Title:Greening Indian IT Sector

Title:Greening Indian IT Sector

Company:NEC Corporation

Purpose:Discussion and Approval

Doc number:GE-20110007

Meeting:GISFI#5, Hyderabad, India, 20 Jun – 22 Jun, 2011

1.Abstract

Information Technology is a fast growing sector not only in India but the whole world. It can help bring down the Green House Gas (GHG) emission of other sectors, but will increase the amount of emission of the ICT sector itself along with its growth. In order to assure sustainable growth of this sector, means to alleviate GHG emissions must be proposed. This document is an additional input to previous report GISFI-GreenICT-Deliverable2-TR.doc, and also focuses on the Green IT sector. We propose this document to be accepted for the deliverable 2 of Green Energy activity, “Study on potential enhancements of ICT (Information and Communications Technology).”

2.Information Technology Sector

A technology is called as green technology when it supports energy efficiency in product life time, reusability of the materials and equipments, recycling unused equipments and products with non-toxic materials. Green Information Technology (IT) allows the efficient use of all resources. In today’s world, Information Technology can act as a catalytic change agent for Industries to make their entire value chains Green.The emissions of the IT industry emanate from Data centers and Personal Computers (PC), peripherals and printers. According to TRAI reports, by the year 2020, almost a third of the global population is expected to own a PC, while 80% are expected to own mobile phones and one in 20 households to have broadband connections. The demand for energy for ICT is expected to increase by 70% by the year 2020, driven by the demand for broadband, customer premises equipment and power hungry devices like HDTV services. The enhancement of the data center carbon footprint is due to the increased numbers of servers, network equipment, power supplies, fans and other cooling equipment.Only about half of the energy used by data centers powers the servers and storage, the rest is needed to run backup, uninterruptible power supplies (5%) and cooling systems (45%). It is expected that there will be 122 million servers in use by 2020.

The various components of ICT and their CO2 emissions in the ICT sector and their footprints are shown below.

Source [1]

Fig 1: Distribution of CO2 emissions in ICT sector

Source [2]

Fig 2: Global ICT foot print

In 2002, the PC and monitors’ combined carbon footprint was 200 MtCO2e and this is expected to triple by 2020 to 600 MtCO2e – a growth rate of 5% per annum.

Source [2]

Fig 3: Composition of PC footprint

In 2002, the global data centre footprint, including equipment use and embodied carbon, was 76 MtCO2e and this is expected to more than triple by 2020 to 259 MtCO2e – making it the fastest-growing contributor to the ICT sector’s carbon footprint, at 7% pa in relative terms.

Source [2]

Fig 4: Composition of Datacenter footprint

IT can act as a catalyst for many green initiatives. Use of e-documents, reducing travel and tele-working etc. are the examples for green initiatives. IT can also provide the analytic tools that others in the enterprise may use to reduce energy consumption in the transportation of goods or other carbon management activities.

ICT sector has following negative effects: High energy consumption, GHG emission, E-Waste, Hazardous materials, Use of scarce and non-renewable resources.

ICT sector has following positive effects: Transportation intensity reduction, Transportation optimization, Travel substitution, E-business, E-Government, and Environmental control systems.

According to Smart 2020 report, ICT sector could reduce global carbon emissions by 7.8 GtCO2e by 2020 (from an assumed total of 51.9 GtCO2e if we remain on a BAU trajectory), an amount five times larger than its own carbon footprint. Savings from avoided electricity and fuel consumption would reach 600 billion Euros ($946.5 billion).

Source [11]

Fig 5: Possible ICT enabled GHG savings by 2020 in other sectors

According to WWF, the global conservation organization, ten uses of ICT in other sectors that could each reduce global carbon dioxide emissions by at least 100 million tonnes by 2020.

•Smart city planning: deploying simulation software to improve urban design to optimize energy efficiency.

•Smart appliances: use of ICT within appliances to improve efficiency and to tailor their use with needs.

•Smart industry: deploying software to forecast, simulate and analyze energy use in production processes.

•Smart grid: deploying smart meters and communication technologies within electricity networks.

•Smart work: use of the internet to work remotely and avoid business trips or physical commuting.

•Smart buildings: use of sensors and controls in buildings to improve efficiency.

•Dematerialization services: use of ICT to substitute for physical products and interactions e.g. Onlineshopping.

•I-optimization: use of ICT within production processes to improve operations and increase efficiency.

