Technology & Innovation

IT and the environment

August 10, 2007

Global

August 10, 2007

Global
Anonymous Writer

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IT and the environment: a new item on the CIO’s agenda? explores the efforts made to measure and reduce the environmental impact of the IT function.

The report assesses how these changes are affecting the purchasing, operation and disposal of technology assets within businesses today. The report was commissioned by IBM.

A green agenda has never been more important for organisations, yet it would appear that there is much more talk than action. A recent study by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)* found that US servers and data centres alone accounted for 1.5% of the country’s total electricity consumption in 2006—more than double what was consumed in 2000. This is similar to the energy consumed by about 5.8m average US households, and accounted for some US$4.5bn worth of electricity. Under current efficiency trends, consumption could nearly double again by 2011—delivering a $7.4bn energy bill to firms and potentially accounting for some 2.5% of total energy consumption.
All this has a great environmental impact. In 2005,the total power demand by servers and data centres was equivalent to fourteen 1000MW power plants**—and these figures exclude PCs, laptops and other IT infrastructure. As concerns over climate change grow, this rising energy usage will come under greater scrutiny, putting organisations under increasing pressure to account for their IT policies and practices.
The key findings of this study are highlighted below.

  • Relatively few organisations have any plans in place to reduce their carbon footprint. Although two-thirds of executives polled say that their organisation has a board-level executive responsible for energy and the environment, less than half (45%) of firms have a programme in place to reduce their carbon footprint. And those that do have a carbon reduction strategy, the majority (52%) have no specific targets for it, although a small hard core (9%) aim to be carbon neutral by 2012.
  • Many people are aware of the impact of IT on the environment, yet few firms are doing anything about it. The majority of respondents (59%) polled for this report believe that IT has either a significant or moderate environmental impact. Just 15% think it has no impact. But in spite of this, more than one-half of respondents (54%) strongly agree or somewhat agree that their organisation does not measure the impact of their IT systems and policies on the environment—compared with 32% who believe that their organisation does.
  • Although IT consumes an enormous amount of power, few IT bosses measure their department’s contribution to the energy bill. Most IT executives say that their firm does not monitor its IT-related energy spending (and a further 9% don’t know). Of those that do monitor their IT-related energy consumption, about one in four (24%) have seen their energy consumption increase over the past two years. However, measuring the cost clearly provides an incentive to change: 15% of respondents noted that their energy use had actually declined.
  • When it comes to IT procurement, power consumption is not a significant criterion right now. Reliability is the main deciding factor when buying IT equipment, according to 63% of respondents. This is followed by price (32%) and then after-sales support (30%). Despite rising energy costs, dwindling reserves and ongoing geopolitical tensions in areas of oil and gas supply, only 12% of respondents believe that the energy efficiency of IT equipment is a critical purchasing criterion. In comparison, 13% of executives rate delivery times as being a critical factor.
  • Promisingly, IT holds much scope for improvement. Despite the current sense of little progress being made, the IT function is well placed when it comes to reducing its environmental impact. By adopting existing energy efficiency methodologies and technologies—a “best practice” scenario, as defined by the EPA***—corporate servers and data centres could cut power use from current efficiency trends by 56% by 2011. For the US alone, this would reduce projected cumulative (2007-11) electricity costs from some US$31bn to US$17bn, providing an obvious cost saving incentive—and also delivering a huge reduction in future CO2 emissions. Beyond the data centre, simple initiatives, such as switching off PCs when not in use and minimising unnecessary printing, can improve an organisation’s green credentials and save money at the same time.

One encouraging sign from this survey is that the green campaigns of yesteryear—reminding people to recycle their paper and toner cartridges, or print more sparingly—are now widely in use. This suggests that current initiatives, largely focused on promoting better energy usage, will become more commonplace over time. Rising energy costs, increased legislation and greater public awareness will all help to drive these initiatives.
 
*   US EnvironmentalProtection Agency, Reportto Congress on Serverand Data Center EnergyEfficiency, August 2007.**  Jonathan G. Koomey,Estimating total powerconsumption by serversin the US and the world,February 2007.*** US EnvironmentalProtection Agency, Reportto Congress on Serverand Data Center EnergyEfficiency, August 2007.

 

 

 

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