The fastest vehicles in the world going green!

When thinking about Formula 1, the last thing that would come to our mind is Green. With high power engines achieving high speeds and racing all over the world, it sounds more like the antithesis of green. Infact, Formula 1 carbon emissions emitted directly from races and testing represent less than 0.3% of the total carbon footprint. The highest amount of CO2 emissions come actually from two sources: moving the cars and the equipment required for the races around the globe, and the research and manufacturing facilities that drive each F1 team.

In this sense, F1 teams are considering to reduce their carbon footprint. For example, McLaren F1 team announced on December 2011 that they are carbon neutral. According to a study, F1 teams have reduced their carbon footprint by 7% between 2009 and 2011. But is it just an altruist decision that drives this reduction? And how is this related to IT?

The Renault "Technocentre"

The Renault F1 team actually looked into its IT department in order to be a champion in its green initiatives. More than moved by altruistic interest, it was done as a cost saving initiative. When Renault needed a new data center in 2007, they actually implemented a new architecture infrastructure using optimization and virtualization that was 25% more energy efficient that the previously used "Forced air" cooling models.

 

At the same time, they started changing their policies; instead of flying people from one factory to another, they acquired video conferencing technology that allowed people to communicate as effectively without the actual physical movement. Finally, they managed to replace wind testing tunnels, with virtual simulations, that allowed for a 25% reduction in energy consumption.

McLaren F1 fleet

In the case of the McLaren team, they installed monitoring devices in their fleet, which allowed them to monitor the driving efficiency, training their drivers and changing their routes in order to reduce carbon emissions and save on fuel.

In this sense, Formula 1 teams are taking advantage of Green IT technologies in order to become more competitive from a cost saving perspective.

Sources:

http://www.itbusiness.ca/news/renault-f1-adopts-green-it-for-cost-savings-2/12792

http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/onepercent/2011/12/mclaren-f1-team-goes-carbon-ne.html

http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/2013/01/17/teams-reduced-carbon-emissions-fota-study/

Innovative Applications of Green IT : Data Servers

Servers are powerful computers that provide an organisation the ability to access and store data and information in many different ways. With an increase in the usage of these servers in organisations, power consumption, and IT costs are on the rise.

The following innovative Green IT strategies address these server issues and are becoming an important part for carbon control within organisations. 

1.  Optimization : This includes optimizing the servers either by better organisation of data servers through  capacity forecasting, or standardization of equipment, in order to utilize an appropriate number of servers. 

·         HP’s Blade System servers use advanced architecture for high performance and fast connectivity using fewer physical ports for the same performance. 

2.  Virtualization : This includes the creation of many virtual servers through one server, thus reducing carbon emissions as a result of the advantages of a consolidated physical server infrastructure.

·      IBM has a U.S. $1 billion per year investment program which capitalizes on virtualization to double the energy efficiency of its computer data centers and its corporate customers. (IBM, 2007).

3.   Cloud Computing : Using the Software as a Service (SaaS) business model removes the need for a company to have an on-premise data server center, hence giving it the opportunity to reduce its carbon footprint through the cloud vendor’s Green IT practice.

·   Symantec provides Green IT focused cloud services to its clients with the advantages of cost saving, and operational efficiencies.

Organisations have implemented and are now benefiting from such innovative applications of Green Computing through reduced energy consumption, and improved performances of their IT resources.

Link : Sources & Reference to the Blog Post

An amazing podcast on solutions in Green IT and sustainability

Connection Research is an Australian company that provide “Green” solutions to improve businesses's bottom line in the long term. In this amazing interview by Greenitstrategy.com, two personalities , William Ehmcke CEO of Connection Research and Graeme Phillipson Research Director of the same company expand on how solutions can accompany you in your implementation of Green IT approaches.

To listen, please, click on the link below :

Connection Research Interview (click here)

And keep visiting our blog :-) !

Managing the implementation of Green IT : it starts with people

It is important to emphasize the fact that, no matter how sophisticated a strategy is, no matter how advanced is a model, no matter how good our intentions are or how an organization can benefit from a change in attitude : in the end, implementing an effective IT Green policy is about people. It is about changing the attitude and the minds. It is about moving people and organizations to  improve the management of IT in business organizations. Organizations such as HP, Newflash or Freeform Dynamics implemented the following steps for their benefits. Your organization can do the same.

Below are seven steps that may be useful in implementing a green IT policy :

1.       Commit to Green IT from the very top of the organization.

2.       As much as possible, make the Chief Information Officer (CIO or his equivalent) responsible for greening IT.

3.       Encourage your teams to be interested in Green IT by encouraging simple steps : reduction of printing, participation on free forums, sharing of free online resources, etc.

4.       Better behavior such as putting the computer on standby during moment of inactivity or switching the screen off when ending the day of work should be incentivized.

5.       Introduce teleconferencing or Telepresence Technologies. Less travel reduces carbon emissions.

6.       Audit your Data Center and remove unused equipment and software.

7.       Let experts and consultants look at your practices and propose steps for improvements.

And one final important step, keep visiting our blog.

Bibliography :

-          Green IT for Dummies, HP Limited Edition

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IBM : Addressing Electronic Waste

With rapidly changing technology, electronics are becoming obsolete in shorter periods of time. The U.S. alone discards about 30 million computers each year.  The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimates that only about 15-20% of these computers are recycled, with the remainder disposed of into landfills. 

 While IBM is known for being a leading manufacturer of IT equipment, it is also leading the way in computer disposal and refurbishing, and has been involved in some element of computer take-back for close to 30 years.  In 2012, IBM processed over 750,00 units of recycled IT equipment, of which 250,000 were laptops.  They remanufactured almost 67.7 million pounds of equipment.  Of all the equipment processed, 99.6% of it was reused, preventing it from going into landfills.  

In addition to re-manufacturing and certifying equipment, IBM Global Asset Recovery Services handles complete removal and dismantling of unwanted or end-of-life IT products.  Each week, IBM Global Asset Recovery Services takes in more than 40,000 pieces of IT gear from clients worldwide. The equipment, which includes IBM and non-IBM servers, PCs, laptops, mainframes, is recycled or refurbished at 22 sites around the world, Including Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Japan, Singapore, the United States, and China, helping reduce the impact of e-waste by extending the life of older IT equipment that would otherwise go to landfills

Sources:

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/green/targeting-e-waste-ibm-opens-china-facility-for-refurbishing-servers/20510

^{http://www-03.ibm.com/financing/us/recovery/index.html}

^{http://www.electronicsnews.com.au/news/ibm-opens-server-remanufacturing-centre-in-china}