Google Powermeter expansion

Google’s home electricity monitoring tool, Powermeter, has been in the news in the last couple of weeks:

• According to a report on CNET, Google is looking to expand the use of PowerMeter (which we reported on last year) into other areas.

Basically, the PowerMeter software uses data from smart meters or electricity monitors and displays it in easily understandable form on a PC or a smart phone. Like all such devices, the theory is that by seeing how power is being used people tend to take action to reduce it.

In the CNET article Dan Reicher, director of climate change initiatives at Google, said that "We're just getting going. We're starting with electricity and we're interested in moving on to natural gas and other utilities [such as water] in the home,"

Reicher also said that Google is working on "demand dispatch", which is the way that software and the Internet can be used to act as a go-between for home users and the grid to keep a balance of supply and demand. This is one of the much talked about advantages of smart grids, particularly when connected to renewable energy resources. Home users can be incentivised to use electricity more efficiently through things like differential pricing.

• The use of Powermeter has also cropped up in what is described as the first smart grid white spaces network trial in the US.  Spectrum Bridge is working with Plumas‐Sierra Rural Electric Cooperative and Google to demonstrate how TV white spaces (unused TV broadcast channels) can be used for smart grid technologies.

The TV channels have become available in the US as part of the move to digital TV and the FCC has said they are suitable for wireless data networks and broadband connectivity. 

The applications deployed for the trial deliver real‐time broadband connectivity to remote substations and switchgear so that the electrical system can be managed remotely. In addition, Google’s PowerMeter technology has been deployed so that consumers can view real‐time detailed energy consumption data from anywhere, online.

Green ICT climbs the business agenda in Australia

There seems to be a concentrated focus on Green IT in Australia at the moment, perhaps as a response to the failure to implement a national cap-and-trade scheme (a contributing factor to the change of Prime Minister last week).

There have been two reports published by different industry bodies in recent months:

• Carbon and Computers in Australia, a report for the Australian Computer Society (ACS) by Connection Research, is a detailed analysis of the energy consumption and carbon footprint
of ICT usage in Australia plus an examination of how ICT can act as a low-carbon enabler.

The report includes a number of specific recommendations as to where the initial focus should be, which are; data centre efficiency, reducing printer usage, turning computers off, thinking green, i.e. adopting a general energy-saving attitude to ICT, and using ICT to reduce carbon emissions in other areas.

• Greening your Business with Technology from the Australian Information Industry Association (AIIA) is more about what companies can do to reduce emissions. It’s designed to give decision makers the information to make informed choices around green IT and includes lots of case studies. It’s divided into five sections to lead readers along the path from initial actions and quick wins through to long term strategies, such as addressing supply chain issues and adopting technologies such as cloud computing.

At the same time, rival programmes of green IT certification have emerged:

• The AIIA and GreenBizCheck have partnered to produce a GreenIT Certification programme called GreenITCheck. The assessment covers four areas; data centres and storage, networks, waste reduction and recycling, and printers and workstations. After a 30 minute assessment companies are provided with an in-depth report containing practical measures to reach Bronze, Silver or Gold certification.

• ComputersOff.ORG (which was behind the recent International Green IT Awareness Week) and Connection Research have announced that they will be cooperating on Green IT accreditation. It will include ComputersOff.ORG’s current end user accreditation programme expanded to include enterprise and data centre issues as well as IT enablement. Further expansion into other areas covered by Connection Research’s Green IT Framework are planned, such as lifecycle/procurement and Green IT metrics.

 

It’s all good stuff and shows that green IT is climbing the business agenda in Australia, although it would be better if there was a concerted joint effort between the ACS and the AIIA. 

As far as the change in leader is concerned, new Prime Minister Julia Gillard has already said that she believes that Australia needs a price on carbon emissions and has started to revive the carbon trading scheme with a promise to consult with industry and voters over the issue. There’s a long way to go, with elections due before next April, but the debate is firmly on the agenda again, which can only boost the visibility of green IT.

FTSE launches carbon-based market indices

The FTSE Group, the company behind various stock exchange indices, last week launched the FTSE CDP Carbon Strategy Index Series, jointly developed with the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP)and carbon benchmarking company ENDS Carbon.

The first two indices are for the UK market: the FTSE CDP Carbon Strategy All-Share Index and the FTSE CDP Carbon Strategy 350 Index. Full details are here, but the indices are ‘carbon-tilted’ versions of the UK’s FTSE All-Share and FTSE 350 indices designed to reflect the risk associated with future carbon costs. In industries where carbon risk has a significant impact on corporate earnings such as aviation and oil and gas, companies will be subject to tilts that are far greater than those in lower risk sectors. It means that the indices will be ‘sector neutral’, rather than excluding companies.

 

Well it just adds to the pressure on companies to address their carbon footprint. To quote the press release ‘Both indices have been designed in response to growing awareness of the significant potential impact of climate change on investment returns’. It means that investors can maintain a wide investment portfolio whilst managing the climate risk.

Expected legislation may be the headline driving force behind much of the corporate attention on carbon emissions, but the impact of investor attitudes is easily as powerful, at least in larger companies. Tools, such as this, that allow investors to make informed decision based on the financial impact of future legislation and other climate change consequences can only add to the pressure and keep green IT at the forefront of corporate minds. 

