Energy, Climate Change Research and Education After Paris

The Australian National University has a series of events, starting this week, on energy and climate change:

ANU Energy Change Institute Open Day 2015,

Monday, 7 December 2015, from 9:00 am. This will include a live from the UNFCCC Paris conference by Associate Professor Frank Jotzo. I will be presenting a poster on teaching ICT Sustainability on-line around the globe.

Solar PV - Changing the Energy Landscape, Monday, 7 December 2015, 5:15 pm, Dr Pierre Verlinden, Vice-President and Chief Scientist at Trina Solar

2015 ANU Energy Update, Tuesday, 9am, 8 December 2015, with Mr Ian Cronshaw, International Energy Agency (IEA) and Byron Washom, UC San Diego's Microgrid

Deciphering the Paris Climate talks: where to next?,

Wednesday, 16 December 2015, 6:00 PM, with
Associate Professor Frank Jotzo (back from the UNFCCC Paris conference)

e-Learning Course on Green ICT Strategies: Part 21 Progress

In October 2008 I was commissioned to design a twelve week course in "Green IT". This was first run in February 2009 by the ACS. It was then revised and run at ANU in July 2009. The course has been run several times since then by ACS (as well as offered by ACS through Open Universities Australia), and ANU. One of my students then adapted the course for Athabasca University, Canada in 2011, where it has been offered continuously. There is a formal published paper about the course "A Green computing professional education course online: Designing and delivering a course in ICT sustainability using Internet and eBooks" (Worthington, 2012) and presentation. The coruse is next offered by ANU in February 2013 as "COMP7310 ICT Sustainability". Here are blog postings about the development course from the time of commission:

1. Where to start, October 23, 2008
2. Learning Outcomes, October 28, 2008
3. Corrections and Frameworks, October 29, 2008
4. Online Social Networking Course Coordination, October 30, 2008
5. SFIA and learning objectives, October 30, 2008
6. Course Outline, October 30, 2008
7. Setting up in the LMS, November 05, 2008
8. Revised Outline, November 07, 2008
9. Books, November 09, 2008
10. The Content, December 05, 2008
11. Other Courses, December 11, 2008
12. Two Week 7s, December 16, 2008
13. More Pragmatism, January 02, 2009
14. Wikiversity version, January 07, 2009
15. Revision, June 16, 2010
16. Sustainability, July 19, 2011
17. Format, July 23, 2011
18. New Version, August 18, 2011
19. New Version on web, iPad, Kindle and print, October 10, 2011
20. Standardized Course Description, February 17, 2012

e-Learning Course on Green ICT Strategies: Part 20 - Standardized Course Description

With the course notes revised and published (see Part 19) it is now time to get ready for the students starting the next week. The ANU College of Engineering and Computer Science created a bespoke database to hold all course descriptions, called CECS Student DB. This has places to put the usual administrative details of who the tutor is, details of the course, such as title and short description. It then goes into detail about the Study Schedule, the Learning Outcomes , the Assessment and the relationship between assessment and outcomes.

Even though I had to prepare much of this previously I found it useful to have to put these details in an explicit structured way. It was a bit annoying to chop up my carefully worded description into the categories required by the database. I felt offended that my carefully worded course description was being put into a generic format. But then I realized that, as a student, I like such structure.

Here is what I have so far (exported from the database):

The Australian National University

College of Engineering and Computer Science

Research School of Computer Science

COMP7310 ICT Sustainability

Study Period:	1st semester 2011, 1st semester 2012,
Unit value	6 units
Course Co-ordinator	Name: Tom Worthington Email: tomw@cs.anu.edu.au Phone: 55694 Room: CSIT (108) N212

Assumed knowledge and required skills:
Prerequisite:
Corequisite(s):
Incompatiblity:
Textbooks:	eBook supplied with course: Worthington, T. (2011) ICT Sustainability: assessment and strategies for a low carbon future / Tom Worthington Tomw Communications, Belconnen, A.C.T. Retrieved from: http://www.tomw.net.au/ict_sustainability/

Websites:

Course details on Studyat More information Course details on Wattle, the University's Learning Management System

Course description:

ICT is both part of the problem and part of the solution to climate change. A study sponsored by the Australian Computer Society has shown that computers and telecommunications equipment in Australia generated 7.94Mt of carbon dioxide in 2005, 1.52% of national emissions. This course investigates the contribution of ICT to carbon emissions and how technology can reduce those emissions. This subject is drawn from practices being developed in the public and private sectors internationally. Implementation methodologies and assessment tools currently being field-tested are introduced. Qualification schemes and accreditation are yet to be established and it is possible those completing this subject may be involved in that development. This course was developed in conjunction with the Australian Computer Society. The Learning Outcomes have been designed for Level 5 competencies of the Skills Framework for the Information Age (SFIA) common reference model. More information is on the course webpage: http://cs.anu.edu.au/courses/COMP7310/.

Learning outcomes:

At the conclusion of this course, the student will be able to: 1. Evaluate the sustainability of IT services, devices and day-to-day operations of an organisation, including the carbon footprint and e-waste. 2. Prepare a sustainability strategy for IT in an organisation,covering both energy and materials use.

