How To Reduce Carbon Footprint

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

In today’s world, technology is increasingly becoming an essential part of people’s life. But this dependence is also taking its toll on the environment. While IT has helped us immensely in many spheres of our lives, it is also the cause for many environmental problems. The University needs to implement green computing policies to reduce its carbon footprint, but at the same time provide high computing facilities. This report tries to review the current available options to tackle this issue. It delves into power saving techniques, using better algorithms, better resource allocation, using cloud computing, data centre virtualization and server consolidation. These are few of the options that University can undertake to pursue a policy of green IT.

Introduction

In recent years, there has been in increase in the dependence on and use of technology. Though this has immensely improved the quality of work and lifestyle in general, it has also had an adverse effect on our environment.

With the drastic increase in global surface temperatures in recent decades, people are starting to realize the problems which come along with using high tech computing facilities.

This has caused a gradual shift towards green IT, the use of computing practices which help reduce the adverse affect of technology on the environment.

So how does the University adopt a policy of green IT and provide high powered computing facilities at the same time?

This report will try to answer this question by looking at what green IT is, why there is a need for it, and what green computing practices can be adopted to reduce the adverse effects of ICT.

Main Sections

Green IT

Before going ahead, it is best to define what Green IT is. According to San Murugesan (2008), 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.

Green computing focuses on reducing the negative effects on the environment by maximizing the energy efficiency, reducing the use and discharge of hazardous material and promoting the recyclability and biodegradability of products.

Over the years, IT has become very widespread and has been adopted in several areas of work and day-to-day life. However it has also contributed towards a lot of environmental problems, to counter which sustainable computing practices have to be adopted.

Researchers have estimated that ICT is responsible for around 2% of the global greenhouse gas emissions, with more than half of it coming from data centres. However, the carbon footprint can be reduced up to fivefold with the help of sustainable IT.

Greenhouse gas emissions are the prime reason for increase in global warming. It is a very serious issue which has increased in large proportions in the recent years. It causes rise in sea-level, adverse affects on the weather, climate change, glacier retreats, increased volcanism and many more such problems.

Power saving

The first step towards green computing practices is by the use of power saving techniques.

Turning off the computer when not in need and using screensavers are basic strategies for energy conservation, but nonetheless are effective.

When not in use, computers not only waste electricity, they also generate heat. This in turn requires more cooling, and increases the cost and power consumption.

Nowadays almost all computers have a sleep mode, which reduces their energy use by 60-70%. There are power supplies available which have efficiencies up to 95%.

"Many governmental agencies have continued to implement standards and regulations that encourage green computing. The Energy Star program was revised in October 2006 to include stricter efficiency requirements for computer equipment, along with a tiered ranking system for approved products" (Jones, 2006).

Using Energy-Star certified things will help ensure that the equipments are energy-efficient.

CRT monitors use more power than LCD monitors, and also contain large amounts of lead.

It’s not easy for the IT staff to govern the PC power consumption. Hence, according to Murugesan (2008), a pragmatic approach is to use software such as Surveyor from Verdiem that offers network-level control over PCs and monitors. When not in use, the PC is placed into a lower-power consumption mode and monitors into sleep mode. The amount of power consumed by each is measured as well. They can be remotely awakened for software upgrades, backup or maintenance by network managers.

Algorithmic efficiency

The amount of resources required for any operation is also determined by the efficiency of the algorithm used in the computation. Using fast search algorithms like binary search instead of the slow ones like linear search can help substantially reduce the resource usage.

Reuse, Refurbish, Recycle

Computers should be used till they can meet the requirements instead of being replaced every time some new model comes out, and they should be upgraded, if possible, instead of just purchasing a new one altogether.

When they can no longer be used, they should either be refurbished or given to charities that will do the same, so that those in need can receive them.

Computer parts consist of harmful materials such as lead, mercury which if not disposed properly will only elevate the environmental problems.

It has been estimated by the UNEP (United Nations Environment Program) that each year 20-50 million tons of electronic waste is generated worldwide, and this figure only happens to be increasing.

So when the computers cannot be used at all, instead of throwing them away they should be recycled.

Also, when making any purchase one should look for the product longevity.

Cloud Computing

"Cloud computing is a type of parallel and distributed system consisting of a collection of interconnected and virtualized computers that are present as one or more unified computing resources" (Buyya, et al., 2008).

Cloud computing can produce energy efficiency because of server consolidation and energy-aware scheduling.

It can enable a more energy-efficient use of computing power.

