Green IT: Implementing a Carbon Neutral Strategy
There are an ever-growing number of scientific articles on the urgency of taking action right now to reduce the increased concentration of greenhouse gases (GHGs) in the atmosphere, which are the seen as the root of current climate change. Over the past three decades, we have seen a global temperature increase of approximately 0.6°C, in comparison with the beginning of the industrial era. In the 2007 report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), an organisation which brings together more than 2,000 scientists from around the world, scientists estimated that we should avoid going beyond the threshold of a 2°C increase in global temperature if we want to prevent serious climate disturbances. To achieve this, we need to cut GHG emissions by half by 2050 compared with 1990 emission levels, including 80% in the industrialised countries.
Many governments are now working to set up systems of standards or incentives for the energy and industry sectors. Europe has a strong lead over other continents, thanks to its Emission Trading Scheme (ETS), the flagship measure introduced in 2005.
Things are also starting to change in the services sector. Since the beginning of 2009, the UK has required companies to follow environmental reporting procedures, measuring their GHG emissions. From 2010, all tertiary companies consuming more than 6,000 MWh of electricity will have to comply with a CO2 emission quota market. This will start with a quota price set at £12 per tonne of CO2 for the initial allocation. In 2013, the quotas will be auctioned.
The entire banking system is already a fully-fledged stakeholder with regard to the framework principles of social and environmental responsibility. Société Générale has participated in the United Nations Global Compact since 2003. Its commitment to combating climate change became formal with its signature of the Carbon Disclosure Project in 2006, renewed in 2007. Finally, in 2007, the group adopted the Equator Principles, through which all of the banks agree to respect international benchmark standards regarding the social and environmental impact of project financing.
HSBC has been carbon neutral worldwide since 2005. Dexia, Barclays and Rabobank have announced their goal of carbon neutrality in the short term.
Société Générale has also decided to participate in the movement against climate change and work towards carbon neutrality by 2012. The group’s environmental policy sets two major objectives:
Aware of its responsibility, Société Générale intends to ensure respect for the environment in pursuing its business activities. Internally, this responsibility takes the form of setting up three major principles:
In 2008, a company like Société Générale emitted around 300,000 tonnes of CO2 at world level and consumed 850 GWh of energy, including 600 GWh of electricity, while its employees travelled just under 470 million kilometres and used approximately 7,600 tonnes of office paper.
So, initially, to reach carbon neutrality, Société Générale has set a CO2 emission reduction objective of 11% per occupant between 2008 and 2012, compared with the benchmark year of 2007, for the entire group. In a second phase, it will voluntarily compensate residual emissions. To ensure this objective is reached, specific action plans for each centre of activity and functional executive are currently being drawn up. These plans include reduction objectives in terms of energy, electricity and office paper consumption and the number of kilometres travelled for professional journeys and CO2 emissions, as well as the actions introduced to achieve these objectives.
In order to facilitate the achievement of these objectives, cross-sector projects are also being implemented. One of these concerns a major programme in the field of green IT. Indeed, IT is the work tool of bankers and financiers and, for Société Générale, this accounts for 50% of electricity consumption, which, in turn, accounts for 70% of energy consumption. This means that IT should be a major vector of our strategy to combat climate change.
Green IT combines two essential ideas: the first is the reduction of the environmental impact of the tool itself, while the second is the introduction of IT tools working for the environment. These twin concepts can only realise their full value if they are accompanied by a modification of behaviour patterns.
The reduction of the IT tool’s impact concerns the aspects of optimisation of infrastructures relating to capacities of processing, storage and network connections, the organisation and consumption of work tools, such as computers, printers, telephones, etc, but also everything upstream relating to the construction of this equipment, by taking into account the recycling capacity of the products and, in the downstream phase, with the treatment of wastes resulting from this equipment (i.e. electric and electronic equipment waste (EEEW)).
The process of responsible sourcing plays an important role in this. For example, Société Générale has set up an internal procedure that recommends the use of EEEW sorting and upgrading by favouring responsible dismantling industries, with the aim of a complete approach to the life cycle of work tools. In the realm of data centres, and other places of high energy consumption, after deployment of means designed to improve energy efficiency, there are recommendations concerning the recovery of lost unavoidable energy to supply other networks with heat or the introduction of renewable energy systems (solar panels or wind farms). No stone should be left unturned in this context.
The other aspect of green IT is the use of the possibilities offered by IT to reduce the environmental impact of business activities. The classic example is the introduction of telecommunication systems (video conferences, telepresence, etc) to limit business travel, with a consequent reduction in GHG emissions, as well as improved well-being for employees who no longer have to put up with tiring journeys and also save time globally. Another example we are considering in Société Générale is what is often called the smart building. This concerns the integration of an automation tool that reports energy and fluid consumption for different types of buildings, which facilitates the technical steering of buildings and enables optimised management in function of their changing needs over time.
The ambition of such a project can only be viable with the wholehearted commitment of company’s managers and employees. This means we have to undertake a policy of steering real change, which necessarily involves listening to, informing and communicating with the employees. This is why internal communication cannot be absent from such a project.
After carrying out an inventory of its ‘green IT maturity’ in the summer of 2008, Société Générale is introducing a system of governance for its green IT programme, which involves the operational managers of the group’s different centres, in order to succeed in making practices homogenous. This governance should hinge on monitoring groups for programmes currently being rolled out, ensuring the environmental quality of projects, and working groups concentrating on exploratory projects, which are more ambitious in the environmental field. The maturity survey enabled us to identify around 20 actions to introduce in three vectors: data-centres, the office automation environment and IT tools serving communication. A more specific analysis has shown that, if measures to optimise and renew data centres and measures concerning work posts, such as the deployment of light customers, are successfully implemented, potential energy saving gains of more than 40% are possible by 2012. If nothing is done, energy consumption could grow by more than 25% by 2012. The gains of actions on green IT in terms of CO2 could quite easily account for two-thirds of the CO2 emission reduction objective determined in the group’s carbon neutrality strategy.