Sustainable IT

Wake Up, Freak Out - Climate Change Redux

2008-09-28T04:00:00.001-07:00

A great short film (animation) on climate change. Well worth the 10 minutes it takes to watch.

Simply put, with a great message.

http://wakeupfreakout.org/film/tipping.html

Wake Up, Freak Out - then Get a Grip from Leo Murray on Vimeo.

Layers of Denial

2008-07-01T04:01:00.000-07:00

An interesting article, copied below from Reuters, on energy in the UK and consumers' attitudes towards cost and consumption.

It seems that even when convinced of the existance of climate change and agreeing that we each need to play a part in addressing the problem, we find it hard to face up to the realities of taking action.

It's just another form of denial. But no amount of ignoring this (global warming) problem will make it go away. The sooner we accept that, the better.

It will take very brave governments and leaders to implement unpopular measures in the face of an objecting public, but such leadership is needed since we seem incapable of motivating ourselves.

Time will tell whether the UK government matches its rhetoric with action - let's hope so.

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British Renewables Push Will Boost Energy Bills

UK: July 1, 2008

LONDON - Meeting Britain's renewable energy targets will add significantly to domestic energy bills on top of already steeply rising fuel prices, a report said on Monday.

The report from tax advisory company Ernst & Young comes days after the government called for a 100 billion pound green revolution to get 15 percent of its energy -- equivalent to 40 percent of its electricity -- from renewables by 2020.

Britain currently gets barely four percent of its electricity from renewables, primarily wind power.

The report said the drive to carbon cutting renewables would add 20 percent in real terms to domestic energy bills by 2020, equivalent to 5.3 billion pounds or just over 200 pounds per household, on top of increases due to booming fuel costs.

But a YouGov survey conducted to coincide with the report also noted that most Britons baulked at the prospect of having to pay to combat climate change.

The survey found that 67 percent of people said they would not be prepared to pay anything extra on their home energy bills to fight global warming.

"Customers face a triple whammy -- rising fuel and oil prices, the costs of climate change mitigation, and on top of both, the additional investment required to become more energy efficient," said Ernst & Young's Simon Harvey.

"However, the average consumer does not appear to realise that this additional cost is going to hit their wallets."

Confusingly the survey also found that while two-thirds of people said they were responsible for cutting their own carbon emissions a majority said a rise of 200 pounds in their fuel bills would not make them cut consumption.

"The challenge for government and the utilities companies is convincing the average UK consumer of the benefits of reducing energy consumption," said Harvey. "Convincing them to undertake the series of measures that will be required to tackle climate change will require multiple changes in behaviour."

Reporting by Jeremy Lovell; editing by Matt Falloon
REUTERS NEWS SERVICE

SMART 2020: Enabling the Low Carbon Economy in the Information Age

2008-06-21T16:27:00.000-07:00

A new McKinsey report, commissioned by GeSI (Global e-Sustainability Initiative) was released a couple of days ago. This one looks to be big, both in terms of pages and content. I haven't read throught all 80-odd pages yet, but the summary looks very promising:

"The scale of emissions reductions that could be enabled by the smart integration of ICT into new ways of operating, living, working, learning and travelling makes the sector a key player in the fight against climate change, despite its own growing carbon footprint. No other sector can supply technology capabilities so integral to energy efficiency across such a range of other sectors or industries.

But with this potential comes with responsibility. Emissions reductions in other sectors will not simply present themselves; the ICT sector must demonstrate leadership on climate change and governments must provide the optimum regulatory context. This report outlines the key actions needed."

The summary version (834 kB) of the report is available at:
http://www.gesi.org/files/smart2020reportsummary.pdf

The full - low res - version (1 Mb) of the report is available at: http://www.gesi.org/files/smart2020report_lo_res.pdf

The full (8 MB) version of the report is available at: http://www.gesi.org/files/smart2020report.pdf

Gartner's Top Predictions for IT Organizations and Users, 2008 and Beyond: Going Green and Self-Healing

2008-05-22T17:26:00.000-07:00

I'm a bit slow of the mark, in late May, but here's a summary of what Gartner predicts for the year ahead . . . 'Green' IT is right there at the top.

