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

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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.

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Freecycle: Changing The World One Gift at a Time

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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.

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

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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.

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BT: Real Leadership on Carbon Emissions

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I have written about BT and its sustainability efforts before, parts 1 and 2, but the firm is not resting on its laurels. Far from it. So I thought an update would be appropriate.

Firstly BT has decided it needs to invest more in its own power generation capabilities with a wind farm program aimed at generating up to 25% of its existing UK electricity requirements by 2016. BT already has some capability in this area for peak times, when national grid electricity hikes in price – but stepping it up makes sense. Certainly as oil looks to hit new highs, and its only 2007 – forward thinking makes perfect sense.

Secondly I really like what BT is doing over at Bigger Thinking. The data center section shows Steve O’Donnels trademark agressive stance on BT’s capabilities.

“We’re really very far out ahead in thought leadership on this,” says Steve O’Donnell, Global Head of Data Centre and Customer Experience Management for BT, adding “We want the market to follow us, and reduce the global carbon footprint for IT services.”

Thirdly it would be easy to dismiss Steve’s claims as so much hot air (yet more carbon emissions…) were BT not walking the walk when it comes to transparency. How many organisations would have the nerve, and the data at hand, to show their energy consumed per million pound turnover?

Its this last area that most impresses me about BT. A core tenet of GreenMonk thinking is that open shared collaborative data will be essential for better environmental outcomes. So well done BT for being so clear on your KPIs, successes, failures, and the economics of sustainability.

At the opposite end of the spectrum- all mouth and no trousers is John Hutton, secretary of state, who is quoted in the story above. John- the government is doing NOTHING to help the UK meet the targets that the government itself set in its usual hand-waving, no delivery, style. How businesses can contribute? Can contribute? Well we’re seemingly not getting any help or leadership from the current UK government, so praise be to the private sector.

Other organisations I would like to big up on a Friday afternoon are British Medical Association (BMA), Ford, Sony UK, John Lewis, E.ON UK, CQS, the University of Cumbria and Lloyds TSB. You all deserve a lot of credit for your work together at the Environmental IT Leadership Team (EITLT).

thanks for the picture use, phault.

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Why the Poisoned Apple? Lets learn from the Shakers

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Given its commitment to incredible industrial design, its a real shame that Apple doesn’t appear to be showing any leadership on green issues in product development. According to Techworld, a Computerworld publication:

Greenpeace has slammed Apple’s iPhone, saying it includes toxic chemicals that other mobile phone makers have already stopped using.

An analysis of a disassembled iPhone by an independent lab in the UK found toxic brominated compounds and hazardous PVC (polyvinyl chloride) in multiple components of the handsets. Bromine, a chemical used in fire-retardant compounds, was present in more than half the 18 samples taken, Greenpeace claimed, while toxic phthalates made up 1.5 percent of the ear bud cables’ PVC coating.

While the iPhone doesn’t violate EU chemicals legislation Apple is evidently well behind more established players such as Nokia, Motorola and Sony-Ericcson, which are all now PVC free. So let me get this straight- Apple came dead last in a recent Greenpeace study on PC manufacture, and now it is lagging in mobile phones too. Is this a Greenpeace vendetta or does Apple have systemic problems to address? Given that California-based Center for Environmental Health is now taking legal action against the company it’s somewhat harder for Apple to shrug the accusations off.

I have a two year old son, ergo no more Apple products until the company gets its act together. I know the firm’s product’s are gorgeous and very easy to use but its surely time for the company to make its beauty more than skin deep.

“Do your work as though you had a thousand years to live and as if you were to die tomorrow.”

The Shakers, a Protestant sect, had the most incredible design culture. Folks like Frank Lloyd Wright took design cues from the group. One thing that defined its furniture was that the joinery was just as attractive inside as out. As Shakers see it God sees the inside, not just the outside, of the furniture, which has obvious implications for quality and craftsmanship. According to Wikipedia:

Shakers designed their furniture with care, believing that making something well was in itself, “an act of prayer.” They never fashioned items with elaborate details or extra decorations, but only made things for their intended uses.

