BY KTP Radhika
In the IT industry, energy demand and consumption is growing at an alarming pace. The industry has also become one of the fastest-growing contibutor to greenhouse gases and consumers of electricity. A recent study by the Center for Energy-Efficient Telecommunications (CEET) and Bell Labs, for instance, has found out that Internet and other components of the information communication and technology (ICT) industry annually produce more than 830 million tonnes of carbon dioxide, a key greenhouse gas. The study predicts this figure is likely to double by 2020.
Another report, The Smart 2020, by the nonprofit Climate Group says emissions from the ICT sector will account for about 3% of global emissions by 2020. Even though specific numbers are not available on India, a report by IT industry body Nasscom states that the energy performance index of existing ICT facilities in India varies from 230-310kWh per sq. m. per year. It also says the IT industry has the potential to reduce its energy consumption by 25-30% from the current levels.
Enter green IT. With energy prices increasing at a faster pace, green IT has become more than a fancy phrase for enterprises. Today, environmental issues receive more attention from businesses and governments around the world, and companies are trying more and more to comply with green principles. Feeling pressure from customers and stakeholders, organizations have begun to make serious improvements in their environmental performance, recognizing that failing in this area will translate into a negative impact on their balance sheets. They do it in multiple ways. On one hand, enterprises are cutting costs on complex infrastructure. On the other, they are trying to comply with international best practices and regulatory standards.
Globally, several governments and industrial bodies have introduced aggressive and stringent policies encompassing everything from greenhouse gas reduction to clean power initiatives and incentives for energy efficiency. For instance, introduction of Carbon Reduction Committee in UK have led to the rapid growth of green computing as a mandatory requirement for regulatory compliance. Similar policies, regulations and guidelines ensuring green in ICT exist in several other places, leading to sustainability practices in the IT industry.
Intelligent buildings, smart racks
Much of the energy consumption in enterprise IT happens in data centers. There are many green IT policies to ensure data center efficiency. Sustainable building certifications have been gaining momentum for several years now, especially for data centers. Developed by the US Green Building Council, Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification is the most important among them. LEED uses a point-based system to achieve certification levels. LEED- certified buildings are intended to use resources more efficiently when compared to normal buildings. LEED points are weighted by the impact on energy efficiency and CO2 reduction. LEED rating program has four levels of green: certified, silver, gold and platinum. While many data centers are now earning LEED status, LEED platinum remains an elite club.
LEED has many cousins and peers. For instance, the Green Grid, a global consortium for promoting energy efficiency for data centers and information service delivery, has also developed standards to measure data center efficiency, including the overall facility itself as well as standards for specific IT equipment used in them. B.S. Nagarajan, Director – Systems Engineering, VMware India & SAARC, explains, “The Green Grid consortium is focused on defining meaningful, user-centric models and metrics, developing standards, measurement methods, processes and new technologies to improve data center performance against defined metrics and promoting the adoption of energy-efficient standards, processes, measurements and technologies.” In the European Union, the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD) continues to strive towards nearly carbon neutral development. The UK’s building regulations ensure that new developers deliver increasing standards of energy performance for data centers and provide enhanced capital allowances for those who follow them.
Energy conservation and ratings
In the past, labs and other data processing units used to follow an inefficient practice of cooling the entire designated area at one particular level. Today, organizations are following efficient energy practices in the other areas of IT. There are other popular guidelines such as American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) thermal guidelines to promote better energy efficiencies in data processing units. The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has published a survey of over 90 government and industry initiatives on Green ICTs in 22 OECD countries and stipulated several guidelines.
Global treaties such as the Kyoto Protocol, which was developed by a United Nations climate conference setting targets for countries to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, have paved way for green practices in ICT as well. The Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Directive, enforced in 2003 in EU, restricts the use of hazardous material electronics and promotes proper recycling for all EU member states. The National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting Act introduced in 2007 in Australia mandates corporations to produce reports on their greenhouse gas emissions and energy production and consumption. In India, the Energy Conservation Act of 2001 calls for efficient energy usage. BEE also enforces strict policies for energy consumption and supply in the country. Further, there are other guidelines such as EU’s Restriction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS), Electronic Industry Code of Conduct (EICC), etc. to promote green computing.
Along with these rules, there are special programs for monitoring energy efficiency and power usage of hardware. For example, US Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Energy Star program, created in 1992 for consumer products, was revised in October 2006 to include stricter efficiency requirements for computer equipments along with a tiered ranking system for approved products. In May 2009, EPA released Version 1.0 of the computer server specifications, which covers standalone servers with one to four processor sockets. A second tier to the specification covering servers with more than four processor sockets, as well as blade servers and fault-tolerant machines is expected this year.
Upasana Choudhry, Country Manager, APJ Environment Management, HP India, says, “Products that earn the Energy Star prevent greenhouse gas emissions by meeting strict energy efficiency guidelines set by the US EPA.” HP has Energy Star qualified notebooks, desktop PCs, monitors, workstations, printing and imaging products. “Our Energy Star products release less heat and reduce cooling loads by about 15%, and up to 30% in warmer climates. They use about half as much electricity, automatically go into “sleep” mode after periods of inactivity, resulting in a 75% reduction in use of energy,” adds Choudhry.
