Smart grid news

Several items on smart grids over the last week:

- As part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the US Department of Energy plans to distribute more than $3.3bn in smart grid technology development grants and an additional $615 million for smart grid storage, monitoring and technology viability. DOE’s Smart Grid Investment Grant Program will provide grants ranging from $500,000 to $20m for smart grid technology deployments and $100,000 to $5 million for the deployment of grid monitoring devices. The program provides matching grants of up to 50% for investments planned by electric utilities and other entities to deploy smart grid technologies.

- In an initiative called Energy Smart Miami, Miami-Dade County plans to use the stimulus funds to help spur a $200m investment in smart grid technology and renewable energy over the next two years. Partners in the project include Florida Power and Light (FPL), GE, Cisco Systems and Silver Spring Networks. The backbone of Energy Smart Miami will be the deployment of more than 1 million wireless smart meters to every home and most businesses in Miami-Dade County. Energy Smart Miami has its own web site.

- Reuters has reported that at its shareholders meeting General Electric's vice chairman and chief executive of the energy unit said that he expects the company's smart grid electricity monitoring business to grow to $3-$4bn in annual revenue over the next three to four years.

- According to a report from the London School of Economics (LSE) entitled The UK's Digital Road to Recovery, an additional £15bn invested in broadband networks, intelligent transport systems and a smart power grid would create 700,000 jobs, half in small businesses, and boost UK productivity.

There really does seem to be the start of a snowball effect behind smart grids. Clearly its an essential technology for reducing energy use and emissions and will become ubiquitous in the future. GE is certainly expecting significant revenue and there are a lot of other companies that have a huge amount to gain from the knock-on systems and solutions requirements. It's coming fast, so be ready.


The Green IT Report offers a range of market research and consultancy services on the impact and opportunities that environmental issues represent for the ICT sector. Click here for more details.

Sprint gets grant for fuel cell deployment

US mobile company Sprint has been awarded a $7.3m grant from the U.S. Department of Energy to expand its hydrogen fuel cell deployment. The grant is part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funding (the Obama stimulus package) earmarked for fuel cell technology.

The grant funding will be used to expand the number of Sprint base stations which rely on hydrogen fuel cells for back-up power. Currently, most hydrogen fuel cells are paired with low-pressure hydrogen tanks which provide around 15 hours of back-up power before needing refueling. As part of this grant, Sprint will work with hydrogen fuel cell manufacturers, tank providers and hydrogen suppliers to extend the unassisted run-time to 72 hours.

Hydrogen fuel cells are a much cleaner alternative to diesel-powered back-up generators which have been used in the past.

It's interesting to see how the money is being spent. In fact there's a US government web site dedicated to the subject - www.recovery.gov.


The Green IT Report offers a range of market research and consultancy services on the impact and opportunities that environmental issues represent for the ICT sector. Click here for more details.

Green sector search engine launched

A search engine has been launched providing access to information on renewables, energy efficiency and climate change. It's designed to support the clean energy marketplace, facilitate investments, promote new legislation and regulations and broaden interest and knowledge in the sector.

It's called reegle and is targeting specific stakeholders including governments, project developers, businesses, financiers, NGOs, academia, international organizations and civil society.

The site provides information and data on various sub-sectors within sustainable energy at a global level including:

* Jurisdiction and laws
* News and announcements
* Political declarations and discussion papers
* Project activity and financial reports
* Statistical data
* Studies, manuals and reports
* Tenders, grants and bids

It has links to the existing databases of core ‘Knowledge Partners’ such as the World Bank, IEA and UNIDO. There is also an Actors Catalogue, a directory of organisations involved in clean energy, which contains information on (and links to) more than 1500 initiatives, partnerships and organisations involved in relevant fields.

The two organisations behind reegle are REEP (the Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Partnership ) and REN21 (the Renewable Energy Policy Network for the 21st Century. Both are supported by a range of government bodies, NGOs and environmental organisations. In addition there are three specific sponsors of reegle; Defra (the UK Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs, BMU (Germany's Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety) and MINVROM (the Dutch Ministry of Housing, Spatial Planning and Environmental Management).

It's very ambitious but potential a very useful resource. Links from other sites would promote use and coverage.



The Green IT Report offers a range of market research and consultancy services on the impact and opportunities that environmental issues represent for the ICT sector. Click here for more details.

FTSE 350 ignore the impact of climate change

In a report that we published last year, The Green IT Report spelled out the various opportunities and business risks of climate change.

The risks are not very often discussed, although we have talked about them here from time to time. Some of the business risks are clear and have become a lot more obvious over the last year. For example the risk of legislation and regulation to track and limit emissions, which is talked about a lot more now, with legislation, such as the UK's Climate Change Bill, already in place.

In terms of products, the need to reduce power consumption and the expansion of regulations around products, such as Energy Star and EPEAT certification in the IT industry, is seen as a market and competitive challenge. Certainly this could be a risk to some if recommendations are for alternative solutions, rather than improved products.

But the least talked about is the physical risk to operations. In the CDP (Carbon Disclosure Project) responses by IT companies in 2007, which was the source for our comments in the report, some companies were unconcerned because they had seen no threat and others believed they could rely on existing business continuity provisions. However, the list of concerns that were expressed included water shortages, wildfires, tsunami, floods, typhoons and rising sea levels.

The problem is that many just look at the direct impact and hence the need to reinforce buildings, possibly move data centres and generally improve protection. However, of as much concern is the knock-on effects. Examples included power shortages and blackouts, telecoms failures, medical epidemics leading to resource shortages, inability to get to work or travel on business, and the impact these would have on suppliers, distributors and resellers. The concern was also that the impact would be not from just one event but from a combination of events up and down the supply chain.

