- Dell vague on Vista-friendliness of its Energy Star 4.0 PCs
- CO2 spewer? See you in court!
- IBM crafts carbon-measuring toolset, 'cold battery'
- Via packs PC power into minute, efficient motherboard
- Thinking green? Think thin
- HP gives WWF $2 million in tech, cash for climate-change research
- 'Green to Gold' author, IT execs to dole out tips at Interop
- Using Yahoo makes your city greener?
- Green demands trickle down the supply chain
- Report: Vendors' green messages are loud, but not clear
May 31, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Dell vague on Vista-friendliness of its Energy Star 4.0 PCs
Dell offers OptiPlex variants that meet the new standard and run Vista -- but which ones and how well?
Ever since HP announced its Energy Star 4.0 PCs earlier this year, I've wondered if any hardware vendor out there would be able to produce a business-worthy ES 4.0-compliant system not just simply capable of running Windows Vista -- but running it well.
Currently, HP's ES 4.0-configured systems just ship with XP -- even though the company "recommends Vista" all over the PC-sales areas of its Web site. When I spoke to the company about that last March, they basically told me that they hadn't devised a way to design a system that good meet Vista's system requirements and user needs while still meeting the wattage limits to bear the Energy Star 4.0 distinction. (Higher-end components such as processors and cards boost a system's energy consumption, even when it's in sleep mode.)
Now Dell announced this week a set of PCs that are Energy Star 4.0-compliant, the OptiPlex 740 and 745. The company touts the systems' included 80-percent-efficient power supplies, as well as their pre-installed Dell Energy Smart Power Management Settings. "Configured with flat panel monitors, these systems can help customers save up to 77 percent in power consumption compared to previous generation systems when combined with Energy Smart power settings," the company says.
Moreover, Dell notes that the system's chassis is "designed specifically for thermal effectiveness, maximizing the OptiPlex's internal fan's performance."
OK, that's great, right? (Right.) But suppose you head over to the OptiPlex page of Dell's Web site in the hopes of ordering one of these lean, green machines. You'll see that, lo, you have the option of ordering a system installed with either XP or Vista. But right below that bit of information, it says that "Select configurations meet Energy Star 4.0 requirements."
Well, good luck in figuring out which configurations that includes. Suppose you have your heart set on Vista. Once you click the "Customize with Windows Vista" button, you're taken to a screen where you can pick and choose your OS (one of three flavors of Vista: Home, Business, and Ultimate); processor; memory; optical device; video card; and so forth.
But after tinkering with a couple of configurations, choosing both the lowest-end option that would meet the bare-bones Vista requirements (more on that in a moment) as well as a higher-end configuration that would certainly run Vista and Aero, it wasn't clear whether or not I'd ended up with a system compliant with ES 4.0.
Now surely that low-end configuration could technically run Vista, but would it run well enough to be of any use? According to Microsoft, all you need for reaping "good" Vista performance is 512MB of RAM, an "integrated or discrete graphics memory," and at least 15GB of free hard drive space. But with that, you can't run Aero, and the company says that OS configuration is "great for booting the operating system -- without running applications or games." I’d wager most companies would prefer an OS that does more than just boot up.
The next level is of Vista performance is "better," which in Vista parlance means you can run basic applications, and Aero is enabled by default. The minimum requirements there: at least a 1GHZ processor, a 128MB graphics card, 1GB of RAM, and a 40GB hard drive -- but with that setup, Microsoft says that Aero performance will suffer if you open too many apps or run your system in dual-monitor mode.
Now, as I said, HP hasn't found a way to meet these Vista requirements in an ES 4.0 configuration -- at least one that it wants to offer business and consumers. And I sure would love to know whether Dell has managed the feat. I suspect people and companies that want or actually are required to purchase Energy Star 4.0-compliant systems would like to know what their options truly are.
But alas, I've been asking the company since yesterday morning for a chance to talk to someone and to get more information, yet no one at Dell seems available to speak with me, for some reason. Maybe I've been blacklisted because I wasn't sufficiently impressed with the company's "Plant a Tree for Me" program?
Posted by Ted Samson on May 31, 2007 04:04 PM
May 31, 2007 | Comments: (0)
A new study finds companies bracing for costly liability lawsuits for contributing to global warming
Carbon monoxide has proven one costly little emission for tobacco companies, as they've had to fork over billions of dollars in liability lawsuits over bodily harm caused by wares. The paint industry also has felt the pain of being held legally liable for the harmful effects of the lead in its products.
Well, now companies, including those in the tech industry, had best beware: Carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are increasingly being linked to global warming. As noted in the recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report, climate change, in turn, is being more conclusively linked to health problems, such as respiratory and coronary disease and heat stress, as well as adverse weather conditions, windstorms, droughts, heat waves, and increased lightning, which can affect an organization's business, either directly or by knocking out a utility or a supplier's operations.
According to a study titled "Limiting Liability in the Greenhouse," the growing awareness of global warming's effects and the threats they pose are a recipe for a new rash of lawsuits against companies that don't take steps to reduce CO2 emissions.
Crazy? Bloody unlikely? The tobacco industry probably felt the same way once upon a time. Some utility companies have already been slapped with lawsuits for contributing to global warming. The recent Supreme Court ruling that GHGs are pollutants that the EPA has the power to regulate just opens the door even wider.
One of the key points made up front in the report is that the authors aren't advocating liability lawsuits as a positive catalyst for positive change. Rather, "litigation reflects a market failure that can be avoided, at least in part, by adequate regulation, proactive reductions of greenhouse gas emissions, and adaptive strategies to prevent damages from climate change."
The report, by the way, was written by an independent trio of experts: Christina Ross, manager of technical services at LaCroix Davis, Evan Mills, staff scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and Sean B. Hecht, executive director of The Environmental Law Center at UCLA School of Law. Available now, it also will appear in a forthcoming joint issue of the Stanford Environmental Law Journal and the Stanford Journal of International Law. It's a well-written, well-researched piece, too, and it makes for some interesting, if not troubling, reading.
Notably, the paper focuses on the insurance industry, but it mentions various industries. The info is undoubtedly relevant to just about any organization.
So let's examine some of the legal risks associated with global climate changes outlined in the study: One potential scenario is that you're a service provider -- maybe a hosted application company, an Internet provider, or an outsourced datacenter. Your local utility loses power due to climate-change-related weather conditions, such as a major hurricane. You can't maintain SLAs for your customers, and you've suddenly got costly legal troubles on your hands.
"Uptime is everything for these companies, and there's going to be more power outages, more stress on the electrical grid, " Mills says. "If IT operators aren't prepared, they may cause financial injuries to third parties."
The authors do offer some mitigation for this scenario. Among them: developing a business continuity plan; searching for alternative energy carriers other than electric, which is "particularly vulnerable,"; and investing in demand-side energy management and on-site power.
Or think Enron, but instead of the CEOs and other higher-ups fudging the financial numbers, they're fudging the data about the company's environmental impact. "Directors and officers' actions (or lack thereof) in managing climate change risks may depress shareholder value, and their disclosures about climate change risks are governed by specific federal laws that may subject them to personal liability," the report notes.
This type of scandal also could leak out to the public, tarnish a company's reputation, and result in a drop in stock prices. Next stop: court.
Another potential legal threat: A company could find itself sued because its products (for the IT industry, a server, perhaps) are less energy efficient than those of its competitors, thus producing more GHGs. A plaintiff could argue that he or she was harmed by climate change due the product's design defects. The report notes that this would be difficult to demonstrate in court, but the company would still incur legal fees (and bad press).
The mitigation here should be pretty obvious, though perhaps easier said than done: Work to stay ahead of the curve in terms of product development. Fortunately, we're seeing plenty of innovation from hardware makers in their server and chip designs.
Alternatively, a company could also find itself being sued for bringing harm to individual or a class, or to a city through pollution, due to its general GHG emissions. This, too, would be difficult to prove in court, but there would be pesky legal fees, increased insurance rates, bad PR, and the like.
One of the mitigations is repeated time and again in the report to address just about every potential legal threat: reduce greenhouse-gas emissions and participate in emissions-offset activities.
Hardly anyone (exceptions might include certain types of lawyers and litigants) wants to see any of the litigation scenarios enumerated in the study (of which I've just scratched the surface). They're all-around bad: bad for business, bad for our health, bad for the environment.
