Green Gauge October 2007
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Revision as of 15:04, 11 October 2007
Greenhouse Gases
Full story: What colour is the U.S dollar bill? (27-Sep-07)
Alongside the recent UN climate conference in New York, researchers at the Carbon Disclosure Project reported its latest results. The basic idea of the scheme is if investors can be encouraged to ask companies for information about their carbon footprints, it would be a powerful incentive for corporations to reduce pollution and their contribution to global warming.
But disclosure is a means, not an end. The goal is to change their polluting behaviour. Although the project is gaining momentum, it is recognised that there is still a long way to go.
Of the 500 largest listed companies, 77% answered the questionnaire, although key firms in Russia and China, such as Gazprom and China Petroleum, failed to reply. Of those who replied, there was an increase in the percentage of companies who are implementing greenhouse gas reduction plans — from 46% last year to 76% this year.
Also noteworthy was that a mere 9% of U.S companies stated that they took into account the cost of carbon when making business decisions. A possible explanation for this is that, unlike European companies, American businesses do not have to track their emissions to comply with local regulations.
Global Warming
Full story: Global Warning on Global Warming: U.S Must Help Out (25-Sep-07)
The U.S. Secretary of State, Condoleeza Rice, said at the UN this month: “Put simply, the world needs a technological revolution. Existing energy technologies alone will not meet the global demand for energy while also reducing emissions to necessary levels.”
Hilary Benn, the UK's secretary of state for the environment, used the conference to declare: "Tackling climate change means all of us, including the largest economy in the world, the US, taking on binding emissions reduction targets. It is inconceivable that dangerous climate change can be avoided without this happening."
The UK is a member of the European Union which is actually reducing its overall greenhose gas emissions as part of its adherence to the Kyoto Protocol. The U.S. and China are the world’s two leading producers of greenhouse gases and neither is signatory to Kyoto. Both continue to annually produce more CO2.
Climate Change
Full story: Pipes hung in the sea could help planet to 'heal itself' (27-Sep-07)
James Lovelock is one of the scientists who have recently proposed that the sea could be helped to absorb vastly more carbon dioxide by mixing deeper water with surface water. The theory is that pumping deep water up to the surface would allow for algae to be fertilised and encourage them to bloom, taking up much more CO2.
They suggest the use of vertical pipes, perhaps 100 to 200 metres long, 10 metres in diameter and with a one-way valve at the lower end for pumping by wave movement. Richard Branson seems very interested in the project and is considering funding a trial.
Full story: Report Urges Action for Industry to Reduce Climate Change Impact (4-Oct-07)
A report from the Environmental Paper Network titled “The State of the Paper Industry” proposes that the consumption of paper should be minimised and the recycling of paper be maximised in order to reduce the paper industry’s impact on climate change. The industry is the fourth largest contributor to greenhouse gas emissions, and it accounts for more than 40% of the world's industrial wood harvest. Asia consumes around 10% of the paper per capita of the USA, and once these markets develop, demand and supply will have to increase. Paper mills are rapidly being built in developing countries and almost no recycling mills are being constructed. Recycled paper requires less than half the energy of virgin stock and produces almost a third of the greenhouse gases.
The Green Imperative
Full story: London Heading Down Greener Path (1-Oct-07)
"London is setting the standard for climate change policy," says Chris Walker, U.S. director of the Climate Group. Scientific studies show that cities contribute 75% of the global warming emissions in the world. London is the largest city in the European Union. In 2005 Ken Livingstone launched his idea of the Cities Climate Leadership Group. The coalition has since grown to 38 international cities and calls itself the C40.
February 2007 saw Livingstone launch his Climate Action Plan with the goal of reducing London’s emissions by 60% by 2025 through energy conservation, efficiency and renewable resources. London currently has one of the most aggressive anti-congestion programs in the world, demonstrating the city’s commitment to reducing vehicle pollution. A number of targets have been set in the city to help become greener—for example the goal of taking half the city off the National Grid by 2050.
Full story: UK IT Has Yet to Turn Green (1-Oct-07)
Two thirds of UK firms have someone on their board with responsibility for energy and environmental issues, but this high-level commitment hasn’t percolated through to the IT department. In fact, survey results show that 42% of UK IT executives do not measure their energy use. Within the UK, IT accounts for 4% of the total greenhouse gas emissions, so it is vital for CIOs to act now in order to reduce both these emissions and reduce internal costs.
