Overview of Green ICT
BCS Academics Forum
14 November 2008
Margaret Ross,
Southampton Solent University, UK
Bob Crooks
DEFRA
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 Consumption
turn 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
5%
5%
13%
Non-use
Idle
Light use
Medium
10%
67%
Heavy
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?
MANUFACTURE OF PC ACCOUNTS FOR ~80% OF THE TOTAL
ENERGY USED IN A 3 YEAR LIFE-CYCLE
Life-cycle energy consumption for a typical office PC and screen* over 3 years,
(100% = 7,900 MJ)
• Extension of usable lifespan rather
19%
than immediate recycling of
components
100%
81%
• 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
Manufacture
of equipment
3 years
usage
Total
*NB Screen used in this analysis was CRT;
Source: Eric Williams (UN University, Tokyo) 2005; team analysis
23
EXTENDING PC LIFE BY 2 YEARS REDUCES AVERAGE LIFE-CYCLE ENERGY
CONSUMPTION PER YEAR BY AROUND 30%
Desktop PC replaced after 3 years, MJ
• Replacing a PC
1,000
6,400
15,300
1,500
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
6,400
Build Ist PC
and monitor
Use first
PC (3yrs)
Build 2nd PC
Use 2nd PC
(2 years)
• Extending the
Desktop PC used for 5 years (refurbished after 3
years), MJ
0
1,000
1,500
8,900
6,400
Manufacture
of first PC
and monitor
Use of first
PC
Refurbish
first PC
lifetime of a PC
reduces the total
life-cycle energy
consumption by
around 30% per
year over the 5
years
Use of
refurbished
first PC
* 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
24
=> 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
The Data Centre...
Data Centre
Data
CentreUtilisation
Utilisation
D a t a C e nt r e P owe r U t i l i sa t i on
45%
Power &
Cooling
IT Load
Serverutilisation
utilisation
Server
Power utilisation by a server
=> 55% into power and cooling
30%
=> 40% into supply/fans..
Power
supply,
fans,
Processor
Processor utilisation
20%
=> 2% into active processor
Source: Computacentre
DATA CENTRE RATIONALISATION PROJECTS CAN ACHIEVE
ENERGY COST SAVINGS OF 50% TO 80%
• Reduce maintenance
5% to 15%
of original
usage
5% to 15%
of updated
usage
46-78%
reduction
100% of
original
energy
usage
Switch off
unused
servers
Consolidate
services
Virtualise
servers
• Reduce maintenance
charges and energy
costs from suppliers by
reducing total number
of active servers
through consolidation
40% to 70%
of updated
usage
22% to 54%
of original
usage
Original level
of energy
usage
charges and energy
costs from suppliers by
turning off unused
servers (“mystery
machines”)
New level of
energy usage
• Reduce greenhouse
gas emissions by
reducing energy
consumption directly
(fewer servers) and
indirectly (less cooling)
Typical data centre rationalisation
From
• 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
To
• 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
Source: Team analysis; HP; IBM; Uptime Institute; Rocky Mountain Institute; AMD; US OMB (Congress); US EPA; LBNL; interviews
31
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!
The whole lifecycle ?
Power
Production
Operating
IT device
Heat
Re-use
Disposal
The whole lifecycle ?
Equipment behaviours
Energy suppliers
Power
Power
Transport
Materials
NGOs
Charities
Silver surfers
Packaging
Production
Operating
IT device
Re-use
Recycle
Reclaim
Waste
Heat
RoHS
Reg
Air Conditioning
Equipment
cooling
Recycle
Disposal
WEEE
regs
Burn, landfill..
The whole lifecycle ?
Equipment behaviours
Energy suppliers
Power
Power
Transport
Materials
NGOs
Charities
Silver surfers
Packaging
Production
Operating
IT device
Re-use
Recycle
Reclaim
Recycle
WEEE
regs
Disposal
Waste
Burn, landfill..
Heat
RoHS
Reg
Air Conditioning
Equipment
cooling
The Greening Grid...
Activities/assets/products Vs Context
• Technologies
• Metrics
• Services
• Legal
• Carbon
• Economics
• Procurement
• Environment
• Operations
• Social/ethics
• Products and Services
• People
ICT Technologies
(personal, peripheral,
comms, server)
Metrics/
Information
ICT Services
Carbon
(deskside,
emissions
virtualisation)
Energy efficiencies, footprint Green Costing , Valuing
calcs, coeffs/conversion
end to end
emissions
factors
Regs/
Regs (EU CoC, WEEE)
Standards/
Standards (ISOs, BSIs)
Int Agreements
BSI PAS 2050
Off-setting
Procurement
Business
operations
Business
Products and
Services
Carbon/energy
accounting
Footprint
calcs, env
audits, EMI
Footprint calcs
Gov /OGC /EU,
Disposal WEEE etc
Standards:EPEAT,
ECMA
Targets
(Kyoto, EU,
UK Gov..),
Quality stds,
Reporting
Regs (EU CoC,
WEEE)
Standards
(ISOs, BSIs)
Carbon
neutrality?
Economics
TCO, lifecycle green costing Green Costing , Carbon market
end to end
mechanisms,
cap and trade
Valuing greener
purchases, move
from assets to
services?
Energy
accounting/
Carbon
accounting
Environment
Manufacture, in use, disposal How to deliver in Market valuing impacts, packaging,
green ways,
assessment of
transport,
env impacts?
property impacts
Lifecycle impacts,
valuing the
embedded,
replacement/upgrad
e/extension
Green
Visibility
buildings,
power supply,
water
Social/ethics
Org/personal boundaries
Scope of footprints,
Self-service,
Out-source/offservicing mobile shore carbon
and home
reductions
working
Developing country CSR,
impacts, off-shoring community
options
exchanges
assessments
People
How they use kit,
What they use kit to do
Meetings
Psychological impacts,
work/life balance
Choice of
Personal carbon
service delivery accounting
(push/pull?)
models
Deviceless
Clouds ...
Green washing
Behaviour
Corporate and
change value staff behaviours
greener ways influence
of working
customers and
equipping, 2nd Jo Public
life for training
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