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FACTOR 5: Transforming the Global Economy through 80% Improvements in Resource Productivity

Prepared by The Natural Edge Project 2010 (Supported by CSIRO) of 27


Online Industry Sector Study – Information and Communication Technologies ...................... 2

1) The Potential for Factor 5 Improvements in ICT Resource Productivity ....................................... 2

Best Practice Case Study - Thin Clients and Server Based Computing ............................................. 8 2) A Whole System Approach to Factor 5 in Data Centres ................................................................ 10

IPCC Strategy One: Energy Efficiency Opportunities ....................................................................... 16

IPCC Strategy Two: Heat and Power Recovery ............................................................................... 22

IPCC Strategy Three: Feedstock Change (Contributed by S. Benn and D. Dunphy)....................... 22

IPCC Strategy Four: Renewable Energy .......................................................................................... 25 IPCC Strategy Seven: Materials Efficiency (Water) .......................................................................... 26

© Peter Stasinopoulos, Karlson Hargroves, and Michael Smith of The Natural Edge Project, and Klaus Fichter, Dexter Dunphy and Suxanne Benn.

Users of this material are permitted to use this Work in accordance with the Copyright Act 1968 (Commonwealth) [ref s40(1A) and (1B) of the Copyright Act]. In addition, further consent is provided to: reproduce the Work; communicate the Work to the public; and use the Work for lecturing, or teaching in, or in connection with an approved course of study or research by an enrolled external student of an educational institution. Use under this grant of licence is subject to the following terms: the user does not change any of the material; the user will not use the names or logos of CSIRO or Griffith University without prior written consent; the user acknowledge that information contained in the work is subject to the usual uncertainties of advanced scientific and technical research; that it may not be accurate, current or complete; that it should never be relied on as the basis for doing or failing to do something; and that in using the Work for any business or scientific purpose you agree to accept all risks and responsibility for losses, damages, costs and other consequences resulting directly or indirectly from so using. To the maximum extent permitted by law, CSIRO and Griffith University exclude all liability to any person arising directly or indirectly from using the Work or any other information from this website.

The work is to be attributed as: Fitcher, K., Stasinopoulos, P., Hargroves, K., Smith, M., Dunphy, D. and Benn, S. (2010) Factor 5: Information and Communication Technologies Online Sector Study, The Natural Edge Project, Australia.

The Work was produced by The Natural Edge Project through a research grant provided by CSIRO. The development of this work has been supported by the contribution of non-staff related on-costs and administrative support by the Urban research Program at Griffith University, under the supervision of Professor Brendan Gleeson, and both the Fenner School of Environment and Society and Engineering Department at the Australian National University, under the supervision of Professor Stephen Dovers.

Project Leader: Mr Karlson ‘Charlie’ Hargroves, Research Fellow, Griffith University Principle Researcher: Mr Michael Smith, Research Fellow, Australian National University Research Officers: Ms Cheryl Desha, and Mr Peter Stasinopoulos (Griffith University) Copy Editor: Mrs Stacey Hargroves, TNEP Professional Editor, Griffith University Graphics: Where original graphics have been enhanced for inclusion in the document this work has been carried out by Mr Peter Stasinopoulos and Mr Roger Dennis.



Online Industry Sector Study – Information and Communication Technologies

1) The Potential for Factor 5 Improvements in ICT Resource Productivity

The following part was co-authored by Klaus Fichter, Peter Stasinopoulos, Charlie Hargroves and Michael Smith.

Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) are continuously making astounding progress in technical efficiency and performance. The space, material and energy needed to provide a unit of ICT service have decreased by three orders of magnitude1 (Factor 1000) since the first PC, the Apple II, was sold in 1977. For this reason there are high expectations in regard to the contribution of ICT to continue to reduce its own impacts, and to further support significant energy and resource productivity improvements across our economies in the coming decades. For example the European Commission reflected in 2008 that, ‘…the continued growth of the European economy … needs to be decoupled from energy consumption … ICTs have an important role to play in reducing the energy intensity and increasing the energy efficiency of the economy’.2

Based on more than a decade of intensive research and a vast array of studies on the effects of ICT on environmental sustainability

Here, as in many other such documents, ICT is automatically assumed to be ‘part of the solution’ to environmental sustainability. However, from the viewpoint of environmental sustainability the reality is that ICT is simply a platform that can be seen as both part of the solution, and part of the problem. For example, depending on how ICT is used it can either, improve energy productivity and reduce environmental pressures (such as motor control systems reducing industrial energy consumption), or improve the efficiency of activities that increase energy consumption and pressure on the environment (such as energy intensive forms of industrial processes and civil infrastructure). Hence the key question to address is, ‘what is needed to ensure that the potential contribution of ICT to assist society to achieve Factor 5 improvements in the coming decades is realised?’

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− First order (or direct) effects - such as the direct impacts on industries and society that result from both the ability to significantly reduce transaction times, or ‘make more with less’, on the solutions side, and also from the direct environmental impacts of the ‘production, use and end-of-life treatment’ of ICT hardware itself (including personal computers and peripherals, telecoms

it has become apparent that the core of the answer to this question lies in the types of institutional frameworks and market conditions in place. Meaning that the frameworks and conditions established at both the macro level (by environmental and innovation policies, and market preferences), and on the micro and meso level (by design standards, operating protocols and management systems), can decide whether the ecologically positive or negative effects of ICT will prevail. Furthermore, in developing appropriate frameworks and conditions that will influence the application of ICT, it is important to distinguish between the various levels of effects, specifically:

1 Hilty, L.M. (2008) Information Technology and Sustainability, Essays on the Relationship between Information Technology and Sustainable Development, Books on Demand GmbH, Norderstedt/Germany, p13. 2 European Commission (2008) Addressing the challenge of energy efficiency through Information and Communication Technologies, Commission of the European Communities,,p2, http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/activities/sustainable_growth/docs/com_2008_241_1_en.pdf, accessed 3 March 2009. 3 The Climate Group (2008) SMART 2020: Enabling the low carbon economy in the information age, A report by the Climate Group on behalf of the Global eSustainability Initiative (GeSI); Hilty, L.M. (2008) Information Technology and Sustainability, Essays on the Relationship be-tween Information Technology and Sustainable Development, Books on Demand GmbH, Norderstedt/Germany; World Wide Fund for Nature (2008) The potential global CO2 reductions from ICT use: Identifying and assessing the opportunities to reduce the first billion tonnes of CO2, WWF Sweden, Solna, Sweden; Fichter, K. and Clausen, J. (2008) Resource Efficiency Potentials of Thin Client & Server Based Computing, Discussion Paper for the German Federal Ministry for the Environment and Federal Environment Agency, Berlin; Fichter, K. and Clausen, J. (2008) Energy Efficient Data Centres. Best Practice Examples from Europe, the USA and Asia, Berlin, A report commissioned by the German Federal Ministry for the Environment; Kuhndt, M., von Geibler, J. and Herrndorf, M. (2006) Assessing the ICT Sector Contribution to the Millennium Development Goals. Status quo analysis of sustainability information for the ICT sector, Wuppertal Report No. 3; Erdmann, L., Hilty, L.M., Goodman, J. and Arnfalk, P. (2004) ‘The Future of ICT on Environmental Sustainability’, IPTS Technical Report Series, EUR 21384 EN, European Commission JRC-IPTS, Sevilla.

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networks and devices, and data centres), such as the energy consumption, pollution and hazardous waste production, materials consumption, and end-of-life waste issues (especially e-waste) on the problem side.

− Second order (or in-direct) effects - such as the effects that result from the use of ICT across society (including dematerialisation by teleworking, e-billing etc., smart grids, buildings, logistics, motors and industrial processes), from both optimising the energy productivity of various processes and infrastructure, known as ‘optimisation effects’, and substituting and enhancing the value of resource intensive and low-value processes and infrastructure with ICT, known as ‘substitution effects’, on the positive side; however creating a demand for more resources as a result of using ICT, known as ‘induction effects’, on the problem side.

− Third order (or systemic) effects - which comprise the medium and long term effects on the behaviour of society, and on economic and institutional structures, through the use of ICT. These include changes in behaviour and processes to reduce consumption toward ‘dematerialising’ society, on the solution side, and changes in behaviours to increase overall consumption, known as ‘rebound effects’, on the problem side.

A significant example of a first order effect is that of end-of-life treatment of e-Waste. Worldwide, 20 to 50 million tons of e-waste are generated annually,4 with 75-80 per cent of end-of-life computers being land filled.5 Waste electrical and electronic equipment imposes a substantial strain on waste management and the environment. In 2008, it is estimated that 302 million computers were sold worldwide,6 bringing the total number of computers in use to more than 1 billion after 27 years.7 It is estimated that 2 billion computers will be in use by as soon as 2015, with 775 million of the new computers arising in Brazil, Russia, India and China.8 E-waste is the fastest growing component of municipal trash streams, growing three times faster than any other type of waste in the European Union.9

Another significant first order effect is the amount of water used by a data centre’s cooling towers to manage the heat produced from servers. Miller points out that, ‘The heat from large data centres’ servers is managed through cooling towers, where hot waste water from the data centre is cooled, with the heat being removed through evaporation.’

10 According to James Hamilton, a data centre designer and researcher at Amazon.com, a 15-megawatt data centre can use up to 1.37 mega-litres of water a day,11 and space cooling accounts for as much as 70 per cent of all non-IT related energy consumption in data centres.12

4 United Nations Environment Program (2006) Basel Conference Addresses Electronic Wastes Challenge, United Nations Environment Program,

Thus there is a significant correlation between energy and water use for cooling servers in data-centres. Given this strong nexus, reducing space cooling

www.unep.org/Documents.Multilingual/Default.asp?DocumentID=485&ArticleID=5431&l=en, accessed 30 July 2008. 5 Bingermann, M. (2008) ‘Your broken computer is in China’s garbage dump’, CRN magazine, June, www.crn.com.au/Feature/4665,your-broken-computer-is-in-china%E2%80%99s-garbage-dump.aspx, accessed 30 June 2008; Environment Victoria (2005) Environmental report card on computers 2005: computer waste in Australia and the case for producer responsibility, Environment Victoria, p6, www.envict.org.au/file/Ewaste_report_card.pdf, accessed 12 June 2008. 6 IDC (2008) ‘PC Market Is Expected To Continue Double-Digit Growth Despite Increasing Economic Concerns, According to IDC’, IDC Press Release, www.idc.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=prUS21138308, accessed 30 July 2008. 7 Forrester (2007) ‘Forrester: One Billion PCs in Use by the End of 2008’, Forrester Press Release, www.forrester.com/ER/Press/Release/0,1769,1151,00.html, accessed 30 July 2008. 8 Forrester (2007) ‘Forrester: One Billion PCs in Use by the End of 2008’, Forrester Press Release. 9 Europa (2005) ‘Questions & Answers on EU Policies on Electric and Electronic Waste’, Europa Press Release, europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=MEMO/05/248&type=HTML&aged=0&language=EN&guiLanguage=en, accessed 30 July 2008. 10 Miller, R. (2009) ‘Data Centers Move to Cut Water Waste’, DataCentre Knowledge, http://www.datacenterknowledge.com/archives/2009/04/09/data-centers-move-to-cut-water-waste/, accessed 22 April 2009. 11 Miller, R. (2009) ‘Data Centers Move to Cut Water Waste’, DataCentre Knowledge. 12 Google (undated) ‘Efficient Computing – Step 2: Efficient Data Centres’, www.google.com/corporate/green/datacenters/step2.html, accessed 30 March 2009.

http://www.unep.org/Documents.Multilingual/Default.asp?DocumentID=485&ArticleID=5431&l=en�

http://www.crn.com.au/Feature/4665,your-broken-computer-is-in-china%E2%80%99s-garbage-dump.aspx�

http://www.envict.org.au/file/Ewaste_report_card.pdf�

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loads, through better design, will also reduce the amount of water needed to cool data-centres, and this energy-water nexus will be explored further in this sector study.

