Green computing
Green computing, green IT, or Information and Communication Technology Sustainability, is the study and practice of environmentally sustainable computing or IT.
The goals of green computing include optimising energy efficiency during the product's lifecycle; leveraging greener energy sources to power the product and its network; improving the reusability, maintainability, and repairability of the product to extend its lifecycle; improving the recyclability or biodegradability of e-waste to support circular economy ambitions; and aligning the manufacture and use of IT systems with environmental and social goals. Green computing is important for all classes of systems, ranging from handheld systems to large-scale data centers. According to the International Energy Agency, data centres accounted for about 1.5% of global electricity consumption in 2024, and under its central scenario, demand could roughly double to ~945 TWh by 2030, with AI workloads a major driver of growth. Sustainable development is a concept that redefines the notion of the general interest by integrating environmental, social, and economic considerations. Many corporate IT departments have green computing initiatives to reduce the environmental effect of their IT operations. Yet it is also clear that the environmental footprint of the sector is significant, estimated at 5-9% of the world's total electricity use and more than 2% of all emissions. Data centers and telecommunications networks will need to become more energy efficient, reuse waste energy, use more renewable energy sources, and use less water for cooling to stay competitive. In the European Union, policy efforts and industry initiatives aim for climate-neutral data centers by 2030.
The carbon emissions associated with manufacturing devices and network infrastructures is also a key factor.
Green computing can involve complex trade-offs. It can be useful to distinguish between IT for environmental sustainability and the environmental sustainability of IT. Although green IT focuses on the environmental sustainability of IT, in practice these two aspects are often interconnected. For example, launching an online shopping platform may increase the carbon footprint of a company's own IT operations, while at the same time helping customers to purchase products remotely, without requiring them to drive, in turn reducing greenhouse gas emission related to travel. The company might be able to take credit for these decarbonisation benefits under its Scope 3 emissions reporting, which includes emissions from across the entire value chain.
Origins
In 1992, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency launched Energy Star, a voluntary labeling program that is designed to promote and recognize the energy efficiency in monitors, climate control equipment, and other technologies. This resulted in the widespread adoption of sleep mode among consumer electronics. Concurrently, the Swedish organization TCO Development launched the TCO Certified program to promote low magnetic and electrical emissions from CRT-based computer displays; this program was later expanded to include criteria on energy consumption, ergonomics, and the use of hazardous materials in construction.Regulations and industry initiatives
In 2009 the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development published a survey of over 90 government and industry initiatives on "Green ICTs", the environment and climate change. The report concluded that initiatives tended to concentrate on the greening ICTs themselves, rather than on their actual implementation to reduce global warming and environmental degradation. In general, only 20% of initiatives had measurable targets, with government programs tending to include targets more frequently than business associations.Government
Many governmental agencies have continued to implement standards and regulations that encourage green computing. The Energy Star program was revised in October 2006 to include stricter efficiency requirements for computer equipment, along with a tiered ranking system for approved products.By 2008, 26 US states established statewide recycling programs for obsolete computers and consumer electronics equipment. The statutes either impose an "advance recovery fee" for each unit sold at retail or require the manufacturers to reclaim the equipment at disposal.
In 2010, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act was signed into legislation by President Obama. The bill allocated over $90 billion to be invested in green initiatives In January 2010, the U.S. Energy Department granted $47 million of the ARRA money towards projects to improve the energy efficiency of data centers. The projects provided research to optimize data center hardware and software, improve power supply chain, and data center cooling technologies.
Green Digital Governance
Green digital governance refers to the use of information and communication technology to support environmentally sustainable policies and practices. It describes a strategy with which an organisation strives to align its information and communications technology with sustainability goals. This can include using digital tools and platforms to monitor and regulate environmental impact, as well as promoting the development and use of clean and renewable energy sources in the technology sector. The goal of green digital governance is to reduce the carbon footprint of the digital economy and to support the transition to a more sustainable and resilient society.Both the green and the digital transitions are on the agenda for most European countries, as well as the EU as a whole. Documents and goals such as the European Green Deal and the Sustainable Development Goals, fit for 55, Digital Europe and others have begun the transitions. These two transitions often contradict each other, as digital technologies have substantial environmental footprints that go against the targets of the green transition.
The European Union sees digitalisation and the adoption of ICT solutions as an important tool for creating greener solutions, while also acknowledging that in order to achieve the desired positive environmental impact, the tools themselves must be environmentally sustainable. The green transition may accelerate innovation and adoption of digital solutions offering the ICT sector new opportunities for becoming more competitive. The synergy created as a result of the green transition and digitalisation brings social, economic and environmental benefits, which is a goal of environmentally friendly digital governments and the creation of green ICT solutions in general.
The digital component is expected to also be used to reach the ambitions of the European Green Deal and Sustainable Development Goals. As powerful enablers for the sustainability transition, digital solutions can advance the circular economy, support the decarbonisation of all sectors and reduce the environmental and social footprint of products placed on the EU market. For example, key sectors such as precision agriculture, transport and energy can benefit from digital solutions in pursuing the sustainability objectives of the European Green Deal.
E-government services can provide solutions to the environmental problem. The possibility for a citizen to fully request and get a service online would render, in addition to cost savings for the public authorities and increased citizen satisfaction, reductions of carbon emissions and paper consumption.
Industry
- iMasons Climate Accord Founded in 2022, the is a historic cooperative of companies committed to reducing carbon in digital infrastructure materials, products, and power.
- Climate Savers Computing Initiative is an effort to reduce the electric power consumption of PCs in active and inactive states. The CSCI provides a catalog of green products from its member organizations, and information for reducing PC power consumption. It was started on June 12, 2007. The name stems from the World Wildlife Fund's Climate Savers program, which began in 1999. The WWF is a member of the Computing Initiative.
- The Green Electronics Council offers the Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool to assist in the purchase of "greener" computing systems. The Council evaluates computing equipment on 51 criteria – 23 required and 28 optional - that measure a product's efficiency and sustainability attributes. Products are rated Gold, Silver, or Bronze, depending on how many optional criteria they meet. On January 24, 2007, President George W. Bush issued Executive Order 13423, which requires all United States Federal agencies to use EPEAT when purchasing computer systems.
- The Green Grid is a global consortium dedicated to advancing energy efficiency in data centers and business computing ecosystems. It was founded in February 2007 by several key companies in the industry – AMD, APC, Dell, HP, IBM, Intel, Microsoft, Rackable Systems, SprayCool, Sun Microsystems and VMware. The Green Grid has since grown to hundreds of members, including end-users and government organizations focused on improving data center infrastructure efficiency.
- The Green500 list rates supercomputers by energy efficiency, encouraging a focus on efficiency rather than absolute performance.
- Green Comm Challenge is an organization that promotes the development of energy conservation technology and practices in the field of ICT.
- The Transaction Processing Performance Council Energy specification augments existing TPC benchmarks by allowing optional publications of energy metrics alongside performance results.
- SPECpower is the first industry standard benchmark that measures power consumption in relation to performance for server-class computers. Other benchmarks which measure energy efficiency include SPECweb, SPECvirt, and VMmark.
Approaches