On June 7, 2010, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) announced an addition to its Energy Star rating system – this one for data centers.

For several years now, USEPA has been promoting the Energy Star label for equipment and buildings that demonstrate high energy efficiency. Data centers have long been enormous hogs of power, and this new rating should provide some additional punch to the movement to reduce that power demand.

USEPA has estimated that data centers nationwide could be using 100 billion kWh in 2011. That’s about 2.5% of the entire electricity usage in the United States and is estimated to cost $7.4 billion each year. Make these 25% more efficient (saving $18,500,000,000), and you have enough to fund NASA. Or I suppose you could build eight nuclear power plants dedicated to running data centers.

The upshot is that tremendous efficiency advances have taken place in designing and building data centers – which require significant cooling – as well as in the technology housed in those centers. For example, an Energy Star label for servers was unveiled in 2009. At the same time, demand for computing power is continuing to increase. Balancing these factors, and the cold reality of cash flow, is a challenge to all IT departments.

There are so many reasons to work on energy efficiency in buildings and equipment. Higher energy costs mean less money for other operations. In Alabama, as in all hot climates, the demand for electricity is significantly higher in the summer months. Data centers, which require uninterrupted power, have to compete with air conditioning systems for that electricity. Energy costs will continue to increase as demand grows internationally, fuel becomes more costly and new power plants must be paid for.

A few tips for managing or upgrading an existing data center or computing system:

• Whenever possible, purchase equipment that meets EPEAT standards. These are energy efficiency ratings for computers that typically exceed Energy Star ratings, compiled by a credible non-profit organization. Multiple U.S. government agencies, as well as other governments and corporations, require EPEAT standards for IT equipment purchases.
• Evaluate your usage and ensure your energy management plan is optimal.
• Research local power market rates. It may be cost-effective to run certain processes in different hours, when the electricity rates are a fraction of their daytime rate. This does not conserve electricity, but does help spread demand.
• Install motion sensors and other automatic controls for managing the non-computing energy load, such as lighting – which also generate heat.
• Enable power management features on all remote consoles. “Off” always uses less power than “On.

Details on USEPA’s data center program can be found here.

This article was originally written by Keith Johns of Resolutions LLC for Technology Alabama Magazine.

Sustainability and going green can be such a huge ordeal depending on your level of commitment and your business. We preach every day that it is not a short-term solution but one that takes time. It is also built on many different ideas and programs. I love looking closely to see what businesses are doing and how they are implementing things.

I was at my local Publix supermarket the other night and I made it to the back corner of the store where they had relegated all the organic food. The light was out on the organic cooler. I figured no one was watching it so the light could have just burned out but when I got close the light came on. I looked closer and I noticed there was a motion sensor on the top of the cooler. What an ingenious idea.

As I mentioned this is not the most visited section of the store so there is no need for lights to be on all the time. For a company that uses a lot of energy on lights and cooling they are probably looking at whatever ways they can save money.

Yes this is a simple solution and in the big picture it may not make a lot of sense but once you start adding them up the savings begin affecting the bottom-line.

My favorite story is where a Walmart employee suggested they take out the lights on the soda machines at their stores. To one store it may not make a huge difference but the company saved over a million dollars that year.

Take a look at your company and see if you can do anything different. Encourage your employees to suggest ideas, no idea is too small. Once you string some together the savings become obvious.

British Petroleum is an oil company that has originally founded in 1909 as the Anglo-Persian Oil Company. In 1954 it became known as the British Petroleum Company. In 2001 British Petroleum rebranded themselves as BP and adopted the tagline “Beyond Petroleum”. They would no longer be an oil company but an “energy” company. A new logo was adopted that looks like a flower or a sun, both very green icons.

