The role of atmospheric carbon dioxide in causing global warming is a contentious issue today, especially with a growing number of scientists who argue that its role is a myth, and that instead global warming and cooling are due to natural long-cycles observed over the centuries.

Still, our degree of consumption of materials and energy are quantified in terms of carbon dioxide emissions, which are directly proportional to operational costs due to energy and materials consumption, which in turn also deplete our planet's resources.

While the environmentalist of 20 or more years ago were regarded as some kind hippie wierdo outside of mainstream society, however today, rising fuel prices and energy costs have driven companies and organisations to be mindful of their energy costs and take measures to reduce it, much like householders turn off unnecessary lights, home appliances and water taps when not required.

In the field of information and communications technology (ICT) equipment, the growth in the number of PCs used in offices and with larger numbers of PC servers crammed into a growing number of data centres; not only has the amount of electricity used to power them increased but also the amount of electricity used to power the air conditioning to cool them, which is a double whammy for data centre operators in terms of cost.

While engineers have been working to design PCs and servers which consume less electricity and generate less heat, as well as more energy efficient data centre buildings, ICT can also be used to help companies and organisations reduce their materials and energy consumption, hence their carbon footprint, in innovative ways.

It was towards that end, that Mr. Atsuhisa Takahashi, Fujitsu president of Corporate Environmental Strategy Unit, Japan presented on the topic, Smart City Enabled by ICT at the International GreenTech & Eco Products Exhibition & Conference Malaysia (IGEM2010) in Kuala Lumpur recently.

Takahashi also presented on the Challenges of ICT: Towards Simultaneous Business Growth & Environmental Load Reduction to managers and decisions makers in conjunction with the event.

Practical measures

According to Takahashi, the seven factors impacting the environment are materials consumption, transportation of people, transportation of goods, office space, warehouse space, ICT equipment and Internet data communications, all of which contribute towards carbon dioxide emissions, so the solution is to reduce emissions in all these areas.

The use of ICT helps reduce materials consumption by replacing it with electronic documents, electronic charts, downloadable digital music, videos, and e-books; energy consumed in the transport of people and cargo with video-conferencing, e-learning, home offices and Internet shopping; and warehouse and office space with distribution management systems and electronic imaging systems.

The World Economic Forum conference in Davos stated that the ICT industry generates 2% of the world's carbon dioxide emissions, so the first place to begin is to reduce the carbon dioxide emissions of ICT equipment and systems.

On the hardware front is Fujitsu's Primergy family of servers. For example, its Primergy TX100 S2 server consumes no electrical power when turned off and its power supply delivers 88% power conversion efficiency between mains input and power output to its circuit boards, hard disks and other components when on.

For example, Fujitsu provided Cleanup Corporation's 129 showrooms with its Primergy T120 PC server, which it claims occupies one-quarter the space of conventional servers, has a 175W power supply compared to the conventional 200W, is cooled by heat pump and generates 32dB of noise which is as quiet as a human whisper. Overall its electrical power consumption and carbon dioxide emissions are about 39% less than conventional servers.

This helped Cleanup Corporation reduce its annual carbon emissions by 181 tons and annual costs by the equivalent of RM270,000.

In another case, the business support server, file server and branch server in each of Taiyo Life Insurance Company's 146 branch offices were replaced with one Primergy RX200 rack server working in conjunction with Vmware virtualisation software, which enabled three virtual servers to run on a single platform.

This not only reduced the number of Taiyo Life's servers by one-third from 438 to 146, but also reduced  its carbon emissions by 181 tons and its costs by the equivalent of RM20 million.

Fujitsu also enabled Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology to reduce its 120 terminal servers to 36 and improved its computer asset operating rate from 10% (i.e. 90% idle time) to 90% (i.e. 10%) idle time. This reduced the system's electrical power consumption by 48% and reduced its carbon dioxide emissions by 120 tons.

Cutting materials consumption

Electrical power consumption is only one aspect of Fujitsu's green initiatives and in the case of Anjo Kosei Hospital which was producing 300,000 X-ray films per year, which required 2,000 sq m of warehouse space. With the introduction of ICT systems, Fujitsu enabled the hospital to dispense with film altogether and use digital imaging instead, which reduced its warehouse space to a mere 15 sq m.