This brings us to the most significant impact of this sector, an issue which covers all three levels of effect - that of greenhouse gas emissions. A study commissioned by the European Commission in 2004 investigated a range of frameworks and conditions for ICT use and found that, depending on the assumptions the application of ICT could result in as much as a 30 per cent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions under conditions generally conducive to environmental protection, or up to a 32 per cent increase in emissions under the least favourable conditions.13 In 2007, the total global greenhouse gas emissions from ICT hardware (first order) was estimated to be 0.83 GtCO2e, about 2 per cent of the estimated total emissions from human activity released that year.14 At the same time ICT could reduce emissions across society (second order) by at least 7.8 GtCO2e by 2020, from an assumed total of 51.9 GtCO2e if we remain on a ‘business-as-usual’ trajectory.15 Hence by combining the first order strategy of improving the resource efficiency of ICT products, with the second order strategy of smart use of ICT to reduce the global greenhouse gas emissions and resource use, there is significant potential to assist society to reduce its pressures on the environment. However, such efforts to use ICT need to be part of a whole system approach rather than applied to individual components. For instance, as Figure 3.14 shows, ICT applications have the potential to significantly increase the amount of freight by trucking, which as the sector study on trucking in this book shows, would lead to significant increases in fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emissions, and thus efforts should also be focused on the broader freight system involving alternatives to trucking including rail and shipping.

Figure 3.14: Simulated development of environmental indicators by 2020 (Note: ‘ICT freeze’ scenarios refer to the assumption that ICT applications remain at the same level as in 2000)

Source: Provided by Klaus Fichter, based on results of Erdmann et al. (2004)16

13 Erdmann, L., Hilty, L., Goodman, J. and Arnfalk, P. (2004) ‘The Future of ICT on Environmental Sustainability’, IPTS Technical Report Series, EUR 21384 EN, European Commission JRC-IPTS, Sevilla. 14 The Climate Group (2008) SMART 2020: Enabling the low carbon economy in the information age, A report by the Climate Group on behalf of the Global eSustainability Initiative (GeSI), p2/17. 15 The Climate Group (2008), pp3 and 29. 16 Erdmann, L., Hilty, L., Goodman, J. and Arnfalk, P. (2004) ‘The Future of ICT on Environmental Sustainability’, IPTS Technical Report Series, EUR 21384 EN, European Commission JRC-IPTS, Sevilla.



Hence the application of ICT needs to be carefully considered. As the Swedish Governments forum for IT and environmental issues cautioned, ‘Capitalising on IT development so that it contributes to sustainable development is an enormous challenge, and we must not underestimate the extent of the work ahead. However, the gravity of the situation makes it all the more imperative to promptly initiate structured efforts to utilise the existing opportunities’.17 Increasingly, businesses are relying on the latest IT technologies, e-business applications and mobile technologies to improve competitiveness.18 However, without in-house expertise or facilities, these tools and strategies also complicate and increase the cost of IT asset management, adding substantial cost and increase system downtime.19 A solution for many companies is outsourcing the procurement, maintenance and upgrading of IT products and services, or even the operation of the entire IT business function, which can also free up human and financial resources while streamlining the business structure. Besides single hardware and software-related issues like the miniaturisation of user peripherals like mini-PCs and thin clients, or the improved energy efficiency of servers20 and data centres, the most promising opportunity focuses on a whole system approach to providing ICT services by combining these advances.21

In such an approach, sometimes referred to as an IT product service system,

22

17 Pamlin, D. and Thorslund, E. (2004) IT and Sustainable Development – a Central Issue for the Future, IT Forum Miljo,

IT vendors usually maintain ownership and responsibility for the products, and as such have a strong incentive to optimise energy and materials productivity in order to maximise profits. In many applications, IT product service systems are well served by a thin client and server architecture, which involves the provision of scaled down peripheral/user interfaces that do not carry onboard many typical PC components such as hard disks, disk drives or graphics capabilities, nor do they require high-power processors, as the services of these components are located in centralised facilities, mostly offsite. The combination of IT product service systems with thin clients and servers can profitably cover all three orders of effect, in that it allows the combination of positive first order effects (highly efficient thin clients reducing e-waste generation and making recycling more efficient through standardised systems), with second order effects (reducing the energy demand for computing overall), and hence provides a strong platform for a range of industries, businesses and government organisations to move towards structural change (positive third-order-effects). New resource efficient computer solutions such as this offer many advantages for users and administrators, and can be very cost effective compared to typical desktop PC systems.

However, the uptake of such a system is very low and their dissemination – from the large organisations, such as banks, state revenue offices and health insurance companies, where they are already in use to a certain extent, out to the smaller organisations – is slow. There are a number of reasons for this:

assets.panda.org/downloads/itsustainabledev.pdf, accessed 3 April 2009. 18 Lane, J.C. (2001) ‘Leasing can Maximize IT strategies’, Financial Executive, June, www.allbusiness.com/technology/790816-1.html, accessed 10 June 2008. 19 Lane, J.C. (2001) ‘Leasing can Maximize IT strategies’, Financial Executive, June, www.allbusiness.com/technology/790816-1.html, accessed 10 June 2008; Macquarie Group (undated) ‘Equipment life-cycle management’, www.macquarie.com/uk/electronics/equipment.htm, accessed 12 July 2008; Vosicky, J.J. (1992) ‘Capturing the benefits of high-tech leasing’, Financial Executive, July-August, www.allbusiness.com/technology/computer-software-management/332405-1.html, accessed 10 June 2008; Melvin James quoted in Davey, N. (n.d.) ‘Service with a smile’, CXO EU Edition, Issue 162, www.cxo.eu.com/currentissue/article.asp?art=26646&issue=162, accessed 10 June 2008. 20 Fichter, K. and Clausen, J. (2008) Energy Efficient Data Centres. Best Practice Examples from Europe, the USA and Asia, Berlin, A report commissioned by the German Federal Ministry for the Environment. 21 Fichter, K. and Clausen, J. (2008) Resource Efficiency Potentials of Thin Client & Server Based Computing, Discussion Paper for the German Federal Ministry for the Environment and Federal Environment Agency, Berlin. 22 For further description of product service systems refer to: Stasinopoulos, P., Hargroves, K., Smith, M., Desha, C. and Hargroves, S. (2008) Sustainable IT: Reducing Carbon Footprint and Materials Waste in the IT Environment, The Natural Edge Project (TNEP), Australia, www.naturaledgeproject.net/SustainableIT.aspx, accessed 2 March 2009.

http://assets.panda.org/downloads/itsustainabledev.pdf�

http://www.allbusiness.com/technology/790816-1.html�

http://www.allbusiness.com/technology/790816-1.html�

http://www.macquarie.com/uk/electronics/equipment.htm�

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http://www.cxo.eu.com/currentissue/article.asp?art=26646&issue=162�

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− Product service systems that utilise data centres and minimal client peripherals (such as mini-PC’s or thin clients) are quite a shift in technology and product, and will challenge enterprises that rely on the ongoing sales of PC based systems.

− Customers and vendors often have a low level of understanding of the concepts of the new system,23

− There are large number of uncertainties involved in the new system, including service availability and response time, security, scalability, service monitoring, service composition, vendor overhead, structural changes, customisation, exit provision, redistribution of responsibility, integration, immature economics and switching costs.

and, as users are culturally accustomed to PCs, the lack of skills required to advise and equip customers slows the system’s uptake.

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Often in such a system, rather than clients buying a bulk order of PCs upfront and then requiring ongoing service from the vendor, the vendor carries the high costs associated with the data centre and distribution of peripherals while customers reimburse over time as the service is received. As the systems approach to ICT is quite new there are also several legislative and regulatory barriers to negotiate, such as: ensuring violations are avoided;

25 international regulations and treaties;26 customs procedures;27 reporting requirements; waste handling restrictions; finance and tax issues;28 and the variety of payment systems imposed by different governments who mandate equipment take-back.29

23 Vassiliadis, B., Stefani, A., Tsaknakis, J. and Tsakalidis, A. (2006) ‘From application service provision to service-oriented computing: A study of the IT outsourcing evolution’, Telematics and Informatics, vol 23, no 4, pp271-293.

24 Stasinopoulos, P., Hargroves, K., Smith, M., Desha, C. and Hargroves, S. (2008) Sustainable IT: Reducing Carbon Footprint and Materials Waste in the IT Environment, The Natural Edge Project (TNEP), Australia, www.naturaledgeproject.net/SustainableIT.aspx, accessed 2 March 2009. 25 Vassiliadis, B., Stefani, A., Tsaknakis, J. and Tsakalidis, A. (2006) ‘From application service provision to service-oriented computing: A study of the IT outsourcing evolution’, Telematics and Informatics, vol 23, no 4, pp271-293. 26 Vassiliadis, B., Stefani, A., Tsaknakis, J. and Tsakalidis, A. (2006) ‘From application service provision to service-oriented computing: A study of the IT outsourcing evolution’, Telematics and Informatics, vol 23, no 4, pp271-293. 27 Vassiliadis, B., Stefani, A., Tsaknakis, J. and Tsakalidis, A. (2006) ‘From application service provision to service-oriented computing: A study of the IT outsourcing evolution’, Telematics and Informatics, vol 23, no 4, pp271-293. 28 Degher, A. (2002) ‘HP’s worldwide take back and recycling programs: lessons on improving program implementation’, 2002 IEEE International Symposium on Electronics and the Environment, 6-9 May 2002, pp224-227. 29 Hewlett-Packard Development Company (2006) ‘Real consumer cost for electronic equipment recycling as low as 1 Eruo cent’, HP News Release, www.hp.com/hpinfo/globalcitizenship/environment/pdf/nr_costofrecycling.pdf?jumpid=reg_R1002_USEN, accessed 3 March 2009.

http://www.hp.com/hpinfo/globalcitizenship/environment/pdf/nr_costofrecycling.pdf?jumpid=reg_R1002_USEN�



Table 3.3: Uncertainties in product service systems and their causes

Uncertainty Factor Cause Technological Service availability and

response time Internet connections

Security Sharing of client’s data with the vendor, and transfer of sensitive data over a network

Scalability Lack of vendor’s expertise Organizational/ Social/ Cultural

Service monitoring Lack of valid performance monitoring mechanisms

Socio-political legitimacy Laws and standards have not been established Service composition Coordination amongst vendors Vendor overhead Multiple customers sharing the same services Structural changes Role changes for IT department management

personnel within customer company Customisation ‘One size fits all’ failed, lack of focus Exit provision Lack of reliable exit provision agreements

Redistribution of responsibility

Large dependence on the vendor

Economic Integration High cost to integrate with legacy applications Immature economics Inflexible pricing models/offers Switching costs Costs for adopting IT outsourcing

Source: Vassiliadis, B. et al (2006)30

30 Vassiliadis, B., Stefani, A., Tsaknakis, J. and Tsakalidis, A. (2006) ‘From application service provision to service-oriented computing: A study of the IT outsourcing evolution’, Telematics and Informatics, vol 23, no 4, pp271-293.

