CS8078

Green Computing
Unit Wise Description
UNIT I - FUNDAMENTALS:
How Business, IT and Environment are related to Green Computing

UNIT II - GREEN ASSETS AND MODELING:

About Buildings, Data Centers, etc and how are they modelled and adapted to green tech

UNIT III - GRID FRAMEWORK:

Best ways for Green PC, Green Data Center and Green Grids

UNIT IV - GREEN COMPLIANCE:

Socio cultural aspects of Green IT, Protocols and Standards

UNIT V - CASE STUDIES:

Strategies, scenarios and applications
Course Objectives

1. Acquire knowledge to adopt green computing practices to minimize

negative impacts on the environment.
2. Enhance the skill in energy saving practices in their use of hardware.
3. Evaluate technology tools that can reduce paper waste and carbon
footprint by the stakeholders
4. Understand the ways to minimize equipment disposal requirements
Reference Text Books
1) Bhuvan Unhelkar, ―Green IT Strategies and Applications Using Environmental
Intelligence, CRC Press, June 2014.
2) Woody Leonhard, Katherine Murray, ―Green Home computing for dummies, August
2012

TLP
1) Lectures with PPT, ICT Tools (Online classes - 60%, Self Study - 40%
2) Assignments in the form of seminars and case study presentations
3) Group Talks
GREEN COMPUTING
● Green computing, also known as green technology, is the use of computers and other
computing devices and equipment in energy-efficient and eco-friendly ways.
● Green computing is also known as green information technology (green IT)
● Green computing, or sustainable computing, is the practice of maximizing energy
efficiency and minimizing environmental impact in the ways computer chips,
systems and software are designed and used.
● Organizations that use green computing methods often deploy energy-efficient
central processing units (CPUs), servers, peripherals, power systems and other IT
equipment.
● They also focus on reducing resource use and properly disposing of electronic
waste.
Advantages of green computing
● Saving Energy and Money. ...
● Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Environmental Impacts. ...
● Improving Health and Working Conditions. ...
● Enhancing Flexibility and Productivity. ...
● Strengthening the Brand and Public Image.
Green IT Fundamentals: Business, IT,
and the Environment
Business and environment
Business Environment
● Profit at any cost. ● Fossil fuels- coal, oil; plastics may dry up but
● Anything outside of the organization is none pollution and wastage remains.
of our concern. ● Problem is:
● Lack of environmental conditions in business.

“The risk associated with a business is tied to

carbon generation”.
Lean business(increase the value by reducing
the waste)
Why do we always talk about Green IT?
Business Efficiency

● That’s why most of the trending business try to be lean, improve their quality and
reengineer their process

Green Business is synonymous with an efficient business.

A close synergy exists between a lean and a green business.

It benefits both the business and environment.

Green IT (or) Green ICT (or) Green Computing

“The study and practice of designing, manufacturing, using, and disposing of computers,
servers, and associated subsystems (such as monitors, printers, storage devices, and
networking and communications systems) efficiently and effectively with minimal or no
impact on the environment.”
- Murugesan (2008), Lamb (2009), Unhelkar (2010a and 2010c, 2011)

“Green IT is the study and practice of using computing resources efficiently.”

- Simplified definition by Lamb (2009)
What does Green IT include?
Various Dimensions of
Environmental Sustainability
● Economics of Energy Efficiency
● The total cost of Ownership
○ Cost of Disposal and recycling

● Relativity of Carbon Efficiency to the overall efficiency and effectiveness of the

organization
The Environment Today
Ways in which Green IT is beneficial for Organizations
● Incorporates environmental issues within the business strategies in way that is
complimentary to each other
● Demonstrates the importance of environmental issues as one of the “core” business
issues rather than merely “good to have” add on
● Explores the possibilities of enhanced green performance to discover and develop
new business opportunities.
Ways in which Green IT is beneficial for Organizations..