When purchasing new equipment, this means considering more than just the price. Survey respondents put reliability as the deciding factor when buying IT equipment (63%), followed by price (32%) and support (30%). Only 12% mentioned energy efficiency.
Full article: "Rubbish" way to get green message over (14-Sep-07)
The Labour group on Bedford borough council has suggested that council employees stop picking up litter for one day, in the hope that this will emphasise how much the authority does to keep the streets clean. In addition to this, car sharing is being encouraged, and energy-saving light bulbs delivered to housing association properties. The idea is that if enough people get involved, a real difference could be made to the carbon footprint of the borough.
There are also thoughts of utilising photo-voltaic cells and combined heat and power technology for council facilities, which would allow excess energy to be fed into the national grid.
Full story: IT Chiefs Want to Go Green (25-Sep-07)
92% of the 300 senior UK IT executives surveyed by CBR wanted to make their firms IT infrastructure greener, with the key motivator being cost-saving. Despite concerns that climate change awareness is not affecting behaviour, government and board-level pressures are beginning to make a difference. Furthermore, green initiatives are moving higher up the agenda due to the increasing cost of energy.
Full story: Britain Trails World League on Its Green Credentials
A recent study of 141 countries places Britain a poor 93rd in the world for energy efficiency and 77th for greenhouse gas emissions. Total carbon dioxide emissions in the UK actually increased between 2000 and 2005.
Full story: Go Green to Help Environment and the Bottom Line (4-Oct-07)
Consumers’ have a growing desire to go green; it is thought that about 35 million Americans routinely buy “green” products. At Tipping Media green marketing is now an integral part of the business, the company have provided a few tips to others “greening” their organisation. The have recommended conducting an internal audit to determine actions that can be taken to reduce waste and conserve energy, they also suggest ways to make offices more eco-friendly and finally they propose services consider extending green business practices to their client relationship.
Full story: The Green Grid Banks on Power Reduction (29-Sep-07)
The long-term cost to power and cool an enterprise data centre can dwarf the price of the hardware it hosts. The Green Grid Alliance, a consortium consisting of several IT vendors, sees a future where measuring and comparing data centre efficiency is a simpler process. Several Green Grid members have already taken new power-efficient products to the streets.
Despite this rapid growth, one of the biggest challenges that GG faces is tempering the competitive instincts of its members, which are individually investing millions of dollars into research and development for data center efficiency.
There's enough blame for the sad state of power consumption to go around, and Green Grid members need to tone down the rhetoric and work together; the alternative isn't pretty, says Information Week.
Full story: New Zealand Wants Green Trading Scheme (20-Sep-07)
New Zealand is aiming to cut pollution at the lowest cost to economic growth; the plan is to achieve this through allocating an agreed level of greenhouse gas emissions to each industry during the year 2008. Businesses can then either reduce emissions to this agreed level or conversely “buy” credits which allow them to pollute at higher levels.
At present New Zealand emits about 45.5 million metric tons more than the target set for them under the UN Kyoto Protocol, it is hoped that the cap and trade system will cut this amount in half.
Carbon Offsets
Full story: Should IT Managers Jump on the Offset Bandwagon? (Sep-07)
Carbon offsetting is somewhat of a controversial issue, advocates argue that offsetting should play a vital part in any green business strategy, whilst, critics believe the practise is scientifically flawed, and the idea that you can simply pay to neutralise your emissions is based on unverifiable calculations.
Others believe that although some projects are “less than robust” the concept of offsetting still has a significant role to play in helping business transition to low carbon business models. It is thought however, that IT managers need to make efforts to reduce their overall energy consumption in addition to offsetting.
Firms are advised to remain wary of offset schemes and to ensure that the offsets they are buying are scientifically valid and not harmful to local economies or people, otherwise they could end up causing more harm than good.
Green Building
Full story: Towards Zero Carbon (26-Sep-07)
The Government has specified that by 2016 all new houses should be zero carbon rated. In June 2007 The Stewart Milne Group, one of the UK’s leading privately owned house builders, celebrated the completion of its first five star rated, near zero carbon show homes. The homes have a range of environmentally friendly features, and are designed to meet all nine elements of the Governments Code for Sustainable Homes, it is expected that they will go into commercial production well in advance of the 2016 target.