IBM and Esty form the Sustainability Innovators Working Group

IBM and sustainability consulting firm Esty Environmental Partners (EEP) are the main movers behind the formation of the Sustainability Innovators Working Group “aiming to define and develop state-of-the-art approaches for environmental management and corporate sustainability”.

EEP is the organiser of the group, which comprises thirteen industry-leading companies from various sectors that have already put significant effort into sustainability; Boeing, CH2M Hill, Coca-Cola, Delhaize Group, Disney, Diversey, Dow Chemical Company, FedEx, Johnson & Johnson Consumer Companies, Inc., Shaklee, Unilever, and Xerox.

The idea is that the group will generate new management tools and models for incorporating sustainability more deeply into business strategy and corporate practice.

 

Sounds like a good idea.  No company can do it all, or get it all right, so sharing experiences should benefit everyone. There are a lot of industry forums and other collaborations going on, though, so I hope this isn’t duplicating existing initiatives and that whatever comes out of it is shared outside this select group.

CA has released a new version of its ecoSoftware carbon management tool

CA has announced ecoSoftware 2.0, the latest version of its energy, carbon and sustainability management solution. The solution comprises ecoGovernance, the software-as-a-service based sustainability and carbon management solution, and ecoMeter, which covers the operational energy management side.

In the case of ecoGovernance the reporting framework has been enhanced to allow for faster generation of standard reports.  The software can be used for annual reporting across a range of mandatory and voluntary initiatives, including the UK’s CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme, the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), and the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP). It’s also adapted for the international market, with multiple reporting units, multi-currency reporting and nine languages.

The other half of the solution, CA ecoMeter, uses a dashboard to monitor energy efficiency trends.  Customers can integrate a variety of devices and systems and it now has an enhanced discovery process whereby the system automatically discover devices with which it can communicate.  ecoMeter integrates with traditional building management systems.

 

ecoSoftware sounds like a pretty comprehensive tool and CA seems to be putting a lot behind it, but it’s not clear how successful it’s been.  The company had a high profile sale to Tesco last September, US co-location company Datotel is a customer, and at the same time as this announcement UK-based IT solutions provider Logicalis said it had chosen ecoSoftware to improve its governance and operational management of energy and carbon. But I would have expected more high-profile announcements by now.

CEOs see sustainability as critical to success - Accenture

The UN Global Compact and Accenture have released the findings of what they say is the largest CEO research study on corporate sustainability.  In all 766 CEOs around the globe were surveyed for the report, with extensive interviews with 50 of the largest companies. (The UN Global Compact is a voluntary organisation whose aim is to get companies around the world to align their strategies and operations with ten universal principles in the areas of human rights, labour, environment and anti-corruption).

The headline finding was that 93% of corporate CEOs see sustainability as critical to the future success of their companies. Furthermore, CEOs believe that, within a decade, sustainability could be fully integrated within the core business.

 

 

According to the survey, A New Era of Sustainability: UN Global Compact-Accenture CEO Study 2010, 80% of the CEOs say the downturn has raised the importance of sustainability because it leads to cost efficiencies and revenue growth. It is also seen as a critical element in driving growth in new markets. 

However, less than half indicated that sustainability informs their discussions with financial analysts. While CEOs believe their sustainability activities have a positive impact on their company’s valuation, quantifying that value with traditional metrics is difficult.

 

 

The survey found that brand, trust and reputation were, by some margin, the main drivers for acting on sustainability, followed by the potential for revenue growth and cost reduction (44%) and personal motivation (42%).

On the downside, barriers to achieving sustainability goals include the complexity of implementing a strategy across business functions (49%), competing strategic priorities (48%) and the lack of recognition from the financial markets (34%).

 

There’s lots more in the report, but it’s clear from the above findings that CEOs of large companies are generally on board with the sustainability issue, although there is still some work to do to bring round the investors and the rest of the company (although the extent will vary by industry sector). The research also reinforces the findings of other studies that the personal motivation of the CEO is a determining factor in a company going green.

But if sustainability is to be fully integrated within the core business then there will need to be extensive changes to IT systems to accommodate a variety of sustainability initiatives as well as measuring, monitoring and management. The survey had even more to say on green IT with the finding that 91% of CEOs would employ new technologies to address sustainability issues over the next five years.

Given how ubiquitous IT is in any major corporation, adding a sustainability layer across all systems (and adding some new ones) is a significant IT challenge. Not many IT departments have yet faced up to the implications, but then they have had other things on their minds for the last couple of years.

And while much of this data comes from large corporations, the influence and impact will inevitably (and quickly) filter down to smaller companies for whom green IT is, as yet, hardly on the horizon.

Dell has opened an online green IT store for US customers

Dell has announced, via its Direct2Dell blog (‘about Dell products, services and customers’) that it has opened a Green Store. The idea is to make it easier to find Dell products that help save energy and minimise environmental impact.

The Green Store includes a range of products — laptops, desktops, servers, printers, monitors and accessories — that are environmentally friendly. Whilst most products are from Dell, there are other brands of peripherals and accessories, for example, Belkin, Netgear, Sony and Western Digital.

Every Dell-branded product in the store has some environmental certification, such as EnergyStar, EPEAT, Blue Angel or TCO. When there isn’t an appropriate certification the company makes it’s own assessment based on material used in manufacture, energy efficiency, packaging, recyclability and power management features.

At the same time, Dell announced further enhancements to its recycling programme in the US. Customers who choose the recycling option when they purchase their new Dell computer online will also receive a letter which directs them to www.dell.com/recycle, where they can print a shipping label. An old computer can be sent back free using the label.

