the following examples:
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Intelligent oil fields—In an initiative headed by Steve Edwards, Global Lead Chemical and Petroleum, IBM helps companies extract oil efficiently and responsibly by applying advanced analytics and modeling. Once a site is in operation, RFID-enabled networks can provide real-time monitoring of production, supporting the remote management of facilities, plants, and equipment. As an extension of this real-time network, RFID tags are embedded in workers’ identification badges, which can expedite search-and-rescue efforts in emergency situations.
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Data center energy savings—While IBM has invested in energy efficiency for a wide range of equipment used in data centers, from blade servers to storage systems and virtualization technology, the company has also innovated in other areas that affect the data center. By using robotic thermal mapping, managers can pinpoint hot spots and redesign around them. With a software tool called PowerExecutive, data center managers can begin to take control of their power usage, measuring real-time usage on each piece of PowerExecutive-enabled equipment. They can set power caps to control power usage during peak loads by slowing down fans and blowers, as well as by selecting the best power/performance operating mode to meet the blade or rack power budget.
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While these are examples of initiatives that could be expected from a large global company, IBM has reached out over the past year to collaborate with a much broader range of partners, including industry leaders, IBM employees, government officials, and nongovernmental organizations. This outreach has helped IBM define the most important initiatives to address in the future. The foundation for this effort was laid with the publication of the second Global Innovation Outlook. A more detailed plan was established through a mechanism called the Innovation Jam.
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The Innovation Jam
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Under CEO Sam Palmisano, IBM has held a number of discussions via the Internet dubbed “Jams.” These conversations employ the company’s strategy of extended collaboration. An earlier Jam helped update the focus of the company’s core values. A more recent one uncovered new business opportunities and helped IBM prioritize future efforts.
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The Jams are viewed within the company as critical to IBM’s future success, as 50% of its workforce has five or fewer years of tenure with the company. For a globally integrated enterprise to maintain its history as a values-driven company, these Jams represent the way forward for what IBM calls “innovation that matters.”
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In fall 2006, the Innovation Jam brought clients, employees, and their families together to collaborate in a worldwide brainstorming session. In two collaborative phases, more than 150,000 people in 104 countries suggested more than 46,000 ideas. After a second phase of interaction, 10 diverse business opportunities were approved for further development.
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In November 2006, as a result of the Innovation Jam, Mr. Palmisano announced the top 10 ideas at a town hall event in Beijing. Before a live audience of nearly 2,600 IBM employees, partners, and distinguished guests, he announced that IBM would fund $100M to develop these ideas. 3 of the 10 initiatives have a direct relationship to IBM’s work in terms of environmental stewardship:
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Intelligent utility networks—Headed by Guido Bartels, IBM’s general manager for the global energy and utilities industry, these efforts are focused on increasing the reliability and manageability of the world’s power grids. The efforts to create a smarter power grid that utilizes real-time monitoring and control as well as load simulation will help increase power availability and reliability. It should also help reduce wasteful energy consumption, which will help reduce pollution.
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Integrated mass transit information systems—Both real-time transportation data management and advanced simulation modeling will be used to develop these systems. IBM has the benefit of leveraging past experiences such as its work with the city of Stockholm in implementing a real-time monitoring system to support a dynamic pricing system for commuter tolls.
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Big Green Innovations—One of the most exciting programs for IBM is referred to as Big Green Innovations. The group behind this is led by Dr. Sharon Nunes, who has taken on the role of green innovations champion. The broad focus of this group is to apply IBM’s expertise in technology, advanced modeling, materials science, physics, and other areas within the company to emerging environmental opportunities.
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Big Green tackles “Big Blue”
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While over three quarters of the earth’s surface is covered by water, only 1% of it is fresh and accessible. According to a recent United Nations study, water scarcity is a fact of life for over 700 million people around the world. The study goes on to project that this figure could rise to impact three billion people by 2025. Agriculture and industry are equally thirsty for this scarce resource. The world’s biggest problem for the 21st century may not be energy related, but rather the availability of water.
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According to Dr. Nunes, one of the major initiatives under the Big Green Innovations program will be advanced water management. This encompasses a broad agenda, from availability to distribution and consumption. IBM’s wide-ranging experience in modeling will be brought to bear in terms of weather prediction, as well as discovering underground aquifers and designing efficient distribution strategies. IBM will also work with other organizations to develop nanotechnology-based water filtration systems and other products to address this challenge.
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“This is a world-changing opportunity,” said Dr. Nunes. “We are collaborating with customers that have a global presence to address water-related problems. Together we feel we bring an innovative perspective that reaches across ecosystems to solve problems none of us could have solved individually.”
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A real difference for the environment
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The results of IBM’s ongoing programs for environmental stewardship are providing quantifiable returns economically as well as environmentally. While employee comments captured by the Innovation Jam recorded the personal passion of IBM employees, it was not a surprise to Wayne Balta. “In the past couple of years, there has been a marked increase in unsolicited calls and e-mails from people wanting to get a job in this organization. I think our employees see that a company like IBM can make a real difference for the environment.”
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Perhaps the most encouraging news from IBM is the economic benefit it realizes from its leadership in environmental management. “IBM estimates that, over the past eight years, annual savings from its focus on pollution prevention and design for the environment have exceeded environmental expenses by an average of two to one.” As IBM has done since 1990, the dollar amounts to back up those statements are clearly presented in its most recent sustainability report.
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==Summaries==
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{{IBM carb Sep-07}}
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{{Dino sep-07}}
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{{IBM GG sep-07}}
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{{Lind Sept-07}}
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{{Behem Aug-07}}
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{{IBM Cary Aug-07}}
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{{Sys i Jul-07}}
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{{Greengrd}}
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{{Lenovo Aug-07}}
=Links to IBM papers on the Environment=
=Links to IBM papers on the Environment=
* [http://www-03.ibm.com/systems/optimizeit/cost_efficiency/energy_efficiency/pdf/CIO_Guide_to_Green_Data_Center.pdf 'The green data center']
* [http://www-03.ibm.com/systems/optimizeit/cost_efficiency/energy_efficiency/pdf/CIO_Guide_to_Green_Data_Center.pdf 'The green data center']
* [http://www-03.ibm.com/systems/optimizeit/cost_efficiency/energy_efficiency/pdf/Incentive_programs_for_data_center_thermal_analysis.pdf 'Incentive programs for data center thermal analysis, energy assessments and server consolidation projects']
* [http://www-03.ibm.com/systems/optimizeit/cost_efficiency/energy_efficiency/pdf/Incentive_programs_for_data_center_thermal_analysis.pdf 'Incentive programs for data center thermal analysis, energy assessments and server consolidation projects']
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* [http://www.amrresearch.com/Content/View.asp?pmillid=20313 Big Green: IBM and the ROI of Environmental Leadership (April-07)]
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==For an overview on the topic(s), see also==
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* [[Vendors and the Environment]]

