Green Data Center Blog

Dell’s Carbon Neutral Claims Draw Negative Press

WSJ goes into detail on Dell’s Carbon Neutral claims.

Green Goal of 'Carbon Neutrality' Hits Limit

By JEFFREY BALL

ROUND ROCK, Texas -- Computer giant Dell Inc. said this summer that it has become "carbon neutral," the latest step in its quest to be "the greenest technology company on the planet."

What that means, and what it doesn't, may surprise Dell customers and other consumers who have been bombarded with bold environmental promises from major corporations.

The negative issues start.

The amount of emissions Dell has committed to neutralize is known in the environmental industry as the company's "carbon footprint." But there is no universally accepted standard for what a footprint should include, and so every company calculates its differently. Dell counts the emissions produced by its boilers and company-owned cars, its buildings' electricity use, and its employees' business air travel.

In fact, that's only a small fraction of all the emissions associated with Dell. The footprint doesn't include the oil used by Dell's suppliers to make its computer parts, the diesel and jet fuel used to ship those computers around the world, or the coal-fired electricity used to run them.

Dell's announcement that it had achieved carbon neutrality didn't go into these details. But in an interview, Dell officials estimate that the emissions produced by its suppliers and consumers each amount to about 10 times the footprint Dell has defined for itself. That means the company is only neutralizing about 5% of the greenhouse gases that go into the making and use of its products.

Moreover, while Dell is improving its energy efficiency, it is claiming carbon neutrality mostly by purchasing environmental "credits." These are financial instruments that bankroll environmental improvements made by others, such as running wind turbines or planting forests. Dell reasons that these credits cancel out the bulk of its carbon footprint.

Yet some of those improvements would have occurred whether or not Dell invested in them, according to some of the companies involved. That suggests Dell isn't ridding the atmosphere of as much pollution as it claims.

And, other press have picked up on this.

WSJ Slams Dell Over Carbon Neutral Claim
Environmental Leader, CO - 1 hour ago
The Wall Street Journal has slammed Dell over the announcement it made back in August about reaching its carbon neutral goal. The problem, according to WSJ, ...

Dell Carbon Neutral claims exaggerated
TweakTown, Australia - 3 hours ago
If you are a regular watcher of the TV Show Dirty Jobs with Mike Rowe you know that not everyone agrees with the new “Green” movement. ...

Wall Street Journal pours cold water on Dell's green claims
Fudzilla, Bosnia and Herzegovina - 8 hours ago
The Wall Street Journal has been taking the mickey out of Dell's claims to be carbon neutral. Dell has been touting its green credentials for some time and ...

Report: Dell’s Claim of Carbon Neutrality Less Green, More PR
RealTechNews, CA - 10 hours ago
By Michael Santo I had my doubts about Dell’s claim of carbon neutrality, when they trumpeted it in August, and it appears I was right. ...

How Carbon Neutral Is Dell, Really?
GigaOm, CA - 20 hours ago
I am highly skeptical when big companies get trendy and start spewing cool. Lately going green has become the new black. Dell in particular has been making ...

Dell's "Carbon Neutrality" Is Really a Bunch of Cow Poop
Gizmodo - 21 hours ago
By matt buchanan , 4:40 PM on Tue Dec 30 2008, 415 views Over the summer, Dell declared that it had become "carbon neutral." You would think that meant, ...

Questions raised about Dell's carbon neutral claim
The Industry Standard, CA - 22 hours ago
In an August announcement, Dell Inc bragged that it had "met its carbon neutral goal," and was no longer contributing to global warming. ...

Carbon neutrality murkier than you’d think
Examiner.com - Dec 30, 2008
Dell has declared itself carbon neutral but good luck defining and auditing what that means exactly.The Wall Street Journal has an interesting story on Dell ...

PR people need to watch out as the greenwash filtering is getting better.

What’s next?  Carbon emissions compliance.  If you are going to make claims of carbon neutral, you need to have a compliance system in place to prove your claims.

Monitoring Experiment Hopes to Save Water

This article touts the Laser aspect of this story, but what is behind the idea is better monitoring to save water.

Laser experiment hopes to save farm water

Seventy-six years after the invention of the modern sprinkler helped revolutionize farming, lasers may revolutionize it again.

By JOHN ROGERS

Associated Press Writer

LOS ANGELES —

Seventy-six years after the invention of the modern sprinkler helped revolutionize farming, lasers may revolutionize it again.

