Archive for March 2011
Climate Change Quicker Than Expected
March 31, 2011 | 
Author An increasingly large amount of peer-reviewed research, published since the last IPCC Assessment Report in 2007, proves that global warming is occurring right now, and that it is faster than suggested just 2 years ago.
The evidence for this statement comes from many areas. The most important ecosystems showing change include:
-Multiple ecosystems, in widespread locations, now show the effects of climate change. Examples include the timing of plant flowering, animal breeding, and lake thawing.
-Elevated sea surface temperatures in Pacific & Atlantic hurricane-formation areas which will lead to stronger hurricanes are significantly related to anthropogenic warming.
-Ocean acidification is occurring quickly, due to carbon dioxide in massive amounts dissolving in sea water. This is going to have major changes on ocean ecosystems and as a result of food security for most nations.
-Projected sea-level elevation over the next 100 years will be higher than that calculated in 2007. It is expected to increase at least a metre, according to newly released research.
-The accelerated melting of the ice sheet in Greenland which started in the summer of 2004 has been definitely related to global warming.
-The West Antarctic Ice Shelf has undergone accelerated melting during the last 10 years and has undergone ten major ice shelf collapses during that time.
-Sea-ice in the Arctic is disappearing much faster than previously estimated, and it is likely that this area will be free of ice in summer within a few decades.
-The rate of thawing of the northern permafrost is thawing much faster than initially estimated, and is releasing a lot more GHG than predicted.
The global warming that is now occurring is expected to extend for many centuries even after all human-released greenhouse gas escape ceases. This is due to the significant inertia that exists in the climate as well as the slow removal of carbon dioxide from within the atmosphere (as around 25% remains for greater than 5000 years).
Summary
It remains to be seen whether we will unite as one to avoid the main effects of global warming before we pass an important threshold that will start runaway global warming.
USA behind UK in reducing Emissions? Really?
Is the USA really behind the UK in reducing green house gas emissions? When you look at what America is doing and the initiatives on a state by state basis, they are leading in some areas, especially carbon markets and voluntary emission trading schemes. Just look at this example below:-
In 2009, the global carbon market was approximately $136 billion. It is estimated that a global carbon market of $2 trillion can be established by 2020 if a legal binding global climate treaty is signed as well as a federal emission trading system is established in the US.
In order to establish a strong carbon market in the US, “cap and trade” scheme was introduced under which a carbon emission limit (cap) is set for companies, which when unable to achieve, can buy allowances from other companies. But, this system is facing opposition from Republicans in the U.S. Senate and doubts persist whether the bill related to this system will pass this year. However, other regulatory measures and “cap and refund” system are seen as alternatives to minimize greenhouse gas emissions.
The US carbon market was worth $2.7 billion in 2009; less than 3% of the total carbon permits traded under EU’s program, which equaled $93.9 billion in the same year. Majority of the carbon market in the US is derived through a 10-state cap and trade program in the northeast, known as the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) as well as offsets market, which accounted for $74 million in 2009.
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Tags: Carbon Accounting, Drive, Emissions, Federal, Global, Market, System | 
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Energy from Landfill Gas Benefits Explained
Methane is generated within 6 to eighteen months after solid waste is put in a landfill. Peak production starts roughly a year after deposit in most established landfills, but serious volumes of the gas can be generated for 20 or more years after that when a landfill gas to energy scheme is installed, depending on the individual landfill traits. Generating energy from landfill gas in such landfill gas to energy projects doesn’t only mean decreasing its jeopardy towards our climate ; it also serves then as a substitute for fossil fuels, for example natural gas.
Such a waste-to-energy ( landfill gas to energy ) project is a demonstration of how we, as a society, can transform long-held climate changing practices into more environmentally sustainable actions. In the US and many other states this is exactly what’s been done. For example, there are way more than 400 landfill gas to energy power projects today in the united states already. The reason being because even lining and capping will not stop a large amount of the gas escaping.
Methane is around 21 times more powerful than carbon dioxide as a greenhouse gas and allowing methane escape to the atmosphere would have significant global warming implications.
