post

Carbon Disclosure Project’s emissions reduction claims for cloud computing are flawed

data center

The Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) is a not-for-profit organisation which takes in greenhouse gas emissions, water use and climate change strategy data from thousands of organisations globally. This data is voluntarily disclosed by these organisations and is CDP’s lifeblood.

Yesterday the CDP launched a new study Cloud Computing ? The IT Solution for the 21st Century a very interesting report which

delves into the advantages and potential barriers to cloud computing adoption and gives insights from the multi-national firms that were interviewed

The study, produced by Verdantix, looks great on the surface. They have talked to 11 global firms that have been using cloud computing for over two years and they have lots of data on the financial savings made possible by cloud computing. There is even reference to other advantages of cloud computing – reduced time to market, capex to opex, flexibility, automation, etc.

However, when the report starts to reference the carbon reductions potential of cloud computing it makes a fundamental error. One which is highlighted by CDP Executive Chair Paul Dickinson in the Foreword when he says

allowing companies to maximize performance, drive down costs, reduce inefficiency and minimize energy use ? and therefore carbon emissions

[Emphasis added]

The mistake here is presuming a direct relationship between energy and carbon emissions. While this might seem like a logical assumption, it is not necessarily valid.

If I have a company whose energy retailer is selling me power generated primarily by nuclear or renewable sources for example, and I move my applications to a cloud provider whose power comes mostly from coal, then the move to cloud computing will increase, not decrease, my carbon emissions.

The report goes on to make some very aggressive claims about the carbon reduction potential of cloud computing. In the executive summary, it claims:

US businesses with annual revenues of more than $1 billion can cut CO2 emissions by 85.7 million metric tons annually by 2020

and

A typical food & beverage firm transitioning its human resources (HR) application from dedicated IT to a public cloud can reduce CO2 emissions by 30,000 metric tons over five years

But because these are founded on an invalid premise, the report could just as easily have claimed

US businesses with annual revenues of more than $1 billion can increase CO2 emissions by 85.7 million metric tons annually by 2020

and

A typical food & beverage firm transitioning its human resources (HR) application from dedicated IT to a public cloud can increase CO2 emissions by 30,000 metric tons over five years

This wouldn’t be an issue if the cloud computing providers disclosed their energy consumption and emissions information (something that the CDP should be agitating for anyway).

In fairness to the CDP, they do refer to this issue in a sidebar on a page of graphs when they say:

Two elements to be considered in evaluating the carbon impact of the cloud computing strategies of specific firms are the source of the energy being used to power the data center and energy efficiency efforts.

However, while this could be taken to imply that the CDP have taken data centers’ energy sources into account in their calculations, they have not. Instead they rely on models extrapolating from US datacenter PUE information [PDF] published by the EPA. Unfortunately the PUE metric which the EPA used, is itself controversial.

For a data centric organisation like the CDP to come out with baseless claims of carbon reduction benefits from cloud computing may be at least partly explained by the fact that the expert interviews carried out for the report were with HP, IBM, AT&T and CloudApps – all of whom are cloud computing vendors.

The main problem though, is that cloud computing providers still don’t publish their energy and emissions data. This is an issue I have highlighted on this blog many times in the last three years and until cloud providers become fully transparent with their energy and emissions information, it won’t be possible to state definitively that cloud computing can help reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Photo credit Tom Raftery

post

Hints for competitors in EDF’s 2012 Sustainable Design Challenge

Eiffel Tower

I was in Paris earlier this week as one of the Judge’s for EDF’s Sustainable Design Challenge. If you are not familiar with EDF, they are the world’s largest utility company and while they operate in Europe, Latin America, Asia, the Middle-East and Africa, they are headquartered in Paris.

There were 31 entries in the competition coming from a variety of design schools, universities and even an American high-school. As well as prize money, the eight selected finalists will be helped develop their projects over the next year and they will be displayed at the EDF pavilion at the 2012 London Olympics. This is even more impressive when you realise that the EDF pavilion at the Olympics will be one of only five pavilions there.

The quality of the thirty one entries was, in general, quite high. The thing which disappointed me though was the seeming lack of engineering knowledge amongst the entries. Many seemed to be of the opinion that small piezoelectric generators can generate vast qualities of electricity (they can’t!).