 

The introduction of the Green Store may be more significant than it first appears. The store allows people to just look for environmentally friendly products – green IT - rather than giving individual items some sort of rating in amongst all the other offerings. It signals the arrival of the ‘green only’ purchaser, with suppliers catering specifically for this market.

Birmingham airport uses Google Earth to help pass on environmental messages

People and businesses located near Birmingham Airport in the UK can now use Google Earth to find out about its flight paths, noise insulation scheme, air quality monitoring and other environmental programmes.

Ben Hanley, the Airport’s Environment Manager, said, “We’re always seeking new ways to communicate our initiatives and information, and this new Google Earth tool allows key environmental information to be viewed in ways that were not previously possible, giving our neighbours a better insight into our programmes”.

Users just have to install Google Earth on their computer and then download a KMZ file from the Birmingham airport website.  They can then view the various layers of airport information, which link back to associated sections of the Airport’s website.

 

A great idea and good PR for the airport, which is the UK’s sixth largest. From experience, there are always issues around flight paths and aircraft noise, so having a clear reference point and supporting information can only be good. 

As one who lives near Luton airport, I wish all airports were as helpful as Birmingham seems to be. Airports can never, by their nature, be environmentally friendly, but they can at least work with local communities to limit some of the damage.

Sustain4 revisited – fast AND accurate environmental assessment

Well I’ve just heard from David Turner, Group Marketing Director at Unit 4, who pointed out that I’d only got half the story with my comments earlier.

It seems that Sustain4 not only gives you the quick snapshot of your environmental impact and so where to focus reduction efforts, but it also has the capability to be continually refined with actual measurement. Additional data from a finance system can be loaded (procurement data, for example) or direct measurement from carbon accounting or product environmental lifecycle analysis can be added.

There’s also a supplier management portal where you can get suppliers to sign up and input their information to create their own environmental footprints, and so on up the supply chain, which gives an increasingly accurate picture of your environmental impacts.

 

On that basis, my reservations about Sustain4 are clearly unfounded.  In fact it looks like a good option for companies that want to quickly address their environmental impact but have no immediate need for detailed numbers – that can come later. After all, taking action needs to be the priority.

Sustain4 offers a fast environmental performance management solution – but is it enough?

Mid-market ERP supplier Unit4 Business Software has announces Sustain4, which it describes as ‘the fastest and most reliable Environmental Performance Management solution for business’.

The software was developed in partnership with environmental impact specialists Trucost and it makes use of Trucost’s database and model to assess and benchmark an organisation’s environmental impacts based on readily available financial and business data. Using this basic information about a business – industry sector, turnover, geography, operations, employees etc. – it provides an environmental impact assessment based on similar businesses in its database.  Sustain4 users can generate an initial ‘Skyline’ report immediately with a clear quantitative understanding of their organisation’s impact.

 

 

Sustain4 apparently works across more than 700 areas of environmental impact, from greenhouse gas production to water usage, based on assessments from thousands of organisations across 464 industries. Users can benchmark themselves against other organisations as well as capture, analyse and track their ongoing performance across their entire supply chain.

UNIT4 apparently has the exclusive rights to provide this data in the UK local government, higher and further education sectors (it has a strong local government focus in the UK). The company has also developed a service offering to accompany Sustain4, supporting customers in developing and implementing environmental or CSR strategies.

Following an initial UK launch, UNIT4 plans to launch and market the solution around the world.

 

This sounds like a useful solution for companies and organisations that want pointers to the best place to start to address energy use and emissions, but don’t want to spend too long on the assessment.  I have reservations about its usefulness in the longer term, though. Companies and organisations are different, so the result can only be approximate, not ideal for reporting emissions under regulatory or voluntary schemes.  It also means that there is no accurate measure, specific to the company, from which to assess any gains from environmental initiatives.

Environmental impact assessments are only going to get more precise and detailed, so companies will quickly be looking for a solution that gives an accurate, individual measure that can be updated over time.  A more specialised green ICT solution may be the best answer for many, although cost will clearly be an issue for smaller companies that, as yet, don’t need to be that precise.

Green ICT in the UK will be impacted by the government’s ‘fundamental’ waste management review

The UK government has announced a fundamental review of ‘all existing waste policies’.  It came in a speech by environment secretary Caroline Spelman at the Futuresource waste and sustainability conference and exhibition in London's Docklands last week.

Whilst progress in the UK has been significant in recent years (the amount of waste sent to landfill has gone down by over a third since 2001, households now recycle over 38% of their waste compared to only 9% ten years ago and recycling from green waste has gone up 13% in the last decade) the government believes the UK needs to go faster and further. 

The review, which is expected to produce preliminary findings by next Spring, will look at every aspect of waste policy and waste management delivery in England (Wales and Scotland have their own policies), including household and business waste and recycling services. The ultimate objective is to establish a zero waste economy.

Such a fundamental review is likely to throw up new compliance requirements and other waste/recycling management issues that will have a significant impact on ICT offerings in the market as well as representing a new opportunity for suppliers.

 

As it happens I was at the Futuresource exhibition later in the week to have a look at what green ICT is contributing to an evolving waste/recycling sector. In amongst the huge waste compactors and stylish recycle bins were a number of software companies whose aim in life is to make the whole recycle/disposal process as efficient as possible.

