Overview of Green ICT

BCS Academics Forum14 November 2008

Margaret Ross, Southampton Solent University, UK

Bob CrooksDEFRA

Why go Green...?– Climate Change => warming, disasters (fires and

floods), loss of biodiversity, less to go round more

– Population growth, 2000 to 2030 of 2.2billion, of which 2.0billion likely to be located in cities*

– 5 billion people consume 20% and 1 billion consume 80% (Ericsson)

=> we need 2.5 planets to bring everyone up to the US/EU levels of living

=> energy, food and resource costs will rise

=> “we have to do more with less” (Buckminster-Fuller)

*“World Urbanization Prospects: The 2001 Revision”, www.unpopulation.org

Greening the UK• UK government has a Kyoto target to reduce greenhouse

gases by 60% by 2050 (Climate Change Bill)

• UK annual CO2 emissions = 560 million tonnes of which => 22mtonnes from ICT => 4% and this is growing

• And ICT is an increasingly important contributor to Carbon emissions in the UK => the footprint for computer usage now exceeds that for the UK aircraft industry and growing business and domestic use of ICT

• Government is largest ICT spender in UK: some £14b per annum

The response ...pressure on UK government & industry

• UK Government’s sustainable procurement action plan identified computing as an area for urgent consideration.

• HMG Green ICT strategy includes – Carbon neutrality by 2012 for ICT in use– Carbon neutrality by 2020 across the ICT lifecycle– Things to do!

• Local Authorities required to indicate how they plan to contribute to the national energy saving target of 9% by 2017.

We need• Students and staff to

– understand the issues, be aware and skilled in tackling them, promote green behaviours

– use their own and Estab’s ICT in greener ways

• Educational establishments to see Green as– enhancing reputation and attraction for students – reducing costs (less Carbon = Less energy => less

cost)

• Courses to provide– Accreditation of Green skills and knowledge – Green dimensions

The end user...

• Knowledge/awareness

• Behaviour changes

Relate to Employee at Work and Home

Estimations produced before Christmas by the Carbon Trust which indicated

• failure to turn off equipment over the festive season cost UK businesses £6.2 million a day

• 550,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide will have been needlessly emitted into the atmosphere.

Www. Computing.co.uk/greencomputing

Relate to Employee at Work and Home

Survey by Logicalis indicated

• 85% of employees switch off their home PC when they have finished with it,

• only 66% turn off work machines after use

Www. Computing.co.uk/greencomputing

Energy-saving IT from Carbon Trust

• A computer left on 24/7 will cost about £37 a year, whereas by switching off at night and weekends, the charge can be reduced to about £10 a year - and save an equivalent amount of energy to make some 34,900 cups of coffee

• Lighting an office overnight wastes enough energy to heat water for 1,000 cups of tea

Energy-saving IT from Carbon Trust

• A typical window left open overnight in winter will waste enough energy to drive a small car for more than 35 miles

• A PC monitor switched off overnight saves enough energy to microwave six dinners

• Turning off all non essential equipment in an office for one night will save enough energy to run a small car for 100 miles

Energy-saving IT from Carbon Trust

• Monitors account for almost two-thirds of a computer's energy use

• Office equipment is the fastest-growing area of energy use, accounting for up to 20% of total energy use.

Www.Computing.co.uk/greencomputing

Raising Student Awareness

Identify suitable articles, such as from Computing and Computer Weekly, with brief description and web reference for further information, on the students' Virtual Learning Environment.

• Students asked to read these, and the follow-up web links

• In tutorials, a short quiz entitled “What's this all about"

• Student teams identify and expand on the particular situation, from relevant articles in the previous two weeks.