I'm not a big fan of calling environmental/sustainability stuff 'green'. For some people it harks back to the days when 'environmentalists' supposedly hugged trees and wore hair shirts. But then again some people are tired of the word 'sustainable' too (not good for my business name, then!). But at least 'green' is easily recognised as a 'brand'.

Copied from that report:

Predictions for 2008 inevitably will focus on key issues that are top of mind in the areas of "green" IT, consumerization of IT, and the emergence of new acquisition and delivery models for IT systems and services.

This Top Predictions report examines the effect these key issues will have, in addition to highlighting some key technologies for the next few years.

Key Findings
• Environmental, or green, issues will directly affect IT decisions related to the purchase of systems, services and the selection of vendors that support the green IT movement.
• Alternate delivery and acquisition models are affecting how IT organizations and users plan for spending, as well as selection of products and services.
• Consumers are changing the way decisions and technology choices are made by IT — and who the decision makers are.

Recommendations
• Establish a green initiative in IT to evaluate compliance and to promote a consistent approach to environmental issues.
• Make IT budget decisions dependent on service-based spending models, such as subscriptions and annuities.
• Establish communications and collaboration initiatives between end users and IT decision makers when selecting new technologies or services.

Full article at: http://www.gartnerinsight.com/download/Gartner_Top_Predicts_2008andBeyond_GoingGreen.pdf

Male attitudes could be slowing IT sustainability drive

2008-04-16T23:44:00.000-07:00

An interesting article forwarded to me by Tim Wallace of ecoLogic today . . .

An IBM survey in New Zealand found that:

"more females tended to believe in sustainability than males, and therefore, with the assumption that IT managers are predominantly male, the less enthusiastic approach to sustainability is not necessarily the characteristics of IT managers as much as it is the characteristics of them being male."

The full story here.

Affluenza and Sustainability

2008-03-16T01:33:00.000-07:00

An interesting and critical aspect of environmental sustainability is human behaviour. There are many aspects to this. One is the impact of affluenza.

I don't intend to go into the topic in any great detail, maybe just to whet your appetite. There is a great book on the Australian condition Affluenza - when too much is never enough by Clive Hamilton and Richard Denniss. Clive has written some great books like Growth Fetish and Scorcher on issues facing modern societies. There is more on the topic on YouTube in the form of documentaries.

In the book, affluenza is defined as:

The bloated, sluggish and unfulfilled feeling that results from efforts to keep up with the Joneses.
An epidemic of stress, overwork, waste and indebtedness caused by dogged pursuit of the Australian dream.
An unsustainable addiction to economic growth.

Affluenza is brought on by a society which places undue emphasis on consumption. The book argues that, for some time now, people have been buying more and more 'stuff' in an effort to feel better about themselves and to demonstrate their status. That increasingly effective marketing and advertising has engendered this behaviour.

So, how is this linked to sustainability? In simple terms, the more stuff we buy, the more resources and energy are consumed in their manufacture and distribution, the more ends up in storage and ultimately landfill. Conspicuous consumption leads to increased impact on our environment throughout the entire life-cycle of the goods. Whether it is resource depletion, greenhouse gas emissions or waste disposal.

It stands to reason that increased consumption leads to increased impact and less sustainability.

Many people, perhaps the majority, instinctively feel that the excesses of our consumer society are leading us in the wrong direction. As yet, not many are acting on this instinct, instead they continue to follow the norms and consume. But some are responding by opting out as post materialists, living simply or by downshifting.

It is likely that our future (or at least one which is 'sustainable', by any definition of that word) will require us all to become post materialists and change the way we think about ourselves and our connection with the world around us.

Green Subdivisions

2008-03-07T17:43:00.000-08:00

Copied today from the API Newsletter.

See the highlighted part for reiteration of a common issue in our journey towards environmental sustainability . . . its hard to make the changes required.

Few pay heed to ‘green’ subdivisions

Fewer than one in five buyers of new homes regards environmentally friendly subdivisions as an important factor in choosing where to live, according to a study conducted by Connection Research.

