Big Blue Goes Green

The high-tech sector has a significant role to play in helping companies go green. IBM, for example, has been an environmental leader with demonstrated results in its own business for decades, and is now focused on turning its attention to helping its clients address the issue of environmental responsibility. “The underlying premise is that whenever we help a client with an environmental or green initiative, we inherently help them improve the efficiency and effectiveness of their business,” explains Wayne Balta, IBM’s SVP of Environmental Affairs. “And said differently, many times when we help a company improve the efficiency and the effectiveness of their business processes, we’re also helping them improve their environmental footprint. The two go hand in hand.”

Balta believes one of the reasons IBM is well placed to help clients in this way is because of its ability to integrate all of the necessary skills needed to succeed in reducing a data center’s energy consumption. “You’ve got to integrate everybody involved – from the operators of the equipment, to the people whose applications are running on them, the people who manage the real estate, the people who manage the air conditioning in the building and the people who decide what server technology to deploy,” he says. “There’s all kinds of different disciplines, and what IBM can do is help integrate them in a way that gets the job done with a lot less energy and therefore a lower environmental footprint.”

But there are also other ways in which the high-tech sector can help companies go green. For example, IBM is working closely with the electric utility industry on what it is calling an Intelligent Utility Network (IUN). “We’re very excited about this,” says Balta. “We’re working with utilities around the world on advanced technologies and electronics within their networks to help them better understand how efficient and effective are they at moving electricity around. How can they get better information, either real-time or much more quickly, to address everything from power outages to better routes, and generate less waste along the way? This is a really key challenge for the modern utility.”

Intelligent utilities

The Intelligent Utility Network Coalition is being launched and developed by IBM to help accelerate the adoption of intelligent utility network technologies and solutions on a global basis. This effort will include establishing an industry community for collaboration, knowledge sharing, education and innovation; working with energy industry and standards groups; and the development and deployment of IUN strategic solutions and technologies. Utilities and related companies based in the United States, Europe and Asia-Pacific are expected to join founder member CenterPoint Energy in the initiative over the next several months.

“We’re excited to be the founding member of this coalition,” said Tom Standish, CenterPoint Energy Group President of Regulated Operations. “We expect that the intelligent grid will improve electric power line grid planning, operations and maintenance, enabling us to deliver power more efficiently. We also expect the technology to contribute to fewer and shorter outages and higher productivity while maintaining our high level of data security. This innovative technology will provide on-demand data and information that will create a platform for exciting new products and better service for our customers.”

IBM and CenterPoint Energy are engaged in a strategic effort to develop and deploy IUN solutions designed to enhance the efficiency and reliability of utility operations at CenterPoint Energy, and to increase the ability of customers to manage and use energy in a more cost-effective and energy-efficient way. The two companies have been collaborating on several projects, including the initial limited deployment of an advanced meter infrastructure that allows remote connection and disconnection of service and automated meter reads for customers in the Greater Houston area. In the future, this technology is designed to allow retail electric providers in the competitive Texas electric market the opportunity to offer customers enhanced products and services, and to facilitate movement by customers between electric providers. The new technology is also expected to give customers the ability to better manage their energy usage using real-time price signals and the ability to remotely control appliances to reduce consumption.

In conjunction with the AMI project, IBM and CenterPoint Energy are implementing components of a ‘self-healing grid’, which will provide grid data, information and analytics to improve outage detection and outage restoration times, grid planning and ongoing operations. This limited deployment provides the field trials that will enable CenterPoint Energy to have an automated and proactive capability to anticipate problems, find solutions and optimize the performance of its power delivery system. For customers, that would mean improved electric service reliability, as well as better and quicker responses to outages. IBM is collaborating with CenterPoint Energy on the implementation and deployment of the telecommunications network required to support IUN initiatives, including the design and implementation support for the broadband over power lines technology used as a component of the overall communication infrastructure.

“The intelligent utility network will transform the way power is delivered, managed and used,” says Guido Bartels, General Manager of IBM’s Global Energy and Utilities Industry division. “We are delighted to have CenterPoint Energy join us as the founding member of this strategic global coalition, which brings our shared vision to life. As the group grows to include other utility companies and partners, members will have unique opportunities to apply new ways of thinking, new technologies and management strategies. This type of sharing and collaboration is a prime example of teaming to innovate.”

Taking responsibility

Indeed, many believe it is incumbent upon large companies with a long history of environmental leadership to really push such technologies and take a leadership role in terms of green innovation. So does IBM feel this obligation? “It’s a natural fit for us, certainly,” says Balta. “For many years now, IBM has had in place a global environmental management system, and demonstrable results in efficiency and effectiveness. And so for us to extend some of that learning to our clients is a very natural thing for us to do.”