• Encourages a deeper understanding of the various topics, and keeps students' knowledge current

Associated Topics

Video and Tele conferencing • Initial face-to-face meetings,• Time zones, cultural issues• Reduced networking opportunities

Teleworking • Heating, lighting in individual home• Additional IT equipment• Reduced travel• Available room/security at home• Family life• Isolation and reduced networking

Assignments and Projects

Assessment:• Case history or evaluation of an organisation• Survey, eg of local SMEs• Audits• Learning Activities, eg multi-choice questions

Identifying for an organisation• Benefits and risks • “Road map” with priorities justified, • Budget, time scale • Business case

The organisation...

• A Champion?

• Knowledge/awareness

• Behaviour changes

The Journey to Effective Greening

• The first step on the journey is raising awareness at all levels.

• Its about technology and about behaviours

• Needs leadership => appoint a senior member as "champion" of the Greening Policies and Practices.

• Needs employee commitment => Expose the current consumption to win hearts and minds.

• Go for the blindingly obvious things now – don’t move deckchairs around!

The Journey to Effective Greening

=> Get a champion to...• Understand best practice from journals, latest

reports, many freely available from the Internet,

• Do the obvious things now, eg buy greener kit at

next refresh eg Energy Star rated (like Fridges)

• Get others to be aware of how to use IT to work and do business in greener ways.

=> Reduce Daily Consumptionturn it down or switch it off!

• Awareness sessions and posters to staff to switch off the lights when not required;

• Lights to automatically switch off when no movement within the room;

• Switching off computers, when not required, either by the users or automatically;

• Reduce default brightness settings on monitors

PC Pro Labs Survey of Desktop PC users - PC utilisation over 24 hours

Non-use Idle

Light use Medium

Heavy67%

10%

13%

5%5%

TURN IT OFF!...

Other ideas for tackling your PC/laptop footprint (from HMG Green ICT strategy list of Practical Actions)

Remove active screensavers – a monitor uses the same power to run a screen saver as to run a working Windows display

Procure monitors with standby settings and use them!

Enable active power management on PCs and Laptops (standby / hibernate after a defined period of inactivity)

Specify low-power consumption CPUs and high-efficiency Power Supply Units (80% conversion or better)

Use appropriate technology for your ways of working eg Thin Client for desk-based work, laptop to enable flexible working

And.. other office devices (from HMG Green ICT strategy list of Practical Actions)

• Apply timer switches to non-networked technology and printers

• Set default green printing including duplex and grey scale

• Optimise power-saving sleep mode on printers

• Share printers

• Share other devices eg comms devices, faxes, servers

=> Take Less from the Environment

• Use recycled paper;

• Use recycled print cartridges;

• Set printers for double-sided or side by side (or both!) printing as the default option;

• Or even consider...Why print?

19%

81% 100%

Manufactureof equipment

3 yearsusage

Life-cycle energy consumption for a typical office PC and screen* over 3 years, (100% = 7,900 MJ)

MANUFACTURE OF PC ACCOUNTS FOR ~80% OF THE TOTAL ENERGY USED IN A 3 YEAR LIFE-CYCLE

• Extension of usable lifespan rather than immediate recycling of components

• Extending the life of a 3 year-old PC by 2 years would reduce the annual average energy use over the lifetime of the PC by approximately 30%

• Nevertheless ensure that the recipients recycle systems appropriately at end-of-life

• Excludes disposal costs

*NB Screen used in this analysis was CRT;

Source:Eric Williams (UN University, Tokyo) 2005; team analysis 23

Total

Build Ist PC and monitor

Use first PC (3yrs)

Build 2nd PC

EXTENDING PC LIFE BY 2 YEARS REDUCES AVERAGE LIFE-CYCLE ENERGY CONSUMPTION PER YEAR BY AROUND 30%

• Replacing a PC after 3 years will require a total of 15,300 MJ of energy in manufacture and use over 5 years

• Using the same PC for the full 5 years will require a total of 8,900 MJ in manufacture and use over 5 years

• Extending the lifetime of a PC reduces the total life-cycle energy consumption by around 30% per year over the 5 years

24

Use 2nd PC (2 years)