Nearly one-third of new homebuyers have never even heard of ‘green’ subdivisions and another third have heard the term but don’t know what it means, Connection Research’s The Sustainable New Home survey of 7000 households around Australia reveals.

Those respondents planning to buy or build a new home – nearly 20 per cent of the total – were asked a series of questions about the importance of various technologies and how much they’d be prepared to pay for them.

“People want to be green,” says report co-author Graeme Philipson. “They express a strong abstract desire to live sustainable lives. But when it comes to practicalities – and paying for them – these desires aren’t always translated into action.”

On the other hand, the report finds large numbers of respondents are willing to spend $5000 to $10,000 or more to add certain features to their new home. The most favoured features are solar water heating, rainwater tanks, better insulation, higher quality building materials and solar electricity.

Other key findings of the report include:

About 60 per cent of respondents have no interest in home automation technologies, although wealthier households are much more likely to want it.
More than 90 per cent of people say good thermal insulation is important.
Some 80 to 90 per cent of respondents who lived in inland areas expressed a desire to move towards the coast or to a town or city suburbs.

Greening your home - getting into hot water

2008-03-01T19:34:00.000-08:00

Inspired by a recent entry from Daniel Bowen in his blog . . .

We've heard a lot about 'greening up' our homes. Many of us have made a mental commitment to reduce the impact of our houses on the environment. That is, we want to do the right thing but (for whatever reason) it will have to wait until the next replacement cycle - i.e. when the thing is broken beyond repair.

It could be that you are planning to install rainwater tanks, solar power, replace the car, or (in this case), replace the hot water system with a solar heated unit.

The problem is, the moment the old system dies, you are left with no hot water. The last thing you want to be doing is spending time deciding which system to buy, what configuration, specification and brand, the best price and delivery and finally a tradesmen to install it.

In Daniel's case that was around two weeks with no hot water. He braved it and went without hot water for that period. If you don't have the patience/time/fortitude to wait that long, you are forced to do the 'practical' thing and get an emergency like-for-like replacement or repair.

Bang goes the opportunity you had to make your life a little less carbon intensive.

So why not either;

have your new system already planned and priced and ready to update and implement when the old one dies. Or better still;
don't wait. Replace the old system as soon as you've made that mental commitment.

Electrically heated water in storage tanks accounts for a large percentage of our home electricity bills and GHG (greenhouse gas) emissions. If you have one, at least swap it out for a gas powered instantaneous water heater, if not for solar heated water.

Start today. You owe it to the environment and to your wallet. :-)

e-Waste

2008-02-29T14:45:00.000-08:00

In a nutshell
Electrical and electronic waste at or near the end of its life. Includes computers, monitors, peripherals, office equipment, TVs, mobile phones, hi-fi and home video equipment and consumables such as print/ink cartridges. Fluorescent tubes too.

The issues

Components contain toxic materials and are non biodegradable. Includes PCBs, lead, cadmium, arsenic, chromium, mercury, flame retardants, plastics and trace amounts of many other elements. (see fig. 1)
Present both occupational and environmental health threats, including toxic smoke from recycling processes and leaching from e-waste in landfill into local water tables.
Valuable materials which could be reclaimed such as gold and platinum.
Major global problem.
Volumes increasing every year.
Low rate of recycling.
Shipment to developing countries for recycling and processing is causing human and environmental pollution. (see movie below)
With more homes moving to flat screen TVs, many old CRT models are being dumped before the end of their life.

Statistics
The US Environmental Protection Agency estimated a 5 to 10% annual increase in e-waste generated internationally, yet less than 5% of all e-waste is being recovered.
In Australia, an estimated 1.6 million computers would be sent to landfill in 2006. Hazardous waste material comprising of computers alone was expected to exceed 7,200 tonnes.

figure 1. material composition of personal computers

Solutions

Buy environmentally responsible computers (and other products). EPEATs tool and criteria can guide you.
Make the equipment last longer. Maintain it and only replace it once it has passed its useful life.
At the office: try pyramid PC distribution, where the staff needing the most computing power get the new PC and their old one is passed on to staff who use PCs less intensively. This has the added bonus of reducing capital cost as well as providing upgrades to more staff. Though it does cost more IT support staff time.
An alternative for office PCs, use them with open source software (such as Linux) which provides useable performance with less processing power.
If the product has any life remaining, sell it on eBay or donate it to an organization which refurbishes and redistributes equipment. In Australia try here, specifically Victoria, here too.
Check whether the manufacturer has an extended producer responsibility (EPR) or take-back program under which they will collect/recycle them. Dell and HP have.
If you are in an area with regulations on e-waste (e.g. the EU), follow the required procedures.
Printer and ink cartridges should be recycled via local suppliers or collection points.