● Discusses the importance of people, their attitude, and approaches to Green IT.
● Expands on the role on Green HR.
● Develops the idea of improving the collective carbon footprint.
● Green enterprise architecture (GEA).
● Expands on the vital role of business leadership in bringing about positive green
change.
● Argues for the use of quality standards, metrics and measurements.
● Expands the technologies of Business Intelligence for the purpose of reducing the
organization’s carbon footprint— Environmental Intelligence (EI).
● Incorporates the use of mobile and smart technologies.
● Leads to Green business process management (Green-BPM) and Green business
process reengineering (GPR)
● Advises on the use of Carbon Emissions Management Software (CEMS) for carbon
metrics, measurements, and reporting.
● Green IT audits for reporting and compliance.
Information Technology and Environment
● IT is so closely intertwined with business processes.
● Synergy(interaction) between business and IT implies that growth in business also
implies corresponding growth in IT.
● greater the interactions between IT and business, the more are the amount of carbon
pumped in the environment .
● Verticals such as financials, travel, and hospitals are all affected fundamentally by IT
and its emissions
● Necessary ingredients are political will and appropriate economic initiatives—
facilitated by appropriate government policy.
Interplay of business and environment through IT

● the length of time

● the depth of activity
● the breadth of
coverage of the carbon
effect…
Areas of IT that impact the carbon footprint
Adherence to Regulations and Standardization
Software Applications and Packages
hardware
Green Enterprise Architectures
Green Peripherals
Green Infrastructures
Renewable Energies
Governance standards
Development of Efficiency Solutions Based
People on IT Systems

Dynamic Social Groups Recycling and Disposal of IT

Emerging Cloud Technologies

Wired and Wireless Communication

Major IT areas influencing the environment
End-user devices (desktops, laptops, mobiles)

Data center servers

Communications equipment (switches, networks)

Infrastructure (buildings, towers)