Anyway, IBM has sponsored a report from Acclimatise, also based on CDP responses, about this issue and it has just been released. It shows that only 38% of FTSE 350 companies have conducted any financial or quantified analysis into the impact of climate change risks to their investors, although 87% admitted they were exposed to the effects of climate change. According to the press release "The report reveals that companies need to start adapting their business models and build resilient business processes and facilities to help protect their supply chains, operations and markets and to help understand the risks to their workforce, customers and the communities in which they are located".

Clearly this is an opportunity for IT companies. The report we produced last year went on to spell out the six areas of opportunity for the industry as the result of climate change, one of which is "Climate change impact opportunities, such as weather monitoring and reporting, impact assessments, risk management systems, business continuity, real-time information, etc". It will require some education in the market, and maybe a few more extreme weather events, but this is an area where we can expect to see substantial growth for IT companies in the future.

The downside is that, based on our analysis a year ago, there are a lot of IT companies that think they will not be impacted ('we only write software'), that their own existing business continuity systems are perfectly adequate and generally have a very short-sighted view of potential climate change impact.



The Green IT Report offers a range of market research and consultancy services on the impact and opportunities that environmental issues represent for the ICT sector. Click here for more details.

Citi wins data centre award

Citi has announced that its newly completed data centre in Frankfurt is the first to have the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Platinum rating from the US Green Building Council (USGBC), the highest achievable award for new construction.

Features of the 230,000-square-foot building include:

- Uses 30% of the power required by a conventional data centre

- Optimised cooling design resulting in enhanced free cooling rate of 63%

- Reverse osmosis water treatment for cooling saves 50 million litres per annum

- Overall CO2 emissions reduction of 11,750 t/a

- Water-efficient fixtures has reduced potable water use by 41% as well as utilising rainwater for 100% of the irrigation needs

- The recycled content of the materials specified on the project reached 27%, with local sourcing of materials exceeding 40%

- Makes extensive use of virtualised technology, deployed in a modular design to optimise energy use and reduce the total amount of cabling required by 250km

Perhaps the most significant comment in the press release is that the design was executed with no increased cost over more conventional data centres and without adversely affecting reliability and resilience of the systems it houses.

I just wish they had given a PUE figure for the data centre efficiency, though. It would be interesting to see how it compares with other facilities in terms of total energy compared with IT energy (and its the only easy way to make comparisons).


The Green IT Report offers a range of market research and consultancy services on the impact and opportunities that environmental issues represent for the ICT sector. Click here for more details.

Fujitsu's wind-powered laptop

Fujitsu has managed something of a PR coup in announcing a laptop available in Japan that is effectively wind-powered.

No, it doesn't have its own turbine. The way it works is that the company will purchase a Green Power Certificate equivalent to the total electricity the laptop is estimated to consume during it's operating lifespan. Green Power Certificates are an arrangement in Japan where the Green Energy Certification Centre is responsible for issuing certificates to show that electricity is generated using renewable resources. Hence the electricity actually consumed can be regarded as green.



It's not just a way round making the product more energy-efficient, though. The FMV-BIBLO LOOX U/C50N Eco (such is the catchy name) not only meets the current International Energy Star programme standards, but also the new standards that will take effect on July 1st.

The one remaining question is, why does the green certificate cover just the energy used in its 'operating' lifespan? What about the manufacture (which has been said to account for 50% of the energy used)?


The Green IT Report offers a range of market research and consultancy services on the impact and opportunities that environmental issues represent for the ICT sector. Click here for more details.

UK Budget

Now the dust as settled, let's have a brief recap of last week's UK budget, which was keenly awaited for its green content, which turned out to be mixed:

- The government is now committed to a 34% reduction in GHG emissions by 2020 (compared with 1990), but this may be revised again after the UN climate change conference in Copenhagen at the end of the year. The Committee on Climate Change is looking for a 42% reduction if there is an international agreement.

- £4bn of new investment from the European Investment Bank will be available for renewable energy projects.

- A total of £1.4bn in funding to address various aspects of climate change, including:

*£405m in support for green manufacturing and energy (including nuclear)

*£525m to support the offshore wind sector through the Renewables Obligations scheme

*£375 to improve energy efficiency in homes and businesses (with a further £210m from the pre-budget report)

*£45m for small-scale renewables projects

The downside is that the green element is less than the proportion in recent economic stimulus packages from other countries (including China). The budget also included:

- The car scrappage scheme, in which owners of 10-year old cars could get £2,000 to trade them in for a new car, which some believe has the potential to increase overall emissions

- Incentives to extract oil and gas from the North Sea

- New coal-fired power stations incorporating (untried and untested) carbon capture and storage technologies.


From the IT perspective, though, it represents significant opportunities. Much of the renewable energy and manufacturing investments will require ICT support in some form or other and the increased emissions target for 2020 puts more pressure on the economy as a whole to adopt ICT-supported energy efficiency measures.


The Green IT Report offers a range of market research and consultancy services on the impact and opportunities that environmental issues represent for the ICT sector. Click here for more details.

Can green IT survive the downturn?

For those who didn't see it, the following article appeared in the UK's Computing magazine yesterday (although the original title was 'Green IT - Market or Myth?').


Can green IT survive the downturn?

There is a lot of debate going on a to whether or not there is such a thing as green IT. Much of it is pretty pointless because it never starts with any sort of definition or description.

Green IT is an unfortunate turn of phrase because it refers to many aspects of IT business such as environmentally friendly IT products and services; tools to help companies achieve environmental targets, carbon counting, tracking and trading systems; renewable energy generation and distribution support systems; infrastructure development to reduce carbon emissions (road charging, public transport); and weather monitoring technology.