References
http://www.ecoaction.com.au/category.php?id=55
http://www.epeat.net/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-waste
http://www.cleanup.org.au/au/
http://www.envict.org.au/

Environmental Management Systems (EMS)

2008-02-29T14:23:00.000-08:00

The two most widely recognised EMS are:

ISO 14001:2004 is an international standard, the first edition of which was released in 1996. The document must purchased from the ISO (or, alternatively in Australia, SAI Global).
Eco-Management and Audit Scheme (EMAS) from European Union and released in 1993.
The two systems compare well, with EMAS II regulations being based on the ISO, but going beyond the ISO requirements in some areas.

Overview of EMS and ISO 14001
The article below was sourced under copyright from: www.environment.gov.au/land/management/ems/

An Environment Management System (EMS) is a tool for managing the impacts of an organisation's activities on the environment. It provides a structured approach to planning and implementing environment protection measures.
An EMS monitors environmental performance, similar to the way a financial management system monitors expenditure and income and enables regular checks of a company's financial performance. An EMS integrates environmental management into a company's daily operations, long term planning and other quality management systems.

Components of an EMS
Benefits of an EMS
IS0 14000
Benefits of Certification

Components of an EMS
To develop an EMS, an organisation has to assess its environmental impacts, set targets to reduce these impacts, and plan how to achieve the targets.
The most important component of an EMS is organisational commitment. For an effective EMS to be developed and implemented, you need commitment from the very top of the organisation, as well as all staff. Following are more examples of components that should be considered when developing an EMS.

Environmental Policy: this is a statement of what an organisation intends to achieve from an EMS. It ensures all environmental activities are consistent with the organisation's objectives.
Environmental Impact Identification: identification and documentation of the actual and potential environmental impacts of an organisation's operations need to be undertaken. This can be achieved through undertaking an environmental audit.

Objectives and Targets: an environmental audit forms the basis of determining an organisation's environmental objectives and targets. An organisation can find benefits in adopting more stringent longer term objectives to encourage it to improve its performance. To continually improve, targets should be regularly reviewed.

Consultation: staff and community consultation should be undertaken before, during and after establishment of an EMS. This is necessary to ensure that all staff are involved in, and committed to the EMS. It can also help to improve public perception of the company, one of the benefits of implementing an EMS.

Operational and Emergency Procedures: all procedures should be reviewed to ensure they are compatible with the organisation's environmental objectives and targets. Any changes should be included with the documentation.

Environmental Management Plan: this details the methods and procedures which an organsation will use to meet its objectives and targets.

Documentation: all objectives, targets, policies, responsibilities and procedures should be documented along with information on environmental performance. Documentation is useful for verifying environmental performance to staff, regulators and the community.

Responsibilities and Reporting Structure: responsibilities need to be allocated to staff and management to ensure the EMS is implemented effectively.

Training: staff should undergo environmental awareness training to familiarise them with their responsibilities for implementing the EMS and with the overall environmental policy and objectives of the organisation. This provides staff with the necessary skill and motivation for the effective implementation of the EMS.

Review Audits and Monitoring Compliance: review audits should be undertaken regularly to ensure the EMS is achieving its objectives and to refine operational procedures to meet this goal. In order to ensure regulatory and other requirements are being met, it is often necessary to undertake regular environmental monitoring.

Continual Improvement: an important component is continual improvement. An EMS comes into its best use when used to review progress towards the targets and objectives set by a company to protect the environment. The procedures set in place to meet these objectives should be constantly examined to see if they can be improved or if more effective systems can be introduced.