Metrics and measurements

Business and Environment
● The business and the environment interact with each other primarily through IT
● It has enabled business to
○ Provide Global customer reach
○ Enhance Customers’ experience
○ Optimize Inventory Management & HR Management by reducing operational costs through
automation
● The key to creating Green IT strategies for business is to treat the entire
organization holistically(unified strategy).
● Green enterprise transformation program
● The unified approach provides valuable checks & balances in the Green IT efforts of
the organization.
 Green Enterprise Characteristics
● IT is the cause of carbon emissions.
● Green enterprises exhibit awareness in terms of their carbon emissions that covers all
dimensions and all departments of the enterprise.
● Immediate effect:
○ switching off computers when not in use.
○ Switching off monitors and recycling laptops.
● IT as a producer: reduce the emission from the end user perspective.
● IT as an Enabler: enable reduction of emission at the enterprise level;
● Green Enterprise: includes reduction that are supported by IT within an enterprise.
● Green collaboration: beyond an enterprise.
● Green enterprise and the Green collaborations - end result is long term and strategic.
Green Enterprise
Characteristics
Green Vision (goal)
● development of a suitable global strategic vision for an enterprise.
● Vision should be holistic not a fragmented one for the green organization to reduce
carbon emission in long term.
● Presentation and discussion with the employees and incorporate their views.
● encompass the future of the organization in the carbon economy.
● business in the new green markets.
● external stakeholders can also provide valuable input.
 Green Strategic Points
● organization’s performance can be viewed like a seismograph that will show ups and
downs.
● These points are organization’s stress points ; becomes business challenges, pressure
points, and obstacles.
● Challenge points become strategic points ; these are precision points for action for to
green enterprises.
● A green strategic plan is the core business plan of the organization produced with respect
to the green pressure points of the organization.
● Eg: For HR department, continuously changing(dynamic) business processes difficulty in
maintaining the hierarchies.
● organization may do well at one time in one area of business but not well at others.
Green Value
● The creation of green strategies and their implementation is eventually meant to
produce t his long-lasting green value for the organization
● value is a combination of tangible and intangible benefits to its employees,
customers.
● Metrics, some aspects of the green value may not be directly measurable
Green IT Opportunity
● carbon challenge as actually a green opportunity.
● IT industry responsible for 1.52% of the total carbon dioxide emissions, as compared
with road transport—12.6%, metal production—2.3%, and the cement industry—1%
Challenges of Carbon economy
● green value to business has to be measured; should have metrics.
● revolves around rising energy prices, concerns about energy sustainability in the
long run, and the ensuing pressure from society to reduce GHG emissions related to
fossil fuels.
● Carbon economies in the developing countries, are unlikely to respond to the carbon
reduction challenge only through legislations or negotiations.
● Has technical challenges, social challenges -the level of interest in sustainability by
each individual varies depending on a combination of personal and professional
goals.
● business transformation and organizational change ;Changing the mindset of people,
bringing about changes in their practices, and demonstrating the value of the greening
effort are all crucial ingredients of this change.
● Chief Sustainability Officer (CSO)(Eg: SAP) &Chief Green Office, CGO- commitment to
implement sustainability throughout the business and organization.
● coming up with business strategies incorporating Green IT, setting up of sustainability
policies and practices throughout the organization and have working groups to discuss the
challenges.
● CSO has the necessary authority, influence, and expertise to bring about organizational
change.
● change require project and program management, HR, and marketing and
communications.
● a list of challenges faced by organizations :
○ Contextual nature of the environmental sustainability initiative
○ Facilities like data centers cannot be replaced as quickly as the servers inside them due to high
infrastructure costs
○ Disagreements amongst nations
○ Lack of overall industry experience
 Business Intelligence(BI)
● Business intelligence derives knowledge, or insights, by analyzing an organization’s
information.
● The information includes
○ carbon data, financial data, environmental parameters, human relations data, and organizational strategy data.
● These info are do not interface with each other.
● Challenge - is to correlate these varied pieces of information and their subsequence
analysis.
● Eg: Electronic Patient Record(EPR)
○ needs to correlate with an accounting or HR system in a hospital to knowledge on planning and organizing
patient services.
○ the EPR together with the HR system can help in scheduling the right staff for the patients on an almost real-
time basis.
BI tools
● BI tools - information and knowledge are provided at a time and place where it is
needed.
● BI for the environment would combine people together with the technologies and
processes
● It include CRM(Customer Relationship Management) packages, Supply Chain
systems, Wikis and Blogs and Executive Dashboards.
● These technologies make use of Cloud computing, Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) and
Web X.0.
● Used in timely decision making.
● Will help understand and prioritise its needs.
Environmental Intelligence
● has been on the strategic, holistic approach to environmental sustainability that is
based on making the best use of the IT resources available to the organization.
● use of IT resources comes from the extension and application of the concepts and
technologies of business intelligence to the environmental initiative of the
organization
Application in Environmental Domain
● use of BI in the environmental domain is on the rise.
● Extending and using BI to progress environmental goals of the organization will
benefit both the environment and the business as well.
○ Helps to treating carbon reduction
○ It brings together the tools and techniques of BI to achieve the dual purpose of business and
environmental efficiency.
● The focus of BI is primarily on business efficiency, EI extends and applies BI for
environmental efficiency.
● EI can be considered as a superset that encompasses BI
● BI softwares will all undergo modifications and update as the organization moves
toward EI.
● primarily deal with making provision for calculation and storage of carbon data
● addition of new carbon-related data as well as the quality of existing data will come
under scrutiny in this process of moving toward EI.
● EI, also forecast carbon impacts, revenue growth or losses associated with carbon
performance, get the organization ready for carbon trading in the future.
● will have its own database that will focus entirely on carbon data and associated
analysis;
Business to Environmental Intelligence Impact

● CEMS- Continuous Emission Monitoring Systems.