Before this change, film contributed 87% to the hospital's carbon emissions, warehouse space comprised 7.7% and electrical power consumption of the hospital's ICT equipment comprised 4.6%. The introduction of Fujitsu's system reduced the hospital's overall carbon emissions by 21%.

In a similar type of scenario, Sanrio Co. Ltd issued 300,000 paper vouchers per month but after the introduction of Fujitsu's ICT system, it reduced its number of paper vouchers by one-tenth to 30,000 as well as its office space. Altogether Sanrio reduced its carbon dioxide emissions by 56%.

Logistics firm Seven and i Holdings Co. Ltd's delivery lorries spent too much time idling and were driven at excessive speed, with too much emergency acceleration and deceleration due to bad driving. The drivers also had to prepare handwritten reports daily.

However, the introduction of ICT improved its lorries' fuel consumption, ensured safer driving habits by its drivers and enabled electronic preparation of daily reports, and this altogether reduced Seven and It's carbon dioxide emissions by 19%.

In another case, agricultural company JA Echigo Santo's inspectors had to drive in 4 x 4 vehicles to inspect the fields, with the transport contributing 87.7% to its carbon emissions but with the introduction of a satellite imaging system for remote sensing and analysis, the company dispense with the use of vehicles and the need for visual inspection and its overall carbon dioxide emissions by 98%.

Being a maritime nation, fishing is one of Japan's major industries, with trawler fleets traversing the oceans in search of fish, which consumes not only much time but also much fuel, which contributed almost 100% to its carbon dioxide emissions.

However, with the introduction of satellite monitoring, fishermen are able to identify rich fishing ground and go straight there, and this reduced its carbon dioxide emissions by 20%.

On a broader scale

When used on a broader scale, ICT can be used in intelligent electric power nets of Smart Grids to manage the optimal distribution of electrical power from conventional power stations and alternative power sources such as solar cells and wind turbines, to homes, schools, public facilities, offices and factories; while ICT can also be used in Smart Traffic Systems to ensure congestion-free roads and highways to reduce fuel wastage with engines idling in traffic jams.

Fujitsu's vision of a Human Centric Intelligent Society enabled by ICT and green technology is one which uses energy more efficiently, is into conservation and recycling of resources and which lives a low-carbon lifestyle but this will require a transformation of our values regarding wealth.

The Malaysian scene

The three biggest challenges in Malaysia with regards environmental sustainability are environmental awareness, renewable energy and cost effective green technology. So, the Ministry of Energy, Green technology and Water was formed and the National Green Technology Policy was launched last year by the Prime Minister, who is chairman of the Green Technology Council.

RM1.5 billion was made available under the Green Technology Financing Scheme to encourage investments in green technology, while construction and innovation will be established in addition to tax incentives.

The government will develop a national eco-labling scheme and standards matching international ones to build competitiveness. Details of this were unveiled in the National Budget 2011, announced on 15 October, 2010.

Through this, Malaysia aims to reduce its carbon footprint by 40%

The Gartner group has ranked Fujitsu as the world's third largest ICT service provider and a leading ICT service provider in Japan and Asia.

In December 2007 it launched its Green Policy Innovation Project to assist its customers and society reduce their environmental footprint by providing green ICT products and solutions, and it claims this has achieved steady results. In July 2008, Fujitsu formulated its Green Policy 2020 as a medium-term vision, outlining its role and direction in the pursuit of the realisation of a low-carbon society.

Then in December 2009, Fujitsu began to expand its Green Policy Innovation Worldwide by effectively using the technology of green ICT and its know-how in environmental practices which it had accumulated worldwide.

The Fujitsu Group has also set new global targets, with the aim to reduce its customers' and society's carbon emissions worldwide by over a cumulative 15 million tons between 2009 and fiscal 2012, through working with its customers and business partners on Green ICT Innovation to help them grow their business by reducing their environmental loads through environmental management programmes.

The Fujitsu Group also stepped up its development of Green products and Super Green Products and is working to reduce environmental burdens through product life cycle in areas such as energy saving, 3R (Reduce, reuse & Recycle) design, non-use of hazardous chemical substance, packaging materials and through information disclosure.

So far, Fujitsu provides its energy-efficient Primergy servers to customers in Malaysia and still has to introduce its other ICT-based solutions.

Fujitsu works with the Green IT Promotion Council and the International Telecommunication Union to standardise environmental impact evaluation methods.