Current revision as of 11:52, 2 November 2007

Contents

MI Summary

Full article: IBM and the Environment

Coverage in the Press

Text of IBM Articles on IBM and its close partners

Analyst Views and IBM

Summaries

Full article: IBM moves into carbon consulting (23-Aug-07)

IBM moves to add carbon consulting to its huge global business consulting operation. Demand for such services is being driven by competitive pressures to be seen as green as well as by all-but-inevitable caps on greenhouse gas emissions. Adds Clark, who is director of strategic insights at IBM's Venture Capital Group in Silicon Valley: "It becomes a competitiveness issue when everyone else is doing it and you look like the ogre of the block if you don't." He says the pressure is particularly intense in Silicon Valley, where companies like Google (GOOG), Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) and Sun Microsystems (SUNW) increasingly compete on carbon.

"There are some humongous pitfalls in working out carbon footprints," notes Williams. "There is no agreed protocol for calculating carbon footprints. You’re going to have people make all kinds of claims." He says figuring out the carbon content of transportation and packaging is comparatively easy while calculating the carbon content of an individual product "is a tough nut to crack." Says Clark: "We think the added value is being able to integrate carbon accounting with the rest of your business.

Full article: IBM: Dinosaurs were green (1-Aug-07)

IBM has announced that it is to consolidate 3,900 of its data center servers on to just 30 mainframe systems running the Linux operating system on virtual servers as part of its ongoing "Big Green" energy efficiency project. The project will span six IBM data centers in the US, England, Japan and Australia. The consolidated units will run Linux on top of the mainframes' operating system, z/VM.

Comment: "I live a couple of towns away from where IBM got their start (Endicott, NY), and those guys don't exactly have much of a green rep around here. In 1979, 4,100 gallons of methyl chloroform were spilled by IBM. While investigating that, a large plume of trichloroethene, tetrachloroethene, dichloroethane, dichloroethene, methylene chloride, vinyl chloride, and freon 113 was discovered in the groundwater. Later on benzene, toluene and xylene were also found."

Full article: IT Goes Green to keep Companies Growing (6-Sep-07)

Today the typical server consumes four times the amount of power that an average system used just five years ago. With this surge in IT energy consumption, power costs are also soaring, increasing an average of 20% over the course of the last eight years. IBM is taking a leadership role in this effort, investing $1 billion across its business units in programs and technology to help its enterprise customers dramatically reduce their cost base by providing them with the consulting expertise and the products to improve the energy efficiency of their data centre environments.