Methane also has a short, ten year, atmospheric life. Methane is a very powerful greenhouse gas and for that reason is a key contributor to world climate change.
In several less developed nations methane emissions from landfills represent a lost opportunity to capture and use a important energy resource. This is also significant for landfill gas to energy projects as when released into the air, it’s not only a greenhouse gas it also contributes to local air pollution.
Many countries have their own schemes to inspire renewable energy production life landfill gas to energy projects. These Green Certificates ( sometimes called green tags or replaceable energy certificates, and in the United Kingdom’ROCS’ ) act like a claim check on each megawatt hour of replaceable electricity delivered to the grid, and they apply to landfill gas to energy schemes. Such green power when acquired by the electricity user supports renewable energy development.
This is in addition to the more traditional categories of power plants.
For that reason, energy recovery from methane, where economically reasonable, is of considerable benefit to the environment.
For an example of the benefits of landfill gas to energy, the US Environmental Protection Agency’s dump Methane Outreach Program has reportedly aided in developing over 325 landfill gas to energy projects in the past 12 years. These have reduced methane emissions by about ninety million metric tons of CO2 equivalent. Across the nation there are reports that there were more than 400 landfill gas to energy projects in operation in 2006 alone, these projects provided over ten bill kilo watt hours of electricity and seventy five bln cubic feet of landfill gas to corporate and state end users.
MANAGE ENVIRONMENTAL POLLUTION BY ENERGY CONSERVATION
The world has been facing a number of environmental issues, such as pollution, deforestation or global warming. Even though it is fairly difficult to cope with these problems, there are some things we can perform to protect the environment.
Environmental pollution is caused due to excessive utilization of natural resources, presence of a large number of people and livestock in congested areas, use of agro-chemicals, setting up of factories, running of automobiles, burning of fuel, etc.
A change in the environment is due to pollution and also affects the ecological balance. Environmental pollution is caused both in rural and urban areas. Pollution can cause sickness and discomfort. It also affects the productivity of natural resources, such as land, water, forests and livestock.
Global warming refers to the augment in regular temperature near the earth’s surface and in its oceans
. Climate change is another term used interchangeably with global warming. On the other hand, climate revolutionize may include other changes in typical weather besides increase in temperature.
Air Pollution:
The tall buildings soak up heat during the day and release it during the night. Thus, the weather remains hot and unpleasant. Automobiles and industries emit smoke containing carbon dust, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide and other poisonous gases, which are unhealthy. Chemical factories release harmful gases, which can travel long distances. Gases like sulphur dioxide and nitrous oxide come in contact with cloud or rain water and turn into acid and result in acid rain. Release of harmful gases like fluorine and nitrous oxide by factories into the atmosphere would destroy the ozone layer and allow the harmful rays of the sun to reach the earth. Gases like carbon dioxide, sulphur dioxide and nitrous oxide, when released from automobiles and industries, absorb heat from sunlight and raise the temperature of our surroundings. Due to deforestation and increasing industrial growth, the average temperature of the atmosphere may rise by 20 C – 50 C during the next fifty years. This is known as global warming.
Protecting the environment is something everyone needs to consider. We can prevent environmental pollution if we understand its causes and take following measures:
Recycle Conserving the energy Pressure government Write letters Educating the people Waste natural resources
First of all, we can save the environment by recycling things such as cans, glass bottles or newspapers as much as possible.
For example, if we recycle newspapers or magazines to reproduce recycle paper, we can save the consumption of paper, and consequently it will help stop deforestation in tropical forests. We should also try to buy things that are made from recycled materials.
Secondly, conserving energy will also help protect our environment. Nowadays, we overly consume precious energy or natural resources. Moreover, burning fossil fuels, such as coal, oil, and gas, produces a large amount of carbon dioxide, which leads to the global warming.
