CRN Network, September 28, 2010, 1200 hrs
Alongside corporate social responsibility, compliance with government norms and energy savings, enterprises in India are opening up to the commercial angle of Green IT and carbon credits. Now, carbon credits certificates are issued to corporations that reduce their emissions of green house gases.
Speaking at Interop, during a session on Enhancing energy efficiency and gaining carbon credits, KV Jagannath, Managing Director and CEO, Choice Solutions said, “Although the Kyoto Protocol began five years ago, it is finally being implemented this year. Carbon credits are an added incentive to go green, and enterprises in India are looking at selling carbon credits on the Mumbai Multi-Commodity Exchange (MCX) or Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX) through aggregators.”
Jagannath added, “Companies that produce low or no emissions, develop products or services that help reduce emissions or are in solar, wind-power or other renewable energy businesses, and farms and logging companies are eligible to sell carbon credits.”
Another driver for carbon trading in India is the addition of more ways that carbon credits can be accumulated. “The Clean Development Mechanism has approved of usage of renewable energy sources, replacing lights with CFL and even land used for an SEZ that is afforested can add to the carbon credits,” he added.
Discussing India’s energy efficiency with the global parameter Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE), Choice’s Jagannath said his Indian clients register an average PUE of 2, while the ideal value is 1.6 for India and 1.0 globally. Google’s PUE for its datacenter stood at 1.3-1.5.
Green IT slowly gaining momentum
Green IT is not a priority for Indian companies due to budget constraints and the lack of global pressure. The country is far behind others in annual carbon emissions. However, rising energy costs have forced the companies to think of energy citizenship. Legislations on ratings for data centers and recycling are driving change in the Indian IT industry.
During a session Green IT – myth or reality, Avinash Sankholkar, Head, System Integration Business and IT infrastructure and systems, L&T Infotech, said, “The Indian government has published a list of approved recyclers and enterprises have to declare their recycling processes in their returns.”
Nagarajan Vijaykumar, Principal Technology Architect, Infosys Technologies, added, “Greenfield installations of data centers and enterprise campuses are choosing to go the green way, and we are seeing this across India. Those with existing establishments are not showing any interest."
Tactics to save energy
Tactics that CTOs and CEOs can use to reduce energy consumption and costs in their data centers include using alternative energy sources, virtualization and making use of DC generated heat.
“Both hardware and software are multiplying ways to reduce your energy costs. While mobility has increased carbon emissions, applications such as online banking and utility payments have decreased them. In a data center, you need to ensure storage—which consumes maximum power and takes on a tiered architecture—and your UPS is right sized. Also, adjusting the AC—rather than having a standard setting for the whole year—and using vented floor tiles will help reduce your carbon footprint,” Sankholkar added. |