Benefits of an EMS
An EMS can assist a company in the following ways:

minimise environmental liabilities;
maximize the efficient use of resources;
reduce waste;
demonstrate a good corporate image;
build awareness of environmental concern among employees;
gain a better understanding of the environmental impacts of business activities;
and increase profit, improving environmental performance, through more efficient operations.

An EMS can be a powerful tool for organisations to both improve their environmental performance, and enhance their business efficiency. An EMS is not prescriptive, rather, it requires organisations to take an active role in examining their practices, and then determining how their impacts should best be managed. This approach encourages creative and relevant solutions from the organisation itself.

Although the implementation of an EMS is essentially a voluntary initiative, it can also become an effective tool for governments to protect the environment as it can assist regulation. For example, regulatory systems can encourage organisations to use EMS to meet standards, by providing incentives for strong environmental performance.
Likewise, organisations can use EMS to ensure that their performance is within regulatory requirements, and to keep ahead of more stringent regulations which might be introduced in the future.

International Environmental Standards - ISO 14000
The ISO 14000 series, currently being developed by the International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO), is a collection of voluntary standards that assists organisations to achieve environmental and financial gains through the implementation of effective environmental management. The standards provide both a model for streamlining environmental management, and guidelines to ensure environmental issues are considered within decision making practices.
ISO 14001 is the standard for Environment Management Systems. Many large businesses, particularly overseas, have obtained certification under the standard.

Benefits of International Certification
The benefits of having ISO 14001 certification are mainly realised by large organisations, as Small to Medium Enterprises (SMEs) have a smaller turnover and thus a correspondingly small return on the costs of certification.

Although a fully certified ISO EMS may not be suitable for smaller organisations, it does provide guidelines that assist organisations to consider all the relevant issues, and thus gain the most benefit from their EMS, even without certification. SMEs can therefore use ISO 14001 as a model for designing their own EMS.However, larger organisations may find certification more valuable when considering the potential trade and market advantages of an internationally recognised and certified EMS. This was a significant factor for companies seeking certification under the ISO 9000 quality assurance standards, and is likely to be a factor in decisions regarding ISO 14001 certification.

Climate Change - Outlook

2008-02-28T13:03:00.000-08:00

Throughout 2007, an increasing number of reports from scientists and commentary from observers and the media took on a rather alarmed/pessimistic note regarding the trajectory of our greenhouse gas emissions and the observed effects of climate change.

Basically that:

our emissions are tracking ABOVE the worst case scenarios of business as usual (BAU);
we are seeing greater environmental impacts much sooner than expected;
it's looking like the 2 degrees Celsius (previously a target to avoid the worst impacts of climate change) is not only too high, but we look like we are set to overshoot it anyway
the window of opportunity to correct our course is closing rapidly;
we have to start some serious WORK on this issue right now to have a reasonable chance of turning things around.

The conundrum (well, one of them) in the climate change debate is how to effectively communicate the message so that people will realise the urgency and importance of the issue, without turning them off. Start talking about doomsday scenarios and you risk being labelled an extremist crank. Water down the language to make the message politically (or humanly) acceptable and you risk that people will not see the urgency and think it can be put off another day.

As George Monbiot so succinctly puts it; "When you warn people about the dangers of climate change, they call you a saint. When you explain what needs to be done to stop it, they call you a communist."

Scientists often see their professional role is to inform on the facts and let people decide for themselves what action is required. They are naturally reticent about making predictions which are less than certain and climate change prediction is fraught with uncertainty. Privately (sometimes publicly) they may talk of what they see as the likely outcomes and what needs to be done. Publicly, it is left to the IPCC to report to the world on the scientific consensus on climate change.

As a result of the scientific (and political, in the case of the Summary for Policymakers) consensus building and the time constraints around the reporting process, the IPCC reports have often been described as conservative and representing outdated science. For example, scientific research considered for the 2007 IPCC Fourth Assessment Report may have been conducted as far back as 2000.

