During May, here in Western Australia, daysofchange.org has been running a very comprehensive multi-channel campaign on broad sustainability changes that everyone can make in their lives both at home and work . One of the things I like about this programme is that it gives you the opportunity to state the actions you are already undertaking, as well as pledge to make new improvements in your life. If you haven’t been to their web site to fill out your profile, it’s not too late!

Another programme starting this week has a more specific focus — International Green IT Awareness Week www.greenitweek.org.  This event promises some very practical presentations as well as good resources on the event website.  You might like to send a link to your IT Manager.

The web sites both post tips about improvements you can make.  Even though the audiences are very different for these programmes, one of the themes you can see on both these web sites is the monitoring of energy consumption.  Our Greensense View product is designed specifically to help organisations tackle this issue.  We believe this is a great way to drive energy efficiency programmes that save money and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Sustainability Advocacy and Awareness Programmes is a post from: Greensense

When e-waste ends up in landfill, many different environmental issues are encountered, due to the materials it contains.  International studies show that 70% of heavy metals (e.g. lead, mercury, cadmium) in all landfill come from e-waste.  By recycling the equipment, the toxic substances can be removed, and resources can be collected for use in new equipment, saving energy in mining and manufacturing, and therefore reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

The e-waste problem is compounded by the relatively short life-span of electronic equipment and the fast growing volume of electronic devices in the market.

In Australia approximately 140,000 tonnes of e-Waste is currently generated per annum, with only 4% being recycled.  Therefore, much more effort needs to be made to re-use this equipment to extend its life, and recycle it at the end of its life.

New recycling plants are being established within Australia to process this waste safely and effectively, and programmes are building momentum.  Some electronics manufacturers, such as Apple and Dell, are embracing ‘product stewardship’ and taking responsibility for the environmental impacts of the full life-cycle of their products.

Apple are sponsoring a free event with local councils in Perth on the weekend of 6-7th June 2009 (website, poster) to recycle e-waste from consumers and small businesses.  We encourage people to participate in this event, especially if you have been stockpiling any old equipment at home.

These voluntary efforts are to be commended, however, with many electronics manufacturers operating with low margins, an industry-wide self-regulated approach is not viable.

Therefore, governments are working towards introducing regulation.  In April 2009 EPHC released a consultation paper titled A National Waste Policy: Managing Waste to 2020, with e-waste on the agenda. Earlier this month, at the 18th Meeting of EPHC:

“Council renewed its support for the development of an ambitious national waste policy by the end of 2009. It agreed to release a draft framework for the national policy, which will draw on the input of stakeholders, for public comment during June and July. The Waste policy will be finalised at the Council Meeting in November. The policy will establish a new national vision and direction for waste for the first time since 1992.”

Local councils, who are burdened with the majority of responsibility at present, welcome such moves.

In the meantime, businesses should think about the steps they can take to tackle this issue.  Some action items to consider are:

• Measure the environmental impact of current ICT assets in the corporate asset register.
• Establish an e-waste policy, as part of a Sustainable Procurement Policy.
• Budget for disposal of e-waste during the procurement process.

e-Waste is just one consideration in the practice of Green IT.  If you would like assistance in establishing Green IT policies and procedures in your business, please contact Greensense.

The e-Waste Issue in Australia is a post from: Greensense

With the right incentives, this network should enable a significant reduction in business travel and employee commuting in Australia.

Around the same time that our new network was being announced, Al Gore said: “This is one of those rare times we all agree that the government needs to build out a green infrastructure that will free us from foreign oil and draw on clean energy.”

He was presenting at a conference on wireless networking technology and making specific reference to how wireless broadband networks support the roll-out of smart grid technology to improve energy efficiency.

Hopefully the right policies and design decisions are made now so our fibre to the premises network will support the roll-out of smart grid technology in Australia.

National broadband network should have a green lining is a post from: Greensense

What is Green IT?

The common view is that Green IT is about making computer equipment more efficient. Taking this view misses the chance to get more leverage from IT. It misses the chance for IT to contribute to the overall sustainability of the organisation.

Here I’m going to describe five factors that characterise Green IT for us at Greensense.

1. Green IT helps meet the organisation’s legal and compliance requirements for the environment (ensuring the ‘license to operate’). It provides tools for records and document management and ensures robust and auditable data collection, data management and compliance reporting.
2. Green IT helps to promote the organisation’s brand and environmental reputation. It ensures that publicly accessible information on the organisation’s environmental performance is correct and consistent. It also provides tools for effectively managing customer and stakeholder relationships, including relationships with government, the media and community groups.
3. Green IT encourages innovation and a sustainability culture within the organisation. It makes operational and management information on environmental performance more transparent and more widely accessible (for example providing a dashboard on the corporate Intranet). It also provides tools, such as wikis, blogs, and discussion forums, to encourage information sharing, collaboration and innovation.
4. Green IT improves business efficiency. In today’s economic climate this is particularly important. First, Green IT makes IT facilities and equipment more energy efficient and reduces IT waste. Then, Green IT improves efficiency in other parts of the business by enabling physical activities to be substituted for electronic ones (e.g. video conferencing). Green IT can also provide tools to help manage efficiency projects (measuring, tracking and reporting).
5. Lastly, Green IT provides a platform for growth. By providing services or goods in a more sustainable way, new options can open up. Customers are attracted to more sustainable offerings and they are often cheaper. The way Green IT can be innovative and make services and goods more sustainable is to either transform them from being physical to being electronic (sometimes called ‘dematerialisation’) or through automation, reducing the number of people required to provide the service.

It is important for IT departments to see the potential from thinking and acting sustainably. Green IT should be a major strategic theme that cuts across the whole IT function.

In the next post in this series I will discuss how you can develop a Green IT strategy. I’ll also cover how Green IT relates to climate change and carbon management — our main priority at Greensense.

Green IT — Part 1 is a post from: Greensense

Vint talks about Google’s interest in clean energy including their commitment to sustainable computing, their investments in geothermal energy, and the 1.6MW solar panel installation that provides 30% of the energy requirements of their corporate head quarters. He also mentions Google’s fleet of plug-in hybrid cars. One of the interests in this technology is the concept of Vehicle-to-Grid Transmission, where by energy is fed back into the grid from car batteries to improve energy management and cope with peak energy demands.

Google have also created a proposal — Clean Energy 2030 — to reduce the US’s dependence on fossil fuels. Eric Schmidt, the CEO of Google presented this proposal last month.

Google and Clean Energy is a post from: Greensense