Green IT and more (Part II) – Cleaning Up IT

With more sophisticated sensing and localised air conditioning controls, parts of the data centre can run at different temperatures. Also, modern electronic equipment can run at much higher temperatures than before, which brings two benefits:

• The data centre requires less energy overall because the cooling systems do less work
• When air temperatures are higher, recovering and reusing the waste heat is easier

Some organisations reuse waste heat for warming adjacent areas, cutting the energy required for that task. For example, one publisher warms the air of the editorial offices and the print room, another company warms a local swimming pool using a heat exchanger, while another redirects the air to keep the frost off car windows in cold weather. The last application doesn’t really save money, but it keeps staff happy.

The opposite of dealing with the heat is chilling the air before pumping it into the computer room so the machines don’t overheat. You can cut the energy bill by getting help from the outside environment. In cool seasons, you can use this outside air as a source for your chiller. This is sometimes referred to as ‘free cooling’.

Data centres no longer need to be near users. Some companies have sited new data centres near readilyavailable sources of renewable energy such as hydroelectric or even geothermal, solar and tidal power in specific regions.

The only truly secure source of sustainable power is a local, directly connected, renewable supply, possibly one which you own yourself. If you’re drawing from the National Grid, even if you’ve signed up for ‘green energy’, you’ll fall victim to any supply restrictions.

After: What Happens Next?

After you’ve finished with your IT products, what happens when they’re no longer needed? In nature, organic materials rot down and feed future growth, so why not dismantle products at the end of their lives and use the elements as raw materials for future products? Several reputable computer manufacturers use metal and easily-separated plastics in order to maximise raw material reuse.

It’s important that the environmental costs of recovery don’t exceed the benefits expected. And that, of course, loops back to design in the first place.

The priorities for all material things are reduce, reuse and recycle – in that order of importance. If you can extend the working life of your IT products, you reduce the environmental consequences of mining, manufacture, packaging, shipping and disposal. Can you upgrade something rather than finish using it? If you have to replace it, can someone else inside your organisation use it? If not, charities and refurbishing organisations may be able to extend the product’s life. And, waiting at the end of the line, many organisations, including some manufacturers themselves, are willing to take equipment back and recycle the components into new products.

This article is part of a series of articles produced by Freeform Dynamics analyst David Tebbutt, together with Martin Atherton and Tony Lock.