Am I saying Apple needs to discover Shaker religion? Obviously not. But a commitment to sustainability and clean manufacture and disposal would benefit us all. As fake Steve Jobs would say: “Namaste”. But not before calling Greenpeace a bunch of “fscktards”…

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Blog Action and the Environment

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Luis Suarez reminded Dennis, who re-reminded me, that yesterday was Blog Action Day. Luis works at IBM. He is a social software maven, an all round good guy, and an obsessive twitterer. But he also has a life-its always great to hear him planning a weekend of first life activities-he really loves Fridays. Really loves them.

Luis says:

“So, while I have been thinking what I could blog about on the subject for Blog Action Day!, I mean, trying to establish the relationship between the environment and Knowledge Management along with Social Computing, it just hit me big time! And here I am. Putting together a few thoughts on how I think both KM and Social Computing could help out bring forward the conversation on how to preserve what’s been given to us so that we can pass it on to later generations in best of conditions.

They say that both KM and Social Computing are all about having an impact. An impact in the way you share knowledge, you collaborate, you connect and innovate with others. An impact that, if anything, has always been notorious for taking action, your *own* action, into wanting to change things and make things happen the right way.”

Blammo, as Cote might say. Luis is talking to exactly why I started Greenmonk-that is, green from the grassroots up, where open source and social software modes and methods lead to better environmental outcomes. One good thing about blogs and such-no paper! Back to Dennis.

“Professionals have a long history of attempting to reach the Nirvana of the paperless office. VersionOne recently won a gong for its paperless office product. I hope this might inspire firms to consider how new technologies might help in the fight to reduce our carbon footprint. It doesn’t stop there. If you use data centres or data services (don’t we all?) then it’s worth asking just how green the supplier really is.”

Now this is a conversation i am more than happy to be involved in.

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How much automation is too much automation? Flushed Away

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So you’re sitting there, relaxed, doing your own business. You don’t even have a wide leg stance, when suddenly the toilet flushes beneath you. Why did that happen? You aren’t finished yet, which means another flush is going to be needed. Did your elbow trigger the sensor? Trying to complete your paperwork the bloody toilet flushes again. Not only is the overactive flush mechanism wasteful of water but also of paper- you need extra to dry your freshly “rinsed” privates-a poor man’s bidet. You walk out of the cubicle and everything is automated – soap pump, hot water tap, hand drier, towel dispenser. One of these days you’re going to walk into the “john” and a disembodied American voice, with a relatively pleasant mid-West twang, is going to ask: “would you like me to hold that for you, sir?” i wonder which would be most disturbing- a male or female robot assistant, or one with no discernable gender?

Obviously hygiene is very important in our age of global travel, but isn’t water consumption? The sensors on the taps are evidently designed to conserve water, as well as keep your hands clean. The soap too. Hand towels-I am happy to use the “elbow crank.” All in all though toilet service automation strategies tend to confuse me. Perhaps someone familiar with Japanese toilet automation can tell – what’s up with that?

In IT we talk a lot about automating paper processes. But the hand dryer is a fine example, in my opinion, of unneccessary automation. i will take a paper towel (recycled of course) every time…

The real point I want to make here-cutting the deal, as it were, is that all automation decisions involve tradeoffs, not all of which are beneficial. The green lens is another one to consider when making process automation design decisions.

 

Weirdly, according to TedsBlog on Flickr this is a toilet at Google Corp. Deodorizer – enough said.

 

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The Carbon Cost of The Surveillance Society

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One of the things we’ll need to do if we really want better environmental outcomes is to understand the cost of things that we wouldn’t ordinarily consider, what are known in economics as “externalities”. All the stuff you don’t have actually to pay for. Fast-moving consumer goods companies (FMCG) and their packaging. Oil companies and the environmental legacy of their drilling platforms. And so on.

I found a great example of considering unexpected costs on Chris Dalby’s political rants blog. All these surveillance cameras- how much energy do they consume?

So we got all these cameras and elecronic devices like traffic ligts requireing energy being installed. This constantly increases the carbon offset requirments of the UK and drains energy sources. I have a problem with this from an environmental point of view. Just how much carbon is required to power a camera? Is this extra carbon footprint on the UK justifiable

I know I had not never considered the impact of our creeping surveillance society on UK carbon emissions. This endgadget blog mentions there being 4m such cameras in the UK (the best a quick Google search came up with). Assuming average power consumption of 50watts, that’s 200 Megawatts (MW) for UK surveillance, which is… certainly measurable. Obviously if anyone has insights into these numbers I would love to hear from you.