The good news is, there are plenty of ways for companies to reduce the threats and the associated costs. At the same time, cutting your carbon emissions means you're cutting your power consumption, which translates into not just reduced risks but reduced bills.
"Limiting Liability in the Greenhouse" is available here [PDF]. Again, I highly recommend you read it if you're all at concerned about the legal implications of global warming, the impact it might have on your insurance, the future of your business, or global warming.
Posted by Ted Samson on May 31, 2007 12:03 AM
May 25, 2007 | Comments: (0)
IBM crafts carbon-measuring toolset, 'cold battery'
Big Blue reveals more details of Project Big Green, including CO2-measuring tools and an efficient 'cold-storage system'
Like awkward teenage males hitting puberty, more companies are becoming self-conscious of the size of their footprints -- specifically their carbon footprints.
As part of its recently announced billion-dollar Project Big Green iniative, IBM today announced in the United Kingdom plans to offer a toolset for measuring organizations' carbon footprint, available through the company's Zodiac consulting services.
The Zodiac tool draws from a large database "to establish the total power consumption and carbon footprint of a customer's server banks, across all platforms," according to The Inquirer.
IBM also will provide a free questionnaire-based tool on the Web, helping organizations determine the energy efficiency of their data center. Later in the year, the company will deilver a tool to help companies uncover information about government incentives for adopting more energy-efficieny hardware and practices.
"The aim is to not only let customers see the staff and space savings that come from server consolidation, but also the energy and CO2 savings," Steve Bowden, green computing consultant at IBM's Systems and Technology Group, told the UK-based ITweek. "It means firms also have the information they need to offset their emissions if they choose."
The toolset will likely be of interest to companies that are becoming increasingly concerned with greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions such as carbon dioxide, which has been linked to global warming. A recent study from The Conference Board found that 75 percent of organizations are "actively measuring" their carbon footprints. And while 95 percent said they envisioned "a carbon-concerned future creating both business risk and opportunity," just one half said they had a program in place to "actively reduce or offset GHG emissions.
IBM also revealed plans for a new "cold battery," according to the UK reports. Situated between the a company's chiller and HVAC unit, it would act as a cold store: Companies could run their chilling units at full force -- during off-hours, for example -- until the battery was "full," then power them down or off.
The cooling system, due out in the U.S. in July, could HVAC-power consumption by 45 percent, according to reports.
Posted by Ted Samson on May 25, 2007 01:00 PM
May 24, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Via packs PC power into minute, efficient motherboard
Company claims VIA EPIA PX, "world's smallest full-featured x86 mainboard," can run standard apps at under 13W
I'm having a flashback to the Disney film "Aladdin," where the genie proclaims his "phenomenal cosmic power, itty-bitty living space."
Spurring that movie memory: Via's new EPIA PX x86 mainboard, built around the company's recently unveiled Pico-ITX form factor, which measures a mere 10cm x 7.2cm. (The translates to around 4 inches by 2.8 inches, for the metric-systemically challenged.)
According to the company, the board is designed to enable x86 to be built into embedded systems where it was previously impractical for space reasons. It's powered by a 1GHz VIA C7 processor and supports up to 1GB of DDR2 533 SO-DIMM system memory. Its single-chip media processor features VIA's UniChrome Pro II IGP 3D/2D graphics core, MPEG-2/-4, and WMV9 hardware decoding acceleration.
There's also display flexibility, including support for higher-display resolutions of up to HDTV for HD DVD playback.
In addition to a Fast Ethernet controller and a LAN port for networking, the board has the following onboard connectors and I/O:
- Four USB connectors for four ports
- One COM port connector
- One PS2 mouse/keyboard connector
- One LVDS/DVI connector
- One multimedia connector to support external TV-out, video capture port interface and LPC interface
- One audio connector for line-out, line-in, mic-in, S/PDIF in and 7.1 channel audio output
- One CPU fan connector
Not enough? You can tack on the VIA PX-O, a dedicated daughterboard with multiple digital media I/O ports.
Power efficiency is integral to the platform, according to Via. The processor runs at a maximum of 9W and the chipset at 3.5, which the company says "enables the VIA EPIA PX to run standard productivity and multimedia applications at under 13W."
Not only are the low-energy requirements impressive; it's ROHS compliant.
"The VIA EPIA PX mainboard sets a new world standard for ultra compact embedded system platforms, providing a full complement of multimedia and connectivity options on a platform smaller than any standard PC mainboard or x86 system-on-module," said Daniel Wu, assistant vice president for Via's platform solutions division.
For more information, go here.
Posted by Ted Samson on May 24, 2007 03:53 PM
May 24, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Less power hungry than their PC peers, thin clients are garnering greater attention for their green advantages
Verizon CIO John Hinshaw confirmed a juicy green nugget of data in a recent interview: He said the wireless giant has reduced energy consumption by 30% since replacing PCs with Sun Ray thin clients in the company's call centers.
That will translate to a savings of $1 million per year for Verizon, once the company rolls out thin clients (or some "desktop-less" variants) in its remaining data centers.
"Power consumption is more of a hot topic in the U.S. than it has ever been," says Klaus Besier, president and CEO of thin-client vendor Neoware. "What we see with many more customers today is when they look at thin clients, they're taking more into account power consumption and [related] savings."
With their relatively lower energy requirements compared to PCs -- not to mention other eco-advantages like longer lifespan and smaller form factor with fewer parts -- thin clients are worthy of some serious consideration from companies.
Or perhaps I should say "reconsideration." Thin clients, after all, certainly aren't new, and advantages such as easier administration (fewer admin visits to users' desks) and improved security (data's stored remotely) are pretty well recognized. But thin clients continue to mature, as do the essential technologies that make them all the more viable. That includes virtualization (as InfoWorld Chief Technologist Tom Yager has noted), Wi-Fi, embedded OSes, and software as a service.
Thin, trim, and healthy
Combine all those technologies with the very real concerns over power shortages, high energy bills, and global climate change, and it's no surprise that IDC foresees steady 20%-plus year-over-year growth in the thin-client space, with shipments expected to reach 7.3 million in 2011.
"We're expecting positive growth for thin clients based on all the factors you've laid out [i.e. advances of virtualization and 10G, and growing concern about power consumption], as well as ongoing concerns about security and PC management costs," says Bob O'Donnell, program vice president for clients and displays at IDC.
Neoware asserts that companies can save as much as 90% on desktop-computing energy costs by swapping out PCs for thin clients -- depending on what models of hardware you're extracting or implementing, of course. But as an example, a desktop PC consumes as much as 280 watts of power in the amount of time that the high-end Neoware e140 burns up 48. So a company with 1,000 desktops would be spending about $62,000 yearly on power (based on the national KWH rate of $0.0849.), compared to around $10,500 for the clients, according to NeoWare. Savings: Around 50 grand a year per one thousand systems.
For the visually-oriented, here's a chart provided by thin-client vendor Wyse, comparing energy consumption of some of its thin-clients to various PC configurations:
Of course, when you install thin clients, you need servers in the server room to act as their brains. But those power savings are still significant, as noted in a recent report titled "Environmental comparison of PC and thin client equipment" by the Fraunhofer Institute in Germany. "Consumption is at least twice as low, sometimes three or four times lower than the consumption of corresponding PC systems. This applies even with the proportionate offsetting of the energy required by the server and the cooling power required for this," the report says.
Lower energy consumption is one of the clear eco- and monetary benefits. Another green-oriented cost advantage: the life-expectancy of a thin client, compared to a PC. "Thin clients don't need to be upgraded frequently. With thin clients, an OS release does not cause an upgrade to the client, only to the server -- resulting in far less e-waste, since the client can continue to be used longer," says Subodh Bapat, vice president and distinguished engineer for Sun's System Level Energy Strategy, which offers a range of Sun Ray thin clients. "Upgrade cycles of eight to 10 years are common in the thin-client world, as opposed to three to fours years for PCs, with corresponding benefits to the environment in terms of less e-waste."
Speaking of e-waste, Neoware's Besier adds that "Without moving parts, such as a fan or disk drive ... thin clients help companies meet their sustainability targets by eliminating much of the overhead associated with computing."
