Presentation on Green IT

1. Green IT
Gaurav Malik

2. Overview
•Green IT: A definition
•Green IT drivers
•The business benefits of Green IT
•Reducing the environmental impact of ICT
operations
•ICT as a green enabler
*

3. What is Green IT?
•A collection of strategic and tactical initiatives
which
•directly reduce the carbon footprint of
computing operations
•use IT to help reduce organisations’ overall
carbon footprint
•encourage greener behaviour amongst
employees, customers and suppliers
•ensure the sustainability of resources used by
IT
*

4. The ICT Lifecycle
•ICT accounts for 2% of global CO2 emissions
•Embodied vs. consumed energy
–Embodied energy is associated with the
manufacture and disposal of ICT
–Consumed energy is associated with use of ICT
•Embodied energy may be up to 50% of total
•Should we replace or not?
*

5. The Need for Green IT
•The effects of climate change
•The effects of ICT production and disposal
–Large quantities of hazardous materials
–Significant water and energy consumption
–Concentrated mining of precious and non-
precious metals
•Dangerous and exploitative working
practices
*

6. Green IT Drivers
•Environmental
–ICT emissions set to rise significantly
•Political
–Improving our reputation
•Social
–Meeting the expectations of others
•Legal
–Meeting regulatory obligations
*

7. The Business Benefits of Green IT
Cost
CultureReputation
*

8. UK Climate Change Timeline
*
1988 1992 1997 2001 2005 2008 2009
IPCC
formed
Rio Earth
summit
Kyoto
Protocol
adopted
Bonn
Agreement
Kyoto
Protocol
comes
into force
UK Climate
Change Bill
becomes
law
UK Govt.
introduces
Carbon Budget
System

9. The Kyoto Mechanisms
•Countries must meet their targets primarily
through national measures but …
•Protocol offers three market-based
mechanisms
–Emissions Trading (a.k.a. the carbon market)
–Clean Development Mechanism (CDM)
–Joint Implementation (JI)
*

10. UK Government Carbon Reduction
Commitment (CRC)
•Linked to targets in Climate Change Bill
•Mandatory scheme affecting approx. 5,000
businesses which use > 6,000MWh of
electricity per year
•Self-certification scheme backed by spot
audits
•Bonuses and penalties dependent upon
position in CRC league table
*

11. • Became European Law in 2003
• Sets collection, recycling and recovery
targets for all types of electrical goods
• IT equipment categories include
– Computers and peripherals
– Copiers, calculators and electronic typewriters
• Products carrying logo cannot be included
in general waste
Waste Electrical and Electronic
Equipment Directive (WEEE)
*

12. • Often referred to as lead-free directive
• Aimed at eradicating hazardous
substances from new equipment
• Manufacturers must produce a
technical file which
– Contains analysis and component data
– Is kept for a minimum of 4 years
Restriction of Hazardous
Substances (RoHS) Act
*

13. • Adopted in 2005, updated in 2009
• Establishes a framework under
which manufacturers of energy-
related products will, at the design
stage, be obliged to reduce energy
consumption and other negative
environmental impacts
• Regulation of PCs is still pending
Eco Design of Energy Using
Products (EuP) Directive
*

14. • In the UK, we throw away 600
million household batteries every
year
• Recycle rates traditionally were very
low (5%)
• Directive provides stricter rules on
battery manufacture and recycling
including
– Collecting and treating waste
– Battery labelling and design
European Batteries Directive
*

15. Environmentally Friendly
Purchasing
•Electronic Product Environmental Assessment
Tool (EPEAT)
–Helps purchasers evaluate, compare and select
systems based on their environmental attributes
–Products are rated bronze, silver or gold
•Energy Star
–Joint program of US EPA and US DoE
–Voluntary labelling programme covering
computers, monitors and additional office
equipment
*

16. Reduce Energy Consumption
•Reduce screen brightness to lowest
comfortable setting
•Remove active screensavers
•Enable standby and hibernation modes
–Check out Edison and Pecoboo
•Make sure that fans and vents are not
blocked
•Turn devices off!
*

