In 2008 International Science Grid stated that 4% of the world’s CO2production was due to Information & Communications Technology (ICT), that this was about the same amount of GHG (greenhouse gases) produced by the airline industry, and that of that 4% Gartner Group says that 25% came as a result of commercial and private datacenters. In 2008 the world’s GHG output was, according to the German renewable energy industry institute IWR, 31.5 x109, or 31.5 billion metric tonnes. So, 1% of the world’s total GHG emissions amount to 31.5 x 106 metric tonnes (315,000,000 million) and that amount was the result of just one source, private (corporate/government) and commercial datacenters. That’s not the whole story though. ICT is increasing at a logarithmic pace and as it increases so too does the contribution to Global Climate Change (GCC) from datacenters. The more efficient we make our ICT devices and infrastructure, the lower the cost to the consumer and hence the greater the demand for those devices (see Khazzoom-Brookes); the greater the demand for ICT, the more load is put on datacenters, the higher the contribution of the industry to GHG totals.
What all that means is that the looming carbon trading schemes, carbon taxes, cap and trade, and whatever else comes into play to lower GHG, will greatly impact the cost of running a datacenter. That cost will be passed on, either directly or indirectly, to the data center’s customers. We will deal with specifics in the next post, but you need to know that when one of the world’s richest persons, the person most singly responsible for the explosion of the ICT industry, Bill Gates, expounded at TED 2010 (a gathering of some of the world’s most influential thinkers and researchers) on the imminent need for us to get to zero carbon, or when companies such as Exxon Mobile are talking about the need for carbon taxes, then these shifts in the way business is done are coming and they will affect you. Whether that effect will adversely affect you or not will depend on the mitigation process you start now. The single biggest step, with the greatest positive ROI, that you can take, is to commit to a datacenter that itself is committed to green energy and green practices. Identify the leaders in that field and move your ITC infrastructure into their facilities while you can. The demand is growing, the field is small and space is and will continue to be, limited. The question to ask yourself is, “Who will make he move first, you or your competition?”