More disappointing though was that three fundamental energy technologies were totally ignored. While some of the entries used wind generation, none used solar as a key technology. Similarly, none referenced energy storage and not a single entry used any smart grid technologies.

Part of this has to come down to the fact that the participating schools were more design than engineering schools, but still, these were fairly big technologies to have been ignored.

Other than that, the competition was spectacularly well run and kudos to EDF for raising awareness of sustainability in design in the running of this competition. This will be an annual competition, so for participants in the 2012 EDF Sustainable Design Challenge – you now know what you need to work on 😉

This was the entry by the US high school – it was one of 8 selected to be a finalist:

Photo credit Tom Raftery

post

How Green Dialysis Could Save Tens of Thousands of Lives per year

Understanding how processes and systems act on one another is key to sustainable living. Sustainability means living without externalities – because everything we do, as individuals, organisations or companies has a cost and an environmental impact. There is a clear parallel with healthcare- which requires a deep understanding of how processes and systems act on one another. Now a research project at Geelong hospital in Victoria, Australia aims to extend healthcare models directly into the environment, and vice-versa.

Associate Professor John Agar, the Director of Renal Services at Barwon Health, said:

?Dialysis is the most water and power-hungry of any individual medical therapy.?

Each dialysis patient treatment uses more than 400 litres of water and 6 kWh of electricity. But Geelong is now using water recycling and solar power to afford the same level of care with a far lower environmental impact. Indeed the dialysis department further reduces its cost by selling excess power from its solar panels to the electricity grid. Healthcare meets smart grids. Makes sense. The idea of demand response in dialysis might strike you as somehow unethical, but what could be more ethical than effectively lowering the costs of healthcare to the broadest range of patients? Of course solar power doens’t make sense in all geographies, but it certainly does in many regions of the world. And there might be alternative, on the Eastern Sea-board, or the UK- namely wind or tidal.

Hat tip to Fresenius Healthcare, the German renal treatment company behind the initiative. Seems the German government feedin tariffs for solar power are showing real benefits in unexpected areas. Subsidise solar to subsidise healthcare… I said there were no externalities in sustainability, didn’t I?

However – its certainly not all good news for Fresenius. As a major provider of renal care in the US the company has to be horrified by the appalling record of dialysis related deaths. According to a new ProPublica story in the Atlantic.

?Every year, more than 100,000 Americans start dialysis. One in four of them will die within 12 months?a fatality rate that is one of the worst in the industrialized world.

The article is pretty horrific. The problem, sadly, is poor sanitation and an assembly line mentality to healthcare driven by the need to cut costs. Clearly we have a long long way to go before dialysis can be considered properly sustainable… and offer safer outcomes and decent quality of life to patients. Step one to improving margins and so reducing the cost-cutting mentality in dialysis care may well be reducing the costs of water and power.

It really is all connected.

post

IBM Start – positive outcomes from the Sustainable Energy day

Waterfall

I have already written about how well the IBM Start event started out – well I wanted to dive a little deeper into one of the days in particular – the Smarter Energy for a Sustainable future day. Why? For me, it was by far the best day of the event.

IBM Start - Building the New Energy System

Why do I say that? A number of reasons –

  1. The speaker list had senior representation from EDF, BP, E.ON UK, British Gas, Water UK, OFGEM, Carbon Trust, Shell, B&Q, National Grid, Central Networks, WWF, Stagecoach, Power Perfector amongst others, as well as representatives from NGO’s, academia and research organisations.
  2. The delegate list was impressive as well and consequently the networking on the day was through the roof and
  3. There was far more audience participation solicited than on any of the other days I attended Start

The discussions themselves were high quality but there were far too many of them happening in parallel – I mean how do you decide between:

  • Building the new Energy System
  • Driven by Demand – Managing the New Infrastructure or
  • New Business Models for Energy in New Economies

I wanted to attend all of them!

Charles Hendry, Minister for Energy at IBM Start

Charles Hendry, Minister for Energy at IBM Start

A real surprise for me was the speech by Charles Hendry. Charles Hendry is the UK’s Minister of State for the Department of Energy and Climate Change. Due to the Chatham House Rule I can’t tell you what he said but what I can say is that his talk was one of the best on the day (and that’s saying a lot!). He was passionate, amazingly knowledgeable about his brief and when he concluded his presentation he opened up to take questions from the floor. I just hope he is given the freedom to carry out all he wants to in his role as minister for Energy and Climate Change!

