It has been almost universally acknowledged that the risk to our planet from the effects of greenhouse gases is a real and present one. The scientific evidence is overwhelming and it demands an urgent global response.
In 1992, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) set an overall framework for intergovernmental efforts to tackle the challenges posed by climate change. Under the 2005 Kyoto Agreement, which is a protocol to the UNFCCC, 37 industrialised countries committed themselves to a reduction in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to between 20 and 24 billion tonnes by 2050 (about 50-60 per cent below 1990 global levels).
The Obama administration announced that clean energy and environmental protection were to be cornerstones of their manifesto from 2010. It forecast billions of dollars in revenues from reducing global warming emissions, requiring companies to pay for allowances to pollute, and committed to investing these revenues in clean energy industries.
As one of the 37 industrialised nations contributing approximately two per cent of the world’s GHG emissions, the UK government introduced a Climate Change Act of its own in 2008 that set the framework of legally binding carbon budgets for how the UK will manage and respond to the threat of climate change. As a nation, it was critical that the UK reduced its total GHG emissions by at least 34 per cent below 1990 levels by 2020, and 80 per cent by 2050.
Carbon reduction commitment
From 1 April 2010, the Carbon Reduction Commitment Energy Efficiency Scheme (CRCEES), which is the key implementation measure of the 2008 Climate Change Act, formally commenced. It is a new regulatory incentive set to improve energy efficiency in large public and private sector organisations consuming more than 6,000 MWh of electricity p.a.
Around 5,000 organisations are required to participate. This means they must not only record and monitor their energy consumption, but also purchase allowances equivalent to their consumption each year. The more energy an organisation consumes, the more allowances it has to purchase. The sites covered include all buildings and data centres in the UK.
There is a direct incentive for these organisations to reduce their energy consumption, and by implication, their carbon emissions. By increasing energy efficiency, the scheme will help organisations save money by reducing their energy bills. The organisation’s energy administrator, usually a member of senior management, is responsible for the collation and submission of relevant data and ensures that the organisation complies in all matters relating to the CRCEES. There are severe financial penalties for non-compliance.
The scheme is divided into set time periods known as phases – the introductory, qualification, registration and the compliance phases – that involve participants assessing their level of qualification for information disclosure through to actions to comply with the CRCEES and subsequent reporting. Clear guidelines for organisations that are new to measuring and reporting energy consumption and GHG emissions are offered by the UK’s Department of Energy and Climate Change (visit www.decc.gov.uk, CRC energy efficiency scheme user guide).
League tables, showing the comparative performance of all participants, will be published annually and those organisations that are most effective at reducing their energy consumption will appear higher up the league table. All the revenue raised from selling allowances is ‘recycled’ back to participants, and the league table position affects how much of the revenue each organisation receives. The first purchase of allowances is in April 2011 and the first “footprint report” league table will be published in October 2011.
Organisations can improve energy consumption performance and reduce GHG emissions by devising a carbon reduction strategy. How carbon reduction is implemented depends on the specific industry. For example, in retail and financial services, IT provides a greater proportion of the power consumed than in a manufacturing company.
Data centre technology is one of the main areas that can capture current power levels. In 2008, the EU Code of Conduct for Data Centre Energy Efficiency was set up to reduce energy consumption without compromising the high availability requirements from data centres. As well as being one of the 5,000 targeted organisations, HP, who has been accepted as both ‘participant’ and ‘endorser’ under the EU Code of Conduct, provides power auditing and carbon efficient management solutions to other organisations which can be reflected in the submitted results.
What to consider
Areas to consider when managing the reduction of carbon emissions are detailed as follows:
It is vital to perform a baseline assessment of ICT energy and carbon footprint and to monitor progress against this baseline in future years. Many government organisations are embracing “Green ICT” improvement actions without knowing either their baseline, the overall environmental impact outcome of their actions, or the relative financial and environmental benefits of competing investment options. HP provides a ‘Green ICT Planning Assessment’ service to help define the right strategy, and a ‘Carbon Emissions Management Service’ to account for ICT-generated CO2 emissions before, during and after transformation programmes.
Data centres are responsible for three per cent of total UK electricity usage, according to a recent report by DECC. Efficient system design, including proper floor layout and server software configuration, are all key to establishing best practice. ICT transformation and outsourcing should also be considered to achieve maximum return and minimum CO2 output. It is very important that when you outsource new work, third parties comply with all areas of legislation and guidance, including the European Data Centre Code of Conduct.
