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SustainIT
Newsletter July 2008
National
eWell-Being Awards Partnership
Opportunities
Opportunities exist to become a sponsor of
the 2009 awards.
The Awards are now entering their seventh
successful year. Since their launch in 2002 more than 700 high
quality entries have been received from a diverse range of
organisations in the public, private and voluntary sectors. Over 800
people have attended the prestigious Awards ceremonies and 650,000
copies of the Awards brochures have been published by the national
media partners.
For further information on the partnership
opportunities please contact Richard
Craven r.craven@ukceed.org or 01733
311644
SusteIT
Initiative Event
SustainIT is helping organise two events on
‘The Sustainable Desktop’ (Sheffield, 2 September) and ‘New Ways
of Working’ (Edinburgh, 21 August). The events are focused on
further and higher education, but are open to suppliers with
relevant expertise and others with an interest in the sector.
The events form part of the SusteIT
initiative, which is analysing the current status of ‘green IT’ in
universities and colleges, and developing improvement actions. The
project is managed by the Higher Education Environmental Performance
Improvement (HEEPI) project and funded by the sector’s Joint
Information Services Committee (JISC).
The ‘Sustainable Desktop’ event focuses on
ways of reducing IT-related energy consumption through
computer powerdown; grid computing; procurement of low
power PCs, and thin client approaches. It will also feature
SusteIT’s new IT footprinting tool – now available in beta version
for testing from www.susteit.org.uk – which has
revealed that Sheffield’s
IT-related power bill will be over £1 million next year.
The New Ways of Working event is at
the new campus of Queen Margaret University. It examines the
ways in which IT innovations such as thin client and remote working
can increase organisational effectiveness, and greatly reduce space
requirements, energy consumption and carbon
emissions.
SustainIT
& PC Pro Partnership
SustainIT has teamed up with
PC Pro to spread the word of sustainable development to a wider IT
audience. PC Pro and SustainIT have created the Environmental
Innovator of the Year Award for this year’s PC Pro and eWell-Being
Awards. This award acknowledges either the
policies or products produced by companies to reduce their carbon
footprint, or the amount of environmental waste produced by their
customers, as part of PC
Pro’s Reliability and Service Awards
The Awards are different from any other
you’ll find in the UK. We’re not asking you
to “vote” for a company, we want to know about the real-world
experiences you’ve enjoyed – or otherwise – after buying goods and
services from the UK’s IT
companies.
Special offer for
SustainIT newsletter readers
Try Pc Pro, the
UK’s No.1 magazine for IT
professionals and enthusiasts with 3 issues
for just £1 Every month it’s packed with the latest news,
reviews and labs tests you need to stay informed – and comes with a
cover DVD packed with free applications and software. Plus,
we’ll send you a handy 26-piece toolkit, worth £9.99 as your free
welcome gift.
Low
Carbon and Environmental Efficiency
Greening Government IT
Strategy Launched
Trials and tribulations of
WEEE Takeback
Open Source Software for
Data Center Energy Monitoring
New Dell Power Supply First
to Earn Gold 80-Plus Certification
Letsrecycle.com
Renewables Website Launched
Existing Technologies
Can Nearly Halve Energy Use
OFCOM sets out Plans to
Slash its CO2 Emissions
Better
Ways of Working
Microsoft Offers
Software Licensing Help
Superfast Broadband
Investment Plan Unveiled
Reaching
the Digitally Excluded
Groups Unite to Ensure Openness of the
Web
Government says Technology in Learning is No
Longer Optional
Low
Carbon and Environmental Efficiency
Greening
Government IT Strategy Launched
The Cabinet Office’s Greening Government ICT
report launched earlier this month sets out an 18-step program for
government departments to follow to meet the 2012 target of ICT
energy consumption being carbon neutral.
Cabinet Office minister Tom Watson claimed
the UK is the first
government in the world to adopt such a comprehensive
approach.
Click
here to read the full report Top
Trials
and tribulations of WEEE Takeback
Companies across the globe are increasingly
realising the environmental benefits of green business initiatives.
This ethos however poses a great challenge to electronics
manufacturers as they seek ‘green’ ways to deal with products at the
end of their lifecycle.
Extender Producer Responsibility (EPR)
programs are one solution, with a range of benefits. Manufacturers
collect and recycle or reuse products, reducing the amount of
electronic products which end up in landfill. As well as
environmental and health benefits, this practice has potential
business benefits, including reducing waste and manufacturing
expenses, reusing resources and fostering valuable customer
relations. This program does however pose various challenges to
corporate structure, including funding and development issues.