So these latest developments in observation and research (two examples, the unprecedented levels of melting polar ice in summer 2007 and; the discovery that the worlds oceans may already be absorbing less carbon dioxide) are causing concern because:

they are impacts beyond the worst predicted by the definitive and respected IPCC report released only last year;
there will not be another report for another three years;
in the meantime, governments and other bodies will use the 2007 report as a guide towards their policies and actions;
the next few years are crucial to the outcomes of climate change.

Global warming/heating and climate change are complex issues. There are many aspects to consider, many sources of information and even more opinions. Too much for the average person to have to read and understand before coming to an informed opinion.

To understand the broad issues and stay up to date on developments, aside from reading daily news releases, I consider it a worthwhile exercise to read reports which consolidate current science, thinking and opinion.

Two such recent reports, which I would recommend, are:

They may not be the best bedtime reading, but they are a great way to gain an education on the topic and understanding of what's in store and what we can do about it.

Strategies for Sustainabilty in Information Technology

2008-02-27T20:50:00.000-08:00

(a draft undergoing development . . .)

INTRODUCTION

The story of IT’s impact on the environment is primarily one of power consumption. More specifically, the amount of electricity consumed by the hardware and the greenhouse gases (GHGs) released when that power is generated.

In Australia – often referred to as the worst GHG polluter, per capita, in the world - around 80% of its electricity is generated by burning coal, releasing as much at 1.31kg of GHGs to generate a single kilowatt hour (kWh). 1kWh is enough to power a typical IT server for around 4 hours.

In 2007, Gartner estimated that IT accounted for around 2% of global carbon dioxide emissions, a figure equivalent to the emissions of aviation. This, it believed, was unsustainable. A report and policy released later that year by the Australian Computer Society (ACS) quoted Australian IT as responsible for 1.52% of the total national emissions.

The proposals to address climate change are many and varied. But the most simple and effective means available to us all is to reduce the amount of energy we waste and increase the efficiency of how we use it. This applies equally to IT.

IT’s use of electricity isn’t the whole story of its impact on the environment, others are outlined in the following strategies.

The basic mantra underpinning sustainability is:

Reduce– use less of the product in question

G0 Green – what you must use, buy the most environmentally friendly product you can

Recyle – find ways to extend the life of the product and dispose of it with care.

IT OPERATIONS

1. Conduct an energy audit
Back to basics, measure what you seek to manage.

IT power is consumed in two areas, the data centre (servers & IT infrastructure) and out in the office (PCs, printers, office equipment).

Electricity meters may be dedicated to specific IT installations or facilities, such as data centres. Is so, a basic audit can be conducted by reviewing electricity bills from the past year. Where this is not possible (usually the case for PCs and office equipment), then you can measure the power consumed by a typical example of each device and project the total over the entire office. Measurement is a simple matter of plugging in and reading a meter.

Once you have your data, you can calculate consumption, cost and GHG emissions. This will form the baseline against which you can measure your progress. You can then asses your position and set targets on your chosen metrics according to your sustainability strategy or policies.

2. Reduce your inventory
Reducing the amount of equipment you operate is a fundamental and powerful step which delivers numerous benefits, including the reduction of:

power consumption

capital and operating costs

maintenance contracts and costs

administration and operating effort

complexity

space requirement

heat generation

manufacturing based consumption

e-Waste

The remaining steps outline how this can be achieved.

3. Consolidate and centralise
Host as many features, functions, services and software on the minimum amount of equipment and share that equipment across as many locations and users as possible. This can be applied across the IT estate.

Servers typical operate at less than 15% of their capacity and often at around 5%. 95% of the capacity and power consumption is waste. As the power of processors continues to double every two years, the only feasible method of utilizing that power is through virtualisation. This allows multiple ‘virtual servers’ to run in software, hosted on one piece of hardware. Once considered cutting edge, it is now an essential IT strategy.

Virtualisation can be applied elsewhere in IT, including storage, networking (LAN and WAN), applications and thin client PCs. It delivers many other benefits, including the facilitation of business continuity, instant server provision and load balancing.

When applied to WAN links (networks between offices), then resource centralisation is facilitated by presenting virtual servers and services to remote offices from a central location.