Australian Computer Society Graduate Attributes Matrix

2.1 Communications: Written communication, Interpersonal skills 2.2 Ethics/Professional: Social issues, Global issues, Organizational issues, Technology, Responsiblity:personal and community 2.3 Project Management//QA: Concepts and models, Project management techniques

Australia Engineering Competency Standards(for software engineers only)

PE2.1 Ability to undertake problem identification and formulation and solution PE2.2 Understanding of social and cultural and global and environmental responsibilities and the need to ... PE2.6 Understanding of the business environment

Course content:

The course consists of two parts, corresponding to the learning objectives, with one topic per week: Sustainability Assessment The Politics, Science and Business of Sustainability The Global ICT Footprint Energy Saving - Data Centres and Client Equipment Materials Use Compliance Audit Methods and Tools Sustainability Strategy Enabling ICT Business Process Improvement Improving Data Centre Energy Efficiency Enterprise Architecture Procurement Energy Star Program and Quality Management

Rationale:

Computers and telecommunications equipment contributed 1.52% to greenhouse gas emissions in 2005. The course is on how to assess the carbon footprint of the ICT operations of an organization and also the materials used in the design, manufacture and reuse and recycling of ICT equipment. Then students learn how to develop a strategy to reduce the environmental impact of ICT operations, and through ICT of other operations.

Ideas:

The course is designed to align with the Skills Framework for the Information Age with SIFA Level 5 competencies: "ensure, advise: Broad direction, supervisory, objective setting responsibility. Influences organisation. Challenging and unpredictable work. Self sufficient in business skills". Two skills have been selected, corresponding to the two learning outcomes: Sustainability assessment The evaluation of the sustainability of operational or planned IT services, devices and day-to-day operations such as travel. The establishment of a model or scheme to track changes in consumption over time and to generate feedback to enable improvements in energy or resource efficiency. The identification of areas requiring attention, and the initiation of actions to change or control the procurement of energy or other resources, so as to improve sustainability. From: Skill SUAS, Category: Business change, Subcategory: Business change management, SFIA (2009). Sustainability strategy The preparation of a sustainability strategy for IT, taking into account any established corporate strategy, to be used as a basis for policies and planning, and covering both consumption and sources of supply of energy and materials. Evaluation and inclusion, as appropriate, of political, legislative, economic, social and technological factors. Identification of major external standards, practices or schemes to be adopted. Consultation with identified relevant parties, either internal or external. Obtaining agreement to the strategy and the commitment to act upon it. From: Skill SUST, Category: Strategy & architecture, Subcategory: Business/IT strategy and planning, SFIA (2009).

Topics:

Sustainability Assessment The Politics, Science and Business of Sustainability The Global ICT Footprint Energy Saving - Data Centres and Client Equipment Materials Use Compliance Audit Methods and Tools Sustainability Strategy Enabling ICT Business Process Improvement Improving Data Centre Energy Efficiency Enterprise Architecture Procurement Energy Star Program and Quality Management

Technical skills:

Estimation of energy use, carbon footprint and materials use of the ICT operations of an organisation.

Workload To complete the subject you will need to spend 8-10 hours each week reading, communicating with colleagues and tutors, and preparing assignments. Study Schedule Week beginning Theme / Topic / Module Face to face activities (Lecture, tutorial, seminar, field trip etc) Other activities (Readings, quizzes, etc) Assessment milestones Week One Politics, Science and Business of Sustainability No face to face activities for course. Read the course notes and readings each week. Answer weekly questions and discuss in on-line forum. Answers and forum discussion are assessed for 2% of marks each week. Week Two The Global ICT Footprint Week Three Energy Saving - Data Centres and Client Equipment Week Four Materials Use Week Five Compliance Audit Week Six Methods and Tools Assignment one due at end of week six for 38%. Week Seven Enabling ICT Week Eight Business process improvement Week Nine Improving Data Centre Energy Efficiency Week Ten Enterprise Architecture Week Eleven Procurement Week Twelve Energy Star Program and Quality Management Assignment two due at end of week twelve for 38%. Week Thirteen

Attendance

No attendance is required. All materials and assessment are on-line.

Indicative assessment

Contributions to the 12 weekly discussion forums, 24% Mid-semester assignment, 38% End of semester assignment, 38%

Assessment overview

This table shows details of each assessment (listed above).

Assessment item	Description and detail of the asignment	Specific requirements	Due date
Contributions to the 12 weekly discussion forums, 24%	Following tasks are required of you every week: 1. Read the course notes for this week and the additional readings. 2. Submit answers to each of the discussion questions in the Discussion Forum for that week, by the end of Wednesday. Submit your answers before reading the answers from other students. Read the answers from other students and submit at least one reply to a posting your fellow students in the Discussion Forum, for each of that week’s questions, by the end of Saturday.	The questions each week are on topics to be covered in the two assignments. You will receive a mark and suggestions to help improve your work each week. For the first two weeks of the course you are required to use formal Harvard (author-date) style for referencing. This is so the tutor can check you know how to reference for the assignments. After two weeks you can use simple hypertext links. You can obtain assistance with referencing and writing from the ANU Academic Skills and Learning Centre.	Answers by the end of Wednesday and discussion by the end of Saturday, each week.
Mid-semester assignment, 38%	Evaluate the sustainability of IT services, devices and day-to-day operations of an organisation, including the carbon footprint and e-waste: Write a report on the carbon footprint and materials use of the ICT operations of your organisation (or an organisation you are familiar with).	Maximum 2,000 words.	End of week 6.
End of semester assignment, 38%	Prepare a sustainability strategy for IT in an organisation, covering both energy and materials use: Write a report identify ways to reduce the carbon footprint and materials use of your organisation (or an organisation you are familiar with) through ICT. This could be by changes to polices for procurement of ICT, changes to the ICT operations (such as turning up the thermostat in the computer room), or revising business processes. Describe the current way of functioning and the problems associated with it. Propose a "to be" process that is based on established standards, or proposed developments. How will you tailor the processes to suit your organisation? What are the challenges the organisation will face? How will you measure the success of the proposals? The target audience of the report is the organisation's ICT management committee.	Maximum 2,000 words.	End of week 12.

