Get a whole year of cutting-edge eco-building news for just £24.00 pa.
Built upon 30 years of experience, this fabulous new medium will feature inspiring and in-depth articles on eco-building projects from across the spectrum and from all over the UK, most of which are written by the very people that designed or built them. Perfect for architects, builders, developers, self builders and anyone interested in keeping right up-to-date with green building trends and friends.
For subscription options:
please go here
|
|
|
Growth of I.T. threatens carbon targets |
|
 
|
|
|
|
26 Jun 2013, 1:34 PM
|
The Committee on Climate Change today released its annual progress report to Parliament. The report warns that the UK is at risk of missing carbon budgets in 2020, despite being on target to meet its first two carbon budgets. The report focuses on improving the efficiency of buildings and cars as well as growing investment in renewable generation and energy efficiency.
|
Peter Hopton, green IT entrepreneur and CEO of Iceotope*, a company devoted to environmetnally friendly cooling solutions, says the UK must look to change its IT policies in order to address the possibility of missing future carbon reduction targets and provides his comments below:
“It’s important to stress that the carbon reduction shortfall outlined in this report can indeed be addressed if action is taken now. One of the best ways for the UK to do so would be to take a long hard look at its green IT policies, or lack thereof. Most people are simply unaware of IT’s environmental impact, and few inside the business or IT communities are doing enough to lessen these damages.
“The problem essentially boils down to data. At any time, millions of people are downloading apps and streaming massive HD video files and this requires huge data farms to be located around the country. Needless to say, these facilities require huge amounts of power to run and on the most part, they are often extremely inefficient and are a major contributor of carbon emissions. The UK is believed to have the greatest concentration of these data centre facilities on the planet, consuming over 6.4 GW of power per year, which is equivalent to six million British households.
“IT is one of the biggest polluters today and this problem is growing rapidly. The industry is growing at a speed like no other, but reforms to keep its environmental footprint in check are nowhere near where they need to be. We can fix this and implementing new, environmentally conscious approaches to the IT sector, and these data centre facilities would be the best possible start. The solutions are available, it just takes a little effort from IT decision makers to implement them.”
|
|
|
|