Chris goes on to consider street lamps too. But he also goes on to make a suggestion – compulsory solar panels on cameras and street lights. Of course these would need to charge batteries or something. There is an obvious flaw in solar powered street lamps (especially in the UK)…. but the idea of distributing power generation to take the strain off the national network and lower total emissions is basically sound.

The civil liberties crowd should maybe get out their wattmeters. One thing CCTV is really good for. Edgy self-portraits. Thanks andyrob for the main illustration!

See more on flickr here. Bonus portrait below by s j b

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Cool IBM Green Data Center Blog: This is how we roll.

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When I logged into my monkchips WordPress console today I noticed an inbound ping from a new blog called The Raised Floor, which got my legacy boy senses tingling. Sure enough when I got over there it was clear that we’re talking about data centers, from the people that invented the concept (and yes I do mean Big Blue). I particularly like the picture they have used for their banner, with a classic black and white shot of a mainframe room, with the floor raised… and green grass underneath. Like so:

The content is pretty solid right out of the gate – although there are some gaps. Asking whether tape vendors are pitching green, for example? You’d have to be underneath that raised floor not to have come across a tape vendor wrapping itself in the green flag. LTO, one of the sponsors of the ComputerWorld UK Green Zone, is a good example.

But its the quality of people involved that caught my eye: notably one John Patrick. Who is John? Only the guy that Louis Gerstner gives much of the credit for encouraging the company’s long march to open standards. John can probably claim as much credit as anyone for helping to change the basis of the IT economy from raising barriers to entry, to one that succeeds on the basis of lowering barriers to participation. He is a good pal of Irving Wladawsky-Berger, another one of IBM’s most important change agents of the last century. I am not a fan of John’s politics, particularly, but if he sees the importance of greener technology then I certainly have his back. As Hero Nakumura would say – This Is How We Roll.

The blog is going on my blogroll. I look forward to some great content. I leave you with an excerpt.

IBM is leading by example. One of their “green” projects is consolidating 3,900 servers onto 30 new top of the line mainframe servers. The result is not only more compute power but dramatically less use of electrical power and space. One of IBM’s customers went from 300 servers to six. The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center consolidated 1,000 servers onto 300 and saved $20m in costs while freeing up datacenter space for more hospital beds.

Datacenters have been popping up everywhere — most of them built before 2001. The datacenters are very large rooms full of many different kinds of equipment — designed in the same way they were decades ago — like a kitchen where the stove puts out more heat so you turn on the air conditioning to cool down the entire room. The chef is comfortable and others in the room are freezing. IBM is designing datacenters for customers where cooling “zones” are specific to the type of equipment in each zone. Green datacenters not only save space and energy but also benefits the environment overall. In the past the electric bill has been allocated as overhead to all parts of the company. Redesigns are saving many millions of dollars. With the huge growth of energy for the IT infrastructure the CFO is reallocating energy expenditures from general overhead to the CIO so they can see what IT is really costing.

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Oracle’s shareholders to consider environmental impact of Open Source Software?

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I was more than taken aback when I read this headline today – Oracle mulls vote on open source at upcoming shareholders meeting.

Apparently its not a joke. According to Matt Asay:

“What is the proposal? That Oracle adopt a resolution that the company consider the social and environmental impact of using open source. The underlying intention, I believe, is to nudge Oracle to take on a more protective approach to open source. Oracle wants the resolution axed.

The language of the shareholder proposal is fairly vague, which may be one reason it’s not getting much love from Oracle. However, as Jonas Kron, the attorney representing Lawrence Fahn (Oracle shareholder), told me, SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) rules significantly restrict what they can ask for in the proposal, forcing them to file a proposal that focused on social and environmental impacts – a very safe area within the SEC rules.”

Given that a group of us has begun to ask the question: What Is a Green API?  this is really big news. Basically everything has an environmental impact, even open source. But I expected dorks to lead the conversation, not shareholder activists. We can surely expect similar resolutions to be put forward at other vendors, so this one promises to get more interesting over time. I will be tracking it. The velocity here is stunning. Anyone would think the planet had some problems needing to be dealt with or something. Let’s see what way the vote goes.