Green IT
Japan is an example of how long term forecasts of potentially huge increases in energy consumption and CO2 emissions are stimulating Green IT initiatives both to reduce the energy required “per byte stored, displayed, processed, and transmitted”, and to build a much more energy-efficient society and economy.
The increased use of sophisticated IT equipment and broadband has accelerated the flow of information and is increasing the demand for and consumption of electrical power. In Japan it was recently estimated that the amount of energy used by IT applications would be up to 200 times greater in the year 2025 than it was in 2006. On the basis of this forecast Japan’s national energy consumption would grow from 50 billion kilowatt hours (kwh) in 2006 to 240 billion kwh in 2025, and more than double again to 575 billion kwh in 2050. Over the same period annual CO2 emissions could increase from 26 (in 2006) to 130 million tons in 2025, with a further increase to 300 million tons in 2050. The Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry (METI) has launched green IT initiatives aimed at avoiding this scenario, which would exacerbate the scale and scope of the potential threat posed by global warming.
While conventionally, the concept of green IT focuses largely on how to reduce the energy consumption of IT equipment and systems (including data centers) themselves, a central aspect of METI’s green IT initiatives is that they encompass both “energy-saving IT equipment and systems” and the creation of an “energy-efficient society by IT use.”
METI’s policies and research strategies are carried out by the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO). NEDO, a government agency that is involved in multiple “green” development projects, has initiated three new research programs focusing on green IT projects: 1) Nanobit technology (to reduce the power consumption of magnetic storage devices), 2) Large OLED (organic Light emitting diode) technology (to reduce the power demands of displays), and 3) Green Network System Technology.
In addition to new projects for technology development, Green IT in Japan is also intended to improve mechanisms to encourage environmentally friendly business activities through Supply Chain Management (SCM) in order to reduce energy consumption. With this complementary objective METI has been working on a new CO2 emissions trading system ( a pilot project was launched in October, 2008) by taking into account not only the amount of CO2 emissions produced by the production process, but also the energy-saving products required for supply chain management as a whole.
Japan further recognizes that Green IT, indeed all Green initiatives, will ultimately be ineffective unless they are coordinated and optimized on a global basis. After all, global warming does not respect national borders. To that end, METI is implementing a range of strategic foreign policies, using the World Trade Organization (WTO) and bi- and multi-national economic partnership agreements as two parallel vehicles for driving progress.
More detail on the BMI-T Navigator website
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