According to the Fraunhofer study, thin clients also hold a form-factor advntage over PCs, making them less expensive to ship: "They are only 35-40% of the weight of a PC and only take up 19-30% of the volume."
Not just about the green
Green issues aren't the only drivers for thin-client adoption. Jeff McNaught, chief marketing office at Wyse, opines that the new and improved Terminal Services features forthcoming in Windows Server 2008 (i.e. the platform formerly known as Longorn) will be a boon a Windows shops running thin clients.
In a simiar vein, Travid Brown, product manager for thin client solutions at HP, credits Windows XP Embedded for more acceptance of thin clients. "Microsoft has come a long way in developing XP Embedded It's the same binary as XP Pro ... and the thin-client experience now looks very much like the desktop experience. It's a lot better than it was a couple of years ago."
Another boon for thin clients: the shift toward 64-bit computing, by companies like Microsoft and Citrix, will spur adoption by sweetening the TCO pot. "Instead 125 users, you can have 250, 300 users on that server, just by changing the software. That has changed the cost equation," says McNaught
Moreover, McNaught says that company's in 2006 had been waiting to gauge VMware's success on the desktop virtualization front, given it success in the realm of server consolidation, and the results look promising. "You take the existing PC, suck all the data off a hard drive and onto the back-end, pop that PC off the desktop, drop a thin client, and the user continues working."
(Test Center Analyst Randall C. Kennedy was fairly impressed by the beta version of VMware Workstation 6.0 -- especially compared to the competition.)
There's also the advancements thin clients have undergone since the late 1990s when they were overhyped, notes Wyse's McNaught. "In those days, thin clients didn't do multimedia. Screen-draw capability was good, but not amazing," he says. "Companies like Wyse have been working on technology that will dramatically improve the user experience with multimedia, with voice over IP, with USB peripherals. Users can work in a multiscreen environment."
But green fever and technological evolution alone won't necessarily reduce some company's resistance to thin clients. Thin client vendors acknowledge that there wares won't dethrone the PC anytime soon.
For one thing, the machines are well-suited for plenty of basic applications, such as call centers or other roles where users are continually using the same few apps (e.g. productivity and e-mail). But high-end apps are better left on the desktop. "You would not have a CAD/CAM application running through a thin client," says Besier. "It doesn't even make sense to try to solve that problem. The market is not large enough."
Another reason thin clients haven't seem greater adoption, many vendors say, is that companies are set in their ways insofar as purchasing that which is familiar -- in this case, PCs, despite the fact that most desktops generally run at around 3% utilization. "Today's barriers are more of a cultural nature rather than a technical nature," says Sun's Bapat.
But Bapat predicts that "with the lower energy use, lower administration costs, better security, and less frequent capital expenditure outlays for upgrades, we will see more and more organizations making the move to thin-client computing."
Posted by Ted Samson on May 24, 2007 03:00 AM
May 23, 2007 | Comments: (0)
HP gives WWF $2 million in tech, cash for climate-change research
Partnership another example of big-name IT companies like Microsoft, Dell, and Yahoo investing in environmental causes
"Technology is part of the problem, but it's also part of the solution." That, paraphrased, is one of the comments that Dave Douglas, Sun's VP of eco-responsibility, shared with me earlier this month.
The problem he was alluding to was the environmental challenges the planet faces due to global climate change. (When, and why, did the term "global climate change" replace "global warming"?) The IT industry indeed contributes to the phenomenon as its operations and wares churn out greenhouse gas in the form of carbon dioxide.
But a growing number of tech companies are owning up to the responsibility and becoming increasingly better environmental stewards, not only by boosting the energy-efficiency of their products, reducing waste, and finding ways to shrink their carbon footprints; they're also teaming up with environmental groups, donating not only money but technology and resources toward solving the problems.
Among them is HP, which today is announcing a partnership with the WWF (World Wildlife Fund) to allocate more than $2 million in cash and equipment to the non-profit for establishing three projects aimed at addressing the causes and consequences of global climate change. (HP and the WWF aren't strangers to working with one another.)
The projects, which focus on analysis, research and data collection, include:
-- The Epicenter for Climate Conservation – Focused on advancing climate adaptation and resiliency strategies and projects worldwide, the Epicenter for Climate Conservation will be driven by HP technology and led by Dr. Lara Hansen, chief climate scientist of WWF.
-- Information and Communication Technology Innovation as a Driver of Climate Change Solutions – This program will work to identify 1 billion tons of carbon reductions through the use of information and communication technology.
-- Climate Witness – An online forum to raise global awareness of the tangible consequences of climate change, Climate Witness will gather the stories of individuals and communities affected by global warming and share them with the world.
This announcement comes less than a week after Microsoft's big announcement that it would be teaming with the Clinton Foundation to develop a suite of technology tools, both software and services. designed to enable cities to monitor, compare and reduce their greenhouse gas emissions.
Assisting in developing these measurement tools by ICLEI (International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives)—Local Governments for Sustainability and the Center for Neighborhood Technology. Microsoft will build the software using the knowledge base that ICLEI has acquired in developing its Harmonized Emissions Analysis Tool (HEAT).
Additionally, Microsoft recently launched its "i'm" initiative, built around Windows Live Messenger. Users of the Microsoft instant-messaging client can register to have a portion of a Live Messenger session's ad revenue go to one of various non-profit organizations, including The Sierra Club and stopglobalwarming.org (not to be confused with stopglobalclimatechange.org).
The list of tech companies embarking on environmental causes (and other socially responsible ones) doesn't end there, and while I've been, well, a bit skeptical of some of the other efforts I've seen, the fact remains that these companies are making an effort and are certainly helping to raise awareness about environmental issues.
Dell, for examples, teamed up with with The Conservation Fund and the Carbonfund.org earlier this to launch "Plant a Tree for Me" -- a program through which Dell, er, lets people donate money to plant trees in order to "offset" the carbon emitted by their personal computers, laptops, and general lifestyles.
And Yahoo announced its "Greenest City in America" Challenge last week, which I'm still shaking my head over: Essentially, the city that wins is the one whose residents use Yahoo services the most for the next couple of weeks. And the prize is a fleet of hybrid taxis, or else $250,000, which can be used for a eco-friendly project of the winning city's choosing.
While the contest itself is, to me, simply ridiculous (they should have called it "The Yahoo-iest City in the U.S." Challenge), it, too, raises awareness, such as through the info on the company's new green portal -- plus Yahoo is giving out 150,000 energy-efficient CFL lightbulbs to people who participate.
Posted by Ted Samson on May 23, 2007 12:01 AM
May 21, 2007 | Comments: (0)
'Green to Gold' author, IT execs to dole out tips at Interop
There's a remarkable graph in the first chapter of Andrew Winston's book "Green to Gold." It's the kind graph that would likely capture the attention of the most skeptical of CEOs who has discounted the growing interest in more sustainable, greener business practices as little more than the a passing trend, the "blood-type diet" of the corporate world.
But sustainability certainly isn't just a new and passing trend; like eating right and getting exercise, it's the real deal. Many companies have been enjoying the benefits for years, but others are struggling to understand just how to embrace it.
If you fall into that group and you're going to be at the now-greener Interop this week, good news: Winston will be leading a panel on Wednesday, May 23 called "Green to Gold : Eco-Advantage Strategies for a Changing IT." Joined by executives from Intel, Yahoo, Sun, HP, and Google, the group will talking about the business case for embracing greener practices, what to expect in the future -- and the top 10 things IT departments can do.
But back to that graph I mentioned: In "Green to Gold," Winston and co-author Daniel C. Esty identify 100 companies they call WaveRiders: Companies that are riding the "green wave," acting as "environmental leaders [that] see their businesses through an environmental lens, finding opportunities to cut costs, reduce risk, drive revenues, and enhance intangible value." Not surprisingly, among them are IT giants like HP and IBM, as well as Dell, Intel, and Xerox.
The graph compares the stock performance of these WaveRider companies over the past 10 years to that of the S&P 500 and the FTSE 100.
Here's the result (click to enlarge it):
As you can see, the WaveRiders consistently beat the others.
Of course, that's not to say that "being eco-friendly" means your company's going to thrive, and high stock performance isn't necessarily a direct result of environmental consciousness. Winston and Esty are clear on those points in "Green to Gold."
