Greenpeace wants companies like Apple, Amazon and Microsoft to make smarter, cleaner energy choices now that “cloud computing” services have ratcheted up power consumption considerably. Leading tech companies are now offering unprecedented amounts of data storage and access to “apps” on huge Internet-connected servers, saving consumers and businesses the hassle of installing and running programs and storing information on their own local computers. But at what cost? Read More

By E – The Environmental Magazine (28 April 2012):

Greenpeace wants companies like Apple, Amazon and Microsoft to make smarter, cleaner energy choices now that “cloud computing” services have ratcheted up power consumption considerably.

Leading tech companies like Google, Apple and Microsoft are now offering unprecedented amounts of data storage and access to “apps” on huge Internet-connected servers, saving consumers and businesses the hassle of installing and running programs and storing information on their own local computers.

This emerging trend, dubbed “cloud computing,” means that these providers have had to scale up their power consumption considerably, as they are increasingly responsible for providing more and more of the computing horsepower required by the world’s two billion Internet users. No doubt, sharing such resources on centralized servers is more efficient than every individual and business running their own versions separately. In fact, the research firm Verdantix estimates that companies off-loading data and services to cloud servers could save $12 billion off their energy bills and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 85 million metric tons within the next decade. But for the greenhouse gas savings to be realized, the companies offering cloud computing services need to make the right energy choices.

Greenpeace has been tracking sustainability among tech companies for over a decade, and recently released a report, “How Green is Your Cloud?” assessing the green footprint of the move to cloud computing. According to the analysis, some of the major players (Google, Facebook and Yahoo) have gone to great lengths to ensure that significant amounts of the power they need come from clean, green sources like wind and solar. But Greenpeace chastises others (Apple, Amazon and Microsoft) for relying on so-called “dirtier” sources of power, such as coal and nuclear, to run their huge data centers.

“When people around the world share their music or photos on the cloud, they want to know that the cloud is powered by clean, safe energy,” says Gary Cook, a Senior Policy Analyst with Greenpeace. “Yet highly innovative and profitable companies like Apple, Amazon and Microsoft are building data centers powered by coal and acting like their customers won’t know or won’t care. They’re wrong.”

Greenpeace’s report evaluates 14 major tech firms and the electricity supply chains in use across more than 80 different data centers that power cloud-based services. Some of the largest data centers are in buildings so big they are visible from space and use as much power as 250,000 European homes. If the cloud were its own country, says Greenpeace, it would rank 5th in the world in electricity consumption.

“Companies like Google, Yahoo and Facebook are beginning to lead the sector down a clean energy pathway through innovations in energy efficiency, prioritizing renewable energy access when siting their data centers, and demanding better energy options from utilities and government decision-makers,” reports Greenpeace. But unfortunately the majority of the industry is not marching in step. As such, Greenpeace is calling on all tech companies with cloud services to develop siting policies based on access to clean energy sources, invest in or directly purchase renewable energy, be transparent about their energy usage, share innovative solutions so the sector as a whole can improve, and demand that governments and utilities increase the percentage of clean, green power available on the grid.

Source: www.blastmagazine.com

Come clean. Word is out at last.  Ken Hickson, through his communications agency H2PC Asia, is officially involved in promoting the Singapore National Environment Agency’s (NEA) inaugural CleanEnviro Summit which takes place in the first week of July in conjunction with Singapore International Water Week and the World Cities Summit. The price of going public is getting coverage in the media. This time the first issue (May) of Green Prospects Asia (it used to be called Green Purchasing Asia) delved into a little more than the event. Some penetrating insights in your “illustrious” editor, as well as his thoughts on communications, social media and traditional media.  Read More

Green Prospects Asia (1 May 2012):

Harnessing the media to fight climate change

Over the course of his long career, veteran sustainability communicator Ken Hickson has witnessed many significant developments in environmental issues as well as in the media. He talks to Siaw Mei Li about how harnessing modern communications can help save the planet.

“I started out as a journalist 50 years ago this year,” Ken Hickson reveals cheerfully, noting with a quick look around that he must be the oldest in the room. “Now I’ve made the transition from being a print or newspaper journalist to an online journalist, I’ve become reasonably modern!”

And so he has. In addition to providing sustainability communications services to corporations and government agencies, the founder and chief executive officer of Singapore-based consultancy Sustain Ability Showcase Asia (SASA) tweets periodically and helms SASA’s twice-monthly email news digest on climate change issues. Lately he is also involved in promoting the Singapore National Environment Agency’s (NEA) inaugural CleanEnviro Summit and the WasteMET Asia exhibition and conference, the latter of which is co-organised by the Waste Management and Recycling Association of Singapore (WMRAS). Both events will take place in the first week of July in conjunction with Singapore International Water Week and the World Cities Summit.

Wanted: Integrated solutions

Hickson sees a much-needed synergy in this upcoming events cluster. “We’ve got to accept that there’s a nexus between climate change and energy, water and the environment. We can no longer say, ‘I’m just dealing with water here’ or ‘I’m just dealing with food here’. Climate change has an impact on all of that, and waste is a component we have to deal with much better in terms of using it for energy and also reducing the amount of waste we create. It’s not something we should be dumping or filling up holes in the ground or our water resources with; we should be converting it to energy – using it as a resource.”

While some of the information that Hickson receives in his work may sound worrying, the business and social potential in turning such problematic situations around are also tremendous. As an example, he relates how experts at the recent Reuters Food and Agriculture Summit in Chicago reported that an estimated 30 to 50% of the food produced in the world goes uneaten and ends up in landfills.

“We’ve got to better manage our production, distribution, buying and consumption habits, and also how we manage waste,” says Hickson, citing waste minimisation and reutilisation projects such as converting used cooking oil into biofuel, running community and commercial composting initiatives and salvaging discarded supermarket food items not yet past their due date to be channeled to the needy via charitable organisations.

In other words, resolving the food waste problem creatively means not only feeding more people, but also diverting waste from landfills and supplementing society’s need for fuel and agricultural resources.

Nothing wasted

These principles of maximising resources, avoiding waste, recycling and prolonging the useful life of a product apply equally well to the realm of climate change communications, particularly in the era of multi-platform communications.

“Some journalists may be writing for newspapers but their material is also being used online, and they’re also blogging and working with social media,” Hickson points out, giving as an example, veteran journalist Michael Richardson, whose work on climate change and alternative fuels enriches regional think tanks while also reaching wider audiences in the form of the Singapore Straits Times’ print and online readership. Meanwhile, Reuters climate change correspondent David Fogarty’s journalism is disseminated not only by the agency’s newswire, but also reaches the public via the @reutersclimate Twitter profile. With each additional re-post, news and research gains longevity along with new audiences.

“You need to be working in all media that’s available,” says Hickson. “You might use social media to refer to an article that appears online or on a web portal that, in turn, comes from a newspaper. So nothing goes to waste – not even the work of journalists.”

Source: www.greenprospectsasia.com