•Integrated renewable solutions: use of simulation, analytical and management tools to enable a wide deployment of renewable energy.

•Intelligent transport: deployment of advanced sensors, analytical models and ubiquitous communications to enable less polluting forms of transport.

3.Indian Scenarios

According to TRAI reports, in India around 4% of the GHG emissions are from the ICT sectorwhich is around 80 million tones of CO2 emission every year. And around 75% of this emission i.e. 3% of the GHG emissions are from the IT sector which is around 60 million tones of CO2.

According to Gartner group estimations, it was reported that ICT infrastructure energy consumption to grow 30% to over 31 trillion-watt hours by 2014.In tandem with the rise in energy consumption, carbon emissions levels from Indian enterprise ICT infrastructure is also expected to rise to 25 million metric tonnes by 2014 from less than 20 million metric tonnes in 2009. Out of which Computing infrastructure like PCs and monitors accounted for nearly 62 per cent of total ICT energy consumption in 2009, followed by enterprise communications infrastructure, with 25 per cent.

Based on the Internet World Stats (International Telecommunication Union, 2010) out of 1173108018 Indian population, 81000000 are using the Internet for different purposes.There is a huge scope for increase in Internet users in India in coming days, which will increase Power usage and GHG emission.As per the report of business week 2010, the power prices for households are increased by 2 percent, while those for industrial users raised by 5.8 percent. It was also known that electricity prices were raised by an average 3.9 percent in India.

According to a UN report, India is the second largest e-waste generator in Asia. In the year 2009, India generated 5.9 mn tonnes of hazardous waste, posing serious health issues. The UN study says that by 2020, e-wastes from old computers would jump by 500% from the 2007 levels in India. A recent report by the Delhi based Center for Science and Environment (CSE) says that apart from generating about 3,50,000 tonnes of electronic waste every year, India imports another 50,000 tonnes.

Green IT is 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. Thus, green IT includes the dimensions of environmental sustainability, the economics of energy efficiency, and the total cost of ownership, which includes the cost of disposal and recycling. Below Figure shows the percentage of benefit by practicing green IT.

Source [10]

Fig 6: Green IT adoption benefits

Energy efficiency initiatives in ICT have mostly focused on consumption while in use. However, a large part of the environmental impact of a device comes during its manufacture and disposal. The whole life impact of equipment is much more difficult to measure than the in use energy consumption, because it is spread through a long supply chain.

1.1.Issues and Potential Solutions

In this section, elaborates the issues and on the examples of solutions for each network element in the Mobile communication.

Assessing Impact of IT products

A life cycle assessment (LCA) is a systematic procedure for measuring the material and energy inputs, outputs, and associated environmental impacts throughout the life cycle of a product or service. It provides important insight into where a product’s and service’s environmental impact could be improved, and where in the value chain that needs to happen.The challenge of an LCA is that it is costly for complex products such as IT equipment.

Using Energy Star Certified Products

Bureau of Energy Efficiency(Ministry of Power, Govt. of India) is planning to implement Energy Start ratings for the IT products like Desktops, Notebooks, Servers, Storage Devices, Network devices, Lights and Computer room air conditioners. Using the products with more stars will guarantee the minimum power usage which causes minimum impact on the environment.

Cloud computing for saving Energy and reducing Carbon

Smaller carbon footprint of cloud computing is a consequence of both improved infrastructure efficiency and a reduced need for IT infrastructure to support a given user base. In turn, these primary levers are heavily influenced by four key factors:

•Dynamic Provisioning

•Multi-Tenancy

•Server Utilization

•Data Center Efficiency (expressed by power usage effectiveness)

Source [9]

Fig 7: Drivers of Cloud Computing Reduced Environmental Footprint

Virtualization for Energy efficiency

A key benefit of virtualization technology is the ability to contain and consolidate the number of servers in a datacenter.This allows businesses to run multiple application and OSworkloads on the same server. Another advantage of virtualization is the ability to respond rapidly to changing business needs and computing requirements. Virtualization provides tremendous energy benefits and a lifeline to datacenters that are running low on capacity and high on power and cooling costs.

Proper Waste management

Designers should ensure thatthe product is built for re-use, repair and/or upgradeability. Stress should be laid on use of lesstoxic, easily recoverable and recyclable materials which can be taken back for refurbishment,remanufacturing, disassembly and reuse. Recycling and reuse of material are the next level ofpotential options to reduce e-waste. Recovery of metals, plastic,glass and other materials reduces the magnitude of e-waste. These options have a potential toconserve the energy and keep the environment free of toxic material that would otherwise havebeen released.