Jan Kleissl and a handful of his students at the University of California at San Diego think technology using laser beams might lead to a better way to conserve the millions of gallons of water sprayed each year on thirsty crops.

The monitoring is done by a Scintillomter.

He and his team are using a large aperture scintillometer to study how much water crops lose to evaporation and the peak times that water disappears.

The hope is to give farmers a more accurate, up-to-date reading of how efficiently their crops are using water than current technology allows.

"What's new about our approach is the monitoring side of it," Kleissl said by phone from his office. "We're trying to improve on that."

…

But Kleissl's team hopes to give farmers more valuable information by using the scintillometer, which focuses laser beams across a farm field and records fluctuations of the refractive index of air that is caused by such things as changes in temperature and humidity.

What the device sees is similar to the waves in the air that people see emanating from the pavement of a highway on a hot day. But the scintillometer sees those waves in much greater detail. The hope is farmers can eventually use the lasers to more accurately measure the amount of irrigated farm water lost to evapotranspiration

What is a scintillometer?

Scintillometer

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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A Large Aperture Scintillometer (transmitter) for measurement of the sensible heat flux over long distances at Wageningen University measurement site

A Scintillometer is a scientific device used to measure small fluctuations of the refractive index of air caused by variations in temperature, humidity, and pressure. It consists of an optical or radio wave transmitter and a receiver at both ends of an atmospheric propagation path. The receiver detects and evaluates the intensity fluctuations of the transmitted signal, called scintillation.

The magnitude of the refractive index fluctuations is usually measured in terms of Cn^2, the structure constant of refractive index fluctuations, which is the spectral amplitude of refractive index fluctuations in the inertial subrange of turbulence. Some types of scintillometers, such as displaced-beam scintillometers, can also measure the inner scale of refractive index fluctuations, which is the smallest size of eddies in the inertial subrage.

Scintillometers also allow measurements of the transfer of heat between the Earth's surface and the air above, called the sensible heat flux [1]. Inner-scale scintillometers can also measure the dissipation rate of turbulent kinetic energy and the momentum flux.

The term Scintillometer has been used, in its original sense (though relatively infrequently today except in a few specialized instances (such as the mining industry for checking drillcores for the presence of uranium)) to refer to a Scintillation counter, which measures ionizing radiation.

Dell Says Apple is Greenwashing its Notebooks

Dell and Apple are having a PR battle regarding Apple’s claims of being the greenest notebooks.

Dell Says Apple is Greenwashing Its Gear

by Jaymi Heimbuch, Central Coast, California on 12.22.08

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY (electronics)

BUZZ UP!

Screen capture from Apple's Green Ad

There's a hot debate out in the enviro-sphere on whether or not Apple is as green as it says it is, or green at all. Well, Dell tends to side with the nay sayers.

Unless you've been under a rock, or are utterly uninterested in computers, you haven't missed Apple's latest ads touting the greenness of its products. Dell, however, says that's a bunch of huff and puff.

Bob Pearson, Dell's VP of Communities and Conversations (you can have a VP for that??), says that Apple is being irresponsible to the earth by making false claims for how green it is and hoping consumers won't notice. Apple, along with Dell and HP, areperceived to be the greenest computer companies, so the two are direct competitors for the up-and-coming greener consumer base.

The greenwashing claim is

And now, the blogosphere is abuzz with the latest entry to Dell's blog knocking Apple for what it says are green fake-outs.

Our view is that companies who choose to lead have an obligation to be open and transparent. We have a responsibility to engage in dialogue about the environment, whether we agree or disagree with an individual person or group. It all contributes to the greater good.

What is not good is to skip steps, avoid dialogue and pray that people aren't smart enough to figure it out. That doesn't help any of us and it certainly doesn't further the environmental cause for those of us who care deeply about it.

Smart Meter Industry Taking off

TreeHugger (A Discovery Channel) Blog has a post about smart meters.

Smart Meters So Hot, They Cause Fights

by Jaymi Heimbuch, Central Coast, California on 12.19.08

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

Photo via Clearly Ambiguous

The Smart Meter industry is really taking off. That means tech firms that want to solidify contracts in the UK are starting to have to duke it out.

An (expected) upcoming mandate will require a smart meter to be installed in every British home, so the tech companies involved in the industry now have the need to begin talks about the resulting run on contracts.