Finally, the event was called Start, we were told, because people are tired of being told what they can’t do, so the aim of this event was to get people inspired about positive things they can do. Brilliant. To that end the Energy Day was the one day which had the most obvious positive outcome arise. Practical Action, an NGO who were in attendance, proposed the setting up of EnergyAid – an organisation analagous to WaterAid whose mandate would be to supply modern, reliable, clean energy to the world’s poorest people. Fabulous.

If the EnergyAid idea were the only positive outcome of Start, IBM could be extremely proud of the event but doubtless there will be far more positive initiatives come out of the 9 days. Watch this space for more…

post

IBM Summit’s first three days? – a great Start!

The Arch!

I attended the first three days of IBM’s Start summit last week and I’m definitely going back this week for more.

The venue (Lancaster House) is a sumptuous mansion in the centre of London whose opulence, defies description!

The event kicked off with a day dedicated to discussing Smarter Cities. The speaker list included Martin Powell (Boris Johnson’s Advisor on the Environment), Nigel Hugill (Chair of the board, Centre for Cities), Hamish McRae (Associate Editor, The Independent), and Emma Harrison CBE (who seemed a little out-of-place to be honest!).

IBM's Ginni Rometty spaeking at IBM Start

IBM's Ginni Rometty spaeking at IBM Start

The audience on the day included several chief executives of cities, the talks (especially Martin Powell’s Achieving a Sustainable 21st Century City Environment) were incredibly interesting, and the networking was tremendous.

Day two was Smarter Energy for a Sustainable Future. This was by far the best of the three days I attended, which says a lot considering how good the other days were! Again, the speakers (incl Charles Hendry (UK Minister of State for Energy and Climate Change), Martin Lawrence, (MD, EDF) and Rachel Fletcher, Director Distribution, Ofgem) and the audience were stellar but two things made this day stand out for me: 1) there was far more audience participation encouraged than either of the other two days and 2) most of the discussions were about Smart Grids – a topic I have had a deep interest in for some time now.

Day three was all about Smart Transportation. Once more the delegate and speaker lists were stratospheric. Speakers included Philip Hammond (UK Secretary of State for Transport), Ken Livingstone (former Mayor of London who introduced London’s Congestion Charge), Prince Charles (Prince of Wales and one of the initiators of the event), Graham Dalton (Chief Executive of the Highways Agency) and Len Porter (Chief Executive of RSSB) and Keith Ludeman (Group Chief Executive, Go-Ahead Group). Unfortunately, as I was flying home, I missed most of the afternoon sessions of the smarter transport day (and no, the irony is not lost on me!) but the morning discussions were fantastic.

Jim Steer, Director, Greenguage 21 at IBM Start

Jim Steer, Director, Greenguage 21 at IBM Start

Two things which appear not to have been covered during the Smarter Transport day were sections dedicated to shipping (though this may be covered in the Smarter Supply Chain day) and walking/bike schemes.

A few critiques – the event is being held under the Chatham House rule which, while it is supposed to foster freer discussion at the event, it stifles reporting of the event subsequently. Also, the connectivity (even 3G) at the event is ery poor – probably a consequence of the building being owned by the UK Foreign Office and finally, there was no beer on offer at the reception – only wine!!!

If those were my only gripes with the event, you know it was good. The most impressive thing for me from the three days was the fact that no speaker (IBM or otherwise) mentioned a single IBM product. This was not a sales oriented event.

I’m back again for days seven and eight and I’m really looking forward to more of the same. Well done Caroline Taylor and the IBM team.

post

Let’s Gate Crash the Energy Sector

Cold Fusion Cells, 1989

Photo Credit Ryan Somma

We received an email in GreenMonk today which really piqued my interest. It was from Katherine Hui and she talked about a project she is working on with Forum for the Future called Gate Crashing the Energy Sector.

Rather than trying to paraphrase, I’ll just let Katee tell it in her own words:

I’m Katee and Chris Adams suggested I get in touch with you about a project I’m working on with Forum for the Future.