Companies exhibiting included:

• Whitespace describes itself as the market leader in the supply of environmental services software solutions to UK local authorities and their contractors. The product portfolio covers waste collection and disposal, environmental services, contract management and full PFI management.

• German company IVU Traffic Technologies supplies systems for running transport and logistics with a solution specifically aimed at the waste management sector.

• Isys Interactive Systems claims to be a market leader in the supply of waste and recycling solutions, with a range of applications that can run independently or as a suite of software. 

• And CMS Supatrak keeps track of the vehicles and helps instil better driving habits.

 

Particularly interesting is The Environment Exchange, which provides a platform for trading in Packaging Recovery Notes (PRNs) and Waste Equipment Evidence and Trade Notes (WENs).  It’s a company that only exists because UK legislation has generated the requirement.

WENs are the evidence that recovery and recycling has been achieved under the Waste Electronic and Electrical Equipment (WEEE) Regulations. 

PRNs have a similar role in the Packaging and Packaging Waste legislation 2007.  Companies are obliged to recover and recycle packaging to meet national targets if they have a turnover of £2m or more and handle 50 tonnes or more of packaging a year.  Since most companies can’t meet their obligation through their own recycling efforts, the PRN system enables them to pay for the recovery and recycling of an equivalent amount of packaging and so offset their obligation. However, the PRN scheme is already under review. 

Actually, in her speech at Futuresource Caroline Spelman specifically referred to the packaging issue; “And I want business and manufacturers to redouble their efforts to drive down the waste generated by production and the amount of packaging they use – some of which is, if we’re honest, actually marketing material”. No, really?

Telepresence technology brings big emissions savings, and more ….

The Carbon Disclosure Project has released the results of a study into the use of telepresence technology.  ‘The Telepresence Revolution’ was sponsored by AT&T and produced by analyst firm Verdantix based on detailed case study evidence from 15 Global 500 companies that are early adopters.

One of the main conclusions is that US and UK businesses with annual revenues of more than $1bn can, between them, cut nearly 5.5 million metric tons of CO2 emissions by 2020 through the use of almost 10,000 telepresence units. This is equivalent to the annual greenhouse gas emissions from over one million passenger vehicles.

For the individual $1bn business (apparently the typical market for telepresence today) implementing four telepresence rooms would:

• Achieve a return on investment in just 15 months

• Save nearly 874 business trips in the first year

• Reduce emissions by 2,271 metric tons over five years—the equivalent of removing 434 passenger vehicles from the road for a year.

 

The savings are impressive, but there are other business benefits. The study showed that telepresence technology can help speed decision-making, improve employee productivity, and provide workers with a better work-life balance. 

“Companies that invest in carbon cutting technologies and re-engineer the way they do business will not only be better placed to succeed as we transition to a low-carbon economy but can experience considerable business benefits during this transition,” said CDP chief executive officer Paul Dickinson. “Telepresence is a good example of a low-carbon solution that can bring financial savings and increase productivity while reducing emissions.”

So you’re not just saving the world, your improving the business and keeping employees sane.  But probably more importantly in today’s world, your saving an awful lot of money (in time and travel costs).

Sleeping in Seattle – Microsoft Research helps PCs switch off for longer periods

One of the challenges of Green IT is making sure that desktop PCs in offices are not using power when they’re not needed.  That means using power management software to put machines into sleep mode (better still, turning them off at night).  But it’s not always straightforward in offices where access from remote locations may be needed.

Microsoft Research has come up with a solution that allows desktops to be put into sleep mode whilst ensuring that remote users can connect to the sleeping machines and IT administrators and automated scripts can execute maintenance tasks.  It has already deployed the solution for six months internally, with 50 active users

Full details are here, but the basic idea is that a proxy representing the desktop allows the machine to pretend to be available on the network even when sleeping.  All traffic meant for the sleeping client is sent to the proxy. The desktop is woken up automatically when needed by a user or an automated script, i.e. it only wakes for certain specified traffic.

Microsoft says that the approach made significant energy savings, with most machines sleeping over 50% of the time while maintaining their network accessibility.

The downside was that Microsoft found that much potential sleep was lost due to interference from IT management tasks.  The company sees fixing this issue as the main path to improving energy savings and some suggestions are made in the paper.  It’s also going to get more complicated if cloud-based applications become more widely adopted - more specialised proxy reaction policies will be needed.

 

Microsoft is not the only one looking into this area, but believes it’s the first one to put a solution to the test.  It’s a worthwhile process.  The company says that a typical desktop with a 17 inch LCD consumes over 100W when powered on, while a sleeping computer consumes only 2-3W.  But as with all things technology, solving one part of the problem raises other issues.  The next improvement may be more down to better processes and procedures for remote desktop maintenance.

New data centres chase PUE ratings

eBay has opened its new corporate data centre, code named Topaz.  With a budget of $287m it is the single largest infrastructure investment the company has made.  In 2009, the total worth of goods sold on eBay was over $60bn, over $2000 a second, so the data centre pretty much is the business.

The data centre, located outside Salt Lake City, Utah was designed to be concurrently maintainable and fault tolerant - Tier IV level.  It’s apparently 50% less expensive to operate than the average of all eBay’s other data centres and 30% more efficient than the best.  It’s designed to a PUE of 1.4, with rain water, collected in a 400,000 gallon cistern, the primary cooling source.  It uses a water side economiser, which means that outside air cools the data centre for more than half the year.