The term ‘green IT’ can cover all these areas and more. In its broadest sense it refers to the opportunities for the IT industry to help us all become more environmentally friendly and in particular to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions. It also encompasses the consequences of not doing enough. The benefit to the industry is that while helping to save the planet, IT companies also have the opportunity to generate business.

The ‘is there-isn’t there’ argument usually concerns the view that companies are not adopting green IT, they are just implementing systems that save money or produce efficiency benefits.

Did we all expect the corporate world to suddenly become tree huggers? In the real, capitalist world there are only two factors that drive company strategy: money and legislation. The recession underlines this point.

Which is why the only companies truly adopting a green strategy at the moment are brand-based operations and high profile retailers, hence Marks and Spencer’s Plan A, its five-year, 100-point eco plan. These are the businesses that will feel the consequences first - at the tills.

Nothing will change. Money and legislation will always be the main reasons for corporate strategy and IT implementation. The difference is that green issues will increasingly impinge on revenues and drive the regulatory environment. As climate change awareness spreads, stakeholders - customers, shareholders and employees - will make more demands on companies that, if not met, will affect the bottom line.

As for legislation, there is now a UK law committing the nation to an 80% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.

In any case, much of the debate centres on enterprise opportunities, particularly IT infrastructure, i.e. reducing the power used by IT equipment and data centre facilities. Even at the enterprise level there will be far wider opportunities, for example to tune logistics and improve the supply chain, let alone counting, managing and reporting carbon emissions.

Even in the current climate, if green reasons are only 10% of the justification for IT expenditure it means that 10% of business is for green reasons – not to be sniffed at during a recession. In particular, government investment will be influenced by long-term environmental considerations and the public sector is one area of the IT market that continues to spend.

And don’t forget the infrastructure projects that governments are adopting, following the lead of President Obama’s stimulus plan, as well as the continuing need to support renewable energy, climate change monitoring.

The unprecedented growth we saw in the industry in the lead up to the year 2000 was not for millennium-specific solutions but for early upgrades of IT systems, notably ERP, that could cope. Green IT is similar. Much of it will be little different to what has gone before, but it will have an identifiable green tinge.

At the moment the main concern is the economy, but when recovery starts and legislation kicks in, industry will have to address the green agenda. Suppliers that best position themselves in the green IT market will reap the benefits. Those who say there is no such thing as green IT will not.

Pete Foster is a Director at The Green IT Report.



The Green IT Report offers a range of market research and consultancy services on the impact and opportunities that environmental issues represent for the ICT sector. Click here for more details.

New research from TGIR

Readers may be interested in some additional resources and research available from The Green IT Report (TGIR):

The web site now has links to the green IT portals of a number of major IT vendors (see the sidebar). The links lead to descriptions of the main green activities of the companies (portal is sometimes a generous term), which ideally covers both internal environmental actions as well as products and services available to clients (though this is not always the case). It's a means to quickly check the headline sustainable activities of these companies.

In addition, readers may be interested in a forthcoming series of green IT company profiles. These are in-depth examinations of the green activities, particularly related to climate change, of major IT companies and also of vendors that have a specific green focus in terms of the software or IT service they offer.

If you are actively involved in green IT, want to understand what other companies are doing and who your competitors are, or want to identify potential partners, then these profiles will give you an inexpensive head start.

The profiles are based on personal meetings and discussions with the companies and will cover:

- Company background

- Approach to Green IT - internal organisation and structure around CSR, sustainability and climate change

- Internal actions - the extent to which the company is addressing its own carbon footprint and greening its products and services

- Market offerings - the market focus and details of the products and solutions offered to clients

- Strategy and performance - business generated through green IT and strategy moving forward

- TGIR comment - The Green IT Report's critical assessment of the company's strategy and performance in addressing climate change, both internally and for clients.


The reports will be around 10 pages in length and competitively priced at £250 each. The first two will be available shortly and will cover Greenstone Carbon Management, the UK specialist carbon solutions company, and Infor, the mid-market software supplier.

For more details or to order a copy of a profiles, email info@thegreenitreport.com


The Green IT Report offers a range of market research and consultancy services on the impact and opportunities that environmental issues represent for the ICT sector. Click here for more details.

Today is Earth Day

To be honest, I've never been quite sure what Earth Day is, so here's what other people think:

Wikipedia - Earth Day, celebrated April 22, is a day designed to inspire awareness and appreciation for the Earth's environment. It was founded by U.S. Senator Gaylord Nelson as an environmental teach-in in 1970 and is celebrated in many countries every year. This date is Spring in the Northern Hemisphere and Autumn in the Southern Hemisphere.

US Government (EarthDay.gov) - Earth Day is a time to celebrate gains we have made and create new visions to accelerate environmental progress. Earth Day is a time to unite around new actions. Earth Day and every day is a time to act to protect our planet.

(The UK government doesn't even mention it on its main portal. One reason is that today is Budget Day, lets hope the future of the planet gets a mention).

Lets just agree that Earth Day is a time to reflect on where we are and what we're doing to help save the planet depicted in the picture above. Someone recently said that climate change is a challenge to our species, it is that important. We all need to think about what we, as individuals, are doing and need to do in the future. Then think about how IT can help us get there.

Have a nice Earth Day.


The Green IT Report offers a range of market research and consultancy services on the impact and opportunities that environmental issues represent for the ICT sector. Click here for more details.

