Why A Framework?
Green ICT – sometimes called Green IT – is a much-discussed topic, in the ICT industry and beyond. The problem is, it means different things to different people. There are too many definitions, and not enough definition.
This lack of definition has made it difficult to measure the effectiveness or the extent of an organisation’s implementation of Green ICT. As the old saying goes, you can’t manage what you can’t measure. And you can’t measure what you can’t define.
To many people, Green ICT is only about reducing the energy consumption and carbon footprint of the ICT function within the organization. ICT is a significant consumer of electricity worldwide, on a par with the airline industry. Therefore it makes sense, as emission reduction becomes desirable and even mandatory, that ICT users should look at ways of reducing the energy consumption of their systems.
But there is more to Green ICT than that – which is why Green ICT is becoming an increasingly important issue. Green ICT goes beyond the ICT function and the ICT department – in many ways ICT, and Green ICT, is a central enabling technology to many aspects of sustainability. In very many cases ICT provides the measurement tool, the data repository, the reporting mechanism and the mitigation techniques that make sustainability possible.
Green ICT is becoming an important issue for many reasons. Data center power bills are soaring as electricity prices go up and new server technologies pack more and more processors, which consume more and more power, into less and less space. Water cooling is making a comeback to handle the heat dissipation issues. At the same time tough economic circumstances are putting a greater focus on running costs, and power consumption as a component of those costs is becoming more visible. Reporting requirements are becoming more stringent and there is an increased awareness across business and society of the unsustainability of many current consumption patterns.
ICT as a low-carbon enabler is an important component of the Green ICT Framework. It is not enough simply to reduce ICT’s carbon footprint – to make a real difference, ICT must be harnessed to greater purposes.
This process includes...
Equipment Lifecycle
This pillar covers the acquisition and procurement of ICT equipment, and disposal or recycling at the end of its lifecycle in an environmentally responsible fashion.
ICT equipment, like all other equipment, passes through a lifecycle. It is manufactured, sold (and for every sale there is a purchase), used and often reused, and then ultimately disposed of. That disposal may mean it is discarded or destroyed, but it may also be sold or given to another person or organization, where it has another lifecycle contained within its larger lifecycle.
End User Computing
End User Computing is that part of the ICT process which the end user controls. There are four areas – personal computing (desktop), personal computing (mobile), departmental computing, and printing and consumables. For each of these there are a range of different technologies and techniques that can reduce the organization’s power consumption and carbon footprint. End User Computing is especially important because, as the only part of ICT that exists outside of the specialized ICT function, it has the greatest effect on the wider green attitudes and behavior of the organisation’s workforce.
In many organizations, particularly larger ones, there is a significant amount of computing that takes place in end user departments away from the control of the ICT department.
Printing and Consumables
Printing is one of the largest consumers of resources in the IT function. There are a number of factors, of which the actual power consumption of printers is just one. Printers are very inefficient users of energy. They are usually left on, and consume significant amounts of energy even when idle. But there are many other factors which, while they do not directly affect the organization’s power consumption, have a significant effect on the environment.
Enterprise Computing
Enterprise Computing is that part of the ICT function controlled directly by the ICT department – typically the data center, networking, software development and outsourcing. In organizations large enough to have a data center, the effective management of the equipment within it and its environment can be one of the most important aspects of Green ICT.
Data Center ICT Equipment
The two most important types of ICT equipment in the data center include servers (including mainframes) and storage devices. Servers are usually the biggest consumers of power, and that power consumption continues to rise as more powerful processors are used inside them, and as the number of servers proliferates.
The average power consumption of a rack of servers has increased fivefold over the last ten years.
Data Center Environmentals
Quite apart from the ICT equipment in the data center, there is the issue of the data centre itself. The data centre’s non-ICT infrastructure can quite easily (and most often does) consume more power than the ICT equipment within it. There are three main aspects:
Networking and Communications
Communications – the “C” in ICT, plays a significant role in modern ICT. There are a number of green issues specifically to do with communications. These include:
Outsourcing and Cloud Computing
Outsourcing has been one of the big issues in ICT since the industry began, with computer bureaux, in the 1950s. The issues have evolved as the technology has evolved. Ultimately, all outsourcing is a make vs. buy decision. Is it more effective to make or do something yourself, or have someone else build it or do it for you? The equation keeps changing, depending on a number of factors.
In ICT, outsourcing discussions have traditionally centered around the issues of cost and capability. The cost argument usually runs along the lines of the outsourcer having economies of scale that are unavailable in-house, and the capability argument along the lines that the requisite skills are not available in-house.
The rise of sustainability as an issue has added a new dimension to the ICT outsourcing debate. Many facilities management companies are now highlighting their green credentials and building energy-efficient data centers that they say will enable users to lower their overall carbon footprint. That may well be the case, but the traditional make vs buy arguments still hold. One key issue with outsourcing, and one that is overlooked surprisingly often, is that of measurement. It is impossible to tell if outsourcing is a good deal or not financially if you don’t know the real cost of what is being outsourced. Similarly, you can’t tell if an outsourcer is going to reduce your carbon footprint if you don’t know what it is to start with.
Recent complication to the outsourcing debate is the emergence of cloud computing, where processing takes place in the “cloud” – somewhere on the Internet far from the user. Cloud computing is not necessarily outsourced, but it very often is – making the debate even more complex.