But being fault tolerant is a big issue.  In a blog on www.datacentreplus.org Dean Nelson, eBay’s senior director of Global Data Centre Strategy says “Now, I don’t want to go into the religious debate of who has the lowest PUE, but I do want to point one thing out.  In the business of on-line commerce, we do not have a choice but to build a highly available data centre to support our customers.  From my perspective, achieving a 1.4 PUE with a hard requirement to meet this level of redundancy is quite an accomplishment”.

Meanwhile, UK-based Keysource has built what it claims to be the UK's most efficient data centre in Weybridge, Surrey for Petroleum Geo-Services (PGS).  PGS was primarily looking for a design that would drive down energy usage and minimise running costs.  The data centre is the first facility to adopt Keysource’s ecofris technology, which it claims can reduce the energy cost of operating data centres by more than 45%.

Ecofris seems to be a about combining cooling solutions with the use of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) software to ensure that the rack layout and server airflow requirements are optimally matched with the air handling equipment.  Anyway, the result is an annualised Power Usage Efficiency (PUE) measurement of 1.17 ‘significantly below the UK average of 2.2’.  Conversely, the facility also has a DCiE of 85%, which means that 85% of the total power being consumed by the data centre is powering the IT equipment.  After 12 months of operation, the data centre has achieved a 6.7 million kWh reduction in annual power consumption and 2.9 million kg reduction in annual CO2 emissions compared to PGS previous facility.

 

So there you are.  I make the comparison to the highlight the issues around data centre efficiencies.  For eBay, fault tolerance is high on the agenda, as you would expect, so you might also expect some overhead of energy use to maintain reliability.  For Keysource/PGS, efficient running is the core requirement and some of the efficiency gains seem to be down to attention to data centre airflow management, over and above the cooling used. 

So as well as a debate about how fault-tolerant a data centre can be and needs to be, there are many variables related to cooling sources, internal layout, use of waste heat, use of renewable energy, etc. that make comparisons between data centres, in terms of how environmentally-friendly they are, very problematic. 

Nevertheless, however crude the metrics they do provide a green IT measure against which data centre operators at least have to defend themselves, and which at best drives innovation.

Australia awards the contract for a smart grid demonstration project

The Australian government has announced that Newcastle will be the site of Australia’s first commercial-scale smart grid.  Due to start in mid 2010, the $100m Smart Grid Smart City demonstration project will test smart grid technologies and ensure their suitability for Australian conditions.  It is expected to lead to the introduction of smart grids across Australia.

A consortium led by EnergyAustralia and including IBM Australia, AGL, GE Energy, TransGrid, Newcastle City Council and the NSW Government, was the winning bidder.

Minister for Climate Change, Energy Efficiency and Water, Senator Penny Wong said that “Smart grids are critical in the fight against climate change, as they have enormous potential to improve the efficiency of our electricity sector and transform the way we use energy in our homes and businesses. If smart grid applications are adopted around Australia they could deliver a reduction of 3.5 megatonnes of carbon emissions per annum.”

 

Expect to see many more of these sorts of demonstration projects around the world with consortiums forming and reforming to make their bids.  There’s significant opportunity in this market, so ICT companies will want to gain experience and establish their credentials.  It’s no surprise that IBM is involved in Australia, smart cities/smart grids (pretty much smart anything) is the company’s Green IT focus. 

Verdiem makes waves in California with its PC management software

Verdiem, the PC Power Management and Green IT enterprise software company, is in the news again with the announcement that a number of Californian state agencies have deployed the company’s power management software.

Governor Schwarzenegger has issued an executive order that energy use from IT operations should be reduced by 30% by 2012.  Consequently, a number of agencies, municipalities, schools and universities have deployed Verdiem's PC power management solution on nearly 70,000 PCs with the goal of reducing PC energy consumption by up to 60%.

Verdiem also also released a white paper, entitled ‘Immediate, Measurable Results For Meeting The California Government Mandate’ which is available here.

Jeremy Jaech, CEO of Verdiem said that "PC power management has proven to be a potent method for achieving fast and tangible reductions in energy consumption and carbon emissions."

Nearly fifteen utilities in California also offer rebates for the purchase and deployment of Verdiem's software. The rebate commonly covers the full cost of purchase, providing an immediate return on investment.

 

Reducing the energy and emissions from IT is a challenge, but there are a lot of easy solutions and PC power management is one of them.  Return on investment can be very rapid (even immediate in California), leaving little or no excuse for not taking action.  This use of Verdiem’s solution across California should help get the message out.

It’s not the only company focussing on this aspect of Green IT of course, and government organisations are seen as a prime target because of their own emissions reduction targets and because they set an example to the rest of industry.  1E, the main rival to Verdiem, has separate US and UK government pages on its web site to help capitalise on the opportunity.

By the way, those of you wondering what happened with California’s Proposition 16 vote, which I wrote about this time last week, will be relieved to know that it was defeated by a narrow majority (52%).  It means that local governments can continue to build their own municipal utilities to the benefit of local communities.  Whether any of the many local ICT companies, who stand to gain from the vote actually got involved is not clear.

Energy Star certification for data centres has arrived

US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has announced the availability of the Energy Star label for stand-alone data centres and buildings that house large data centres. 

It’s been some time in the development and we provided some background back in February, but the bottom line is that to earn the label, data centres must be in the top 25% in energy efficiency according to EPA’s energy performance scale.