Desktop PC replaced after 3 years, MJ

15,300

1,000

1,500

6,400

6,400

Manufactureof first PC and monitor

Use of first PC

Refurbish first PC

Use of refurbished first PC

Desktop PC used for 5 years (refurbished after 3 years), MJ

8,900

1,000

1,500

6,400

0

*Screen used in analysis was CRT; use of LCD reduces in-use energy consumption, increases manufacturing energy consumption

Source:Fraunhofer Institute; Eric Williams et. al. (Tokyo) 2005; team analysis

=> Take Less from the Environment• Upgrade rather than replace

• Check "Green" rating of all purchases (EPEAT, Energy Star, ECMA ...);

• Government ‘Quick Wins’ criteria

• Make the case for carbon : buy video/tele conferencing - save travel;

• Assess value of investment in energy terms as well as business function

=> Use ICT to Attack the 98%

• Reduce paper and presence, increase use of ICT

• Electronic meetings – video and tele conf’cing, webinars

• Encourage smarter working

– Team and course sites – Access anytime anywhere

• And in the office/workspace

– Utilise the concept of "hot rooming" to reduce the heating and lighting to a limited area, outside normal working hours

– Improve the physical security so staff feel able to start and work later, so maybe reduce overall space required to house everyone at a peak time

•

=> Dispose Carefully

Effect on firms of WEEE:

• Must maintain asset register

• Contracts (new for old products)

• Care in disposal eg hazardous substances in CRT and plasma screens

=> Dispose Carefully• Providing separate bins for staff to separate their

waste for re-cycling;

• Re-cycle replaced but working equipment, eg gifts to employees or for refurbishment to local or overseas schools;

• Deletion of data when going to charity/staff

• Ethical aspects - immediate and

also long-term (benefit to offshore charities - long-term problem disposal at end of life)

And if you have servers or use a small data centre... what you may not know is that...=> one server requires same amount of power to cool it as to run it!=> servers can run at higher temperatures than assumed=> servers are typically only loaded to 30 or 40% of capacity

• Server Optimisation • Storage virtualisation & capacity management• Convert existing physical servers to “virtual servers” • Turn off servers outside their service level agreement, • Create “virtual servers” instead of procuring physical new servers. • Implement a multi-tiered storage solution

• Reduce cooling in the data centre, turn up the temperature!

• Remove unused capacity (servers and data disks)

• Specify power conversion efficient Power Supply Units

• Ensure re-use of equipment

• Carry out a Data centre audit eg to ensure no unused devices, best use of space, best positioning for cooling

Data Centre Power Utilisation

Power &Cooling

IT Load

Power utilisation by a server

Powersupply,fans,

Processor

Data Centre Utilisation

Server utilisation

45%

30%

20%

Source: Computacentre

Data Centre Utilisation

Server utilisation

Processor utilisation

=> 55% into power and cooling

=> 40% into supply/fans..

=> 2% into active processor

The Data Centre...

31

DATA CENTRE RATIONALISATION PROJECTS CAN ACHIEVE ENERGY COST SAVINGS OF 50% TO 80%

Source:Team analysis; HP; IBM; Uptime Institute; Rocky Mountain Institute; AMD; US OMB (Congress); US EPA; LBNL; interviews

• Multiple legacy data centres

• Large number of servers with low utilisation/server

• Inefficient legacy servers without power management

• Machines still running after services have been retired

• Small number of modern data centres

• Small number of servers with high utilisation per server

• Highly efficient servers with active power management.

• All “mystery machines” identified and retired or re-used

From To

Typical data centre rationalisation

• Reduce maintenance charges and energy costs from suppliers by turning off unused servers (“mystery machines”)

• Reduce maintenance charges and energy costs from suppliers by reducing total number of active servers through consolidation

• Reduce greenhouse gas emissions by reducing energy consumption directly (fewer servers) and indirectly (less cooling)

Original level of energy usage

New level ofenergy usage

Switch offunused servers

Virtualise servers

Consolidateservices

100% oforiginalenergyusage

5% to 15%of original

usage

5% to 15%of updated

usage

40% to 70%of updated

usage

22% to 54%of original

usage

46-78%reduction

Future Issues• How are you going to measure progress, account for

your Greening IT actions?

