Sustainability and Computing
&
Computing and Sustainability
Khurshid Ahmad,
Professor of Computer Science,
Department of Computer Science
Trinity College,
Dublin-2, IRELAND
October 29th , 2009.
https://www.cs.tcd.ie/Khurshid.Ahmad/Teaching/Teaching.html1
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Sustainability and Computing
You all must have heard about environmental campaigns –
waste less, conserve more; the resources of this planet are
finite; sustainable solutions are reuqired everywhere; and,
you must have heard of green energy, green movement, and
perhaps you would like to add another new terms to your
vocabulary: green computing and e-waste.
What could this possibly mean: well, the use of computers
is critical to our well being, enjoyment, and
communications. However, computers consume energy
and are made up of some of the very rare elements, a few
toxins.
http://www.sustainablecities.org.uk/
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Sustainability and Computing
But what do
people do
when they talk
about
sustainability?
They talk
about our
physical
environment
which does not
usually include
the ITC
infrastructure
http://www.sustainablecities.org.uk/
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Sustainability and Computing
But what do people do when they
talk about sustainability?
They talk about our physical
environment which does not usually
include the ITC infrastructure.
However there are
exceptions – including
new initiatives from
China where the IT
infrastructure is
considered on a par
with the physical
environment
http://www.efchina.org/FProgram.do?act=list&type=Programs&subType=8
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Sustainability and Computing
The project theme for this year is How Engineers
can Improve Health and Well Being.
The key to this improvement is that a city which
is sustainable – sustainable in a way in which it
provides a good standard of living for its citizens
without harming the external environment. The
external environment is everything else: other
people, the physical environment, .....
http://www.efchina.org/FProgram.do?act=list&type=Programs&subType=8
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Sustainability and Computing
In the next few slides, I will
outline the scope of these
lectures by defining some key
terms like sustainable cities,
green computing, e-waste,
planning and visualisation.
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Sustainability and Computing
These definitions will help
you in seeing how computers
can help with sustainability
and how computers can pose
threat to the sustainability
which they are deployed to
preserve.
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Sustainability and Computing
sustainable city n. Town Planning and Ecol. a city
designed or landscaped in such a way as to ensure the
continued conservation of natural resources and the
surrounding natural environment while providing the
economic base needed to support its inhabitants.
sustainable development n. (a) Econ. economic
development which can be sustained in the long term; (b)
Ecol. utilization and development of natural resources in
ways which are compatible with the maintenance of these
resources, and with the conservation of the environment,
for future generations.
http://dictionary.oed.com/cgi/entry/50243648/50243648se1?single=1&query_type=word&queryword=sustainability&first=1&
max_to_show=10&hilite=50243648se1
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Sustainability and Computing
COMPUTING: The action or an instance of calculating or
counting
COMPUTING: The action or practice of using computers,
esp. as a professional or expert; the activity or operation
of an electronic computer
computing power n. the ability to undertake or be used for
computation; computing resources; spec. the ability of a
computer to perform work, often considered in terms of the
number of instructions that can be carried out in a given time,
or with reference to the amount of random access memory
present.
http://dictionary.oed.com/cgi/entry/50243648/50243648se1?single=1&query_type=word&queryword=sustainability&first=1&
max_to_show=10&hilite=50243648se1
9
Computing?
You are never far away from a computer system/programs
You work
Payroll, pensions, office systems
Your safety
CCTV systems, biometrics, swipe cards
Your health
NHS Direct, healthcare systems
Your survival
You acquire things
You move
You communicate
You ‘leisure’
You learn
You are informed
You fight
You are threatened
Energy systems, water systems, sewer systems, logistic systems
Point-of-sale terminals, credit/debit card payments, supply chains
Traffic control systems, engine management systems
Mobile phones, e-mail
Holiday bookings, entertainment systems
Digital libraries, on-line training
Printing and publishing systems; On-line media
Command & control systems
Web-sites, e-mails, scams
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Computing and Sustainability
The upside of the story is this: we can plan and visualise
a sustainable city using powerful computers which will
recoup all the expenditure of energy, water and material
resources many times over!
Computers can be used to provide information for us to
change our behaviour – upto date information provided
when-we-want it, with all the multi-media garnishing of
images and sounds.