Environmental intelligence intersects people, process, technologies, and creates new correlations in the
organizational data warehouses.
Green IT Strategies: Drivers,
Dimensions, and Goals
Green Strategies
● Green strategies outline a long-term and unified approach of an organization
toward environmental responsibility
● Individuals and business areas within the organization move at different speeds and
have varying and occasionally conflicting priorities.
● Green strategies include Green IT, but also all aspects of an organization from
environmental viewpoint
● Considers both external and internal organisational characteristics
○ Structure
○ Dynamics,
○ Macroeconomic incentives
○ Compliance constraints, and
○ Need to align corporate social responsibility with mainstream corporate business.
● not restrict the organization on immediate visibility of its return on green investment
● reimagination and green transformation
● Diversification, mergers and acquisitions, expansions and creation of new business
streams are all highly likely scenarios.
● Optimization and/or elimination of activities.
● green business strategies = extending existing business strategies + new strategies that
have a specific environmental focus.
● This model is being refined on an ongoing basis and is finding support in various
business transformation and business intelligence domains—being called green
enterprise transformation (GET) and environmental intelligence respectively.
General Mindset - Green Strategy
● Effective green strategies result from an approach that cuts across all the tiers and
silos of an organization
● Come from
○ individual understanding
○ Leadership
○ Vision
○ Knowledge about the structure and dynamics of the organization
○ Awareness of the operational nuances of the organization
○ Attitude of people (stakeholders) to utilize change
● Such individuals would be
○ Reading, training, rewarding, promoting, educating, sharing, and
encouraging everyone around them to develop further that
green strategic mindset
● helps the organization manage the long-term implementation issues while having
little progress.
● does not remain entangled only with these initial efforts; should proceed to the long
term efforts.
● Green IT strategies translate into policies that deal with energy reduction across all
areas of an organization; policies translate into practice .
● decision makers have rights to change/dismiss the strategic approach.
Challenges faced by Organisations to
Cultivate a Green Strategic Mindset
• doubt about the entire green enterprise
• Quantifying the economic returns of a green project remains uncertain
• No fragmented approach to environmental initiatives; needs holistic approach.
• no single packaged solution instead, a collaborative effort is needed
• Fuzzy cost-benefit analysis and fuzzy metrics associated with green projects
• Design, development, and production of goods, require greater effort
• risks and challenges associated with these technologies
• attractiveness of immediate remedy
Strategy matrix—
carbon vs profit.
Green IT
Strategies:
Range of
Impact
Green Strategic Alignment
Green IT strategies - 3–5-year impact range
● Alignment in the context of Green IT strategies can be seen as transforming the
firm’s resource base in a way to cater to both goals—
business and green—of the organization simultaneously.
● view alignment as a binary relationship between two strategies.
● viewed as a resource allocation decision
● Conditions(and preconditions any) that should be met before such strategy
translates into policies and practice
● Commonalities from existing strategic work within the organization identified and
applied to the Green IT domain.
● nomination of a Chief Green officer to lead that change
Proactive Green Strategies
● The changes are based on an understanding of the various Green IT drivers by the
organization’s leadership.
● The strategies are not enforced on the organization but are based on anticipation
by the leadership of the organization.
● The organization’s own understanding is translated into a Green IT initiative and is
supported by most layers of the organization.
● affect the infrastructure, equipments, and people of the organization by bringing
about radical changes.
● Globalization, multinational business market, and the economies of scale in terms of
greening an enterprise can be part of these proactive strategies.
Reactive Green Strategies