E-waste management
E-waste in India has been growing at the rate of about 13% in the last two or three years, and is currently estimated to be over 1 million tonnes. For the treatment and disposal of e-waste, India has passed the E-waste (Management & Handling) Rules, 2011. According to this piece of legislation, corporations need to focus on the fulfillment of extended producer responsibility (EPR) and they need to have environmentally sound processes by engaging authorized recyclers. “This means that original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) are now responsible for the proper recycling of their equipment even after it has been sold. Thus green compliance in a sense is now a legal requirement for OEMs in India,” Sardana adds.
Industry experts feel that advances in enterprise asset management (EAM) solutions will be key in managing the life cycle of equipment, ensuring and providing proper e-waste disposal. As Purshottam Purswami, CTO, Atos India, puts it, “EAM solutions are undergoing a refresh, incorporating many technologies like NFC (near-field communication) and RFID (radio frequency identification), which are now maturing. In that, better waste management policies are also being incorporated for efficient measuring, tracking and minimizing the waste produced.”
Industry initiatives
For an organization, green IT initiatives directly lead to optimizing energy consumption and assist in carbon footprint reduction to gain carbon credits. “Technologies such as virtualization and video conferencing, and practices such as e-waste recycling have enabled companies to significantly reduce carbon footprint in more ways than one,” says Dell’s Ananth. IT companies are also promoting eco-friendly business practices to improve the workplace and the community at large. “We instituted many policies and programs aimed at both reducing the company’s carbon footprint, which can represent the embedded carbon in its high-performance networking solutions, and promoting an environmentally friendly lifestyle,” says Sridhar Sarathy, Managing Director (India Excellence Center), Juniper Networks India.
Technology innovations like virtualization and consolidation will save a lot of energy and facilitate greening. Nagarajan of VMware states, “Most servers and desktops today are in use only 5-15% of the time they are powered on. Virtualizing this IT infrastructure can reduce energy costs by 80%. It typically improves cost and energy efficiency through optimized use of existing and new computing and storage capacity, electricity, cooling, ventilation and real estate.” Companies are also employing innovative product design, energy efficient IT equipment, power, and cooling instruments in order to reduce their carbon footprints.
That said, the process and polices to monitor green initiatives are in much advanced stages in countries such as the US and the European Union—whereas similar monitoring policies are still being worked out in India. Industry experts say proper standardization is essential to promote green computing in the country. “Open standards and industry collaboration are essential to create meaningful solutions and to promote energy efficiency computing in the country,” opines Nagarajan of VMware.
Echoing the sentiment, R Guna Sekaran, Country Manager, Quantum India & Sri Lanka, says, “Unlike its foreign counterparts, the Indian IT industry does not have stringent rules. With minimal regulations, it is difficult to ensure compliance. However, going green is something that organizations should give prime importance to.”
The lacunae
The concept of green IT is not only about creating energy-efficient IT systems but also building environmentally-sufficient business processes. Even if there are a series of regulations and policy implementation bodies globally to promote green IT, in India, there is a lack of adequate monitoring systems to collect, centralize and analyze data in line with corporate social responsibility targets. “Customers and vendors are more likely to adopt and use eco-friendly solutions if mandated and made obligatory by the Government and the industry ruling bodies,” says Sarathy of Juniper. “At the moment, cheaper product alternatives take precedence over high-cost green solutions.”
Another issue is lack of penalties in legislation for policy violation. “The legislation does not lay down specific penalties in green rules in India. This clearly would lead to violating the rules with no fear of prosecution,” says Sardana of A2Z Dataserv.
Commenting along similar lines, Tikoo of CSC says, “It’s not just about voluntary or compulsory enforcement alone, but practical execution that will make green ICT policy enforcement effective.”
However, experts also feel that India is headed in the right direction in implementing green IT policies. “The laws and policies here are a step in the right direction and we are confident that they will evolve further to make it easier for companies in India to adopt these environmentally responsible practices. The solutions should be inclusive and equitable, supported by regulatory mechanisms that mandate participation by all stakeholders. It needs to be supported by clear enforcement initiatives and incentives that ensure compliance,” feels HP’s Choudhry.
Greener future
Organizations globally have discovered that going green is not just about caring for nature but also about improving their bottom lines. Governments and industrial bodies are pressing green actions through regulatory regimes and international treaties, and this trend will surely continue. Technology is definitely an enabler of green practices within companies. As awareness toward these convenient and secure options increases, experts see a mainstream adoption across industries and geographies. Purswami of Atos says, “Green IT initiatives go beyond the realm of a tangible business with emphasis on social impact in future. Initiatives that are beyond superficial efforts are definitely on the rise and are expected to continue in the coming years.”
Experts feel that in the future, corporate environmental responsibility will become the norm rather than the exception as pressure from stakeholders and governments continues. CIOs and CEOs will be calling on IT departments to do their part in increasing the energy efficiency of the IT fraternity and reducing the organization’s overall footprint.