Search results matching tag 'environment'

White paper: From Green IT to Greening with IT

jeanne2007 — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 10:02:00 GMT

A few months ago, WWF published a HP-supported white paper called ‘From Green IT to Greening with IT’. The paper is directed mainly at policy makers and aims to explore the role of IT in business and government strategies for reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. It particularly looks at how the current economic and financial crisis can be turned into an opportunity to promote the uptake of low carbon IT solutions.

The paper illustrates nicely the difference between the meaning of Green IT and Greening IT, which is, I think, really important to stress. Green IT refers to making IT more efficient to reduce GHG emissions from the IT sector, which account for 2% of global GHG emissions. Greening with IT, on the other hand, means providing low carbon IT solutions that reduce GHG emissions across different sectors. Examples would be virtual meetings that replace the need to travel as often, thereby reducing the levels of GHG emissions that are generated from the travel sector. Such Greening with IT solutions can be integrated in all businesses and can consequently have an enormous effect on reducing emissions, as they address the remaining other 98%.

We summarised the main points of the paper in an article. Please have a look at the article and the paper.

This paper is the last in a series of several reports that HP EMEA supported for WWF. You can find links to the reports at the bottom of the article.

For insights into IT as an enabler of a low carbon economy, I can also recommend reading blogs by Dennis Pamlin, the author of the reports.

Jeannette Weisschuh

Using outside air in data centers (AKA "free cooling")

WilliamKosik — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 15:25:00 GMT

Here are some more analytics and data visualizations, this time on using outside air to cool a data center. When using this type of strategy, the hourly outside temperature and humidity conditions will drive the overall strategy and control of the HVAC systems. This is why it is critical to develop a very granular analysis of the climate for the particular site for the data center.

This is the base case (no economizer).

This is the case using economizer.

No we need to analyze the hourly kW demand of each case, by each sub-system. The following charts were generated from detailed, hourly energy use simulation algorithms developed by HP CFS engineers.

This is the base case. Notice that the blue line which represents the chiller power, is active all year.

This is the economizer case. Here you can see that the chiller power fluctuates much more, reducing the overall power consumption significantly. Notice also that the power for humidification (represented by the purple line) now becomes a larger contributor to the overall energy use. This is where the computer-based simulations become absolutely necessary so we can understand the entire picture before recommending a particular solution.

Will the new presidential order will speed up green IT?

WilliamKosik — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 14:55:00 GMT

The FEDERAL LEADERSHIP IN ENVIRONMENTAL, ENERGY,AND ECONOMIC PERFORMANCE presidential order went into effect on October 5, 2009. The main goal of the order is to "to establish an integrated strategy towards sustainability in the Federal Government and to make reduction of greenhouse gas emissions a priority for Federal agencies". It requires that "the agency head shall consider reductions associated with: (i) reducing energy intensity in agency buildings; (ii) increasing agency use of renewable energy and implementing renewable energy generation projects on agency property".

There are 3-month and 8-month deadlines for the agencies to put targets and plans in place for reducing their carbon footprint. Could this finally be the push we need?

CDP and Supply Chain Carbon Reporting

christianverstraete — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 09:09:00 GMT

Around this time of the year, many companies are looking for the by now famous CDP (Carbon Disclosure Project) report. And the 2009 report is on-line. But that's not the only information available. For the first time CDP has also issued their first Supply Chain Report with as subtitle: "Managing climate change in the supply chain". In that report they are looking at scope 3 emission management amongst others and this is where things really become interesting.

Indeed, scope 1 (direct) and scope 2 (indirect, related to provisioning of energy) reporting is mandatory, but the unclear nature of what is included in scope 3 emissions makes their reporting optional.

However, from a Supply Chain perspective, analyzing the climate implications of outsourcing manufacturing and logistics, of buying components and intermediate products, and of managing the product flow from cradle to grave, is an interesting exercise. Not only should the environmental impact be assessed, but through understanding CO2 emissions, the actual amount of energy used can be assessed. Reducing CO2 emissions may have a direct impact in lowering the energy bill. Many companies forget this in their quest for carbon neutrality and the use of green energy.

