ACT Renewables Showcase

I am running a free workshop on "How Green is my Computer?" at the ACT Renewables Showcase in Canberra, 26 July 2019. There is also an electric car exhibition.

Program

9:00-9:20 Registration
9:20-9:30 Welcome/Opening
10:00-17:00 Electric Vehicles Exhibition (in partnership with Tesla Owners Club of Australia and Australian Vehicle Association)
9:30-10:15 Panel: Policy Implications for Renewables with Geoffrey Rutledge (ACT Government), Dr Frank Jotzo (ANU), Dr Andreas Loeschel(University of Munster); moderated by Sylvia Tulloch (BAB Chairman for REIF)
10:30-11:45 Workshop: How Green is my Computer? by Tom Worthington.
11:45-12:45 Panel: Women in Renewables with Shahana McKenzie(Bioenergy Australia), Clara Mazzone (ITP Renewables), Alison Reeve (ACT Government), Michelle McCann (PV Lab), Dr Marnie Shaw (ANU); moderated by Ruth O'Connor (ANU)
13:15-14:10 Seminar: Renewable Energy Innovation and World Trends by Simon Corbell (Energy Estate).
14:25-14:50 Speed Talks: Greening the Future-Bioenergy for Transport and Industrial Application by Dr Clive Stephens (Vtara Energy Group).
14:55-15:20 Speed Talks: How Electric Vehicles Could Shape Our World? by Darryl Bourke (Tesla Owners Club of Australia).
15:25-15:50 Speed Talks: Building Blocks of a Sustainable Energy Future by Vincenzo Marciano and Ryan Wood (Evergen).
16:00-16:55 Seminar: State of affairs: Clean Energy Market Challenges by John Grimes (Smart Energy Council).
17:00-17:30 Closing Ceremony closing remarks by Chief Minister Andrew Barr.
From 17:30, Energy Lab will kick off with their famous annual Hackathon. Join us to explore a variety of opportunities that will accelerate the uptake of clean energy. To register for the Hackathon, click here.
You can find tickets at https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/act-renewables-showcase-2019-tickets-63848147528

Virtual Power Station Cheaper Than Snowy Hydro 2.0?

Tomorrow I am giving a guest lecture to Systems Engineering students (COMP3530) at the Australian National University on "Environmental Concerns". As usual I will run them through "How Green is My Computer?", an exercise in estimating the carbon emissions from a computer. However, to make it topical, I thought I would see if computers can provide a cheaper alternative to the PM's Snowy Hydro 2.0 Proposal.

Smoothing the peaks ...

Blakers and Fulton,
The Conversation,
CC BY SA 4

In February 2017, a team of ANU researcher, lead by Professor Andrew Blakers released a report proposing that "100% renewable electricity in Australia" was feasible. This would use pumped hydro energy storage: excess power from wind turbines and solar panels would be used to pump water into a high reservoir. At times when there was insufficient wind and sun, the water would run down to a lower reservoir and drive a turbine. Blakers and Fulton described how this could be implemented at the existing Snowy Hydro Scheme, in 2014.

Murray 1 Snowy Hydro Station,
by Martin Kraft/Wikimedia
Commons, CC BY-SA

Malcolm Turnbull, Prime Minister of Australia then announced the "Snowy Mountains Scheme 2.0." (16 March 2017), to add 2000 megawatts of pumped hydro storage, at a cost of AU$2B ("Malcolm Turnbull plans to upgrade Snowy Hydro to version 2.0" (Video), ABC TV, 16 March 2917).

Dr Lachlan Blackhall

However, are there cheaper, quicker alternatives for low pollution energy, using computer and telecommunications? Companies including Canberra's Reposit Power (Founded by ANU graduate Dr Lachlan Blackhall) aggregate the power from home solar systems (and batteries) and sell this back to the grid.

However, there is another underused source of on-demand power available in people's homes: the air-conditioner. The air-conditioner is a large part of the energy supply problem but could be part of the solution. A home ducted home air-conditioner uses about 5KW of power. A medium room air-conditioner uses  2.3KW. What if we could pay householders to halve their air-conditioning energy use at times of high energy demand?

