DOCUMENT #:
GSC13-PLEN-03
FOR:
Presentation
SOURCE:
ISACC
AGENDA ITEM:
6.9 (Plenary) ICTs and the Environment
CONTACT(S):
Jim MacFie
ICTs and the Environment – ISACC
Perspective
Jim MacFie
ISACC
Submission Date:
June 26, 2008
Highlight of Current Activities
January 29, 2008, Plenary
• ICT and the Environment
– Industry Canada
• Electronics Product Recycling Standards
– Electronic Product Stewardship Canada
• Smart Metering
– Triacta Power Technologies
• Saving the Planet at the Speed of Light
– CANARIE
• Energy Efficient Ethernet
– IEEE 802.3az
Strategic Direction
• No clear operating ‘standards’ for Waste Electrical and Electronic
Equipment (WEEE) recycling industry in Canada
• Founded Electronics Product Stewardship Canada working with
regulators to implement shared responsibility stewardship model with
roles for industry, government, and consumers.
• EPSC drafted the Electronics Recycling Standard to establish basic
criteria electronics recyclers must meet
• Incorporates concerns and feedback from electronics manufacturers,
environmental groups, and electronics recyclers
• Goes beyond provisions of ISO 14001 and addresses specific issues
resulting from recycling electronics
–
–
–
–
Enhanced requirements for Environment, Health & safety
Prohibits use of prison labour
Prohibits shipping material to developing/non-OECD countries
Reinforces downstream accountability of waste
Strategic Direction
• More efficient computers and network equipment
– Marginal gains
• “Zero carbon” data centers at remote renewable energy sites
linked by optical networks
• New Internet architectures with servers, computers and storage
collocated at remote renewable energy sites such as hydro dams,
windmill farms, etc
• New routing and resiliency architectures for wired and wireless
networks for massively disruptive topology changes due to setting
sun or waning winds that power routers and servers
• New grid and data storage architectures with distributed
replication and virtual machines
• New stats and measurement analysis of bits per carbon (bpc)
utilization, optimized “carbon” routing tables, etc
Challenges
• Measure of value for energy efficiency is lacking
• Some considerations:
–
–
–
–
watts normalized per bit, per line, per subscriber
busy vs. idle values
network element vs. end-to-end application
instantaneous vs. time integrated
• Test specifications will also be required
Next Steps/Actions
• ISACC is willing to partner with GSC
members on energy efficiency metrics
and recycling harmonization.
• ISACC proposes a new GSC
Resolution on ICTs and the
Environment and has provided draft
text.