Panel Moderator at Data Center Dynamics Seattle – Carbon: Risk or Opportunity?

I am a panel moderator at Data Center Dynamics Seattle on Aug 6, 2009 for the closing session on Carbon: Risk or Opportunity?

The session description is:

1. PANEL: Carbon: Risk or Opportunity?
   Implementing a Strategy to Manage Your Data Center's Carbon Risk Exposure
   David Ohara, Founder and Architect - Green M3
   Leonard A. Ruff AIA, Director – Callison Architecture, 7X24 Exchange Northwest Chapter

   Global carbon regulation is arguably the largest risk and opportunity most corporations will face in the beginning of the 21st century. Voluntary and mandatory reporting protocols are emerging. Questions we will ask:

• What does it mean in the context of the data center industry?
• How can an organization know it’s true carbon footprint and exposure?
• What options are available to manage corporate carbon risk?
• What help is available from Govt. and NGOs?
• What impact can energy efficiency programs have on reducing a corporation’s carbon footprint?
• Where should you be on the roadmap?

I plan on using my blog to discuss this topic before the event.  If you have input feel free to comment on this topic.

Comments

[Eric Gallant]

Dave,I'm looking forward to reading your posts on this topic. I wish I could attend DCD this year for this discussion and others.One challenge I would expect you to encounter; DCD has such an international footprint and data centers in the UK, US and EU are facing radically different regulation strategies. (For example, CRC in the UK and cap-and-trade in the US) Will you be covering the topic from an international perspective or focus on the landscape here in the US?One question I have; I suspect that the EPA’s eGRID program and subregion map is a good tool for US based data center to estimate their carbon inventory. What is the best way to apply this information for a data center? I have seen a whitepaper describing a metric, Technology Carbon Efficiency (TCE). However, this metric does not seem to be widely used by the American data center community. (In fact, I don’t know anyone that uses it.) Is there a problem with TCE? Is there a better metric?I look forward to hearing your opinion and your blog discussion on the Carbon issue.

[Cindy Chen]

For me, the question of corporate carbon management ultimately comes down to how the results will be used. Is this something that will be used to compare my performance against industry peers, ultimately with a goal of promoting my green credentials as a leader in this space? In that case, actively disclosing my carbon footprint can be a risk -- especially if my carbon reduction efforts lag behind others. However, if understanding our carbon footprint is used as an internal metric to improve our operational efficiencies (and thus reduce inefficient use of natural resources) then having this data provides visibility to previously unknown areas -- and thus potential opportunities for investments in cleaner technologies and more long-term, visionary thinking.

While I'm relatively new to the world of data centers, what I'm learning more and more every day is that data centers were not created equally. The configuration for a data center for Google will be vastly different than one for Yahoo or Facebook. These large data centers are designed for different web service functionality, and as a result it can be difficult to truly compare the relative "greenness" of different data center operations. Throw in companies who have data centers running mixed loads (e.g. email server, accounting systems, SCM, etc) and it's like comparing apples to oranges. That's not to say that we shouldn't try -- we should -- but always with an eye towards the bigger picture of actively trying to combat climate change, not compete for green accolades.

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