Smart meters and some air conditioners have a Demand Response Enabling Device (DRED) option. This allows the electricity supplier to remotely switch the air-conditioner to a lower power mode at times of peak demand. The supplier offers a cash payment up front and a lower electricity charge to householders who take up the option. However, this is not very popular.

If we could use smart-phones, and sharing economy techniques to provide more of an incentive to consumers, would this be cost effective?

A quick back-of the-envelope calculation:

Cost of Snowy #2 power: $2B for 2000 MW = $1,000 per KW.

Assuming a consumer would halve their air-conditioner consumption on demand, 5KW to 2.3KW = 2.7 KW saved. This would have to cost less than $2,700 to be cheaper than Snowy #2. Retrofitting DRED may well cost more than this. However, smart air-conditioners may require no extra hardware. The difficulty would be making it feasible for the consumer to enable the function, without requiring a technician to visit.

Raspberry Pi Computer,
photo by By Ayaita
(Own work) [CC BY 3.0],
via Wikimedia Commons

The computing power needed to provide the DRED function, could be provided by a computer equivalent to a $50 Raspberry PI. The computer needs no touch screen as it can instead use the consumer's smart-phone for the interface. The connection to the energy supplier can be via WiFi to the household hub. The system could be made fail-safe (and prevent the consumer cheating it) by having the unit programmed to operate on low power, until it receives an encrypted signal from the power company to switch to high power.

However, how many households would need to have DRED? The Snowy Hydro 2 scheme is proposed to produce 2000 MW. At 2.7 KW saved per household, that requires almost three quarters of a million households: 8% of the 9m in Australia. Also it is unlikely that these householders would be willing to give up half their air-conditioning for long periods. But such a system might be used during the annual peaks and when there is a problem with regular supply, rather than have fossil fuel stations on standby. So I propose the Snowy 2 Scheme include a 2000 MW virtual power station to be operational by the end of 2021 at a cost of $200M.

Building a green Internet

The report "Clicking Clean: Who is winning the race to build a green Internet?" (Greenpeace USA, 10 January 2017), identifies Apple as the leader in green computing. leadership spot for the third year in a row among platform operators. The report criticizes Amazon Web Services (AWS) for data centers in Virginia (USA) power by electricity from coal. 

One point the report makes is that more than half of global Internet traffic is now video streaming. This is an area, I suggest, where technology could make improvements. Improved compression algorithms can reduce the size of the streamed data. Also more intelligencer systems can detect the size of the display and therefore what resolution image is required. There is no point in streaming
8K ultra high definition television to a pocket size mobile device, or a tiny picture-in-picture window on a large TV. Lower resolution video will be indistinguishable to the viewer, saving bandwidth and energy.

For more on green computing, see my book "ICT Sustainability: Assessment and Strategies for a Low Carbon Future".

ICT Reducing European Carbon Emissions

BT have released the 39 page report "The role of ICT in reducing carbon emissions in the EU" (May 2016). The report makes the bold claim that ICT has the potential to reduce EU carbon emissions 37% over 2012 levels by 2030. These savings would come primarily from manufacturing, energy industries and buildings. These are very bold claims and it is not clear from the report how these reductions are expected to occur.

Interestingly, along with the usual "smarts", such as Smart Buildings, Smart Energy and Smart Logistics, are "Smart Agriculture",  e-learning,  e-work and e-health.

In the course "ICT Sustainability" I teach students about how to estimate and reduce emissions using ICT. However, as the students soon realize, the hard part is not inventing a savings measure but motivating organizations and individuals to make the changes.

