Connected Urban Development

“Connected Urban Development (CUD) demonstrates how to reduce carbon emissions by introducing fundamental improvements in the efficiency of the urban infrastructure through information and communications technology (ICT)”
Examples
Connected Bus in San Francisco
Smart Work Centers in Amsterdam
Personal Travel Assistance in Amsterdam and Soeul
EcoMap in San Francisco

You think maybe you shouldn’t cook that roast beef

Smart meters – the voice of the customer:
When I wake up, and there’s nothing on apart from things like my radio alarm clock and the fridge freezer, it’ll be registering about 0.9p an hour. But when I put the kettle on for a cup of tea it’ll immediately bump up to 29p. And I’m still [...]

Urban EcoMap (Now THAT’S what I’m talkin’ about!)

GHG emission broken down by source (transportation, energy, waste) and zip code (click for bigger picture) in the Urban EcoMap.
Question of the day: What’s driving the differences across zips? 
Kudos to Cisco and The Climate Group’s Connected Urban Development Alliance.
 

 

ICT & Environment – Supply & Demand Considerations

OECD Working Party on the Information Economy released “Measuring the Relationship Between ICT and the Environment” (2009).  The report contains a useful framework for asking important questions from supply (producer) and demand (in use) perspectives concerning positive and negative environmental impacts (click on diagram to see larger version).

Leverage Part II

Reducing energy used by home computers and TVs by 50% would save much less energy (and GHG) than using IT to lower energy used by washing machines, dryers, and other household energy hogs (e.g., by demand response) by 20%. Suggestion: do both. 

Leverage Part I

Times article implies digital age is feeding a hunger for energy:

But CO2 emissions due to computers and related is just a few percentage points (2.8% in 2020 BAU scenario) of all energy use (though it is growing three times faster than emissions from other sources):

And IT’s potential indirect impact on lowering CO2 emissions in other [...]

Yet Another “Smart Grid Promotes Conservation” Story

The Times Green Inc. blog reports today on a study of energy use in 100 business and residential sites after a demand-response system was initiated:
A smart grid pilot project in Fayetteville, N.C., has resulted in an initial 20 percent decline in average electricity consumption, according Consert, a Raleigh, N.C. technology company.
Those numbers are based on [...]

Why so little action on climate change?

The American Psychological Association created a task force on psychology and global climate change. The draft report includes some interesting findings about the importance of immediate feedback of energy use, which might be provided by mobile information technologies like iPhone.
Here’s an excerpt on why (and what kind of) information matters
Studies generally find that information [...]

IT as Hero and Villain

“A PRELIMINARY REPORT ON GREEN IT ATTITUDE AND ACTIONS AMONG AUSTRALIAN IT PROFESSIONALS,” by ALEMAYEHU MOLLA with VANESSA COOPER, HEPU DENG, STAS LUKAITIS, 2009.

Q: Do I trust Google or Microsoft with my energy data?

A: Neither.
(But if the value I receive is greater than the privacy risks, then sign me up).
In the “I can do anything you can do better” home energy monitoring sweepstakes, enter Microsoft “Hohm” (beta).
Full review coming soon…