More
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Open
Source Software for
Data
Center Energy
Monitoring
The Carbon Trust and British Computer
Society have announced pioneering software plans funded by the
Carbon Trust’s Low Carbon Collaboration Initiative and Romonet for
early next year. They hope to make available software that allows
companies to monitor and predict energy use in their data centers.
Romonet are one group working on the project, creating a program
allowing companies to simulate changes within the data center and
equipment, forecasting energy changes before investing in new
equipment.
It is expected that the software, which will
enable operators to monitor at their costs, energy use and carbon
emissions on a per service or per application basis, will be
available in early 2009.
More
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New
Dell Power Supply First to Earn Gold 80-Plus
Certification
As part of its goal to
be the world’s greenest technology company, Dell has announced that
its newest server power supply will be the first to meet the new
80-Plus certification’s gold standard. This will advance the company
well-beyond its commitments to the Climate Savers Computing
initiative and Energy Star
requirements.
The specification of
the 80-Plus Gold certification requires that a power supply is a
minimum of 90% efficient at 50% of its output. Dell said that
reaching this level so early has put them a year in advance of its
commitments to the Climate Savers Computing Initiative, which
requires members organisations to design 40% of their servers to be
at least 89% efficient by July 2009. Dell is also leading the way
with Energy Star 5.0 requirements, which go into effect by July
2009
More
Top
Letsrecycle.com
Renewables Website Launched
As the UK energy industry
experiences massive upheaval, letsrecycle.com have launched a new
website. Newenergyfocus.com is dedicated to the low carbon energy
market and is readily available to anyone with an interest in
sustainable energy issues. According to James Cartledge, the site
offers a unique news and information service, with links to
researchers, regulators and legislators through an online forum, ‘to
promote interaction within the sector’.
The website provides
information for both commercial and domestic users, serving a wide
audience across various sectors. James Cartledge hopes that it will
help users to ‘hit renewable energy generation and carbon emissions
targets’ in order to combat climate change.
More
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Existing
Technologies Can Nearly
Halve Energy Use
The Data Center
Demonstration Project, launched by Silicon Valley Leadership Group
(SVLG) and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratories has announced
that Data Center managers have
technologies at their disposal that can nearly halve energy
consumption. This reduction has the potential to reduce greenhouse
gas emissions by an amount equal to taking 8 million cars off the
road.
Additionally, it was
declared that the potential for retrofitted legacy data centers to
become nearly as efficient as new facilities. This announcement
comes from eighteen months of research into energy saving
technologies at 17 data centers, in a feasibility assessment of
recommendations issued last year by the Environmental Protection
Agency.
More
Top
OFCOM
sets out Plans to Slash its
CO2 Emissions
Ofcom has set out its target to reduce its
annual level of carbon dioxide emissions by 25 per cent by 2012 and
50 per cent by 2020.
The communications watchdog said that the
target forms part of its 'Footprint' project which seeks to reduce
carbon emissions across the entire
organisation.
Following the results of Ofcom’s first ever
carbon audit for 2006/7, Ofcom intends to build on the initiatives
it has already implemented by introducing a number of measures to
further reduce its carbon dioxide emissions,
including:
- Information
Systems - reducing power consumed by IS systems;
- Utilities –
driving down building energy consumption;
- Business travel –
reducing business travel and increasing use of conferencing
technology;
- Commuting –
increasing flexible working;
- Procurement –
putting in place a low-carbon procurement
strategy;
- Paper – further
reducing paper consumption; and
- Waste – further
reducing the volume of waste sent to landfill by encouraging more
recycling.
Ed Richards, Ofcom Chief Executive said,
“Ofcom takes its role in minimising its impact on the environment
very seriously and looks forward to working with Government and with
its stakeholders to achieve the common goal of reducing our carbon
emissions.”
More
Top
Better
Ways of Working
Microsoft Offers
Software Licensing Help
Microsoft is offering to help
businesses gain better control of their software licensing through
the release of its new software asset management (SAM) optimisation
framework. The framework acts as a mechanism for firms to align
their licensing with business requirements in a more cost-effective
manner.
Michala Wardell, head of
anti-piracy and licensing at Microsoft UK said “Historically asset management consisted of a snapshot of an
organisation’s assets and if they had too much they would get rid of
a few things but the SAM model takes the evaluation further to
ensure long term savings”. The programme will measure performance
and evaluate the level of maturity of SAM practices, for example
through comparing how the customer purchased previously to current
spending practice. Customers will be rated according to the
sophistication of their asset management strategy. The ratings range
from basic, standardised, rationalised or dynamic, depending on how
much users' strategies negate risk to the business.