● The impact of government rules and regulations relating to carbon provide a major
impetus for the organization to undertake green strategy formulations.
● When the organization has to put together an immediate response to an external
change in legislation, it results in reactive strategies that are short-term strategies
● External competition, outsourcing, globalization, and customer demands can all put
the organization in reactive mode resulting in
reactive Green IT strategies
Green IT Strategies Mix
Drivers for envir. responsibility of business.
Green IT Drivers
● Cost(Energy, Operational)
○ includes opportunities to optimize its processes, consolidate its technologies,
○ and thereby reduce its costs. Thus, costs provide an excellent driver.
○ Eg: reduction in the use of raw materials and equipment, recycling of equipment, and optimization of
storage and inventory.
● Regulatory and Legal:
○ Environmental legislations put together by governing bodies have a greater enforcing power.
○ Eg: in Australia, for an organization emitting more than 150 kT (kilo tonne) of carbon to calculate and
report it to the government on an annual basis.
● Sociocultural and political:
○ when the society in which an organization resides accepts the environment as of significance in its
value system.
○ Eg: increasing popularity of the Earth Hour (last Saturday of March), wherein almost all large edifices
around the world switch off their electrical power for an hour, or Earth Day; school education system
that inculcates green values.
○ The power in the ability of a collective opinion to enforce good corporate
○ citizenship cannot be underestimated
● Enlightened self interest:
○ when an organization realizes the need to be environmentally responsible, and creates or adopts a
green strategy.
○ Can have a range of interest
○ incentive-driven compliance (IDC) incorporates innovation and self-motivation within its
environmental approach for better carbon compliance.
○ Self-interest can itself depend on varying factors such as the size, sector, methods of production,
climate, location.
○ pursuing a honest abidance of local environmental laws and regulations without finding methods to
bypass them.
○ no pressure from the government to fit environmental regulations
● Responsible Business Ecosystems:
○ if a large organization has associations with its many collaborating smaller sized
organizations(changes its direction and priorities), then those collaborating organizations have to
change their priorities accordingly.
○ Reverse also happens.
● New market opportunities:
○ “green as a business offering.”
○ Eg: CEMS is a new breed of software applications that are suddenly available in the market.
○ smart meters to measure carbon emissions, new standards for optimization of emissions, and new
architecture and design of low-carbon gadgets is likely to grow in the carbon economy.
Green business ecosystem - of a group of organizations—a large green organization, in its
wake, influences its partners, customers, and even regulatory bodies.
Verticals Green IT variations(nuance)
Education Online classes and tutorial
Hospitals High end medical equipments
Entertainment Infrastructure; TV, movies, gaming,theatre; installation, operation, disposals
Finance,Telecom, IT systems; high end servers, high end equipments;
Bank
Security Electronics gadgets; 24 x 7; IT monitoring, recording and analysis
packaging Product based industry; producing, packing and disposal; reusability , recycling ;
Developing an ERBS
● Green IT strategy interchangeably known as Environmentally Responsible Business
Strategies (ERBS)
● strategic vision of the organization’s leadership (conceptual framework)
● It aims for strategies that will be relevant in a 3–5-year time period.
● Leadership and senior management need to be directly involved in the development
of the green strategic vision for their enterprise.
● ERBS requires active participation from the business leadership—including the CEO
and the CGO
● Developing strategic vision refers to what the leaders of the enterprise would expect
it to look like in the future.
● expectations and goals of the organization
● simple and direct vision based on the drivers and dimensions translates into the
strategic plan.
● strategic vision and the ensuing strategic plan should be an actionable plan.
● require consideration to the resources, knowledge, and skills that are required in the
green transformation
● Should know about the competitors doing in the green space.
Various areas of
influence of a ERBS
Steps in
Developing an
ERBS
Green Business objective
● Ensuring a synergy between the core business objectives and the accompanying
green objectives
● Length of time for potential application—3–5 years being ideal
● Key drivers and dimensions that are impacting the organization
● Identify the growth potential and means for returns on green investment
● Attention to collaborative opportunities
● Development of Green HR as a part of the strategy
● Optimization and integration of supply chain systems
● Incorporation of government rules and regulations
Strategy description
● Describing the green strategy should be done in clear terms and with goals and KPIs
that are measurable.
● Strategy descriptions include analysis of current business process, consideration to
organizational values, and description of underlying IT systems and hardware.
● Strategy descriptions include
○ specifications of the products and services affected by Green IT,
○ current and anticipated market conditions
○ customer behavior and supplier behavior,
○ required expertise, knowledge, skills and goals/objectives.
Policy-Based Conditions
● Develop and implement a Green IT policy that aims to achieve higher utilization of
your IT systems while reducing energy use and lessening your other environmental
impact.
● Need not done all at once—adopt a phased approach.
● can be embedded in the organization’s service-oriented architecture and protocols.
 ○ green policies need to be SMART—specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and timely.
○ Standardize (S) how energy consumption and emissions information can be traced across different
processes.
○ Monitor (M) energy consumption and emissions to optimize for energy efficiency.
○ Accountability (A) with the help of tools and systems.
○ Redesign (R) based on systems and technologies
○ Transform (T)
● Resource Requirements:
○ resources that are required to undertake and maintain green transformation.
○ Resources include people, processes, and technologies.
Transformation Plan/Timelines:
● Final and important step in the development of an ERBS.
● transformation plan is a project plan that contains tasks, roles, and deliverables
together with the timeline for delivery.
● provides the roadmap for transformation.
● This plan can be divided into two parts—a high-level roadmap that identifies major
areas of work, deliverables, and timelines.
● followed by a detailed, task-by-task project plan that makes use of all know project
and program management techniques.
Iterations and Risks
● the development of an ERBS should not be a unidirectional process.
● it should be developed as an iterative process—going through the drivers,
dimensions, risks, and metrics more than once.
● Ideally, there should be three iterations to arrive at the final and comprehensive
actionable Green IT plan.
● These iterations, over a period of 3–6 months, would also include observing the
industry trends and new developments with respect to Green IT.
● green policies have to be revised based on these trends
● Iterative refinements of the policies are expected during practice.; continuous
improvements in processes, people, and technologies
Key Performance Indicator(KPI)
● Key performance indicator ( KPI) provides information on an organization’s
performance against defined and measurable criteria.
● help in measuring the progress of an organization in Green IT
● Since the progress of a green initiative must be measured against the stated goals,
the KPIs provide an opportunity to ascertain whether the strategic goals have been
achieved or not.
● also provide indication of what needs to change during the course.
● Drivers provide valuable input in creating KPIs;the four dimensions provide an
basis for the formulation of the KPIs.
● KPIs lead to an indication of the Green IT metrics that need to be collected.
Standards, metrics, and monitoring the progress of sustainability are closely
associated with KPIs evaluated for adoption.
● Having identified KPIs and metrics, the processes and systems to collect the metrics
need to be in place.
● After collecting this data on the KPI, there is a need to store the results and analyze
them for their sustainability knowledge.
Drivers and Factors lead to an ERBS
 Environmentally Responsible
Business: Policies, Practices, and
Metrics
Environmentally Responsible Business:
Policies, Practices, and Metrics