Planting trees to offset the effects of the carbon dioxide emissions created in the production of the energy and other products one consumes is another alternative. It isn’t necessary to do this oneself. Around the world there are organizations that are gearing up to do this on behalf of the many millions of concerned consumers. So for instance a power company could estimate the greenhouse gases emitted to produce a kilowatt-hour of electricity and then allow its customers an opportunity to pay to offset these emissions and become “carbon neutral”. Other ways of conserving energy would include cutting back on waste thereby saving on the energy that would be spent on replacement of the wasted item – Recycle and reuse whenever possible. In order to reduce energy consumption, each of us is required to make many efforts like turning off lights, adjusting thermostat or walking instead of driving as often as possible. If only we could educate people so that they realize their small contribution will collectively create great benefits for the environment. Saving on water consumption – A huge amount of energy is spent on purifying water for consumption so cutting back on water waste will help considerably. Ensuring you have efficient insulation and that cooling and heating appliances are cleaned and primed to work efficiently.
Having discussed above, it is felt that, in order to improve the environment, it is very essential for the government to educate people. In fact, we tend to be ignorant of the environment problems these days. Unless we know how serious the problems are and what we have to do to protect the environment, the improvement will never been achieved.
Of course, protecting the environment is also a responsibility of government and business houses. In order to influence government, we could write letters to newspapers or politicians expressing our desires for the government to do more to protect the environment. We could also write directly to business houses with suggestions on how they could reduce pollution or waste. We might also write letters thanking those who are making efforts to protect the environment.
ROLE OF CHILDREN IN PROTECTING ENVIRONMENT:
Children in rural and urban areas can play an important role in preventing environment pollution very effectively. There is great satisfaction in doing it ourselves.
Children in villages can persuade their parents to :
Use smokeless stoves or install biogas plants; Provide smoke outlets and ventilation in the kitchen; Tie livestock outside the house and reduce their number Feed livestock in their sheds without letting them out for grazing; Plant trees around the house, on field bunds and along roadsides; Develop field bunds across the slope to retain more water and prevent the soil being washed away. Plough the field across the slope; Keep tanks, canals and other water sources clean; Use the sewage water for growing trees; Keep the surroundings of the house and well clean; Prepare compost by using garbage, dung and other wastes;
Select a suitable site for the toilet, away from water sources and houses. It can also be connected to the biogas plant;
Use agro-chemicals carefully and try to avoid them. Plant products may be preferred wherever effective to protect crops;
Protect wildlife like frogs, snakes, mongoose, birds, etc. which
Urban children can do a lot to reduce environment pollution. Plant tress in school and home premises. Even if you are staying in a flat, plants and creepers can be raises in pots and wooden boxes, in the balcony; Protect the trees planted along roadsides; Keep public areas clean and avoid littering; Plant trees along roadsides, near bus stops, around playgrounds, and in parks to provide shade; Avoid dumping garbage on the street. Dispose them in a garbage dump; you can also make a compost pit to convert garbage into manure; Waste paper, plastic, glass and metal pieces can be recycled this would reduce the pollution and conserve our resources; Avoid using plastic materials such as plates and carry bags which cannot be used again. Moreover, when plastic is thrown away, it does not degrade but remains in the soil, polluting the surroundings; Do not make noise in public places; every likes quiet surroundings; Request your family members to use automobiles only when necessary; walking or cycling can be a pleasure when the distance is short; If someone is causing pollution in your area, inform the authorities through your teachers or parents.
Finally, there are many ways for us to protect the environment, not only on a global level but on a personal level. Saving the environment for future generations is something we must all be trying to do. We belong to earth; the earth does not belong to us. Let us act now and persuade others to join us. This will ensure safety for our future generations.
Posted in Carbon accounting | Tags: CONSERVATION, Energy, ENVIRONMENTAL, Manage, POLLUTION | No Comments »
Living Green and Thereby Reducing our Carbon Footprint and Saving the Earth
Recycling is the simplest and most effective ways that we can help save the environment. There are plenty of different steps that we can take at home where you can separate trash for this purpose. It is convenient if you can buy plastic trash cans and label them for each individual product.