Mobile Cloudlets for Energy Reduction

Greetings from the famous room N101 at the Austrlaian National Univerity in Canberra, where Qiufen Xia is speaking on "Cost-Effective Resource Allocation and Throughput Maximization in Mobile Cloudlets and Distributed Clouds". The idea is that the Internet "cloud" now has an additional bottom tier, which is mobile devices connected by a WiFi access point. It might be assumed, as I did, that the mobile devices would just act as terminals for customers to access large data centers. However, there are now so many mobile devices that they have significant storage and processing capacity. However, efficiently using so many devices so widely distributed is a difficult problem. One reason to worry about this is to reduce the significant energy use of the Internet (Xu, Liang & Xia,2015).

Reference

Z. Xu, W. Liang and Q. Xia, "Electricity Cost Minimization in Distributed Clouds by Exploring Heterogeneity of Cloud Resources and User Demands," Parallel and Distributed Systems (ICPADS), 2015 IEEE 21st International Conference on, Melbourne, VIC, 2015, pp. 388-395.
doi: 10.1109/ICPADS.2015.56 URL: http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=7384319&isnumber=7384203

E-waste Collection No Longer Operating in Canberra?

Last Sunday I took a computer monitor to the ACT Government's Mitchell Resource Management Centre. I expected to to be directed to a row of bins for computers, TVs and other presorted electronic equipment, as previously. But instead I was directed to a mixed pile of electrical equipment, including washing machines, TVs, printers, and electronic items. Has the ACT Government withdrawn from the  National Television and Computer Recycling Scheme? Is the ACT Government handling e-waste in accordance with local, national and international law, which requires it  to be treated as hazardous.

At the moment I am revising my "ICT Sustainability" course for students at ANU. If e-waste is no longer being recycled in Canberra, I will need to revise the materials chapter.

Managing the growing energy cost of the Internet

Professor Rod Tucker, University of Melbourne will speak on "Managing the growing energy cost of the Internet" at the Australian National University in Canberra, 12.30pm 29 September 2015.

"The size and capacity of the global telecommunications infrastructure is growing as the demand for on-line data and new Internet services continuously expand.  The Internet and its associated data centres presently consume only a few percent of the global electricity supply, but this consumption is growing. In this talk, I will discuss the key contributors to energy consumption in the Internet and describe some approaches to the design of a more energy-efficient network."

Also, ANU's award winning course ICT Sustainability (COMP7310) is being offered on-line to students worldwide, commencing February 2016. The course notes are published as "ICT Sustainability: Assessment and Strategies for a Low Carbon Future" (Worthington, 2012).

Scottish Green ICT Strategy

The Scottish Government has issued "Scotland’s Digital Future: Scottish Public SectorGreen ICT Strategy" (April 2015) for their public sector. The report is largely based on the UK Government's strategy. (the same five level "ICT Sustainability Maturity Model" is used).

The report cites the Climate Change (Scotland) Act, 2009, which has a target of a 42% reduction in CO2 by 2020 and 80% by 2050. Also "Low Carbon Scotland: Meeting the Emissions Reduction Targets 2013-2027" report (2013). In terms of e-waste there is a Scottish Landfill Tax and Zero Waste Plan.

The report mentions skills requirements, but there is no specific requirement for ICT Sustainability skills of IT professionals employed or engaged by government and no targets for for having staff trained to impalement tie ICT Sustainability strategy. If the did want to train staff, the Scotti Government are welcome to make use of my "ICT Sustainability" course.

The report also covers some principles:

Procurement principles

• Consider extending the life of existing systems
• Go for Services not Assets: Cloud services, virtualise, consolidate
• Packaging reduction, re-use, repair and re-cycling methods

ICT Operations principles

• Minimise power consumption
• Follow data centre standards for efficient operations to help reduce
• power consumption
• Develop a road map for the transition from hosting own data to hosting in
• cloud based services to further reduce power consumption
• Reduce paper consumption
• Embed green behaviours in operational practices and services

Disposal principles

• Re-pair - if broken fix it
• Re-use, Re-furbish for other purposes
• Re-cycle
• Clean and re-sell/donate - charitable and registered voluntary and
• community groups
• Dispose in line with regulations.

