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sustainabletimes 09 www.binfo.co.uk
Huge increases in energy consumption
mean that global internet and social
networking frms need to adopt a
more strategic approach to energy
and carbon management, Verdantix
claims in a new report Carbon
Strategy Benchmark: Internet Sector
According to the US EPA, datacentre
energy consumption doubled between
2000 and 2006, and could have
doubled again by the end of 2011. The
Department of Energy estimates that
datacentres now consume as much as
3% of total US electricity.
Verdantix argues that a more
strategic approach is needed to tackle
challenges such as rising energy spend
caused by exploding datacentre use;
the impact of energy price volatility
on fnancial results; the likelihood of
mandatory carbon reporting; and public
criticism of sustainability commitments
by groups such as Greenpeace (see box)
and the Beijing-based Institute of Public
and Environmental Affairs.
Janet Lin, Verdantix Senior Manager in
New York, said: “To remain competitive,
the world’s largest internet and social
networking frms need to keep energy
costs under control and protect
the brand with transparent carbon
communications.
“Given their stellar growth rates, the
14 frms in this study cannot deliver
absolute reductions in carbon emissions
through energy effciency. Instead
they should track performance against
intensity metrics such as Carbon Usage
Effectiveness in datacentres. Risks from
ignoring energy and carbon management
will grow over time – not shrink.”
The world’s largest
The report assesses the energy strategies
of the world’s 14 largest internet and
social networking frms including Akamai,
Amazon, Apple, eBay, Expedia, Facebook,
Google, Netfix, Priceline, Salesforce,
Yahoo! and Chinese players Alibaba,
Baidu and Tencent.
It identifes Akamai, Apple and
eBay as leaders in energy effciency
enhancements and disclosure of carbon
emissions, but states that positive steps
are being made by Salesforce, which has
publicised GHG reductions from cloud
services, and Google, which recently
disclosed its carbon footprint.
Overall, the study exposes a
widespread lack of transparency in
the sector: just four frms – Akamai,
Apple, eBay and Google – disclose
GHG emissions from their datacentres
on a global basis; and none invest
in assurance from a recognised,
independent verifer of GHG emissions
data such as DNV, KPMG or PwC.
Clearly more effcient
Google, which recently disclosed the
energy consumption of its datacentres
for the frst time, says that the massive
amount of energy used to power its
datacentres should not obscure the
improvements being made in effciency
and the sourcing of clean energy: Google
has been carbon neutral since 2007 and
is continuing to increase the proportion
of renewable energy in its grid from 19%
in 2010 to a target of more than 35%.
More important than the overall
energy consumption fgure, it says, is the
fact that in delivering all its services, the
company’s servers consume less energy,
per user, per month than leaving a light
on for 3 hours.
Google adds that the cloud services
it offers enable customers to reduce
their own energy consumption and
greenhouse gas emissions.
It recently compared the carbon
footprint of its Gmail cloud-based
email service with that of a locally
hosted email system in a
small business with 50
employees. The analysis
revealed an annual power
consumption per Gmail
user of 0.25W, working out
at 1.2kg of CO2 emissions
per user, per year. The
respective fgures for a small
business with its own email
server are 30W and 103kg.
Earlier this year, Salesforce.com
released a study byWSP Environment
& Energy showing that users of its
cloud computing services emit 95%
less carbon than companies running
equivalent software in on-premise
applications servers. It also concluded
that massively scalable, multi-tenant
cloud platforms are on average 64%
more carbon-effcient than ‘private
clouds’ typically run out of third-party
datacentres.
For Costas Galonis, chief technology
offcer of Cirrus Stratus, this and not the
massive energy footprint of datacentres
is the real point.
“The sheer scale of Google – which
hit a million servers back in 2007 and
is currently fêted for processing around
24 petabytes of data every single
day – is beyond most IT manager’s
comprehension, as it is mine, but the
reality for Google and any organisation
that uses cloud computing resources is
that it both saves money and reduces
that organisation’s energy footprint,”
he said.
“Cloud computing offers
businesses and squeezed public sector
organisations, not just a number of
key advantages over conventional data
centres and allied IT storage platforms,
but a fundamentally greener, planet-
friendly agenda.”
www.verdantix.com
www.salesforce.com/sustainability
Google has
been carbon
neutral since
2007 and is
continuing to
increase the
proportion
of renewable
energy in its
grid...
“
Under a cloud
Google datacentres may consume huge amounts of
power, but cloud computing is still a greener option
Dirty data
In April Greenpeace released a report, How Dirty is Your Data?, in which it
criticised leading IT companies for failing to disclose their energy use and carbon
footprint; for being over-reliant on coal power; and for failing to consider the
availability of renewable power when choosing the location of its datacentres.
It identifed Yahoo! and Google as leaders in these areas, pointing out that
Yahoo! had sited near sources of renewable energy and that Google is directly
purchasing clean power. Facebook was criticised for being excessively reliant on
coal power.
Following the publication of its report, Greenpeace started a campaign to
make Facebook ‘unfriend coal’ and embrace renewable power.
Since then, Facebook has announced that it is to build a new datacentre on a fve-acre site in Luleå,
Sweden, with the option to source 100% of its electricity from renewable sources.
www.greenpeace.org/coolit