Jean-Pascal van Ypersele, the Vice-Chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), keeps pointing out the best energy is the one that is not used, not the one that is offset. In their quest of becoming green, companies should first look for energy reduction

To be able to do this, one needs to visualize the emissions across the supply chain, preferably on a product level. And here is where the problem is. Today no companies have the tools to identify the greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) at product level.

HP did calculate the total GHG emissions of its supply chain, and started reporting in 2008. Despite working closely with our tier one suppliers, the approach is still rather crude. Suppliers allocate HP's share of their energy consumption in proportion of the value of our business in their annual revenue.

This unfortunately does not allow taking key decisions related to which products require loads of energy to manufacture and which ones no. Balancing the portfolio from an environmental perspective is not possible with such approach.

Maybe we should take a completely different tag. For every product manufactured, we have a bill of materials (BOM) and a bill of process (BOP). If each partner in the Supply Chain could calculate the amount of GHG emitted to manufacture one unit of their product (component, sub-assembly, substance...), a "Bill of Carbon" (BOC) would be developed for each. I actually highlighted this concept in a blog entry last year, labeled BOS & BOC, new acronyms to get used to?

The question is obviously how this information could be consolidated to obtain a true picture of the environmental impact of the finished product. And here is where another concept I highlighted, called a community cloud, could help.

Indeed, if all participants would consolidate, using the BOC of all components included in the BOM of their end product, the amount of GHG emitted in the process, we would have a great view of the manufacturing impact. By adding the transportation piece that is found in the BOP, a reasonably complete picture could be established. Obviously, one can argue that averages may be used and, resulting from there, that the number is not absolutely correct. However, it would give a picture that is closer to reality and much more granulate than the current one.

Using a cloud approach, such community could be established without requiring one of the parties to implement a hosting infrastructure. No CAPEX investment would be required, making it easier for the parties to participate. A pay-per-use or subscription fee could be used to finance the service.

To take full advantage of this approach, it should be combined with standard metrics, such as the ones included in SCOR 9.0. Ultimately, this would allow companies not only to publish the carbon footprint of their products, but also to analyze the environmental impact of their product portfolio, allowing them to retire the most polluting ones, while promoting the others. Managing a portfolio from an environmental point of view prepares companies to benefit from upcoming legislation around carbon taxation and others, by understanding their impact at the product level.

Blog Action Day: Climate Change

jeanne2007 — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 10:23:00 GMT

For the third consecutive year, our blog is participating in the Blog Action Day. The idea of the Blog Action Day is to encourage bloggers all over the world to post an entry on the same topic on the same day to raise awareness. The motto is: One day. One issue. Thousands of voices.

After last year’s topic on poverty (read our blog entry here), we are back with an environmental issue: Climate Change. Climate Change has been at the top of the agenda for many years and this is why: Climate Change constitutes environmental, economic and social risks. But there are also opportunities, especially for businesses that are committed to finding ways to alleviate climate change.

As a technology company we look at the environmental impact of our operations, the life cycle of our products and how we can help our customers reduce their carbon footprint. Let me highlight some of our latest eco solutions products and services to give you an example of how we do that. With our Eco Solutions programme, we offer more than 115 products that feature our HP Eco Highlights label. Our DeskJet D2545, for example, is made of 83% recycled plastic material. This version also uses 40% less energy than its predecessor. For an overview, have a look at our Eco Solutions Website.

Did you know that saving 1,000 business flights between London and New York for one person can prevent more than 1,200 tonnes of CO2 emissions? It also saves around $2 million in airfares. HP Halo Videoconferencing System offers an alternative to business travel and, at HP, we use it wherever we can to reduce our carbon footprint. By offering Halo as a service to our business customers, we help them reduce their footprint too. Believe me, it feels like being in the same room with your colleagues who might be in the U.S. or China. You can connect up to four Halo rooms simultaneously. I try to use it wherever I can because it saves my time, my colleagues’ time and most of all it saves greenhouse gas emissions. To get an impression of HP’s Halo Telepresence and Videoconference effects on the environment, take a look here.