Full article: Lisa Lindblom on 2007 Market Outlook – 2Q07

For IBM, the challenge is how to channel our image in Engineering domain expertise and Business expertise into the Specific Solutions that decision-makers are focused in key environmental issues and do not perceive IBM as credible in. Venture Capital investment in clean energy is up 10 fold in six years. Battery technology, biofuels, energy intelligence, fuel cells, and solar energy make up the majority of that investment. In a recent survey, 30% of executives cited environmental issues to be one of their top concerns affecting future shareholder value--an issue that didn’t even make the list just a few years ago.

Where IBM Is Less Credible: Technical domain expertise, Chemical, Biological, Environmental, Product domain expertise, Energy, Water, Drugs, Tires. “I just don’t think they have the environmental expertise to address our specific needs.”

Full article: Performance Per Watt on Power6: Same Thermals, More Work (22-Aug-07)

Tim P-M still thinks that IBM should be positioning a line of System i servers with low-power main memory, small form factor SAS disks that use a lot less electricity, and maybe even solid state disks that use very little power. To be competitive, the Power6 line of servers should be the unquestionable leader in performance per watt, because this is what will get a salesperson in the data center door these days.

An i5/OS box that can do transactions with half the energy for the same money will win deals. And with a mix of Web-enabled 5250 workloads and the right hardware, the System i can win in such competitive situations--even against System p boxes running Java. If he were running IBM, that is what he would be building a line of Power6-based System i machines and their marketing message around.

Full article: Could IBM Be the World's First Green Business Behemoth? (22-Aug-07)

IBM could be about to enter another phase in its history. The company's focus has remained steadfastly on the world of IT. But there are indications the company could be returning to its eclectic roots, and it is the burgeoning demands of the low carbon economy that appear to be driving this diversification.

  • IBM's recent partnership with U.S. electricity provider CenterPoint and its investment in research into smart grid technologies capable of smoothing the path towards adoption renewable energy and dramatically cutting energy consumption by providing people with real-time visibility over their energy use.
  • The company's newly revealed interest in in-car technologies, provides Exhibit B. The focus on the development of a car operating system capable of ultimately automating driving may not seem like a particularly green initiative, but when you consider one of the prime goals of such technologies would be to optimise fuel efficiency and ease traffic congestion it is clear a pattern is beginning to emerge.
  • Of course, these initiatives along with the overarching Project Big Green commitment to limit IBM's carbon footprint and enhance the energy efficiency of its servers and other data center technologies still fit into IBM's core IT portfolio.
  • But perhaps the most compelling clue that Big Blue could diversify comes in the form of reports that it is investing heavily in developing photovoltaic technology. According to a recent story over at the Cleantech Blog IBM is using its expertise in semi-conductors to make rapid progress in developing photovoltaic solar technology.

Demand for green products and services is set to soar, but at the moment the supply side of this market remains extremely immature. Consultancies such as SustainAbility and the myriad of cleantech start ups may have experience in the sector, but they all lack the scale large corporate customers will look for when procuring green products and services. Meanwhile, those large multinationals that have been most vocal about their green product lines are either entirely consumer-focused operations, such as supermarkets, or energy and car firms guilty of running their green divisions as niche concerns alongside their traditional polluting businesses.

In contrast, IBM, and several other large IT companies for that matter, are perhaps the best positioned to meet the demand for green services:

  1. they provide the software and hardware that underpins all modern businesses;
  2. they boast relatively low impact business models compared to heavy industries;
  3. they have the engineering expertise in house that would allow them to diversify into other cleantech sectors;
  4. and they often run large consultancy arms already well versed in managing business transformations.

IBM is as well positioned as any company to become the first green business multinational.

Full article: Servers move from a guzzle to a sip, on w3 (1-Aug-07)

IBM is not jumping on the green bandwagon. We’ve been driving it for nearly 40 years. Now IBM is dramatically simplifying our IT infrastructure, identifying almost 4,000 distributed servers at its data centers around the world whose work will be consolidated onto about 30 mainframes. Power and cooling costs alone will be reduced by a 80%.

Since Thomas Watson’s call to action in 1971, IBM has been an environmental leader. In 1973, CEO Frank Cary updated IBM’s corporate policy on environmental protection, stating: “IBM will reduce to a minimum the ecological impact of all its activities."

Full article: System i and the green skeptic (16-Jul-07)

The article wonders whether System i really is more energy-efficient per workload than the equivalent computing power of scaled-out x86 boxes, because of its higher utilisation and use of virtualisation and logical partitions. (Does anyone really believe that IBM’s endeavours are environmentally altruistic?) It applauds the Power6 processor, which is twice as fast as the previous generation using almost no more energy.

Full article: Turning your Servers green

IBM, HP, Sun and AMD have launched The Green Grid, a non-profit consortium which aims to cut energy consumption at computer data centres by encouraging power-saving measures.

Full article: Lenovo tops eco-friendly league

Lenovo is top (displacing Nokia) and Apple is bottom of Greenpeace's league table. Lenovo offers take-back and recycling in all countries where it operates.

Links to IBM papers on the Environment

For an overview on the topic(s), see also

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