NY Times on Smart Infrastructure

Today’s Times has a nice piece about IS for sustainability:
In the mid-1990s, the Internet took off because its technological time had come. Years of steady progress in developing more powerful and less expensive computers, Web software and faster communications links finally came together.
A similar pattern is emerging today, experts say, for what is being called [...]

Carbon data management system (CDMS)

From findings of a joint IBM – Carbon Disclosure Project study:
There are many diverse drivers behind initiatives to create a carbon data management system. The principal motivators discussed in the study are:
• Cost reduction
• Risk mitigation (e.g. be ahead of any legislation, avoid any negative press)
• Enhancing reputation
• Competition
• [...]

ISO 14001

Environmental Management Standard – specification of environmental requirements without dictating how to achieve them in a particular organization.

IT as Hero or Villain

IT may be a sustainability villain (manufacture, use, disposal) or hero (remote work, process efficiency, etc.) and this consulting report says it’s the former and not the latter.
It’s anecdotal though until we have results of empirical studies of large samples of firms (or industries, or countries) examining the net impact of IT on such metrics [...]

Happy Earth Day

Overheard student (MBA?) conversation yesterday: “10 megawatt…. PV cells….ROI….”
The times, they are-a-changin.

Energy Data Privacy

Smart meters, Zigbee, and other forms of IT are digitizing and transforming energy services. On the plus side, we’ll know much more about how much we’re using and be able to design better incentives to achieve energy efficiency goals. On the minus side, there is the nettlesome issue of data privacy. As Tom Tansy of [...]

Environmental Management Systems – Role of ICT

An EPA report on environmental management systems (EMS) lists the following as key indicators of best in class performance for EMS

 

If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it.
Researchers studying how organizations use (or might use) IS for environmental sustainability might get some good inspiration here.
A few examples (from BIT 551):
IT platforms create options for business value
Like [...]

Smart Meters: A Long (but Speedy) Journey

Thinking about investment in online energy systems that require smart meters is like thinking about Facebook if only 7% of homes have broadband.
From FERC:
North American Electric Reliability Council (NERC) Regions

Advanced (Smart) Meters as % of All Meters by NERC

Way to go Florida!

Neighborhood Energy Use – Let the Shaming Begin!

In the near future, resource data will be available as point sources, like rooms in houses, houses, etc. What’s the goal here? If it’s to lower resource use, how best to do this? I think there are at least two options. 
One is what I call resource olympics (REO) in which incentives are designed to [...]

Stimulus Bill

Green Technology: $65 billion
Energy efficient servers: $50 million (.08%) [Green IT]
Smart electricity grid: $4.5 billion (6.9%) [IT for greening other activities]

More $ is going toward IT that creates cascade effects, such as providing a platform for energy management software to shame consumers into using less promote conservation. Less is allocated to stimulating server demand [...]