Data centre services are also essential for energy efficiency. Virtualisation software will let you run multiple applications on the same server and will significantly increase its utilisation, which is far better than the typical one-application-per-server strategy where utilisation can run as low as 16 per cent. A similar approach can be taken to storage; although data volumes are soaring, it’s still possible to simplify and consolidate storage infrastructure.
Adopt low carbon processes
Application modernisation is another key process to reduce carbon emissions, substituting carbon-intensive processes with low-carbon ones. Simplify your infrastructure by upgrading and migrating your applications from legacy hardware, de-commissioning any unnecessary applications and retiring the systems on which they run.
Make sure PC power management is enforced and that PCs have an enforced shut down mode at night.
Remote Collaboration tools should be used to reduce travel, such as HP’s ‘Halo Meeting Rooms’, specifically designed for installation inside an existing conference room, enabling customers to keep site preparation time and costs to a minimum. It is a fully managed, end-to-end video collaboration solution that provides a virtual conference room environment. Another method of collaboration is “HP SkyRoom”, providing remote visual collaboration directly from your workstation or desktop – an ideal solution for a variety of industries that want to share complex graphics, such as CAD-CAM or video.
Centralise printing by configuring a multi-function printing device with duplex printing options, thereby reducing print volumes. HP’s Carbon Footprint calculator can also estimate how applying power-saving technologies can help reduce the environmental impact of computing and printing.
Print on Demand means that there is no longer a price premium for small print batches. HP’s Indigo digital press is designed for the production of customised jobs with run lengths from one to 10,000 or more.
The CRC legislation provides a level playing field, with financial and moral implications for everyone. In central and local government, everyone knows this is the right thing to do. We all need to start moving from good intentions to measureable results. As the government’s Chief Information Officer John Suffolk said: “We know what works – we just need to do it.”
HP Enterprise Services
HP Enterprise Services provides applications, business process, and infrastructure technology outsourcing services, consulting, and support to more than 1,700 business and government clients in 90 countries. As one of the largest segments of HP, we leverage the breadth of our extended portfolio to offer the most comprehensive end-to-end ICT services.
HP Enterprise Services believes that better business outcomes equal better environmental outcomes and back this ideal with customised, comprehensive ICT services that improve clients’ energy and cost efficiencies, reduce carbon emissions, conserve natural resources and achieve competitive advantage. We help clients make business and ecological sense by reducing ICT complexity, boosting efficiency and improving business processes. We reduce clients’ carbon footprints, yielding a more sustainable bottom line, through environmentally responsible service-oriented architecture and aggressive virtualisation strategies. To be a global leader, we have to be the best in service quality and also in environmental sustainability. In the world we operate in today, the two have become intertwined.
To credibly advocate for a low-carbon economy, we must lead by example and reduce the carbon footprint of our own operations. In 2010, HP’s personal environmental goal is to reduce the combined energy consumption and associated GHG emissions of HP operations and products by 25 per cent below 2005 levels.
To do this, HP Enterprise Services are employing many of the same features internally that we offer our customers - data centre consolidation, energy efficient servers and smart cooling, to name a few. We are consolidating our real estate, even as business has grown. In 2007, HP decommissioned 179 sites around the world, yielding a net reduction of nearly three million square feet. We are also reducing our environmental impact by expanding our use of renewable energy resources; HP increased its use of renewable energy more than fivefold between 2006 and 2007.
HP’s data centre, Wynyard, has even been referred to as “the world’s greenest data center” (www.greenbiz.com), setting a new standard for data centres around the world. Wynyard is BREEAM (the Environmental Assessment Method for Buildings Around the World) accredited and the 360,000 square-foot facility in North East England represents one of the largest and most environmentally friendly data centres in Europe. HP Enterprise Services expects it to use 40 per cent less energy than a more traditional data centre.
For more information on HP’s ‘Green ICT Planning Assessment’ service to help define the right strategy, and our ‘Carbon Emissions Management Service’ to account for ICT-generated CO2 emissions before, during and after transformation programmes, contact Mark Rumsby (
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), Transformation Consulting, Green Practice - Sustainable IT, HP Enterprise Services.
HP Enterprise Services delivers business outcomes as a service, providing the people, ideas, business processes, and technology to help you focus your investments on the results you need.