SAP launches new community to support sustainability solution development

A key theme in SAP's third-annual Virtualisation Week event, which is currently underway in Palo Alto, is that virtualisation is becoming one piece of a much larger puzzle related to sustainability and Green IT. Consequently, SAP and some key members of its ecosystem have announced a new community focused on facilitating Green IT collaboration and solution creation. SAP sees this as part of its long-term strategic focus on sustainability, which includes the company's own operations as well as developing business process and IT solutions that help customers operate in a more sustainable way.

The new Green IT community will help the company drive sustainability research and development initiatives with partners and customers. Founding members include: Brown-Forman Corporation, Citrix, Colgate, EMC, F5, Fujitsu, HP, Intel, Network Appliance Inc., Novell, Sun Microsystems, T-Systems and VMware.

SAP will continue to promote optimisation technologies like virtualisation together with its partners and offer relevant services, such as system landscape optimisation, which help customers maximize the use of their computing resources. The community will collaborate in a dedicated online environment hosted by SAP to exchange ideas, discuss industry trends and customer needs, and provide guidance on future product development and co-innovation opportunities.

The above is edited from the SAP press release - regular readers will know that I have been sceptical about SAP's green efforts in the past. In a post only a few weeks ago, (when the company launched its strategic focus on sustainability), I pointed out that it produced its first sustainability report only last year and whilst it has been responding to the CDP annual request for information since 2004, only on the basis that the responses are not published, which rather defeats the object.

In terms of providing solutions to the market, my impression, from talking to the company last year, was that it was playing a wait-and-see game. The SAP claimed to understand what the market needed, in terms of carbon counting and other sustainability functionality, but was waiting until it could see clear demand before investing in the effort. Not the attitude of a market innovator.

The fact that the company is now so enthusiastic about sustainability is obviously a good thing. It has enormous influence in enterprise solutions and can have a major impact, particularly working through its extensive ecosystem. My concern is that the press release still starts from a long way behind the curve. To say that "virtualisation is becoming one piece of a much larger puzzle related to sustainability and Green IT" is to state what was obvious a long time ago. To only mention SAP's contribution in terms of "system landscape optimisation, which help customers maximize the use of their computing resources" seems to be ignoring SAP's pre-eminent position in enterprise solutions and the work that can be done there.

But what's most disappointing is that having started down this road later than most major IT players, SAP insists on steering its own course. The community will "exchange ideas, discuss industry trends and customer needs, and provide guidance on future product development and co-innovation opportunities", which is something that the Global e-Sustainability Initiative (GeSI) and The Green Grid have been doing for some time - SAP does not appear to be a member of either.

We are only really going to conquer climate change if we pull together, as countries, industries and people. SAP's contribution would be much more worthwhile as part of broader industry collaboration, rather than potentially confusing the market with its own initiatives, guidance and standards.


The Green IT Report offers a range of market research and consultancy services on the impact and opportunities that environmental issues represent for the ICT sector. Click here for more details.

EPEAT success

The US Federal government has reported major steps towards greening its IT purchases. In the 2008 progress report submitted to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and Office of the Federal Environmental Executive (OFEE) it showed a significant commitment across the government to using EPEAT (Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool) for green IT purchasing.

The EPEAT programme evaluates computer desktops, laptops, and monitors based on 51 environmental criteria developed through a stakeholder consensus process supported by the US EPA. It is managed by the Green Electronics Council.

There is a new Federal Acquisition Regulation’ (FAR) clause that requires US agencies to prioritise purchase of EPEAT-registered IT products and apparently 13 of the 22 Federal agencies reported meeting the goal of 95% or higher EPEAT purchasing in their 2008 IT acquisitions. These 13 agencies between them purchased more than 500,000 EPEAT-registered desktops, laptops and monitors.

The success is significant because it really is down to the public sector, around the world, to set an example on environmental matters. If governments set targets in areas such as reducing greenhouse gas emissions then they must be seen to be actively pursuing those targets through their own administrations. The various economic stimulus packages, which do have some specific green focus, will help in the economy as a whole, but expect to see the public sector itself increasingly adopting greener processes and solutions and becoming much more prominent in the area of green IT. Those IT companies active in this market need to be prepared.



The Green IT Report offers a range of market research and consultancy services on the impact and opportunities that environmental issues represent for the ICT sector. Click here for more details.

The energy use of spam

McAfee has carried out some research that shows that the annual energy used to transmit, process and filter spam totals 33 billion kilowatt-hours (kWh), or 33 terawatt hours (TWh). That’s equivalent to the electricity used in 2.4 million homes, with the same GHG emissions as 3.1 million passenger cars using 2 billion gallons of fuel.

The “Carbon Footprint of Spam” study looked at global energy expended to create, store, view and filter spam in 11 countries and averaged its findings to arrive at the global impact. The study found that the average GHG emission associated with a single spam message is 0.3 grams of CO2. That's like driving three feet (one metre); but when multiplied by the yearly volume of spam, it is equivalent to driving around the earth 1.6 million times.

It also found that nearly 80% of the energy consumption associated with spam comes from end-users deleting spam and searching for legitimate e-mail (false positives). Spam filtering accounts for just 16% of spam-related energy use.

The conclusion is that if every inbox were protected by a state-of-the-art spam filter, organisations and individuals could reduce spam energy use by 75% or 25 TWh per year, the equivalent of taking 2.3 million cars off the road. So spam filtering can help save the planet - another win-win for an IT provider.

My only carp about this report is that McAfee demands details, including email address, before it can be downloaded. There's no indication of what the email address will be used for (and no email opt-out choice), so it will be interesting to see whether McAfee is adding to the spam problem.


The Green IT Report offers a range of market research and consultancy services on the impact and opportunities that environmental issues represent for the ICT sector. Click here for more details.