• Possible need for external auditing of “Greenness"

• Possible new Green accreditation for orgs and business processes with need for trained "Green" advisors/Champions.

• Enabling managers to provide suitably qualified employees, capable of ensuring the "Greenness" of Org’s products and services.

Conclusions• Best practice evolving at a fast pace, need to invest

in keeping up to date

• Given energy price issues and ability to use IT as a tool to effect gains elsewhere the business case can now be made for Green IT.

• There are some things you can and should do now

And the Curriculum...

• BCS initiatives– ISEB module– SME awareness– Branch forum/mash ups

• Evolving – need your feedback!

OperatingIT deviceProduction DisposalRe-use

Heat

Power

The whole lifecycle ?

OperatingIT deviceProduction DisposalRe-use

Heat

Power

The whole lifecycle ?

Power

Materials

Waste

Transport

Packaging

RoHSReg

Power

Energy suppliers Equipment behaviours

Air Conditioning Equipment cooling

NGOsCharitiesSilver surfers

RecycleReclaim

Recycle

Burn, landfill..

WEEEregs

OperatingIT deviceProduction

Disposal

Re-useRecycleReclaim

Heat

Power

The whole lifecycle ?

Power

Materials

Waste

Transport

Packaging

RoHSReg

Power

Energy suppliers Equipment behaviours

Air Conditioning Equipment cooling

NGOsCharitiesSilver surfers Recycle

Burn, landfill..

WEEEregs

The Greening Grid...

Activities/assets/products

• Technologies• Services• Carbon• Procurement• Operations• Products and Services

Context

• Metrics• Legal• Economics• Environment • Social/ethics• People

Vs

ICT Technologies(personal, peripheral, comms, server)

ICT Services(deskside, virtualisation)

Carbon emissions

Procurement Business operations

Business Products and Services

Metrics/Information

Energy efficiencies, footprint calcs, coeffs/conversion factors

Green Costing , end to end

Valuing emissions

Carbon/energy accounting

Footprint calcs, env audits, EMI

Footprint calcs

Regs/Standards/ Int Agreements

Regs (EU CoC, WEEE)Standards (ISOs, BSIs)

BSI PAS 2050 Off-setting Gov /OGC /EU,Disposal WEEE etcStandards:EPEAT, ECMA

Targets (Kyoto, EU, UK Gov..), Quality stds, Reporting

Regs (EU CoC, WEEE)Standards (ISOs, BSIs)

Economics TCO, lifecycle green costing Green Costing , end to end

Carbon market mechanisms, cap and trade

Valuing greener purchases, move from assets to services?

Energy accounting/ Carbon accounting

Carbon neutrality?

Environment Manufacture, in use, disposal impacts, packaging,

How to deliver in green ways, transport, property impacts

Market valuing - assessment of env impacts?

Lifecycle impacts, valuing the embedded, replacement/upgrade/extension

Green buildings, power supply, water

Visibility

Social/ethics Org/personal boundaries Scope of footprints,

Self-service, servicing mobile and home working

Out-source/off-shore carbon reductions

Developing country impacts, off-shoring options assessments

CSR, community exchanges

Green washing

People How they use kit,What they use kit to doMeetingsPsychological impacts, work/life balance

Choice of service delivery (push/pull?)Deviceless Clouds ...

Personal carbon accounting models

Behaviour change value greener ways of working equipping, 2nd life for training

Corporate and staff behaviours influence customers and Jo Public

Useful Web Sites• Carbon Trust, www.carbontrust.co.uk

• Energy Star, www.energystar.gov

• Computing, www.Computing.co.uk/greencomputing

• Defra, www.defra.gov.uk

• Energy Saving Trust, www.energysavingtrust.org.uk

• NetRegs, www.netregs.gov.uk