Full story: Real Estate Finds its "Green" Pasture (28-Sep-07)
“Green” building which accounts for ways and means to conserve energy, reduce emissions and avoid waste is a concept which is catching on. The Director of Environmental Affairs believes that despite the expense it is in the best interest of developers to opt for green projects. In fact, in the U.S many residents insist on green projects as it increases the resale value of the property, and also benefits through cheaper electricity bills.
Combined Heat and Power
Full story: Green Energy Partnership for "Hydrogen Houses Unplugged" (30-Sep-07)
The PURE Energy Centre, Fuel Cell Scotland and Hjaltland Housing Association are working together to pioneer the development of the first completely unplugged hydrogen houses in the world. The scheme is a showcase of technology that provides energy security to any unplugged houses. The first stage involves building two combined heat and power systems to provide both heat and electricity power to the unplugged houses. The second stage involves the development of a renewable hydrogen scheme at the house site. The final stage involves the development of a renewable hydrogen refuelling station and the provision of unique hydrogen cars.
Customer Activity
Full story: BP Team with MIT for Clean Energy Research (28-Sep-07)
BP has signed a 5 year commitment to the MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) Energy Initiative; the pair aim to explore ways of transforming materials such as coal into electricity, liquid fuels and chemicals with the hope of slashing carbon dioxide emissions.
Data Centre
Full story: Don't Wait on Green IT to Spruce Up Data Centres, Experts Say (1-Oct-07)
Experts in the IT industry have recommended that companies make simple reconfigurations to their IT hardware to help free up energy and space in the data centre. They have been advised not to wait for advanced technologies to take root due to a lack of guidance from the federal level which is likely to cause a slow in the pace of innovation on the energy-efficiency front.
Full story: Less than a quater of UK CIOS believe data centre consolidation could lower carbon emissions (28-Sep-07)
A recent survey found that a mere 23% of UK CIOs believed a green policy could drive data centre consolidation, compared to 50% in North America. IBM believes that despite the current sense of little progress being made, the IT function is well positioned when it comes to reducing its environmental impacts. Through adopting existing energy efficiency methodologies and technologies power use could be cut by 56% by 2011.
Full story: Green Storage Shades Across the Atlantic: Survey (25-Sep-07)
A recent survey by Bridgehead Software has found that North American businesses are more worried about running out of power in the data centre, whereas, British companies appeared to be more concerned about the environment.
Bridgehead highlights how moving data from a spinning disk onto a non-rotating tape or optical disk will reduce electricity bills and could save upto 80% of primary storage. Storage problems have arisen partly in response to companies running scared about compliance, but it is also due to the fact that technolgy purchasing power isn't always in the IT department. For a real difference to be made an enterprise wide approach to archiving will need to be taken rather than a divisional approach where archiving is taking place for compliance and disaster recovery reasons only.
Full story: Going Green in the Data centre (28-Sep-07)
Over the past four decades the data centre has been focused on extreme power, however the past year has seen topics such as global warming, renewable resources and carbon footprint come into play. As a result, many large companies have started a green data centre initiative, in terms of purchasing more efficient servers and also meeting regulatory compliance for recycling existing equipment.
Sun Microsystems have highlighted some immediate steps that can be taken to save energy, for example turning up the thermostat in the data centre, virtualisation and measuring the overall efficiency of power and cooling. Once the inefficiencies have been highlighted green technologies then need to be evaluated firstly for their economic benefit and then on an ecological basis.
Full story: Green Storage Shades Across the Atlantic: Survey (25-Sep-07)
A recent survey by Bridgehead Software has found that North American businesses are more worried about running out of power in the data centre, whereas, British companies appeared to be more concerned about the environment.
Bridgehead highlights how moving data from a spinning disk onto a non-rotating tape or optical disk will reduce electricity bills and could save upto 80% of primary storage. Storage problems have arisen partly in response to companies running scared about compliance, but it is also due to the fact that technolgy purchasing power isn't always in the IT department. For a real difference to be made an enterprise wide approach to archiving will need to be taken rather than a divisional approach where archiving is taking place for compliance and disaster recovery reasons only.
Individual Efforts
Green Consortia
Vendor Efforts
Full story: Companies Decide to go Green (1-Oct-07)
Greenpeace released its "Guide to Greener Electronics" in September 2007, which ranked 14 manufacturers of computers and mobile phones according to their policies on toxic chemicals and recycling.
The company rankings are in descending order: Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Dell, Lenovo, LG, Sony, Fujitsu-Siemens, Samsung, Motorola, Toshiba, Acer, Apple, HP and Panasonic.