Free data centre cooling tools from The Green Grid

The Green Grid, a consortium of companies dedicated to advancing energy efficiency in data centres, has made available a free online tool and maps to help North American data centre and facilities managers determine how much outside air (free cooling) is available for individual data centers. The use of free cooling is a significant way of lowering energy costs in these facilities.

The Green Grid’s free cooling tool contains information from 2,186 weather stations throughout the United States and Canada. The database consists of all hourly observations taken during the period extending from 1999 through 2008. This count of hours is then divided by 10 (total years of data) to provide a result of the "normal" number of occurrences during a given year. The total number of hours of available free cooling will always range from 0 to 8760 hours.

Using zip codes, the tool allows users in the United States and Canada to input their specific variables - such as local energy costs, IT load, and facility load - to determine the energy savings for individual facilities. Members of The Green Grid will have access to a high-resolution graphical map of free cooling throughout the U.S. and Canada, while non-members can download a low-resolution version in the “Library and Tools” section of The Green Grid Web site (see below).


Given that The Green Grid describes itself as a global consortium, hopefully other countries will be covered in the future (or is this 'global' in the same sense as the 'World' Series?).


The Green IT Report offers a range of market research and consultancy services on the impact and opportunities that environmental issues represent for the ICT sector. Click here for more details.

Virtualisation giveaway for Earth Day

Userful Corporation, which describes itself as "the worldwide leader in high-performance, low-cost desktop virtualisation", has announced a PC giveaway in celebration of the 39th anniversary of Earth Day, which is next Wednesday - April 22nd.

Userful is giving away a free version of its software that gives you a 'free' second computer - the normal version can turn one computer into up to ten. The free licenses enable users with an extra video card (or a dual-head video card) to add an extra workstation by plugging in a spare monitor, USB keyboard and mouse.

The idea is to get 100,000 people to download the software and share their computer before Earth Day. You can get the software here.

The company claims that in 2008 its software saved over 40,000 tons of CO2 emissions and is on track to save over 200,000 tons of CO2 in 2009, the equivalent of taking more than 35,000 cars off the road, or planting 50,000 acres of trees.

It sounds a nice gesture, but I'm not convinced that the take up won't just be people who want to get more from their existing machines, with the net result that they add an extra monitor and keyboard which use more power. It's only a saving if they would have bought a new PC.


The Green IT Report offers a range of market research and consultancy services on the impact and opportunities that environmental issues represent for the ICT sector. Click here for more details.

IBM Sustainable Procurement service

Last week IBM announced a new consulting service designed to help clients establish sustainability standards across their global supplier networks.

The IBM Sustainable Procurement offering is aimed at helping clients define cost, efficiency and sustainability measurements and goals for all their procurement activities. It also helps them understand current practices and develop and implement strategies for measuring suppliers’ compliance with sustainable procurement goals.

The Sustainable Procurement offering covers six main areas of CSR; environment, community, health and safety, ethics and financial accountability, diversity and labour practices.

It's another plank in IBM's expanding portfolio of CSR consulting services which also includes the CSR Assessment and Benchmarking Utility, the Carbon Tradeoff Modeler, Green Sigma, Environmental Product Life cycle Management, the Supply Chain Network Optimization Workbench (SNOW), Strategic Carbon Management and the Public Sector Energy and Environment Diagnostic.

I've no idea how much revenue IBM is generating from these offerings - I suspect not a lot. But it is helping to create a pre-eminent position in green IT consulting, which will certainly reap rewards in the coming years. Most of the other major IT services companies could learn from IBM's example.


The Green IT Report offers a range of market research and consultancy services on the impact and opportunities that environmental issues represent for the ICT sector. Click here for more details.

China's local government told to buy green computers

China's State Council is insisting on a strict implementation of a green procurement list, according to the China Environmental Law blog. Previously there was a 'preferential' list that gave local governments some leeway to source other products if they could be justified on cost or energy-efficiency grounds, but because take-up was less than expected the flexibility has been removed.

There are nine types of products on the green procurement list:

* Refrigerators
* Room Air Conditioners
* Double Capped Fluorescents for General Service Lighting
* Self-ballasted Fluorescents for General Service Lighting
* Televisions
* Computers & Computer Monitors
* Printers
* Toilets
* Faucets

Purchasing must give priority to the products that appear on the various lists, but getting on to the list can be difficult for foreign companies, since they need certification under the energy efficiency labeling programme run by the China Standard Certification Center. There is a publication from the US Department of Commerce, International Trade Administration entitled “Clean Energy: An Exporter’s Guide to China” which may help those willing to take up the challenge.


The Green IT Report offers a range of market research and consultancy services on the impact and opportunities that environmental issues represent for the ICT sector. Click here for more details.

Green mobile base stations

The GSMA Development Fund has initiated the Green Power for Mobile programme to promote the deployment of green power solutions across mobile networks where conventional power is limited. To support its actions the organisation recently conducted some research which is published in a report entitled 'Green Power for Mobile: Top Ten Findings'. The report is here.

According to the Green Power for Mobile Programme, around 1.6 billion people live without electricity and a further 1 billion people live in areas where power is unreliable. To service these markets mobile networks have primarily used diesel generators for power, but mobile operators increasingly need a viable alternative to diesel, such as solar and wind power.

The GSMA programme is aiming to help the mobile industry use renewable energy to power 118,000 new and existing off-grid base stations in developing countries by 2012, which would save up to 2.5 billion litres of diesel per annum and cut annual carbon emissions by up to 6.8 million tonnes. Improved technology and cheaper green power solutions have made alternatives both more commercially attractive as well as more environmentally beneficial.