In short, ‘greening’ a computer - meaning that it is made smaller, more energy-efficient, and less polluting, with equal or better functionality - alone does not yet spell much ecological improvement. The reason is that efficiency gains per unit can be quickly overcome by the increase in the use of such units, resulting in an overall increase in environmental pressures. In order to deliver an overall positive effect the use of computers in our society, not just the technology, needs to be redesigned and optimised to be highly resource efficient. The example of product service systems combined with thin clients and servers outlined above provides a tangible solution to providing a growing market with computer services while at the same time significantly reducing the overall environmental pressures. The diffusion of such systems faces substantial barriers, with the challenge, then, to provide information, build lighthouse projects, establish diffusion networks, sensitize the non-IT trade publications to the issue, and ensure education and training for commercial and system companies.



Best Practice Case Study - Thin Clients and Server Based Computing

The following case study on thin clients was contributed on invitation from the Authors by Klaus Fichter, and edited by the Authors.

A ‘thin client’ is a terminal in a computer network that only provides the basic function of allowing data transfer in and out of the workstation. As such, the thin client acts only as a controlled gateway to a central networked server, and starts its operating system either via a flash card or via the network, where all its application programs are located. Many thin clients are equipped with a smart card reader for the purpose of security and the authentication of users. As products, thin clients are available either as a paperback-sized device (see Figure 3.15), or completely integrated into the monitor. Life cycle assessments have shown that thin client solutions provide considerable economic and ecological advantages over typical desktop PCs. For example, the power requirement of a thin client is less than half that of a comparable PC system (approx. 340 kWh/y for a PC and 160 kWh/y for a thin client and server combination).31 In addition, thin clients contribute considerably to material and resource savings, since their mass is only 27-31 per cent of the mass of a comparable PC. On average, a thin client contains 2.5 kg of components, while a PC contains 10 kg, however, it is expected that the weight advantage of thin clients could decrease from 7.5 kg in 2008 to 4.5 kg by 2020. Use of thin client solutions since the end of the nineties has not only shown that the systems are usable in practice in both the private sector and in public administrations, but also that the operating costs when combined with a server or data centre are considerably less than those of comparable PC-based systems, and that they can result in savings of up to 60 per cent.32 Other advantages of thin client computing include space savings due to smaller equipment, reduced disturbance related to downtime, less time loss for start-ups, less heat generated at work stations and lower noise levels. In addition, the administrative overhead for thin client systems is considerably less than that of conventional networked PC systems.

Figure 3.16: Reduction potentials with thin client workstation equipment, as compared with comparable PC uses

Source: Provided by Klaus Fichter, based on Prangenberg (2007),33

The following table shows estimates for Western Europe (EU plus Switzerland and Norway) of the material and energy savings potentials for thin client and server based applications to be a substitute for typical desktop PC systems. The table shows material savings via thin client computing of approx. 28,500 tons in 2010, rising to approximately 60,000 tons in 2020. The sum

based on data from Fraunhofer UMSICHT 2006.

31 Fraunhofer Institut Umwelt-, Sicherheits-, Energietechnik UMSICHT (2006) Ökologischer Vergleich von PC und Thin Client Arbeitsplatzgeräten, Oberhausen. 32 Prangenberg, M. (2007) Energie- & Kostensparen mit Thin Clients – Praxiserfahrungen bei einem Finanzdienstleister, Commerz Real AG, Vortragsfolien, BITKOM Anwenderforum „IT-Infrastruktur and Energieeffizienz“ am 22.11.2007 in Düsseldorf. 33 Prangenberg, M. (2007) Energie- & Kostensparen mit Thin Clients – Praxiserfahrungen bei einem Finanzdienstleister, Commerz Real AG, Vortragsfolien, BITKOM Anwenderforum „IT-Infrastruktur and Energieeffizienz“ am 22.11.2007 in Düsseldorf.



total of material savings via new thin clients coming onto the market every year amounts to a ‘computer mass’ of approx. 290,000 tons for the period from 2005 through 2020. There are also considerable reduction potentials in the energy area.

The annual energy savings via newly sold thin clients will be almost 208 GWh by 2010, and this figure will rise to more than 1,000 GWh by 2020. However, since the equipment is not used only in the year in which it is bought, but as a rule will be used throughout its six-year life span, the energy savings of all thin clients installed at the same time as substitutes for desktop PCs in Western Europe will be 700 GWh by 2010. The annual energy savings via thin client computing will then rise to over 4 TWh per annum by 2020. The energy savings also affect the reduction of CO2 emissions. Thus, thin client applications in Western Europe will contribute to a reduction in CO2 emissions of approx. 400,000 tons by 2010, and the annual reduction potential will increase to over 2 million tons p.a. by 2020.

Table 3.6: Resource efficiency potentials by thin client applications for Western Europe

2005 2010 2015 2020 Sales figures, Western Europe

- Desktop PCs 25,947,473 30,000,000 25,748,332 19,923,568

- Portable PCs 18,687,374 38,000,000 47,126,177 54,632,156

- Thin clients (TCs) 885,732 1,442,682 5,317,005 16,096,567

Total number of computer terminals (PCs and TCs) 45,520,579 69,442,682 78,191,514 90,652,290

Number of desktop PCs substituted by TCs 265,720 1,154,146 4,253,604 12,877,253

Material saving per subst. desktop PC, in kg 7.50 7.00 6.00 4.50

Material saving of all subst. desktop PCs, in tons 1,993 8,079 25,522 57,948

Total material savings, in tons 1,993 28,539 94,416 290,126

Energy savings per subst. desktop PC p.a., in kWh/a 180 180 130 80

Energy savings of all subst. desktop PCs p.a., in MWh/a 47,830 207,746 552,968 1,030,180

Energy savings by all TCs currently in use which have replaced desktop PCs, assuming 6-year life spans 698,791 1,717,256 4,284,896

Emission factor of electricity generation, in g CO2 eq/kWh 600 550 500 450 Reduction in CO2 emissions p.a., in tons 28,698 114,260 276,484 463,581 Reduction in CO2 emissions p.a. in tons, total for 6-year life span 28,698 396,168 890,565 2,017,689

Source: Fichter and Clausen (2008)34

The low cost, energy efficiency and manageability of thin client and server based computing makes them attractive options for large scale deployment in developing and transitioning countries. For example, the world’s largest thin client deployment is taking place in schools throughout Brazil. The system will provide 356,800 workstations at a cost of less than US$50 each (excluding monitors and keyboards), and up to ten workstations will be serviced by a single PC server. Compared to providing individual PCs, the system will save the Brazilian government about 60 per cent in capital costs and 80 per cent in power consumption, as well as preventing up to 80 per cent in e-waste and the release of 170,000 tons of carbon dioxide emissions annually, the equivalent emissions as from 28,000 cars.

35

34 Fichter, K. and Clausen, J. (2008) Energy Efficient Data Centres. Best Practice Examples from Europe, the USA and Asia, Berlin, A report commissioned by the German Federal Ministry for the Environment. 35 Userful (2009) ‘Userful and ThinNetworks Announce the World's Largest Desktop Virtualization Deployment - 356,800 Green Workstations’, Userful Press Release, Calgary, Canada, and Brasilia, Brazil, www2.userful.com/company/linux-desktop-virtualization, accessed 25 March 2009.

http://www2.userful.com/company/linux-desktop-virtualization�



2) A Whole System Approach to Factor 5 in Data Centres

The following part was co-authored by Peter Stasinopoulos, Charlie Hargroves and Michael Smith with a contribution from Dexter Dunphy and Suzanne Benn.

According to McKinsey and Company, data centres around the world consume almost 0.5 per cent of global electricity production and as a result, in 2007, produced 170 Mt of carbon dioxide.36 Data centres in developed countries consume a higher than average proportion of electricity – i.e. in the US in 2006 the energy consumed was 1.5 per cent higher than the average consumption worldwide.37 According to the US EPA, during peak times, these US data centres require the energy of 15 power plants. While this proportion appears relatively small compared to other industry sectors, data centres are one of the fastest growing energy consumers, with total consumption doubling between 2000 and 200638 and projected to grow faster than that of any other technology due to demand for data storage and the services of volume servers.39 If energy productivity trends continue, data centre energy consumption in the USA could nearly double again by 2011, producing a peak load that would require an additional 10 power plants.40 Also, in Germany41 the electric power consumption from over 68,000 data centres and server rooms represents 1.8 per cent of the overall energy consumption (some 10 TWh costing €1.1 billion42), and equivalent to four medium-sized coal power stations. In China and other developing countries, data centre energy consumption is projected to grow even faster.43

1. Business-as-usual Scenario: The business-as-usual scenario describes a situation in which those trends towards more efficiency (server virtualisation etc.) which are already operating will continue, but in which no additional efficiency measures would be adopted by the state, the IT manufacturers, or the operators of data centres. In this case, the power consumption of German data centres would rise from 10.1 TWh to 14.86 TWh during the period between 2008 and 2013, a 47 per cent increase in power consumption. Under this scenario, the costs for electric power for German data centres would double to €2.2 billion (US$2.9 billion) by 2013.

Despite technology innovation in energy productivity in the sector, worldwide carbon dioxide emissions from data centres will still increase to 670 Mt by 2020, surpassing that of the airline industry.

