[UgaBYTES] FW: [CAnet-news] Emerging standards for greenhouse gas emissions for ICT

Wed Dec 9 22:20:54 GMT 2009

 It might be of interest!!

Silvia 

-----Original Message-----
From: [CAnet-news] [mailto:noreply at greenstarnetwork.com] 
Sent: December 9, 2009 4:53 PM
To: Silvia Caicedo
Subject: [CAnet-news] Emerging standards for greenhouse gas emissions for ICT

For more information on this item please visit my blog at

http://green-broadband.blogspot.com/ or
http://billstarnaud.blogspot.com

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[These 2 projects are very significant as now we are starting to see some quantifiable standards in order to measure the claims of CO2 abatement through ICT. As you know there are many studies claiming significant reduction of CO2 through ICT - but there has been no independent process to validate these claims. Various energy efficiency schemes are probably the most egregious example of these types of hand waving arguments. While energy efficiency may reduce costs it is very ineffective tool for reducing CO2 emissions as compared to purchasing renewable energy credits or sourcing renewable energy directly. If you are interested in the following opportunities, please contact David Wright or Tony Vetter directly as listed below.
Thanks to Bill Munson from ITAC for these pointers -- BSA

----- Forwarded by Bill Munson/ITAC/CA on 08/12/2009 17:33 -----

OPPORTUNITY TO TEST DRIVE EMERGING STANDARDS FOR GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSIONS

(a) Product Life Cycle GHG Costs

(b) Supply Chain GHG Costs

The World Resources Institute and the World Business Council on Sustainable

Development have developed standards on how to implement ISO 14064 for

companies and for projects, which have become widely used, particularly in

countries implementing the Kyoto Protocol.

They have now developed 2 new (draft) standards for Greenhouse Gas
(GHG)

Accounting for (a) Product Life Cycle GHG Costs and (b) Supply Chain GHG

Costs. They are looking for companies to test-drive their draft standards

with a view to providing feedback on how the drafts can be updated to

provide a final standard. They are particularly interested in

sector-specific information and the ICT sector is a of great importance in

this area, because of its potential to impact GHG emissions both positively

and negatively.

http://www.ghgprotocol.org/standards/product-and-supply-chain-standard

Professor David Wright (dwright at uottawa.ca) at the University of Ottawa is

able to work with a company on this project. A rough division of

responsibilities would be that the company would assess its GHG emissions,

and Dr Wright would assess the impact on the draft standard.

http://www.telfer.uottawa.ca/component/listing,Wright,%20David/option,com_directory/page,viewListing/lid,111/Itemid,116/lang,En/

Shown below is a proposal from the International Institute for Sustainable Development, whois seeking support from ICT industry partners

for their CANARIE study. The key contact is their Project Manager, Global Connectivity, Tony Vetter, he can be reached at tvetter at iisd.ca or 613-288-2024.

ICT network operators and equipment vendors are looking to a variety of

solutions to reduce the GHG footprint of the world's ICT infrastructure.

Efficiency in how data centres consume energy may be part of the solution;

however using renewable energy is another "zero-carbon" option.
CANARIE

Inc. invited proposals to their Green IT Pilot Program for projects that

will accelerate the development of, and participation in, national and

international "zero-carbon" cyber infrastructure and network platforms.

CANARIE has awarded funding to IISD for a project to assess the business

case for moving University IT assets to remote, zero-carbon data centre

facilities. Central to the business case will be an examination of whether

Universities could qualify for tradable "carbon offsets" (credits for GHG

reductions achieved which can be sold to industries who need them), a

revenue opportunity which could help underwrite the costs associated with

relocating their IT assets.

We think this project will be of interest to CIOs of all large

organizations because moving IT assets to zero-carbon facilities has not

previously been considered for generating carbon offsets. Further, there

may be other unexpected barriers to relocation of IT assets that could be

resolved through appropriate policy interventions, including jurisdictional

barriers arising from data security policies and capital financing rules,

and challenges associated with the availability of national

telecommunications infrastructure. These will also be explored through this

project.

Rational:

 Due to the nature of how carbon credit awarding mechanisms are evolving,

 IT organizations may in the end not be able to benefit from the carbon

 reductions that their IT initiatives could help realize. This is due to

 the concept of "additionality" - whether a project is deemed likely to

 have occurred anyway without the support of revenues generated by

 selling carbon offset credits.

 This project's assessment could open the door to broader acceptance of

 IT asset relocation as a carbon reduction activity that should be

 supported through carbon offset financial instruments.

 Revenue opportunities from carbon credit trading could accelerate the

 development of national and international "zero-carbon" cyber

 infrastructure.

The tasks of this project will be to:

 estimate depending on data availability, the aggregate carbon footprint

 of IT assets and associated data centres at three Canadian Universities

 assess the feasibility for Universities to generate carbon offsets if

 their IT departments were to move location agnostic IT assets to remote

 data centre facilities powered by renewable sources of energy

 assess the feasibility of quantifying and selling these offsets in

 registries and carbon exchanges;

 assess the business case for University IT departments to move IT assets

 to remote, zero-carbon data centre facilities, with attention to the

 role of offset revenues if accessible to the relevant business unit;

 assess the implications of study findings for scaling similar IT asset

 relocation schemes for government agencies and institutions, as well as

 the private sector

Anticipated insights:

 characterization of the carbon incentives or disincentives to scaling

 the relocation of IT assets to zero-carbon facility initiatives

 long term implications of University IT asset growth projections and

 associated carbon penalties

 characterization of organizational boundaries encountered in carbon

 accounting processes for facilities expenditures, energy consumption and

 GHG emissions

 characterization of jurisdictional barriers resulting from data security

 policies and capital financing rules to the migration of University,

 other public sector, and private sector IT infrastructure and services

 characterization of the adequacy of National broadband infrastructure

 for supporting cost effective access for remote relocation of IT

 infrastructure and services

We believe that some ICT companies may be interested helping to determine

whether relocating IT assets to zero-carbon facilities might qualify for

tradable "carbon credits" in the emerging regimes, as well as in the

identification of other barriers and policy gaps that would impede the

feasibility of such initiatives.

--------------

Bill.St.Arnaud at gmail.com

www.canarie.ca/~bstarn

skype: pocketpro

blog:http://billstarnaud.blogspot.com/

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