Open Source World Conference 2012, OSWC Granada

1. Giovanna Sissa
Green ICT, sustainability and Open
Source
OSWC 2012, Granada
1

2. Environmental impact of ICT
EFFECTS IMPACT
First Order Small
Second Order Significant
Third Order
Very big
2

3. First order effects
Caused by ICT
infrastructure and
equipment
• Negative
• Ex:
– resource consumption:
• materials and energy‐ in
production phase,
• energy consumption in use
phase
– disposal (e‐waste)

4. ICT(Information Communication Technology)
Carbon footprint 2007

5. ICT carbon footprint
• Water, materials and
energy consumption in
production pahes
• Energy consumption in
use phase
• End‐of life(e‐waste)

6. ICT energy consumption: some figures
• A data centre with 1000 servers will use enough
electricity in a single month to power 16,800 homes for
a year**
• More than six million PCs were left on over Christmas
2006, consuming nearly 40 million kWh of electricity –
enough to cook 30 million Turkeys***
* Source: An Inefficient truth
**Source: Forrester Research
***Source: National Energy Foundation and Infosource

7. Energy consumption and CO2 emissions
1 Kg of CO2 = 0.537 KWh
• The conversion factor is 0.537 for the UK in
2009. It changes every year (and for Region)
* Source: Green ICT handbook

8. ICT sector CO2 emissions: some figures
• Each PC in use generates about a ton of carbon dioxide every year*
• It is estimated that a medium‐sized server has roughly the same
annual carbon footprint as a SUV vehicle doing 15 miles per gallon,
covering 15,000 km*
• By turning off just one computer overnight we can save 235kg of
CO2 in a year**
• Over the whole estate the potential is enormous – turning off every
500,000 computers at night would have the same effect as taking
40,000 cars off the road
*Source: Murugesan, 2008
**source: Greening Government ICT , UK Cabinet Officer

10. e‐waste
• E‐waste is now the fastest growing component of
the municipal solid waste stream: mobile phones
and computers are causing the biggest problem
because they are replaced most often
• In Europe e‐waste is increasing at 3%‐5% a year,
almost three times faster than the total waste
stream
• Developing countries are also expected to triple
their e‐waste production over the next five years

11. Green IT
• Designing, manufacturing, using, and disposing of
computers, servers, and associated subsystems ‐ efficiently
and effectively with minimal or no impact on the
environment
• Green ICT benefits the environment by improving energy
efficiency, lowering greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions,
using less harmful materials, and encouraging reuse and
recycling
• Green design, green manufacturing, green use, green
disposal are complementary paths of green ICT
• IT greener throughout its entire lifecycle
11

12. Data Center energy lost
• Commonly, servers are underutilized, yet they
consume almost the same amount of energy as
though they were running at 100%. A typical
server utilization rate is 20%
• Underutilized systems can be a big issue because
a lot of energy is expended on non‐business
purposes, thus wasting a major investment*
Source: ”The Green Data Center: Steps for the Journey”, IBM Redpaper, August
2008

13. 27 Watt of power spent for 1 Watt used for computation*
Source: ”The Green Data Center: Steps for the Journey”, IBM Redpaper, August
13
2008

14. The role of software in greening ICT
• While many have looked to hardware and power
systems as part of these solutions, it is becoming
increasingly recognized that software is also a key part
in the role of the ICT sector
• Software improvement on data architecture or
database feature leads to dramatic reduction in energy
consumption, pinpointing the importance to operate
at the base of the cause‐effect chain
• CO2 emissions relay also on a big amount of
elementary operations. Improving the efficiency of
elementary operations that are made on a huge
amount of data can lead to significant energy saving
14

15. Software for a green IT
• Virtualisation
• Greening data center
• Efficient software
• Thin client
• Reuse
• Green data cloud (virtual desktop, Software as
a Service)

16. Green ICT Recommendations and
open source role

17. Green ICT recommendations
For software developers
Avoid Software Induced Hardware Obsolesce
(SIHO)
As a software developer you should be aware that
relying on the availability of cheap hardware capacity
on the user’s side is ecologically expensive, because it
boots hardware flow

18. Green ICT recommendations
For all (individuals, organizations..)
Extend the service life of your ICT hardware to an
extreme
Each month or year of additional service saves
considerable amounts of energy and scarce materials
Use thin client solutions
They may save 50% of the energy in the use phase
Obsolete computer can be reused as thin client
Virtualize resources

19. Open source for a Green IT
• More flexibility, more configuration
possibilities
• Easier to find the right software configuration
for every kind of hardware systems
• A computer running Open source operating
system and applications can have a significant
longer working life

20. Open source for a Green IT
Open source allows a greater computational
efficiency, leading to less energy
consumption
Open source allows to increase lifespan of
hardware, leading to reduce e‐waste

21. Green ICT: Trends and Challenges
UPGRADE, Volume 2011 ISSUE IV
Edited by:
J.C. Lopez,G. Sissa, L. Natvig
• Utility Computing: Green
Opportunities and Risks by
Giovanna Sissa
• Green ICT: The Information
Society’s Commitment for
Environmental
Sustainability
21

22. TIC verdes: Tendencias y retos
NOVATICA, n. 213
22

23. giovanna.sissa@unimi.it
23