When considering how the electric power consumption of data centres will develop in the future, Klaus Fichter, considers three scenarios for Germany, shown in Figure 3.17:

2. Moderate-efficiency-increase Scenario: If, on the other hand, additional efficiency measures were to be implemented by business and the state, and some of the best-practice solutions

36 McKinsey and Company (2008) ‘Revolutionizing Data Centre Efficiency’, presentation, Green Enterprise Computing: Capitalizing on Current Opportunities and Exploring Future Trends in Energy Efficiency, 27-30 April 2008, Orlando, California, USA, McKinsey and Company, uptimeinstitute.org/content/view/168/57, accessed 30 March 2009. 37 US EPA Energy Star Program (2007) Report to Congress on Server and Data Center Energy Efficiency – Public Law 109-431, US Environmental Protection Agency and US Department of Energy, p7, www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?c=prod_development.server_efficiency, accessed 8 October 2008. 38 McKinsey and Company (2008) ‘Revolutionizing Data Centre Efficiency’, presentation, Green Enterprise Computing: Capitalizing on Current Opportunities and Exploring Future Trends in Energy Efficiency, 27-30 April 2008, Orlando, California, USA, uptimeinstitute.org/content/view/168/57, accessed 30 March 2009; US EPA Energy Star Program (2007) Report to Congress on Server and Data Center Energy Efficiency – Public Law 109-431, US Environmental Protection Agency and US Department of Energy, p7, www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?c=prod_development.server_efficiency, accessed 8 October 2008. 39 McKinsey and Company cited in Augustine, A. (2009) ‘The Sustainable Data Centre’, GovernmentIT, January, pp14-15. 40 US EPA Energy Star Program (2007) Report to Congress on Server and Data Center Energy Efficiency – Public Law 109-431, US Environmental Protection Agency and US Department of Energy, p7, www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?c=prod_development.server_efficiency, accessed 8 October 2008. 41 Fichter, K. and Clausen, J. (2008) Energy Efficient Data Centres: Best Practice Examples from Europe, the USA and Asia, Berlin, A report commissioned by the German Federal Ministry for the Environment. 42 According to calculations by the Borderstep Institute, power prices (without VAT) have been corrected for inflation and indexed to 2000, The calculation e.g. for 2008 was based on a power price of €0.11/KWh, which industry experts assumed to apply to computer centres, on average. 43 McKinsey and Company (2008) ‘Revolutionizing Data Centre Efficiency’, presentation at the Uptime Institute Symposium: Green Enterprise Computing, McKinsey and Company, uptimeinstitute.org/content/view/168/57, accessed 30 March 2009.

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already available today were adopted by at least half of all data centres, a reduction in electricity consumption of about 10 per cent would be possible. If this moderate-efficiency-increase scenario were to be implemented, the electric power consumption of German data centres would drop to 9.14 TWh by 2013.

3. Green-IT Scenario: Assuming that the best energy efficiency technologies and solutions available today were to be broadly implemented through massive efforts - i.e. within approx. 90 per cent of all data centres - electric power consumption by servers and the computer centre infrastructure would drop to 6.65 TWh by 2013. In the case of this green-IT scenario, the electricity consumption of data centres would drop by almost 40 per cent within only five years, despite a continuous rise in computer and storage capacities. Under this scenario, the expenditures for electricity would in fact drop significantly in absolute terms, to €998 million (US$1.3 billion), despite a further rise in the price of electric power in 2013.

The differences between ‘business-as-usual’ and the concerted adoption of additional energy efficiency measures – or ‘green-IT’ – are considerable. The total difference between the two future options for the period from 2009 through 2013 amounts to potential savings for the operators of computer centres in Germany of €3.6 billion (US$4.7 billion) in expenditures for electricity within only five years, if they were to broadly implement efficiency solutions which are already available and viable, despite further increases in the price of electricity.

Figure 3.17: The electric power consumption of data centres in Germany

Source: Provided by Klaus Fitcher44

Up until the mid-2000’s, data centre innovation was mainly focused on increasing processing performance while managing heat load. In fact, between 1999 and 2006, processing performance increased by 75 times while performance per watt increased by only 16 times.

45

44 Fichter, Klaus; Clausen, Jens (2008): Energy Efficient Data Centres. Best Practice Examples from Europe, the U.S.A and Asia, Berlin, A report commissioned by the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, p. 8. 45 Augustine, A. (2009) ‘The Sustainable Data Centre’, GovernmentIT, January, pp14-15.

However, increasing server density has led to major challenges in managing heat load, which, together with the projected increase in data centre demand, has provided an incentive for the industry to develop



innovative energy productivity measures. In fact, the industry has found ample opportunities for Factor 5 productivity improvements per IT service delivered. Some of the most significant improvements arise from lifting operating load from an average of 5-15 per cent for IT equipment,46 and 50-60 per cent for non-IT equipment to about 80 per cent each.47 For IT equipment, this improvement is achieved mainly through server consolidation and virtualisation and also through more efficient equipment. For non-IT equipment (mainly cooling and power supply), which currently consumes as much energy as the IT equipment itself,48 this improvement is achieved through a variety of measures that provide sufficiently cool air and liquid that flow optimally around IT equipment, and through reducing the number or power supplies. Many of these opportunities were recognised as early as 2003 in a 3-day data centre design charrette convened by Rocky Mountain Institute, which concluded that data centre energy productivity could be improved by 89 per cent through advanced technologies and concepts, most of which are now becoming widely applied.49 In 2007, the US EPA concluded that, compared to 2006, existing and emerging technologies could still reduce data centre energy consumption by about 45 per cent by 2011, whereas maintaining current productivity trends would increase energy consumption by 76 per cent.50 A 2008 follow-up investigation by the Silicon Valley Leadership Group found that some US data centres were progressing inline with the US EPA’s projection and many more were approaching the projection.51 Achieving these large energy productivity improvements are usually very cost effective, as evidenced by a review of energy-efficiency improvements in 36 data centres of a telecommunications company.52 The review showed that the total capital investment of about US$500,000 reduced operating energy costs by more than US$2 million per year.

Google is one such company progressing inline with the EPA’s projections. Google answers half of the world’s Internet search queries - some 37 billion queries answered in August 2007 alone, with Yahoo coming in next with 8.5 billion.

Case Study: Google

53 Each answer uses about 0.3 Wh of energy, which is less energy than a typical PC would use while its user makes the query.54 Google achieves such high energy productivity through efficient data centre design, with its servers achieving high energy productivity through a variety of measures.55

46 McKinsey and Company (2008) ‘Revolutionizing Data Centre Efficiency’, presentation at the Uptime Institute Symposium: Green Enterprise Computing, McKinsey and Company,

For example, electrical losses in delivering power to computer chips and memory are just 15 per cent (less than half the loss of a typical server) as a

uptimeinstitute.org/content/view/168/57, accessed 30 March 2009; Podvin, N. and Muller, A. (2009) Green Savings of a Virtual Infrastructure, version 1.0, AM3 Technologies, am3tech.com/papers/Green_Savings_Whitepaper.doc, accessed 1 April 2009. 47 McKinsey and Company (2008) ‘Revolutionizing Data Centre Efficiency’, presentation at the Uptime Institute Symposium: Green Enterprise Computing, McKinsey and Company, p17, uptimeinstitute.org/content/view/168/57, accessed 30 March 2009. 48 Eubank, H., Swisher, J., Burns, C., Seal, J. and Emerson, B. (2003) Design recommendations for high-performance Data Centers, Rocky Mountain Institute, Snowmass, Colorado, p15; Lawrence Berkley National Laboratory cited in US EPA Energy Star Program (2007) Handout – Load Density, US Environmental Protection Agency and US Department of Energy, p7, www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?c=prod_development.server_efficiency_study, accessed 8 October 2008; US EPA Energy Star Program (2007) EPA Report to Congress on Server and Data Center Energy Efficiency – Executive Summary, US Environmental Protection Agency and US Department of Energy, p4, www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?c=prod_development.server_efficiency, accessed 8 October 2008. 49 Eubank, H., Swisher, J., Burns, C., Seal, J. and Emerson, B. (2003) Design Recommendations for High-Performance Data Centers, Rocky Mountain Institute, Snowmass, Colorado, p14. 50 US EPA Energy Star Program (2007) Report to Congress on Server and Data Center Energy Efficiency – Public Law 109-431, US Environmental Protection Agency and US Department of Energy, p10, www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?c=prod_development.server_efficiency, accessed 8 October 2008. 51 Silicon Valley Leadership Group (2008) Data Center Energy Forecast Report, Silicon Valley Leadership Group and Accenture, microsite.accenture.com/svlgreport/Pages/Home.aspx, accessed 30 March 2009. 52 Lawrence Berkley National Laboratory (undated) ‘Data Centre Energy Management: Economics’, http://hightech.lbl.gov/DCTraining/economics.html, accessed 12 June 2008. 53 comScore (2007) ‘61 Billion Searches Conducted Worldwide in August: Google Ranks as Top Global Search Property’, comScore Press Release, www.comscore.com/press/release.asp?press=1802, accessed 4 April 2009. 54 Google (undated) ‘Efficient Computing: Introduction’, www.google.com/corporate/green/datacenters/index.html, accessed 30 March 2009. 55 Google (undated) ‘Efficient Computing: Step 1 - Efficient Servers’, www.google.com/corporate/green/datacenters/step1.html, accessed 30 March 2009.


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result of using efficient power supplies and efficient voltage regulator modules on motherboards. Unnecessary components, such as graphics chips, are omitted. Fan energy is minimised by running fans only as fast as required, and Google seeks to use components that operate efficiently across their whole operating range - a strategy that the company estimates could reduce data centre energy consumption by half. Google’s non-IT equipment in its data centres also achieve high energy productivity, consuming an average of only 19 per cent of the energy consumed by the IT equipment.56 This portion is more than a Factor of 5 times less than in a typical data centre. Google achieves a large portion of these energy savings through streamlining power supply and distribution circuits, including: redundant power supplies, a source of 10-20 per cent energy losses in a typical data centre; and using evaporative cooling rather than full-time refrigerated cooling to minimise the need to run chillers - the components that usually dominate cooling energy consumption.

Figure 3.18: Electricity Use

Source: Google57

Reducing the energy loads needed for cooling also reduces the amount of water needed in the cooling system. Google

58 has committed to using recycled water to meet 80 per cent of all water direct demand in its data centres by 2010. Data-centres do not need water at drinking water standards and thus instead can use recycled water and clean it to a standard suitable for cooling tower applications. As of the end of 2008, two of Google’s facilities use 100 per cent recycled water and a third such facility is being built in Belgium. The new facility will draw water from an industrial canal and treat it on-site before putting it to use in cooling towers as part of an evaporative cooling system.59

56 Google (undated) ‘Efficient Computing: Step 2 - Efficient Data Centres’,

A reason for selecting the Belgium site was access to the canal’s water. In other facilities,

www.google.com/corporate/green/datacenters/step2.html, accessed 30 March 2009. 57 Google (undated) ‘Efficient Computing: Introduction’, www.google.com/corporate/green/datacenters/index.html, accessed 30 March 2009. 58 Google (undated) ‘Efficient Computing: Step 3 - Water Management’, www.google.com/corporate/green/datacenters/step3.html, accessed 30 March 2009. 59 Google (undated) ‘Efficient Computing: Introduction’, www.google.com/corporate/green/datacenters/index.html, accessed 30 March 2009







Google plans to use different sources of recycled water, such as city wastewater and rain water collected on-site.60

Other major companies in this field such as Microsoft and Yahoo have also committed to achieving large energy and water savings in their data centres. Microsoft has committed to achieve 50-60 per cent energy reductions in all of its data centres by 2012,

61 while Yahoo has committed to becoming climate neutral.62 The EDS (Electronic Data Systems) Data Centre in Wynyard in the UK, shown in Figure 3.19, is one of the largest data centres in Europe, with an average capacity of 2,260 W/m2 in 8,100 m2 of technical space.63

According to the RMI Energy and Resources Team, the key design recommendations as part of the leading concept included:

The data centre is based on the concept that it should be both economically feasible and ecologically sustainable, called the ‘Eco2 Data Centre’ concept, developed by EDS in partnership with Rocky Mountain Institute from the United States. The development of the Eco2 Data Centre concept is another example of RMIs now internationally renowned ‘out-of-the-box’ style of innovation. Rather than adhering to conventional data centre designs, the design team searched throughout a range of other industries for ideas and technologies that could help the data centre deliver its services with both extremely high energy productivity and strong performance and operation.

