Intel Sees Big Hope For ICT’s Carbon Contribution

It is recognised that ICT (information and communication technologies) contributes roughly 2 percent toward carbon emissions globally, but Intel took time from the Copenhagen Summit on Climate Change to talk to eWEEK Europe UK about the role that IT equipment can play in reducing CO2 emissions.

Intel is one of the sponsors of an IDC study to be released tomorrow (Wednesday 10 December) which will look at the possibilities of ICT to reduce carbon emissions, country by country. It will create an index, ranking countries based on their ability to reduce CO2 emissions via ICT.

“One of the main motivations for us to sponsor the study was that it specifically details the part that ICT can play in reducing CO2 emissions,” said Lorie Wigle (left), eco-technology general manager at Intel, speaking from Copenhagen.

“Studies for a while now have identified that ICT is responsible for two percent of global emissions, but until now there has not been a lot of data about market by market. This country by country approach will be much more usable for policy makers,” she told eWEEK Europe UK.

Wigle leads Intel’s eco-technology effort which is focused on the sustainable manufacturing and usage of Intel’s products.

“New technology has a significant part to play in reducing global emissions,” she said. “Intel is very committed to reducing the emissions associated with ICT’s 2 percent. We are also very committed to producing more and more energy efficient products.”

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Wigle is also president of the Climate Savers Computing Initiative, which is focused on the two areas of opportunity for reducing power consumption for ICT equipment, namely power delivery and power management.

“When we started out in 2007, power supplies used to be very inefficient, specifically the conversion on power within the PC used to be very inefficient,” she said. “This conversion often resulted in a 50 percent loss of power, and this power resulted in excess heat. This caused even more problems in countries with hot climates, as additional cooling was required.”

“The aim of the Climate Savers Computing Initiative was to remove 54 million tons of CO2 emissions by ICT equipment by 2010, and since June 2007 and June 2009 we have been able to quantify about a reduction of 16 million tons of emissions.

What’s the practical result?

“There are currently about 550 companies that are part of the Initiative, and any organisation that joins is asked make a commitment to buy energy efficient computers. Any supplier that joins must commit to making at least one energy efficient computer,” she said.