Little Miss Enviro Geek : Emissions Trading

Some personal news...

biwirth — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 03:24:00 GMT

Hello Dear Blog Readers,

(hmmm....that kinda sounds like the beginning of one of those SPAM emails)

I wanted to let you all know I am moving on from Microsoft and shall no longer be blogging here. I'll be moving an archive of these posts to my website http://www.greenitstrategy.com and shall continue blogging there on Green IT.

So what will I be doing now?

Well, I have decided to take some time off, write a book and maybe look into starting my own business. Regardless, you can always catch me through my website and please do feel free to visit me there.

Thank you to everyone who contacted me with their Green IT questions over the past two years and gave me feedback. I really appreciate your support and good luck with your own Green IT initiatives.

Kind Regards,

Bianca AKA Little Miss Enviro Geek

Microsoft releases Dynamics Environmental Dashboard

biwirth — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 23:00:00 GMT

On 9th February Microsoft launched the Dynamics AX Environmental Dashboard. The dashboard enables mid-sized organizations to track their energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions (out of the box) in an effort to help identify opportunities to cut costs and lessen their environmental impact from within their existing ERP solution. It allows companies to seamlessly capture and measure key environmental indicators as part of their everyday business processes.

The key features include:

Feature	Description
Shared data	Increase visibility and improve collaboration across your organization with the ability to publish Environmental Sustainability Dashboard reports to any employee's Role Centre using Microsoft® SharePoint® Web parts. Motivate employees to act by increasing awareness of your organization's environmental impact, their role in reduction efforts, and how they can help. Access the Environmental Sustainability Dashboard using Enterprise Portal in Microsoft Dynamics AX.*
Custom configurations and reporting	Customize the dashboard to include information relevant to your organization, such as specific vendors, energy conservation programs, or conservation goals. Track direct and indirect energy consumption by month; identify specific contributing factors; and view the energy costs of each, such as electricity and fuel oil or heating costs.
Greenhouse gas inventory	Create and track your own greenhouse gas inventory to understand your environmental impact and how that might affect your business in a carbon market. Capture data consistently over time that is auditable, and reduce your risk of exposure to potential regulations, taxation, or increases in energy costs. View the carbon dioxide equivalent of your emissions-the dashboard automatically calculates the carbon dioxide conversions and presents the information in an easy-to-read graph.
Tracking of Environmental Performance Indicators	Automatically track the four core GRI Environmental Performance Indicators for energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions, including: EN3-Direct energy consumption that is generated onsite, such as heat and power. EN4-Indirect energy consumption that is generated from another location, such as a utility. EN16-Your total direct and indirect greenhouse gas emissions, which combines EN3 and EN4 and converts them into carbon dioxide equivalents. EN17-Other relevant indirect greenhouse gas emissions, such as those generated from business travel, employee commuting, and waste disposal.
Integration with Microsoft SQL Server® Reporting Services	Capture environmental sustainability data in everyday business processes by viewing data immediately and tracking it over time using the dashboard, which is powered by SQL Server Reporting Services. View detailed, integrated data, such as the quantity of energy purchased from a vendor, the associated costs, and the dates of the service period

With the Business Ready Enhancement Plan for Microsoft Dynamics, the dashboard is available at no additional charge to customers using Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009 (only).

There is a good demo HERE.

I mentioned that out of the box you get two metrics (energy & greenhouse gases) however a Dynamics Developer can add in other metrics they typically need to measure, such as waste, water, hazardouse substances etc.

For more info, checkout: http://www.microsoft.com/dynamics/environment.mspx

Mr B's announcement on Environmental Sustainability @ MS

biwirth — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 06:38:16 GMT

OK so first I'll apologise for taking naptime on my blog for the past month+. I have no excuse other than perceived lack of time - you may send me to the principal for punishment. Speaking of the 'head', today our illustrious leader, Mr Ballmer, made some announcements on Environmental Sustainability in Microsoft.

First up: we have promised to reduce our emissions 30% per unit of revenue by 2012. Considering the Prime Minister of Australia could only manage a paltry 5% for the whole of Australia, I'd say our target it pretty <bleep> brilliant.

Second: he encouraged all employees on the things they can do to help meet this target:

Using IT to improve energy efficiency: check out our newly revised website www.microsoft.com/environment for information on reducing energy consumption using technology
Accelerating research on environmental sustainability: check out www.research.microsoft.com for our work in this area
Responsible environmental leadership: the 30% reduction will be achieved through things like building management, reducing air travel, optimising our supply chain, and investing in concentrated programs

Checkout the formal blog post from our E&S Team for more info: http://blogs.msdn.com/see/archive/2009/03/12/reducing-microsoft-s-carbon-footprint.aspx

Is this Green IT crap going to go away?

biwirth — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 06:00:00 GMT

For those sceptics among us, you may be thinking this whole Green IT thing is some type of brain spasm by an entire technology community - one of the usual ones in IT where at the end of another year we get there and say... "well - actually that prediction didn't come off so we'll forget about that one - thank jeeps for that - I've got enough work to do!"

Well if you do think like that, I'm afraid I have bad news for you on the Green IT front - it's not going away any time soon. But it's not all bad - it may just be that over time 'Green IT' will just become 'built-in' to the way we do things in IT...

OK - a couple of examples to backup my theory:

Not just IT are focussed on greening the world - people like insurance companies are getting mighty frighty in their tighties. Before Microsoft I worked with a number of insurance companies, and over the past few years there has been broad industry increase in their concern over the environment. They have annual reports that outline how their businesses are reducing energy consumption; they attend, sponsor and speak at environmental events; and they talk in the press about being socially responsible. Yeah some of it might be great marketing, but I also think there is serious concern there.
The Australian Government (and other world governments around the world) are taking this seriously - OK so there may not be a whole lot of legislation around sustainable IT at the moment however it's coming baby! We just signed the Kyoto Protocol. In June this year an interim report will be released around a carbon emissions trading scheme for Australia and already there is concern businesses won't be able to meet the reporting requirements (Hello, IT!).
People who don't usually take this seriously are - SO before I talk about this one, let me qualify that I grew up on a farm, my grandparents and many uncles and aunts are farmers so I am not just spouting broad, unsupervised opinion. HOWEVER - farmers pretty much do things exactly as they have been done before - it's tradition. The environment is of concern for crops and ensuring the cash cows get fed (so to speak), however farmers do tend to be sceptical of "greenie" issues - simply because in the past these dreadlocked tactics have generally threatened their very livelihood! So, when farmers start climate change control groups, you know its serious.

So, given this broad change in opinion and policy, me thinks this one is here to stay folks...although like I said, I think a lot of the concern areas will just become part of our natural processes e.g. computers will be built with low energy consumption, battery life will improve (this innovation has been moving along a separate tangent for a number of years anyway), e-waste recycling will become the norm, people will use technology to reduce travel and data centers will invest in carbon emissions schemes and virtualisation...

...There is no need to be afraid, my darlings, step into the green light and let it wash over you.... ;-)

SNAP IN TIME: What am I listening to while writing this? My God by Jethro Tull and Spreading the Disease by Queensryche.