But they also note that "a number of studies have demonstrated that environmental performance is a powerful indicator of overall management quality."
The WaveRiders have, at least to a degree, found ways to circumvent some of the obstacles Winston told me about, and that he discusses in his book.
One of the challenges: changing corporate culture to keep up with new green objectives. Winston describes a phenomenon he calls the middle-management squeeze: The high-level execs announce that the company is going green. The lower-level employees get excited. But the middle managers are tasked with these new environmental goals, lumped on top of their old goals. "Reconciling those goals is very challenging. [Upper managers] don't change the culture. They don't build it into any incentive programs. They just say they're going to become green. It's a problem."
For more about the panel, and to hear an interview between Winston and Curtis Franklin, go here. You can also check out Winston's blog at www.eco-advantage.com/blog.
Posted by Ted Samson on May 21, 2007 11:33 AM
May 17, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Using Yahoo makes your city greener?
Yahoo's "Greenest City" Challenge requires more commitment to the company's services than to the environment
It can be difficult to pinpoint the greenest company of them all. There's just so many ways to measure an organization's greenness: its products, its practices, its propensity to spill oil, etc.
It also can be difficult to choose the greenest city of them all. If you want to be thorough, you can look at variety of criteria, such as air quality, electrical usage, environmental policy, as National Geographics or Homestore has done.
But not everyone has the time or inclination to be so thorough. You could take Forbes' approach and simply measure a city's ozone pollution and particles.
Or you might consider the approach Yahoo has devised: See which city's residents can earn the most "'green' credits" from using certain Yahoo services over the next three weeks or so, as part of the search company's "Greenest City in America" Challenge.
I'll explain how spending extra time on your computer and mobile device can earn you green credits in a moment. First, though, the rewards: There are, of course, the bragging rights for being deemed the most eco-friendly U.S. city in eyes of Yahoo. But the company is also offering a more tangible first prize in the name of conservation and environmental stewardship. No, not a green makeover for your local government buildings or schools. Not new trees for your local parks and public lands. Not even supplying new, energy-efficient buses for the local schools.
No, Yahoo made quite a bit of noise about the big top prize it's put on the table: a fleet (up to 10) of new hybrid taxi cabs -- perfect for the eco-conscious individual who doesn't want to walk or bike or take the bus or subway or train or carpool.
To demonstrate what a boon a fleet of hybrid cabs can be for a city's environmental well-being, Yahoo donated a bunch of them to New York City when announcing this promotion earlier in the week.
Of course, you might be thinking that more cars on the roads of NYC means more traffic congestion, which means more pollution -- but have you considered that it that might also have the eco-friendly effect of getting a few more people on the subway or bus?
Or perhaps there won't be an increase in traffic, because the hybrids are going to be displacing existing NYC cabs. Those, in turn might be sold off to a cab company in, I don't know, New Jersey, or somewhere in South America. (I found that American school buses go to places like Guatemala to retire.)
The point is, NYC will be a greener city, by golly, thanks to its shiny new gas-sipping hybrids.
Importantly, Yahoo won't make your town take the hybrid cabs. You can opt for $250,000 "to support eco-friendly programs in the city's region."
Also, as part of this promotion, Yahoo is giving out 150,000 energy-efficient CFL bulbs to individuals who participate, a move that I certainly can't knock.
So those are the stakes in Yahoo's search for the greenest city in America. Now, here's how it works: First, you register with Yahoo, providing your ZIP code so they know which city you're representing.
Next, you can check out Yahoo's newly unveiled green portal, Yahoo Green, where you select from a list of green pledges, like recycling or eating less meat or taking shorter showers. Choosing no fewer than one will earn your city 100 green credits. (Don't worry, Yahoo's going to take you at your word; no need to send them this month's and next's water or butcher bill.)
From there, you can mosey over to Yahoo Answers. For every "best" answer you provide to a question in the Environmental section of the site, your city earns 75 more "green" points. Taxing eco-conundrums posed by users include "What are the most effective yet simple ways people can save energy?" (Matt Dillon wants to know!) or "Who owns Marriott Hotels?" (That last one is really in the Environmental section.)
Not an environmental expert? No matter. You can earn 10 green points by simply providing a best answer for any question on Yahoo Answers. Now, you might be wondering why answering questions such as "What is the average life span of a fruitbat?" or "What kind of bear is best?" (Answer: black bear) or "OMG is my bf cheeting on me?!??" should bring your city closer to being deemed the greenest in the nation. Well, maybe it's like a "carbon offset" reward for not providing your answer on a piece of legal-sized paper, written in toxic waste and delivered via a non-hybrid taxi cab?
Finally, if you have a mobile device with wireless access, be sure to keep that battery charged so you can earn green credits performing daily searches for "eco-friendly" terms on Yahoo's oneSearch service. Each search reaps you 10 credits -- but Yahoo is limiting the number of points to 50 per day, no doubt in the name of energy conservation.
Notably, there are only five terms to choose from -- Organic Food, Public Transport, Recycle Center, Bike, and Ride Share (Hybrid Taxi Cab isn't on the list, for some reason), so be prepared for some redundancy. (Hey, no eye-rolling. It's not always easy or fun to be environmentally responsible. But maybe you can mix up the order each day to keep things fresh.)
So there you have it: If you and enough people in your community pledge to Yahoo to do at least one "green" activity in the next year, then spend time each day at your computers on Yahoo Answers, and on your mobile devices performing daily searches for the same five terms on Yahoo oneSearch, your city may just earn the title "greenest in America." Who knew being green was so easy -- and had so much to do with using Yahoo?
(Apologies to Green Wombat. After completing this post, I found your similar take on the contest. Glad to know I'm not the only one who's a bit skeptical.)
Posted by Ted Samson on May 17, 2007 06:46 PM
May 17, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Green demands trickle down the supply chain
If you want to sell to the big-name IT vendors, you must inject green into your products -- and your practices
Government regulations, both national and international, impose a fairly high green bar for hardware vendors, limiting the toxic substances their wares can contain and the energy they can consume. But more IT vendors, such as IBM, HP, Dell, and Xerox, have been raising that bar even higher, scrutinizing not only suppliers' materials and manufacturing processes, but their overall environmental practices.
For companies aspiring to land a potentially lucrative deal with some of the more environmentally conscious, big-name tech vendors, that means you can't simply ensure those components you're hawking comply with the fine print of ROHS; you must have strategies in place to reduce energy consumption, conserve water, and e-waste, as well as to meet social-responsibility criteria such as those spelled out in the Electronic Industry Code of Conduct (EICC) and ISO 14001.
At a minimum, insisting that suppliers comply with various e-waste and energy regulations makes abundant business sense. After all, the last thing a company wants to endure is being forced to shelve millions of units of some product because one of its cables contains traces of cadmium. Not only does that sort of snafu cost a lot of money; it doesn't make for great PR: The public won't remember the supplier that delivered the toxic component so much as the high-profile vendor that got stuck with it.
But as long as a supplier is producing pieces and parts that conform to the strictest of environmental regulations, why should companies such as HP or Dell or IBM care that said supplier, for example, keeps the lights lit and faucets flowing all night? For starters, it's a matter of being consistent in your adherence to your business principles. "It reflects our own standards," says Judy Glazer, director of HP's global social and environmental responsibility operations. "We've minimized our own environmental footprint. We expect suppliers who are working on our behalf to do the same."
Indeed, a green-haloed company talking up its energy-efficiency while ignoring its supplier's wasteful ways would be like PETA having its annual dinner catered by Outback Steakhouse. (That's neither a knock at PETA nor at Outback, by the way.)
Of course, values are just part of the picture. Reducing waste throughout the supply chain means lower costs all around. "By working with suppliers on programs and initiatives to reduce environmental impact, we not only contribute to conservation and sustainable development, we can often see substantial cost reductions," writes John Gabriel, manager of supply chain social responsibility at IBM.
The processes vendors undertake to assess and help develop suppliers' environmental and social responsibility are quite extensive. The good news for suppliers: Vendors aren't going to make you figure it all out for yourself, nor will they simply tell you what to do. Rather, HP's Glazer describes it as a collaborative effort. "We start by introducing the code to our suppliers. We have an on-site auditing process to help them understand what the code really means in practice. Where there are gaps, if any, we ask them to develop corrective actions," she says.