Relationship between learning outcomes and assessment

How well have you achieved the outcomes for this course? This table shows you how each assessment (listed above) will check the students achievements against the stated learning outcomes (listed on the overview page) for the course.

Learning Outcomes:	Contributions to the 12 weekly discussion forums, 24%	Mid-semester assignment, 38%	End of semester assignment, 38%
1 Evaluate the sustainability of IT services, devices and day-to-day operations of an organisation, including the carbon footprint and e-waste.	Weeks 1 to 6 of the course.	Yes.
2 Prepare a sustainability strategy for IT in an organisation,covering both energy and materials use.	Weeks 7 to 12 of the course.		Yes.

Course evaluation

Students experiences will be collected using ANU Student Experience of Learning and Teaching (SELT).

Code of practice

http://policies.anu.edu.au/policies/code_of_practice_for_teaching_and_learning/policy

Plagiarism

http://policies.anu.edu.au/policies/code_of_practice_for_student_academic_integrity/policy

e-Learning Course on Green ICT Strategies: Part 19 - New Version on web, iPad, Kindle and print

My book "ICT Sustainability: Assessment and Strategies for a Low Carbon Future" was  in limited release (see Part 18), but is is now available a paperback and PDF, ePub, and Kindle eBook formats, as well as free on the web.

ICT Sustainability: Assessment and Strategies for a Low Carbon Future

Contents

• Introduction
• Sustainability Assessment
  1. The Politics, Science and Business of Sustainability
  2. The Global ICT Footprint
  3. Energy Saving - Data Centres and Client Equipment
  4. Materials Use
  5. Compliance Audit
  6. Methods and Tools
• Sustainability Strategy
  7. Enabling ICT
  8. Business Process Improvement
  9. Improving Data Centre Energy Efficiency
  10. Enterprise Architecture
  11. Procurement
  12. Energy Star Program and Quality Management
• Appendixes
  1. SMART 2020: Enabling the Low Carbon Economy
  2. EU Code of Conduct for Data Centres
  3. National Carbon Offset Standard
  4. Assessment
  5. Glossary
  6. Bibliography
• Editions Available
  1. Paperback
  2. PDF eBook
  3. Web

About the Book

ICT Sustainability is about how to assess, and reduce, the carbon footprint and materials used with computers and telecommunications. These are the notes for an award winning course on strategies for reducing the environmental impact of computers and how to use the Internet to make business more energy efficient.
Title: ICT Sustainability: Assessment and Strategies for a Low Carbon Future
Copyright © Tom Worthington, 2011
ISBN: 978-1-4478-1454-2. (Paperback and PDF published by Lulu)
ISBN: 978-1-4478-6164-5. (ePub eBook published by LuLu and available via Apple iTunes)
ISBN: 978-0-9806201-9-1. (Kindle eBook published by Tomw Communications Pty, Limited)
These notes are used for the courses:

1. Green Technology Strategies: offered in the Computer Professional Education Program, Australian Computer Society (first run as "Green ICT Strategies" in February 2009),
   
2. Green Information Technology Strategies (COMP7310), in the Graduate Studies Select program, Australian National University (first run July 2009), and
   
3. Green ICT Strategies (ACS25): offered in the Postgraduate Program of Open Universities Australia from 2010,

A North American version of the course by Brian Stewart, Athabasca University (Canada) is also available: Green ICT Strategies (COMP 635).
The notes were first published in 2009 ("Green ICT") and updated 2010 ("Green Technology Strategies"). Students can download or print their own copy of the e-book from the course learning management system, which is likely to be more up to date.

ICT Sustainability eBook Published

An ePub edition of "ICT Sustainability" is now available from LuLu.com. The text of the book remains available free on the web, as well as a print on demand paperback and a PDF eBook. This is a new edition of the notes for the postgraduate courses: COMP7310 (Australian National University), Green Technology Strategies (Australian Computer Society) and ACS25 (Open Universities Australia).

ICT Sustainability Book Published

"ICT Sustainability" is now available free on the web, as well as a print on demand paperback and a PDF eBook. This is a new edition of the notes for the postgraduate courses: COMP7310 (Australian National University), Green Technology Strategies (Australian Computer Society) and ACS25 (Open Universities Australia).

Changes from Previous Version

1. Skills descriptions: Two SFIA sustainability skills have (SUST: Sustainability strategy and SUAS: Sustainability assessment) replaced the six ICT skills specified previously.

2. Structure: The course has been divided into two sections, each covering one of the two skills.

3. Assignment Titles: The descriptions of the two assignments have been changed to match the two skills.

4. Reference Changes: The number of links to external sources and also internal links (particularly to the Glossary) has been reduced, to avoid confusing the reader. The list of sources cited has been consolidated into one section at the back and Harvard style references used.

5. Title: ICT Sustainability has replaced Green ICT in the title, to match the skills descriptions used.

ICT Sustainability: Assessment and Strategies for a Low Carbon Future

By Tom Worthington

Paperback, 137 pages

ICT Sustainability is about how to assess, and reduce, the carbon footprint and materials used with computers and telecommunications. These are the notes for an award winning course on strategies for reducing the environmental impact of computers and how to use the Internet to make business more energy efficient. This book is designed to be used with an award winning on-line course for professionals, using mentored and collaborative learning techniques.

e-Learning Course on Green ICT Strategies: Part 18 - New Version

After considering formats for the green IT course notes (see Part 17), they are now available as a book "ICT Sustainability: Assessment and Strategies for a Low Carbon Future", in limited release as a paperback, with the content also available as a web site. I would welcome corrections and comments.