The programme has been established to promote the use of green power to help expand mobile networks into regions currently lacking coverage and to reduce the reliance on diesel consumption by operators. The organisation sees its role as evaluating the overall market and technical landscape, helping to find ways to finance the higher capital cost of green power base station deployments, and driving innovation within the green power industry particularly for small scale installations suitable for telecoms infrastructure.

Another example of industry leading the way in finding a win-win means to reduce emissions and promote business. In this case it would ideally be hand-in-hand with some manual means to recharge phones, which would have similar benefits (and how else if there is no electricity?)


The Green IT Report offers a range of market research and consultancy services on the impact and opportunities that environmental issues represent for the ICT sector. Click here for more details.

Shipping - a major polluter

According to The Guardian newspaper in the UK last Friday, confidential data from maritime industry insiders shows that one giant container ship can emit almost the same amount of cancer and asthma-causing chemicals as 50m cars. Based on engine size and the quality of fuel typically used by ships and cars, just 15 of the world's biggest ships may now emit as much pollution as all the world's 760m cars. Low-grade ship bunker fuel (or fuel oil) has up to 2,000 times the sulphur content of diesel fuel used in US and European automobiles.

Last week the US government decided to impose a 230-mile buffer zone along the entire US coast after academic research showed that pollution from the world's 90,000 cargo ships leads to 60,000 deaths a year in the US alone and costs up to $330bn per year in health costs from lung and heart diseases. The buffer zone could be in place next year and Canada is expected to follow suit. As a consequence, the paper says that pressure is mounting on the UN's International Maritime Organisation and the EU to tighten laws governing ship emissions.

So just when you thought that shipping was one of the most environmentally friendly transport methods, so the landscape may be changing again. (I've even seen case studies which featured moves from road to sea to minimise emissions - was it actually better?).

Anyway, the point is that as yet there are almost no absolutes in emissions calculations. To be truly useful any green logistics solution on the market needs to be flexible and adaptable, with nothing set in stone. Online solutions, or those that have access to an online database of emissions sources, fuel conversion factors and pollution levels, have the advantage of relying on the provider to make changes as and when required, which seems like the best option for most users.


The Green IT Report offers a range of market research and consultancy services on the impact and opportunities that environmental issues represent for the ICT sector. Click here for more details.

Dot Eco TLD

An organisation called Dot Eco is planning to apply for the .eco top-level domain (TLD) in the next ICANN round, which is expected to allow a number of new domain name extensions. Dot Eco has partnered with Al Gore and the Alliance for Climate Protection to bring the domain to life.

The idea is to provide .eco web addresses free of charge for non profit-making organisations and to define a standard format for companies and individuals to showcase their green initiatives. The organisation sees the benefits as:

- a standard place for companies to place their eco efforts.

- a way to help companies brand themselves as primarily ecological, as opposed to 'commercial' or 'non-profit'.

- a way round the .com land grab that has shut many companies out - users will be able to find the same name in the .eco namespace.

- over 50% of the profits of Dot Eco, LLC will go to environmental causes.

It sounds an interesting idea, but the whole TLD issue is a minefield, with corporations wanting to limit new extensions to prevent them having to fight for the rights or buy at high prices. This does sound like a worthy cause, though. The organisation is at www.supportdoteco.com.


The Green IT Report offers a range of market research and consultancy services on the impact and opportunities that environmental issues represent for the ICT sector. Click here for more details.

New Energy Star requirements for computer monitors

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has announced new requirements for computer monitors to get the Energy Star label. The new specification is more stringent and is the fifth revision since products in this category have been eligible. The specification for displays less than 30 inches diagonal will be effective from October 30th and the specification for displays 30-60 inches diagonal will be effective on January 1st, 2010.

Under the new requirements Energy Star products will be, on average, 20% more energy efficient than conventional options, which means that if all displays sold in the US meet the new specification it would prevent greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to those from nearly 1.5 million vehicles and the cost saved would grow to about $1bn a year.

The fact that it's the fifth revision is a reminder that going green is a never-ending process. With government targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions settling on around 80% reduction by 2050, the pressure on manufacturers (and users) to reduce emissions will be relentless. We are only at the beginning.



The Green IT Report offers a range of market research and consultancy services on the impact and opportunities that environmental issues represent for the ICT sector. Click here for more details.

Microsoft's CSR report

By contrast, Microsoft's 16 page pdf CSR report (Corporate Citizenship@Microsoft) looks a little thin. The section entitled Environmental Stewardship highlights four aspects:

- New Microsoft-owned facilities are designed to meet LEED Silver energy efficiency standards, consuming 20% less energy than traditional buildings

- At the US HQ a free bus service for employees is cutting out more than 3,200 tonnes of carbon emissions (6.7 million car miles) every year.

- Windows Vista is Microsoft's most energy-efficient operating system to date. According to the Natural Resources Defence Council, Vista could cut users' energy bills by more than $50 per PC per year, eliminating three million tons of carbon emissions.

- Unified communications help companies conduct virtual meetings online, hence reducing business travel.


It seems odd that there are no details of greenhouse gas emissions in the report (among other things), even though the company did report the figures in its CDP response last year. There is also no emissions reduction target, which wasn't in the CDP response and, as far as I'm aware, has only be mentioned in a recent corporate blog (which we reported on here).

Maybe there's information available elsewhere on the Microsoft web site, but if a company is serious about these matters then reporting needs to be comprehensive, transparent and easy to access.



The Green IT Report offers a range of market research and consultancy services on the impact and opportunities that environmental issues represent for the ICT sector. Click here for more details.

