Systematic Approach to Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions

Greetings from the Australian National University Planning & Project Support Office where Samuel Fernandes, the Green ICT Project Officer is discussing "Project planning: Using the Six Sigma methodology". He used the DMAIC Six Sigma methodology for reducing the ANU's greenhouse gas emissions.

Sam is a former student of my Green Information Technology Strategies course. In that we touched on methodologies, but he is now using a far more sophisticated approach to greenhouse gas emissions in a complex organisational context. MAIC Six Sigma methodology was developed by Motorola in 1986.

Sam described the differences between outputs, such as reporting emissions and outcomes, such as lower energy use and greater awareness. SIPOC diagrams and Critical to Quality trees are used to detail this analysis. These techniques are used for large and complex IT projects. I am not aware of this level of sophistication of analysis being applied to green ICT before, which has mostly been confined to wishful thinking and unverified targets.

The Australian Government ICT Sustainability Plan 2010 - 2015 (DEWHA, 2010) set a target of 400 kWhr per PC by July 2012, a 38% reduction on the baseline of 630 kWh. All agencies are required to report ICT energy use annually, starting with this financial year, in their 2010/2011 annual report. So agencies have about 15 months to prepare to report. Verdiem and others sell monitoring software to help with the reporting and to reduce energy use. But agencies might benefit from a methodology like that used by the ANU.

Six Sigma Applied to Green ICT

Green ICT Project Officer, Samuel Fernandes will discuss "Project planning: Using the Six Sigma methodology" At the Australian National University in Canberra, 11 am, 17 March 2011. Sam is a former student of Green Information Technology Strategies, now working on reducing the ANU's greenhouse gas emissions.

Workshop

Project planning: Using the Six Sigma methodology

The ANU Project Management Community of Practice is a network for anyone with an interest in managing projects as well as a desire to share with and learn from others in the University with the same interest. It is facilitated by the Planning & Project Support Office, but ultimately directed by its members.

The group gets together on the third Thursday of every month to discuss project management knowledge, expertise and techniques, and listen to presentations on different aspects of project management.

The March meeting will have a presentation by ANUgreen Green ICT Project Officer Samuel Fernandes who will discuss his project and the tools and techniques used in planning the project.

He will discuss:

-what the Green ICT project is about
-what strategies were used
-the project management tools used
-the benefits of the Six Sigma Approach
-the involvement of the Projects Office.

The presentation will be followed by an open discussion by attendees. ...

From: Project planning: Using the Six Sigma methodology, Australian National University, 2011