These are the revised notes for a course offered by the Australian National University (COMP7310), Australian Computer Society (GTS), and Open Universities Australia (ACS25).
The notes have been updated from "Green Technology Strategies: Using computers and telecommunications to reduce carbon emissions" (Worthington, 2009). Changes include:

1. Skills descriptions: Two SFIA sustainability skills have (SUST: Sustainability strategy and SUAS: Sustainability assessment) replaced the six ICT skills specified previously.
   
2. Structure: The course has been divided into two sections, each covering one of the two skills.
   
3. Assignment Titles: The descriptions of the two assignments have been changed to match the two skills.
   
4. Reference Changes: The number of links to external sources and also internal links (particularly to the Glossary) has been reduced, to avoid confusing the reader. The list of sources cited has been consolidated into one section at the back and Harvard style references used.
   
5. Title: ICT Sustainability has replaced Green ICT in the title, to match the skills descriptions used.
   

e-Learning Course on Green ICT Strategies: Part 17 - Format

After looking at sustainability skills updates (Part 16), I started some updates of the Green Technology Strategies course using the Moodle Book module. However, this has only limited support for features such as Harvard style references. So I stopped to consider what other publishing software could be used. The course notes are used by the students on-line in Moodle, so Moodle is most convenient for the students to use (and for me to make quick corrections to the material). But Moodle also supports IMS Content packages, which can be created by other software.

AContent

The obvious choice for creating an ISM Content Package is AContent. This is a free open source product, like Moodle and creates IMS content packages. However, there does not appear to be any concept of a referecne (Harvard or otherwise) in the IMS format, not support for these in AContent. Also there is no support for e-book formats, such as EPub in AContent.

Sigil

Another open source e-book creation tool is Sigil . This is an editor for EPub format ebooks. I would be able to create the content with Sigil's XHTML editor and then copy the content to Moodle's Book module. However, I was surprised to find that Sigil (and the EPub format) does not support references either.

Calibre

Calibre is a free ebook management tool. While it can't create content on its own, it should prove useful for converting between formats.

Back to Moodle Book

After installing and trying Sigil and Calibre, I decided to continue with the Moodle Book module to author the content. If I was doing this with others, then AContent would be worth using, but Moodle will do for just me. I will then convert the HTML which Moodle produces to the XHTML EPUB format using Sigil and perhaps tidy up the metadata with Calibre.

Avoiding Complex Citations

I had assumed that the e-publishing formats and tools, particularly those for e-learning, would have referencing built in. That is I would be able to enter the details of a paper , or book and have a reference to it inserted into the boy of the text and the details entered in a bibliography, with the links between the two automatically maintained by the software. But the state of the art seems to be to manually enter the information and hypertext links.

After considering how students will use the e-book I decided to minimize the use of references. Previously I had the text peppered with hypertext links, on the assumption this would be useful for the students to be able to look up a term, or work. However, this created a problem for the students, who then did not know which links were worth clicking on and what they would otherwise miss. As a result I decided previously not to include links to the glossary. Taking this policy further, links to the bibliography do not appear to be worthwhile.

With a paper book, the reader can turn to a reference in the back of the book, to see what work is being referred to. However, almost all the references in my coruse notes are to on-line documents. It therefore makes little sense to have the reader click on a citation link, be taken to the back of the book, only to then have to click on another link to be taken to the actual work. It would be simpler to place a link directly to the work in the body of the text. The list of references can be retained at the back of the book, but mainly only as a resource for those reading an off-line copy.

Not including links to references coincidently makes the material easier to format, removing the need for so many links.

Marketing Sustainability

Recently I have been revising my Green ICT coruse to take into account developments such as the Australian Government released its "Clean Energy Future" strategy. In the three years since the course was designed, not much has changed. The science on climate change is clear, the problem is essentially one of marketing. The ANU has a course in Sustainable Marketing, using social networking and digital video. This is something the Australian Government needs to look into more to sell its strategy, rather than old fashioned TV ads:

The concept of sustainability has moved to centre stage in recent years generating much public discussion and increased the focus on firm impacts and responsibilities
and consumer choice processes. Increased awareness of the significant environmental degradation, decline of natural systems and resources along with community, national and global social inequalities has placed a focus on sustainable business practices. For many it would seem that marketing has been perceived as part of the problem rather than the solution to social problems such as pollution, over consumption, the depletion of natural resource, unhealthy lifestyles, and human rights abuses. However markets provide a coordinating mechanism through which changes take place. Importantly marketing systems provide the crucial link between
market participants including individuals, households, and firms.

This course evaluates the role of marketing and marketers by examining how firms create value, reduce risk and build sustainable thinking and processes into their marketing activities and strategies as they respond to opportunities and threats that arise from both social, economic and environmental change, and changing
consumers attitudes and behaviour. Sustainable marketing requires a rethink of the assumptions that underlie traditional marketing practices and therefore presents a new paradigm through a holistic integrative approach that puts equal emphasis on environmental, social equity and economic / financial concerns in the development of marketing strategies and tactics. ...

e-Learning Course on Green ICT Strategies: Part 16 - Sustainability

This is to request comments and suggestions for the revision of "Green Technology Strategies", used in courses run by the Australian National University (COMP7310), Australian Computer Society (GTS), and Open Universities Australia (ACS25). The course has been run successfully twice in the last year. However, changes are needed due to progress with sustainability skills standards and the Australian Government Carbon Emissions Strategy.