Along with this rebranding, BP became a leader in the sustainability movement, publishing CSR reports and touting all the good things they have done. BP became the greenest of the oil, I mean energy, producers in the eyes of the public. But as they washed themselves with this green color things were happening behind the curtain. It all became exposed on April 20, 2010

On April 20 the Deepwater Horizon oil rig, a semi-submersible exploratory offshore drilling rig located south of Louisiana in the Gulf of Mexico, exploded and sank two days later. The oil spill is already the largest in the world and there is no sign of the spill ending. This threatens not only sea life but the livelihood of fishermen and other businesses up and down the gulf coast. It is predicted that oil will enter the currents and eventually make its way up the east coast and towards Europe.

I could go on and on about the spill but there are many other people reporting on this so I will leave it to them. What I want to focus on is BP and their greenwashing.

In fairness, some of what BP did as far as sustainability goes was good but it didn’t reach into every part of their business and once the oil spill happened, everyone started looking for the skeletons in the closet. A few of them are:

2005 Texas City Refinery Explosion

15 people lost their lives and 180 people where injured in this accident. This came after some less serious accidents happened at the plant and management did not take care of it. Safety and maintenance had been cut as cost saving measures.

2006-2007 Prudhoe Bay

A number of incidents during this time which included leaks and spills polluting the ground water and violated the Clean Water Act.

There have been other incidents of fatalities and accusations of oil and propane price manipulation. BP was also known for overemphasizing their investments in alternative forms of energy and they fought safety regulations. Regulations that may have prevented, or lessened, the spill.

So what can you, the business person, learn from BP? They told a story about how committed to sustainability they were. It paid off in market share, brand awareness and untold millions in increased profit from this alone. Now they are under a greater microscope from investors, the public and the government. Not only things related to the oil spill but to every part of their business. The bill from the spill will be enormous but they have plenty of money. The damage from misleading the public about their green commitment might not be so easy to recover from.

You can’t just green your logo. It’s all or none.

At first count we received a total of 132 bags of linens and towels during our drive last Saturday. We doubled what we did last year. Once the volunteers at the Community Furniture Bank finish sorting I’ll let everyone know how many families it will serve.

When we came up with the idea to host a Linens & Towels Drive we knew it would take more than a few people to pull this off. I would like to say thanks to a few of them here.

Secure Document Destruction
They brought their on-site truck to the drive, accepting cash donations to the CFB in exchange for free document destructions

The Lollar Group
Holly Lollar and Tracy Smith gave their time to help us get the word out by providing PR services.

Trinity United Methodist Church
A long time supporter of the CFB, they let us use their parking lot for the second year in a row.

Twitter & Facebook Friends and Others
We depended on social media more this year and I want to thank my friends who help me spread the word about the drive through their retweets. I would also like to thank ABC 33/40 Talk of Alabama for letting us on their show and to al.com for posting our message on their site.

And I know I am missing many others and I apologize for the oversite. Thanks again and look for a few more messages about this years drive and get ready for next year.

One of the most visible representations of our society’s “going green” is the Compact Fluorescent Lightbulb, or CFL. Those are the curly-shaped lightbulbs, if you didn’t know the phrase.

I just wanted to put out a call to everyone to treat these carefully. They are wonderful products, but they do contain a small amount of mercury, one of the more toxic heavy metals.

Once they burn out, please dispose of them properly. How?

1. Handle With Care. Once broken, the mercury is free to enter the environment. So, don’t do that.

2. Take them to a place specifically designed to recycle them. All Home Depot stores are equipped with a special container and procedure for recycling CFLs, and the Depot does not charge for this service. I give them huge props for doing this.

3. If a CFL breaks, do your best to clean the site thoroughly. The US EPA has a nice fact sheet with details and precautions.

The bottom line is, Handle With Care.

EPA Creates Office of Sustainable Communities

Perhaps this is what we need to get local communities moving with sustainability initiatives. This, and money.

Posted using ShareThis

Yesterday, the Securities and Exchange Commission voted (narrowly) to issue guidance to regulated companies about their exposure to climate change regulation.