The key to a sustainable city is the ability for all the
shareholders to exchange information about their
environment in time and at the right place.
http://www.sustainablecities.org.uk/
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Sustainability and Computing
I have five lectures and I will focus on the role of Information
and Communication Technologies in planning and sustaining
a sustainable city. MY emphasis will be on the problems
solved and problems created by the use of computing power.
I hope you will listen to what I have to say and a number
of you will have to do a project on the role of computing
power in a sustainable city. By the fifth lecture, I hope
my role and your role will be more clearer than it is now.
http://dictionary.oed.com/cgi/entry/50243648/50243648se1?single=1&query_type=word&queryword=sustainability&first=1&
max_to_show=10&hilite=50243648se1
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Alan Turing and his Legacy
ALAN MATHISON TURING
(born London,
23 June 1912, died Manchester, 7 June 1954)
Mathematician, cryptanalyst,
pioneering theoretical computer
scientist and first of the
computer professionals, amongst
the founders of computational
biology. And an amateur athlete
(Walton Athletic Club, Surrey).
All in a brief life of 41
years, 11 months and
approximately 15 days.
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Computing Today
P
E
R
F
O
R
M
A
N
C
E
2100
2100
2100
2100
2100
2100
2100
2100
2100
Administrative Barriers
•Individual
•Group
•Department
•Campus
•State
•National
•Globe
•Inter Planet
•Universe
Q
o
S
Personal Device
SMPs or
SuperComputers
Local
Cluster
Enterprise
Cluster/Grid
Global
Grid
Source:
www.gridbus.org
+
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Computing Today
Ubiquitous computing (ubicomp) help in processing
information that has been thoroughly integrated
into everyday objects and activities. In the course of
ordinary activities, someone "using" ubiquitous
computing engages many computational devices
and systems simultaneously, and may not
necessarily even be aware that they are doing so.
The everyday objects and activities all have an
impact on questions of sustenance, pleasure and
sustainability
15
Source:
www.gridbus.org
Computing Today
Context-aware computing refers to a general
class of mobile systems that can sense their
physical environment, i.e., their context of use,
and adapt their behavior accordingly. Such
systems are a component of a ubiquitous
computing or pervasive computing environment.
Three important aspects of context are: (1)
where you are; (2) who you are with; and (3)
what resources are nearby.
16
Source:
www.gridbus.org
Sustainability and Computing
Since you only believe in things which exist on the YouTube,
here is the evidence provided by the Climate Savers
Computing Initiative on the address below
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uophCzammQ4
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Computing and Sustainability
Sustainability is dependent upon the ability of the
stakeholders to operate without fear of undue
interference. So in the olden days, cities were protected
by forts and walls, now we have cyber security.
If the service providers are ‘attacked’ successfully in one
form or another then the ‘services’ are ‘disrupted’ – we
have ‘denial of service’ through viral attacks, worm
onslaughts and so forth.
A sustainable city has to be secure from cyber attacks.
http://www.sustainablecities.org.uk/
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Computing and Sustainability
•A sustainable city can use computing power
to defend itself from natural and human-made
calamities.
•But computing power can be used unleash
calamities as well. A sustainable city will
have to have its city-wide firewall; its
guardian worms burrowing deeply into a
potential ‘enemy’s territory.
•This will be in contrast to today’s piece meal
effort towards computer security
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Sustainability and Computing
The key to sustainability is the efficient use of resources
and the safe disposal of obsolescent material – a kind of
end of life (EoL) planning.
So a sustainable city will need lots of TLC and much can
be provided by a well-thought out EoL.
In 2005, used or unwanted electronics
amounted to approximately 1.9 to 2.2 million
tons. Of that, about 1.5 to 1.8 million tons were
primarily disposed in landfills, and only 345,000
to 379,000 tons were recycled.
http://www.sustainablecities.org.uk/
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Sustainability and Computing
Planning a sustainable city requires the input from and an output to
a number of different stakeholders: the factory owner, the nearby
residents, people seeking employment, health and social welfare data.
Then there are geographical information systems, Google watch, and
traffic monitoring systems
Each data set is in a SILO – guarded by one stakeholder (holder),
stored according to their needs and accessible usually only by them.
The data is multi-dimensional and multi-faceted and it has to be
VISUALISED so one can see what is going on.