Sustainability Skills Standards

In Part 15 of this series I mentioned how the Skills Framework for the Information Age (SFIA) had introduced sustainability job skills, which I need to align the course with. Version 4 of the Skills Framework for the Information Age (SFIA) introduced four sustainability skills for IT professionals. SFIA Version 5 is now in preparation, but there are no differences proposed for the sustainability skills:

1. SUST: Sustainability strategy
2. SUMI: Sustainability management for IT
3. SUAS: Sustainability assessment
4. SUEN: Sustainability engineering

Of these, SUST: Sustainability strategy and SUAS: Sustainability assessment fit most closely with the course's intent. The course splits naturally into two parts, with two assignments in the summative assessment:

1. Write a report on the carbon footprint of the ICT operations of your organization.
2. Write a report identify ways to reduce the carbon footprint of your organization.

It would therefore seem reasonable to align these with the corresponding skills:

1. Sustainability assessment: Write a report on the carbon footprint of the ICT operations of your organization (SUAS).
2. Sustainability strategy: Write a report identify ways to reduce the carbon footprint of your organization (SUST).

At the same time the weekly course modules could be rearranged to fit these headings. The current modules are designed to fit with the SFIA categories previously used. However, this results in audit being in the second half of the course, whereas the assignment on assessment (which covers audit) is in the first half, before the students have reached this material.

Here is a proposed restructure, linked to the current chapters:

1. Politics, Science and Business of Sustainability
   • Introduction
   • The Global ICT Footprint
2. Sustainability assessment
   • Energy saving - Data Centres and Client Equipment
   • Materials Use
   • Compliance audit
   • Methods and tools
3. Sustainability strategy
   
   • Enabling ICT
   • Business process improvement
   • Improving Data Centre Energy Efficiency
   • Enterprise Architecture
   • Procurement
   • Energy Star Program and Quality Management

Australian Government Carbon Emissions Strategy

On 10 July 2011, the Australian Government released its "Clean Energy Future" strategy, including an initial carbon price of $23 per Tonne. The carbon price will only be levied on very large carbon emitters, with numerous exemptions and compensation for industry sectors and individuals. It is unlikely that any IT companies will be large enough emitters to be included in the scheme, but IT systems will be needed to assess and audit emissions and implement strategies for reductions.

The course currently uses a 2008 draft of the National Carbon Offset Standard. This was finalized and released in 1 July 2010. The Australian Government strategy says under "Accounting and audit issues":

"The accounting treatment of permits and auditing of carbon pollution will be determined in accordance with international standards, as adopted in Australia, to ensure that the cost of capital is minimised."

The National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting Act 2007 provides for greenhouse and energy audits and appointment of Registered Greenhouse and Energy Auditors. , with requriements in the National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting (Audit) Determination 2009. There is a National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting Audit Determination Handbook (Word 1MB) and Auditor requirements. I have asked the Australian Government if the carbon offset standard is to be used for this. The standard refers to "suitably qualified auditors" and I have asked the government to include any of the postgraduate qualifications which include the green IT course. In any case it would be appropriate to use the National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting Audit Determination Handbook as a guide for the student's work.

Assessment

The appendix on assessment will need to be generalized as the assessment procedures of ACS, ANU and OU have diverged since the material was drafted (as an example, ACS and ANU use different grading schemes) . However, the questions and overall scheme can be retained.

The format of having weekly discussion questions for formative assessment, plus a mid and end of course assignments for summative assessment worked well. Asking the students what is happening in their organization has worked well. Those students without an organization adopt one. In particular a scheme run with ANU Green, where students are assigned to work with an IT manager from part of the university has worked well.

The two assignment questions could be of value more generally in professional skills courses:

1. How is what is covered in this course done currently in your organization?
   
2. How do you suggest improving it in your organization?
   

Formatting and Reference Changes

While revising the content it would be worth also making some changes to the format of the material. The primary way the students use the material is as a Moodle Learning Management System "Book Module", essentially a web based e-Book.

The e-book within the Learning Management System has worked well and should be retained. However, one change would be to include the URLs (web addresses) of works referenced explicitly in the text. This assists where the student reads the material on paper (and thus cannot click on a link to see what it is). It also helps to show students how formal references should be done.

Other versions of the material were derived from the Moodle Book, including electronic editions as web pages, IMS content package, PDF, Kindle and iPad e-books and print editions: hardback, paperback and large print.

The printed versions of the book have not proved popular. It may be worth retaining the paperback edition, but drop the other print editions. Few are wiling to pay the extra cost for a hardback book and the electronic version is likely to be preferred to large print for those with limited eyesight.

Of the electronic editions, the PDF version can be created as a byproduct of the print edition (which uses PDF for typesetting). The web pages, IMS content package, Kindle and iPad e-books are all easily created from the Moodle book module.

An improvement would be to provide the web version as one web page, rather than splitting the document into a web page per chapter. This would reduce the effort required to produce the material as Moodle can export the entire book as one web page. This would also allow the reader to easily save a copy of the whole document. At less than 1 Mbyte, the file will not be excessively large.

Course Title

Both the SFIA skills and the Australian government policy refer to "sustainability", so it may be worth replacing "green" in the course title with a title such as: "Sustainable Technology Assessment Strategies".