Centralized power management for Offices

In the offices, most employees will not switchoff lights, fans, and PCs when they don’t need them. If office buildings have centralized power management facility, the amount of energy waste can be reduced.

4.Energy Efficiency Standardization

ETSI EE Measurement methods and limits for Energy Consumption in Broadband Telecommunication Networks Equipment (ETSI EE TS 102533)

ETSI Energy Efficiency of Wireless Access Network Equipment (static) (ETSI TS 102706)

ETSI EE The reduction of energy consumption in telecommunications equipment and related infrastructure (ETSI EE TR 102530)

ETSI EE Better determination of equipment power and energy consumption for improved sizing (ETSI EE TR 102531)

ETSI EE The use of alternative energy sources in telecommunication installations (ETSI EE TR 102533)

ETSI DTS/EE-00022 “Energy Efficiency of Wireless Access Network Equipment”

ETSI TC Environmental Engineering Wire line - TS102 533 “Energy consumption in broadband telecommunication network equipment”

ITU-T Final reports from Focus Group on ICTs and Climate Change

ISO 14040-series acknowledged as the basic LCA standard - ITU-T SG 5 WP3 standardization intended to give an ICT specific supplementary standard

5.Requirements

Green IT is required for the following reasons:

i)To reduce the IT budget in an Organization: Using idea of Green IT is a good approach to save money. Because, in that case the organization will use less energy and less energy consumption is directly proportional to lower electricity bills which results to money saving.

ii)To reduce the GHG emissions: Increase in GHGwill have the below consequences:

• Increase in sea level as a result of melting of ice caps hence making coastal plains uninhabitable.
• Agricultural productivity could be majorly affected due to global warming.
• Depletion of ozone layer
• Change in weather systems could occur due to warmer climate resulting in more droughts and floods and stronger storms and extremes of weather.
• Spread of diseases on a bigger scale due to increasing temperatures which would have otherwise been contained due to cold weather conditions.
• A major change to ecosystem could occur with most organisms moving towards the North and South Pole.

iii)To meet the goal of Kyoto protocol: India has announced the goal of reducing the GHG emissions intensity of its GDP by 20-25% by the year 2020 compared to 2005. In India around 4% of the GHG emissions are from the ICT sector which is around 80 million tones of CO2 emission every year. Green IT contributes to meet the goal.

iv)To save natural resources: Green IT ensures recycling to save energy, water and natural resources. Things like batteries and electronic items when thrown away emit dangerous chemicals that leak through the landfill and pollute the groundwater, and also contaminate the soil which is important for our crops which in turn causes health risks to humans.

v)To improve the Greening process in other sectors: Green IT will act as catalyst for the greening in the other sectors like transport, construction, banking, health care, etc., by providing tools for assessing the processes and monitoring the results.

6.Conclusions

Green IT reduces the carbon foot prints emission into environment and e-wastage disposal. Green IT improves recycling and energy efficiency of the IT products. As India is developing as an IT hub to the world, there is a huge scope for Green IT solutions in Indian IT market.

IT can enable many green initiatives. Common green initiatives include the use of e-documents, reducing travel and tele-working. IT can also provide the analytic tools that others in the enterprise may use to reduce energy consumption in the transportation of goods or other carbon management activities.

According to WWF, increasing IT sector role in other sectors like transportation, health care, construction, city planning, banking, etc., will reduce global carbon dioxide emissions.

7.References

[1] TRAI - Recommendations on Approach towards Green Telecommunications

[2] SMART 2020: Enabling the low carbon economy in the information age

[3]ATIS Report Reviewing ICT Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)

[4]ATIS REPORT ON ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY

[5]Green Technology: Driving Economic and Environmental Benefits from ICT

[6]Annual Report (2009-10), Department of IT, Ministry of Communications & Information Technology, Government of India

[7] Becoming a winner in a low-carbon economy: ICT solutions that help business and the planet, WWF

[8]ICTs for e-Environment Guidelines for Developing Countries, with a Focus on Climate Change (ITU-T)

[9]Cloud Computing and Sustainability: The Environmental Benefits of Moving to the Cloud

[10]Murugesan, S., (January-February 2008), “Harnessing Green IT: Principles and Practices.” IT Professional[11] A standardization initiative for Green ICT (ITU)