64

− Replacing entry level servers with best-in-energy-class equipment.

− Consolidating entry level servers by removing unused equipment, rationalising applications and virtualising.

− Reducing electrical system uninterruptible power supply (UPS) redundancy.

− Replacing the static UPS system with a rotary hybrid system.

− Eliminating chillers by using an outside air economizer system with backup direct evaporative cooling.

− Replacing the raised floor with a mezzanine deck as the supporting structure for the IT equipment, providing flexibility, increased floor space and potential for a future liquid cooling system.

− Using supply and return air plenums instead of ducts.

− Pursuing a BREEAM-certified green building.

− Using a 10-15,000 SF pod system to populate the data centre, one fully-utilized pod at a time.

− Implementing hardware and software for measuring, monitoring, and displaying energy use, environmental variables, and server performance.

− Developing pricing systems based on client value, and financially rewarding both EDS and the client for efficiency and elimination of waste.

60 Google (undated) ‘Efficient Computing: Introduction’, www.google.com/corporate/green/datacenters/index.html, accessed 30 March 2009. 61 Bishop, T. (2009) ‘Microsoft aims for Dramatic Drop in its Data-Center Energy Usage’, TechFlash: Seatle’s News Service, www.techflash.com/microsoft/Microsoft_aims_for_dramatic_drop_in_its_data-center_energy_usage_42817632.html, accessed 22 April 2009. 62 Yahoo (2009) ‘Yahoo For Good: Climate Neutral ‘, http://forgood.yahoo.com/go_green/doing_our_part/carbon_neutral.html, accessed 22 April 2009. 63 Augustine, A. (2009) ‘The Sustainable Data Centre’, GovernmentIT, January, pp14-15; EDS (undated) ‘HP Data Centre Strategy – Final Thoughts’, presentation, Electronic Data Systems; EDS (2009) Personal communication with Electronic Data Systems, 23 February 2009. 64 Rocky Mountain Institute (undated) ‘EDS Data Center Design Workshop’, ert.rmi.org/case-studies/case-studies-list/case-studies/eds-data-center-design-workshop.html, accessed 31 March 2009.


http://forgood.yahoo.com/go_green/doing_our_part/carbon_neutral.html�

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− Creating an EDS-internal incentive structure (including metrics, measurement and incentives) to drive positive economic change.

Based on their findings the design team delivered a facility that is expected to use approximately 80 per cent less energy to deliver the same level of computational capacity per kilowatt as a conventional data centre. For instance, energy use is cut by 22 per cent alone by taking advantage of the mild local climate conditions to cool the IT equipment and electrical plant-rooms. The air is drawn into the data centre through eight 2.2m-diameter fans and ‘tuned’ by pressurised spray humidification, rather than humidification via steam generation, and cooling coils. The air is then circulated through the 5m-tall pressurised plenums in the floor, into the cold aisles of the data centre’s contained hot and cold aisle layout, across the IT equipment to absorb its heat, into the hot aisles, and then recirculated by a mixing chamber. The air is exhausted through another eight fans. Energy use is cut by an additional 5 per cent by using variable-speed in place of constant-speed fan and pump control, by an additional 3 per cent by using distributed redundant uninterruptible power supplies (UPSs) in a (3N/2) configuration in place of static double conversion UPSs in a 2(N+1) configuration, and by an additional fraction of a per cent by using low energy lighting and lighting control.

A particular focus of the design concept that RMI developed was to target each of the major energy consuming steps in the process, some of which typically have high energy losses as shown in Figure 3.20.

Figure 3.20: Energy Losses upstream from actual computational capacity

Source: Courtesy of Rocky Mountain Institute65

Compared to conventional data centres, Wynyard uses 98 per cent less energy for the cooling system, 50 per cent less for humidification, 98 per cent less for pumping, 57 per cent less for lighting, 33 per cent less in UPSs, and 62 per cent less for server fans.

65 Rocky Mountain Institute (undated) ‘Bringing the Next Generation Data Centres to EDS: Efficiency meets Fortune 500’, www.rmi.org/images/PDFs/NSC/ERT_Next_Generation_Data_Centers_1pager.pdf, accessed 1 April 2009.

http://www.rmi.org/images/PDFs/NSC/ERT_Next_Generation_Data_Centers_1pager.pdf�



IPCC Strategy One: Energy Efficiency Opportunities

This part will outline a range of measures and technologies that when combined can significantly reduce the energy consumption of data centres,66

Most data centres are grossly oversized to accommodate a capacity that will never be required. Adopting infrastructure architectures that can adapt to changing requirements (see Figure 3.21(a)) rather than oversized architectures (Figure 3.21(b)) prevents energy waste due to low IT equipment utilisation and excessive cooling load.

as demonstrated in the Wynyard Data Centre case study.

Infrastructure Architecture

67

(a) (b)

Figure 3.21: Comparing actual capacity and installed capacity in a data centre with (a) an adaptable infrastructure architecture, and (b) an oversized infrastructure architecture.

Source: Based on the findings of the American Power Conversion, as cited in Big Switch Projects (2004)68

The average server utilisation is in the range of 5-15 per cent.

Virtualisation and Consolidation 69 Incorporating virtualisation

technology allows multiple virtual servers to co-reside on a single server computer, lifting utilisation to 65 per cent or more70 and increasing server energy productivity by 25-30 per cent.71

66 For more detail see: Big Switch Projects (2004) Data Centre Energy Efficiency Report, Big Switch Projects, Sydney, pp12-16; McKinsey and Company (2008) ‘Revolutionizing Data Centre Efficiency’, presentation, Green Enterprise Computing: Capitalizing on Current Opportunities and Exploring Future Trends in Energy Efficiency, 27-30 April 2008, Orlando, California, USA, p38,

Even upgrading older servers to models that support virtualisation can increase data centre energy

uptimeinstitute.org/content/view/168/57, accessed 30 March 2009; Rumsey Engineers (2006) High Performance Data Centers: A Design Guidelines Sourcebook, Pacific Gas and Electric Company, pp3-60, http://hightech.lbl.gov/documents/DATA_CENTERS/06_DataCenters-PGE.pdf, accessed 12 June 2008; US EPA Energy Star Program (2007) Report to Congress on Server and Data Center Energy Efficiency – Public Law 109-431, US Environmental Protection Agency and US Department of Energy, pp54-55, www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?c=prod_development.server_efficiency, accessed 8 October 2008. 67 Big Switch Projects (2004) Data Centre Energy Efficiency Report, Big Switch Projects, Sydney, p12. 68 Big Switch Projects (2004) Data Centre Energy Efficiency Report, Big Switch Projects, Sydney, p12. 69 McKinsey and Company (2008) ‘Revolutionizing Data Centre Efficiency’, presentation at the Uptime Institute Symposium: Green Enterprise Computing, McKinsey and Company, uptimeinstitute.org/content/view/168/57, accessed 30 March 2009; Podvin, N. and Muller, A. (2009) Green Savings of a Virtual Infrastructure, version 1.0, AM3 Technologies, am3tech.com/papers/Green_Savings_Whitepaper.doc, accessed 1 April 2009; Taylor, P.W. (2008) Simply Green: A Few Steps in the Right Direction toward Integrating Sustainability into Public Sector IT, Centre for Digital Government, eRepublic, Inc, p14, www.sun.com/solutions/documents/white-papers/gv_simplygreen.pdf, accessed 30 July 2008. 70 Podvin, N. and Muller, A. (2009) Green Savings of a Virtual Infrastructure, version 1.0, AM3 Technologies, am3tech.com/papers/Green_Savings_Whitepaper.doc, accessed 1 April 2009. 71 McKinsey and Company (2008) ‘Revolutionizing Data Centre Efficiency’, presentation at the Uptime Institute Symposium: Green Enterprise Computing, McKinsey and Company, uptimeinstitute.org/content/view/168/57, accessed 30 March 2009; Podvin, N. and Muller, A. (2009) Green Savings of a Virtual Infrastructure, version 1.0, AM3 Technologies, am3tech.com/papers/Green_Savings_Whitepaper.doc, accessed 1 April 2009.


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productivity by 10-20 per cent.72 However, virtualisation may result in a denser data centre so it is important to manage cooling and air flow around racks accordingly.73 In the average data centre where virtualisation is not used, up to 30 per cent of servers may be unused.74 Removing this excess capacity can lead to increases in data centre energy productivity of 10-25 per cent75 and, together with removing unused data storage equipment, can enable multiple data centres to be consolidated. Beginning in 2006, Sun Microsystems consolidated 152 data centres with a floor area of almost 19,000 m2 into 14 efficient data centres with a floor area of 7,000 m2. And despite reducing the number of servers by half and the number of storage devices by two-thirds, computational performance increased by 4.5 times and storage space by 2.5 times. The consolidation also reduced power consumption by over 60 per cent and avoided US$9 million in construction costs.76

Using energy efficient servers, which incorporate efficient components and have effective power management features, can improve data centre energy productivity by 10-20 per cent.

Efficient Rack Equipment

77 Simply enabling existing power management settings can often result in considerable energy savings. Cassatt, a data centre efficiency consulting company, piloted a server power management plan in a particular data centre that usually runs all devices 100 per cent of the time. The pilot, which involved turning off servers when they became idle for periods as short as a one hour, showed that the data centre could reduce server energy consumption by 21-27 per cent and also reduce cooling load.78

Power supply and distribution accounts for about 20 per cent of the wasted power in data centres.