Green Technology Strategies on Apple iPad

Apple have my book "Green Technology Strategies" available in ePub format on their iTunes store. This came as quite a surprise. I recall requesting this of LuLu (who distribute the PDF, paperback and hardcover editions) some months ago. This contrasts with the Amazon.com Kindle Edition, which took less than 24 hours to publish.

The book has been available since 8 June 2011, but it has taken me a week to get around to reading the message I got from LuLu. This said my book was on the "iBookstore", but I had no idea what that was. Apparently this is what Apple called the book part of their on-line store. None of the links in the LuLu message were to LuLu's web site, so I assumed this was a hoax email.

I am not sure how many people will buy a book from Apple. One curious point is that Apple seem reluctant to say that you do not need an Apple device to read the book: just about any smart phone, tablet computer, laptop or desktop will do.

The book consists of a 297 kbytes file, which has been zip compressed. The file contains 516 Kbytes, mostly made up of the HTML text of the book, with one HTML file per chapter. The HTML of the ePub version is almost identical to that of the Kindle Edition, the free web version and the IMS Content Package , all of which are derived from the Moodle Learning Management System Course File.

Green Technology Strategies

by Tom Worthington

This book is available on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch with iBooks and on your computer with iTunes.

Description

Green Technology Strategies is about how to use computers and telecommunications in a way which maximises positive environmental benefit, with minimum energy and materials use. The book is designed to be used with an online course for professionals, using mentored and collaborative learning techniques. Learn how to: - Estimate the carbon footprint of the ICT operations of an organisation, - Assess ways to reduce the carbon footprint of an organisation, by changes to polices for procurement of ICT, changes to the ICT operations and revising business processes.

View In iTunes

• $3.99
• Available on iPhone, iPad or iPod touch.
• Category: Computers
• Published: Jun 08, 2011
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Seller: Lulu Enterprises, Inc.
• Print Length: 127 Pages
• Language: English

Customer Ratings

We have not received enough ratings to display an average for this book.

Understanding Enterprise Architecture

This week my Green ICT students at ANU have been discussing Enterprise Architecture. Last year I used the Business Enterprise Architecture (BEA) of the US Department of Defense (DoD) as an example. But this is very complex. So this year I changed to the Australian Government Information Management Office (AGIMO), Australian Government Architecture. This was not a lot better. One student pointed out TOGAF Version 9 Enterprise Edition . This seems simpler to understand.

Green ICT Internships

Samuel Fernandes, Australian National Unviersity Green ICT Project Officer, asked me to let students know that there are available paid ANUgreen Internships Semester 2, 2010. Applications close 5pm 17 September 2010.

One intern-ship is for "An evaluation of water and energy usage of ANU Data Centres", which uses many of the techniques covered in my course Green Information Technology Strategies (COMP7310):

This internship involves measuring the metrics of both the Data Centres at the ANU and providing a detailed report on their energy consumption, and water use. The successful intern look at the design of the building housing the data centres with a view to identifying improvements and calculate the Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) of the facility.

The objectives of this internship are:
1. Analyse both Data Centres at the ANU and calculate the baseline PUE
2. Compare the design of the data centres with Green Data Centre Design Standards
3. Write a Business Case with recommendations for immediate improvements

Selection Criteria:
1. Strong technical and analytical skills
2. Experience working with computer hardware is preferred. ...

From: ANUgreen Internships Semester 2, 2010, ANU Green, ANU Sustainability Office, 30 August 2010

The 400

According to IT News "Australia needs only 400 specialists to sufficiently reduce greenhouse gas emissions from ICT ..." (in "Lecturer calls for 400 Green IT specialists", by Liz Tay, Aug 13, 2010 2:45 PM). I can't really argue with that, as apparently I said it.This was for in an interview while at Data Centre Strategics in Sydney. This is one of those cases when the journalist is better able to discern the essence of what I am talking about better than I am. What I have proposed is $1M government funding to train 400 Green ICT specialists in the top 400 government agencies and companies. The students would do one of the courses offered by ANU, ACS and Open Universities Australia, and others. The staff will then work in their organisation to reduce the greenhouse emissions of the nation by 5% to 15%.

Propose $1M ICT education program to reduce greenhouse gas emissions

Having been to conferences this week on e-learning and climate change, I thought it was time to do something about it. If the next Australian Government would like to provide $1M, I could use it to teach how to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by up to 15% using ICT, to staff in the top 400 government and non-government organisations in Australia.

This would be using the current proven and accredited e-learning courses offered by ANU, ACS and Open Universities Australia.

It could be done in one to three years. As the students undertake real projects in their courses designed to be immediately implemented in the workplace, results could be expected in the first year.

e-Learning Course on Green ICT Strategies: Part 15 - Revision

In Part 14 I considered incorporating the content for a new e-learning course on "Green IT Strategies", to be offered as part of the ACS Computer Professional Education Program. into the Wikiversity. That was in January 2009. Since then I have run the course twice for the Australian Computer Society, and once for the Australian National University. The course is also offered by Open Universities Australia and Athabasca University (Canada). The course was intended to align with Competencies based on Skills Framework for the Information Age (SFIA). However in 2008 when I did this work, SFIA had no competences for sustainability. I joined a SFIA discussion list and floated the idea of adding sustainability job skills, but was told there were not IT specific roles and therefore would not be added to SFIA. So I used the most appropriate looking SFIA skills:

• Procurement & management support

  • Supply management

    • Procurement

  • Quality management

    • Compliance audit

• Strategy & planning

  • Business/IS strategy and planning

    • Business process improvement

    • Enterprise Architecture

  • Technical strategy and planning

    • Emerging technology monitoring

    • Methods and tools
      

I heard no more on the issue of sustainability for SFIA until May 2010, when a newsletter ("Sustainability skills for
Information Technology SFIA 4G", SFIA Foundation, May 2010) announced that SIFA Version 4 had added four new sustainability skills:

The four new skills are:

• SUST Sustainability strategy (in Strategy and architecture)
• SUMI Sustainability management for IT (in Strategy and architecture)
• SUAS Sustainability assessment (in Business change)
• SUEN Sustainability engineering (in Solution development and implementation)

These are under the category - subcategory of:

1. Strategy and architecture - Business/IT strategy and planning: Sustainability strategy SUST levels: 5 and 6
2. Strategy and architecture - Technical strategy and planning: Sustainability management for IT SUMI levels: 5 and 6
3. Business change - Business change management: Sustainability assessment SUAS levels: 4 5 6
4. Solution development and implementation - Systems development: Sustainability engineering SUEN levels 4 5 6

The SFIA Foundation have also made minor changes to the wording of other skills to take into account sustainability: STPL, BURM, EMRG, BUAN, DESN, ITMG, FMIT, CPMG, AVMT, SLMO, ITOP, NTOP, PROC, QUMG, CORE, TAUD, ASMG.

It is not clear at this stage how, to align the course to the new SFIA descriptions.

Global ICT Sustainability skills standard

Sustainability skills for Information Technology are being introduced into version 4G of the Skills Framework for the Information Age (SFIA).

In 2008 the Australian Computer Society commissioned me to wrote a professional e-learning course on green ICT. As this was part of an international program to improve the level of education of professionals, I was required to align my course with SFIA. This was difficult to do as there were no sustainability related job descriptions in SFIA. So I used the most relevant categoriese: Procurement & Management support and Strategy & planning. This worked well, the ACS program is now internationally accredited and the course has been run several times. The same course materials are used by Australian National University , Open Universities Australia, and Athabasca University (Canada).

I requested SFIA create some new sustainability course categories and this is now being done in SFIA Version 4G:

Sustainability – today’s challenge
Sustainability is now a serious part of IT. The use of energy, carbon and sensitive materials requires careful management. The many organisations using SFIA expect those needs to be reflected in the skills framework. SFIA’s comprehensive nature means that its operational and detailed skills can easily be seen to cover sustainability requirements and issues. However, in the management of sustainability the inclusion of four new skills will help incorporate sustainability thinking into the mainstream.
The four new skills are:

• SUST Sustainability strategy (in Strategy and architecture)
• SUMI Sustainability management for IT (in Strategy and architecture)
• SUAS Sustainability assessment (in Business change)
• SUEN Sustainability engineering (in Solution development and implementation)

... SFIA is owned by The SFIA Foundation, a not-for-profit body. Licence terms apply and are available on the SFIA website (www.sfia.org.uk).

From: Sustainability skills for Information Technology, SFIA Foundation, 2010

National Greenhouse Factors for Australia

My Green Technology Strategies students have been working out the CO2 emissions caused by computers. The first step in this is to understand the National Greenhouse Accounts (NGA) Factors. The latest set of these from the Department of Climate Change, are from June 2009. The National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting (Measurement) Technical Guidelines (June 2009) have several different ways to calculate emissions, but the factors use “Method 1” .

The most relevant factors for ICT equipment are those for "Indirect (scope 2) emission factors for consumption of purchased electricity from the grid". This is because in Australia, most computer and telecommunications equipment runs from mains electricity supplied over the grid. The factor is expressed in kg CO2-e/kWh and allows energy (kWh) to be converted to kg of CO2e. This assumes a given form of electricity generation and distribution method.

Australian electricity is generated mostly by burning coal. Different grades of coal used in different states result in different amounts of CO2. As an example, Victoria uses more polluting brown coal with a factor of 1.22, whereas NSW uses cleaner black coal with a factor of 0.89. South Australia uses a higher proportion of natural gas which is cleaner gving a factor of 0.77 and Tasmania uses hydro electricity, with much less CO2e at 0.23.

To demonstrate the calculations, my netbook, plugged into a large screen uses about 40 Watts of electricity. Assuming it is run 10 hours a day, this is: 40 x 10 = 400 Watt Hours per day.

Assuming the computer is run 5 days a week, this is: 400 x 5 = 2,000 Watt Hours per week or 2kWh per week.

If the computer is run 50 weeks a year, this gives: 2 x 50 = 100 kWh per year.

My computer is in the ACT most of the time, where, according to the Department of Climate Change, the Emission factor is 0.89 kg CO2-e/kWh.

So my computer causes: 100 x 0.89 = 89 kg CO2-e per year.

Of course this is an over estimate, as my computer is not on all the time. As it is a netbook, I turn it off and take it with me. Even when plugged in the computer switches to a low power while idle. So this is an upper bound on the energy use.

But the two biggest mistakes students make with such calculations are more fundamental: excessive precision and wrong units. I have deliberately chosen round numbers to make the demonstration calculations easy. Students tend to make calculations to dozens of decimal places. This level of precision is spurious as there are so many assumptions used in the estimating of the factors and power measurements. The assumptions used are likely to result in a figure which could be off by a factor of four: rather than using about 100 kg CO2-e per year, my computer might be using between 25 and 400 kg CO2-e per year.

The second problem is wrong units of conversion. Typically in a calculation while worrying about dozens of decimal places the student uses the wrong units, confusing kW with MW or (or using British energy units) ending up being wrong by a thousand or million times. A quick sanity check is required to see if the figure derived is reasonable.