Nokia has been on the top of the ladder since August 2006. Lenovo who has moved up the ladder from the lowest rank in August 2006 now ranks fourth. At the bottom of the ladder are Panasonic, HP and Apple.
HP is now in 13th place down from 6th. It has weakened its support for individual producer responsibility. It was the first company to devise an electronic waste take-back/recycling metric based on a percentage of sales, yet it has failed to provide timelines for the complete elimination of PVC (Plastic Polyvinyl Chloride) and all BFRs (Brominated Flame Retardants).
Full story: Electronics Companies Green up Their Acts (19-Sep-07)
Greenpeace has launched its latest edition of a “Guide to Greener Electronics”; the changes show that many major electronics firms have made huge improvements since the guide was first launched in August 2006. Not only have the companies that were ranked near the bottom of the previous edition made improvements to move up the table, but companies not even featured in the ranking have made improvements in their policies with the aim of being greener. In fact, the only company seen to fall in each of the rankings is Hewlett Packard.
The initiative has also seen many improvements in company practice since August 2006; with a number of companies now offering free take back programs for old electronics. There has also been an increase in the number of products available without the worst toxic chemicals e.g. PVC plastic.
These results demonstrate the effectiveness of publicly comparing the performance of these companies to help make improvements in environmental policies.
Full story: HP helps Africa with recycling standards (26-Sep-07)
30% of the world’s obsolete electronics end up in Africa, according to United Nations estimates. An estimated 500 containers of used computer scrap enter Nigeria each month. Recycling is potentially a lucrative industry and most African countries already have an active commercial market. But the sector is largely unregulated and fierce competition can lead to corner-cutting.
IT sales in Africa are rocketing and HP wants to help by putting proper recycling practices in place before it is too late. The company aims to work with two non-governmental organisations to educate recycling firms about the benefits of adhering to environmental best practice. One of the key challenges is to give the scheme a commercial edge. By demonstrating that the scheme can generate money and jobs, participation is encouraged.
Full story: Fujitsu Siemens Issues Challenge to Irish Companies to Reduce their Data Centre Costs by 40% (21-Sep-07)
Data centre power consumption is growing at an annual rate of around 25%; a main problem seems to be that many businesses simply do not know how to reduce this huge consumption of power. The Dynamic Data Centre (DDC) Challenge proposed by Fujitsu Siemens hopes to address this issue. The challenge involves demonstrating to Irish corporations where reductions can be made to power consumption costs, operating costs and the physical footprint of the organisation’s data centre by at least 40%.
Full story: Going Green - Vendors Deliver Solutions to Save Money - the World (21-Sep-07)
Many companies are beginning to go green in a desire to cut ever rising power bills and to attract new customers. Sun HP and IBM have all been active on the green issue, and have developed eco-friendly servers, assessment services and now provide assistance to companies hoping to green their data centres.
However, not all companies are rushing to replace their infrastructure with green technology, for there are barriers to consider. For example, budgets need to be regarded, and there is also some scepticism that environmentally friendly systems might not work as well as the familiar, existing network. Thus a task for companies is to prove to their end users how good the new technologies are so to increase confidence in them.
Full story: Sun Releases 2007 Corporate Social Responsibility Report (5-Oct-07)
The report highlights how Sun has reduced both electricity and gas consumption and carbon emissions in their US buildings, the main reason for this being consolidation of data centres. In addition to this Sun has taken a number of other measures to cut energy use, such measures include having buildings cleaned in daylight so to avoid lights being turned on outside working hours, and also replacing light bulbs with lower wattage bulbs.
Fuel Cells
Full story: Fuel Cells The Truly "Alternative" Energy (24-Sep-07)
Fujitsu has recently chosen to install a fuel cell to allow them to clean their energy, the corporation decided to install a fuel cell rather than use solar or wind energy as they believe it to be more dependable and take up less space. Although the fuel cell market is currently far smaller than other alternative energy markets, it looks to be growing and it has been estimated that by 2016 fuel cell sales will reach $15.6 billion.
At present fuel cells are very expensive, thus government incentives have been needed to spark the industry, however, the costs are falling as bigger orders lead to the economies of higher volume production.
Green Computing
Full story: 5 Signs The Computer Industry Is Finally Going Green
There have been several recent developments coming from the high-tech sector which demonstrate that the computing industry is gradually finding a green conscience. Such initiatives include;
- Dell’s plan to be carbon neutral by 2008
- Solar powered workstations
- Green data centres
- USB 3.0, set to become available in 2009, promising energy savings
- The Climate Savers Computing Initiative aims to reduce computer energy use by 90% by 2010; this is expected to provide a saving of $5.5 billion in energy costs.