Indeed, it is this wealth of experience – staff with a broad range of skills and expertise in different industry sectors around the world – that enables IBM to take this leadership position. “We can take those people who understand what a given industry’s processes are, couple that with a record of attention to environmental leadership, and help those clients improve both their businesses and the environment at the same time.”

Alongside its work on data centers and the Intelligent Utility Network, IBM is also working on a number of other interesting ‘green’ projects in various industry sectors. For instance, Balta tells how the company working with clients in the building industries on electronic sensors and metering technologies to better understand energy consumption in different types of civil infrastructure. “We piloting something called an ‘energy dashboard’ to help clients better understand exactly why it is they’re consuming a given amount of energy in a certain space, and therefore give them the intelligence to know where and how to reduce,” he explains. Another example is the company’s work in developing an innovative road user charging system for the city of Stockholm to help ease congestion headaches. “When you improve the efficiency and the effectiveness of the transportation system, you also improve the environment because you can minimize or optimize the amount of cars on the road,” he continues.

Technology to the rescue

However, it’s undoubtedly in the systems and technology business that IBM excels, developing some of the world’s most advanced microprocessors in terms of performance and energy efficiency. According to analyst firm IDC, roughly 50 cents is spent on energy for every dollar of computer hardware, and this is expected to increase by 54 percent to 71 cents over the next four years. Experts believe that the data center energy crisis is inhibiting business growth as companies seek to access computing power; many data centers have now reached full capacity, limiting firms’ ability to grow and make necessary capital investments.

IBM currently runs the world’s largest commercial technology infrastructure, with more than eight million square feet of data centers across six continents. By using energy efficiency initiatives, IBM expects to double the computing capacity of its data centers within the next three years without increasing power consumption or its carbon footprint. Compared to doubling the size of its data centers by building out new space, IBM expects this will help save more than five billion kilowatt hours of energy per year.

The company has already saved more than $100 million since 1998 by conserving energy, and is now setting its sights on bigger targets. It is redirecting $1 billion per year across its businesses, mobilizing the company’s resources to dramatically increase the level of energy efficiency in IT. The initiative – called Project Big Green – includes new products and services for IBM and its clients to sharply reduce data center energy consumption, transforming the world’s business and public technology infrastructures into ‘green’ data centers. The savings are expected to be substantial; for an average 25,000 square foot data center, clients should be able to achieve 42 percent energy savings. Based on the energy mix in the US, this savings equates to 7439 tons of carbon emissions saved per year.

“We’re looking to help clients in broad sectors, and we’re looking to always improve our own technologies,” says Balta. “IBM is a company that serves an extraordinarily diverse set of clients, both in the private sector and government around the world and in industries that range from heavy manufacturing and engineering to consumer products, pharmaceutical, travel and transport, retail and banking – you name it, we serve it.”

The company’s aim is to help these clients reduce expense by recognizing how to make the things they do day-to-day more efficient and less wasteful. As Balta points out, it’s “good for the environment and good for the expense situation”. Energy conservation is the most obvious example – when you conserve energy you consume less, which saves money and also lowers CO2 emissions and your carbon footprint. But that same thinking applies to many other examples, too.

“Often companies call their products or services ‘green’, but if you examine what’s really being done it’s simply improving the efficiency and the effectiveness by which business and commerce operates,” he concludes. “And there’s nothing wrong with that, that’s understandable. But in the process you get this tremendous environmental benefit while also improving the economics of the business. And that’s the underlying point. Things don’t have to be labeled green to actually have a significant green benefit. They go hand in hand. And the more people who understand that, I think the more improvement we’ll see on a global basis.”

A history of leadership

Under CEO Sam Palmisano (pictured), three fundamental cultural traits have informed IBM’s environmental initiatives of the past, present and future:

Leadership responsibility:
While its internal environmental stewardship initiatives have been broad, IBM has also participated as a founding member of numerous industry and governmental organizations and helped develop global standards for environmental excellence

Open communication:
Since the publication of its first environmental progress report, IBM has not only reported on its impact and progress in a clear and transparent manner, but has consistently communicated performance against its internal targets, which typically exceed government laws and regulations

Values-driven organization:
Throughout the organization, a concern for IBM’s impact on the environment is apparent, from product design to the establishment of business practices. Beyond merely ‘doing the right thing’, a concern for the environment is embedded at all levels of the organization

$1 billion – IBM’s annual commitment to increase the level of energy efficiency in IT