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Using Technology to Solve Environmental and Societal Issues
Links available online
Presenters: Priya Govindarajan, Intel
Official Session Notes are lower down (second half of the page).
Going Green. Recently "being green" has come in vogue and it's been given a lot of time in the news and in our media culture. Focus on global warming and environment is increasing and during this time it's important to think about the different reasons for companies to help out and pitch in so that you can convince people to make a different. Some companies are altruistic and believe in corporate citizenship, others are more concerned with meeting green regulations and others are interested in going green but are concerned about sustaining growth while being able to help. When you know how to approach these companies you know how to work with them to help your own cause. There are many reasons for companies to "do the right thing."
In the states, a study by the information technology and innovation foundation cited ICT as directly responsible for contributing to thwo-thirds of the productivity gains in the
how can technology help save the environment? Let's look at some examples Electronic banking: If everyone in the US started paying bills online, we could save 18.5 million trees each year and reduce toxins in the air (from paper creation and transport) by some 2.2 billion tons. Openeco.org: organizations can calculate on a granular level the GHGs related to their facilities and vehicle fleets based on standard approved carbon accounting standards Interface Carpet Company: new computer controls on the boilers in a fabric factory reduced CO emissions by 99.7% (2 tons/week to 200 lbs/year). Computer controls also improved efficiency of boilers by 23% by minimizing human error and by monitoring temperatures more precisely
People sometimes are adverse to the big bad anti-eco giants but these are the places we need to be making an effort. For example: people are adverse to working on cruise ships because they're not very earth friendly except by helping them improve their efficiency etc. you can help save the environment by cutting their energy/resource consumption and waste.
Green Tech Actions to help Minimize: Let's look at the earth friendly R's. Reduce: optimize X. Reuse: use X as X. Recycle: extract materials from X. Reconstitute: replace X with Y. Reparation: compensate for X by doing Y. Rethink
Green Technology to help enable: Design & invent: design green buildings. optimize & automate: efficient route planning (for UPS for example) monitor & model: Trying to monitor computer systems and only keep those needed on operate & sell (online stores are much more eco friendly than running a physical store) educate & persuade (create websites to help educate people on how to switch) minimize miles (ie: instead of going to a meeting, have a teleconference to save the trip)
Braining Storming Ideas: Move all data centres to cooler climates to minimize cooling needed. (ie using the environment around the data centre in the design) Sharing data centres across companies to minimize the amount of space each company uses. Switching from AC power to DC power. Use sensors to detect where hot spots are so that cooling is only directly applied where it's needed. Leasing of servers, resell to secondary markets Carbon Offsetting
Pillars of sustainable Innovation: Control Risks Cut Costs: Adobe spent about 1.1 million to restructure their buildings and yet they'e saving 1 million each year. Even little things like replacing all their light bulbs to more eco friendly bulbs are contributing to their compay's improvement. Enhance Brand: GE Ecomagination - GE managed to increase profits by introducin their new brand Create Revenue: Toyota Prius
Using Technology for Social Good: -Kiva, Globalgiving.org Using the power of the net to connect grass root humanitarian efforts with resources
-TechBridge World, CMU: Education to help bridge the technology gap in countries. Engineering students at CMU developing tools to help these people with their day to day problems.
-United Villages: drive by Wifi Technology. To help bring online contact to these communities, people are able to write emails at a computer centre and then when the local bus drives by, the bus provides wifi to the computer centre and sends all the saved emails at that time. It is not constant internet however it allows them to be in contact and use their current infrastructure to get temporary access to as many cities as possible.
Rural telemedicine: Using technology to connect medical support to rural areas. Video conferecing etc. to help diagnose from afar
yara's Precision farming: decision support tools to help farmers apply fertilizer where it is needed.