● Discuss the policies, practices, and metrics that result from the development of the
Green enterprise strategies
● Development of green policies equips an organization to handle the inevitable
resulting challenges when changing the way it currently operates
● Green policies align themselves with the lean business principles and practices
○ For example, an organization can change its practices to reduce the slack in its business processes in
response to a lean business initiative aimed at reducing waste.
○ Such lean initiative would not only reduce waste due to reengineered
activities but also reduce the organization’s carbon footprint
Green
corporations
based on green
policies,
practices, and
metrics (shifting
of IT function).
 Policies and practices
● Green Governance includes controls, policies, and practices that are supported by
Environmental Intelligence (EI) ; an intelligent use of business tools and technologies
that can lead an enterprise to being a green enterprise
● green policies are expressed as high-level or abstract policies that are worded by the
corporate board, or are electronically embedded in the web services protocols of an e-
organization.
● Policies are implemented through practices adopted by the green organization
● Practices, result from a combination of good policies as well as training, education,
and the overall attitude of the individuals working in the organization.
● metrics and measurements uses smart metering.
● Shouldn’t focus only on profit but to incorporate time factors.
● Leads to long term profitability and sustainability.
Policies and Practices in ERBS
● A policy can be a high-level document that spells out what the organization will (and
will not do) when it comes to business decision making.
● Green policies ensure that the decision making in the organization has carbon
reduction as its integral component
● Are created with significant input from the senior management of the organization
and are embedded into the business strategy of the company
● Together these policies and practices drive the environmentally responsible activities
of the organization
○ need to be carefully drafted, validated, and embedded within the
strategy of the organization.
○ based on a number of sources from within/outside of the organization.
● Purchasing Green equipments/services and
turning existing services into green
services
● Disposal of used materials and equipments
● Equipment recycle and use
● Environmentally responsible business
policies(utilizing low level resources
such as paper, optimize energy
consumption)
● Use of renewable energy sources
● Awareness and positive attitude
Environmental Areas Covered:
Breadth of Envir. Policies (Areas Covered)
● cover the various areas of an organization, including its various departments,
subsidiaries, and partners.
● breadth of Green IT policies may cover the production of goods within the
organization, its building, infrastructure, and operative environment.
● need to consider the overall organization
● broader the coverage of green policies, better the organization’s success in
implementing a holistic approach to Green IT
● However, this breadth of coverage also increases the risks associated with the green
transformation and, requires greater coordination amongst the four dimensions of
change and additional upfront resources.
Length of Envir. Policies (Duration of Coverage)
● length of time in terms of Green IT polices formation and practice
● Sustainable policies a re the policies that, enable a business to sustain itself for a
long period of time.
● The longer a business, the better are its chances of success including economic
success.
● a correlation between environmental sustainability and economics can be
established through time.
● to consider the longevity of the firm itself, together with the longevity of the Green
IT initiative.
● Green policy formulations require the policy makers to have the ability to look at the
future strategies t hat make predictions regarding t he f uture of t he fi rm.
● Along with Green IT transformation, maintaining the transformed green state over a
period of time is important( when the “length” is considered).
● length should be the length of the organization itself
● Implementation of policies, require to further broken down and applied with
varying timings to ensure they are gently and successfully introduced with the
organization.
● Carbon footprints are directly proportionate to the work area of an organization
and the type of business sector…
Depth of Envir. Policies (Intensity of Coverage)
● represents the depth of environmental responsibilities of an organization.
● an indicator of the intensity with which the policies are implemented and practiced
by the organization
● well supported by tools for eco-management and operating on the dedicated system
platform.
● includes detailed description, mapping, responsibilities, and execution of roles,
deliverables, activities, and tasks within the organization.
● also facilitates audits and feedback in greater detail.
● Office practices such as use of computers, printers, space heating and cooling,
lighting, paper, employee travel, and communication, all contribute to carbon
footprints of an organization.
● Emission reduction can be achieved through efficient use of resources.
● Efficiency with respect to carbon footprints is measured as an “intensity.”
● Intensities can be good indicators of the emission trends.
● Eg:in service oriented sectors, intensities may be defined as emissions per employee,
or per unit of office space.
● In the manufacturing industry, emissions intensity is invariably defi ned in terms of
pollution per unit of electricity produced
Environmental Areas Covered
Policies and their practices can be viewed from three different angles