Software Architecture
Computer systems consist of software running on hardware. Indeed, it is often argued that the software is the system, and that the hardware is simply an enabling technology. Most discussion about Green ICT refer to hardware, but software is also a factor.
The software architecture often determines the hardware architecture, which in turn may have a significant effect on the amount or type of hardware used – with all the consequences of the energy consumption of those systems. The way software is developed and used is significant – code can be efficient, or it can be “bloatware”. Systems can be developed from scratch, adapted or borrowed (with “objects”) from other software, or purchased off-the-shelf. Each approach has consequences for energy consumption.
ICT as a Low-Carbon Enabler
It is generally agreed that ICT is responsible for around 2 percent of the world’s carbon emissions – mainly through the usage of electricity to run the hardware, much of which comes from carbon-emitting power stations. That means that even if the carbon footprint of the entire world’s ICT function was halved, overall emissions would fall by only 1 percent.
The real potential benefits of Green ICT are in using ICT as an enabling technology to help the organization, and the wider community, reduce its carbon emissions. That is covered by the fourth pillar of the Framework.
Governance and Compliance
Many organisations nowadays are conscious of the desirability of being a good corporate citizen. Increasingly, that means acting in a green and sustainable manner. Publicity about climate change and related issues has greatly raised the profile of sustainability, and virtually all organizations are attempting to boost their green credentials. In some cases they do it because they are forced to, in some cases it is a case of “greenwash” or paying only lip service to environmental matters. But in many cases the organization’s management sincerely wants to do the right thing.
There is now an increased awareness that, when it comes to the environment, everybody is a stakeholder, and that good corporate governance also includes good environmental management. Green ICT is in many ways a management and governance issue. I
Teleworking and Collaboration
The term “teleworking” covers a range of technologies and practices that have to do with working at a distance or working remotely. Varieties of teleworking include telecommuting, teleconferencing and videoconferencing, and telepresence (a form of high-resolution videoconferencing).
Collaboration tools and techniques enhance the capability of a group of people to work together. There are a great many ways to do this, but all of them entail being able to share documents an processes and information, making their business processes more efficient (see below) and reducing the need for physical contact. In that sense, collaboration is a teleworking, with all the benefits of that process.
Business Process Management
Business Process Management (BPM) is the process of improving the ways an organisation or an individual does things – making them more efficient, with fewer steps or greater effect. The term is used in both a specific and a general sense. The specific sense refers to a management discipline called BPM, which typically identifies five phases: Design, Modeling, Execution, Monitoring and Optimization. In the general sense, BPM refers to the overall process of managing and improving business processes. ICT has a major role to play in improving most business processes. It provides both the tools for modeling the processes and many of the enabling technologies for execution.
Business Applications
Most organisations run a number of ICT-based business applications. The range varies greatly depending on the industry sector, but typical applications include Financial Management Information Systems (FMIS), Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Supply Chain Management (SCM) and Customer Relationship Management (CRM). Many organizations also run more specialised or even custom applications specific to their industry, or to provide them with competitive advantage.
ICT is very important in each of these applications, which are essentially specialized business process management exercises. Managers seek greater efficiencies in every phase of every process. The fewer times and the shorter distance physical items have to be moved, the better. The fewer transactions that need to be made, the better.
Very small improvements can have a significant effect, because of the scale of the operation and because of flow-on effects further up (or down) the supply chain. Green ICT has a very important role in improving the efficiency of many industrial and commercial processes specific to individual industries, such as the manufacturing process, electricity distribution, and engineering and construction. Every industry has unique processes which can be made more efficient through the application of ICT – and efficiency means green.
Carbon Emissions Management
Carbon Emissions Management is an emerging discipline which focuses on the management – and ultimately the mitigation – of an organization’s carbon emissions. This includes the use of ICT systems specifically designed to reduce the carbon footprint, rather than doing so as a byproduct of greater efficiency. A key ICT application is Carbon Emissions Management Software (CEMS), which provide a compliant and consistent format for presenting greenhouse gas emission data to executive management and regulators
As the carbon emissions regulatory framework continues to evolve, CEMS is becoming an increasingly popular tool to manage the carbon emissions lifecycle. The market will continue to mature and will most likely consolidate around major technology vendors and a smaller group of niche or vertical industry players, and CEMS products will become a functional component within many organizations’ application portfolio. Envirability has researched the CEMS market, and written a major report on the background to CEMS and how to select and implement a product. See www.cemsus.com
Resource Sources:
[i] Williams, E, (2004) Energy Intensity of Computer Manufacturing - Environmental Science and Technology, 38, 2004. Iowa City. IA, USA ACS Publications
[ii] www.epeat.net
[iii] http://ewasteguide.info
[iv] Koomey, J.G. (2007) Estimating Total Power Consumption by Servers in the U.S. and the World Stanford CA, USA. Retrieved 13 January 2010 from
http://enterprise.amd.com/Downloads/svrpwrusecompletefinal.pdf
[v] Gantz, J. (2009), The Diverse and Expanding Digital Universe, Framingham MA, USA. IDC
[vi] www.corpgov.net
[vii] www.itgi.org
[viii] www.telework.gov
[ix] Philipson, G., Foster, P. and Brand, J. (2010) CEMS: A New Global Industry”, Sydney, Australia. Envirability.
Source:
Graham Philipson
Envirability