The EPA uses the Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) metric as the basis for qualification.  A ‘licensed professional’ must independently verify the energy performance and sign and seal the application document that is sent to EPA for review and approval.

 

It’s a welcome introduction.  According to the EPA, data centres use 1.5% of total US electricity consumption and it’s growing every year.  Improving the energy efficiency of US data centres by just 10% would save enough energy to power more than 350,000 homes and save more than $450m annually.

This certification adds to the Energy Star labelling for servers introduced a year ago and gives an independent means to assess how green IT infrastructure and data centres are.  Energy Star certification has been widely adopted outside the US, so it will be interesting to see whether the same happens with data centre certification, particularly since there is also an EU Code of Conduct for Data Centres.

IES partners with Google SketchUp to offer integrated sustainable building design software

Integrated Environmental Solutions (IES) has partnered with Google SketchUp, the 3D modelling tool, around sustainable low-energy building design. 

The two companies have been partners for some time, but by solidifying the existing relationship they hope to encourage wide-spread, low-energy sustainable building design and provide the tools needed.

 

 

 

IES already has a plug-in that links its VE building performance analysis and simulation software to the SketchUp platform, a widely used 3D tool for early stage building design.  As part of the partnership, a discount on SketchUp Pro licences is being offered to all IES VE users, including users of the free IES VE-Ware energy and carbon calculation tool.

The integration between SketchUp and IES is seen as addressing the need for performance analysis across a range of areas such as energy, carbon, water, climate impact, solar and daylight at very early design stages in order to achieve low-energy sustainable building design.

Ian Walker head of Environmental Engineering at Architects’ Broadway Malyan is quoted as saying: “Potentially, I think that this development could be as significant for the building design industry as the introduction of AutoCAD in the late 80’s – it might just be the catalyst to joining up environmental thinking between the architect and engineer. The only successful way to approach sustainable design is through integration across the entire design process.”

 

I’m not an expert on building design software, but if this collaboration did produce something as influential as AutoCAD then it has the potential to change the face of the industry.

What appeals to me, though, is the coming together of the two companies.  Both have a lot to offer but can be much more effective if they join forces.  One of my long-standing appeals to the green ICT sector is for companies not to try and do things on their own.  Environmental issues are broad and complex and no company can (or should) try and be all things to all people.  In any case, in such a fast moving sector partnerships are the only real way to keep up with the market dynamics.

Businesses lack the software to effectively track their environmental impact

Software company IFS has conducted a survey in the US, Scandinavia and Benelux that indicates that companies lack the necessary systems for tracking their environmental impact.

According to IFS, research data suggest that organisations need to make wholesale changes to their business technology to keep up with these rapidly advancing mandates.  The Executive Summary is here, but among the findings were:

- Over three quarters of companies consider it important to track their environmental profile—including 83% in the US, 82% in Scandinavia and 79% in Benelux.

- Nearly three quarters of European respondents (74% in Scandinavia, 75% in Benelux) admitted to not having sufficient enterprise resources planning (ERP) software in place to track their environmental footprint.  The figure was lower in the US, only 47% said they didn’t have the necessary enterprise software, with 42% claiming some limited capability.  However, although interest in including environmental tracking in ERP software is high, many respondents could not name ERP vendors that included this specific functionality.

 

 

-When asked what were the most important reasons for using ERP with environmental functionality, 35% of respondents in Scandinavia said the marketing value was uppermost, ahead of regulatory compliance (22%) and cost cutting (19%).  However, respondents in Benelux and the US put environmental compliance first (36% in the US, 34% in Benelux), ahead of marketing and cost reduction benefits.

- In each of the regions questioned, there were different priorities for the environmental measures being tracked. In Scandinavia, CO2 emissions are the most tracked (20%), in Benelux, solid waste (57%), and in the USA, product lifecycle (50%)

 

As might be expected, the survey was conducted by a company with a prior interest in the results – IFS has its Eco-footprint Management tool that provides environmental impact information.  But it does make interesting reading and, given the lack of awareness of enterprise software solutions, offers some encouragement to the specialist carbon management/ environmental monitoring software specialists.

What it does highlight is the diverse requirements of users.  The main focus of the software – emissions, product lifecycle, etc. - and the reasons for tracking – marketing, legislation, etc. – vary by country.  Those software suppliers in the market for the long term will need comprehensive solutions that fit with a range of market requirements.  But it’s a huge green IT market opportunity.

Carbonetworks changes name to ENXSuite

Carbonetworks has adopted a new name in what seems to be a move away from the narrow focus on carbon markets.  The company used to describe itself as a software platform that helps companies create effective carbon emissions strategies that reduce costs and capitalise on emerging global markets.

The new name is ENXSuite and the new identity is aimed at reflecting “the company’s broad customer adoption as an energy performance management provider”.  Basically, this is a broader view of resources, including energy, greenhouse gases, carbon, water, waste and other energy sources, all of which are analysed in the same way other business assets are managed, i.e. turning complex data into useful intelligence to improve business decision-making.

Founder and CTO Michael Meehan said “Our new identity will enable us to continue demonstrating the financial benefits of reducing a company’s impact on the environment through carbon and energy reductions for its business, its customers and the environment. Companies are really starting to recognise that their energy use is a tangible asset that can be managed just like sales data – which means it can be measured, managed and monetised.”