It’s called Gate Crashing the Energy Sector and it’s basically getting people to come up with new ideas and ways of providing/distributing/producing/etc. energy.

Here’s more info:

Gatecrashing the energy sector is about creating a sustainable energy system and prevent the worst impacts of climate change. We need to urgently develop radically different ways of generating, distributing, storing and using energy.
History shows us that real disruption rarely comes from within a system and the energy sector in the UK is currently dominated by powerful incumbents, the majority of whom are wedded to the current system. So, we are embarking on an exciting new project to invite people to ?gatecrash? the energy sector and create disruption by bringing expertise and ideas from outside.

Over the next 5 months we will be bringing together people from a range of disciplines and organisations to generate new ideas and prototype alternatives to current systems. We are reaching out to anyone with an interest in creating disruption in the energy sector; from multinational ICT companies and home tinkerers to social entrepreneurs and venture capitalists. Through a series of events and prototyping workshops we hope to generate and support alternatives. Our aim is to produce 3-4 projects that we can showcase in 2011 ? these might be working prototypes or detailed business plans but will be at a stage where they can been seen as genuine alternatives to current systems. The conversations have begun with people wanting to get involved and we will hold the first of a series of events in September.

Is this something you’d be interested in getting involved with or know people that may want to get invovled? More info is up here: http://katee.org/?p=641 and we’re @lightbulbmoment on twitter.

Thanks so much for your time!

Given that GreenMonk’s tagline is Green from the roots up and Sustainable from the top down and also given our close association with HomeCamp – you know this is right up our street.

We look forward to working with Katee and Forum for the Future on this – and if you are interested, why don’t you get involved too? Let’s Gate Crash the energy sector!

You should follow me on Twitter here.

post

Energy and Sustainability show for March 15th

We had a couple of snafu’s on the show today. At the beginning of the show we had some calendaring confusion and a couple of people watching last week’s show thinking it was the live one!

Then I had a close call at the end of the show when I thought I had stopped broadcasting but left the camera and mic on inadvertently! While it is true I uttered an expletive, at least I didn’t do a Nellgate on it!!!

Here is the chatstream from the show:

Tom Raftery :
Hi everyone

?16?:?33
monkchips :

have i been watching last week’s show?
nice

?16?:?34
yellowpark :

hahaha

?16?:?34
monkchips :

well change the recurring calendar entry then …
?
16?:?34
Tom Raftery :

http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/313715,11-siberian-tigers-starve-to-death-at-chinese-zoo.html
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/03/chile-earthquake-moved-entire-city-10-feet-to-the-west
http://www.econbrowser.com/archives/2010/03/the_challenges.html
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE62E14Z20100315
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/mar/10/spain-barcelona-snow
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/11/juanita-goggins-dead-once_n_495498.html
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2010/03/nokia-moving-into-kinetically-charged-cell-phones-files-new-patent.php
http://news.cnet.com/8301-11128_3-20000430-54.html?part=rss&tag=feed&subj=GreenTech
?
16?:?43
Joe :

some sense from the auto industry at last…
?
16?:?43
MikeTheBee :

Hi Tom, oh, no date display today?
?
16?:?43
Tom Raftery :

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2010/03/new-charging-method-could-mean-exponentially-faster-battery-recharge-times.php
http://www.nytimes.com//2010/03/12/opinion/12chase.html
http://www.grist.org/article/death-of-a-thousand-cuts

?16?:?47
monkchips :

Smith Electric Vehicles Eyes Road to an IPO http://bit.ly/b76p5F #logistics #WAYmoreinterestingthantesla
never mind Tesla, a logistics EV IPO!
?
16?:?48
Tom Raftery :

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2010/03/cisco-saves-over-24-million-with-packaging-diet.php
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2010/03/dell-launches-most-efficient-desktop-computer-to-date.php
http://www.viridity.com/blog/bid/36035/Top-7-Reasons-to-Remove-Orphan-Servers-from-the-Data-Center-Floor
http://www.ceres.org/ceresroadmap
http://www.decc.gov.uk/en/content/cms/news/pn10_042/pn10_042.aspx
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/mar/15/rbs-blinded-by-spin

?16?:?52
Ian B :

UK still has lead in wave and tide development – but for how long?