Power Supply and Distribution 79

Using high efficiency Power Supply Units (PSUs) can reduce cooling load and the need for redundant power by 10-20 per cent and, according to a study by Rumsey Engineers, can reduce energy costs by US$2,700-$5,700 per rack per year80 – an excellent return on a component that costs about $50. In 2008, when most major IT manufacturers were introducing 80 per cent efficient PSUs, Dell became the first to market an ‘80 PLUS Gold’ PSU that runs at an efficiency of over 92 per cent, at 50 per cent of rated output.81

72 McKinsey and Company (2008) ‘Revolutionizing Data Centre Efficiency’, presentation, Green Enterprise Computing: Capitalizing on Current Opportunities and Exploring Future Trends in Energy Efficiency, 27-30 April 2008, Orlando, California, USA, p38,

Using high efficiency power distribution units (PDUs) can also reduce energy consumption and costs, even with small improvements. The United States Postal Service, in one of its data centres, replaced three 94.6 per cent efficient PDUs with 98.4 per

uptimeinstitute.org/content/view/168/57, accessed 30 March 2009. 73 Taylor, P.W. (2008) Simply Green: A Few Steps in the Right Direction toward Integrating Sustainability into Public Sector IT, Centre for Digital Government, eRepublic, Inc, p14, www.sun.com/solutions/documents/white-papers/gv_simplygreen.pdf, accessed 30 July 2008. 74 McKinsey and Company (2008) ‘Revolutionizing Data Centre Efficiency’, presentation, Green Enterprise Computing: Capitalizing on Current Opportunities and Exploring Future Trends in Energy Efficiency, 27-30 April 2008, Orlando, California, USA, p20, uptimeinstitute.org/content/view/168/57, accessed 30 March 2009. 75 McKinsey and Company (2008) ‘Revolutionizing Data Centre Efficiency’, presentation, Green Enterprise Computing: Capitalizing on Current Opportunities and Exploring Future Trends in Energy Efficiency, 27-30 April 2008, Orlando, California, USA, p38, uptimeinstitute.org/content/view/168/57, accessed 30 March 2009. 76 Silicon Valley Leadership Group (2008) ‘Case Study: Sun IT Consolidation’, Silicon Valley Leadership Group, San Jose, California, USA, microsite.accenture.com/svlgreport/Pages/CaseStudies.aspx, accessed 30 March 2009. 77 McKinsey and Company (2008) ‘Revolutionizing Data Centre Efficiency’, presentation, Green Enterprise Computing: Capitalizing on Current Opportunities and Exploring Future Trends in Energy Efficiency, 27-30 April 2008, Orlando, California, USA, p38, uptimeinstitute.org/content/view/168/57, accessed 30 March 2009. 78 Silicon Valley Leadership Group (2008) ‘Case Study: Cassatt Resource Optimization through Active Power Management’, Silicon Valley Leadership Group, San Jose, California, USA, microsite.accenture.com/svlgreport/Pages/CaseStudies.aspx, accessed 30 March 2009. 79 Samson, T. (2008) ‘Savor the fruit of others' green IT success’, InfoWorld, weblog. 80 Rumsey Engineers (2006) High Performance Data Centers: A Design Guidelines Sourcebook, Pacific Gas and Electric Company, p47, hightech.lbl.gov/documents/DATA_CENTERS/06_DataCenters-PGE.pdf, accessed 12 June 2008. 81 Dell (2008) ‘Dell Meets Carbon Neutral Goal Ahead of Schedule’, Dell, Rock Round, Texas, USA, www.dell.com/content/topics/global.aspx/corp/pressoffice/en/2008/2008_08_06_rr_000?c=us&l=en&s=corp, accessed 25 March 2009.


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cent efficient PDUs, and consequently reduced energy consumption by 787,400 kWh per year and running costs by US$107,736 per year, partly by also reducing the cooling load.82 New high efficiency technologies for uninterruptable power supplies (UPS), such as flywheel (rotary) UPSs and delta conversion UPSs, are about 5 per cent more efficient than double conversion UPSs, the most commonly used in data centres.83 Flywheel UPSs have the added advantage that they do not use lead-acid batteries, and thus do not require air-conditioning to maintain battery life.84 According to Rumsey Engineers, increasing UPS efficiency by 5 per cent can reduce energy costs by over US$38,000 per year in a 140 m2 data centre.85 GE (General Electric) provides a UPS that runs at more than 94 per cent at 50 per cent load. GE claims that, compared to competitors’ UPSs, a data centre using ten GE UPSs can directly reduce power consumption by 60-100 kW, and also reduce cooling power demand by an additional 30-50 kW, totalling savings of US$76,000 - $130,000 per year.86

Demand for air-conditioning can potentially be eliminated by using direct liquid cooling. Liquid cooling is more efficient than air cooling because it operates locally at the rack level rather than the room level and because water can carry about 3,500 times more heat per unit volume than air can.

Rack Cooling

87 Direct liquid cooling works by using chilled water to cool small volumes of air in a rack and then circulating that air around the rack,88

82 Samson, T. (2008) ‘Savor the fruit of others' green IT success’, InfoWorld, weblog.

as in Figure 3.22. By contrast, air-conditioners carry away large volumes of air from server racks to be mixed with ambient air and then the mixed air is conditioned.

83 Tschudi, W., Mills, E. and Greenberg, S. (2006) Measuring and Managing: Data-Center Energy Use, Findings – and Resulting Best Practices – from a Study of Energy Use in 22 Data Centers, HPAC Engineering, p 45, hightech.lbl.gov/Documents/DATA_CENTERS/HPAC_DC_BestPrac.pdf, accessed 8 October 2008. 84 Rumsey Engineers (2006) High Performance Data Centers: A Design Guidelines Sourcebook, Pacific Gas and Electric Company, p56, hightech.lbl.gov/documents/DATA_CENTERS/06_DataCenters-PGE.pdf, accessed 8 October 2008. 85 Rumsey Engineers (2006) High Performance Data Centers: A Design Guidelines Sourcebook, Pacific Gas and Electric Company, p55, http://hightech.lbl.gov/documents/DATA_CENTERS/06_DataCenters-PGE.pdf, accessed 8 October 2008. 86 Environmental Leader (2009) ‘GE UPS System Delivers 94 Percent Efficiency in Data Centers’, Environmental Leader, www.environmentalleader.com/2009/03/26/ge-ups-system-delivers-94-percent-efficiency-in-data-centers/, accessed 25 March 2009. 87 Rumsey Engineers (2006) High Performance Data Centers: A Design Guidelines Sourcebook, Pacific Gas and Electric Company, p31, hightech.lbl.gov/documents/DATA_CENTERS/06_DataCenters-PGE.pdf, accessed 8 October 2008. 88 Rumsey Engineers (2006) High Performance Data Centers: A Design Guidelines Sourcebook, Pacific Gas and Electric Company, p31, http://hightech.lbl.gov/documents/DATA_CENTERS/06_DataCenters-PGE.pdf, accessed 8 October 2008.

http://hightech.lbl.gov/Documents/DATA_CENTERS/HPAC_DC_BestPrac.pdf�



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Figure 3.22: A Server rack with a direct liquid cooling system

Source: Courtesy of Rocky Mountain Institute89

Demand for air-conditioning and ventilation can be reduced by optimising cooling room efficiency. For example, several strategies could include: orienting equipment such that hot exhaust air from one item is not transferred directly to the intake of another item;

Equipment Layout and Air Flow

90 allowing sufficient space between equipment to avoid excessive localised temperatures (hot spots) and to accommodate adequate air distribution;91 placing the most heat-intensive and heat-tolerant equipment at the top of racks where temperatures are usually highest;92 removing airflow obstructions; and locating equipment and air vents to optimise cooling efficiency for the whole data centre, such as the hot aisle/cold aisle architecture (see Figure 3.23), which can double cooling efficiency.93 In 2004, Oracle, a business software company, converted its conventional open hot aisle/cold aisle architecture in one of its data centres to a type of confined hot aisle/cold aisle architecture that prevented hot air from spilling into the cold aisle.94

89 Eubank, H. et al (2003) Design recommendations for high-performance Data Centers, Rocky Mountain Institute, Snowmass, Colorado, p 49. 90Big Switch Projects (2004) Data Centre Energy Efficiency Report, Big Switch Projects, Sydney, p13. 91Big Switch Projects (2004) Data Centre Energy Efficiency Report, Big Switch Projects, Sydney, p13. 92Big Switch Projects (2004) Data Centre Energy Efficiency Report, Big Switch Projects, Sydney, p13.

This measure reduced the demand for fan power per IT equipment power by 40 per cent. In 2006, two configurations of confined hot aisle/cold aisle architecture were trialled at the National Energy Research Scientific Computing (NERSC) Center in Oakland, California. The more effective configuration (see Figure 3.23) demonstrated several energy productivity benefits, including reducing fan power by 75 per cent and increasing the computer room air-conditioner (CRAC) capacity by 30-49 per cent.

93 Rumsey Engineers (2006) High Performance Data Centers: A Design Guidelines Sourcebook, Pacific Gas and Electric Company, p3, http://hightech.lbl.gov/documents/DATA_CENTERS/06_DataCenters-PGE.pdf, accessed 8 October 2008. 94 Silicon Valley Leadership Group (2008) ‘Case Study: Oracle Data Center Air Flow Management — Hot Aisle Containment’, Silicon Valley Leadership Group, San Jose, California, USA, microsite.accenture.com/svlgreport/Pages/CaseStudies.aspx, accessed 30 March 2009.





Figure 3.23: A confined hot aisle/cold aisle architecture for optimising air flow in data centres.

Source: Based on the work of the Silicon Valley Leadership Group (2008)95

Cooling load can be reduced by 3-8 per cent

Room External Cooling Load 96 through measures such as: locating data centres

within the office space away from exterior walls and heat sources such as kitchens;97 incorporating insulation for floors, ceilings and walls;98 sealing leaks and cable cut-outs;99 and using zoned, energy efficient lighting controlled by occupancy sensors.100

Space cooling can account for as much as 70 per cent of all non-IT related energy consumption in data centres.

Computer Room Air-Conditioning

101

95 Silicon Valley Leadership Group (2008) ‘Case Study: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Air Flow Management’, Silicon Valley Leadership Group, San Jose, California, USA,

Air-conditioning systems can operate more efficiently through a variety of measures. Using outside air when available, known as air-side economisation, can improve data centre energy productivity by up to 15 per cent, especially in cooler climates. To assist the industry to capitalise on the use of outside air temperatures a group called the Green Grid has released a map of the US showing, for various locations, the amount of hours that one can expect the outside temperature to be lower than 27°C, see Figure 3.22.

microsite.accenture.com/svlgreport/Pages/CaseStudies.aspx, accessed 30 March 2009. 96 McKinsey and Company (2008) ‘Revolutionizing Data Centre Efficiency’, presentation, Green Enterprise Computing: Capitalizing on Current Opportunities and Exploring Future Trends in Energy Efficiency, 27-30 April 2008, Orlando, California, USA, p38, uptimeinstitute.org/content/view/168/57, accessed 30 March 2009. 97Big Switch Projects (2004) Data Centre Energy Efficiency Report, Big Switch Projects, Sydney, p13. 98Big Switch Projects (2004) Data Centre Energy Efficiency Report, Big Switch Projects, Sydney, p14. 99 Rumsey Engineers (2006) High Performance Data Centers: A Design Guielines Sourcebook, Pacific Gas and Electric Company, p3, http://hightech.lbl.gov/documents/DATA_CENTERS/06_DataCenters-PGE.pdf, accessed 8 October 2008. 100Big Switch Projects (2004) Data Centre Energy Efficiency Report, Big Switch Projects, Sydney, p15. 101 Google (undated) ‘Efficient Computing: Step 2 - Efficient Data Centres’, www.google.com/corporate/green/datacenters/step2.html, accessed 30 March 2009.







Figure 3.22: Estimate of air-side economizer hours for data centres

Source: The Green Grid (2009)102

Furthermore, a combination of networking air-conditioning units such that they do not compete, and setting higher temperature set points for cold aisles and water chillers, can improve energy productivity by an additional 10-15 per cent.