● The breadth of coverage

● The depth at which they operate, and
● The length of time they are influential
within the organization
Green Values in Practice
● Converting policies to practice becomes an immediate action on the part of the
organization that can be seen within a short timeframe
● Even if the strategies and policies are formulated for the long-term change in the
organization, their effect in practice can be seen immediately
● The approach to converting the green policies into practice is through a combination
of training, usage, incentives, and possible introduction of penalty risks
● The short-term operational strategies are easy to implement in practice.
● Eg: shutting down unused computers or reducing the amount of paper being printed
● Tactical, 1-year time framed strategies have the potential to translate into immediate
actions such as implementing efficient power management, use of energy-efficient
lighting, reduction in paper usage, and maintenance of optimal room temperature
Some short term policies that can be converted into practices:

● Computing power management-Upgrades to OS of computers

● Use a blank screen saver-reduce electricity consumption
● Limited printing - double side printing, online report, central helpdesk service to print
● Reuse and recycling of equipment
● Environmentally conscious procurement- energy efficiency,international standards,
Energy Star compliant or EPEAT certified
● Single machine- set of common desktops
● utility value - assessed subjectively by customers and related to the concept of
product quality;
● exchange value - realized in the form of revenue;
● essential value -realized in the fundamental improvement of the societal condition
Green Practice: A Balancing Act
● green values and the green costs (that is the costs associated with developing and
implementing green policies) may against each other
● need to reflect their balance as the policies are drafted
● profit-costs form part of this balancing act
Mobility and Environment
● Mobility has a significant role to play in the reduction of carbon emissions as it has
the potential to offer location independence, reduce the need to travel, to most
business processes.
● Advantages to Environment:
○ much lesser need for energy than a larger desktop device.
● Challenges to Environment:
○ mobility enables virtual collaborations between business and individuals; introduce management
challenges in implementing environmentally responsible strategies.
○ bring together multiple stakeholders with diverse interests; difficult to identify the precise
contributors to the greenhouse gas emissions and pollutions.
● mobile users are difficult to track due to their location independence; challenges in
tracking their environmental activities and calculating the pollutions that may have
been generated
● mobile networks, mobile computers, and corresponding mobile devices consume
significant amounts of electrical energy
Renewable Energy Resources
Green IT Metrics and Measurements
● robust measures are required.
● measures should clearly identify reduction targets and measure them
● varied interpretations of experiments—all reported differently and across a variety
of media. They need to be classified properly, recorded, managed, and made
available for use
● many aspects of Green IT are generally applicable but some metrics help in making
them specific to the organizations.
● The CEO of an organization is easier to convince and, in turn, is able to convince
his/her board to undertake carbon initiatives
● acute need for carbon emissions data to be calculated in detail, regularly, accurately,
and then analyzed, reported, and used for optimization purposes
● new metrics and measurements had to be invented rapidly and be standardized across
the industry
● Creation and validation of Green IT metrics is important in a green enterprise
transformation.
● Green IT metrics provide that robust ROI that enables the business leadership to
justify its investment.
● organizations have to report their carbon performance as much as they have to
report their fiancial performance.
● Customers can easily demand to see, in their invoices, not only the monetary figure
but also an associated “Carbon” figure that indicates the amount of carbon generated
in the production of a particular product or service
 Green IT Metrics and Measurements
Specific ways in which Green IT metrics are relevant to an organization

