Monthly Archive for October, 2007

Wake Up IT: Wait Til You See Your Energy Bill

Published
by
monkchips
on October 30, 2007
in Uncategorized
. 0 Comments

I realise Greenmonk is not about green data centers, but I am at an IBM conference and its a core issue here.  I am going to do writing it up in some depth, but I called out IBM’s efforts in a blog here, titled Globalisation’s Green Core.

One issue that absolutely screamed at me however, which ComputerWorld readers should perhaps be aware of, is that many IT organisations have never had to fully consider their electricity consumption. Electricity is a “cost of doing business”, which comes under a facilities management budget. However with increasing energy costs bringing these budgets under increasing scrutiny, facilities managers are beginning to present IT organisations with a bill. This is a huge game-changer, and if your IT organisation isn’t thinking green now, it will be when you get the bill.

by-sa

Save The World Or Get Rich Tryin’

Published
by
monkchips
on October 26, 2007
in Uncategorized
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Greenmonk: Save The World or Get Rich Tryin’. I must get some t-shirts made up with that slogan - If I do would you like one?

Reuters concurs, according to ecototality, based on a quote from Deutsche Bank.

“The climate change markets are being created by governments through their regulation,” said Mark Fulton, tbank’s (Deutsche Bank) global head of strategic planning and climate change strategist.

“Whether you believe the science or not, investable markets are being created by governments, and these investable markets we think will grow significantly over the next 20 to 30 years,” he said at the launch of a report on climate change investment.

greenback picture courtesy of yonanimus

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Celebrity Gossip for Greener Outcomes: outstanding

Published
by
monkchips
on October 26, 2007
in Uncategorized
. 0 Comments

I got a tweetback today from @michaeldestries so I went to check out who he is. It turns out a green enterpreneur and consultant. So far so good. So what’s the ecorazzi thing then, I wondered? When I got to the site I was floored. Its basically a perfectly executed celebrity gossip site - but bright green. Lots of humour. Nice photoshop montage of Paris Hilton in an ice-cube (she wants to be cryogenically frozen with her dog. It can’t happen soon enough if you ask me.)

I think most people would rather hear from an ecorazzi than an eco-nazi.

The team is pretty big - which helps explain how they pump out so many stories, with such a slick editorial look. You guys are my new heroes. Its like Go Fug Yourself wearing green. Making green sexy- and nothing sells better than sex. Maybe green really is the new black…

Thanks Sophie Monk and PETA for the image above. That’s a chili shot.

Technorati Tags:gossip - green - paris+hilton - sophie+monk - ecorazzi

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Toyota as a case study in complexity. Is prius just a greenwash halo?

Published
by
monkchips
on October 25, 2007
in North America, automotive, carbon and electrics
. 1 Comment

Great piece today at movementdesign’s re*move blog about Toyota. It tells us a lot about bright green, and the danger of kneejerk reactions. There are plenty of lessons for any industry there.

Right now there’s a petition going on in the States, calling for Toyota to support a proposed bill requiring ‘CAFE’ fleet average ‘gas mileage’ for cars and small trucks, to rise to 35mpg by 2020.  Toyota is doing its green image absolutely no good by trying to derail this bill, and supporting an alternative, which calls for the average to rise to 32mpg. Could it be that the self-styled green giant Toyota, is not as green as it likes everyone to think it is?

It seems its all about the trucks, with Prius as nothing more than window dressing.

Sadly, like everyone else auto-wise when it comes to the United States market, Toyota is actually rather keen on truck sales - specifically its big Tundra truck - which it recently launched a new version of. While Ford and GM have been taken to the cleaners by greens and press alike over their poor gas mileage, and reliance on selling inefficient trucks and their lack of hybrids, Toyota has sailed merrily on, positioning itself as the big green giant, basking in the halo effect of the Prius.

Joe though avoids knee-jerk conclusions. Its not either, or.

So although this fuel economy episode is unlikely to do Toyota’s green image much good - and although it indeed seems rather hypocritical of them to oppose the tougher gas-mileage bill, I wouldn’t kick Toyota too hard. They are ahead of the game - in terms of alternative power plants, advanced research and future mobility ideas. Just because they oppose the regulations now, doesn’t mean they won’t hit, or even exceed the legislation come 2020.