Does the City of Dublin has facilities for this
multi-dimensional view?
http://www.infra.kth.se/GIS/research/projects/ViSuCity/index.php
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Sustainability and Computing
Sustainable city is well nigh impossible without (massive)
computing power;
(Massive) computing power requires precious resources from
the city and is always hungry for energy and thirsty for water;
Computing controls pollution and conserves waste but the
production and operation of computers creates pollution and
waste;
What are the plans for the City of Dublin to maintain the
balance between the effective use of computing power in
pursuit of a SUSTAINABLE DUBLIN?
http://dictionary.oed.com/cgi/entry/50243648/50243648se1?single=1&query_type=word&queryword=sustainability&first=1&
max_to_show=10&hilite=50243648se1
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Sustainability and Computing
A United Nations University study into the
environmental impact of personal computers,
[..], has found that around 1.8 tons of raw
material are required to manufacture the
average desktop PC and monitor and that
extending a machine's operational life through
re-use holds a much greater potential for
energy saving than recycling.
http://www.infoworld.com/t/hardware/un-study-think-upgrade-buying-new-pc-601
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Sustainability and Computing
According to the UN University study, the
manufacturing of one desktop computer and 17inch CRT (cathode ray tube) monitor requires at
least
240
22
1,500
kgs. of fossil fuels,
kgs. of chemicals and
kgs. of water.
In terms of weight, the total amount of materials
used is about equal to that of a mid-size car.
http://www.infoworld.com/t/hardware/un-study-think-upgrade-buying-new-pc-601
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Sustainability and Computing
A United Nations University study into the
environmental impact of personal computers,
[..], has found that around 1.8 tons of raw
material are required to manufacture the
average desktop PC and monitor and that
extending a machine's operational life through
re-use holds a much greater potential for
energy saving than recycling.
According to the study, the manufacturing of
one desktop computer and 17-inch CRT
(cathode ray tube) monitor requires at least
240 kilograms of fossil fuels, 22 kilograms of
chemicals and 1,500 kilograms of water. In
terms of weight, the total amount of materials
used is about equal to that of a mid-size car.
What are the Endof-life plans of the
City of Dublin, and
indeed Trinity
College, Dublin,
for disposing off
their computer
equipment
http://www.infoworld.com/t/hardware/un-study-think-upgrade-buying-new-pc-601
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Sustainability and Computing
So when you start a search for a film, on the Internet, you
would like to see with your friends today – this simple act
will increase your carbon footprint by 1 kilo-joule.
You txt your friend that you have found a film, and this will
require a few litres of fresh water to be cool the servers used
by your mobile phone company;
And the shiny new laptop you have been given as a present
when you joined Trinity by the Bank of Mum & Dad, was
made by processing tonnes of materials and that involved
giga joules of energy and mega litres of water!
http://www.sustainablecities.org.uk/
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Sustainability and Computing
Activity
Average Google query consumes
CO2 emissions of an average daily newspaper (100%
recycled paper)
Energy
Consumption
(kilo-joule)
1
A five mile trip in the average U.S. automobile
850
1050
5100
10000
A cheeseburger
15000
A glass of orange juice
One load of dishes in an Energy Star dishwasher
Electricity consumed by the average US household in one
month
http://www.google.com/corporate/green/datacenters/
3,100,000
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Sustainability and Computing
The joule (symbol J), named for James
Prescott Joule, is the derived unit of energy in
the International System of Units. It is the
energy exerted by a force of one Newton
acting to move an object through a distance of
one metre.
1 kilowatt hour = 3.6×106 J (or 3.6 MJ)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joule
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Sustainability and Computing
One joule in everyday life is approximately:
•the energy required to lift a small apple one meter straight up.
•the energy released when that same apple falls one meter to
the ground.
•the energy released as heat by a person at rest, every hundredth of a
second.
•the energy required to heat one gram of dry, cool air by 1
degree Celsius.
•one hundredth of the energy received by drinking a drop of beer.
•the kinetic energy of an adult moving at a speed of about a
hand-span every second.
•the kinetic energy of a tennis ball moving at 23 km/h (14 mph).
http://www.climatesaverscomputing.org/learn/saving-energy-at-home/
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Sustainability and Computing
•One nanojoule is about 1/160th of the kinetic energy of a
flying mosquito.[3]
•The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is expected to produce
collisions on the order of 1 microjoule (7 Tev) per particle.
•One kilojoule is about the amount of solar radiation received
by one square metre of the Earth in one second.