● Helps in measuring the carbon footprint of a product or service

● Understanding of the extent of carbon generated and, therefore, providing a benchmark
for current as well as reduction in the future of the carbon contents
● Provide an ability to compare the carbon performance of one organization against another
organization
● Enable marketing of products and services not only for lower costs and higher quality,
but also for reduced carbon generated
● Ability to comply(abide by) with the regulatory requirements
● Opportunity to mature the green processes thereby
enabling increasing optimization on the green CMM scale
Carbon Metrics Coverage
Carbon Metrics Coverage
various activities that are covered by carbon metrics:
● Measure: to measure the emissions.
● Monitor: to monitor the performance of the organization from a carbon perspective.
● Mitigate: action taken to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
● Manage: determining from that data what should be done to improve the process.
● Monetize: Deals with converting the improvement of the organization over its carbon
performance into monetary value such as through its marketing effort or on the stock
exchange or through carbon trading.
Green IT Measurement Challenges
● Lack of formal metrics and associated measurements related to carbon
performance of an organization, particularly at the end-user and the data center level.
(Eg: different factors such as power, cooling, floor space; vary for different
organizations and departments)
● Lack of availability of real-time data and corresponding defined metrics to
calculate carbon performance.
● Lack of experience and necessary expertise within the organization to put together
a measurement and optimization program.
● Lack of standards and agreements amongst a group o f organizations belonging to
a n industry group as to what should and should not be included within carbon
emissions calculation
● Confusing rules and regulations
● Lack of proper motivation especially at the top-end of the business leadership, to
initiate and implement carbon control programs.
● Differences in calculations of carbon emissions based on electricity consumed from
different sources . Eg: power generated from fossil fuel fired power stations
calculations are different from gas stations or renewable energy generators.
● Assumptions. Green policies in practice require assumptions in terms of the number
of equipments and their usage patterns. Ā ese assumptions need to be validated
periodically.
Framework for Green IT metrics
● Scope 1 :direct emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases into the
atmosphere Eg: vehicle exhausts, manufacturing emissions; physical movement of
people and materials, chemical emissions
● Scope 2 : indirect emission ; the usage of electricity from the power grid.
● Scope 3 : emissions are those caused by the organization’s supply chain ; embedded
carbon used in the manufacture of products it buys or services it uses.
● NGERS requires reporting only on Scope 1 and 2 emissions.
● CO2e stands for "carbon dioxide equivalent". It takes into account the emission of
other greenhouse gases when calculating the level of greenhouse gas emissions.
● for every 1 tonne of methane (CH4) emitted, an equivalent of 25 tonnes of CO2
would be emitted.
● Most greenhouse gas emission factors are expressed as CO2e. This means you
don’t need to make the conversion from methane GWP to carbon dioxide GWP.
Measuring the Carbon Footprint of Organization
Capacity
Maturity
Model(CMM)
Carbon Footprint
● total of all the CO2 (carbon dioxide) that your activities directly and indirectly
contribute to the environment.
● Green house gas- global warming
● Ecological footprint

Thinking about renewable energy

Check the energy used at home -
Saving energy from appliances
● Controlling power flow to electronics: Managing your media
● Squealing over heat and air conditioning costs-AC, heat pumps

○ Programmable thermostat

● Use energy star products

● Have CFL light
● Green Batteries- labeled as nickel metal hydride (NiMH) and lithium ion (Li-ion)
● Trimming fuel consumption