Appropriately, for a non-science agency, the Commission did not weigh in on the debate about climate change. Their decision, though, acknowledges that the climate change issue is altering domestic and international laws and regulations, and that investors should know how those changes will affect their investments.

Companies are supposed to report how their interaction with the environment impacts their financial health, through the lenses of regulatory compliance and enforcement actions (read: cleanups or litigation). As the Code says, “Appropriate disclosure also shall be made as to the material effects that compliance with Federal, State and local provisions which have been enacted or adopted regulating the discharge of materials into the environment, or otherwise relating to the protection of the environment, may have upon the capital expenditures, earnings and competitive position…”

This new guidance does two things to clarify this requirement as it regards climate change. These are topics that we have been counseling people for over a year:

1) It acknowledges that “provisions” (laws and regs) based on climate change are being made in operational and trade legislation, and these provisions will impact business operations and profitability in the same way that RCRA requires companies to handle their hazardous waste properly.

2) It brings to regulatory reality the fact that any future carbon legislation (tax or cap/trade) will impact business operations (some businesses more than others, if they use more carbon-based energy). This would be similar to government fees on landfilling waste.

In one place, though, the guidance may be well-intentioned, but unenforceable. The SEC is asking companies to forecast – and report – how the physical impacts of climate change (rising and warming seas, different weather patterns, etc.) will affect the company materially. We encourage our clients to evaluate their businesses with this in mind because we see exposure to climate risk as one component of a sustainability strategy, but I don’t see why the SEC should require them to do so.

I see this as an admirable goal – one that a true forward-thinking company is already considering – but one that sounds like legislating good management.

Your thoughts?

Globally, insurers paid over $22bn in 2009 to pay claims related to natural disasters – winter storms, tornadoes, floods and their ilk – according to a study produced by insurance giant Munich Re at the end of 2009 (link).

The report states bluntly that they attribute a steady increase in the number of weather-related catastrophes to climate change. Their study notes that the number of natural catastrophes has almost tripled since 1950. Despite three years of relatively flat numbers, the company feels the trend is still upward.

Torsten Jeworrek, a Munich Re Board member said, “We look closely at a multitude of risks and how best to handle them. Risks that change in the course of time are especially hazardous. Climate change is just such a risk of change.” The report goes on to say that “losses caused by climate change will continue to increase in the future.”

So… insurers with global perspective are concerned about climate change and its material impact on business.

Some insurers have taken this as an opportunity to define themselves in the marketplace with innovative products and services designed to reduce business exposure to catastrophes made more frequent – or worse – by climate change.

Ceres produced a report earlier in 2009 that identified how insurers are adapting themselves to a changing climate.

The point here is that the elements that build a sustainability program aren’t only tangible, visible assets – such as building a ‘green’ building, or reducing the hazardous waste produced. The best programs can manifest themselves in so many other ways, and all elements are integrated back to a common operational goal and philosophy.

Attorney Sid Trant with the law firm Bradley Arant Boult Cummings has been on the forefront of the green and sustainable movement in the south for some time. His firm has sponsored green events in the region and Sid himself has spoken at these events. Sid and Bradley Arant Boult Cummings have been placing ad/articles about green in law and what businesses should look out for in the local business journal for probably the past year or so.

In the December 4, 2009 issue of the Birmingham Business Journal they placed another ad/article titled “The Greening of Environmental Law.” It is a good read but three statements stuck out.

“We expect that litigation and regulation surrounding this area [greenwashing litigation] will grow exponentially in the coming years.”

“We are already beginning to see increased use of Green contract provisions, and we expect to see a great deal more in the future.”

Each of these statements reflects how structured environmental improvement, or “greening,” is becoming more and more ingrained into business and society. Mr Trant’s message here is that society’s framework is adapting, and smart professionals (lawyers, in this case) are keeping up.

When companies decide that they need to green their products they should pay special attention to rules, regulations, laws and basic ethics. Its good to have a Sid Trant or a Resolutions on your side. It is much better than sitting across the table from them.