In the race for the title of the world’s greenest data center a lot of perhaps overly optimistic PUE claims have been made. Power usage effectiveness (PUE) is a measure of how efficiently a computer data center uses its power. While it is a step in the right direction it still fails to capture the complete picture of the data center’s energy and resource efficiency. It goes on to point out ten areas that are not being captured; some of which have significant implications.
Three-quarters of large international corporates plan to increase or significantly increase cleantech budgets over the next few years to incorporating clean technologies into existing products to improve environmental performance; entering cleantech segments that are adjacent to existing business units/operations; or create entirely new cleantech-driven product and service offerings, and ultimately new industries.
In this post Julius discusses some of the innovations that are cropping up in forward thinking data center design ranging from the adoption of Yahoo’s chicken coop architecture that is suited for utilizing ambient air cooling; new server designs optimized for hot aisle/cold aisle architecture; and innovative approaches to power supply. While most operators do not have the deep pockets and resources of players like Facebook, Google, Yahoo or Amazon — all mentioned in this post — the kinds of forward thinking innovations being pioneered by these companies are bound to have a wider impact.
This post reports on a recent survey that indicates that the green roof sector in the US and Canada is enjoying excellent growth in spite of the very difficult economic environment that is prevailing in the building sector in general. The survey reports a growth of 28.5% and provides some background on what types of buildings and what cities are leading the adoption of green roofs.
In this post Peg summarizes a round-table discussion about cleantech financing in the global economy held at 5th Annual Babson Energy and Environmental Conference on Entrepreneurship for a Sustainable Future and chaired by Mark Donohue. The discussion covered some of the global aspects affecting cleantech financing and looked at various challenges and opportunities lying ahead.
Building a green data center is a challenging undertaking; it is also one that is poorly understood and that can fail in many ways. This post goes into some of the deeper level goals that need to be kept in focus if the project is going to be a success.
This post highlights how facilities management is an important, if often unsung part of so many businesses… any businesses with facilities, in fact. Sustainable facilities management is an area that can have a profound and near term impact on overall business sustainability. Very large potential energy savings and hence carbon footprint reduction could be realized in facilities management areas such as HVAC or lighting for example; the embodied energy of facilities — their materials and recurring requirements; how runoff is handled and so forth all are areas in which sustainable facilities management can really impact the triple bottom line in a positive way.
In recent months, several conservative governors have rejected federal funds to begin constructing high-speed rail lines in their states. But a high-speed rail advocate argues that such ideologically driven actions are folly, as other U.S. states and countries around the world are moving swiftly to embrace a technology that is essential for competitive 21st-century economies.
Are mandated renewable energy standards the most efficient way to promote renewable energy. In this post, David argues that legislating goals for renewable energy is picking winners and losers, because many of these renewable energy standards laws mandate specific percentages for say wind or solar. He questions why so many people, in light of the recent nuclear disaster in Japan, have rejected nuclear power and he makes the claim that renewable sources of energy cannot provide baseload electric energy supplies. These are arguments that advocates of wind and solar need to address head on.