Other examples of consolidation include using multi function copiers which additionally scan, print and fax. Or, simply limit staff to a desktop or a laptop computer, but not to have both.

Another approach to consolidation is physical, the migration from larger form factor servers onto smaller form factors – including onto blade servers. These allow higher densities of computing power to be accommodated in limited space. Whilst effective, they can have the effect of overloading a data centre with heat, or creating hot spots.

4. Curb Power Consumption in the Data Centre
A data centre (DC) consists of IT equipment (servers, storage and networking) and the building facilities infrastructure required to support them (primary and backup power supplies, cooling, lighting and warning systems for fire, flood and security).

The DC is the single facility responsible for the most power consumption and waste in IT and perhaps across the commercial office. It is estimated that around 97% of the power input into an average DC is consumed in just keeping the equipment running. In other words, only 3% is converted into usable computing power.

Since 2006, the number of stories and reports on DC related power issues has grown dramatically. One theme revolves around power supply shortages and range from companies who can no longer install a single additional server in half empty DCs, bans on the establishment of new DCs in business districts of London, to electricity utilities who have resorted to offering cash to companies who install energy efficient servers. Clearly it is time to curb power consumption in the data centre.

At the heart of this issue are heat, efficiency and capacity. The data centre is an enclosed and secured room. Everything in the data centre produces heat. The heat must be removed to prevent equipment overheat and failure. Removing heat consumes electricity.
Because of design and build issues, much of the equipment operates inefficiently. Thus it consumes and wastes more electricity than necessary and thus generates greater heat.
IT departments are required to run reliable systems which rarely (if ever) fail. To help achieve this, IT folks build in extra capacity and redundancy (over provisioning) when they build new systems. Larger equipment creates more electricity consumption and more heat and it operates at even lower efficiency when it is running well below its optimum level of utilisation.

Initial steps in curbing DC power consumption can be as simple as practicing consolidation and centralisation. Add to this effective policies which limit IT’s tendency to over provision.

Once that is achieved, the next steps are often more difficult. These are around increasing the efficiency of the DC support infrastructure, mainly the cooling systems (CRAC) and the uninterruptable (battery) powers supply (UPS). These two systems may consume 50% of the power input into the DC. Reducing the power demand from the servers may actually increase the power consumed (relative and absolute) by these systems. Retrofitting a DC is possible, but may be difficult and expensive. Cooling technology selection and design in particular is best left to experts in these days of high density data centres. A solution may only be possible to implement during an office or DC move/rebuild.

5. Enable Power Management Features
Most office equipment (including PCs) has facilities to reduce the amount of power they consume after given periods of inactivity or at certain hours. These low power modes, often referred to as sleep, standby or hibernation were first seen on laptops to enhance the life of the battery. Enabling power management can reduce a PC’s power consumption by 60% - quoted as US$25-75 annual saving. Multiplied by the number of PCs you operate, this can be a significant sum.

The most recognised efficiency scheme in this area is Energy Star is a power saving standard introduced by the USA. While it included in all PCs hardware (including monitors), until recently the operating system was default set with it turned off. Hence you have to enable it or if it’s already on, then at least check that its settings are appropriate. This applies equally to other office equipment such as printers and copiers.

This is simple to do on a given PC or other device. However, if you manage more than 50 PCs, then it can become an administrative challenge. Fortunately, power management software is available to facilitate the process.

Servers are usually required to run 24 x 365, hence power management, if available on the hardware, is usually not enabled. However, it’s possible to identify some systems in every data centre where certain PCs can be shut down after office hours or for certain weeks in a given month. When combined with server virtualisation and load balancing, this is a viable larger scale power efficiency strategy.

6. Reduce other consumption
Because paper remains the preferred method of receiving, reading and storing information, printer and photocopiers remain an important part of any office. These create significant environmental impacts through paper and ink/toner cartridge consumption.

Paper is (usually) made from trees and for all sorts of reasons many people prefer that they were left standing. Where the source is plantation timber grown specifically for harvesting, the environmental case is at least debatable. But where protected, native, old growth or environmentally significant forests (such as tropical rainforest) are wastefully clear felled and logged for profit and paper production, then this should not be supported. Paper production is also a highly energy and water intensive process and thus has various GHG and other pollution issues.