You can have one for glass products, one for plastic items, and one for cardboard and paper products. You can have one for aluminium cans (soda cans) too . Check out from your local representative, if there is any recycling place near your place of residence. There should be centers for them locally around town. You will often find bins that allow you to place these items into at collection spots. They are just huge containers that will get emptied out on a regular basis. This is perfect when the community doesn’t have any other method
for taking in the items to be recycled.
If your community doesn’t offer recycling, then you need to take charge and can contact your local representative in person or in writing asking them to consider offering them. Explain your concerns that without such bins in place people won’t be encouraged to recycle in your Community.
The concept of recycling can be extended to schools and businesses in your Community as well. Take the initiative and do what you can. In many instances people just need to be educated and then reminded about the benefits of recycling for saving our environment.
Your information and initiative can motivate others in your Community to take part and do their bit. Don’t overlook the
importance of letting children in your Community take part. They are often very excited and find it to be thrilling. They can often help and be your Ambassador and encourage their parents to take part in such efforts.
Buying products that have been recycled such as paper products is a great way to show your support for these efforts. Even supplies such as napkins used in fast food restaurants can be made from recycled paper. Make it a practice to use only recycled paper and paper products.
Buy a big cloth bag for your shopping needs rather than getting a paper or plastic bag from the shops. Look for one that is durable
so it you can reused over and over again.
These are just some of the things which we as responsible citizens can do to reduce our Carbon Footprint and therby save our beloved Planet Earth.
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Sustainability for climate change
Energy quality is a type of energy accounting, a balance sheet of energy return on energy invested. The energy quality of oil is extraordinarily large. The dilemma of decreasing carbon emissions also make the situation challenging for energy companies. And then, like any other company, energy companies are under immense pressure to show revenue to their shareholders. This is the actual challenge, and also what drives politics around the world. The western world blames developing countries like China and India for increased energy consumption, while present energy consumption by the Western world is already above the threshold limits. There are two options: either the world fights politically by blaming each other while consuming the same quanta of energy or listen to the wise saying of fighting together for a common cause of a problem and finding sustainable solutions for the present gloomy situation of global warming. The sustainable energy solutions lie in harnessing nuclear energy, bio energy, geothermal energy, wind energy, energy from the waves of the oceans, etc. Every option has very limited energy quality against oil in present but will be competent in future times according to many speculations. To find the sustainable solution, one needs to answer the question: How can energy producing and distribution companies behave responsibly – towards the environment and towards customers?
This is a complex question. Energy Production (Generation), Distribution, and Consumption are all complex issues. If we limit our discussion to electricity alone, then to pontificate: “Energy” is neither produced nor consumed. To go further, energy is only converted, neither produced nor consumed (except in nuclear reactions). Energy “Production” then again comes from many sources. For electricity, it will be hydroelectric, thermal, wind, geothermal, bio-thermal and nuclear among others. Each of these industries has distinct and unique circumstances. So “behave responsibly” does not mean much. There needs to be guidelines developed or drawn for each different industry. Now – the real issue is the CULTURE of the people: culture of the management, employees, and surrounding business and politics. Now is the time when people need to think first of the environment, the “Mother Earth” and then about their activities. Management & Finance Education, in particular has failed world-wide in developing leaders that think not just of the short term and personal gains, but first of overall impact. There are many that do think globally and altruistically rather than selfishly, even in the management and finance circles all over the world. However, only a few do not have a devastating influence and impact, as was witnessed in the recent world economic debacle. Unfortunately, they were not promoted and rewarded (some went to jail, but most went into lavish retirements), by the financial markets and business ownership systems, for their short term profit-making. As environmentally responsive citizens, we need to know that we cannot know everything about a problem and therefore, (a) think beyond the available information, to assure greater safety and security of the systems we implement, (b) study, and innovate to create ever better systems, and (c) replace the systems created earlier with better, more recent systems.