Growing the Green ICT Sector in Europe

Mr. Leo Brincat, Maltese Minister for Sustainable Development, the Environment and Climate Change, has called for Green ICT to Boost Green Growth and Create Green Jobs in Europe, at an EU Environment Council Meeting (Government of Malta Press Release 7 March 2015). I am not sure what the Minister had in mind, but I have been teaching ICT Sustainability at the Australian National University (ANU) and designing a new course in "Innovation: Commercialisation and Intrepreneurship in Technology" to help students start-up their own business. I plan to be in Europe in late June for the 10th International Conference on Computer Science & Education (ICCSE 2015). ANU has a Centre for European Studies funded jointly with the European Commission. I would be happy to discuss green ICT for growth with government and industry while in Europe.

UK Government Green ICT Report

The UK Government has released a "Greening Government ICT 2014 Annual Report". However, the report seems to be more about an abstract "Green ICT Maturity Assessment Model", than real reductions in energy use.


The report notes a lack of Green ICT skills and the use of the Skills Framework for the Information Age (SFIA). The ICT Sustainability course I run for ANU (this year's students are up to week 3) was commissioned for the Australian Computer Society who use SFIA and so is designed to align with SFIA (Version 4, Level 5).

Green Technology Strategies Course Advertised Online

Reading a car review website today, I was surprised to find an advertisement for the course Green Technology Strategies from Open Universities Australia (OUA). This is a course I designed for the Australian Computer Society ACS Virtual College, who also offer it to OUA's students. I assume that the advertisement was specifically aimed at me, due to my profile of green web page reading. But I am unlikely to enrol, as I am the tutor for the course. ;-)

41,000 tonnes of Old TVs and Computers Recycled in Australia Last Year

The Department of the Environment, has released a report on "National Television and Computer Recycling Scheme - Outcomes 2012-13". It is estimated the scheme just about reached its target of recycling 30% of the TVs and computers made surplus during the year (41,327 tonnes). 

 Assuming each computer or TV weights an average of 20 kg, that would represent two million devices being recycled (computers weight less and TVs more). However, the target may not take account of the old equipment which has accumulated in homes and offices in the absence of a recycling scheme. Also the introduction of digital TV and tablet computers may be increasing the rate at which equipment is replaced. I suggest a more realistic target might be four times the one set.

This week I have a class of university students studying e-waste. 

Fujitsu Australia ICT Sustainability Survey

Fujitsu Australia are conducting an "ICT Sustainability Survey". Lee Stewart, Head of Sustainability ANZ at Fujitsu Australia, would like to hear from CIOs and IT leaders about ICT energy efficiency and the role of ICT in reducing their organisation’s energy consumption and greenhouse gas footprint.

ICT For Green Growth in Developing Nations

Dr Idris Sulaiman will speak on "How ICTs Make A Smarter Green Growth in Emerging Economies", at the Australian National University, 2:30pm, 20 January 2014. 2014-01-20:

Green ICT is as much about the financial motivation as it is about regulatory compliance and reducing the environmental impact of operating ICT and the business a"whether it be commercial, academic or government organisations. This presentation provides an overview on the status of the current technology diffusion in terms of agreening of ICT infrastructure as well as some major areas of how ICTs are agreeninga key areas of economies in the global context particularly in the emerging economies. The presentation also looks at some international award-winning agreena software technologies that have been getting the attention of venture capital players and policy makers alike.

Finnish Green ICT Sector Action Program

The Finnish Ministry of Transport and Communications announced "An action programme for a green ICT sector" 18 December 2013. Unfortunately I could only find the media release in English, not the actual plan. The plan is available in Finnish as "Vihreän ICT:n toimintaohjelma", appended is an excerpt from a machine translation "Green ICT: Programme of Action". The plan targets three areas: data centres, telecommunications networks and audiovisual services.The third area concerns the energy impact of the change from watching broadcast TV to streamed video on computers.