As a cross check, I found an estimate of 0.58 Kg CO2e per day from a desktop computer in the Green Ration Book. Multiplying this by 5 days a week and 50 weeks a year gives 145 kg CO2-e per year. This is about 50% higher than my calculation, which seems reasonable for a higher power desktop computer (a figure to within four times would be near enough).

Green Technology: Procurement and Compliance from Desktops to Data Centres

One interesting aspect of the SIFA discussion I am involved in Adelaide is that ICT skills include procurement and compliance, marketing, learning and development. My green ICT course explicitly references Procurement and Compliance. Perhaps I did the course a disservice by not highlighting these skills in preparing it. So renaming the Green course "Procurement and Compliance for Green Technology". From the marketing point of view, data centres are a hot topic, so a better name would be "Green Technology: Procurement and Compliance from Desktops to Data Centres".

Also it would be interesting to see some e-learning modules developed for marketing, learning and development. These skills tend to be dismissed by ICT technical people as being not worthy of their attention.

Green ICT Strategies Course for North America

Athabasca University (Canada) is now offering the course "Green ICT Strategies COMP 635". This is based on my Green Technology Strategies syllabus, adapted for North America.

Brian Stewart, Chief Information Officer, Athabasca University undertook the ANU e-learning version of my course "Green Information Technology Strategies COMP7310". He must have enjoyed it, as he then asked if it was okay for them to adapt it for Canada, which I was delighted to agree to:

Computer Science (COMP) 635
Green ICT Strategies

Method of Delivery:	Grouped Study Online
Credits:	3 - IS Elective
Prerequisite:	None
Centre:	School of Computing and Information Systems
Instructor:	Richard Huntrods and Brian Stewart

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Overview

This course will approach green ICT strategies from a professional perspective, providing instruction on how best to apply green ICT strategies in the working environment. COMP 635 takes an information literacy approach by using open resources to facilitate the development of a professional body of knowledge. This removes the need for a textbook and allows the student to build his or her knowledge on continually available sources.

Green ICT (Green IT or Green Computing) is the study and practice of using computers and telecommunications in a way that maximizes positive environmental benefit and minimizes the negative impact. The energy efficiency of operating equipment is a major concern of Green ICT. The embodied energy and lifecycle of the materials used in the design, manufacture, reuse, and recycling of equipment and components are also concerns. Green ICT seeks to inform accepted management practices to achieve efficient and effective business interaction.

The course covers topics such as networking and distributed systems. It builds on themes such as standards and open systems, and uses tools such as Integrated Development Environments. It provides historical and hardware/software/mathematics foundations for the subject, and develops research and report-writing skills to prepare a project report.

Green ICT strategies is an emerging discipline. This course is drawn from practices being developed in the public and private sectors both in Canada and internationally. It introduces implementation methodologies and assessment tools that are currently being tested in the field.

Learning Outcomes

After completing this course, the student should be able to

• understand the role of ICTs as they impcact the global carbon footprint
• estimate the carbon footprint of the ICT operations of an organization,
• assess ways to reduce the carbon footprint of an organization, by changes to polices for procurement of ICT, changes to the ICT operations and revising business processes.

Outline

The course consists of four major topics (modules). Each module has three sub-topics, (one sub-topic per week), and a week at the end of the course is reserved for review.

1. Module 1: Politics, Science and Business of Sustainability
• Introduction to Green ICT Strategies
• The Global ICT Footprint
• Enabling ICT: Dematerialization, Smart Motor Systems, Logistics, Buildings and Grids
2. Module 2: Technical Strategy and Planning–Emerging Technology Monitoring
• Energy Saving: Data Centres and Client Equipment
• Materials Use
• Methods and Tools
3. Module 3: Business/IS Strategy and Planning
• Business Process Improvement
• Improving Data Centre Energy Efficiency
• Enterprise Architecture
4. Module 4: Procurement & Management Support
• Procurement
• Energy Star Program and Quality Management
• Compliance Audit

Evaluation

To pass this course, students must achieve an average grade of at least 65% on each assignment.

To receive credit towards the Master of Science in IS, for Electives/Career track, students must achieve a course composite grade of at least C+ (67%). The weighting of the composite grade is as follows:

Assignment 1 (TME1)		40%
Assignment 2 (TME2)		40%
Discussion participation/contribution		20%
Total		100%

Course Materials: Online

COMP 635 is delivered through Athabasca University's learning management system (LMS), Moodle. All course activities and resources will be available through the course website. Course materials include discussion forums, learning materials, and assignments. Assignments will be submitted online. Readings are all accessed online through links from the site (there is no printed textbook).

Open Access

All learning materials for this course are freely available and have no copyright restrictions to access. This allows the course to be made available without restriction to anyone interested in studying the subject. In addition, all materials are accessible over the Internet and can be read onscreen.

Course Designer

Comp 635was originally written and developed by Tom Worthington, an independent ICT consultant and an Adjunct Senior Lecturer in the Department of Computer Science at the Australian National University. Tom teaches website design, e-commerce, and professional ethics. He also has an interest in environmental design, and is the founding chair of the ACS Green ICT Group. In 1999, Tom was elected a Fellow of the Australian Computer Society for his contribution to the development of public Internet policy. He is a past president, Fellow, and Honorary Life Member of the Australian Computer Society, a voting member of the Association for Computing Machinery, and a member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. This course has been adapted under a Creative Commons license to reflect more Canadian content for delivery through Athabasca University....

From: Green ICT Strategies COMP 635, 03/31/2010