This cycle of create-maintain-destroy-rebuild is something that Business and Management refuse to participate in unless forced to do so. Their approach is most often to build once, and keep reaping until the system built dies. The multigenerational thinking has been invented in management and has been promoted but is not implemented. It does require a strong fiscal discipline to say that x percent is going to be dedicated to R&D, y percent to Maintenance, z percent to total replacement and new processes and products. We have basic educational and job expertise and skill set requirements for every job except that of an elected political leader. These factors together make up for a society that does not have the will that is needed to take leadership action. This is a problem all over the world. I do not have a solution, only a prayer.
In absence of fixing the systems in place, the only device left is one of public outcry and activism, but far more one-sided and populated by people with extremist viewpoints. And the macro-machine of the society adopts it from time to time. The problem of culture needs to be fixed and then all else will follow. Responsibility cannot be enforced; it has to be an internal drive.
As a consumer, what measures can one take to reduce the consumption of energy in the places at home or at work?
Replace all light bulbs with fluorescent ones, use the LED-based bulbs wherever possible, minimize the use of disposable materials. Do not use polystyrene-based disposables (Styrofoam). Prefer polypropylene (PP) which is microwaveable or polyethylene instead. Reuse disposable PP wares. Live in a well ventilated and well insulated house. Use minimum heating, with only the bedroom heated centrally and use local area (small load) electric heaters for other areas. Building design recommendations needs to be very simple that can be incorporated to reduce global warming by a common individual. A house needs to be built as a very open structure with high ceilings, extra ventilators on the top sections, and many large windows and doors, and cross-ventilation everywhere. The house architecture should be chosen in alignment with local wind, snow, rain and sun directions and patterns. There can be provision for solar (thermal) heated hot water and use fluorescent lights. The house should be constructed so that lights are only needed at night, well after sunset when outside light is gone. Needless to say, our electricity consumption can be minimal. Most of it is for the TV, computer and washing machine when needed. If we implement Photo Voltaic in the house, the need for external electricity would only remain for heavy appliances. These are only some of the solutions out of the many solutions.
The global warming problem can be controlled by living sustainably at a personal level. This can solve the extremist viewpoints and can make a “GREEN CULTURE”. The chaos of Business, Management and Politics needs to be cleaned and they should be forced to adopt “GREEN CULTURE”, so that prayers for humanity can be answered. Their failures cannot be tolerated on the expense of Mother Earth. The time has come for an environmentally responsive and acting global community fighting for a common solution of a bigger, global problem. The solution of global warming is vested in improving the energy quality.
Climate Change – What Will Happen?
A beautiful sunny day, a few pretty clouds but still plenty of sunshine. Overnight, light rain fell and everything was damp and beautiful in the morning. A slight breeze. The temperature was well within the range of my best moods and lightest clothes. It was like that where I live before the heat began to grow. Not always, there were storms from time to time, but their severity was predictable enough that we had made our buildings and such stout enough to weather them without breaking things.
When the heat grew it wasn’t like being in a sauna with the heater on full blast and the temperature steadily rising. Hot days were still hot and once in awhile hotter than we were used to but there were also cold days and now that you mention it, some of them seemed to be a bit colder than before. The most noticeable effects of the growing heat on the weather was with the wind and the rain.
As the temperature slowly increased the water level in our big lake slowly declined. It also seemed like the creeks were running slower in the summer time and a few dried up which was new around here. Summer started coming earlier, winter later. We were still getting rain but it seemed like it came less often and when it did arrive it was more than usual. We are beginning to lose some of the topsoil in the south pasture. We also noticed the brush and small trees around the house seemed to be growing faster, closing in on our buildings. The brush is getting scary dry in the summertime making us hope we wouldn’t have to deal with the same fires that had started on the dry side of the state. Last summer there were two small tornadoes near here first ones we have ever seen we thought those only happened in Tornado Alley, a thousand or more miles from here.
We’re beginning to see some new critters around here while some we were used to seem to have vanished. Some new plants too. I sort of like that, but I’ve noticed that the long time resident critters aren’t too happy about the newcomers because a competition has developed between the old and the new for food and living space. The trees also seem to be suffering from thirst but even worse is this strange new fungus that must have been dormant before the heat began to rise. I must say we were all somewhat concerned but no one seemed to have the time or inclination to do anything about it, although I frankly don’t know what we might have done. Then it started to get bad.
