Green Lights on the Information Highway

by Chris Baker, Krista Downey and Gary Stairs

We are living through the information revolution. Whether it is smart phones, tablet computers, social media or new user-friendly software, new information and communications technologies (ICT) are having a profound effect on our lives, our workplaces and our future. When it comes to a “green” perspective, there is a debate whether ICT will save or bake our planet.

According to Open Text CEO Tom Jenkins, one of Canada’s leading ICT innovators, the total amount of electronic data across the globe will double every two months. In one year, the amount of data that will need to be stored on servers or other storage devices will double and double again six times this year.

With this dramatic increase in storage needs, it is not surprising that data centers in the global ICT industry are due to hit the wall in 2012. Not only are we racing to keep place with this geometric explosion in data storage needs, the spiralling demand for high level computing and escalating energy costs for power and cooling converge. In some jurisdictions, power costs are exceeding the costs of hardware where the absolute energy consumption is increasing by ten percent a year. Few, if any, new power plants being commissioned in North America in the short term.

By improving energy efficiency, we decrease the need for electricity and, subsequently, have a reduced requirement for cooling capacity.  Making use of the guidance provided by the Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool (EPEAT) can help us aggressively manage consumption and promote best practices. While the Energy Star rating has been a useful guide for consumers, procurement needs to move beyond these standards. 

Certainly, there are opportunities to help curb data center energy demand while meeting operational requirements and fuelling the development of new applications and innovation. And, as the saying goes, there is nothing like an impending execution to focus the mind.

There is a retrenchment in the data centre sector in the US and across Europe, driven both by environmental concerns and operating costs. This presents both an opportunity and a challenge to New Brunswick. We could pursue the good jobs and investment that come with these centres. However, if we follow the same path as the others we will wind up in the same place – less than required capacity with escalating energy costs.

The Smart 2020 report uses the acronym SMART – Standardize (systems), Monitor (power consumption), Accountability (for cost and energy savings), Rethink (operations) and Transform (culture and systems) to prescribe how efficient ICT can make the economy more efficient. The low hanging fruit here is to look at the motor systems and logistics as well as the buildings and grids that house and supply these systems.

Smart buildings are being designed in a manner to allow for the monitoring of electrical demand, efficiency and integrated renewable energy generation. Completely programmable automation systems are being incorporated into the built environment from large scale commercial buildings right down to residential construction. Smart buildings can now be managed and manipulated from multiple locations to minimize energy consumption and maximize efficiency and performance.

On the macro level, coalitions such as the Climate Savers Computing initiative have set a goal  of cutting greenhouse gases by 32 million metric tons and are aggressively promoting smart grid development and effective building management, as well as promoting innovative new measures for Power Usage Effectiveness.

Given both our geography and our climate, not to mention technological acumen, we know a lot about innovation in ICT and building smart infrastructure for sustainable mobility. In a country of our size, or in a province with large rural and remote areas, we are crossing barriers by utilizing video conferencing and implementing e-learning solutions.

ICT allows us to rethink the workplace. Travelling from home to work adds to our carbon footprint. Companies like Virtual Agent Systems use ICT to allow their employees to work from their homes – a major advantage for the many rural New Brunswickers who work for VAS. It not only saves a commute from their communities to a central location, it reduces the carbon footprint of the overall operation.  

We also need to take a hard look at how we recycle, reuse and manage the toxic components and by-products in our digital telephones, computers and other devices. In 2002 alone, Canadians disposed of 140,000 tonnes of “e-waste” - the equivalent of 28,000 adult African elephants.

The industry is taking steps to provide for the “final phase” of cell phones and computers, which contain toxic substances such as PVCs, BFRs and mercury, among others. Just as we would not send half-empty paint cans or waste oil products to the landfill, we need to provide a safe way to dispose of, and recycle, electronic products.

Seven Canadian provinces have established regulations and/or partnerships to deal with this issue. Nova Scotia has implemented Atlantic Canadian Electronics Stewardship or ACES and there is regulatory provision in New Brunswick for a “Multi-Material Stewardship Board.” 

However, if we look at Green ICT as a whole, the solution is not just finding efficient ways to deal with waste or to be more energy (and cost) efficient. We need a shift in philosophy – from disposable to scalable. We need to create products and systems that can adapt to these changing times and get out of the cycle of tossing products that no longer satisfy our need to be on the “bleeding edge” into the waste bin.

Sustainable ICT awareness will support the smart procurement of Energy Star or Gold EPEAT LCD monitors and LED lamps for offices. But we must also look at the opportunities to “virtualize” ICT by running multiple computer configurations on one piece of hardware. Rather than letting brute computing power try to solve our problems (which it won’t), we need to be more effective and strategic in building the infrastructure that will support Cloud Computing and practicing Software as a Service.

On these latter to items, policy and regulation needs to catch up to the possibilities that these ICT approaches offer. But we also need the workforce. We need to take stock of the fact that New Brunswick has lost the leadership position we held on ICT a short 15 years ago. While we see local ICT companies grow and new out-of-province investment, we are not preparing a skilled workforce that is needed to support these initiatives. New Brunswick needs a new generation of ICT workers, especially those with skills that are scalable rather than disposable, if we are to get the economic and environmental benefits ICT offers.

The global market for ICT will hit $1.58 trillion in 2010 and surge to $1.71 trillion in 2011. Opportunity is there or NB ICT workers, product developers and consulting companies but, as mentioned in earlier articles, this requires planning, preparation and foresight from all the stakeholders. The new software development “sweet spot” may be the development of enterprise carbon and energy management software, as well as the rise of a whole new sustainable consulting industry, but we will not get there by wishing.

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Originally pubished in the Telegraph Journal, August 27, 2010