"In the case of distributed clouds over data centers with different source of energies including renewable source of energies, a small compromise on energy consumption reduction could result in high carbon footprint reduction." (Farrahi Moghaddam, 2011).

Data Centres

Data centres are responsible for a large amount of greenhouse gas emissions. They need to be made more eco-friendly.

It has been estimated that up to 40% of data centre costs are for air conditioning. As stated by Ahuja, et al. (2011), this can be reduced by using an air economizer. It assists in the air conditioning by using the colder outside air.

Energy efficient design would utilize a data centre’s space better, and that in turn will increase efficiency and performance.

"Routing traffic away from data centres experiencing warm weather allows computers to be shut down and avoid using air conditioning" (Rear don, 2009).

One of the main solutions for energy-efficient operation of servers in data centres is virtualization.

Virtualization has been defined as "a method of running multiple independent virtual operating systems on a single physical computer" (Bruschi, 2011). He also described it as a way of allowing the same amount of processing to occur on fewer servers by increasing server utilization.

It combines the processing power onto fewer servers operating at higher utilization. Hence, it decreases the number of serves needed in a data centre substantially, in turn reducing the server power required and therefore the size of the cooling equipment needed.

Chillers are tubes which carry colder water to where they are needed, and improving the airflow can also reduce the cost.

Patterson (2008) said that, running the room temperature higher but within computer specifications may be useful if leakage does not result in greater energy loss.

Conclusions

To conclude, green IT is an upcoming trend which is slowly becoming a necessity. Despite all its benefits, right from its production to its disposal, IT creates a lot of environmental hazards. If not taken care of, it could create even more problems in the time to come.

The University has to provide high powered computing and cannot compromise with the performance of the resources. But along with this it also needs to do its part for the environment by reducing its carbon footprint.

This report analysed the available solutions for addressing this problem and the conclusions drawn from it are that energy-efficient products should be used, along with software which can govern the power consumption. Use LCD monitors instead of CRT. Using better algorithms and resource allocation can also help to a great deal. The 3 Rs of green computing, namely Reuse, Refurbish and Recycle, should be taken into consideration as well.

Cloud computing is the use of computing resources that are delivered over a network, and can help in providing energy-efficiency.

Data centres have very high energy demands and hence play a large part in the greenhouse gas emissions. This can be countered by making changes in their design and using better cooling system, on-site electrical generation and recycling of waste heat. They can improve their space efficiency through storage consolidation. Virtualization is an abstraction of resources which allows distributing work in such a manner that servers are either busy or put in a low-power mode. It can reduce the number of servers needed, and reduce the power needed as well cooling equipment required.

The above mentioned are ways in which the University can adopt a policy of green IT and continue to provide high standard computing facilities.

References

San Murugesan, 2008, Harnessing Green IT: Principles and Practices, IEEE IT Professional.

Jones, Ernesta, 2007, EPA Announces New Computer Efficiency Requirements, U.S. EPA.

Bruschi, Rumsey, Anliker, Chu, Gregson, 2011, Best Practices Guide for Energy-Efficient Data Center Design, prepared by National Renewable Energy Laboratory for the U.S. Department of Energy.

Berl, Gelenbe, Girolamo, Giuliani, Meer, Dang, Pentikousis, 2010, Energy-Efficient Cloud Computing, The Computer Journal 2010.

Buyya, R., Chee Shin Yeo, Venugopal, S., 2008, Market-Oriented Cloud Computing: Vision, Hype, and Reality for Delivering IT services as Computer Utilities, 10th IEEE International Conference on High Powered Performance Computing and Communications 2008. HPCC ’08, pp. 5-13.

Reardon, Marguerite, 2009, Energy-aware Internet routing coming soon, CNET.

Ahuja, N., Rego, C., Ahuja, S., Warner. M., and Docca, A., 2011, Data Center Efficiency with Higher Ambient Temperatures and Optimzed Cooling Control, 27th IEEE Semi-Therm Symposium, pp. 105-109.

Patterson, M. K, 2008, The Effect of Data Center Temperature on Energy Efficiency, 11th Intersociety Conf. on Thermal and Thermomechanical Phenomena in Electronic Systems (ITHERM 2008), pp. 1167-1174.

Farrahi Moghaddam, Fereydoun, et al., 2011, Low Carbon Virtual Private Clouds, IEEE Cloud 2011.

Baliga, J., et al., 2011, Green Cloud Computing: Balancing Energy in Processing, Storage, and Transport, IEEE Cloud 2011.