More
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Superfast
Broadband Investment Plan
Unveiled
Ofcom have welcomed BT’s plans announced to
upgrade its broadband network.
Ed Richards, Ofcom Chief Executive, said:
“This is a clear sign that the UK market is moving in
the right direction, with a growing number of plans to deliver
super-fast broadband services to consumers.
These new networks will be a critical part
of the UK’s infrastructure and
will change our experience of communications. They will support and
deliver innovative applications and services as well as helping
create new opportunities for businesses of all kinds.
The UK has among the most
competitive and widely available current generation broadband
markets in the world. This new step will ensure that the UK remains at the
forefront of developments.
Industry cannot achieve a move as
significant as the launch of super-fast broadband on its own. Ofcom
has led the way in prompting a debate about the regulatory
environment for super-fast broadband deployment. With this
announcement industry will need further regulatory detail and that
is exactly what Ofcom will provide.
Firstly, given the potential consumer
benefits, regulation needs to provide the right incentives for
operators to invest, recognising the inherently risky nature of
these investments.
Secondly, we want to continue to promote a
vibrant competitive environment as we enter the next generation of
communications services.
Thirdly, we are already working closely with
communications providers, and our wider stakeholders, to ensure
there is a concerted dialogue on the regulatory environment to
support investment and competition.
Building on these discussions and our policy
work over the last two years, we will be publishing further detailed
proposals for the regulatory framework for Next Generation Access
networks in September.”
More
Top
Reaching
the Digitally Excluded
Groups
Unite to Ensure Openness of
the Web
Two groups have joined forces
in an attempt to ensure the web stays open, and continues to act as
a strong platform for collaboration and innovation. Nesta (National
Endowment for Science and Technology) and WRSI (Web Science Research
Initiative) today announced their joint intentions.
With the support of web founder
Sir Tim Berners-Lee, the groups called on governments, businesses
and academia to work together to ensure the openness of the web.
Berners-Lee said “The development of the web will have major
social, economic and political implications for our future. At its
core must be a commitment to maintain the principles of openness as
a platform for the sharing of
information."
The partnership hopes to ensure
that the UK is well positioned to
capitalise on the new networked information economy enabled by the
web.
More
Top
Government
says Technology in Learning
is No Longer Optional
Learners of all ages need the
chance to use technology to support their learning, said Jim Knight
MP, Department for Children, Schools and Families, in the launch of
the revised Harnessing Technology
Strategy.
The revised strategy sets out a commitment
to ensuring every school, college,
university or training provider is 'technology confident', placing
particular emphasis on achieving this through engagement with
learners and parents and the professional development of teachers
and trainers. Since the strategy for using technology in learning
was first published by DfES in 2005, there have been significant
developments in both the technology and education sectors. Over 85%
of households with families now have access to broadband,
compared with only 8% of households five years ago. Three quarters
of 11-16 year olds use social networking sites and 90% use MSN or
email.
Bill Rammell, Minister for Lifelong
Learning, Further and Higher Education,
said:
"Technology has the potential to transform the lives of
students, opening up new worlds and enabling them to study when,
where and how they choose to. This is true for any student -
the child just starting out at school, the postgraduate
doing cutting edge research and the adult upgrading skills in the
workplace.
Click
here to read the full report Top
Satellite
Broadband to Bridge Scottish Digital Divide
The Scottish government have announced a
deal to bring satellite broadband to areas of Scotland which can’t be
reached by ADSL. The £3.3m contract awarded to Avanti will provide
broadband to over 3,800 premises spread across numerous areas in
Scotland. Rollout of
services will start in July and be completed by May 2009 at the
latest.
Enterprise Minister Jim Mather said: "In
this 21st Century, as many people as possible should have broadband
access. It is a vital tool for business, helping drive economic
growth, and is now used by ever more households as standard.
"Scotland currently has
over 99% broadband availability and we have been monitoring access
difficulties - that's why we asked those without access to come
forward and register so that we could build a clear picture of the
extent of the problem."
More
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About
SustainIT
SustainIT
is an initiative of The UK Centre for Economic and Environmental
Development (UK CEED), an independent, entrepreneurial research
foundation. It conducts research on, and provides good practice
examples of, synergies between ICT and sustainable development.
For more information visit www.sustainit.org or contact us
on +44 (0)1733 311644.
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