Back in Oct 2007 a month before I started the Green Data Center Blog I ran across some folks at RBC, and found out about their environmental commitment. RBC launched their corporate commitment by their president & CEO Gord Nixon sending out a letter to their staff. Here is a short excerpt from his letter.

Our clients, especially those from the boomer generation, expect to see companies like RBC making a difference in the world. All our research tells us that water shortages will be one of the most significant environmental and humanitarian challenges of the coming decades, and that is the reason we have decided to focus our efforts here. If you’re interested in reading more about the RBC Blue Water Project.

Over the coming months and years, we will be announcing new initiatives as part of the Blueprint, including a focus on reducing our own environmental impact. I know that some parts of RBC are further ahead than others in this area, but the Blueprint will ensure that we’ll all be moving in the same direction, and making an effort to do better everywhere.

The RBC Environmental Blueprint will be available online shortly.

RBC has executed a carbon offset program for its online applications.

We use approximately 715 megawatt hours of energy per year to operate the primary and backup systems that power our online applications. According to Environment Canada's Interim Guidance on Performance Measures for Greenhouse Gas Emissions, this energy use produces approximately 244 metric tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions per year. To offset the environmental impact of these emissions, we have purchased high quality carbon offsets – a unit of greenhouse gas emissions validated to have been removed from the atmosphere.

RBC is one of those companies who wants to be a leader in environmental sustainability.

We believe that preservation of the environment is fundamental to the sustainability of our communities, our clients and our company. And we believe that we can help to preserve the environment, while at the same time providing both short- and long-term benefits to our shareholders, clients and employees.

In my Dynamic PUE post I made a point that water could be overlooked in an overzealous focus on PUE.  Without plentiful inexpensive water many cooling systems would be in serious problems.  Some data centers have wisely looked at how they integrate with a municipalities water system, and some are using gray water in their cooling system.

By coincidence MSBNC posted an article on how the drought in the Southeast could shut down nuclear power plants.

“Water is the nuclear industry’s Achilles’ heel,” said Jim Warren, executive director of N.C. Waste Awareness and Reduction Network, an environmental group critical of nuclear power. “You need a lot of water to operate nuclear plants.” He added: “This is becoming a crisis.”

An Associated Press analysis of the nation’s 104 nuclear reactors found that 24 are in areas experiencing the most severe levels of drought. All but two are built on the shores of lakes and rivers and rely on submerged intake pipes to draw billions of gallons of water for use in cooling and condensing steam after it has turned the plants’ turbines.

Water rights are a complicated issue, and many times the first rights go to livestock. If you want to read an interesting perspective on water and the American west check out Cadillac Desert.

Intel and HP's PR teams must be happy.  CNNMoney picked up on their study that the federal goverment, the nation's largest energy user could  save more than $1 bil by greening their data centers.

A few friends have suggested the DoD is seriously evaluating the power consumption of IT systems from desktops, laptops to servers, investigating lower energy consumption as a cost reduction.  Given the maturity of the industry, you could imagine there is a new standard based on the amount power required by a worker, and that worker then gets a given system configuration based on the power allowance. 

In the past there has been monetary budgets allowed for a given worker.  Is it a future of the Green effort that Office workers and business units are given power/electricity allocations?  And, these allocations are tracked year to year?

Some Data Centers have started this type of reporting, it is just a matter of time and awareness that power consumption should be reported in real time.  The # of PCs and lights left on in the office and servers needlessly running, is one of the biggest opportunities and there are companies like Verdiem, 1E, and Cassatt, making a business to provide this service.