In recent weeks the government and the energy industry has agreed to a broad strategy on how smart meters will be introduced and how the huge amount of data generated from the new meters will be processed. The contract for the central information-processing repository alone is expected to run in the multi-billion pound range.

Superinsulate Project adds Monitoring Device

news.com has an article on a superisulate project.

Can you 'superinsulate' that home, please?

Most energy-conscious people know that when it comes to home insulation, more is better. But homeowner Alex Cheimets is literally thinking outside the box with his "superinsulation" plan.

Rather than just blow in a few more inches of standard cellulose insulation in his attic, Cheimets is in the throes of an ambitious project to seal the outside of his home with two layers of insulating foam board.

Known in building industry as a superinsulated home, the foam blanket will keep hot (and cool) air in, and also block the cracks that let in outside air. If all goes as hoped, he will cut oil consumption by 70 percent at his 80-year-old, two-family home in Arlington, Mass.

A superinsulated home has foam insulation placed on the outside of the walls and ontop of the existing roof.

The homeowner being an engineer has integated monitoring.

Being part of a pilot project, Cheimets will need to gather data on humidity and temperature levels and how much oil he is using. His home is being equipped with four sensors from Onset Computer, as are his neighbors on both sides (both scientists). Once a month, they will download data using an USB connection to a laptop and report it to the state.

Onset Computer has a set of energy monitoring devices

Energy Logging Systems

Onset energy logging systems save you time and money by offering plug-and-play convenience and industrial-grade performance.

NEW! Cellular

HOBO Remote Monitoring System/GSM

Integrated GSM remote communications for web-based Energy/HVAC system monitoring

Internet access to real-time data

Built-in GSM cellular means no IT roadblocks

Connect sensors, plug in battery, and go!

Learn More

NEW! Ethernet

HOBO Remote Monitoring System/ETH

Integrated Ethernet communications for web-based Energy/HVAC system monitoring

Remote access to real-time data over Ethernet

Simplifies facility-wide monitoring

Connect sensors, plug in battery, and go!

Learn More

Standalone

HOBO Energy Logger Pro

Standalone energy logging system

Compact and low cost

Flexible power options

Innovative, snap-in FlexSmart™ signal condiitonaing modules

NEW! Wi-Fi

Web-based Remote Monitoring Over Wi-Fi Networks

Integrated Wi-Fi communications

Connect sensors, plug in battery, and go!

Ruggedized hardware, with integrated Wi-Fi

Get notified of problems via cell phone or e-mail

Learn More

NEW! USB - Standalone

HOBO Monitoring System/NRC

next-generation standalone energy logging system

Connect sensors, plug in battery, and go!

Direct USB connection to a PC or Mac

Optional Analog inputs with sensor excitation

Learn More

.

Highmark Greens its Data Center, Long Term Costs of Energy Efficiency projects?

Data Center journal publishes a press release on IBM’s efforts to green the data center for Highmark.

IBM Helps Highmark Optimize “Green” Data Center

Written by Press Release

Thursday, 18 December 2008

IBM has announced it has partnered with Highmark Inc. to transform Highmark’s energy-efficient data center in its Harrisburg, PA location. For Highmark, Pennsylvania’s largest health insurer, a commitment toward a healthier environment will help to create healthier communities.

An increasing number of companies are implementing initiatives to reduce the risk of climate change’s impact.  Highmark’s active role in green business projects was awarded a prestigious honor by Computerworld magazine, which ranked it as a top “green” information technology company for 2008. 

“A significant percent of our IT costs are driven by actual computing systems -- the hard drives, servers and storage appliances.  At Highmark, we are always looking for opportunities to reduce our power footprint.  IBM has shown us how we can improve efficiency in our data center – both to reduce our environmental impact and to support our offerings to the community,” said Mark Wood, director of data center infrastructure at Highmark.

This is an IBM press release article. 

Facts not presented is the length of time before changes in the environment warrant a data center tune-up.  Without data, it is hard for the customer to know when maintenance provides a good ROI.

IBM continues the marketing in the press release.

IBM's technologies and services are aimed at helping clients sharply reduce data center energy consumption. The data center is an area of information technology (IT) that can reap substantial and lasting benefits by using 'greener' technology. IBM's analysis of Highmark's data center included a data center energy efficiency assessment and a thermal analysis using IBM's Mobile Measurement Technology (MMT), which measures 3D temperature distributions within data centers to discover where improvements are needed.