Green ICT: Programme of Action

Summary

The Ministry of Transport and Communications, the aim is to promote the material and energy efficiency and reduce carbon dioxide emissions from information and communication technology based products and services. More and more green ICT initiatives combining traditional communication and environmental policy. At present, green ICT key technologies seen as a greater use of communication tools, electronic services and improving energy efficiency.

Green ICT agenda is based on the Ministry of Transport and Communications, the strategic research, development and innovation policies for the period 2013-2015, as well as traffic environmental strategy for the years 2013-2020. The program seeks to establish a priority ICT infrastructure required for energy needs. In addition, the aim is cross-sectoral and research-based collaboration, which allows ICT's negative effects can be minimized.

The Action Plan includes three priority areas: energy efficiency, sustainable development and timely research. In addition, the program measures are shown in the first stage, data centers, telecommunications networks, and audio-visual services areas.

Green ICT Programme of Action is part of the communication policy älystrategiaa, Quartz program. Crystal-program is an essential part of continuous development principle. According to this principle in this action plan objectives and actions developed to meet the changes in the operating environment and practices. The progress of actions and the impact of monitored annually and the data are collected from the administrative sector, as well as other authorities and the research needs of the parties.

Table of contents

1 INTRODUCTION .. 3
2 PREPARATION OF THE ACTION .. 4
3 SUMMARY OF THE ACTIVITIES OF RECOMMENDATIONS .. 5
3.1 Focus 1 - Energy Efficiency .. 5
3.2 Focus 2 - Sustainable Development .. 5
3.3 Focus 3 - Updated research information .. 6
3.4 Measures to .. 6
4 GENERAL TRENDS AND CHANGES IN GREEN ICT .. 7
4.1 Climate change and other environmental impacts .. 7
4.1.1 Information society development and climate change .. 7
4.1.2 ICT and the environment interrelationship between .. 8
4.2 Information and communication technologies, increasing energy consumption .. 9
4.2.1 ICT ecosystem energy .. 9
4.2.2 ICT's energy consumption growth in the underlying factors 10
4.3 Digital service culture and green growth .. 13
4.3.1 Digital service culture .. 13
4.3.2 Green growth .. . 14
4.3.3 Reliable and fast service infrastructure for sustainable development
prerequisite .. 15
5 ACTION AREAS .. 16
5.1 The server centers .. 16
5.2 Telecommunication networks . .. 17
5.3 Audiovisual services .. 17
6 INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION .. 18
7 FOLLOW-UP AND DEVELOPMENT OF MATERIAL .. 19

From: "Green ICT: Programme of Action" (machine translation) of Publication 34/2013, Finnish Ministry of Transport and Communications,  12/13/2013, ISSN (online) 1795-4045, ISBN (online) 978-952-243-369-5, URN http://urn.fi/URN:ISBN:978-952-243-369-5

Options for E-waste Plastic

The New Zealand Government has issued reports of two studies it commissioned on how to dealing with plastic which contains Brominated flame retardant (BFR) chemicals. These plastics have been commonly used in computers and other electronic devices. The chemicals are banned under the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs). The result is e-waste which is difficult to dispose of. Available are:

1. Managing waste that may contain brominated flame retardants,
2. Brominated flame retardant research: A pilot study of e-waste plastic sorting in New Zealand (AS140193), Geoff Latimer, NVIRON Australia Pty Ltd, for NZ Ministry for the Environment, September 2013. The study found most CRT TVs in NZ were manufactured in Asia after 1990 without POP-BDEs. A small number of older units from Europe may contain the chemical. Photocopiers and printers are likely to be POP-BDE free. There was limited evidence on POP-BDEs in CRT computer monitors, so the authors recommended monitors should be assumed to contain them. But LCD computer monitors are unlikely to contain the chemical.
   
3. Brominated Flame Retardant Research: A cost-benefit analysis of sorting options for e-waste plastics, ACIL Allen Consulting Pty Ltd, for NZ Ministry for the Environment, October 2013. The report compared visual inspection of items versus use of a handheld "XRF scanner" which uses X-rays to detect the chemicals.  The report concludes that the scanners can't sufficient distinguish between POP-BDE and the more benign chemicals used to replace them, resulting in a large number of false positives. The report concludes XRF is more expensive and does not give any better identification result.