Two and a half months ago, late summer, when things used to start cooling down, we had a heat wave of 11 days with temperatures nearing 108 when it almost never gets over 100 around here. Mrs. Goldberg and Mr. Wilson, both almost 85, were found dead from the heat being too much for them. Then the downpour it was like nothing you had ever seen 11 inches of rain in 24 hours. Over 60% of the state’s principal crop, kumquats, is destroyed and farmer’s are saying it washed away half of their topsoil. We thought it couldn’t get any worse and then the wild fire started about 15 miles from the state capital and before we could bring it under control (it was driven by winds the like of which we had never seen before) it had burned to the outskirts of the city, destroyed over 300 homes, several schools, the football stadium and the YooHoo soda factory (that last was a good thing). Now, they’re telling us compared to other states we have it good.
We were worried so we brought in some eggheads from the state college to explain to the town meeting what was happening to us. First question out of our mouth was How much worse is this going to get? Here’s what they said: The amount of extra greenhouse gases we have already introduced to the atmosphere (that’s what is increasing the heat) is almost the same amount that has happened periodically (but very slowly) over the countless centuries. When that happened in the past earth heated up about 10ºC. All of this extreme weather (they mentioned again how we were actually a lot better off than a lot of others) has been produced by a temperature increase of only 0.6ºC, about 6% of what is ultimately expected. We all looked at each other in disbelief “ we asked, Can we survive that? No one answered.
Posted in Climate Change | Tags: Change, Climate, Factoid, Growth, Happen, Patterns, series | No Comments »
Offset your Carbon Footprint
The moving industry has been around for a few hundred years, however, only now is it changing its ways and focusing on moving green. You will find that there are plenty of ways to make a green change in your moving strategy. A great way to begin help is to offset the carbon footprint of your move.
Carbon Footprint?
Almost all aspects of moving, be it packing your items or driving across country, can leave a carbon footprint or just have some type of environmental impact in general. Carbon footprint is measured in units of carbon dioxide, and calculates the impact that human activities have on the environment in terms of the amount of green house gases produced.
One of the first carbon footprints that moving creates is from the materials used for packing such as boxes, tape, bubble wrap, and foam peanuts. The production and lifecycle of such materials will devour precious resources such as fossil fuels and trees. At the end of their lifecycle, or perhaps even before, these materials will end up in a landfill. During your long distance move, be sure to reuse and recycle packing materials when possible.
One carbon footprint that isn’t necessarily in our hands comes from using non-renewable resources like oil to produce gasoline used in moving trucks. If your move is from coast to coast, this can leave a large footprint. However, vehicle manufacturers are changing their ways and producing more fuel-efficient vehicles.
Greening Your Move
You may be feeling a bit weighed down by all this information, but try not to get discouraged. Some of these things are not in your direct control. However, you can help by greening your move a little.
Start with the items you no longer wish to keep. Try not to rent a dumpster to discard those items; Instead, find other homes for them. You can start with a yard sale or just put them on the side of the road with a “Free” taped on. If there are remaining items, donate the rest to a local shelter, Goodwill, or Salvation Army.
Green It as a Sustainable business case
An appropriate mantra for any organisation committed to Green IT should be ” Reduce, Reuse, Recycle”. Organisations should use the Green IT programme as an ideal opportunity to reduce the amount of legacy IT equipment that is currently installed on their infrastructure. Replacement of older PCs with Energy efficient (Gold EPEAT rating) PCs should be considered, and if this is not financially or logistically viable at least replace any old CRT terminals that are still in use with far more efficient LCD models. In recent tests, the average energy usage of a traditional 20-inch CRT VGA monitor was sixty three percent higher than a 20-inch wide-screen LCD monitor. Another option for organisations may be to upgrade from a cold cathode fluorescent lamp (CCFL) to a light-emitting diode (LED).