Which this reminds me why in general press releases don’t make it into this blog.  They are just marketing announcements.

I would be more curious as to the long term maintenance costs to maintain their data center energy improvements.  This is all dependent on the customers use of the data center which is why there is great opportunities for condition based maintenance.

Sea of Change Continues, Two Science Advisors

MSNBC/Washington Post report on the latest Science Advisers providing additional momentum for change in environmental policies.

Obama chooses top science advisers

Selections send signal that president-elect is set to reverse Bush policies

Albert Gea / Reuters

Oregon State University marine biologist Jane Lubchenco is expected to be named head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

View related photos

  The Washington Post

By Juliet Eilperin and Joel Achenbach

updated 9:06 p.m. PT, Thurs., Dec. 18, 2008

WASHINGTON - President-elect Barack Obama has selected two of the nation's most prominent scientific advocates for a vigorous response to climate change to serve in his administration's top ranks, according to sources, sending the strongest signal yet that he will reverse Bush administration policies on energy and global warming.

The appointments of Harvard University physicist John Holdren as presidential science adviser and Oregon State University marine biologist Jane Lubchenco as head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which will be announced tomorrow, dismayed conservatives but heartened environmentalists and researchers.

Like Energy Secretary-designate Steven Chu, who directs the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Holdren and Lubchenco have argued repeatedly for a mandatory limit on greenhouse gas emissions to avert catastrophic climate change. In 2007, as chairman of the board of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Holdren oversaw approval of the board's first statement on global warming, which said: "It is time to muster the political will for concerted action."

This move will make the environmentalist happy.

'A sea of change'
The Bush administration's political appointees have edited government documents to delete scientific findings and to block scientists' recommendations on issues involving climate change, endangered species, contaminants in drinking water and air pollution.

"The Bush administration has been the most remarkably anti-science administration that I've seen in my adult lifetime," Nobel laureate David Baltimore, former president of the California Institute of Technology, said in an interview. "And I do think that there will be a sea change in the Obama administration with the respect shown for the findings of science as well as the process of science."

But Bush's science adviser, John H. Marburger III, challenged that assessment. "There are stupid and foolish things that have been perpetrated by employees of the federal government in the executive branch, but it doesn't mean that the president is anti-science," he said. "The president is getting blamed for every little thing that happens that people don't like in the administration."

Marburger added that because of the president's opposition to federal funding of embryonic stem cell research and mandatory curbs on greenhouse gas emissions: "It was easy [for opponents] to infer that he was negative toward science. . . . The president respects science; he likes science."

Government regulations are right around the corner.  Get ready for additional reporting requirements.

The End of MacWorld, The Biggest Mac Lover Party

GigaOm discusses Apple’s recent announcement of Steve Jobs not keynoting the next MacWorld, and the jan 2009 event being the last MacWolrd for Apple.

The End of Macworld

Om Malik | Wednesday, December 17, 2008 | 3:00 PM PT | 9 comments

Yesterday, the world was abuzz over the news that Apple was pulling out of Macworld. While many were taken aback, as the publication Macworld (no affiliation with the show) notes, Apple has been backing away from trade shows for a few years already, among them the Apple Expo, in Paris, whose 2009 show has now reportedly been canceled.

In fact, the latest move, which led to further speculation about the health of CEO Steve Jobs and helped push Apple’s stock down some 6.5 percent today, is a sign of how the world of technology is changing. With virtually every technology service and product a mere click away, live video streams that allow people to watch events in real time — and liveblogging for those that want to read about them — trade shows are a relic of the past, like pinups from the 1940s.

Conferences are battling the green movement and recession to cut costs, and it is a sign of the times when Apple decides to end its biggest party/event for Mac Lovers. I’ve been to plenty MacWorld’s as I joined Apple in 1985, and even when working for Microsoft I went to MacWorld..

But, after 25 years does Apple need to be the main draw for a social event?

I’m stunned that Apple has taken a 25-year-old event that has been the single best meeting place for the entire community of users and vendors of Apple-related products and treated it like a piece of garbage stuck to the bottom of its shoe. (hat tip to Daring Fireball)

Knowing how Jobs thinks, I am sure he has other plans for what to do with his money and resources that would work on MacWorld events.  Jobs also isn’t forced to do product announcements in January.  In a Web 2.0 world why be constrained to an annual event?  Talk about a bad product planning.  You hold up your Xmas sales as people anticipate new models being introduced at MacWorld. Then you try and sell them the new stuff after they spent their money at Xmas.

