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greenAgenda
TheWorldWildlife Fund (WWF) and
Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) are
urging US businesses to cut carbon
emissions by an average of 3% a year
between now and 2020 and enjoy
increased profits as a result.
Their new report,
The 3% Solution:
Driving Profits Through Carbon Reduction
,
states that a 3% annual reduction will
put the US corporate sector on track
for a 25% reduction in greenhouse gas
emissions (from 1990 levels).
A 25% reduction by 2020 is at the
lower end of what the Intergovernmental
Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)
says is needed to help avoid a global
temperature rise of 2 degrees Celsius
above pre-industrial levels.
The report states that four out of
5 companies from the S&P 500 that
report emissions to CDP have seen
greater financial returns on carbon
reduction investments than on capital
investments overall. This suggests that
businesses can look forward to greater
profitability by reallocating capital
expenditure towards energy efficiency
and renewable energy projects.
The 3% Solution: Driving Profits
Through Carbon Reduction
calculates
that to unlock billions of dollars in cost
savings, the US corporate sector would on
average need to invest 3 to 4% of their
capital expenditure each year on low-risk,
profitable carbon reduction projects.
To help companies reach these goals,
the report includes a Carbon Target and
Profit Calculator, which provides a guide
to setting emission reduction goals; and
the Carbon Productivity Portfolio, a set
of five actions that form a new strategic
approach to maximising business value
and carbon reductions.
www.worldwildlife.org
Treading the light fantastic
Rexel has helped The University of Essex reduce lighting-
related energy consumption by 77%, saving £10,311
each year.
As part of a £1 million energy-efficient lighting project, the
University installed LED lighting with a life expectancy of more
than a decade in all external walkways on its Colchester campus.
Replacing the existing T 150w HQL tubular lighting with
197 Kingfisher
LED-IN1BC4.7
lamps has reduced
energy consumption
from 133,509 Kwh
to 30,396 Kwh per
annum and shrunk
the University’s
annual carbon
footprint by 56
tonnes.
www.rexel.com
Energy efficiency
product of the year
The NextiraOne Energy Efficient Data
Centre Architecture solution has been
named Data Centre Energy Efficiency
Product of the Year at the Data Centre
Solutions Awards 2013 after it helped
lower the energy consumption of
Howden Joinery’s Northampton-
based core site by 60%.
Introduced when Howden’s
power supply had nearly reached full
capacity, the solution cut overall power
consumption from peak readings of 392
amps to 158 amps, giving Howden’s the
capacity to grow its business without
having to move premises or pay higher
running charges.
Clive Cockburn, Head of IS
Infrastructure at Howden Joinery
Group plc, said: “The combination of
new energy-efficient technologies and
improved management techniques
has brought our power consumption
down by an incredible 60%. Thanks to
NextiraOne’s solution we continue to
have the capacity to grow our business
on our main site.”
www.nextiraone.eu/uk
Sainsbury’s sets new
solar landmark
With 100,000 photovoltaic solar
panels on the roofs of 210 stores,
Sainsbury’s is the largest multi-roof
solar panel operator in Europe. Its solar
arrays cover an area the size of 35
football pitches and have reduced the
company’s total CO2 emissions by an
estimated 9,785 tonnes per year.
Other low carbon technologies used
by the retailer include ground source heat
pumps in 12 stores; 74 biomass boilers;
and GE’s Lumination Linear Suspended
LED lighting system in Sainsbury’s new
Leek supermarket, which is expected to
reduce energy use from lighting by 59%.
Paul Crewe, Sainsbury’s Head of
Engineering, Sustainability, Energy and
Environment, said: “We’ve achieved a 9.1%
absolute reduction in electricity use over
the past four years in our supermarkets,
despite a 25% increase in space, and we’re
really seeing the benefits from using our
underutilised space for solar panels, and
from the other renewable technologies
we’ve installed.”
By 2020, Sainsbury’s plans to reduce
operational carbon emissions by 30%
from 2005 levels.
Renewables on the rise
Worldwide power generation from hydro, wind, solar
and other renewable sources will exceed that from
gas by 2016 and will produce twice as much energy as
nuclear, according to the second annual
Medium-Term
Renewable Energy Market Report
from the International
Energy Agency (IEA).
The IEA expects renewable power to grow by 40% in
the next five years and to make up almost a quarter of the
global power mix by 2018, up from an estimated 20% in
2011. The share of wind, solar, bio-energy, geothermal and
other non-hydro sources in total power generation will
double to 8% by 2018, up from 4% in 2011 and 2% in 2006.
Non-OECD countries are expected to account for two-
thirds of the global increase in renewable power generation
between now and 2018.
Finding the profit in carbon reduction
Room for improvement
The education sector is failing to maximise savings
from PC energy management solutions due to a lack of
knowledge about the technology, or so Verisimic claims.
Its survey of more than 100 IT managers working in
education found that only 9% had ‘considerable knowledge’
of PC management software and nearly 50% underestimated
the size of the proven savings – £60 per PC, according to
Verisimic.
The most popular cost-saving measures cited by
respondents were ‘reducing IT power and cooling costs’
(20%), PC energy management software (17%) and
virtualisation (16%).
Loughborough University has saved £30,000 a year since
2011 when it installed Verisimic
PC energy management
software to control the
nocturnal and weekend energy
consumption of 1,700 PCs.
Wake-on-LAN functionality
ensures machines are powered-
on to receive patches and
upgrades and powered down
as soon as that process is
complete.
Loughborough University is using
PC energy management software
to cut costs and carbon emissions.