IT sector cuts 32 million tons of emissions since 2007, study shows

28 July 2010

The IT sector has reduced annual carbon emissions associated with IT equipment by more than 32 million metric tons worldwide since 2007, according to a new study.

The results are part of a benchmark study conducted by Natural Logic to assess the progress of the Climate Savers Computing Initiative’s (CSCI) goal of reducing annual carbon emissions from the IT sector by 54 million metric tons by June 2011.

The initiative, formed in 2007, is an international coalition led by CSC, Dell, Google, HP, Intel, Microsoft and the World Wildlife Fund to reduce the environmental impact of new and emerging IT equipment through energy efficiency.

This new research shows that annual carbon emissions from IT equipment have decreased by 32 million to 36 million metric tons worldwide since 2007.

The CSCI has attributed the results to its coordinated efforts to accelerate the adoption of computer power management; new efficiency standards for computing technologies; and the development, deployment, and adoption of higher-efficiency computing equipment.

‘When the CSCI was established in 2007, desktop computers wasted 50 per cent of the power coming from the wall,’ said Lorie Wigle, general manager of the Eco-Technology Programme Office for Intel and president of the initiative.

‘Today, through the collective efforts of our organisation, hardware manufacturers, large IT buyers, and other key partners, the IT sector has cut that waste by at least 25 per cent for new systems.’

The study covered the first three programme years of the CSCI, from July 2007 to June 2010.

Data was compiled by examining the progress of the member companies of the initiative on power-management adoption and market data, including shipment and installed-base information, PSU efficiency levels, number of units sold worldwide, operating systems in use, market research, and estimates from industry analysts.

The initiative’s targets may go some way in explaining Google’s recent renewable energy investment drive, which has most recently seen it buy 114MW of wind power from NextEra Energy.

Bill Weihl, green energy czar at Google and Climate Savers Computing board member said, ‘The CSCI recognises that in order to achieve end-to-end computing energy efficiency, we must address the energy used by connected devices and their interaction with the network.’

In the future, the initiative said it will leverage the expertise of its founding board of directors consisting of new board members Cisco, Emerson Network Power and Juniper Networks, as the organisation expands its focus to include commercial and home networking systems and devices.

The organisation said it will begin by setting new energy efficiency criteria for networking technologies, which will be developed alongside alliances with the US Environmental Protection Agency.

Copyright © 2010 NewNet

Tags: energy efficiency

This story was published on Wednesday, July 28th, 2010 at 6:20 pm and is filed under North America, companies, energy efficiency. You can follow any responses to article entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

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