This may have worked during better times, but during a recession, Apple needs to be in tune with consumer spending habits.

Nice Holiday Greeting Card

Just received a nice Green Holiday card from my friends at Jack Morton.

How You Operate Affects Your Mileage – BMW M3 beats Prius

Top Gear has a post on their fuel economy test comparing a BMW M3 vs. a Toyota Prius.

Jeremy's miles per gallon test between the BMW M3 and Toyota Prius might have been a little, er, biased. But should your commute be, er, speedy, and you're looking for an excuse to buy the RWD, V8-powered M3 instead of a FWD 4-cyl hybrid...

Simple rules drive the Prius as fast as possible, and have the BMW keep up.

The Prius did 17.2 MPG, M3 did 19.4 MPG.

The full M3 vs Prius Video is here.

The message in the story.  It’s how you drive it that matters.  And, you can get better mileage by simply driving your existing car more efficiently.

Don’t change the car, change your driving style.

What’s this got to do with data centers.  Shouldn’t I relocate my IT resources to green data center space. Someone may think I just built a green data center that is LEED certified with all the latest energy efficiency power and cooling systems.  But, I bet you many don’t know how to operate this unique configuration of data center equipment in the most energy efficient manner?  Have you thought about how you will drive your data center?

If you don’t know how to operate your data center in the most energy efficient manner one company you should look at to run your data center operations is Lee Technologies managed maintenance and facilities operations.

Data Center & Mission-Critical Managed Maintenance
Over 86% of all Data Center Outages are Preventable
Infrastructure failure and human error are the two leading causes of downtime in mission-critical facilities. The leading cause of infrastructure failure is poor maintenance. Our experienced staff has been providing infrastructure solutions for mission-critical facilities since 1983. Lee Technologies provides operations, managed maintenance and facility operations services supporting over 3 Million square feet of data center and mission-critical facility space across the United States.
Maintenance-Crucial
In mission-critical facilities, failure is not an option. That's why, night or day you can depend on Lee Technologies' Managed Maintenance Programs for comprehensive service and support. Our Managed Maintenance services are customized to the specific needs of each client and facility. Whether it's 24/7/365 monitoring, preventative maintenance, or comprehensive facility operations, Lee Technologies has the technology, capability and experience to meet your needs… and exceed your expectations.

 

Data Center & Mission-Critical Infrastructure Facility Operations
Mission-critical facilities utilize the latest technologies to keep the world's information flowing. However, even the most advanced technology is only as good as the people that maintain and operate it. With so much at stake, you don’t want to trust your mission-critical operation to just anyone. You want the right people, in the right place, at the right time... with the right tools, talent and training.
Many studies show that the #1 cause of data center downtime is human error. In an expanding market for high-availability services, finding, keeping and training qualified personnel has become more challenging than ever. That's why a growing number of organizations count on Lee Technologies data center infrastructure facility operations specialists at their mission-critical facilities.

Thanks to a fortunate introduction at Data Center Dynamics London I met Lee Technologies, Lee Kirby who set up a meeting at my beach house last week to discuss data center modeling and maintenance with Bob Woolley, VP of Facilities Operations and Quality Systems & David Gentry, Sr VP of Service while they were in town for their employee holiday party.

I’ve been spending a lot of time investigating modeling ideas and I wanted to see what Lee Technologies executives see as current and future issues to run a Greener Data Center.  We were in agreement on many points, and we discussed ideas on what I could blog in future posts on this site or other areas a boring topic “how to operate and maintain your data center.”

The M3 vs. the Prius is an interesting point for data centers, in that many have built for performance (M3), and the new way is for efficiency (Prius).  But, how you drive has the biggest influence on your energy use.

Also, another company who has embraced this idea is Skanska’s Robert Bellantoni.  Here is his article in DatacenterDynamics Focus. 

The “Fix First” concept is based on the needs of current legacy data centers to make immediate and necessary improvements in their operational efficiency without costly retrofit, redesign or timely rebuilding options.

“The fastest way to needed improvement is often apparent and can usually be fixed with minimum cost,” says Bellantoni. “We conduct a physical audit of the as built state of their current cabinets and rack installation. Most legacy data centers are in a ‘mid-life crisis’ mode as a result of an aging design that may have been the bestof- breed at the time, but did not take critical efficiency and rising operating costs into consideration when creating the original design model.”