It doesn't end there: Like IBM and other EICC members, HP offers training for managers at its suppliers, such as "interactive workshops on particular elements of the code of conduct," Glazer says.
The process is an ongoing one, too, which means suppliers don't get to reset on their laurels once they've reached a certain benchmark: "We're looking at suppliers to be continuously addressing areas of greatest opportunity," says Glazer.
Vendors are continuing to develop new ways to encourage suppliers to become more environmentally and socially responsible. "Our suppliers are reviewed quarterly in a business review that looks at a number of performance criteria including quality," writes Dell spokesman Bryant Hilton. "We have begun to include additional 'points' the suppliers can earn through environmental programs. The number of points affects the volume of business [we give them], so there is great benefit to the supplier to gain points.
"One new thing we are asking for is that suppliers report their emissions data annually," Bryant adds. "This will help Dell reduce our indirect climate impacts, and help our suppliers when we can work with them on reduction strategies."
Ultimately, of course, these efforts to green the supply chain aren't just to satisfy the demands of IT vendors. "IBM's clients -- including both companies and governments -- are increasingly seeking to procure from environmentally responsible companies and [are] including requirements for the environmental attributes of the products they procure in their bid specifications or preferences," writes IBM's Gabriel.
Or to put a figure to that interest, HP reports that "we had six billion dollars' worth of RFPs in 2005 that included socially or environmentally responsible criteria. It has only grown since then."
Posted by Ted Samson on May 17, 2007 03:00 AM
May 14, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Report: Vendors' green messages are loud, but not clear
Vendors are pouring more green into their sales pitches, but their messages aren't reaching the right ears clearly.
That's one of the findings in a Forrester report released today titled "Tapping Buyers' Growing Interest In Green IT." According to the study, 85% of respondents from the U.S. and 93% of those from Europe said that environmental concerns are "important" in planning IT operations. However, just 15% of respondents said that they have a high level of awareness of vendors' green initiatives.
"Vendor information about green characteristics is not moving up the chain of command to affect management decision-making. Maybe vendors should be revisiting their communication approaches," the report quotes an anonymous IT worker in the insurance industry saying.
The problem might not just be communication barriers, but also a problem with the message: The connection between going green and saving green isn't clear, at least to those who are in charge of writing the checks: "Show the long-term or even short-term cost savings, and people will buy. When you start saving energy, you save cost, also. It's win-win," an anonymous IT work from the energy industry is quoted as saying in the Forrester report.
Forrester Senior Vice President Christoper Mines, who authored the report, says that vendors' salesfolks may have to lead the charge in getting their respective company's green message across. "People like the corporate affairs types and lab types ... are the ones who are talking this up. But think about [vendors'] main channel to their customer base: The sales force. That's where the enterprises are going to get most of their information as to what the vendors are doing," he says.
The report also cites some misconceptions about sustainable IT, which vendors will need to erradicate. "Our interviewees clung to a number of old notions about computer operation, such as "It's better to keep equipment running 24x7" or, more generally, "Green means more expensive."
(One fascinating nugget from the report, on that note: "HP did a 2006 internal audit of some 183,000 PC monitors and found that a third of them were not set for energy saving — presto, $600,000 in annual energy savings.")
The haziness surrounding vendors' green pitches might explain why only a quarter of the companies Forrester surveyed said that "green criteria" were part of their IT purchasing decisions.
That percentage is bound to increase, though, and not for reasons I find particularly surprising: "Looking a few years ahead, though, our interviewees expect green to hold more sway in their decision-making, pushed by growing public awareness of environmental issues, ,anticipated government regulation, and greater need for energy efficiency," the report says.
Forrester's "Tapping Buyers' Growing Interest In Green IT" report is available here for $279.
Is your company clearly getting, or delivering, the message about going green?
Posted by Ted Samson on May 14, 2007 04:02 PM
May 11, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Nokia phones will remind users to unplug
Tired of people preaching, er, gently encouraging you to think green? Well, your cell phone might soon be doing the same.
Nokia this week announced that some of its forthcoming phones will be programmed to "include alerts encouraging people to unplug the charger once the battery is full," according to the company.
That capability will first appear in the Nokia 1200, Nokia 1208 and the Nokia 1650, but the alerts will be rolled out across the Nokia product range down the road.
Remarkably, Nokia estimates something so simple as an alert telling people to unplug theirs phone "could save enough electricity to power 85,000 homes a year" (presuming users heed the alerts, I suppose).
It's a nice start, Nokia, but hopefully it's just that: a start. I agree with the folks over at TreeHugger : Phones and other devices that need charging should have a built-in kill switch that forces the charger to turn itself off when the battery is sufficiently powered.
To take it one step further, as recommended by TreeHugger's Matthew Sparkes: "If a device sits inactive for a certain period of time, then it should shut itself down."
Posted by Ted Samson on May 11, 2007 09:56 PM
May 11, 2007 | Comments: (0)
IT has the power to cultivate a greener world
Consensus continues to grow among political leaders around the world that global warming is a very probable threat that needs to be addressed. The latest evidence of this shifting mindset is the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) report, released last week. The report is a major one, given its scope and number of countries involved, representing a large drop in a bucket of governmental studies and legislation aimed at addressing climate change.
Whether or not business leaders take seriously the threat of global warming, they would be well served to start finding ways to reduce energy consumption and GHG emissions at their companies -- both in terms of their operations as well as their products. Acting sooner rather than later means they can stay ahead of stricter laws, as well as on top of the energy crisis that's already being felt in some datacenters.
"Energy grids are being constrained such that they can't deliver the energy that companies needs. Legislative schemes are being put into place to control [carbon emissions]," says John Frey, manager of corporate environmental strategies at HP. By not acting, companies themselves will be "inhibited from a growth perspective, or find themselves legislated or taxed into a corner. Most companies don't want to find themselves in that situation."
Frey concedes that legislation can help spur a change in a company's operations and its products, but waiting for laws to guide you isn't a prudent approach. "Legislation is not going to drive innovation. It is going to bring the high bar up a little bit for those that have not sought a leadership position and gotten in front of the issue."
Another benefit to staying ahead of the legislative curve: You get to participate in how legislation evolves. "As legislators are looking at whom they can invite in for a dialogue, it's interesting and satisfying that companies like HP are the ones that get invited to the table first," Frey says.
A member of the WWF's Climate Savers Program, HP has long employed sustainable IT practices, according to Frey, which has positioned the company well to stay ahead of legislation. Most recently, the company announced ambitious plans to reduce its energy consumption by 20 percent by 2010. And driving these company's efforts is indeed green -- both of the monetary and environmental perspective. "This is the right thing to do, just looking at energy efficiency from a cost of ownership perspective... When you look at it from the environmental perspective, it becomes an even better decision. It's not a logical leap a lot of companies make: 'Hey, our IT group can contribute to reducing our environment footprint.'"
Indeed, the IT industry has a major role to play in a day and age where servers, PCs, networking gear, storage, and applications are vital organs for just about any business, keeping that essential data flowing and operations moving. Frey observed that IT was not explicitly referenced in the IPCC report: "When this issue is talked about in a legislative framework ... the assumption is that all these segments, from power generation to general industry, all have an IT component."
That puts the IT industry in a potentially powerful and influential position as businesses worldwide adapt a greener, more sustainable state of mind, says Edan Dionne, director of corporate environmental affairs at IBM. (Dionne sent me some very thoughtful answers to my e-mail questions, which I am posting here for you to read.)
"Improving the energy utilization of IT equipment and datacenters is important because the application of IT to business and societal energy-efficiency challenges offers us the opportunity to transform the way that society uses energy," Dionne says.
"For example, IT applications can manage power grids to reduce losses and enable distributed generation," she continues. "IT can introduce congestion-pricing schemes that reduce road traffic and encourage the use of carpooling and mass transit. IT enables businesses to improve manufacturing processes and supply chain efficiencies to reduce waste and energy usage. IT allows people to work remotely to reduce commuting requirements."
Big Blue, like HP, is a participant in WWF's Climate Savers Program, and it, too, has been tackling energy-efficiency issues for years. Just this week, the company announced its Big Green initiative, a $1 billion-a-year service initiative aimed at building and redesigning datacenters that consume less energy. The company also recently garnered recognition from the EPA for pledging to reduce total global GHG emissions by 7 percent from 2005 to 2012.
