Example of a Green Strategy Implemented Grass Roots vs. Management Edict

Purchasing.com has an article about Seattle Children's Hospital grass roots based Green procurement initiative.

Sustainable procurement at Seattle Children's Hospital is the outgrowth of a grassroots, voluntary program that began in various pockets of the hospital several years ago, and which were then eventually coordinated.

“Our goal is to become the Greenest hospital in the U.S.,” says Dennis Gawlik, who is responsible for non-clinical sourcing at the Seattle-based facility. Gawlik is no novice, either. He is a member of the ISM Committee on Sustainability and Social Responsibility, and teaches at the Bainbridge Graduate Institute, which offers an MBA in sustainable business and weaves sustainability through all its courses, Gawlik says.

The end results they admit are slower.

Seattle Children's strategy, according to Gawlik, is an admittedly slower, more organic way of getting into Green procurement, but he believes it tends to build more short-term and long-term commitment, because it is based on a “pull” model from users, rather than a “push” model from a procurement or management mandate.

And contrasts the way the majority of people have chosen to implement Green procurement.

Many companies take one of two strategies in launching a Green procurement initiative. Either purchasing takes the lead and directs internal customers on how to be more environmentally friendly in product selection, or management issues a Green mandate and purchasing develops its portion of the overall corporate strategy. Both strategies can work well, but in both cases, the internal customers often feel left out of the decision-making process.

However, there is a third strategy that may, in the long run, lead to the most successful and long-term results. This involves the procurement department piggybacking on existing internal Green initiatives, but is driven by the internal customers first, rather than a mandate. A good example of this strategy has been taking place at Seattle Children's Hospital and Regional Medical Center, which has a very strong commitment to Green procurement.

The article has logical steps on how Seattle Children's Hospital put their program in place and there are good words of advice for those of you considering how to integrate Green into your data center purchasing.

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Opportunity to Be a Neighbor of VMWare, Sabey's Intergate Data Center Space Available

At Data Center Dynamics Seattle, Sabey presented in a session and had a booth for their facility in Wenatchee, WA.

Sabey is completing the construction of its new data center campus, Intergate.Columbia. It is located in North Central Washington, near East Wenatchee and the Columbia River - one of the nation's foremost hydroelectric generating rivers.

The site sits on 30 acres, and will accommodate two data center buildings, including one 205,000 square-foot structure and one of 188,000 square-feet. The buildings will be served by a new, redundant substation on site.  Each building will have the flexibility to house either a single tenant or multiple users.

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The unlabeled Green space next to the Available (blue) area is the space taken up by VMware (NYSE: VMW). The other 200,000 sq ft build is occupied by T-Mobile.  These aren't bad neighbors to have, and Sabey has 2 anchor tenants as they continue their data center construction.

Sabey presented their strategy to build the greenest data centers, and how they are leveraging the hydroelectric power in Eastern Washington.

Totally unplanned Sabey's staff met Michael Tran from Digital Sense to discuss some ideas of a Virtual Data Center and join us for lunch. I forgot I had blogged about Sabey and Digital Sense in The Virtual Data Center post.

(FYI, VMWare - Sabey was totally appropriate and discussed no details about VMware being a tenant.)

I think I ended up having 12 high quality meetings during the day long event. Unfortunately, that meant I didn't go to many sessions, but I go to these events to network and I could always watch the sessions later when they are posted.

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3 Degrees of Separation, Data Center Dynamics Seattle, High Density Energy Efficient Cooling Experts

While many others were at NGDC, I stay close at home and attended the arrival of Data Center Dynamics to Seattle where 243 people attended an event that expected 200, according to Stephen Worn, CTO. Many times I find a small event enables better networking as you see the same people many times during the conference and you start to build connections with others who have common interests.

One of the people I met at Uptime Institute's Symposium 2008, Green Enterprise Computing event is Digital Sense's Michael Tran.  I suggested he visit Data Center Dynamics Seattle as he was already planning a US trip and I can introduce him to some other people who are building Green Data Centers.

To handle power densities over 25 kW per rack, Digital Sense has chosen Emerson's Liebert XDO cooling as the primary cooling system. Michael said his installation will be the largest installation of XDO cooling in the world.

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Being a little curious I searched for more information on cooling systems that can be repositioned and found some interesting patents.  I found one patent with Liebert's Lennart Stahl and Christian Belady.  I don't know Lennart, but I do know Christian.  Searching more I found 2 more patents with the same two people on them.