China E-waste Draft National Standards

The China Electronic Standards Association (CESA), distributed seven draft national standards the handling of e-waste. These cover the dismantling of obsolete equipment, general requirements for premises, equipment procedures, pollution control, health and safety, and documentation. These cover desktop computers, copiers, printers, laptops, plasma, LCD and CRT TVs and computer monitors. It is not clear why seven separate standards are needed, as most of the procedures will be common for all types of equipment. One standard could be issued with appendices, or supplements, for variations in equipment type. These standards are important for Australia, as much of the  e-waste collected through the Australian National Television and Computer Recycling Scheme, goes to China for recycling.

Here are the original Chinese texts of the proposed standards:

1. CRT TVs and Monitors: 20083080-T-339
2. LCD TVs: 20083081-T-339
3. Plasma TVs: 20083082-T-339
4. Notebook computers (laptops): 20083083-T-339
5. Printers: 20083084-T-339
6. Copiers: 20083085-T-339
7. Desktop computers (PCs): 20083086-T-339

Greening UK Government ICT Report

The UK Government have released their second annual "Greening Government: ICT Annual Report" (UK Cabinet Office, July 2013). This 19 page report is available in PDF and Microsoft Word. There is also an ODT version offered, but I was unable to open the document. It is curious that the report is not simply offered as a web page. The document is better designed than last year. Appended are the highlights. Curiously I could find no mention of education or training of staff in green ICT in the report.

4 Key highlights

Implementing the strategy

Over the past year we have made significant progress in implementing the Greening Government ICT strategy. Not only have the roadmap and maturity model been adopted across government departments, but these departments now have plans in place to reach level 3 of the model, the government target is to meet level 3 by 2015. The average green IT maturity score for departments is now 2.9 compared to 2.4 last year.

The Green ICT Delivery Unit (GDU)

A forum of government and wider public sector green IT sustainability leads. It’s primary function is to lead the development of the Greening Government ICT Strategy and drive forward its implementation.

Progress has been made in measuring our technology related energy usage and in signing up to the EU Code of Conduct. The Green ICT Delivery Unit (GDU) continues to drive efficiencies and is looking to modernise ways of working using technology to reduce travel, improve collaboration and find better ways to reuse and recycle IT equipment.

Data centres

With the increase in the use of online services for government transactions, data centres are a key focus of the GDU and government’s green IT strategy. Four government departments have endorsed the EU’s Code of Conduct for Data Centres¹ over the past year and a number of other organisations are progressing towards this goal. In addition a number of data centres used by suppliers to government are now registered as participants under the Code.

Defra is currently working to design guidance for buyers on effective practice for procuring energy efficient data centre services and ensuring sustainability has a high profile in contract management for the increasing number of cloud hosting services being used. The guidance has been discussed with Intellect, the UK industry body

representing both larger industry players and hundreds of smaller companies, and this is being coordinated with input from other government stakeholders. There have also been discussions with the European Commission via its EU wide Green Public Procurement process².

Recycling and reducing waste

IT Recycling

The GPS agreement was used to dispose of 66,448 items, of which 33,514 were resold, generating £405,881.68.  A further 8738 items were able to be donated, further reducing the items sent for disposal.

Recycling of IT is key to achieving efficiencies and being greener. The Government Procurement Service (GPS) offers organisations a method for recycling IT assets.  The service agreement has been used by at least 33 bodies including schools, councils, agencies and government departments.

Currently work is underway in the GPS to refresh the service agreement to increase the financial benefits. This will focus on money raised from the recovery and sale of components plus that of rare and valuable raw materials, and the sustainability benefits, for example, reducing waste sent to landfill or for incineration.  