HP's CSR report

HP has released its Global Citizenship report for 2008, which covers six aspects of corporate and social responsibility; global citizenship, ethics and compliance, human rights and labour practices, environmental sustainability, privacy, and social investment. The full report is here. The following are a few random highlights:

- In 2008 HP reduced GHG emissions by 4% compared with 2007, in absolute terms, and 13% formalised to revenue. The company says this has been achieved mainly by continuing to reduce office space as employees increasingly work from home or in flexible work spaces.



- In 2008 HP began working with suppliers to gather data on energy use and GHG emissions.

- The company has recovered for reuse 3.5 million hardware units weighing 34,000 metric tonnes and increased its recycling volume to 120,000 metric tonnes globally in 2008. HP is on track to meet its goal to recycle 900,000 metric tonnes of products by the end of 2010 (since 1987) and to reuse 200,000 metric tonnes of products by the end of 2010 (since 2003).

- HP introduced a number of products and services in 2008 to help customers save energy in their use of IT, including:

* The HP Compaq dc7800 Ultra Slim Desktop, which which received the EPEAT (Electronic Products Environmental Assessment Tool) Gold rating

* The HP Deskjet D2545, which uses 40% percent less energy than its predecessor, is made from 83% percent recycled plastic material and uses ink cartridges made from 50-75% recycled plastic.

* The redesigned HP ProLiant BL460c G5 server, which reduces energy use by up to 25% and is already compliant with upcoming Energy Star server guidelines.

- HP also contributed to Smart 2020, a report by The Climate Group on behalf of the Global e-Sustainability Initiative (GeSI), which concluded that technology could reduce annual man-made global emissions by 15% by 2020 (see our blog coverage).


The CSR report is long and comprehensive and shows the sort of depths that major corporations need to go to to address and report on their social responsibilities. There is a great deal of effort needed to track and report the data, which is where IT solutions from the likes of Enviance and Greenstone Carbon Management come in.

The effort never ends, though. Despite HP's many commendable actions they were still penalised in Greenpeace's recent Guide to Greener Electronics rankings for backtracking on a commitment to eliminate PVC and brominated flame retardants (BFRs) from their products by the end of 2009. Apparently the company has responded to the criticism, though.


The Green IT Report offers a range of market research and consultancy services on the impact and opportunities that environmental issues represent for the ICT sector. Click here for more details.

More on smart grids

- EnergyAustralia, the country’s largest electricity distribution network, has announced an agreement with IBM for the implementation of an energy network monitoring and control solution. The Distribution Monitoring and Control (DM&C) project involves the roll-out of 12,000 sensing devices throughout the electricity distribution network, creating a smart grid.

The AU$3.2m deal is part of EnergyAustralia's initial investment of AU$170m in its smart network roll out. IBM's role is to design and build the IT architecture to support the project, in which sensing devices will connect with EnergyAustralia’s operational systems.

- While we're on the subject, British company Remote Energy Monitoring (REM) recently received Ofgem (gas and electricity regulator) approval for its smart Multi Mode meter. The meter apparently incorporates both smart hardware and software, providing "a complete metering, data and control solution".

I don't think it's the only one to be approved in the UK (the press release is a little cagey on the point) but there are a couple of points of interest. Firstly REM was founded in 2007 in partnership with Climate Change Capital, an investment banking group specialising in the low carbon economy, so it has a green pedigree. (Although the press release does go on to say that the meter development centre is in Australia, systems are developed in the UK and manufacture in China - lets hope emissions from travel and transport are kept to a minimum). Secondly, the press release came with a picture, so now we can see what a smart meter actually looks like.



Now you know.


The Green IT Report offers a range of market research and consultancy services on the impact and opportunities that environmental issues represent for the ICT sector. Click here for more details.

AT&T extends Telepresence to legacy systems

Last week AT&T announced a new feature in its Cisco-based TelePresence videoconferencing offering which will allow companies to connect their existing H.323 videoconferencing systems. Existing standard definition or IP-based videoconferencing systems will participate as an end-point when a Cisco TelePresence session begins.

The feature will be available from the end of Q2 2009 and should help companies extend the life of previous videoconferencing investments (which tended to be under-used anyway).

At the same time the company announced plans to double the number of Cisco TelePresence rooms deployed at AT&T locations to 50, with new rooms in its London and Hong Kong offices already up and running.


The Green IT Report offers a range of market research and consultancy services on the impact and opportunities that environmental issues represent for the ICT sector. Click here for more details.

EU - Adapting to a changed climate

The EU has taken on board recent research that suggests that climate change will strike harder and faster than previously thought and the European Commission is proposing that EU member countries start to think now about how to adapt. “We must continue to work hard to reduce carbon emissions, but we must also adapt to the reality of climate change. There is no doubt that despite what is achieved, some amount of climate change is inevitable and irreversible," said the EU’s environment commissioner, Stavros Dimas.

Details are here, but below is a diagram showing what the EC sees as the chain of potential impacts from climate change. (It is from the DG Environment, based on based on (EEA, 2008) and (IPCC, 2007). Potential impacts are all impacts that may occur given a projected change in climate, without considering adaptation).



The commission has come up with a set of proposals including studies to increase understanding of climate change, strategies to better manage resources, an assessment of the costs and benefits of adapting to climate change and tools to monitor how the changing environment affects health. The proposal also outlines plans for a ‘clearing house mechanism’ to be set up by 2011 – a vast database for exchanging information on climate change risks and impacts and the most effective ways to respond.

This is the less talked about aspect of global warming, mainly because there is an understandable reluctance to face up to the situation we are in. Climate change is happening and will have a serious impact on people, societies and economies.

