Can wireless technology help the planet’s environment? A new report by BSR and commissioned by CTIA- the Wireless Association, explores the impact of wireless technology on the environment in the United States.

Wireless technology is about delivering information where geographic or other barriers are no longer of concern. The “information anywhere” helps benefit the environment in a number of ways.  Here are a few examples taken from the report and reported in a blog by Vijay Kanal, the Director of Information and Communications Technology Practice, Advisory Services for BSR. BSR works with its global network of more than 250 member companies to develop sustainable business strategies and solutions through consulting, research and cross-sector collaboration.

One of the examples from the report discusses the transportation industry, which according to Kanal is responsible for more than 40% of carbon emissions.  Wireless technology applied to just one application, fleet management, has the potential to reduce carbon emissions by 36 million metric tons—the equivalent of removing 6 million passenger vehicles from the road.  By monitoring vehicle performance, for example, fleet managers can ensure that vehicles receive needed maintenance to keep them running efficiently, and reduce fuel used per mile traveled.

Closer to home, wireless systems can connect appliances and devices to smart meters at homes and businesses to give homeowners and corporations better information and tools to help them make better choices and reduce energy consumption.  Smart grids, have the potential to reduce carbon emissions by 360 million metric tons if fully adopted.  Software providers are developing new tools for this purpose.  CA Technologies, for example, offers CA ecoSoftware for businesses to monitor energy usage.

Soil monitoring resources:

Mesa

Issacs and Associates

Holman Industries

Farmers can also benefit from wireless. Within the agriculture sector, soil-monitoring sensors are providing valuable information that helps farmers control the amount of water, fertilizer, and pesticides that they use, thereby saving valuable resources and minimizing the harmful effects of chemicals.  For example, one of the biggest challenges facing farmers is getting the right amount of water to the right crops at the right time.  This is still largely done by educated guesswork based on farmers giving a visual assessment of the crop’s condition and the feel of the soil.  Farms can now use wireless monitoring devices positioned in the soil that will accurately provide data about real-time soil conditions giving the farmer information about soil moisture, fertility, compaction, salinity, humidity and soil water tension as often as every ten seconds.  This would eliminate over watering or under watering.

According to Kanal, in early 2012, BSR will deliver the second report in this two-part series. The second report will cover the socioeconomic impacts of wireless technology around the world.

Tell us your thoughts.  How is your company using wireless technology to benefit the environment?

When both Microsoft and Google separately announced plans to discontinue their power-monitoring devices for consumers in June, there wasn’t much push-back from either the press or the public. The motive of each company apparently was financial; profits were less than expected. In a corporate blog, Microsoft cited slow overall market adoption of the service. For its part, Google’s Green Energy Czar, Bill Weihl, wrote something similar on the Google blog , saying that the PowerMeter hadn’t scaled as quickly as the company would have liked.

This doesn’t mean that either company’s efforts were misguided. Far from it. I believe they were just ahead of the curve. As consumers become unhappier with rising energy bills and power interruption, they will come around.

Terrence Clark, Senior VP and General Manager of CA ecoSoftware products at CA Technologies, says it’s all about the pain point. Consumers today don’t believe that installing these meters will save them enough money, he says, while businesses realize that saving even 10 percent on energy costs, given the scale, makes better energy monitoring and management well worth the investment. He also notes that some businesses, including those that run large data centers and retail establishments, are especially good candidates for doing this.

A Growing Commercial Market

All of this means that business is booming for commercial use of software-based products that collect data on energy usage throughout the organization and then break it down into various metrics. Verdantix, a New York-based independent analyst firm, predicts that the market for such software will grow at more than 40 percent through 2014. The U.S. market alone will more than double; from $207 million in 2011 to $558 million in 2014. The industries with the greatest adoption rates will be oil and gas, telecommunications, utilities, technology and retail, Verdantix says.

The reason is that with detailed energy-consumption information, companies can understand where and how they are using the most energy, and then pinpoint the most wasteful areas so they can reduce power and costs. The most effective software in this category goes beyond monitoring to provide advanced alerts, through which those in charge of energy management are informed when a problem is occurring based on typical trends and deviations from normal.

The benefits for cash-strapped, energy-aware businesses seem clear. After all, “if you can save even 10 percent” on energy costs, “that’s well worth doing,” notes Stuart Neumann, a Senior Manager at Verdantix. Moreover, data centers are using the devices to monitor uptime and availability, as well.

Geography Matters

The motivation to use energy management software for businesses also varies to some extent with geography. In 2012, the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS) enters Phase 3, which will put stricter rules in place for energy consumption throughout Europe. In turn, this should increase demand for power monitoring and management software. In the U.S., with no federal mandates, cost savings are king. And in other areas of the world — India and China, for example — power demand is increasing much more rapidly than supply, prompting businesses to look for software solutions.

Nevertheless, just installing energy management and monitoring software won’t solve every problem a business may have. It’s a good first step, but without a systematic approach and a full commitment to it, you won’t achieve optimum results, experts say.

Clark says that businesses should hold one person accountable for energy use across the organization. Without that and a structured approach, “you’ll still have energy silos and won’t get the full benefit of the technology,” he says.

Over the next few years, Clark believes that both the technology and the consumer base will mature. Consumer products will make a comeback with better results, and the growing business-related interest products will expand to encompass global operations of a company. One thing is clear: The drivers — rising energy costs, increased demand and limited supply — will only become more critical.

Do you use energy management software in your business? Share your experience and results with your peers in a discussion in the Sustainability and Green IT group or add a comment to this blog.

Increasingly, companies need to look outside of the data center for their sustainability efforts.

Sam Murugesan, Cutter Consortium Senior consultant and co-editor of a new book, “Harnessing Green IT:  Principles and Practices” (Wily, 2011), was recently quoted in the June issue of Smart Enterprise magazine saying  that IT contributes only 2 to 3 percent of greenhouse emissions of a business.  The other 97 or 98 percent comes from inside a company.  He says there is a new wave of Green IT, which he calls Green IT 2.0.  In this new wave, the company needs to look outside of the data center for its sustainability efforts.  One such company embracing this idea is Wyndham Worldwide, the hospitality company.  They’ve launched Wyndham Green, a sustainability program that looks at ten green initiatives including:  the washing of linens, lighting, water use, recycling and more.  In addition they have outlined six core strategies:  energy conservation, water conservation, recycling /re-using, education, community involvement and innovations.  It’s a great web site and worth checking out.

For more on Wyndham Green and other company efforts including Capgemini and Shaw Industries, visit the June issue of Smart Enterprise magazine.

Is your organization looking outside the data center?  Let us know what initiatives your company is implementing.

Could uploading a photo to Facebook cause global warming? Yes, if the data center is powered by coal. The cloud continues to grow and with it, large volumes of data that needs to be stored.  While most companies agree that they need to find a way to run data centers cheaper by using less energy, they also need to think about using clean energy to run it.

Greenpeace is on top of this and is encouraging companies to use cleaner energy.  Gary Cook Greenpeace IT Policy Analyst, who was quoted on GreenBiz.com, says Green IT should not be a choice between energy efficiency and clean electricity and that companies need to give equal attention to both to achieve true Green IT.

Some companies are taking the lead on this.  Yahoo is creating data centers near sources of renewable energy and Google is looking to wind energy for some of their centers.

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How about you?  Is your company concerned with the type of power it uses for its data center? Find out about other businesses that are going green here.