HP has also just launched SkyRoom, which brings videoconferencing right to your laptop in your office. SkyRoom is a software which enables the user to have live, real-time conversations in instant face-to-face meetings. But that’s not all. SkyRoom also allows users to share videos and presentations with each other. It actually nearly resembles a normal business meeting with your colleagues, except that you do not have to travel or invest hundreds of Euros. Soon this software will be pre-installed on several business desktops and workstations. So, with HP SkyRoom, videoconferencing becomes an affordable alternative to business travel. For more information on this, have a look at the website: www.hp.com/go/hpskyroom.

Technology advances quickly, doesn’t it? It does not only make our lives easier, but it also helps us to reduce our impact on the environment. As a single company, I think we are already making good progress in helping to alleviate climate change. But we must remember: there is still a long way to go and we will have to fundamentally change the way we live and work to help avoid the dangers of climate change.

Jeannette Weisschuh, Director Global Citizenship, HP EMEA

It all starts with Design for the Environment

christianverstraete — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 09:26:00 GMT

Building greener products requires putting the environment right in the middle of the product design process. Indeed, that's where 80+% of the impact of the product on the environment are defined. Many companies seem to forget this. Design for the Environment looks at all aspects of the product that may influence the environmental footprint of the product throughout its lifecycle. In our industry this includes:

Materials included in the product
Packaging
Manufacturing Process
Supply Chain design
Energy consumption of the product in use
Reverse logistics routes
Ease of dismantling for recycling
Recycling process itself

I will not go through all 8 aspects in detail as this would lead us too far, but I would like to comment on some. Materials is a real interesting one, and as a manufacturer of electronic products we need to constantly justify the decision of using specific products. There is a push for products with lower environmental footprint, and that is the right thing to do. However, this should not be at the detriment of quality, and in some case, substitution products just do not ensure the same quality as the others.

Packaging can affect the environment in two ways. First the size of the packaging and the amount of empty space implies fewer products are transported per pallet, increasing the carbon footprint of each product item. Carefully designing packaging is critical for maximum environmental efficiency. But secondly, the packaging needs to be disposed off, recycled in the best case, so limiting the amount of packaging required helps the environment. And here the only limit is one's imagination as demonstrated by HP winning the Walmart Design Challenge last year.

The third aspect is the manufacturing process itself and although HP manufactures very little product themselves, they establish stringent guidelines on how their contract manufacturers are required to report their Greenhouse Gas emissions amongst others.

The actual use of energy by the finished product is defined at product design time. Ensuring we use low energy consuming components, we develop appropriate cooling to exclude the consumption increase from heating chips. Over their lifetime, our products may be switched on for long periods of time, so any reduction in energy consumption has large implications of the lifecycle of the product. This is the reason why so much attention is placed on this.

One element people often do not think about is making it easy for the product to be taken apart, facilitating recycling. We all look at the ease of mounting the product in the first place, but why would we think about taking it apart? Right at the design of the product it is important to look at its end of life, marking the components to facilitate recognition of the material, avoiding composite pieces with multiple plastics for example, and not coating the products with difficult to recycle paints. Recycling can be a break-even or profitable operation, if products are designed with this step in mind.

Design for the environment is a large subject where many things come to play. It includes concepts such as Design for Supply Chain and Design for Recycling. Yes, taking the environment into account during design makes the process more complex and difficult, but it results in lower manufacturing and supply chain costs as typically less energy is used. It also improves sales as we have an increasing amount of green conscious buyers out there, who, at similar cost, opt for the more environmental friendly product. So, what are you waiting for?

Do not rest on your laurels: HP sets new energy reduction goals

jeanne2007 — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 05:50:00 GMT

I came back from my holidays last week. Normally your first day back after a two weeks away is a little bit ‘tough’, but this time it was brightened up by this HP announcement: HP sets new energy reduction goals.

Having achieved our goal of reducing combined energy consumption and associated GHG (greenhouse gas) emissions of our operations and products to 25 per cent below our 2005 levels, we have now taken up our next challenge, related to the integration of EDS into HP: to reduce the energy consumption and associated GHG emissions of our products to 40(!) per cent below our 2005 levels by the end of 2011.

It is encouraging that there are always good reasons to aim even higher. My holidays might be over, but I can look ahead now with great enthusiasm. My team and I will soon start planning, organising and defining our Global Citizenship priorities in the region for our next financial year. You can be sure that we will keep you posted here on our blog.

