Thursday, 16 August 2007 - The Australian Computer Society (ACS), the nation’s peak professional body for the ICT sector, today delivered Australia’s first ICT carbon emissions audit, revealing that ICT use by Australian businesses generated 7.94 million tonnes (Mt) of carbon dioxide in 2005, which is the close equivalent to the civil aviation and the metal production Industries.

Responding to the findings, the ACS said the technology industry is in a unique position to demonstrate leadership by reducing its footprint, as well as leading the way in identifying and creating innovative green solutions for other industries and Australian consumers.

The report, conducted by leading technology solutions firm, the Ethan Group, revealed the following key findings:

• ICT usage by Australian businesses represents 2.84% of the emissions attributed to the stationary energy component (energy consumed excluding transportation), and 1.52% of the total national emissions, which totalled 522.2 Mt CO2[1]
• Total estimated emissions from stationary energy combustion are equal to 53.5% of net national emissions.
• One of the biggest power consumption demands comes from employees’ personal workstation equipment, which is generally in an operational state for 12 hours per day, and in many cases is not switched off.
• ICT’s carbon emissions are comparable in size to other industries such as civil aviation, which is estimated to generate 0.97% of total carbon emissions and metal production (mostly iron and steel), which accounts for around 2.3% of total carbon emissions and the cement industry at around 1%.

• Workstation usage – saving four hours of workstation/monitor usage per day represents a reduction of approximately 0.37t CO2 emissions per annum per workstation;
• Server virtualisation – Each server removed represents a reduction of approximately 3.35t CO2 emissions per annum – assuming a four year life;
• Desktop virtualisation - by putting ultra-small, completely secure thin clients on the desktop, and linking the thin clients to their own virtual desktop machines allows businesses to reduce the energy requirements to run their desktop environments. A thin client running to the maximum desktop functionality utilising all peripheral ports consumes up to 15 times less power than a conventional desktop.
• Technology upgrade – when upgrading or introducing new technology organisations should discuss energy efficiency with vendors – many vendors have released green technology products;
• Automated Power Control - Advanced control systems are now available to remotely ensure equipment is put into sleep mode and then woken up to ensure it is available when required - this can minimise power usage and reduce emissions;
• Offset Programs - Carbon offset programmes provide an excellent means by which companies can act to offset their ICT carbon emissions. The ICT carbon footprint per small business employee is approximately 1.74 t of carbon dioxide per annum;
• Integrated Telephony – IP Telephony enables a number of new technologies such as tele-working and soft phone capabilities enable employers to re-think the way their employees work and commute to their clients but also remove the need to have a separate power-consuming PABX system ;
• Optimisation of Resource Use -For example, developing optimisation and automation programs that will allow commercial and domestic users to see the power being consumed by each appliance and that will perform non essential functions outside of peak power consumptions periods. This will not only help reduce the loading on the power grid during peak periods but will achieve considerable power savings by performing tasks during off peak periods.