103 An innovation on air-side economisation in data centres is a device known as a heat wheel,104 which has the added benefit of minimising the need for humidity control. Heat wheels use outside air in cold climates to cool the room’s exhaust air – heated largely by computers, power supply units, lamps and the air-conditioner itself – by briefly mixing the two. After the mixing, the heat wheel exhausts the outside air back outside and recirculates the room’s air back into the room. KPN, a telecommunications company, uses a heat wheel in one of its data centres in Amersfoort, The Netherlands,105

Allocating accountability for energy consumption and the related costs provides an incentive for data centre managers to take action towards improving energy productivity.

where sufficiently cool air is available 97 per cent of the time. The heat wheel reduced cooling power consumption by 70 per cent and overall data centre power consumption by 20-30 per cent. Other measures to improve air-conditioning energy productivity include incorporating multistage systems and accurately monitoring room temperatures. Further opportunities to improve air-conditioning energy productivity are discussed in the sector study on commercial buildings in this book.

Management

106

102 EL Daily (2009) “Green Grid Launches ‘Free Cooling’ Online Tool”, EL Daily, 13 April 2009,

Additionally, providing feedback on energy consumption and costs through sub-metering and itemising energy

www.environmentalleader.com/2009/04/13/green-grid-launches-free-cooling-online-tool/, accessed 16 April 2009. 103 McKinsey and Company (2008) ‘Revolutionizing Data Centre Efficiency’, presentation, Green Enterprise Computing: Capitalizing on Current Opportunities and Exploring Future Trends in Energy Efficiency, 27-30 April 2008, Orlando, California, USA, p38, uptimeinstitute.org/content/view/168/57, accessed 30 March 2009. 104 Lodder, M. and Dijk, M. (2007) ‘KyotoCooling: The Cooling problem solved’, UpTime Technology, www.kyotocooling.com/KyotoCooling%20Publications.html, accessed 1 April 2008. 105 Miller, R. (2008) ‘Heat Wheel Could Cut Data Center Cooling Bills’, www.datacenterknowledge.com/archives/2008/11/14/heat-wheel-could-cut-data-center-cooling-bills/, accessed 4 February 2009. 106Big Switch Projects (2004) Data Centre Energy Efficiency Report, Big Switch Projects, Sydney, p15.




bills assists in establishing performance benchmarks and raising awareness of energy issues.107 Feedback can be easily monitored using an energy dashboard, which, on its own, has seen improvements in energy productivity of 3-5 per cent.108

IPCC Strategy Two: Heat and Power Recovery

Buildings can take advantage of the waste heat generated by their data centres to save on both heating and cooling costs for their office spaces. Intel, for its first certified green building, in Israel, has developed a heat recovery system that uses the building’s excess heat, including heat from the data centre, to provide space heating, space cooling and hot water for the rest of the eleven storey building.109

Heat can also be recovered for use in data centres during electricity generation. In certain conditions, especially in warmer climates, an onsite co-generation system can provide both electricity and cool air at lower cost than purchasing electricity only from the grid. Cool air is created by running the waste heat through absorption chillers. NetApp (Network Appliance) uses a natural-gas-powered co-generation system to provide electricity and cool air to its data centre in Sunnyvale, California, USA, during summer days of peak electricity demand. The system saves the company about US$300,000 per year in energy costs and has the added benefit of providing free cool air when the outside air is too hot for air-side economisation.

The system uses two different types of chillers to both contribute to data centre cooling and provide year-round hot water at 40°C, which is hot enough to heat the offices, to produce hot water for bathrooms, and to preheat water for kitchens. During winter, when there is an increased demand for heating the office space, two heat recovery chillers are the main source of data centre cooling, whereas during summer, a more-efficient centrifugal chiller is the main source. Intel estimates that this system has a capital cost of US$84,000 and a running cost of US$15,000 due to the heat recovery chillers running slightly less efficiently than the centrifugal chillers. However, the system eliminates the need for additional boilers and heaters as well as the associated pumps, tanks and piping, which saves US$50,000 in capital costs and US$250,000 in boiler fuel costs per year, and also eliminates the need for an additional back up chiller, which saves up to US$500,000 in capital costs.

110

IPCC Strategy Three: Feedstock Change (Contributed by S. Benn and D. Dunphy)

The following case study on the Fuji Xerox Eco-Manufacturing Centre was contributed on invitation from the Authors by Professor Suzanne Benn (Macquarie University) and Distinguished Professor Dexter Dunphy (University of Technology Sydney) and edited by the Authors. The information in this case study was obtained from in-depth interviews with key respondents from the Eco Manufacturing Centre, including the General Manager and Communications Manager, along with direct observations in the plant, and informed by secondary sources such as the Fuji Xerox Sustainability Report 2008.

The aim of this case study is to trace the groundbreaking development of remanufacturing at the Fuji Xerox Eco-Manufacturing Centre, at Zetland, Sydney, Australia. Fuji Xerox Australia (FXA) was early into the field of remanufacturing, beginning its programs in 1993, such that by 2000 it had established a specially designed and equipped eco-manufacturing centre that is now world’s best practice. According to FXA, the Centre, ‘now accounts for 80% of Fuji Xerox Australia's spare parts

Case Study: Fuji Xerox Australia

107Big Switch Projects (2004) Data Centre Energy Efficiency Report, Big Switch Projects, Sydney, p15. 108 McKinsey and Company (2008) ‘Revolutionizing Data Centre Efficiency’, presentation, Green Enterprise Computing: Capitalizing on Current Opportunities and Exploring Future Trends in Energy Efficiency, 27-30 April 2008, Orlando, California, USA, p38, uptimeinstitute.org/content/view/168/57, accessed 30 March 2009. 109 Intel (2007) ‘Data Centre Heat Recovery Helps Intel Create Green Facility’, Intel Information Technology, USA, www.intel.com/tw/it/pdf/Data-Center-Heat-Recovery.pdf, accessed 27 March 2009. 110 Mitchell, R.L. (2007) ‘Power Trip: The Case for Cogeneration’, Computerworld, 21 August 2007, www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9031539, 1 April 2009.


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requirements - these parts would have otherwise gone to landfill’.111

Dan Godamunne, General Manager Fuji Xerox Eco-Manufacturing Centre

Consequently this case provides the opportunity to examine some of the achievements and challenges for the future development and wider application of new technologies designed for full asset recovery of all spare part assemblies and components that have usable life, combined with the remanufacturing of components and assemblies that are degraded in life, thus maximising the products life. The technologies extend to raw material recovery at the end of its life cycle.

Remanufacturing was the beginning of the story – in order to foster support for the wider business plan for total product responsibility.

112

Figure 3.34 sets out the history of the Centre and of the shift to extended producer responsibility at Fuji Xerox. According to Dan Godamunne, ‘Zetland was the first official remanufacturing plant in the Fuji Xerox world’.

Phase 1 - Establishment and Early Achievements

The Eco-Manufacturing Centre was established by Fuji Xerox Australia in 2000 in the form of a dedicated parts remanufacturing and recycling facility. Management at the Eco-Manufacturing Centre, firstly under Graham Cavanagh-Jones and then under Dan Godamunne, focused on developing technological capabilities to enable remanufacturing. In the view of these managers, the success of the Centre rests upon both technological advances and the development of a new workforce culture. In the latter regard, multi-skilled technical experts with a broad understanding of remanufacturing are drawn from culturally diverse backgrounds and have been encouraged to communicate with international stakeholders, both internal and external to the firm. The Centre early became well known for its high performance culture associated with high workforce commitment. Low environmental impact technologies and innovative processes were installed and developed. Supply chain and waste management relationships were established to minimise emissions of all kinds and eliminate waste. Another strategic focus has been on developing client networks for integrated systems of supply and return of used parts for repair and redesign.

113

111 Fuji Xerox Australia (undated) 'Eco Manufacturing: FXA now exports remanufactured parts and components to the Asia Pacific region',

www.fujixerox.com.au/about/eco_manufacturing.jsp, accessed 4 April 2009. 112 Godamunne, D. (2009) Personal Communication with Dan Godamunne, General Manager Fuji Xerox Eco-Manufacturing Centre, 11 February, 2009. 113 Godamunne, D. (2009) Personal Communication with Dan Godamunne, General Manager Fuji Xerox Eco-Manufacturing Centre, 11 February, 2009.

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Figure 3.34: Fuji Xerox achievements in extended producer responsibility

Source: Fuji Xerox Australia Sustainability Report (2008)114

Building on the success of the Australian Zetland centre Fuji Xerox opened an integrated recycling centre in Thailand in 2004 to provide end-of-life recycling for its operations in the Asia Pacific. The outcome has been that while the Australian plant has increased its capacity to deliver high value added remanufacturing, the lower skills base in Thailand has resulted in the Thai plant focusing the majority of its efforts on low value added recycling. The key management strategy is that appropriate skills, capabilities and technologies need to be allocated for the differentiated processes of remanufacturing and recycling. While such geographical differentiation admittedly adds to the products’ carbon footprint, the company argues that the strategy allows for carbon reductions through reducing virgin resource input and encouraging design for disassembly. Recent achievements at Zetland include the remanufacturing, in 2007-08, of 243,000 parts and sub-assemblies, including many types of mechanical assemblies, complex electronic boards, electrical and optical assemblies and fusing / feeder rollers, saving AUD$11.3 million over the cost of purchasing Xerox supplied alternate parts. The aim is to reduce recycling to the minimum – As Dan Godamunne puts it, ‘is there a need to recycle when we can remanufacture?’

Phase 2 - Differentiation between Recycling and Remanufacturing

115 Currently 76 per cent of items returned can be remanufactured, but the direction is to increase the percentage remanufactured through design for disassembly. The Eco-Manufacturing Centre’s achievements have resulted in Fuji Xerox’s Zetland plant being placed in the United Nations Global 500 Roll of Honour for environmental achievement in 2000116

114 Fuji Xerox Australia (2008) Fuji Xerox Australia Sustainability Report, Fuji Xerox Australia, p27,

and is set to become the Fuji Xerox Asia Pacific hub for the remanufacture of complex-sub-assemblies. Targets are set each year for the

www.fujixerox.com.au/docs/fxa_sustainability_report_2008.pdf, accessed 6 April 2009. 115 Godamunne, D. (2009) Personal Communication with Dan Godamunne, General Manager Fuji Xerox Eco-Manufacturing Centre, 11 February, 2009. 116 Fuji Xerox Australia (undated) 'Eco Manufacturing: FXA now exports remanufactured parts and components to the Asia Pacific region', www.fujixerox.com.au/about/eco_manufacturing.jsp, accessed 4 April 2009.

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establishment of new remanufacturing programs which enable the Centre to track its key performance levels of complex sub-assembly remanufacture. The fact that Zetland is now seen as the global benchmark is prompting the shift into Phase 3.

Phase 3 - Rolling out the New Model

The beginning of this phase was marked, early in 2009, by the appointment of a new Fuji Xerox President, Mr Tadahito Yamamoto, with a manufacturing background. His aim is to drive the company beyond remanufacturing to full asset utilisation, which is vital, he believes, in a time of economic downturn. Assets are viewed as everything the company has, including skilled people, hardware, location, software and intellectual property. The current challenge is total asset management. In addition, there is a need to incorporate into the company’s business model recognition of future increasing costs of shipping and transfer of material resources and other associated issues of the emerging low carbon economy. The Fuji Xerox President is also concerned that launching new products is very costly and consequently wants to extend product life from two years to five years to reduce launch costs and the environmental impact of product turnover. If and when this takes place the aim is to ensure that product upgrades can be made remotely.