•The kinetic energy of a one tonne vehicle moving at 160 km/h
is one mega joule.
•The gigajoule (GJ) is equal to one billion joules. 6 gigajoules
is about the amount of chemical energy in a standard barrel of
oil.
•About 60 terajoules were released by the bomb that exploded
over Hiroshima.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joule
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Sustainability and Computing
Using power management features on your
computer can save more than 600 KWh of
electricity and more than $60 a year in energy
costs. That equates to nearly half a ton of CO2 –
more than lowering your home thermostat by
two degrees Fahrenheit in the winter or
replacing six standard light bulbs with compact
fluorescents.
http://www.climatesaverscomputing.org/learn/saving-energy-at-home/
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Sustainability and Computing
Eco-friendly computing
A typical PC takes 110 watts to run,
and there are almost a billion of
them on the planet. And according
to the Silicon Valley Toxics
Commission, e-waste is the fastest
growing part of the waste stream.
http://ncomputing.com/GreenComputing/Greencomputing.aspx
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Sustainability and Computing
The limits to growth
Today's PCs are so powerful that we no
longer need one for each person. We can
tap into the excess power in one PC and
share it with many users. Some of the
newer systems uses just 1 to 5 watts, lasts
for a decade, and generates just a few
ounces of e-waste.
33
http://ncomputing.com/GreenComputing/Greencomputing.aspx
Sustainability and Computing
http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats.htm
The Internet keeps growing and growing and growing
Population
REGION
Internet Users
Penetration
Growth
Internet
Users
(Est. 2009, 100 M)
31/12/2000 (100 M)
17/08/2009
(100 M)
% 2009 Population
Year 2000 as
base
% 2009
Population
(a)
(b)
(c)
(d)=
(c)/(a)
(e)=
(c-b)/(c)
(f)=
(c)/WORLD
North America
3.41
1.08
2.52
73.9%
1.3
15.1%
Oceania/Australia
0.35
0.08
0.21
60.1%
1.7
1.2%
Europe
8.04
1.05
4.02
50.1%
2.8
24.1%
Latin Am/Carib.
5.87
0.18
1.76
30.0%
8.7
10.5%
Middle East
2.03
0.03
0.48
23.7%
13.6
2.9%
38.08
1.14
7.04
18.5%
5.2
42.2%
9.91
0.05
0.66
6.7%
13.6
3.9%
67.68
3.61
16.69
24.7%
3.6
Asia
Africa
WORLD
100.0%34
Sustainability and Computing
Some 8 Billion KGs of computing products have been
produced since 1980.
Only recently between 15-20% of the products are
recycled/reused: of the 550 million or so desktops sold
between 1980-2007, only 206 M are still in use, 66 M
have been put in storage, and 278 have been ‘collected’
for End-of-Life (EoL) management. Optimistic
estimates suggest that about half of the 278M in EoL,
more than ½ will be treated as solid waste and perhaps
other ½ will be recycled – c. 140 M units.
http://www.sustainablecities.org.uk/
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Sustainability and Computing
The building and rebuilding
of our cities in "smart"
sustainable form […] is an
essential task, and a massive
one that has the potential to
generate a long-term
economic boom.
As with the Internet, the
revolution will not result from
a single technology, but from
the timely convergence of
multiple streams of
technological development.
William Mitchell (2008), Professor of Architecture and Media Arts
http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2008/hope-mitchell-0521.html
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Sustainability and Computing
One part of it will be the replacement of the clunky,
inefficient, dangerous gasoline-powered automobile
with personal mobility systems based upon fleets of
lightweight, "smart," wirelessly networked electric
vehicles.
A second part will be the emergence of clean, efficient,
geographically distributed systems for electricity
generation, storage and distribution.
A third part will be the embedding of networking
capability and intelligence in buildings and products of
all kinds. And finally, ubiquitous networking will--like
a nervous system--tie all this together so that cities
respond, like intelligent organisms, to dynamic changes
in their environments and the needs of their inhabitants.
http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2008/hope-mitchell-0521.html
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Sustainability and Computing
Environmental sustainability
involves efforts such as
monitoring the state of the
physical world; managing the
direct and indirect impacts of
large-scale human enterprises
such as agriculture, transport,
and manufacturing; and
informing individuals’ personal
choices in consumption and
behavior.
http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.elib.tcd.ie/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=4736473&isnumber=4736465
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Sustainability and Computing
The computer and telecommunication
companies are worried about the
environmental impact of their technology and
here are key US players giving their views on
air to the US-based National Broadcasting
Corporation - NBC
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pJD2Fko3TeU&feature
=PlayList&p=0A30234EEDD68809&index=0&playnext=1
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Sustainability and Computing
And the energy prices are not what they used to be!!