Dionne offers this advice for companies struggling with how to tackle reducing their energy costs and environmental footprint: "Do what IBM and some other leading companies have done: Assess their own potential impact on the environment; change the necessary policies, processes, and procedures; set benchmarks for achievement; establish a management system to monitor and report progress on those benchmarks; and take corrective action when needed."
Posted by Ted Samson on May 11, 2007 03:11 PM
May 11, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Big Blue's enviro guru explores garden of green opportunities
Political leaders and business leaders alike are scrutinizing causes of global climate change, as we saw in the recently released IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) report. And they're devising solutions to the problem. And just as some countries are ahead of the game insofar as devising regulations to combat greenhouse gas emissions and reduce energy waste, so too are some tech companies out there.
Among them is IBM, which has had its eye on the green prize for years now. While social responsibility and environmental stewardship have played a role in its leadership, the business opportunities and potential cost savings have been there, too.
Edan Dionne, IBM's director of corporate environmental affairs, provided some very insightful answers, via e-mail, to my various questions about the IPCC report and concerns about global warming, as well as how they affect business -- and vice versa. Following is our e-interview.
InfoWorld: Why should companies care about the IPCC report, as well as the general growing concern about global warming and climate change?
Edan Dionne: Global climate change presents both challenges and opportunities to the business community. As there is strong scientific consensus that global warming is real and is significantly affected by emissions of greenhouse gases related to human activities, it has become clear that all sectors of society, the economy, and governments worldwide must participate in developing solutions to climate change.
Additionally, public awareness about the impacts of climate change is also swelling demand from employees, clients, investors, and other opinion leaders to know a company's stance on this issue and evaluate how "green" that company is.
Many companies, like IBM, have been taking actions to manage and reduce their greenhouse gas emissions for many years, while others have initiated actions more recently.
The IT industry has the opportunity to play several roles in addressing climate change. IBM has consistently improved the computing power delivered per unit of watt applied with each new generation of products. Over the last several years, IBM has brought its focus on innovation to improving the energy utilization of IT equipment.
While much progress has been made, there is still more work to do. IBM's announcement of "Project Big Green" details the next critical steps that IBM plans to take to improve the energy efficiency of its datacenters and its clients' operations.
Improving the energy utilization of IT equipment and datacenters is important because the application of IT to business and societal energy-efficiency challenges offers us the opportunity to transform the way that society uses energy.
For example, IT applications can manage power grids to reduce losses and enable distributed generation. IT can introduce congestion pricing schemes that reduce road traffic and encourage the use of carpooling and mass transit. IT enables businesses to improve manufacturing processes and supply chain efficiencies to reduce waste and energy usage. IT allows people to work remotely to reduce commuting requirements.
IW: What do companies need to do to address the problem? What's the drawback to putting it off, both from a business perspective as well as an environmental perspective? And what is IBM doing?
Dionne: Let me answer the last part first. IBM has focused on taking concrete actions to address climate change in its operations, products, and services, including: conserving energy (thus reducing direct and indirect emissions of greenhouse gases); increasing its use of renewable energy; reducing its direct emissions of greenhouse gases from manufacturing and facilities processes; designing energy-efficient products and developing solutions to help our clients reduce their energy use and improve efficiency; participating in voluntary climate protection programs with both government and nongovernmental organizations; and sharing best practices.
Other companies should do what IBM and some other leading companies have done -- assess their own potential impact on the environment; change the necessary policies, processes, and procedures; set benchmarks for achievement; establish a management system to monitor and report progress on those benchmarks; and take corrective action when needed.
It is important to take action today, because addressing the challenges of climate change is a long journey. It is not something that can be handled with one or two quick fixes. As mentioned above, all sectors of society, government, and the economy need to be involved and committed.
Collectively, we need to take available actions today -- like aggressive energy conservation and efficiency programs and diversification of our energy portfolio to increase the contribution of non-CO2 or low-CO2-emitting energy sources to our portfolio. And we need to encourage research and development efforts to develop the new technologies and innovations that we will need in the future to take the next steps beyond those available today.
IW: Should companies be worried about the cost required or the impact making changes will have on doing business? What about current and forthcoming regulations?
Dionne: As I mentioned earlier, climate change presents challenges and opportunities.
Companies need to assess the impact of a carbon-constrained world on their operations, determine the potential risks that carbon and other greenhouse gas constraints represent to those operations, and plan appropriate contingencies and actions. In many cases, the required actions like energy conservation, making logistics or manufacturing operations more efficient, and diversifying a company's energy portfolio will result in reduced operating costs, more efficient operations, and provide a competitive advantage.
However, a company must make investments to their facilities and operations to realize the savings. IBM estimates that, over the past eight years, annual savings from its focus on pollution prevention and design for the environment have exceeded environmental expenses by an average of two to one, so worrying about the cost required may not be necessary for all companies.
Policy, legislative, and regulatory discussions regarding climate change encompass a wide range of suggested measures including demand side management, energy efficiency, renewable energy sources, nuclear power, carbon capture and sequestration, alternative fuels for transportation, alternative transportation systems, pricing practices, and a host of other ideas.
Early, voluntary actions help companies develop an inventory of their energy use and greenhouse gas emissions, develop experience in managing their operations with a focus on energy use and its effect on the company's emissions, and capture operational efficiencies that improve their bottom line. This early work helps position a company to manage effectively in a carbon-constrained world. It also allows them to analyze the potential impacts of climate change regulations from a position of experience and offer meaningful, substantive commentary on approaches to carbon management.
IW: What's the good news here? What are the benefits of reducing emissions, both from a business perspective and a global, environmental perspective?
Dionne: The good news is that responses to climate change offer opportunities along with the challenges. Companies will have to manage effectively in a carbon-constrained world, and there will be a variety of operational and financial impacts that companies will need to address.
At the same time, there are many opportunities to become more efficient, reduce spending, improve competitiveness, and introduce products and services to assist a company's clients in managing these same issues. These efforts can benefit the environment, enable and promote the global effort to address the challenges of climate change, and strengthen a company's business results.
Posted by Ted Samson on May 11, 2007 03:10 PM
May 10, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Plenty of ways to win through green initiatives
TV has the Emmys. The Internet has the Webbys. And California companies embracing sustainable, green technology and practices have the Flexys.
OK, so they're not called Flexys; they're called the Flex Your Power (FYP) awards, and FYP doles them out each year to organizations demonstrating leadership in energy efficiency, either through in-house initiatives or product innovation. The fifth annual award ceremony took place last weekend at Eco Live 2007, in San Francisco.
Although the awards have been around for five years, there was a striking difference, to me, anyway, between previous years' recipients and this year's: the number of IT companies that came away winners has risen. Winners included Adobe, Cisco, HP, Qualcomm, and Sun, while AMD was a runner-up.
The shift toward more IT companies in the FYP winners' circle shouldn't be too surprising, though. As noted by Wally McGuire, the director at FYP, tech companies require a large amount of energy, and power costs in this industry are incredibly high -- and getting higher. Thus, the ability to use power efficiently, so as to ensure uptime and reduce bills, is central to their success. The California power crisis of 2001 was also a wake-up call for plenty of organizations, McGuire noted.
So IT companies are inventing new ways to deal more effectively with energy costs and usage -- not just in the datacenter but with consolidation, virtualization, and the like. Rather, many of these companies undertook an abundance of facility upgrades, including overhauls to increase the efficiency of heating and cooling, as well as lighting and water usage.
Let's start with Adobe. Last year, as part of its "Greening of Adobe" project, the company earned Platinum-level LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification for three of its HQ buildings in San Jose. The company created and implemented a rather sophisticated, integrated building monitoring and control system, allowing staff to handle the controls for various building operating systems from a single UI. Lighting zones, for example, can be turned off and on with a single click of a mouse; HVAC temperatures can be adjusted with another click. Now that's slick.
Adobe reports that it managed to save some $1,182,000 -- and 9,200,000 kWh -- from its efforts, representing 30 percent of total electricity use.
