Building a Green ICT Community Albert Hankel

What is Green ICT?

Greening of ICT

Enabling power of ICT

WWF says: focus on the other 98%

68% mobility Sample footprint of a Dutch HE-institution ICT = 22% of 

Why should we want Green ICT?

Total global footprint

The Global ICT footprint = Gartner, 2007 IEA: ICT represents 8% global energy consumption, will grow to 40% in 2030

But… WWF (medium estimation): doing smart stuff can reduce CO 2 emission by 5 Gt - that is more than 10%! ACEEE: For every extra kilowatt-hour of electricity that has been Demanded by ICT, the U.S. economy increased its overall energy savings by a factor of about 10. The extraordinary implication of this finding is that ICT provide a net savings of energy across our economy.

Why should NRENs care?

Responsibility Innovation Collaboration

Aside from creating a better world of course

The Dutch situation

2% yearly 30% in 2020 save energy

What about ICT? 2010: ICT-scan on 9 institutions ( employees, students) 9 institutions Total energy consumption179 GWh Energy consumption by datacenters (9% of total) 16.1 GWh Energy consumption of ICT-equipment in datacenters 7.9 GWh Energy consumption of computers (13% of total) 24 GWh 22% (and rising)

Results of ICT-scan 2010 Too old Too cold Too empty Hardly turned off during closing hours No power management 25% off! 56% off! But… ICT departments hardly pay the energy bill

Building a community

Starting up a Special Interest Group (SIG) Specific theme Stimulate community activity Share knowledge Organise meetings, workshops BY and FOR the field Specs:

Yearly Symposium First in nov 2010, second in 2012 Over 100 visitors (Dutch)

Funding for innovative sustainability projects (Innovatieregeling)  Projects should somehow reduce CO 2 emissions  euro’s available, max 20k per project  50% matching  Results should be shared (CC-license or equivalent ) Sustainable ICT-educationSustainable Software Paper reduction (dematerialization)Sharing Green ICT practices Digital mobility in educationVirtual Teaching Sustainability in e-ScienceSmart data storage Visualization of personal energy consump.Using gamification for awareness Projects on:

Follow-up ICT-scan OpenDCME Open Data Center Measure of Efficiency -Focused on datacentres & workplaces -Online tool -Free for connected institutions during 2012 "If you can not measure it, you can not improve it." - Lord Kelvin

What do they think?

~50% works on sustainability, mostly on the side

Some observations  Many people find sustainability important, but it hardly comes natural (passive attitude)  Focus on Greening OF ICT  Communication, communication, communication…

What do they do?

University of Groningen ~5 MWh usage annually PUE  1.18 Annual savings over euro Aim to increase savings to 300k What did they do? -Virtualization -Faster replacement of servers -Raise temperature -Optimize cooling -Optimize configuration

Our community Over 300 members (which is impressive for a Dutch SIG) Members start to have discussions among themselves Several people have organized themselves in workgroups on a specific topic Members want a wiki

What do we think?

Next steps Keep facilitating people who want to be active participants Involve students Transparency on (green) energy mix and PUE Develop online business cases Set up a wiki to share knowledge

 ICT will be a key component in a sustainable society  The industry focuses too much on sustainable solutions for the present instead of solutions for a low carbon economy (according to WWF & Gartner)  NRENs have the infrastructure and the community to take the lead and set the example We have to be aware of the impact of the ICT-infrastructure of NRENs and their community, both in a negative and positive way. What better way than to experiment and share the knowledge gained? Some closing remarks

Would you support a Terena Taskforce on Green ICT?

What do you think?

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