At the same time, the company announced it has hired Beatriz Infante as CEO and secured further funding.

 

I guess this shouldn’t be entirely unexpected.  The specialist carbon management companies face strong competition from established financial and ERP players, the likes of SAP and Oracle, so can’t afford to stand still for long.  The name distances the company from the narrow carbon focus and implies a broader remit, particularly becoming a ‘suite’ – much more enterprise-friendly – and additional funding will help build the broader product appeal.

Survey shows continuing priority of managing energy use in commercial buildings

Johnson Controls has released the results of a survey of 2,800 decision-makers in 37 countries responsible for managing commercial buildings and their energy.  The company says that this sector represents 40% of the world’s energy consumption and one third of all global greenhouse gas emissions.

Highlights include:

• Energy management is considered a priority among commercial decision-makers (90%) across all regions.  Respondents from India (85%) and China (80%) were more likely to consider energy management ‘very’ or ‘extremely’ important that those in Europe and North America (55% and 53% respectively).

• Globally, 63% plan to make capital investments in energy efficiency and 70% plan operating budget expenditures in efficiency programs over the next 12 months.

In the UK:

• 23% consider energy management ‘extremely’ important compared to 16% in the US, 15% in Germany, 14% in France, 14% Pan-Europe.

• 57% say their goal for new construction projects is for them to be certified to a recognised green standard

• 51% say they have invested the same or more in energy efficiency (compared with previous levels) during the recession.

 

 

Motivations differ from region to region, but cost savings is consistently the most important factor driving investments with 97% of respondents identifying it as significant.  The survey found that decision-makers expect a 9% increase in energy price over the next year.  After cost savings, lowering greenhouse gas emissions is the second most important motivator for energy efficiency in all regions (74%) except North America, where boosting public image (63%) and taking advantage of government/utility incentives (62%) rank higher.

“In contrast to other regions, existing legislation was one of the top three factors in Europe. We believe it is indicative of the region’s leadership in energy and climate legislation compared to other parts of the world where the prospect for binding legislation remains uncertain,” said Clay Nesler, vice president, Global Energy and Sustainability.

 

It’s encouraging news that there continues to be significant focus on managing energy use in buildings, since it represents a significant on-going opportunity for ICT players.

The Smart 2020 report pointed out that ICT offers a major
opportunity to reduce emissions from this sector by 15% in 2020, through improved design, more efficient heating, ventilation and air conditioning, lighting automation, etc.  A number of ICT companies are focusing on the opportunities in the sector as part of their green ICT offerings.

The fact that India and China see energy management as more important than their counterparts in Europe and the US probably reflects a greater awareness due to the rapid urbanisation in those countries.  It demonstrates the potential advantage that developing countries have in designing efficient buildings from the ground up, rather than retrofitting.  It also shows the greater short-term opportunities for ICT companies in the developing world.

ICT companies remain silent on California’s Prop 16

For those who don’t know, there’s currently a battle going on in California over control of clean energy provision.  It will have significant impact on IT companies, but they are being strangely quiet. 

The issue centres around Community Choice Aggregation (CCA) a law in several US states that allows local governments to purchase power to sell to residents and to build their own electricity generation facilities.  It means that they can become competitors to private utilities and hence have some influence over the source of energy and the move to clean power.

Now Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) is putting huge amounts of money into sponsoring Proposition 16, an amendment to the Californian Constitution that would require a two thirds majority before a public agency could form a CCA.  If the proposition is passed it would severely limit the ability of local authorities to have any influence over the power market and hamper the move to clean energy and technology.

But IT companies are noticeably absent from the debate, as Greenpeace pointed out in a recent article.  Many have a vested interest in the growth of clean technology and are also very aware that open competition is the best route to innovation.  But the likes of Google, HP and Oracle, resident in California, have not only said little on the subject but don’t seem to have objected to the fact that trade organisations to which they belong are supporting the proposition.

 

I’ve made the point in the past that ICT companies should be more vocal in their support for a move to a greener environment.  It’s not just about PR, there’s significant business for IT companies enabling the rest of the economy become more sustainable.  But there continues to be reluctance by many companies to be explicit in their views, at least at the local level. 

To be fair, as Greenpeace points out, many IT companies recently wrote to President Obama asking for greater consumer access to energy use data from utilities, but the concern doesn’t seem to extend to on-the-ground involvement in the Californian debate.  Given that this is a battle between well-funded private industry (PG&E is said to have put $46m into the campaign) and taxpayers money, anything that ICT companies could do would have helped, and potentially paid for itself in the long-run with community clean-tech projects.

But there’s little time left.  The ballot takes place next Tuesday.

Pike Research predicts huge growth in the sales of carbon management software and services to the US federal government.

Back in January we reported on Pike Research’s carbon management software and services market forecasts, now they have released a similar report just covering the US federal government.  The company sees the sector as offering one of the best prospects for carbon management software and service providers in the coming years.

According to Pike Research the US is facing a lot of pressure to manage and reduce its energy use and CO2 emissions, fuelled by an array of market forces and changing economic, national and international conditions. 

US federal agencies will be obliged to take action to manage their emissions.  But agencies own 500,000 buildings, more than 600,000 vehicles and spend $500bn on goods and services annually, so there will be a huge requirement for software to keep track.

 

The company forecasts that the compound annual growth rate for carbon management in the US federal government sector will be almost 46% between 2008 and 2017, but will reach an eye-watering 93% in 2010 and 78% in 2011.