Find out how your own companies can and already are helping. Intel has the World Ahead program to supply 100 schools in
Intel community Solutions: http://www.intel.com/community/solutions/success_stories.htm
Things you can do! Engage more in expressing your beliefs in your work: see if you can get your workplace's support and assistance in realizing your goals. You can form/join employee groups to help educate as well as gain new support for your cause. Look for opportunities to use your tech skills towards your cause. Volunteer actively for your cause. Look for partnerships with non-profit organizations. For example Dell + NCF/goodwill are paring to donate used computes.
links: http://www.sustainablility.com/index.asp http://www.environmentaldefense.org/ http://www.greenercomputing.com/ http://www.climatesaverscomputing.org http://www.sdchronos.org/en/index.htm (Elearning tutorial on business case for sustainable development http://bwnt.businessweek.com/interactive_reports/g100/?campaign_id=msnbc_green (global 100 - Role models in sustainable business practices) http://www.oneworldprojects.com http://techsoup.org (technology place for nonprofits) http://dotorganize.net/
**Official Session Notes**
“Green is IN”
- Magazines and newspapers are addressing environmental issues - Companies must comply with regulations, foster corporate citizenship, tie growth to sustainable operations. - There’s money in being green - save energy for example.
Drivers for environmental and community stewardship:
Companies don’t establish offices in places that are not environmentally responsible. Reputation - investing in companies that are environmentally friendly makes socially responsible investments.
How much regulations are playing a role:
From 2000 to 2007 significant increase in environmentally aware regulations: waste disposal (energy, e-waste, battery), packaging, etc. In march 2007 a study by Information Technology and Innovation Foundation cited ICT as directly responsible for 2/3 of the productivity gains in US economy from 1997-2002.
While technology is doing great, there’s an area for improvement.
How technology can help environment
- e-banking can save 18.5 mil trees each year + reduce toxins in air from paper production and transportation - OpenEco.org - organizations can contribute by ensuring their vehicle fleets are environmentally friendly for example. - Interface carpet companies - new computer control in a fabric factory reduced CO emissions, boilers efficiency improved 23% by using computer controls
Green technology actions to help Minimize*
Reduce, Reuse (donate old computers to charity instead of dumping), Recycle (extract materials from substance) => minimize Eco impact + Reconstitute (replace X with Y), Reparation (compensate for X by doing Y), Rethink (increase awareness).
Green technology to help Enable*
Technology used to design/invent: green buildings, solar power plants, etc. Optimize and automate (manufacturing), monitor & model, operate & sell (energy savings in retail), minimize miles(presenter from
Technology + environment case study
Speaker has asked attendees to propose green actions to minimize:
- Virtualization: Pooled data centers pool systems together, use air to filter and flow instead of using coolers. - In an office added increased insulation to avoid unnecessary heating of the neighboring unoccupied spaces. - Keeping as many servers up as needed instead of all and auto sense the need for more/less and adjust.
Some current solutions to user study:
- Virtualization - Power management for servers - Intel’s eco-rack - uses DC power - Sun’s water cooling technology that cools servers in rack instead of the whole room - Leasing of servers, resell to secondary markets - Carbon offsetting - Green design of data centers
Pillars of sustainable innovation
Control risks(Palm, RoHS), cut costs(Adobe), enhance brand (GE Ecomagination), create revenue(Toyota Prius)
Using technology for social good
- Use net to connect people who need something with those who need that something - Education to help bridge the technology gap ( TechBridge World, CMU), helping next generation of students think innovatively. - United Villages: in remote villages in
(Comment from the audience): radiation emitted by these devices is bad for the environment. (Speaker’s answer): in rural villages this is the only source, so the emitted pollution from the radiation is very small compared to the impact of innovation of giving people access to the avail technology.
- Intel has a program on educating teachers, doctors on technology use: remote tele operation, monitoring nursing homes, cleaning up the beaches, etc.
Moving forward:
- Get involved with groups in your organization, start one if there are none. - Look for ways to use technology in your community. - Look for ways to impact company’s bottom line. - Network with other fields to see their perspective.
Presenter closed with a cartoon drawing of a person in a supermarket faced with a choice of apple varieties that all have had some negative impact on the environment in their production and.or delivery.
Follow up discussion:
Question: Today’s fast paced technology leads to large amounts of e-waste. Is there’s a program at Intel trying to address this, to foster reuse here locally or even by end users. Answer: You can donate your old computer to local charities, there’s on-going discussion to reuse & refurbish, end-user re-use is interesting, but not yet being addressed.
(The speaker will post her presentation slides to GH Wiki.)
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