Benefits of Embracing Environmental Responsibility by Tate Cantrell

Views and Opinions on Green IT (Jul 24 2009) Monitoring , Carbon Reduction Commitment

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   The UK has been at the forefront of the push for reducing carbon emissions since becoming the first country to put their efforts into law at the end of 2007 with the Climate Change Bill.  Introduced under this plan is the rapidly approaching and mandatory Carbon Reduction Commitment (CRC), slated to come into effect in April of 2010.  The government estimates that the scheme will affect 25% of total business sector emissions within the UK with an ultimate goal of reducing greenhouse emissions by 60% by 2050. 

    

   Data center owners should be concerned about this new plan as any data center with greater than 300kW of critical load on a continuous basis may be affected by regulations. Affected data centers will be called on to monitor, verify and accurately report their emission statistics to the CRC administration.  Participating organizations will then be required to purchase allowances to offset their emissions in CRC sponsored, closed carbon auctions. The revenue generated from carbon auctions are not intended to be a windfall for the UK tax regime, but will be redistributed between the scheme's participants based on performance in CRC League Tables.  The CRC League Tables will rank organizations based on three categories - absolute emissions, company growth (a mitigating factor) and early actions taken to reduce emissions. In essence, the CRC becomes a boosting mechanism designed to reward companies for improving their energy efficiency and carbon management skills.

    

   This will undoubtedly cause a few more headaches for qualifying data center managers as their responsibilities increase a great deal going into next year.  The fact is, however, that carbon regulations are all but inevitable and not just in the UK.  The US government, for example, is already looking into instituting a similar carbon cap-and-trade system that would surely take special interest in data centers as well.  As green IT continues to become a bigger and more vital issue all over the world, data centers are going to see more restrictions. That doesn’t mean they must fall victim to new regulations, many can benefit from commitments like these.  They just have to embrace the times and make necessary adjustments. 

    

   A green data center has quickly become a relevant and necessary next step as companies invest in long-term energy efficiency.  It’s really a win-win situation for the environment and companies that decide to accept environmental responsibility and prepare for inevitable change.

   
   

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