Environmentally Sustainable IT

1. Environmentally Sustainable IT Una Du Noyer 20th February 2008

2. Agenda • The Drivers for Sustainable IT • The challenges • How to reduce the carbon footprint and energy consumption associated with building and running the IT estate? • How to manage the ever-increasing demand for computer systems and its impact on the natural resources required to create them and to dispose of them? • How to use IT to minimise wastage of other assets and resources that are used within an organisation? • How to support the enterprise (suppliers, partners, workforce and customers) in a globalised economy, to make more efficient use of their time, resources and expertise, while minimising the impact on the environment? • Summary

3. Drivers for Sustainable IT • Environmental - ‘[sustainability]…relates to the protection of natural capital, including water, land, air, minerals and ecosystem services’ • Encyclopaedia of Global Environmental Change, Robert Goodland, World Bank, “Sustainability: Human, Social, Economic and Environmental”, 2002 • Financial – Data Centre costs spiralling year on year • Broadgroup 2006: energy costs of running a corporate UK data centre is currently about £5.3m a year, this figure is set to double to £11m over the next five years (2006) • Regulatory – EU and local government initiatives on climate change • Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment, Climate Change Action Plans • Risk – Ability to Grow Data Centre Footprint at Current Rate while Maintaining Required Energy Levels

4. 1 Reducing Carbon Footprint and Energy Utilisation • Data Centre efficiencies Geography Locality to sustainable power, users, comms Resilience Active / Active sites, follow-the-sun Cooling HVAC efficiency, air-flow tuning, sensors Power PDU and PSU efficiency Racking Layout, blanking, device density, PDUs Technology Low-voltage, variable speed • Desktop Efficiencies • Thin client Solid-state thin-client devices to reduce desktop power, cooling and maintenance requirements

5. 2 Managing the IT Lifecycle from Supply to Disposal • Maximising utilisation of IT Estate: • Virtualisation, consolidation, • Information lifecycle management • Procurement Policies • Technology and asset life-cycle • Extended life cycles – user devices from 3 > 4-5 years (dual core) • License implications on reuse / repurpose / disposal • Legislative compliance & sustainable supply chains • Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Directive • Restriction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS) Regulations • PVC and BFR strategy, and product content • Sustainable (fair and safe) supply-chains • Auditable ‘take-back’, remanufacture, recycling, charitable reuse • Disposal as last resort – hard-disk ‘scrubbing’ vs destruction (data protection) • Consumables – cartridges, paper-type, batteries, cables • Minimised packaging and removal

6. 3 Using IT to preserve other assets • Using RF-ID Tags and Real-time location systems to track assets e.g. pallets, containers, and reduce waste • Using remote monitoring, control and calibration systems e.g. monitoring vibration levels in oil tankers, condition of underground pipelines • Reducing paper consumption through collaboration systems, and scanning technologies

7. 4 Supporting globalisationwhile minimising travel • Telepresence: reducing travel through full size videoconferencing • Collaboration systems: document collaboration, “smart boards”, Web 2.0 and 3.0 • Virtual worlds for collaboration

8. Summary • A Sustainable IT strategy must be incorporated into a Corporate Social Responsibility programme and have board-level sponsorship • It should address a range of possibilities, not just carbon emissions, including: • Energy consumption and Data Centre footprint • Managing the IT Lifecycle from Supply to Disposal • Using IT to effectively manage other assets • Supporting globalisation while minimising travel • Regulatory and financial drivers

9. www.capgemini.com

10. Lifecycle Stages