Jeannette Weisschuh, Director Global Citizenship, HP EMEA

How did HP become a "Green" Company?

christianverstraete — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 07:37:00 GMT

On Monday, Newsweek released their inaugural Green Rankings, and interestingly, HP finished at the top. In an article, titled "The Greenest Big Companies in America" they explain they decided to publicize this list to recognize the efforts of companies, and how they ranked companies in industries as diverse as high-tech and mining.

Some are critical about the way this was done, Rose Gordon in PRWeek for example, points out that "ranks are fraught with subjectivity, or incomplete and self-reported data", but recognizes this is "a best first effort".

HP's position is due to its long term commitment to reducing the environmental footprint of all its operations, and not based on carbon offset or any other substitution program. The environmental subject is an emotional one, but reading through some of the blog comments, I realize many HP programs are not known and not visible to most. Indeed, our objective has not been to market green, but rather to become greener. HP is mainly working in three spaces:

Reducing the environmental impact of a product throughout its whole lifecycle, from design to recycling
Reducing the environmental impact of HP's own operations and facilities
Helping HP employees reduce their own environmental impact

Each of those subjects is worth a whole dissertation, and it is not my plan in this entry to review all measures taken and describe every internal policy, this would take us way too far. However, I would like to highlight some very practical examples that may help you understand what we are trying to do.

Let me first highlight a program, called Design for Environment, we embarked on several years ago. The objective of this program is to include the environmental aspects right from the early design stages of the product. It addresses the impact of the product during manufacturing, during usage and at recycling, so, all the way through the lifecycle of the product. Aspects such as packaging, materials, energy consumption, supply chain impacts, ease of reuse/recycling are all taken into account. Obviously tradeoffs have to be made to ensure quality and ease of use of the product, as our customers do not expect HP to lower their standards.

Let me give you some examples. About one year ago, HP designed a notebook for Walmart, shipped in a stylish bag made out of 100% recycled material, reducing packaging with 97%, and winning Walmart's Design Challenge along the way. Another example is the increased use of recycled material in the production of Inkjet Cartridges. These are just two examples in a series. I will come back to the DfE program in a future entry.

And let me take a minute to urge you to recycle your cartridges and HP products. You can find information on the program in your country here.

To reduce its environmental impact, HP is addressing multiple aspects at the same time. And here is where, a partial view does not allow a real understanding of what is happening. For example, when HP announced the doubling of Green Energy Use in late 2008, we received negative comments from some of our competitors, and that's fine. In the mean time, we are well on the way to reduce our total Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions from our facilities to 16 percent below 2005 levels, by the end of 2010. Our current performance can be found here. We are consolidating buildings; increase the use of renewable energy, decrease emissions per unit of floor space etc. But we are also ensuring our company car fleet uses more efficient cars (reduction of 8% of GHG emissions from 205 level, and 24% from 2006 level in Europe alone) , we are reducing travel and have implemented Halo telepresence studio's in all major facilities. We have also consolidated our IT datacenters resulting in drastic reductions in energy consumption, and are working at consolidating our printing environments.

In many countries programs exist to help employees reduce their environmental impact. In my own country for example, a program for acquiring rooftop solar panels has been implemented. Environmental tricks and tips are available on the intranet to give another example. And HP goes even further, trying to incent its customers to reduce their carbon footprint. The "Power to Change" program, launched last June, is one of the examples. To address the widest possible audience, the program is on facebook and twitter.

Becoming "greener", and I use this term rather than the term "green", as I strongly believe companies can always reduce their environmental impact, is not a big bang announcement, but an orchestration of many small steps that each add to a common goal. Caring for the environment has been in HP's DNA for a long time. Our first recycling program was started in 1966, to recycle punched cards. Most of you probably do not even remember how they look.

We are committed to continue our efforts to reduce our environmental impact. If you are interested in reviewing how we progress, check our environment pages.

EPA issues new greenhouse gas reporting requirements

WilliamKosik — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 20:42:00 GMT

On September 22, 2009, the EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson signed the rule on a new greenhouse gas emission reporting program which is a pre-cursor to potential carbon taxing policy. The reporting is for the top carbon emitters in the U.S, primarily from the manufacturing sector where carbon emissions are from the site (as opposed to indirect emissions from electrical generation). In this first round of reporting, automobile manufacturers and other large industrial facilities are not included.