US Patent 6,564,858

Abstract

A method and system are disclosed for cooling a heat generating object. A coolant is passed through a heat exchanger so that heated air passing through the heat exchanger is cooled. A fan unit is selectively positioned adjacent to a first side of the heat exchanger. When activated, the fan unit draws the cooled air through the heat exchanger and directs the cooled air towards the heat generating object. The fan unit may be repositioned along a second side of the heat exchanger so as to redefine the flow of air drawn from and directed towards the heat generating object.

US Patent 6,705,389

Abstract

A method and system are disclosed for cooling a heat generating object. A coolant is passed through a heat exchanger so that heated air passing through a first portion of the heat exchanger is cooled. A fan unit is selectively positioned relative to the heat exchanger. When activated, the fan unit draws the cooled air through a second portion of the heat exchanger and directs the twice cooled air towards the heat generating object. The fan unit may be repositioned along a different portion of the heat exchanger so as to redefine the flow of air drawn from and directed towards the heat generating object.

US Patent 6,854,659

Abstract

A system for cooling heat generating objects arranged in a room. The system adapts in real time to changing cooling demands of the objects. Remote sensors mounted in proximity to the heat generating objects relay information to cooling units, which adjust their operation in response to the information.

After understanding more what Michael is doing, one guy I wanted to introduce him to is Christian Belady as he would be a good person to validate Digital Sense's use of Liebert XDO as it appears they have been influenced by some of Christian's cooling ideas.

We ended up chatting for over an hour on power and cooling techniques with power supply architect Shaun Harris, joining in the conversation.  Christian also pulled in Stephen Worn for a bit to discuss power and cooling ideas, and how customers like Michael Tran need to give more presentation at future events.

6 degrees of separation is an idea supported by Microsoft Researcher Eric Horvitz's recent article.  But what I find at Data Center Dynamics events there are many times the degree of separation is only 3 degrees or less.

Another recommendation for Data Center Dynamics is by Ken Oestrich.

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The Virtual Data Center idea, VMware is Listening

I wrote my post on The Virtual Data Center idea on July 31, 2008.

You add up the management changes of Paul Maritz, 120,000 of data center space, and VMware's upcoming announcements.  I am guessing VMware will announce its Virtual Data Center - cloud computing initiative.

When I was checking my web metrics, I could see this post got VMware’s attention.

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I’ve written 8 posts on VMware (NYSE:VMW) over the past month, and I got the bump in VMware traffic right after my Virtual Data Center post.

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Green Grows in Corporate Boards, 25% have Environment Committees

WSJ has an article about environmentalism’s growth in corporate board.

Environmentalism Sprouts Up
On Corporate Boards

More Companies Start
Panels on Green Issues
Amid Push by Activists

By JOANN S. LUBLIN

More U.S. corporate boards are going green.

Amid rising investor worries over global warming and shrinking natural resources, directors are keeping a closer watch on environmental issues. Boards at Integrys Energy Group Inc., Quicksilver Resources Inc., Tesoro Corp. and elsewhere recently have created separate environmental panels -- joining long-established ones at DuPont Co., Occidental Petroleum Corp. and Rohm & Haas Co. Other companies cover environmental issues with an existing board committee.

[chart]

About 25% of Fortune 500 companies now have a board committee overseeing the environment, compared with fewer than 10% five years ago, estimates Mindy Lubber, president of Ceres, a national coalition of activists, investors and others concerned with the environment. Such panels typically try to make sure that executives effectively handle conservation efforts, new environmentally friendly ventures like wind power, compliance with environmental regulations and related business risks.

 

And, how shareholders are creating pressure.

Shareholders are more active on environmental issues, too. The number of investor proposals related to the environment nearly doubled between 2004 and 2008, RiskMetrics Group Inc. says. Many proposals urge increased board attention to the issue.

The Earth's sustainability "has become a much more important part of every board's activities," observes Lester A. Hudson, chairman of American Electric Power Co.'s governance committee, which monitors environmental concerns.

AEP's experience illustrates the new dynamic. The electric utility, based in Columbus, Ohio, is among the largest U.S. users of coal -- and emitters of greenhouse gases.

In November 2003, public-employee pension funds offered a shareholder resolution urging independent directors to assess how AEP would deal with potential regulations to reduce carbon dioxide and other power-plant emissions. Mr. Hudson says three fellow directors formed a special panel to do a study, prompting the unions to drop their proposal.

So, even though you may be frustrated in your company that executives are not listening to you internally, pressures are building from shareholders to address environmental issues. Don’t be surprise you start to see executives you checked with months ago, changing their tunes on green/sustainability initiatives.

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