According to Randy Knox, Adobe's senior director of Global Facilities Services, the infamous California brownouts of 2001 indeed helped to spur the 64 projects that comprise the "Greening of Adobe." "During the California energy crisis, the governor asked large electricity users to reduce energy consumption by 10 percent. From the start, Adobe was determined to go further," he says. "To date, Adobe has successfully reduced electricity usage by 35 percent, natural gas by 41 percent, domestic water by 22 percent, landscape irrigation by 76 percent, and diversion of solid waste through composting and recycling by nearly 90 percent."
Like Adobe, Qualcomm's realized some impressive energy and cost savings with facility upgrades, in this case to its San Diego-based Building W Campus, an LEED Gold candidate building. (Qualcomm also earned an FYP award last year.) Renovations included installing a photovoltaic (solar power) system that supports 60 percent of campus lighting requirements and offsets demand during peak periods.
It also added efficient faucets, flush valves, shower heads, plus an increase in cycles of chilled water circulation, saving 670,000 gallons of water annually. The campus has incorporated high-efficiency lighting fixtures, gas absorption chillers, boilers, and water heaters. All in all, the company reports to have reaped savings of 9,668,000 kWh last year - 30 percent of total electricity use.
According to Alan Ball, Qualcomm director of business services for the company's real estate and facilities department, the company's efforts prove downright inspiring to the company's employees. "We find that employees are proud of our initiatives to reduce energy usage. In fact, we offer facilities tours to interested employees, and some have gone on to install solar power systems on their own homes,” he says.
Also on the list of winners: Cisco. The networking giant completed quite a few upgrades to its San Jose campus, projects which it says will cut electricity usage by more than 14,000,000 kWh and gas consumption by 100,000 therms. Combined, Cisco's 2006 projects will cut GHG emissions by more than 40 million pounds. That translates to more than $1,500,000 in cost savings.
Cisco has made major upgrades at its San Jose campus, including installing VFD (variable frequency drive) chillers in numerous buildings and upgrading its HVAC controls.
The company also launched an employee education program to encourage energy conservation and a campus-wide recycling program, which the company says saves an estimated 35,000,000 kWh when compared to the energy required for landfill disposal and new product manufacturing.
On the innovative products and services side, HP secured an FYP trophy by producing the first business systems on the market that are configurable to meet the Energy Star 4.0 standards. (For reasons I don't entirely grasp, HP is making a point of not saying that the systems are compliant with the standard, since said standard isn't official yet.) Nevertheless, according to the company, these can save as much as 52 percent of power use over traditional machines when properly configured.
HP was also the first company to enable all business PCs with S3 power management to automatically switch machines to standby during times of inactivity. "For every twelve desktop computers that have the energy-savings mode enabled, that's like taking a car off the road for a year," according to John Frey, HP's manager of corporate environmental strategies.
Finally, Sun came away with an innovative products and services award, apparently for its energy-efficient Sun Fire T1000 and T2000 servers, with CoolThreads technology, released back in 2005, as well as for its Open Work program, through which nearly half of Sun's 40,000 employees work from home whenever possible to avoid commuting. The company provides consulting services, instructing other organizations on how to implement flexible work programs.
For more information about the Flex Your Power awards, go to www.fypower.org/feature/awards/.
Posted by Ted Samson on May 10, 2007 12:43 PM
May 07, 2007 | Comments: (0)
OSS injects greenery into highly modular Gemini servers
Wouldn't it be nice to live in a truly plug-and-play world, where, for example, you could quickly and easily pull out the old gas-guzzling engine in your otherwise-functional automobile and swap in a hybrid engine you bought off the shelf at the local auto-parts store -- and maybe a hydrogen engine (or whatever replaces hybrid) down the road? Think of the cost and time savings, as well as the environmental benefits, of that modular model.
The automotive industry isn't there, but there's a hardware company delivering that level of flexible modularity to the server market: Open Source Systems, which today is announcing the Green Series of its 2U Gemini Server line. And in a day and age where data-center managers are keen on finding ways to make the most out of their rack space as they grow, while reducing soaring energy and cooling bills, I think this line's design holds a lot of promise.
So what makes the Gemini Green Series green? For starters, the company has added a high-efficiency power supply that runs at 93 percent efficiency. As a result, the company says the machines use between 30 and 50 percent less power than typical servers and emit up to 50 percent less heat. Chew on that for a moment: It can represent a dramatic reduction in your energy and cooling bills --and it also means you can add more servers to your data center if your problem wasn't lack of space but rather insufficient cooling.
Speaking of cooling, OSS strives to make the most of the system's 2U form factor, which houses two motherboards. The company says it's able to cool the two boards with four large 80mm fluid-bearing fans, which consume far less power (and make less noise) than the smaller five-plus wind-tunnel fans used in 1Us.
Because the system has two discrete servers, it's possible to simultaneously use an Intel processor and an AMD processors from the same chassis. That means you can choose the hardware platform that's best suited to run your services.
For example, a small company could run its Web server on an Intel processor and its database server on AMD, from one machine, and divide the duties of the 12 drives as needed. (The company notes that other 2U servers have only eight drives.)
But the real beauty in the OSS system, again, lies in its approach to modularity. "Because of its unique modular design, users can swap out major components as needs change or as technology advances so it is a truly future-proof solution," said Eren Niazi, chief executive officer and founder of Open Source Systems.
Not only can the system's major components -- the motherboard, the disk drives, power supplies, and memory -- be swapped out; they can be swapped while the system is still on the rack. The system's twelve hot-swappable disk drives can support SATA, SCSI or SAS. Mix and match as needed.
And, in a couple of years when a new crop of faster motherboards emerge with superior features that are better suited for your needs, you can easily cold-swap your existing ATX or E-ATX board simply by ejecting it via a rear-loading tray and popping in a new one. (Loosening a screw is required in this process.)
That strikes me as such an elegantly simple, straightforward, and sensible approach. From a business perspective, you're saving time and money by not having to replace the entire machine, or investing the man-hours and dollars in doing it manually.
And from an environmental standpoint, you're prolonging the lifecycle of the other perfectly good parts that you might otherwise end up shipping back to your hardware vendor for recycling when you need a system upgrade. "It's great for the environment. You're able to reuse these metal chasses without buying new servers every five year," said Niazi.
Of course, seeing is believing, and I'm looking forward to having one of the Test Center analysts give one of these babies a spin to see if they're really as good as they appear on paper. Stay tuned.
The 2U Gemini Server Green Series systems start at $10,000, but can reach $105,000, according to Niazi, depending on the tailored configuration. For more information, check out the OSS Web site at www.opensourcesystems.com.
Posted by Ted Samson on May 7, 2007 03:00 AM
May 04, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Sun's eco VP talks greening the data center and JavaOne
Just in time for next week's JavaOne show, Sun Vice President of Eco-Responsibility Dave Douglas arrived in San Francisco yesterday afternoon. His first stop: the InfoWorld office to chat with me about his first year-plus in his green role; data-center issues confronting IT admins -- and solutions; and dealing with carbon emissions. You can watch the video right here.
Dave's been the VP of eco-responsibility at Sun for just over a year now, and judging by our conversation, he has a pretty full plate. No surprise there: Reining in energy waste entails far more than reminding employees to shut off the lights before going home at night.
Rather, Dave appears to be involved in multiple areas of Sun's business, from product development to internal IT operations. (It sounds rather like the chief sustainability officer position I wrote about a while back.) That's a lot to keep a watchful green eye on, but as he tells it, plenty of folks at Sun believe in the benefits of being environmentally conscientious, so it doesn't sound like he has to struggle with a corporate culture that's resistant to making necessary changes toward sustainability.
As an example of Sun's commitment to sustainability and waste reduction, Dave talked to me about how the company has made the annual JavaOne show a little greener this year.
For example, Sun saved 4.63 tons of paper by going with virtual direct mail campaigns, online surveys and feedback forms for the show. It also stepped up the use of recycling, and plus Dave noted that site for the show, the Moscone Center, has a 60,000 square foot photovoltaic array on the roof (designed to generate energy savings of 4.8 million kWh annually).
The company has made "green" purchasing decisions to keep food-trash compostable. Also, as swag, the company is handing out organic t-shirts, and notepads made from recycled paper and printed with soy ink. Read more about it here.