Public service delivery

In the last year the Government Digital Service published the Government Digital Strategy. This was followed by the publication of individual digital strategies by government departments. These strategies are fundamental to shifting government’s approach to interacting with citizens and businesses. The shift will need to be supported by the right technologies and systems to make the most efficient use of hardware and power. Digital by default also reduces the environmental impact of physical and paper based processes by using technology to create more cost effective, efficient and user-centred online services.

The move to digital by default is crucial as shown by the shift to online in HMRC which has seen more than 80 per cent of HMRC’s tax returns submitted via the internet. These online submissions have resulted in a big paper saving alongside cutting the carbon emissions by 760 tonnes. The use of different channels like SMS for alerts, have also played their part in reducing paper. Streamlining processes has also improved sustainability and efficiency, HMRC now send one Tax Credits award notice to joint households, for example, whereas previously each person in a household would have received a separate letter.³

Exploiting collaborative tools

Departments continue to maintain effective working whilst reducing business travel by conducting their business via video, web and teleconferencing. The Home Office extended to all staff members its departmental contract for teleconferencing facilities (this was previously only available to a small number of staff). MOD increased its use of videoconferencing and teleconferencing as part of its travel budget cuts and efficiencies. Peer-to-peer instant messaging is now available and a peer-to-peer webcam trial is underway. These tools and other methods of remote working were used to help reduce travel by government employees during the Olympic games.

The Public Services Network (PSN) continues to drive sustainable savings and efficiencies by removing duplicate network connections, providing simpler procurement and greater competition, and allowing public sector employees to work in more flexible, collaborative ways.  PSN creates a common network of networks and a more open and competitive telecommunications marketplace for the UK public sector.  It provides assured networks, based on industry standards, over which government can safely share services, including many G-Cloud services, to collaborate in new ways, substantially reducing the cost of communication services across UK Government and enabling new, joined-up and shared public services.

Partnership

This year we have worked closely with colleagues in academia and are grateful to the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC)⁴ for sharing use of its tools to record the use of energy from operating ICT. We have also discussed our plans and sought and received feedback from Industry through Intellect events. Colleagues in local government and the National Health Service (NHS) sit on the GDU and share knowledge about green IT which helps others learn effective practices.

1 http://iet.jrc.ec.europa.eu/energyefficiency/ict-codes-conduct/data-centres-energy-efficiency

2 The European equivalent of the UK’s Government Buying Standards, which identify sustainability requirements for public procuring authorities.

3 https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/greening-government-commitments

4 http://www.jisc.ac.uk/

From: Greening Government: ICT Annual Report, UK Cabinet Office, July 2013

Wireless Energy Consumption to Exceed Data Centres

The report "THE POWER OF WIRELESS CLOUD: An analysis of the energy consumption of wireless cloud" by the University of Melbourne (2013) suggests that energy used by WiFi and mobile data networks will exceed that of Data centres.There is a good sumamry of the report in "Massive energy cost hidden in the cloud" (Graeme Philipson, 11 April 2013).

Greening IT

Professor San Murugesan, University of Western Sydney, has guest edited the IEEE-CS "Computing Now" magazine, on the topic “How Green is Your IT?". I was delighted to see the Green IT Resources lists my book ICT Sustainability: Assessment and Strategies for a Low Carbon Future. Papers include:

1. Enabling Green IT through Energy-Aware Software, Manuj Sabharwal, Abhishek Agrawal, and Grace Metri
2. HolisticDatacenter Design in the Open Compute Project, Eitan Frachtenberg
3. "Using Datacenter Simulation to Evaluate Green Energy Integration, Baris Aksanli, Jagannathan Venkatesh, and Tajana Šimuni
4. Automating a Building's Carbon Management, Geetha Thiagarajan et. al.
5. A Smarter Smart Home: Case Studies of Ambient Intelligence, Stephen Makonin, Lyn Bartram, and Fred Popowich
6. Creating Green Awareness Using IT: The Case of Hong Kong, Wai-Ming To, Andy W.L. Chung, and Linda S.L. Lai
7. Sustainable IT: Challenges, Postures, and Outcomes", Edward Curry , et. al.