I was reading an article recently that said, “Data center administrators everywhere are being bombarded with tips and pitches for improving the energy efficiency of their facilities [1].”

The piece went on to say that, though an administrator needs to be proactive to make its data center greener, it can conduct business as usual and still see its data center “deepen its emerald hue.”

The article was referring to the fact that the components of the data center are always being refreshed. Software is upgraded. So is the hardware and network infrastructure. The newer components that are brought online will hopefully be more energy efficient than the ones previously in existence. This should result in lower energy costs and a reduced carbon footprint.

The example quoted involved swapping out old hardware every three years and how this could substantially impact a data center’s carbon footprint.

To make this work, you need, of course, two key requirements: You must know the age of all your hardware so you can identify candidates for refresh, and you must be assured that the hardware you are replacing it with is more energy efficient and environmentally sound than its predecessor.

You may have outsourced this arrangement and are leaving it up to the supplier, but I suggest that even in that scenario you should be maintaining some level of control and assurance of service.

The key is service asset and configuration management (SACM). Maintenance of an accurate and comprehensive configuration management system (CMS), which includes the age of hardware and software as an attribute of each configuration item (CI), will allow you to identify the age of your entire infrastructure and its components and the refresh program needed to maintain it.

Remember the refresh is not just about servers within the data center but also desktops, laptops, printers, multifunction devices, and so on. The refresh should also include aging software applications, which are likely to be more power hungry than their replacement.

That covers the first requirement. Supplier management covers the second requirement in conjunction with SACM. All suppliers along with their products, goods, and services should be subject to selection criteria to ensure that they support the sustainability objectives of the organization.

These criteria should include more energy efficient hardware and software that generate less carbon emissions than its predecessor.

Let’s look at some of the selection criteria that can be used:

The hardware CI should have the EPEAT rating recorded as an attribute.
Selection criteria can include electronic product environmental assessment tool (EPEAT) criterion. EPEAT is a system that helps purchasers evaluate, compare, and select electronic products based on their environmental attributes. The system currently covers desktop and laptop computers, thin clients, workstations, and computer monitors. Manufacturers may register in EPEAT desktops, laptops, and monitors that meet twenty-three required environmental performance criteria. Registered products are rated gold, silver, or bronze depending on the percentage of twenty-eight optional criteria they meet above the baseline criteria.

Products including desktops, laptops, printers, servers, etc., can also be selected based on their assigned energy efficiency ratings such as ENERGY STAR.

The hardware CI should have the ENERGY STAR rating recorded as an attribute.
ENERGY STAR is an international standard for energy efficient consumer products that originated in the USA but that has been adopted in Australia, Canada, Japan, New Zealand, Taiwan, and the European Union. Products can earn the ENERGY STAR label by meeting the energy efficiency requirements set forth in ENERGY STAR product specifications.

The hardware CI should have the RoHS compliance of the supplier recorded as an attribute.
Selection criteria can include suppliers that comply with the Reduction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS) directive. Suppliers complying with RoHS have restricted the use of certain hazardous materials in the manufacture of their products. This directive restricts the use of six hazardous materials in the manufacture of various types of electronic and electrical equipment. These are lead, mercury, cadmium, hexavalent chromium, polybrominated biphenyls, and polybrominated diphenyl ether.

The hardware CI should have the WEEE compliance of the supplier recorded as an attribute.
Selection criteria can include suppliers complying with the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) directive. These suppliers have taken on responsibility for the disposal of waste electrical and electronic equipment and have established an infrastructure for collecting WEEE.

The hardware (supplier or software) CI should have the ISO 14001 compliance of the supplier recorded as an attribute.
Selection criteria can include suppliers that have gained ISO 14001 accreditation. Suppliers with ISO 140001 accreditation have demonstrated via an audited process that they have effective environmental management systems in place.

Now that we have determined our selection criteria, and we have recorded compliance or not to those criteria as an attribute on our CIs, we can establish targets and metrics including:

• Percentage increase in the number of CIs in the CMS that have energy efficiency ratings as attributes (e.g. ENERGY STAR)
  
  
• Percentage increase in the number of CIs in the CMS that have attributes indicating compliance with EPEAT criteria (e.g. gold, silver, bronze)
  
  
• Percentage increase in the number of supplier CIs (or the hardware /software CIs that the supplier provides) that have ISO 14001 accreditation as an attribute
  
  
• Percentage increase in the number of supplier CIS (or the hardware /software CIs that the supplier provides) that have RoHS compliance as an attribute
  
  
• Percentage increase in the number of supplier CIS (or the hardware /software CIs that the supplier provides) that have WEEE compliance as an attribute
  

The CMS and SACM process allows you to determine what needs to be refreshed and when, but the definition of selection criteria and the recording of compliance or not to that criteria ensures that the replacement is more environmentally sound than that which went before.

There will be many more selection criteria that you may wish to add into your supplier management process and record in the CMS. Those referenced here are just some of the ones that are key to the improvement in environmental performance.

There is a lot more that the SACM process has to offer in the support of a more sustainable IT organization but I shall save that for another day.

References and Further Reading

[1] B&L Blog “Turn Your Data Center Green by Doing Business as Usual.” February 23, 2011.

EPEAT
http://www.epeat.net/

ENERGYSTAR
http://www.energystar.gov/

RoHS and WEEE
http://www.rohsguide.com/rohs-faq.htm

ISO 14001
http://www.iso.org/iso/iso_14000_essentials

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