?16?:?53
MikeTheBee :

Ireland are working hard to take the lead.
?
16?:?53
Tom Raftery :

http://blogs.msdn.com/mspowerutilities/archive/2010/03/11/let-s-call-the-smart-grid-what-it-is-disruptive.aspx
?
16?:?54
Ian B :

Yeah should have said UK and Ireland
?
16?:?55
Tom Raftery :

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/mar/15/bp-shell-tar-sands-green-energy
?
16?:?56
monkchips :

this is the same company claims 70% of its employees are workin on cloud…?
?
16?:?57
Tom Raftery :

http://planetgreen.discovery.com/tech-transport/trash-wifi-afghanistan.html
?
16?:?57
monkchips :

superb!
?
16?:?58
Tom Raftery :

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/hereford/worcs/8562434.stm

?16?:?58
Ian B :

Too right
?
16?:?58
Tom Raftery :

http://www.fastcompany.com/1575650/cleveland-mall-gets-a-new-life-as-a-giant-greenhouse
?
16?:?58
MikeTheBee :

But all his family keep the money
?
16?:?59
Tom Raftery :

http://www.avaaz.org/en/protect_the_elephants/
?
17?:?00
MikeTheBee :

No date stamp today?, Tom
np
He made 45mill
Thx Tom.
?
17?:?02
Tom Raftery :

Thanks everyone for your comments and interest
?
17?:?03
Ian B :

Thanks Tom
?
17?:?03
monkchips :

nice close! “oh fuck!”#
?
17?:?03
MikeTheBee :

I still find it strange that when I am *not* logged into Zoho chat the links are clickable, but after I log in they are not. Wierd or what.
?
17?:?04
monkchips :

dont have a hand shandy there tom, you’re still broadcasting…
?
17?:?04
MikeTheBee :

You are still *LIVE* Tom
?
17?:?05
monkchips :

how long are you over for? which show is it?
?
17?:?06
MikeTheBee :

THE END!
?
17?:?06
Tom Raftery :

LOL!!!
Thanks guys

post

The rise of the energy manager role

computer

Photo credit jurvetson

One of the topics which I responded to on the recent IBM Eco Jam was “IT’s Central Role In Managing Energy & Carbon”.

This topic was raised by another analyst (again IBM has asked me not to mention participants by name but if the analyst in question sees this and wants me to name him/her, I have no problem so doing) when s/he posted the following:

Forrester’s research on energy & carbon management systems predicts that IT organizations will take on a central role in choosing, owning, and operating these systems. The challenge of managing energy & carbon emissions will increasingly be information-related, and it’s enterprise IT organizations that have the expertise to install and operate software systems of record across the entire company. Just like systems for managing customers (CRM), money, materials (ERP), and employees, carbon & energy management systems will collect, integrate, analyze, and report on the newest set of assets/liabilities that will be used by internal and external stakeholders to judge corporate performance.

Now, I have no issues whatsoever with IT organisations having a role in choosing Energy Management systems. IT’s function would involve installing and supporting the software so naturally they’d have a say in its purchase. They’d also have a role in crafting requirements documents and reviewing responses but “owning and operating” these systems? I don’t think so.

I realise part of this has to do with empire building ambitions by IT but really, since when was energy management a core competence of IT?

I absolutely realise that sustainability is all about information and data, and certainly IT has a role in ensuring that this information is always available but asking IT to own and operate energy management systems is, frankly, ludicrous. You might as well ask IT to own and operate the financial management systems.

So if not IT, who then should run these systems? I foresee the rise of a new role – the Energy manager, in companies. The Energy manager will likely report to the CFO, the COO or the CSO (Chief Sustainability Officer). The energy manager’s role will be to minimise the company’s energy (& probably water) footprint and to report savings in monetary, kWh and tons CO2.

With the increasing regulatory landscape around carbon emissions (i.e. the Carbon Reduction Commitment in the UK), carbon measurement and reporting will become mandatory for most companies. In that environment having someone specialised in energy management, responsible for this function will start to seem like a very good idea.

post

GreenMonk news roundup 12/04/2009

News

Photo credit just.Luc (just.Censored)

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

post

GreenMonk news roundup 11/14/2009

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.