The challenge of the innovation process is that many large multi-national companies regard R&D as the prerogative of their Headquarters, where it is often centralised rather than in subsidiary units that are in direct contact with various markets. The issue is one of localism versus globalism. This is an issue underpinning the challenges facing Zetland as it affirms its value in the global organisation. Nevertheless the President has recognised the value of the Zetland Eco-Manufacturing Centre best practice model developed in Australia and is backing its diffusion to other centres. There are interesting future challenges in achieving this. One key challenge is how to accommodate cultural differences in the distribution and levels of skill in other countries where manufacturing occurs. Another is how to transfer the successful but complex process of implementing transformational culture change used to build employee commitment, engagement and multi-skilling.

In conclusion, the current General Manager’s aim is to establish Zetland as a regional sustainable product management centre and to roll out globally the principles for full asset utilisation already largely embodied in the Zetland operation. As the world moves progressively toward sustainability, the innovations made in this plant over the last few years, and those yet to come, could contribute significantly to the development of a new manufacturing model for a low carbon economy.

IPCC Strategy Four: Renewable Energy

The use of renewable energy to power data centres may become increasingly commonplace, with IBM, Google, Microsoft, Yahoo and Intel all looking to jump onto this cost-efficient bandwagon. One data centre in particular has managed to power itself completely from solar energy, and there are many more interested in following suit. Web hosting company, AISO (Affordable Internet Services Online), whose data centre in California, USA, has solar arrays totalling 12 kilowatts that power the complete operation.117 This was made possible by the company’s low electricity demand that has resulted from several efficiency measures, including: using virtualisation to reduce the number of servers from 120 to just 4 IMB blade servers;118

117 Woody, T. (2007) ‘Server Farm Goes Solar’, Business 2.0 Magazine, 4 October 2007,

using windows and more than 7 solar tubes to

money.cnn.com/2007/10/03/technology/solar_servers.biz2/index.htm, accessed 27 March 2009. 118 Woody, T. (2007) ‘Server Farm Goes Solar’, Business 2.0 Magazine, 4 October 2007, money.cnn.com/2007/10/03/technology/solar_servers.biz2/index.htm, accessed 27 March 2009.

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provide daylighting;119 and using an air-conditioning system that consumes 90 per cent less electricity than a conventional refrigerated system during warm weather, consumes even less when outside air at 16°C is available,120 and only runs for 10 minutes per hour.121 The use of the solar arrays save AISO US$3,000 a month in electricity bills and prevent the release of almost 15 kilo tons of greenhouse gas emissions.122

Other large IT companies are also making tracks down this same path. Intel has installed 10 kilowatts of solar panels on the roof of its New Mexico facility and admits that while this capacity is currently short of the facility total demand, the initiative shows the potential for a more aggressive solar program and for smaller data centres to take advantage of the technology.

123 Google consumes a vast amount of energy, both for its everyday operations and data centres. While Google is yet to tackle the considerable task of powering their data centres by renewable energy, the company has installed a 1.6MW capacity system at its Californian headquarters, which provides 30 per cent of the demand.124 Google is already partially powering one of its Danish data centre facilities with wind power125 and has developed a patent for a floating data centre that would use sea water to cool the facility and renewable energy to provide power for any additional demand.126 Microsoft is also exploring solar avenues with a 480 kilowatt system on the roof of their Californian headquarters.127

As for other renewable energy technologies, a project is underway in Wyoming, USA, to construct Green House Data, a data centre that will run primarily on wind power, with the shortfall met by renewable electricity purchased from the grid. The data centre will achieve cost competiveness by using already available energy efficiency technologies to operate 60 per cent more efficiently than comparable data centres.

128 Looking ahead at renewable hydrogen fuel, Fujitsu is the first company in Silicon Valley, California, USA, to use a hydrogen fuel cell as a power source.129

IPCC Strategy Seven: Materials Efficiency (Water)

The 200 kW fuel cell, which meets half of the Fujitsu’s data centre power demand, produces 35 per cent less carbon dioxide per MWh than a conventional power source, provides a payback period of 3.5 years and has an estimated lifespan of 15 years.

There are four main ways for the design of data centres to reduce the mains water usage by Factor 5. These are as follows;

1. Reduce Cooling Loads to Save Energy and Water: Water is mainly used in data centres in cooling towers as part of the data centre’s space cooling systems. In the previous discussion in IPCC Strategy One, a range of strategies were outlined that reduce the space cooling energy

119 ASIO (undated) ‘Sun Energized’, www.aiso.net/technology-network-sun.html, accessed 30 March 2009. 120 ASIO (undated) ‘Air Powered’, www.aiso.net/technology-network-air.html, accessed 30 March 2009; ASIO (undated) ‘Water Fueled’, www.aiso.net/technology-network-water.html, accessed 30 March 2009. 121 Woody, T. (2007) ‘Server Farm Goes Solar’, Business 2.0 Magazine, 4 October 2007, money.cnn.com/2007/10/03/technology/solar_servers.biz2/index.htm, accessed 27 March 2009. 122 Woody, T. (2007) ‘Server Farm Goes Solar’, Business 2.0 Magazine, 4 October 2007, money.cnn.com/2007/10/03/technology/solar_servers.biz2/index.htm, accessed 27 March 2009. 123 Miller, R. (2009) ‘Intel Testing Solar Power for Data Centres’, Data Center Knowledge, USA, 19 Jan 2009, www.datacenterknowledge.com/archives/2009/01/19/intel-testing-solar-power-for-data-centers/, accessed 27 March 2009. 124 Google, (undated) ‘Google Solar Panel Project’, USA, www.google.com/corporate/solarpanels/home, accessed 26 March 2009. 125 Miller, R (2007) ‘Wind powered data center in Wyoming’, Data Center Knowledge, USA, 29 November 2007, www.datacenterknowledge.com/archives/2007/11/29/wind-powered-data-center-in-wyoming/, accessed 27 March 2009 126 Ooko, S.A. (2008) ‘Google’s Floating Water and Wind Energy Retrofitted Data Centre’, The Americas, via eco-worldly, ecoworldly.com/2008/09/11/googles-floating-water-and-wind-energy-retrofitted-data-center/, accessed 27 March 2009. 127 Auchard, E. and Anderson, L. (2006) ‘Google Plans Largest Solar Powered US Office’, Reuters via Planet Ark, 18 October 2006, www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/38550/story.htm, accessed 26 March 2009. 128 Green House Data (undated) Green House Data’s Green Data Center, www.greenhousedata.com/green_datacenter/index.htm, accessed 27 March 2009. 129 Hill, B. (2007) ‘Fujitsu Installs Fuel Cell on its Sunnyvale Campus’, Daily Tech, 20 August 2007, www.dailytech.com/Fujitsu+Installs+Hydrogen+Fuel+Cell+on+Its+Sunnyvale+Campus/article8500.htm, accessed 27 March 2009.

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consumption by at least 50 per cent. Applying these space cooling energy efficiency design strategies during the design phase of a data centre significantly reduces the cooling load, thus enabling the number and size of cooling towers and water usage to be reduced.

2. Use Cooling Systems Designed to Use Less Water: The type of cooling system affects the amount of water used. For instance, Switch Communications’ SuperNAP in Las Vegas, have chosen to use direct expansion cooling systems because of the fact that they use lower amounts of water compared to traditional cooling systems.130 Intel is experimenting with alternative cooling technologies to conventional air-conditioners. The company found that by using an air economiser 91 per cent of the time in a dry, temperate climate, would not only reduce cooling power consumption by up to 65 per cent in a 10 MW data centre, but would also reduce total water consumption by 288 million litres per year, all with a minor increase in server failure rate.131 The water savings arise from avoiding the use of water towers in the cooling system. The main alternatives to water cooling systems used so far by the ICT datacentres are these dry cooling systems, which do not use any water but tend to use more energy than the water cooling systems.132 As discussed in the Commercial Building Sector Study, a new hybrid dry air/water cooling system, developed by Muller Industries Australia, enables reductions in water usage of around 80 per cent whilst still being almost as energy efficient as water cooled systems. The award winning Muller 3C Cooler is designed as a hybrid dry air/water cooling system that uses air to cool in ambient temperatures, and only uses water under extreme conditions.133 The Muller 3C Cooler is designed so that it can be retrofitted, easily replacing water cooled systems and their water cooling towers. The 3C Cooler consumes 30 per cent less energy than other air conditioning systems134

3. Use Recycled Water: As reported above in the Google case study, a data centre’s water usage for cooling towers does not need water cleaned to drinkable standards. Therefore it is often -and should through policy changes from government always be - cheaper for data centres to purchase recycled water and clean it to the lower standard needed for cooling towers. Other companies in addition to Google are already adopting this approach. Microsoft, for instance, chose to build a new data centre in San Antonio because of the availability of recycled water.

and uses only slightly (5-10 per cent) more energy compared to water cooled systems.

135

4. Use Rainwater Harvesting Onsite: Another strategy to lessen the impact of data centres on local water utilities is through collecting rainwater. As mentioned in the case study section, Google is implementing this for its data centres.

136

130 Miller, R. (2009) ‘Data Centers Move to Cut Water Waste’, DataCentre Knowledge, 9 April 2009, www.datacenterknowledge.com/archives/2009/04/09/data-centers-move-to-cut-water-waste/, accessed 22 April 2009. 131 Atwood, D. and Miner, J.G. (2008) ‘Reducing Data Center Cost with an Air Economizer’, Intel Information Technology, USA, www.intel.com/it/pdf/Reducing_Data_Center_Cost_with_an_Air_Economizer.pdf, accessed 21 April 2009. 132 The Department of Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts (DEWHA) (2007) Water Efficiency Guide: Office and Public Buildings. DEWHA. Available at http://www.environment.gov.au/settlements/publications/government/water-efficiency-guide.html Accessed 1 September 2008 133 Australian Institute of Refrigeration, Air-Conditioning and Heating (AIRAH) (2003) EcoLibrium- Case Study – Muller 3C Cooler - Award winner makes its mark. AIRAH at http://www.airah.org.au/downloads/2003-08-f01.pdf accessed 8 May 2009 134 Save Water (2007) Product Innovations – Winner – Muller Industries. Save Water at http://www.savewater.com.au/programs-and-events/savewater-awards/past-winners-finalists/200607-winners/product-innovations accessed 8 May 2009 135 Miller, R. (2009) ‘Data Centers Move to Cut Water Waste’, DataCentre Knowledge, 9 April 2009, www.datacenterknowledge.com/archives/2009/04/09/data-centers-move-to-cut-water-waste/, accessed 22 April 2009. 136 Google (undated) ‘Efficient Computing: Introduction’, www.google.com/corporate/green/datacenters/index.html, accessed 30 March 2009.

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