Toyota is of course undoubtedly a leader in green automotive technology, and green automotive sales, but we have to remember the company’s job is to sell as many vehicles as possible. Until it becomes deeply embarrassing to drive one of those huge trucks in environments where they aren’t absolutely necessary people will keep buying them. Toyota it seems to me is a company we should be encouraging to do better. But then signing the petition is perhaps a way to do just that.

Somehow I can’t see a computer company lobbying to reduce energy consumption targets on servers, but stranger things have happened. Environmental leadership is complex and only going to get more so.

by-sa

Freecycle: Changing The World One Gift at a Time

Published
by
monkchips
on October 24, 2007
in Uncategorized
. 2 Comments

Matt Biddulph, “celebrity programmer”, Dopplr CTO, office-sharing mate, and all round good egg recently told me about Freecycle. He had used the service to “get rid off” a bunch and Sight and Sound magazines, a DVD player, and Sky+ settop box. All of these objects went to good homes, which is the goal of the service.

Welcome! The Freecycle Network™ is made up of 4,138 groups with 3,994,000 members across the globe. It’s a grassroots and entirely nonprofit movement of people who are giving (& getting) stuff for free in their own towns. It’s all about reuse and keeping good stuff out of landfills. Each local group is moderated by a local volunteer (them’s good people). Membership is free.

This is like eBay without the filthy lucre. It’s an implementation of what is being called the Gift Culture of Economy. Don’t throw things away - give them to somebody. One person’s trash is another person’s treasure.

Freecycling already happens in in first life in Hackney. People just put stuff outside their front doors, and its clearly there for freecycling. I recently “got rid’ of a DVD that way (I included a note saying it jumped occasionally). But a social network now allows for recycling serendipity.

by-sa

The Voice of Cassanda: Manufacturing Cost is Not an “Externality”

Published
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monkchips
on October 22, 2007
in Uncategorized
. 0 Comments

ComputerWorldUK’s Green Zone has a new blogger, Cassandra, “a highly experienced IT manager with more professional certificates than any sane person would put down on a CV, and who no one listens to until the things they were warned about really do go wrong… ”

Here Cassandra points out that for all the talk of new green products, very few if any vendors seem willing to consider the environmental impact of the manufacture of their equipment. This is a fine example of an economic “externality” in action, and Cassandra is impatient with the approach.

Now don’t get me wrong I thing the focus on being green is great. However I asked the vendors themselves a couple of questions. What steps had they taken to reduce the carbon footprint of the manufacture of their product? It is not just the running cost of the power the causes the carbon footprint but the cost of the manufacture. The result? Blank faces. Servers consist of plastic and metals all of which required carbon to produce. But how much carbon they didn’t seem to know.

The column is I presume modeled after the Cassandra written by Sir William Neil Connor in the Daily Mirror for 32 years from 1935 onwards. Connor had some balls - he was on deck to take this picture from the British Hydrogen Bomb tests.

I try to avoid apocalyptic themes on Greenmonk but this one rather jumped out at me. To further the importance of Cassandra’s warnings- he made his name arguing against those that tried to appease Hitler in the run-up to the Second World War. And from that perspective the name Cassandra is incredibly evocative. Today’s appeasement surrender monkeys are climate change deniers. We need more irritant, more people asking tough questions of the status quo, so welcome to the party Cassandra.

Al Gore could yet emerge as our generation’s Winston Churchill: the guy that got it, a voice in the wilderness when times seemed easy, but someone to trust when the war really gets started. I wonder what the new Cassandra makes of Gore? I certainly look forward to hearing more of his views on all things green.

photo credit - the lorry blog says please don’t steal this picture. I don’t want to steal it, but consider this fair use. If he insists I will take it down. I would really like to see the Daily Mirror waive copyright for some of Cassandra’s articles so the author of the blog, Michael Lawrie, can do more justice to Connor’s memory.

by-sa