Can green computers help save the world?

The drive to make computers more environmentally friendly has been given an extra boost after the technology giants Google and Intel joined the rush to prove their green credentials.

The move was widely welcomed by environmental groups. But analysts argued that the move was motivated by regulation and the need to reduce costs and that more needs to be done to reduce the total carbon footprint of electronic devices during production and disposal processes.

Debates over reducing carbon emissions usually focus on sectors such as aviation and motoring, where pollution from vehicles has had a visible impact on the environment. However, research firm Gartner shows that the IT industry, excluding consumer electronics devices such as DVD and CD players, accounts for roughly 2 per cent of global carbon dioxide emissions - roughly the same as the stigmatised airline industry.

With awareness growing that computers are playing a big part in global warming, it was no surprise that Google and Intel joined the likes of Dell Computer, Hewlett-Packard, IBM and Microsoft in making carbon reduction a priority. The two technology giants signed up to the Climate Savers Computing Initiative, which is backed by the World Wildlife Fund, with the goal of "setting aggressive new targets for energy efficient computers and components".

The two companies unveiled some impressive targets, arguing that the initiative aims to save billions in energy costs and reduce greenhouse gas emissions substantially each year.

Urs Holzle, a senior executive at Google, said: "The average desktop PC wastes nearly half of its power, and the average server wastes one-third of its power. The Climate Savers Computing Initiative is setting a new 90 per cent efficiency target for power supplies which, if achieved, will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 54m tonnes per year - and save more than $5.5bn in energy costs."

Pat Gelsinger, an executive of Intel's Digital Enterprise Group, said: "By 2010, the initiative will cut greenhouse gas emissions in an amount equal to removing more than 11 million cars from the road or shutting down 20 500-megawatt coal-fired power plants - a significant step in reducing the emissions affecting our planet."

The two companies said that the energy saving measures could increase the price of a computer by about $30, but that the extra cost would be offset by lower energy bills.

The move was widely welcomed as it will increase awareness of the IT industry's impact on the environment. British companies and consumers now use a vast amount of electricity to power the country's 1,500 data-centres that support the country's growing IT needs. An average British data centre now uses more power in a year than the city of Leicester.

The leading-edge servers needed to support IT systems use about between three and four times the power of traditional servers. A similar amount of electricity is also required to dissipate the heat generated by high-end servers. Gartner estimates that energy costs represent about 50 per cent of a company's IT budget over the next few years, compared to about 10 per cent currently.

It is ironic that the proliferation of computers in the home and greater use of computer-based systems was greeted as a potential solution to some of humanity's environmental concerns over previous decades. IT was seen as enabling the "paperless office", meaning that forests did not have to be chopped down to type out meaningless memos and video conferencing over a computer was seen as a way of reducing the number of flights needed to jet businessmen around the globe.

But we now use more paper than ever, despite our increasing reliance on computers - and those PCs are also heating up the planet. Chris Gabriel, a strategy director at the IT services company Logicalis, said that 60 per cent of ambient office temperature is caused by technology such as computers and printers, heat that needs to be cooled using air conditioners that use even more power.

The situation has been greeted with alarm in some quarters, with talk of an impending energy crisis unless something is done to reduce power consumption. Mr Gabriel said that data usage is expected to increase six-fold over the next three to four years, making it important that companies such as Google and Intel address the issues technology is contributing to.

A number of IT companies, such as Logicalis, Computacenter and BT, have moved early to offer "green" consulting services to help companies reduce the impact of IT on the environment. BT, which has also reviewed its own carbon footprint, said it has been buying more environmentally friendly technology for some time and has focused on improving the efficiency of its data centres.

A spokesman said: "All our new 'metro node' data centres consume just 40 per cent of the energy of a traditional data centre, and we are in the process of reducing the power consumption of existing data centres by, for example, retrofitting fresh air cooling systems. These energy efficiency strategies do make a real difference - BT has reduced its total energy consumption by 1 per cent in the past six months alone."

Analysts argued that technology companies are motivated by the need to reduce costs, a driver that ties into the need to reduce power. Steve Prentice, the chief of research at the research company Gartner, said that it makes sense for a company such as Google to urge computer makers to develop more energy efficient machines because the cost of running a server has now exceeded the cost of buying one. "The reality is that when a company is running as many servers as Google does, the thing that will help their bottom line is reducing the electricity bill. This is primarily about reducing costs," he said.

Philip Low, the managing director for BroadGroup Consultancy, said cost reduction was "the key factor behind the 'green' initiatives". He said that Google has made moves to improve its efficiency by launching a customised version of its search engine that saves power by changing the background colour, but the company needs to do more. "They need to do more than talk - and provide independent verification rather than self-proclaimed targets. Many of their customers are cynical about their new-found green credentials, and they need to show this is a long-term and fundamental shift, rather than a fad."

Mr Low added that Intel has been launching ever- more powerful and power-hungry processors that users simply do not need. Mr Gabriel agreed, arguing that while power consumption was "the elephant in the room" that technology companies are moving to address, much more needs to be done to improve utilisation of existing technology.

He said that the average server is only used to between 5 and 10 per cent of its capacity while data storage was only used to between 25 and 30 per cent of its capacity, despite being powered 24 hours a day. "We have to look at how we use things, as well as how efficient it is," he said.

Mr Prentice said companies must look at the lifecycle of a computer to effectively combat carbon emissions. He argued that it would be no use developing an energy efficient computer if the production process harmed the environment and disposing of the machine created environmental problems. "IT has a tremendous role to play in repairing environmental damage, but selling an eco-friendly computer is only one element of the picture," he said.

Mr Prentice said that companies could reduce emissions by effectively monitoring efficiency and utilisation of IT and training staff to improve behaviour. He said that 60 per cent of computers are left on when the office is closed, power wastage that can easily be reduced. "We can achieve success by a million cuts," he said.

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