Full story: Growth Threatens Benefits of Green IT (24-Sep-07)
A major problem facing the IT industry is the fact that worldwide growth in computer use is eroding away any gains being made as a result of lowered carbon emissions from energy efficient products. To achieve a large reduction in carbon is a challenge in itself, and the problem is intensified with the growth in computer use.
The head of sustainability at Sun Microsystems believes the answer to the problem to be low carbon emitting disruptive technologies. It is believed that low energy data centres need to be built and ICT infrastructures need to consider energy use as a starter for addressing the problem.
Full story: Green IT Strategies Stifled by Interia (28-Sep-07)
Recent IBM sponsored research has found that 42% of IT executives do not monitor their IT related energy spending. This highlights that whilst green issues may have a high profile in companies; few businesses have anything close to a proper strategy for dealing with it from an IT perspective.
However, these IT issues are likely to be seen to climb higher up the corporate agenda due to rising energy costs and power hungry technology.
Full article: Virtualisation - a CIO's Best Friend? (14-Sep-07)
Virtualisation is thought to play a significant role in tackling the challenges faced by CIO’s such as growing volumes of data, increased demands on data and rising energy costs. The benefits of virtualisation are that it increases flexibility, availability and speed of deployment of computer resources. These benefits may explain why in May 2007 three quarters of silicon.com’s CIO Jury said virtualisation was a current investment priority, causing the technology to move into the mainstream.
Full story: Refurbished Computers are Turning Green (4-Oct-07)
Computers largely contribute to the problem of global warming; not only do they send CO2 into the atmosphere but they also contain lead which on a global level is extremely toxic to the environment, released through computer disposal. Unlike America, Europe has stepped up to the challenge of a Green PC; one of the requirements will be that it is lead free.
Vendors have shown efforts to become more “green” through schemes such as Dell’s computer recycling program and PC World’s Green PC which focuses on decreasing the power usage of its personal computer.
Greenwashing
Full story: Is the IT Industry Talking alot of Hot Air about Green Issues?
A new survey released by ONStor shows that while CIO’s may be championing green IT the reality is that most have made no active progress. It is thought by Celona Technologies that the greatest green gains will come through application consolidation. It is vital that applications and data are streamlined in order to avoid duplication, if duplication were to occur it would cause a range of operational inefficiencies.
However, a major problem is that many companies are put off by the risk, cost and time associated with consolidation; a recent survey among telecoms executives found that 59% were so discouraged by an application migration that they decided not to go ahead with it.
Full article: Green IT: Clever Marketing or the Real Thing? (17-Sep-07)
At present much of the advantage of being green focuses on the concept of lowering power consumption in the data centre. However, trying to consolidate to save money is hardly a new concept and you don’t have to be environmentally conscious to want to lower the price of energy bills.
Many companies like to be seen as being green, yet internally the focus of their actions is actually to introduce technology that will lower their costs. Many companies are now looking across their business operations to identify any other areas they can replicate the savings made in the data centre.
Companies need to be aware that the heightened attention on corporate environmentalism is making it harder to get away with “greenwashing”, thus they need to ensure their actions are truly eco friendly.
Full article: The Green Reality (18-Sep-07)
A major problem with green computing initiatives is that it is often hard to separate marketing from reality. There is real value in a company marketing their Corporate Social Responsibility, and if not promoted the company may risk being singled out by Greenpeace as eco-laggards, and consequently damage their “green” reputation. A further incentive is that many companies are gaining marketing benefits from advertising their eco-initiatives.
Company Processes
ISO 14000
Full story: ISO 14000: Five Environmental Management System Principles (30-Sep-07)
There are five environmental management system principles within ISO 14000; these are commitment and policy, planning, implementation, measurement and evaluation and finally review and improvement. Following these main principles will allow for order and consistency in addressing environmental concerns.
Peak Oil
Politics
Full story: Make tech greener, CIOs told (21-Sep-07)
With an annual spend of £12 billion, the public sector is the biggest user of IT in the UK. Cabinet Office minister Gillian Merron has warned that government computer systems must become greener, as it has a responsibility to set a positive example.
This means not just reducing the amount of electricity used, but also looking at how systems can be built in ways that consume fewer materials and make recycling easier, she said.
