Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
data servers and although these are likely to be up to 25 per cent more environmentally
efficient in the future, the energy consumption for IT is bound to increase.
As Cubitt
et al
. (2011: 155) have written, 'sustainability will only be achieved
once the larger population realizes that the internet is not weightless and information
is not immaterial'. This has meant that the major hi-tech and Internet companies
have come under increasing scrutiny from environmental campaigners and to a
lesser extent public opinion. Facebook has committed itself to reducing its carbon
footprint and publishing a green energy target that states its commitment to becoming
fully powered by renewable energy. In response Google, Apple and other companies
seem to have worked hard to reduce their ecological footprint and demonstrate a
degree of responsible corporate citizenship that was neither expected nor demanded
only a few years ago. In August 2013, Google released data regarding its carbon
footprint for 2012, claiming that for the previous six years it has achieved carbon
neutrality through the purchasing of high quality carbon offsets. In the near future
it will go beyond carbon neutrality by committing over $1 billion to renewable
energy projects. The company has won an award from the US Environmental
Protection Agency and praise from both Greenpeace and
Fortune
magazine. Although
emitting 1.5 million metric tons of carbon dioxide in 2012, its total level of carbon
emissions declined by 9 per cent in 2011, representing a declining level of carbon
emissions relative to income. The company has also contracted over 330 MW of
wind power from the US and Europe, and argues that its services are often greener
than those of its competitors (Google, 2013). The company argues that Gmail
is more energy efficient than using email hosted on local servers, because Gmail is
hosted in the cloud and more efficiently allocates resources among many users.
Additionally, Google's cloud-based services are engineered to run on efficient software
and hardware housed in data centres across the world (Google, 2011). Interestingly,
many of the larger data centres, also known as 'farms', generate a considerable
degree of heat and the amount of energy required to cool them is huge. Around 72
per cent of Facebook's carbon emissions are generated by its data centres in the US.
Facebook opened a new data centre in the small Swedish town of Lulea, just 100km
south of the Arctic Circle, in 2013. Using 100 per cent renewable energy its Power
Usage Efficiency rating is an impressive 1.07. Google, too, has recently located a
data centre in the cold remote region of Hamina in the frozen Gulf of Finland. Apple
has also responded to serious criticism of it operations, products and procurement
strategy, particularly from Greenpeace International. In 2012, Apple launched the
redesigned iMac, which uses 68 per cent less material and generates 67 per cent
fewer carbon emissions than earlier generations. In addition, the aluminium stand
on the iMac is made using 30 per cent recycled content. Apple has also achieved
100 per cent renewable energy use in its corporate facilities in Austin, Elk Grove,
Cork and Munich as well as many other sites in the US and Australia. The company's
iPad 2 Environmental Report states that the tablets exceed the European Directive
on the Restriction of the Use of Certain Hazardous Substances in Electrical and
Electronic Equipment by avoiding mercury in its display, arsenic in its glass as well
as BFRs (brominated flame retardants) and PVCs (polyvinyl chloride). In 2011,
Apple experienced its own 'Nike moment' when it was revealed that factories in
China supplying the company were using underage labour and that there had been
a number of suicides. Apple reacted by introducing stricter hiring and verification
practices, and quickly became the first technology company to join the Washington-
