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Google the 'coolest' in green IT

Lezette Engelbrecht
By Lezette Engelbrecht, ITWeb online features editor
Johannesburg, 10 Feb 2012

Google has taken top place in Greenpeace's latest Cool IT Leaderboard, its annual ranking of IT companies making strides to become more environmentally responsible.

The list of 21 IT companies, released earlier this week, saw last year's leader Cisco drop to second place, with a score of 49 points. Google moved ahead with 53 points, and Ericsson (48), Fujitsu (48) and Vodafone (45) rounded out the top five.

According to Greenpeace, the Leaderboard aims to recognise companies' leading efforts to drive change in the energy sector, as well as those using their influence to advance government policies supporting renewable energy roll-out.

Companies can score in three categories: current and future investment in green solutions, emissions and energy consumption, and environmental political advocacy.

Google managed to gain six points overall from its 2011 score, due to what Greenpeace calls an “overdue shift” as the search giant finally disclosed its energy footprint. It also scored points for committing to using clean energy to support its rapidly growing demand for electricity, with plans to increase renewable energy use from 25% in 2011 to 35% in 2012.

However, the environmental group was less than optimistic about overall progress in the sector, noting that rising energy demands were worrying given the lack of commitment to ensuring this supply doesn't come from dirty sources. It also said the level of disclosure of investment in emission-reducing solutions is disappointing, and often in contrast with companies' public stance on green issues.

“While we see a steady increase in the quantity and strength of energy solutions offerings from many companies such as Cisco, IBM, Ericsson and Fujitsu, we also see a significant reduction in policy advocacy to change the rules to drive investment in clean technology and renewable energy deployment.”

Glaringly absent from the list are Facebook and Apple, even though the former finally announced its goal to run on renewable energy at the end of last year, after Greenpeace's 20-month “unfriend coal” campaign.

“Apple was not included, because its efforts do not meet the Leaderboard criteria,” said Greenpeace. “It has not demonstrated leadership or elected to pursue market opportunities to drive IT energy solutions that many of its competitors have, despite record profit and large cash reserves.”

Facebook was omitted for similar reasons, but thanks to its recently adopted renewable energy policy, the social network will be included in next year's Leaderboard, the group said.

Teresa Legg, director at local company SustainableIT, says there has been a significant focus by tech companies on energy efficiency, environmental impact and packaging, since Gartner's 2007 finding that the IT industry produces around 2% of global emissions. “The major challenge, however, is that despite efficiency gains, because of the proliferation of devices, ICT emissions continue to increase.”

Legg explains that IT companies are struggling to find a balance between the environment and profitability, as the latter is generally fuelled by the desire for the latest version of a gadget. “The tech companies fuel this market with hype which demands that consumers remain current. The flip side, however, is that this always has an environmental consequence in terms of raw materials, water, energy and waste.”

She adds that the ever-growing focus on cloud technologies complicates issues, with tech giants likely to push this agenda and espouse its green credentials. “In theory, the cloud should be more efficient if designed correctly, but the fact remains that processing power has to take place somewhere, whether internal or external to the operation.

“Efficiency gains in cloud infrastructure should reduce emissions, but due to the increase in processing demand, it remains to be seen whether reduction will occur.”

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