OK, so that alone isn't going to, say, reduce global warming, but it's a nice example of relatively little things companies can don't cost much (or perhaps even save money) and that are good for the environment. And Dave said that next year, the conference will be even greener. I'm curious to see how. Maybe it will take place in Second Life?
Like any other high-level techie in the IT industry, Dave is keenly attuned to the data center crisis companies are facing, and he shared some of the strategies he's been looking at, including consolidation and virtualization.
One certainly inventive solution that Sun has devised to help companies deal with the lack of data center real estate is Project Blackbox, a project Dave was involved in developing, and he's clearly excited about it. For those who aren't the know, Project Blackbox is a portable data center that can be located just about anywhere, designed to support 10,000 simultaneous desktops without requiring an administrator. (It was also one of InfoWorld's 12 "crackpot technologies that could transform the enterprise.")
Carbon emissions are gathering more attention in the IT realm, and they're certainly on Dave's radar: He's written about the topic at some length on his blog. Tracking emissions is pretty important, as we're seeing increasingly strict regulations emerging.
We're also seeing some companies, such as Dell and Yahoo, embracing the notion of carbon offsets and neutrality. On that subject, Dave diplomatically said that Sun is looking at internal ways to reduce its carbon footprint as best it can -- in ways that are directly beneficial to business -- before exploring something like offsets. In addition to watching the video clip, you can check out Dave's comments on the topic here in his blog.
There was one question I'd meant to ask Dave, but we were running a little short on time (and frankly, I forgot): Earlier this year, Sun joined a bunch of other companies in calling on the federal government to help" achieve sizable, sensible long-term reductions of greenhouse gas emissions" from 60 to 90% reductions below 1990 levels by 2050. Why the wide range of 60 to 90%? Why 1990 levels as the baseline? And why wait until 2050? In other words, is this a sufficiently ambitious goal? I'll have to ask him next time I see him, I suppose.
One last thing: If you're in the San Francisco Bay Area this weekend (perhaps in town for JavaOne), you might want to check out Eco LIVE 2007 on Saturday, May 5. Dave will be one of the speakers, talking the challenges of reducing energy and resource consumption within IT. Robert Kennedy Jr. will be delivering the keynote. The event takes place at the Concourse Exhibition Center, 635 8th Street in S.F., and after the keynote, entrance is free.
Posted by Ted Samson on May 4, 2007 03:46 PM
May 03, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Datacenter outsourcing yields green opportunities
Datacenter space is in high demand these days, and like energy prices, that demand appears to be headed nowhere but up. In fact, Digital Realty Trust, a San Francisco-based REIT, estimates that demand for datacenter space will continue to rise by as much as 15% annually over the next five years.
While that's bad news for companies struggling to maintain sufficient infrastructure to keep up with seemingly insatiable demands for computing power and storage, it's been quite a boon for companies that offer datacenter hosting services. According to Tier1 Research, that industry enjoyed 35% growth last year, raking in $15 billion in annual revenue.
Indeed, more companies -- including larger, publicly traded corporations -- are turning to third-parties for collocation and hosting services, and the appeal is evident: Beyond the recognized traditional benefits of outsourcing, it gives companies a means of keeping up with growth, without having to invest time and money in new or upgraded facilities. But having had an interesting conversation with Bob Stephens, senior director of data center operations at NaviSite -- which manages 125,000 square feet of hosted data center space across 14 facilities worldwide -- I believe that outsourced model can provide companies with a potentially greener way to do business, in part thanks to the magic of economies of scale.
"I can deliver these services more efficiently than you can do them in-house," Stephens says. "We're adding value for our customers, both in terms of being environmentally friendly as well as from a business standpoint," he said.
As datacenters have grown hotter thanks to technology such as high-density blades, air-conditioning costs have gone up. And many a datacenter lack efficient cooling, because when they were designed, architects weren't thinking about racks running at 30kw.
It might be difficult for the average datacenter manager to justify the ROI on building a state-of-the-art, highly efficient HVAC system. However, a company like NaviSite is able to cut waste, and save money, through its advanced cooling system, according to Stephens. "We're talking about picking up 15 and 20% efficiency in the amount of power it takes to cool the data center," he said.
One of NaviSite's tricks is a proprietary monitoring system that, according to Stephens, works on a very granular level. Temperature probes monitor and manage the air that goes into and flows of out of server. Through sophisticated algorithms, the system adjusts the varying speed of the fans to optimal levels.
Not all of NaviSite's techniques are necessarily cutting-edge, though. The practice of employing raised floors with vented tiles to directly flow cool air into the hardware as been around for a while now, but it's still effective: The approach means the chilled air need only be around 72 degrees instead of 55. "You can see small incremental percentages can make a big difference scaled over large quantities," he said.
To further reduce those pesky heating costs, Stephens is also investigating ice storage cooling systems, provided by companies such as Calmac and Cyrogel. These systems essentially use power at night, when it's less expensive, to create large quantities of ice, then store it in non-corrodible tanks. The frozen H20 is used the next day to cool the building.
Like other companies, such as Ecos Consulting, NaviSite is also increasing energy efficiency through the usage of DC power, which he says results in another 15% reduction in power usage.
NaviSite also is investigating replacing its traditional battery UPS systems with flywheels, which works by rotating a rotor to a very high speed to store up energy, which can be transformed into electricity. The benefit is, you can save money in the long run by not having to replace thousands of batteries every two or three years.
A flywheel UPS, from companies such as Pentadyne and Liebert, may not deliver the 20 to 30 minutes of backup power that a battery UPS can during a power outage, a fact that might give some customers pause. But, he argues, "You don't need to buy hundred of thousands of dollars worth of batteries."
While there are benefits to be had through the hosted data-center model, any sort of outsourcing relationship needs to be approached with care. In a recent report titled "Data Center Power and Cooling Scenario: Options for the Road Ahead," Gartner stresses that simply going with an outsourcer to address power and cooling concerns isn't a prudent move. Rather, an "organization must go through the process of benchmarking its delivery quality and cost of service provision and make the necessary optimization changes before handing over to a third party."
That includes doing your due diligence in researching your would-be partners; exercising great restraint in putting your most business-critical IT services and data in the hands of a third party; ensuring the provider meets all your security, bandwidth, and support needs; and devising an air-tight SLA.
Also bear in mind that as demand for these types of services grow, hosting providers have been raising their rates accordingly, Data Center Knowledge reports.
Still, I do like the hosted datacenter model. Being able to share resources in an efficient and eco-friendly manner while cutting costs is a potentially winning proposition, and it's what sustainability is all about.
Posted by Ted Samson on May 3, 2007 03:00 AM
May 01, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Bad corporate cultural habits lead to tolerating waste
If you've got a data center full of x86 servers -- and it's entirely likely that you do -- you should be aware that on average, you may be using less than 10% of their computing power in a 24-hour period.
Think about that for a moment: 10 percent. It's like hiring 100 employees to work for you, but having 90 or more of them sit on their tuchuses and twiddle their thumbs during any given workday. Were that the case, you'd take some presumably quick action (unless, perhaps, you'd hired them to be professional thumb-twiddlers, in which case you'd be delighted.)
That rather appalling 10-percent stat comes from a recent study by Gartner titled "Data Center Power and Cooling Scenario: Options for the Road Ahead," by the way. The author of the report, Rakesh Kumar, goes on to say that RSC/Unix are just slightly better, delivering 20% of their computer power in a 24-hour period. (He notes that "a typical mainframe environment can achieve between 70% and 80%.")
So why do organizations continue to simply purchase more x86s whenever there's a perceived need for more processing power? Because the machines are inexpensive, and organizations, much like people, seem to be creatures of habits -- many of which are bad. ("This is a result of procurement processes, project budgets and the behavior of the architectural and infrastructure teams," Kumar writes.)
It's that kind of short-sightedness that's forced so many companies into an uncomfortable position of having to scramble for space in their increasingly cramped data centers, as well as for extra scratch to pay for those increasingly growing energy bills. And the fact is, for each dollar you spend to power a server these days, you're paying another dollar to cool it.
One strategy companies can employ to kick the x86-buying addiction, and more importantly, cut energy costs and free up space in the data center, is to virtualize, the report notes (something we at InfoWorld have been professing for quite a while now).
But according to Gartner, that's but a partial solution, and some serious long-term planning is necessary if companies are going