Businesses will face challenges, many of which IT, which has a history of adapting to security and business continuity challenges, is well-placed to address. There is a distinct role for ICT companies in being educators and evangelists around the impact of climate change, providing information and solutions to businesses to help mitigate the impact. It is not an issue yet, but will be. Those IT companies that address the issue head on will help educate the market (about the need to address the causes of climate change as well as the impact) and will be well positioned to assist companies in preparing for the worst.


The Green IT Report offers a range of market research and consultancy services on the impact and opportunities that environmental issues represent for the ICT sector. Click here for more details.

IT companies lose out in Greenpeace's guide

Greenpeace has released its latest quarterly assessments of electronics companies, shown below, which is based on their policies on toxic chemicals, recycling and climate change.

One significant change is that HP, Lenovo and Dell have had a penalty point deducted because Greenpeace says they backtracked on a commitment to eliminate PVC and brominated flame retardants (BFRs) from their products by the end of 2009. (Companies score points in the assessment for commitments to reduce toxic materials from products, so failure to do so results in the points being deducted).


Nokia remains in top place, Samsung is up into second place for all round improvement and Sony Ericsson falls back to third 'with more work to do on recycling'. Nintendo remains in last place. Other significant changes include Philips, the biggest mover, up 11 places to 4th due to big improvements in recycling policy and Apple, up four places thanks to eliminating some chemicals from products and improved recycling.

The full score card is here.


The Green IT Report offers a range of market research and consultancy services on the impact and opportunities that environmental issues represent for the ICT sector. Click here for more details.

IBM and Omron work together on green transportation

IBM is to work with Japanese sensor and control equipment maker OMRON to provide 'smart' transportation solutions that help lower energy use and reduce carbon dioxide emissions in transportation operations.

The collaboration will combine OMRON's sensor technology and experience in traffic control, vehicle weight measurement and distance and loading ratio systems with IBM's calculation technologies in its Virtual Routing Planner and Modal-Shift Transportation Planner offerings. The solutions will help clients choose which types of shipping and transportation to use and the best routes for reducing costs and emissions in delivery. It will help clients address coming regulatory restrictions and penalties for CO2 emissions.

The solutions will initially only be available in Japan, primarily for the manufacturing and transportation industries, but could later be expanded for additional countries and industries.

Transportation and logistics are area of business that are going to be increasingly complex in the future both as the result of fuel costs and emissions and other regulations. IBM, once again, is making its mark. I'm surprised at the 'could be expanded' though, I would have thought it would be an essential part of the collaboration.


The Green IT Report offers a range of market research and consultancy services on the impact and opportunities that environmental issues represent for the ICT sector. Click here for more details.

Intel lobbies the G20

After my rant yesterday that Microsoft should be lobbying at the G20 meeting (rather than counting the carbon footprint of software) it's good to find out that one IT company, Intel, did.

Not actually there, of course, but at least in an open letter from the Copenhagen Climate Council, a collaboration between international business and science founded by the Scandinavian think tank, Monday Morning. The letter (which you can read here) urged the G20 to invest in low-emissions technology and infrastructure as part of economic recovery packages and also to agree that establishing a new and effective global climate treaty in December is essential. Nothing too radical, but Paul Otellini, CEO and President of Intel, represented the only IT company to sign the letter.

Next month, the Council will by convening CEOs at the World Business Summit on Climate Change, which will bring together the business community and the world's top scientists, economists, civil society, media leaders, government representatives and other leading thinkers to put forward recommendations for the next international framework on climate change in Copenhagen in December. Let's hope IT is better represented at the Summit. It really is time to stand up and be counted.


The Green IT Report offers a range of market research and consultancy services on the impact and opportunities that environmental issues represent for the ICT sector. Click here for more details.

Viviane Reding - weekly video blog

EU Commissioner for the Information Society and Media now has a weekly video blog, which you can see here. It's good to see her using the medium.

This week she talked about Green IT, referring to the EU's Green ICT plan, which we reported on here. But she did add that in her view the ICT sector should lead the way for the rest of the economy by reducing its own carbon footprint by 20% by 2015 (ahead of the overall 20% by 2020 target). She does, though go on to say that "Europe is already well ahead in using ICT to green the economy, with some ICT companies already voluntarily working to reduce CO2 emission by 50 to 80%"

The potential target for ICT companies is, I believe, new, but I agree that they need to lead the way. IT has such a potential impact on the rest of the economy that IT providers really need to educate and encourage other businesses. In fact they should be active on all fronts, not just in business but in lobbying governments and in other ways trying to influence public policy and educate the market.


The Green IT Report offers a range of market research and consultancy services on the impact and opportunities that environmental issues represent for the ICT sector. Click here for more details.

Microsoft concludes that downloading software is a good thing

In another piece of research Microsoft has concluded that there are significant environmental benefits to providing its software to consumers online. According to Microsoft the study apparently showed that "downloading Office 2007 avoided 8 times the amount of carbon emissions compared to producing and shipping a DVD and its associated packaging through traditional retail distribution channels".

Three points:

- what does "avoided 8 times the amount of carbon emissions" mean? If it generates X amount of carbon by the traditional route how can it avoid 8X by downloading?

- In any case, I think we all already know that 'dematerialisation', which sounds like something from Star Trek but actually refers to doing things digitally rather than physically, saves carbon.

- Thirdly, the same sort of carbon savings are also available (probably) using software online, i.e. software as a service, but Microsoft has been slow to follow that route with its own offerings, since it undermines its traditional business model.

Microsoft's motives seem to be to show its ability to account for carbon emissions over the life cycle of software products. It is commendable, but frankly the expression 'fiddling while Rome burns' springs to mind. I would rather see the company lobbying at the G20 in London today.


The Green IT Report offers a range of market research and consultancy services on the impact and opportunities that environmental issues represent for the ICT sector. Click here for more details.