So how many rooms there
are in Trinity College that
have their screen savers ON
all day and all night,
spending kilo-joule here and
kilo-joule there almost
every minute of the day.
The work in these rooms
perhaps will save the planet
eventually, but we should
switch when we switch off!
SEI Report on Understanding Electricity & Gas Prices in Ireland 2008 REPORT/
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Sustainability and Computing
And the energy prices are not what they used to be!!
SEI Report on Understanding Electricity & Gas Prices in Ireland 2008 REPORT/
41
Sustainability and Computing
And the energy prices are not what they used to be!!
According to the EU Statistical
Office the price of energy paid by
household consumers was €14 per
100 kilo-watt hour . However, the
price of energy paid by EU’s
industrial consumers is on average
was € per 100 kilo-watt hour
Eurostat (2008), Electricity Prices for second semester 2007,
http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/cache/ITY_OFFPUB/KSQA-08-023/EN/KS-QA-08-023-EN.PDF
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Sustainability and Computing
The Irish Electricity Consumption and Prices
•Electricity prices to industrial and commercial customers in
Ireland [for 2007] were above average - ranging from 3% to
52% above the EU average electricity prices.
•The higher electricity prices in Ireland are due in part to the
high proportion of electricity generated by gas and oil (60%
compared with 24% on average for OECD Europe).
•Gas prices in Europe increased on average by 35% between
2005 and 2006 and a further 12% in 2007. Oil prices doubled
between July 2007 and July 2008.
http://www.sei.ie/Publications/Statistics_Publications/EPSSU_Publications/Understanding_Electricity_and_Gas_Prices/Understanding%20Electricity%20and%20Gas%20Prices.pdf
43
Sustainability and Computing
And the energy prices are not what they used to be!!
Industrial Consumers paying the most in the EU
Country
Price
Price + Tax
in € per kilo Watt-hour
Italy
11.6
14.6
Cyprus
13.7
13.9
Ireland
12.4
12.4
Malta
12.2
12.2
Hungary
10.0
11.3
United Kingdom
10.3
10.8
EU Average
Eurostat (2008), Electricity Prices for second semester 2007,
http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/cache/ITY_OFFPUB/KSQA-08-023/EN/KS-QA-08-023-EN.PDF
9
44
Sustainability and Computing
And the energy prices are not what they used to be!!
Household Consumers paying the most in the EU
Country
Price
Price + Tax
in € per kilo Watt-hour
Denmark
10.3
24.0
Italy
16.7
23.8
Germany
12.8
21.1
Ireland
16.9
19.2
Netherlands
13.0
18.0
Belgium
12.9
16.8
EU Average
Eurostat (2008), Electricity Prices for second semester 2007,
http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/cache/ITY_OFFPUB/KSQA-08-023/EN/KS-QA-08-023-EN.PDF
14
45
Sustainability and Computing
And the energy prices are not what they used to be!!
Industrial Consumers paying the least in the EU
Price
Price + Tax
Latvia
Finland
France
Bulgaria
Estonia
EU Average
in € per kilo Watt-hour
5.9
5.6
5.2
5.6
5.2
Eurostat (2008), Electricity Prices for second semester 2007,
http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/cache/ITY_OFFPUB/KSQA-08-023/EN/KS-QA-08-023-EN.PDF
5.9
5.9
5.8
5.7
5.3
9
46
Sustainability and Computing
And the energy prices are not what they used to be!!
Household Consumers paying the least in the EU
Price
Price+Tax
in € per kilo Watt-hour
Croatia
Lithuania
Estonia
Latvia
7.9
7.4
6.5
6.9
9.8
8.7
7.9
7.3
Bulgaria
EU Average
6.0
7.2
14
Eurostat (2008), Electricity Prices for second semester 2007,
http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/cache/ITY_OFFPUB/KSQA-08-023/EN/KS-QA-08-023-EN.PDF
47