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Dan Swinhoe (Global)- Going Green: US vs. Europe

In Iceland sits Thor. Not a Norse God, but a supercomputer. And a special one at that, for it's the world's first zero-

emissions supercomputer. Powered by geothermal energy, Thor represents the pinnacle of Green IT.

According to Gartner, improving sustainability will become a top priority for the majority of companies in the next

couple of years. With good reason, sustainability and the concept of Green IT have grown in stature in recent

years. In developed countries such as the UK and the US, IT accounts for around 2% of energy use. Maybe not

much, but that figure is predicted to rise dramatically in the years to come. Paperless offices, concerns over rare

metals, eWaste, inefficiency, plus the usual concerns about where the juice to power everything is coming from are

higher in priority than they've ever been. The fact that data center power usage has soared by over60% in a year

and rumours that cloud computing isn't as Green as we first thought have brought computing's role in the

environment to the fore.

As two of the biggest marke ts for pretty much every kind of tech, and responsib le for many of the rules that help or

hinder the cause, how do the US & Europe vary in their approach to Green IT & sustainability?

PolicyThough it differs across individualcountries, Europe as a whole is right at the fore when it comes to trying to go

Green. The EU is funding the "Eurocloud" project for cleaner cloud technology, and aims to make Europe the

"home of Green computing". Couple this with numerous directives andregulations and it's very hard to fault

Europe on its policy efforts.

In the US meanwhile, things aren't quite so advanced. During his election campaign, President Obama statedthat

'climate change is not a hoax', something that wouldn't need to be said in most countries. He did however, promise

further efforts to support to clean energy. As well as a large pro-oil section of government, the SMARTer2020report

explains the commitment to the Green cause varie wildly from state to state, mak ing reduction in em issions much

harder.

Companies

The commitment of com panies to the Green cause also varies depending on which side of the pond you do

business. A 2011 KPMG report found that55% of US companies have a sustainability plan, compared to 62% of

their European counterparts, though newer US figures show an increase of around 10% (current Euro numbers

are hard to find).

Greenpeace, who are campaigning for Greener clouds and greater transparency, release a regular report - the

Good Greenpeace Guide to Greener Electronics - to evaluate leading consumer electronics companies b ased on

their commitment and progress' in a variety of environmental criteria. Indian electronics company Wipro took the

top spot, while the US and Europe both featured two each in the top ten - HP (2nd) & Dell (5th), Nokia (3rd) &

Phillips (10th).

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Because it is such a big issue, there are a whole host of lists and indexes on sustainability, with much of the focus

going on the world's biggest companies. EIRIS's April report rates the Global 50' from A to E. Out of 30 US

companies, none scored an A grade, and only three (including Intel) were rated B, while four scored E's. European

companies meanwhile, fared much better. Out of 14, four were given A's, and the lowest was a C. It was a similar

story with the recent Global 100most sustainable corps in the world' list - ten US companies to 55 European;

three compared to 14 in the top 20.

There are good guys and bad guys from b oth regions. In Europe,SAPandLogica have made significant efforts,

and an Irish company, MicroPro, who developed a wooden tablet christened the world's greenest PC' also

deserve a mention. On the other hand, Microsoftrecently came under fire for trying to hide a $210,000 penalty

relating to energy use and heavy use of diesel generators meant for b ackup use'- 3,615 hours in a year

compared to Yahoo's 65.

While Microsoft may not be embracing Green yet, many US companies are. A recent TORK report showed that

"77% of US companies - consider a vendor's comm itment to sustainability a somewhat important' factor in

deciding whether to purchase products or services from a company," a b ig numb er gains even m ore significance

compared to the 36% who said the same thing the year before. Apple provided an interesting case last year- in

Julyit backed out of EPEAT Green electronics registry (a list of Green electronics) before quickly re-joining and

redoubling i ts Green efforts after a massive backlash from the pub lic and b eing blacklisted by government.

People

The Apple incident highli ghts the importance of people in the sustainabili ty chain. National Geographic's

Greendexlooks at people's perception of Green issues, and showed some interesting results. As well as being the

most sceptical, Americans are one of the least concerned or guilty ab out their impact on the environment, b elieve

individuals can mak e a difference (yet make l ittle effort themselves) and strongly b elieve companies are working

hard to keep the environment clean. Europeans, though faring better, aren't much m ore concerned or guilty, but

do consider themselves Green. And they all feel more cynical ab out the efforts companies are mak ing on the

Green front, but this may be because the US is more accepting of big business.

Fuel Guzzling?

Though much of this blog seems harsh on the US, it is fair to say as one of the biggest consumers of energy in the

world there should be m ore urgency in their sustainability efforts. That being said, while the US has b een steadily

weaning itself off coal onto natural gas (not renewable but a cleaner alternative) conditions in Europe have

inadvertently created a "Golden Age of Coal." Once newlaws come into effect in the next few years, coal burning

will have to go down, but for now the US is showing Europe up in a game it wants to be leading.

Overall though, if Iceland can run carbon-free supercomputers, why isn't everyone else looking to the Mighty Thor

for inspiration?

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