Using recycled content office paper is an easy way to avoid most of the basic issues related to forestry. It is generally considered less energy and water intensive too, though some parties debate that claim. Buy the highest percentage of recycled content (100% is best) and the highest possible percentage of that should be ‘post consumer’ fibre – which means genuinely used and recycled fibre. Most modern recycled papers are now guaranteed to run reliably through office machinery. Some European office papers such as Evolve and Xerox Supreme are 100% post consumer, recycled content.

Virgin paper (that is, with no recycled content) should be avoided, but where unavoidable, should be sourced from FSC certified or highly reliable brand and sources. In either case, (recycled or virgin) manufacturers claims should not be taken at face value, since there are many examples of missing or misleading information or ‘greenwash’.

IT PRODUCTS

7. Consider the Life Cycle
When contemplating the environmental impact of the products and services we purchase and use, it’s useful to visualise the entire lifecycle:

Design

Materials

Production

Distribution

Disposal

At every stage there are impacts relating to the materials and energy consumed, emissions and waste created. Everything stems from the design. From the point of view of a purchaser/consumer of a product, those processes around items 1-4 are designated ‘upstream’ and item 6 is ‘downstream’.

If we wish to improve the sustainability of our organisation’s existence, we need to look at our impacts both upstream and downstream. We may not directly create the upstream impacts, but by buying the products, we are supporting them.

In the marketplace, there are those manufacturers and service providers who are more or less environmentally conscious. We can best exercise our influence over these upstream and downstream areas with our everyday decisions. Every dollar spent is a vote for that upstream process. Every item disposed of is support for the downstream.

It’s also useful to consider your own company’s products and services in the same way, even if you do not manufacture products. Place yourself in your clients’ shoes and consider what they receive as a product or service from your company.

8. Implement a Sustainable Procurement Policy
Total cost of ownership is a well known concept relating to the financial costs of owning and operating a good (or service) over it’s entire life. It is usually only applied to the step 5. (Use) of that product.

Environmental sustainability requires that we additionally consider step 6 (Disposal). Ecological sustainability, if so defined, could include all steps for a full lifecycle assessment. Of course, the environmental and ecological approaches also require that we look beyond financial aspects to the non financial ‘costs’ involved in that life cycle.

Consider what is important to your IT department, to the strategies outlined above or meets with your organisations environmental policy/culture and form. Consider how they would apply to each of the lifecycle steps and define requirements for the products purchased by your organisation.

Then seek suppliers who most closely match those criteria. It may require that you change suppliers or that you begin to pressure your preferred supplier to meet your customer requirements. Some examples are outlined below:

Design – should use the minimum amount of material possible to achieve the performance needs of the product. Design should include efficiency of use, maximum life and end of life recyclability in mind.
Materials – should be of high recycle/remanufactured content. Use minimal rare, toxic or non renewable resources.
Production – should be manufactured under an ISO 14001 (or similar) environmental management system.
Distribution – should be manufactured/stored/sold as close as possible to the organisation’s premises. Should have minimum packaging materials.
Use – should be highly efficient in use, have a long life and be easy to use.
Disposal – the manufacturer should extend their responsibility towards collection and recycling of the product once its useful life has expired.

9. Manage e-Waste
IT creates e-waste, consisting of broken or unwanted electrical and electronic items. Such is the speed at which technology advances, that a great deal of equipment is consigned to the trash, even though it is still working perfectly. It is possible to reassign or repurpose the equipment, but it’s often considered more trouble than its worth. Charities and community organisations will often set limits on the specifications of the equipment they will accept.

If e-Waste is consigned to landfill, there is loss of rare and valuable materials and pollution of the land for hundreds of years as toxic compounds leach into the soil. Alternatively, where the waste is shipped to developing countries for primitive forms of disassembly, this creates huge issues of land pollution and poisoning of the workers.

e-Waste cannot be avoided, at least not until manufacturers build the equipment with recycled or recyclable parts. At some point, the equipment reaches the end of its usable life. But there are some ways to reduce it or its impact.