Little Miss Enviro Geek : carbon management

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

Excom launches Australian Green IT courses

biwirth — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 03:10:00 GMT

On Monday I met with the CEO & one of the Regional Managers of Excom in Australia and talked about their recent launch of a set of Green IT courses in Australia. So far they have developed three Green IT courses:

Green IT Fundamentals
Green IT: Design and Implementation
Green IT: Choosing and implementing the right carbon emission management software

For companies that need to meet NGER legislation requirements, the most interesting course will be the third one - Choosing and implementing the right carbon emission management software. With over 60 separate software packages for carbon emissions management in Australia this course will help introduce the concepts, measurement tools and software packages available or that could be custom built. Great for analysts, IT pros, or environment managers.

Hey if anyone does enrol in these courses, it would be great to hear your thoughts and comments - did you find it worthwhile or did it send you to sleep? Did you learn a number of new things? Did it help support your green IT business case?

cheers,

LMEG

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

WWF releases paper on teleworking, sponsored by Microsoft

biwirth — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 22:00:00 GMT

I am posting on April Fools Day but trust me when I say this post is not a joke! :)

The World Wildlife Fund (not World Wrestling Federation!) have released a new paper on the opportunities presented by teleworking and video conferencing.

In their opening statement, WWF state that they believe virtual meetings and telecommuting have the opportunity to to save more than 3 million tonnes of CO2 – equivalent to about half of the current US CO2 emissions. This paper extends on the WWF’s overall position on the top 10 ICT initiatives they propose would reduce the most carbon.

In their paper WWF propose four different scenarios modelled as “future worlds” which would present varied opportunities for carbon savings:

The key findings of the paper include:

Teleworking has the potential to deliver greater greenhouse gas (GHG) savings than virtual meetings
The Smart world scenario would achieve maximum benefits where IT, users and policy makers work together to deliver solutions + policies
A laptop with a webcam, wireless internet access & appropriate software represent the key technical requirement for teleworking

One of the most interesting insights, and something I see & hear from customers when I talk with them about teleworking, is that it isn’t necessarily the technology that inhibits these types of initiatives – its the organisational change and the cultural barriers. In the past two years the technology has matured and is lower cost than ever before – but some customers I speak with tell me their organisation just won’t ‘handle the change’. Typical concerns I hear for teleworking include:

Cultural attitude to work: e.g. ‘Mary isn’t working, she is sitting at home watching television / on a beach’.
Organisational change: e.g. training users to utilise the technologies appropriately.
Organisational policies: for example, ‘work hours being set between 9-5 - if you aren’t sitting down working during those times then its not acceptable’. There is obviously a need to be able to contact people during a set of work hours as most workers need to interact with other people and customers, however flexibility & the right internal policies can result in more work being done, not less. As pictured below, a study from the paper indicates increased productivity from virtual meetings:

If you are a visual person, supporting the paper is an interesting scenario & time-based calculator for some European & Asian areas and the US:

Overall the paper provides some good research for anyone planning a business case for teleworking and virtual meetings. Checkout the entire paper HERE and the planning calculator HERE.