Another consideration for organisations is to reduce the number of PCs that exist on their infrastructure by ensuring they only provide one PC per user. In fact many organisations are implementing PC sharing schemes to reduce the PC estate to less than one PC per user. This initiative is becoming more viable and accepted especially as modern workforces nowadays tend to be more fluid than static and job-sharing schemes become more popular. Away from the workplace, users are already used to sharing PCs, for example when visiting libraries and internet cafes. It is essential of course that security issues are identified and addressed. Whenever an individual uses a computer, its cookies, browser history and other settings save the information that has been accessed. It is therefore essential that all the files and settings are deleted once the user logs off, and before the next user accesses the machine. To ensure the user’s data and files are kept safe a robust password and data access process needs to be implemented.
There are many different ways in which an organisation can reuse unwanted, retired or legacy infrastructure. A best practice Asset and Configuration Management process will assist an organisation in identifying where assets can be re-assigned and reused. As we have already discussed earlier in the book, a popular practice is the passing on of unwanted infrastructure to schools or charitable organisations. This is an initiative that organisations may wish to manage themselves or carry out using a specialist 3rd party, for example Computer Aid.
In addition to reusing infrastructure, organisations should also consider recycling the remaining infrastructure that cannot be reused. To enable more effective and efficient recycling, organisations should only source electrical products that are designed so they can be easily disassembled to component level, using universally available tools. The ultimate aim for any organisation is to ensure no electronic or electrical waste is disposed of in a landfill site.
1) Virtualisation to Support Green IT
At its simplest level, virtualisation allows you to have two or more computers, running two or more completely different environments, on one piece of hardware. For example, with virtualisation you can have two different Operating Systems on one system; alternatively, you could host a MS Windows XP desktop and a MS Windows Vista desktop on one workstation. Virtualisation essentially decouples users and applications from the specific hardware characteristics of the systems they use.
2) Data Centre Management and Improvement
IT data centres are potentially the largest contributor to an organisation’s carbon footprint and must become more efficient if organisations are going to reduce their overall environmental impact.
Further research has indicated that electricity consumed in data centres, including enterprise servers, ICT equipment, cooling equipment and power equipment, is expected to contribute substantially to the electricity consumed in commercial sector in the near future. Western European electricity consumption of data centres has been estimated at 56 TWh/year in 2007 and is projected to increase to 104 TWh/year by 2020.
The projected energy consumption rise poses a problem for European Union energy and environmental policies. It is important that the energy efficiency of data centres is maximised to ensure that the carbon emissions and other impacts, such as the strain on infrastructure associated with increases in energy consumption, are mitigated.
3) Cloud Computing and Software as a Service (SaaS)
For many organisations wishing to improve the efficiency of their data centres and its associated green credentials, there are three main and distinct options.
The first is to design and build a brand new state-of-the-art data centre, incorporating the latest in data centre efficiency design and environmental standards.
The second is to improve, where possible, the existing data centre and consider implementing fairly low risk and low cost initiatives such as using energy meters to break down energy usage to the level of components such as server, switch, storage area networks (SANs) and uninterrupted power supplies (UPS). Organisations will then have the option of using the data to perform component level improvements. Other options include using CPU throttling on servers, to measure the range of power consumed under a variety of loads, and again use the data to improve capacity performance; and finally thermal profiling to identify hot spots and overcooling.
The third option, which many organisations are now considering adopting, is to outsource the data centre to a specialist 3rd party supplier. With this option comes the opportunity for organisations to completely re-think their entire IT strategy and consider alternative ways of working, including Software as a Service (SaaS) and Cloud Computing.
Software as a Service is a model of software deployment whereby a provider licenses an application to customers for use as a service on demand. SaaS vendors host the application on their own web servers and download the application to the consumer device. Increased high-speed bandwidth makes it practical to locate infrastructure at other sites and still receive the same levels or improved levels of service.
Conceptually, Cloud Computing is difficult to define and can be interpreted in many different ways; it doesn’t seem to have a standardised definition. However there is some consistent terminology used when describing Cloud Computing — words such as ‘distributed’, ‘scalability’ and of course ‘virtualisation’.