The report looks at trends, forecasts and market size and growth prospects as well as the competitive landscape.  There’s more information here.

 

All I would say is that you could probably make exactly the same comments about any country in the world, or if not now, then within the next year or two.  Governments will need to lead by example in reducing emissions, so government agencies will need the tools to monitor and manage them. 

The impression at the moment is that many governments around the world have not even started any systematic approach to emissions management.  (That certainly seems to be the case in the UK, but more of that later).  When they do they’ll soon realise that they need the right tools for the job.

But with the sort of growth that Pike Research is talking about there’s likely to be a feeding frenzy of solutions providers in the coming months.  That’s likely to result in a change in the competitive landscape as established, enterprise players compete with smaller, specialist suppliers and the winners and losers emerge.  Consolidation won’t be far behind.

Cisco launches first purpose-built smart grid solutions

Cisco has announced the first offerings in its Connected Grid smart grid communications portfolio.  These are ruggedised substation routers and switches that integrate Internet Protocol (IP)-based communications with the power grid for intelligent grid monitoring and control.

The Connected Grid Router 2010 (CGR 2010) and Connected Grid Switch 2520 (CGR 2520) are the first in a purpose-built family of products aimed at providing end-to-end, standards-based communications solutions for the smart grid.  Together they provide the ability to capture and analyse information in near-real-time from multiple intelligent electronic devices in the substation, which helps utilities manage and maintain equipment and identify, isolate and, in some cases, automatically repair faults.

 

It’s all part of Cisco’s smart grid strategy – there’s more on their web site.  Suffice to say the company sees extensive opportunities in the smart grid market.  If it could establish anything like the role in smart grids as it has in the internet infrastructure it could be a huge opportunity for the company, but competing providers and solutions make that problematic.  Cisco is making inroads internationally, though, customers include Southern California Edison, E.ON in Germany and Italy’s Enel.   

Digital Realty Trust launches the first packaged data centre energy monitoring and management solution

Digital Realty Trust ‘the world's largest wholesale data centre provider’ has launched PowerVU, a tool designed to help customers increase data centre energy efficiency and reduce power costs.  It’s apparently the industry's first packaged solution for centralised monitoring and management of data centre power consumption, energy efficiency and load analysis.

PowerVU tracks and displays energy usage by metered component and displays actual power demand and usage on a dashboard.  The software also provides a graphical display of PUE and its components - utility input and UPS output – so that energy efficiency can be measured daily, monthly and annually.  Usage can also be analysed down to component level.

PowerVU will become a standard component in all new turn-key  data centres from Digital Realty Trust.

Jim Smith, Chief Technology Officer of Digital Realty Trust made the point that "Until now outsourced providers have not offered much in the way of support to meet customers' energy efficiency initiatives. We developed PowerVU to give customers a packaged solution that consolidates critical information and helps them take the appropriate steps to effectively reduce energy consumption".

 

It’s a point well made.  Those that operate data centres will increasingly need effective tools to monitor, manage and report emissions, so it’s going to be important to have some solution like this in place.  Data centre power use will be an increasing focus as legislation spreads, such as the CRC Energy Efficiency scheme that was recently implemented in the UK.  Data centre energy will be a critical component in determining whether a company is in or out of the scheme.  We’re likely to see a lot more solutions like this emerge.

PE International gets the first GRI Software and Tools Program certification

PE International’s corporate sustainability solution SoFi has become the first software verified by the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI).

GRI is the organisation that has pioneered the development of a sustainability reporting framework.  It’s aim is to make the disclosure on economic, environmental and social performance as commonplace and comparable as financial reporting.

 

The GRI program for certifying software and digital tools started in the beginning of 2010 and aims to ensure the correct usage of GRI content, such as the GRI Sustainability Reporting Framework.   Certification means that PE’s product includes GRI copyright protected content and its accuracy is verified by GRI.

The product in question, SoFi, is a comprehensive solution for environmental management, CSR, corporate carbon footprinting and emissions management.  PE International describes its key benefits as a company-wide database for reporting and managing sustainability performance, an easy-to-use web-based solution and the fact that it’s backed up by 20 years of consulting experience.

GRI itself held its global conference on sustainability and transparency in Amsterdam last week.  During the opening session its Chief Executive Ernst Ligteringen outlined two goals for the organisation for the next decade:

• Environmental, social, and governance (ESG) reporting should become a general practice to help markets and society take informed and responsible decisions. GRI advocates that by 2015 all large and medium-sized companies in OECD countries and fast-growing emerging economies should be required to report publicly on their ESG performance, or if they don’t, explain why.

• Secondly, GRI proposes that ESG reporting and financial reporting need to converge over the coming decade. GRI advocates that a standard for integrated reporting should be defined, tested and adopted by 2020.

 

GRI is slowly but surely gaining acceptance in the corporate CSR world and could well become the de-facto reporting standard.  Its new goals will get a lot of support from environmental, financial and investment organisations and accepted environmental and accounting policy will inevitable move in that direction over time. 

As a result, conforming to GRI standards is likely to become a requirement for CSR software tools in the future, particularly if it becomes a more widespread standard.  This is a complex market, though, with a host of organisations and governments making reporting demands, so it’s likely that solutions will need to conform to a variety of standards and requirements for the foreseeable future.  On the other hand, it’s that complexity that largely dictates the need for the tools in the first place.