Gartner and the Environment

From Lauraibm

Revision as of 14:59, 9 August 2007

Gartner documents

• Gartner call on Green issues (20-Jul-07)
• Europe leads the way in quest for environmentally sustainable IT (3-Jul-07)
• Look Beyond Google's Plan to Become Carbon Neutral (June-07)
• IT Firms in Green Initiative Must Also Look At Themselves (June-07)
• Big Blue goes Green with Energy Efficiency Initiative (May-07)
• Greenpeace Report a Wake-Up Call for the IT Industry (Feb-07)

MI Summaries of the articles above

Gartner call on Green issues (20-Jul-07)

There is plenty of anecdotal evidence that datacentres are running out of electrical power. Few clients are taking green considerations into account when planning their IT architecture. Retailers, financial services firms and consumer product companies are the industries most concerned about green issues. But most IT departments are not connecting their practices with their company's green aspirations.

Green issues are a fad, and many will fade away if an economic recession arrives, but climate change (a British obsession) is with us for the long term. While we lead on CO₂, the Germans are ahead of us on waste and recycling. But while there is European consensus, the USA is politically divided on many green issues. The impact of IT on the environment can be divided into three categories: the Bad, the Good and the Structural. BT is advanced in its environmental philosophy and practices. The media is highly advanced in its environmental demands of business, government and society.

Europe leads the way in quest for environmentally sustainable IT (July-07)

Gartner has made a prediction that by the end of 2008 50% of medium and large sized Western European IT organisations will declare a green imperative, this compares to less than 20% of organisations outside of Western Europe. It has been found that European organisations have acted much more quickly to the threat of climate change than their US counterparts; some of the steps already taken by European governments include the signing of the Kyoto Protocol and the restriction of hazardous substances (RoHS).

European organisations have provided strong evidence of tackling the first order effects of climate change (e.g. greenhouse gas emissions); the challenge now is to start innovating on the second order effects which will come from the application of ICT technologies that decrease the need for travel, etc. There are huge opportunities to make a big difference in this area because of the inefficiencies that currently exist in both the technologies and usage behaviour.

Over the next few years work should be done towards making power consumption a standard design criteria and increasing world-wide regulations and legislations on hazardous substances and e-waste. To help in achieving this Gartner have set out ten crucial action points for greener IT, this includes having a well defined environmental policy, educating the workforce on green issues and incorporating environmental criteria into procurement decisions

Look Beyond Google's Plan to Become Carbon Neutral (June-07)

Gartner has criticised Google’s announcement that it will be carbon neutral by the end of 2007 because the plan depends heavily on carbon offsets, a concept that lacks credibility. Furthermore, Google does not disclose its energy consumption or its carbon footprint.

Google has announced its plan to become carbon neutral by the end of 2007, to achieve this they will maximise efficiency, use renewable resources and purchase offsets for the remaining emissions. In reality to become carbon neutral Google will have to rely heavily on carbon offsets, this lacks credibility and it is hard to ensure that every ton of carbon dioxide emitted will be permanently removed through an offset program. Google states that offsetting will only be temporary, but Gartner believe that to achieve carbon neutrality Google will have to purchase offsets for many years to come, this is due to the company having more servers than any other, leading to a substantial carbon footprint.

It is vital to ensure that carbon neutrality achieved via offsets is not weighted highly in environmental purchase criteria, what is more impressive and far harder to achieve is a corporation taking direct steps to reduce their carbon dioxide footprint.

IT Firms in Green Initiatives Must Also Look At Themselves (June-07)

A number of vendors have joined to form the Climate Savers Computing Initiative, the aim is to save energy and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by setting aggressive targets for energy efficient computers and components. Gartner believe that this initiative will indeed help in reducing power consumption, but that improvements in power supply efficiency would have happened anyway. There is also a belief that the underlying reason for some vendors to support the initiative is that it gives the impression they are being proactive in tackling climate change, supporting such an initiative also distracts attention away from some of their existing environmental challenges.

This is indeed a positive step forward for the industry, but having said this it is important that enterprises question the vendors and service providers supporting it to find out what they themselves are doing to reduce energy consumption.

Big Blue goes Green with Energy Efficiency Initiative (May 07)

In May 2007 IBM announced “Project Big Green” aimed at helping users deal with data centre energy use issues. The initiative includes new products and services for both IBM and its clients that will help reduce data centre energy consumption.

There is a belief that companies are now looking for a more holistic approach when selecting servers and storage devices and when developing environmentally friendly IT solutions.

This approach is on a company wide level and covers IBM’s internal energy efficiency programs and strategies for working with external customers. The corporation are providing a significant statement of unification that should offer users a more comprehensive set of solutions. Directing $1 billion a year into IT energy efficiency should provide IBM with a significant step towards its target of being the leader with regards to environmental issues.

Greenpeace Report a Wake-Up Call for the IT Industry (Feb 07)

In early 2007 Greenpeace published a report on “Cutting Edge Contamination – A Study of Environmental Pollution during the Manufacture of Electronic Products”. The report identified that the IT industry will face increased scrutiny on its environmental impact throughout the lifecycle of products and services as a result the IT industry need to be much more proactive in reducing their environmental footprint. The benefits of IT to the environment, society and the economy are substantial, but the industry needs to do a much better, and collaborative, job of communicating that fact and the achievements to date.