Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Advice Based on Measuring Data
and Use of a Central Database
of materials already partly exist. These indicators
mainly refer to the way in which an organization
deals with energy. At data centre level, one uses
the PUE as a standard. PUE stands for Power Us-
age Effectiveness. The PUE is equal to the entire
energy consumption of a data centre divided by
the energy consumption of ICT hardware. This
PUE is a standard that was developed by the Green
Grid, an organization of ICT professionals.
The Green Grid (Belady, 2008) remarks that
there is no overall view of PUEs for all data cen-
tres. Furthermore, measurements by the Lawrence
Berkeley National Laboratory (Belady, 2008) in
22 data centres provide PUE values of between
1.3 and 3.0. These values were also found in the
study. However, the main conclusion of the Dutch
study is that the availability of measurements and
therefore indicators does differ per organization.
In this field, the studied bank was an example.
At the bank's data centres, the used energy was
measured at every level: at the device, at the rack,
at the housing, at the main distributor and at the
energy provider. The data centres of the Rotterdam
police did not have this data and confirmed this
when it asked for external advice on how to make
their data centres more sustainable. When using
hosting companies, it is the customer who decides
at which level they receive data on their energy
consumption. The hosting companies that were
researched make for each of their customers their
own power distribution unit (PDU) available and
the hosting company reports on the consumption
per appliance, provided that this is connected to
a separate PDU connector. The customers are
responsible for the connections.
Furthermore, reuse of materials is an impor-
tant aspect of corporate sustainability. At orga-
nizational level, it is often not exactly known
what percentage of the procured ICT materials
is recycled. Forerunners such as the Rabo Bank
have entirely organized reuse or disposal of ICT
equipment and supplies themselves.
Starting Points for Advising
Advice on sustainability may take place on the
basis of a global analysis or on the basis of a more
specific one. A global analysis investigates the
strategy regarding sustainable ICT and its execu-
tion for the entire organization. The results of this
investigation are compared with the results of a
similar investigation in comparable organizations.
Gartner's (Kistner, 2008) advice is an example
of a global analysis. Gartner developed this global
analysis in cooperation with five large organiza-
tions in Great Britain. After each interview, the
answers as given by an organization are stored in
a database. This database includes data of all the
organizations worldwide that have participated
in this type of Gartner study. By the end of 2008,
this database included the data of around 125
large organizations. These organizations employ
between 2,000 and 300,000 people. During the
interview with the Kadaster and the Rabo Bank
it transpired that in their efforts for working more
sustainably, they are supported by Gartner. With
regard to this, the Kadaster was still at the start
of the study and the Rabo Bank had clearly been
involved in this for several years. Therefore, sub-
jects such as lifecycle management, replacement
strategy, and sustainable procurement came up
structurally in the interview with the Rabo Bank.
A more specific analysis goes into the sustain-
ability of a particular part of the organization, such
as a data centre. IBM's advice (van der Graaf,
2009) on sustainable data centres is an example
of this. This type of advice is discussed in more
detail below.
In both types of advice, employees of the
organization as well as the consultancy agency
are teamed up. They collect the data, analyze this
and compare this to the data provided by other
organizations, which is stored in their database.
Finally, they report their findings to their client.