If you read the documentation from the EPA you will see that the threshold for report is emissions of 25,000 metrics tons of CO_2e (carbon dioxide equivalent[1]) annually. Furthermore, the EPA documents indicate that facilities with a minimum of 25,000 metric tons of CO_2eannual emissions account for 85% of the total GHG emissions in the U.S annually. Keep in mind that these are facilities that manufacture items that involve the use of CO₂ in the process and often times have on-site power generation facilities using solid or gaseous fuel located on site. These are considered direct emissions since they are from the actual site.

Since most data centers and other large commercial buildings do not typically have on-site electric generation facilities, the CO_2eemission from these facilities s are considered indirect emissions since they are attributable to electric generation at an off-site facility owned by another entity. The EPA has issued Technical Support Document on the Proposed Rule for Mandatory Greenhouse Gas Reporting which discusses the benefit of reporting indirect emissions attributable to a facility as a means to encourage awareness of energy use and as a way to understand the impact that the facilities have on the efficiency of the electric power generators. While this is not part of the new reporting program, it gives insight into the longer-term plans of the U.S. EPA.

The indirect CO_2eemissions from the generation of electricity for a data center is derived from the amount of electricity used expressed in kWH, the fuel source and efficiency of the generation. The eGrid documentation makes this calculation easy. If you know the annual electricity usage of the facility in kWH, just multiply this by the factors in the eGrid tables. These are expressed in pounds of CO₂ per megawatt-hour, so you will need to convert from pounds to metric tons and from kilowatt-hours (kWH) to megawatt-hours (MWH). The average for the United States is approximately 1300 pounds of CO₂ per megawatt-hour of electricity generation.

Why is the relevant to data centers? How many metric tons of CO_2e does a data center emit anyway? I did some cursory energy analysis to answer this question. Using the range of emission rates for U.S. electric generators, I modeled a data center located in Chicago, IL. I considered different size facilities : 2, 5, 10 and 20 MW. The data in visualized in this graph:

The way this chart is read is the following:

1. On the X-axis, locate the data center capacity.

2. Draw a line straight up to the curve that best represents the CO₂ emission output (in pounds per kWH) of the electrical generator, state or NERC region based on where the data center facility is located.

3. Draw a horizontal line to the Y-axis from where the vertical line intersects the appropriate curve.

4. Read the value on the Y-axis where the line intersects.

Table listing the different eGrid regions and the average GHG emissions from both base loaded and non-base loaded electrical power generation

Maps of the United States showing the different eGrid regions (left) and the average CO₂ output per state in lbs per megawatt-hour (right)

So what does it all mean? Based on the analysis, data centers over 10 MW in capacity will likely face scrutiny in the future based on the indirect CO₂ emissions. However, as the generation type gets more CO₂intensive, it becomes very difficult for facilities to achieve an upper limit threshold of 25,000 metric tons annually. Remember - I am making assumptions on the capping threshold and that corporations will need to report indirect emissions. But it is important to be prepared if this becomes the case.

[1]

CO_2eis a metric that includes the other primary contributors to green house gas emissions. The formula that is used to determine CO_2eis:

CO_2e= (EF_1* CO₂) + (EF_{2 *}NH₄)+ (EF_{2 *}N₂O)

where EF_i is the emission factor attributable to the particular gas. The US EPA publishes this information in their eGrid documents for all electrical power providers in the United States.

HP ranks first in Newsweek Green Ranking

ulrikehaug — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 10:34:00 GMT

Newsweek have just published their new Green Ranking list of the biggest companies in the U.S. I was very pleased to see that HP ranked #1. As Daniel McGinn points out in his article, such rankings can be quite controversial. Not all companies report on their environmental performance. Either that or they only report on selected parts and so it’s difficult to compare companies against each other. Nevertheless, Newsweek think they have found a sound methodology by working with KLD Research & Analytics, Trucost, and CorporateRegister.com. Here is some more information on how HP scored in the different categories.

What do you think about Green Rankings? Leave a comment and let me know!

Ulrike Haug, CSR Stakeholder Programmes, HP EMEA