17. Green Printing
•Replace standalone with network printers
•Consider multifunction devices
•Print side by side or use duplex
•Use draft mode wherever possible
•Use recycled paper and ink cartridges
•Do you really need to print?
*

18. Sustainable Data Storage
•Remove files and documents that are no
longer required
•Use data duplication technology to identify
and remove identical copies of data
•Be clear about data retention and archiving
policies
*

19. Green Networking
•Take advantage of built-in power
conservation features
•Use multifunction devices
•Go wireless!
•Consider Power over Ethernet (PoE) and
Powerline Ethernet
*

20. Green Computing on the Go
•Advantages of laptops
–Contain fewer materials and less embodied
energy
–Consume less power
•40 – 88.5 kWh vs. 148 to 234 kWh for desktops
•Get by with less – do you really need that
17inch screen?
•Netbooks vs. laptops vs. smartphones
*

21. Virtualisation
•Running two or more operating systems on
one piece of hardware e.g. Windows 7 and
Windows XP
•Virtualised systems can be snapshotted and
migrated
•Provides multiple benefits
–Reduces system sprawl and increases ultilisation
rates
–Lowers management costs
–Reduces energy consumption
*

22. Reuse
•Plan for it!
–Establish an asset management process or
set up an equipment exchange
•Sanitize your disks
•Sell old equipment or offer to employees at
a discount
•Donate old equipment to worthy causes
–Reasonably recent machines with functioning
hard drives are best
*

23. Reassign Old Equipment
•Older servers can be used as standby units
•Older desktops can be handed down to
non-power users
•Equip a disaster recovery centre
•Load Linux on older PCs
•Use old PCs for bulletin boards or kiosks
•Build an Old Media centre
*

24. Recycle
•Take advantage of take-back schemes
–Not the same as trade-in programs
–e.g. Dell’s Asset Recovery Services
•Find a green recycler
–Google ‘IT recycling companies’
–Insist on total transparency
•Use products and parts that can be
disassembled with universally available tools
*

25. IT as a Green Enabler
•We can reduce the environmental impact of
our ICT operations and
•We can use ICT to reduce the
environmental impact of our overall business
operations but
•An increased ICT footprint may be
necessary in order to reduce the overall
impact of business operations a.k.a. silicon
trading
*

26. Smart 2020
•Commissioned by the Climate Group
•Identified opportunities for ICT to achieve
energy efficiencies in
–Motor Systems
–Logistics
–Buildings
–Grids
*

27. Cloud Computing
•Various types
–Infrastructure as a service (IaaS) e.g.
Amazon’s Web Services
–Software as a Service (SaaS) e.g.
Salesforce.com
–File services e.g. Google Docs
•Services accessed via a browser
•What makes cloud computing greener?
*

28. Video Conferencing
•Research carried out by the WWF
highlighted that travel accounts for 50% of a
company’s carbon footprint
•An Australian study has estimated that
videoconferencing could avoid 2.4 million
tonnes of national CO2 emissions,
equivalent to 0.43% of the country’s total
*

29. Green Document Management
•Electronic document management systems
reduce paper use and significantly cut CO2
emissions
–during the manufacture of toner cartridges
–during the printing process
–whilst photocopying paper
•Electronic information is available anywhere
– removing the need to ship paper to people
*

30. Teleworking
•Reduction in heating, lighting etc at work
but increased usage at home
•Reduction in traveling by employees but
increases the amount of equipment
•Reduced or increased carbon footprint ?
*

31. *
Useful Reading
• M O’Neill, Green IT for Sustainable
Business Practice: An ISEB Foundation
Guide, British Informatics Society Ltd.,
2010
• C Baroudi et al., Green IT for Dummies,
Wiley, 2009
• T Velte et al., Green IT: Reduce Your
Information System’s Environmental
Impact While Adding to the Bottom Line,
McGraw Hill, 2008