In its simplest form Cloud Computing is distributed or utility computing over the internet. This basically means that an organisation’s computing services can be hosted by specialist third party suppliers rather than using ‘in-house’ local data centres. From the organisation’s perspective this means that there is no longer a requirement for organisations to own or manage their own infrastructure, since it is bought as a service and the maintenance of the infrastructure becomes the responsibility of the Service Provider.
4) Remote and Location-Independent Working
There are now many different technologies available for organisations who wish to provide the option to their employees of working from home or from satellite locations. These IT remote access solutions include, but are not restricted to, webcams, instant messaging, voice – conferencing and internet video calling solutions such as Skype.
The green benefits for organisations include reduced travel leading to fewer vehicles on the road and therefore reduced carbon emissions, and a reduction in the number of corporate buildings needed, leading to reduced energy requirements, due to less heating and lighting. Another advantage that may not be immediately identifiable is that by providing remote working solutions, staff based at home on a permanent basis can be excluded from needing seats at any recovery arrangements organised with the IT Service Continuity process. This could lead to reduced recovery requirements which could have a positive effect on CO2 emissions.
However careful consideration needs to be given before making a decision to embark on this very different method of working. Organisations will have to seriously consider the health and safety elements of remote working and the social impact of employees working in isolation from their colleagues. Lastly, organisations are going to have to implement the initiative with extreme care and diligence to ensure that they are not simply transferring the organisation’s carbon footprint to the individuals working remotely.
CRC Deadline . . . Fast Approaching
The Environment Agency (EA) has today expressed optimism that the vast majority of organisations covered by the Carbon Reduction Commitment (CRC) scheme will meet the initiative’s registration, after releasing figures showing almost half the businesses and public sector bodies eligible for the scheme have now registered.
The EA said today that 1,698 organisations have registered as participants in the scheme, representing more than half the electricity consumption expected to be covered by the energy-efficiency initiative.
The figures are likely to spark fresh concerns that with just five weeks to go until the 30 September deadline for organisations to register, large numbers of businesses and public sector bodies could miss the deadline.
Green business consultancy WSP Environment and Energy recently warned that up to 7,000 organisations are likely to miss the deadline, including about 1,500 that should be registered as full participants in the scheme.
However, the EA signalled today that with between 3,000 and 4,000 organisations expected to register as full participants in the scheme, the vast majority are on track to meet the deadline.
“We are still encouraging organisations to register now and not leave it to the last moment,” said a spokeswoman for the EA. “But we are encouraged by the number of organisations calling our helpline and the current rate of registrations is in line with what we would expect in the run-up to the deadline.”
The agency also undertook a survey recently of prospective participants in the scheme and found that 93 per cent of respondents were aware of the deadline and the need to register.
The survey of 500 organisations found that 94 per cent of public sector bodies had heard about the CRC scheme, while in the private sector 92 per cent of Participants and 86 per cent of Information Declarers were aware of the scheme.
Under the rules of the CRC, organisations using more than 6,000 megawatt hours of electricity a year must register as participants in the scheme and provide annual information on their energy use. Meanwhile, any organisation with a half-hourly electricity meter has to register as an information declarer, confirming they do not use enough energy to fully qualify for the scheme.
Participating organisations that miss the 30 September deadline for registration face an initial fine of £5,000 and additional fines of £500 for each day they fail to register up to a maximum of penalty £45,000. Equally, those organisations that miss the deadline for registering as information declarers face a fine of £500 for each half-hourly electricity meter they fail to declare.
The EA is urging organisations to complete their registration documents as quickly as possible and has set up a helpline and advisory service to help them comply with the rules.
Officials have indicated that they would be reluctant to fine organisations that make a genuine effort to meet the deadline, but are unable to provide all the information required under the scheme by the end of the month.
“We would urge the remaining organisations to register as soon as possible,” said Tony Grayling, head of climate change and sustainable development at the EA. “Our helpdesk is here to help organisations get it right first time, and organisations that have made genuine efforts to register with us should not be concerned about facing fines.”