Size matters: 400 millions that could use sustainable IT solutions in China

China mobile now have more than 400 million subscribers…

I’m waiting for a response from China Mobile on the next steps in our project (we are already working on case studies with them). For obvious reason this is a priority project. In one month they increased with almost the whole population of Sweden. (Increase in May for China Mobile: 7.49 million, Population in Sweden: 9.20 million).

The rapid development makes it hard to keep up. Even the traditional experts are not using the right numbers. An example is Dominic Barton, Chairman at McKinsey Asia did a presentation at the Even Treasury and Finance Conference Asia Pacific 2008, last week. He had a slide stating that “CHINA MOBILE HAS MORE THAN 80 MILLION MORE SUBSCRIBERS THAN THE TOP FIVE US CARRIERS COMBINED”. This was based on 301 million subscribers. About 100 million or 30% off the mark.

Short movies from China about a low carbon future

The first stage in the collaboration between Communication University of China (CUC), GlobalFOCUS and WWF, called "Visions for the future, from the future", is now over and we have nine short movies about a low carbon future. It is a really exciting project and we will now do a final revision of all the movies before we launch them and some of the artists will go to Europe to present the project.

From CUC the following was in the jury and made the project possible:
Lv Xuewu, Vice President, CUC
He Suliu, Deputy Dean, TV & Journalism School, CUC
Lu Shengzhang, Professor, Animation School, CUC
Zhou Wei, Professor, Movies & Arts School, CUC
Qin Yuming, Associate Professor, TV & Journalism School, CUC

One person that should not be forgotten Lin Zhouying, she has been the project leader at CUC, without her this would never have been such a great success.

This is from the folder that we published for the first screening: The word is changing fast and China is re-emerging as one of the leading actors on the world scene. Over the last years China’s economic role and impact on the environment has been discussed in international media. China is already the world’s second largest consumer of energy and China has become a crucial link in the global supply chain that connects resource providers and end consumers. The country is often described as the ‘manufacturing factory’ of the world. While the reality is of course more complex, it is true that much of the production capacity in China exists to meet the demand for products from primarily OECD countries. This new situation brings both opportunities and challenges. It is important to understand the impact we have on the environment. Even more important is to find inspiration for how we can solve the problems we have. The Communication University of China (CUC), WWF and GlobalFOCUS are working together and as a fist result 9 top short films was selected from more than 100 applications. They are all done by a new generation of artists in China.. The common theme for the short films focus is the theme “An Attractive Low Carbon Future”. All the artists come from CUC, they are young, passionate, creative, ambitious and concerned about sustainable development. They use animation and short films, along with various techniques, to voice their concerns, views and opinions. They see China’s development as an opportunity for global sustainable development. They acknowledge the enormous problems that exist, but more importantly, they see opportunities. Their contributions focus on sustainable urban energy solutions. They are inspired and they want to inspire others. Their perspective provides a glimpse into the perspective of China’s future generation. These nine movies is an invitation to discuss not only the situation and role of China but to start a truly global dialogue about visions that exist for the future.

I look forward not only to the final version of the movies and the European tour, but also to the next phase of the project. We will obviously make the movies available on the web, maybe even on a separate webpage.

Support from Japan for the first global IT strategy for CO2 reductions

The letter below is a very much welcomed support for “Outline for the first global IT strategy for CO2 reductions”. Especially as Japan with experts like Counselor Dr. Takao Shiino and Professor Makoto Yokozawa from Nomura Research Institute, are among the very leading experts In the world when it comes to the link between ICT and sustainable development.

“Firstly, as one of IT related business entities, who are expected to be the potential solution providers for the low-carbon-society, we would like to congratulate this outstanding report with deep understanding and precise analysis for the future of the global economy.

We would like to emphasize WWF's new report has a special meaning related to the future impact of the IT on society and economy. NRI has been working on the mechanisms of basic social transformation from the traditional industrial economy to the Ubiquitous Network Society. We assume we are facing on over hundred social and systemic issues which include cyber security, identity theft, privacy protection, intellectual properties, lack of common rules for new information services and businesses including 3D virtual worlds, as well as the global warming issues as described in WWF's report. When we use hundreds of IT devices per single person -- this is not an exaggeration, but a reality if we are surrounded by RFIDs and sensor networks -- energy efficiency of such ubiquitous devices is actually an essential bottleneck, and without this consideration, we will not be able to reach the Ubiquitous Network Society forever.

We are specially impressed in the smart categorization of the functionalities of IT on sustainability, as shown by "direct", "indirect" and "systemic" in this report. While the "Green IT Consortium" in Japan has been providing similar concept of "green of IT" and "green by IT", "Systemic" part of IT functionalities seems to be the most important and essential if we think "green" as "Business Innovation". NRI has stressed that "Business Innovation" includes "Business Process Innovation" and "Business Model Innovation", and without innovative and systemic thinking, "green" is only a backward problem which we are forced to solve unpleasantly.

Another impressive point in this report is the concept of "low carbon feedback" and "high carbon feedback". NRI is now collecting and analyzing those systemic best practices as one of the policy issue activities in GBDe, the Global Business Dialog on electronic Commerce. We are focusing on the difference of the types of feed backs, especially between the hardware approaches and the software approaches. Unlike the hardware approaches, the software approaches will have the characteristics of "low-resource feedback", since large scale usage in software does not necessarily mean the linear increase of resource/energy consumption. We believe this would be a good example of the "low carbon feedback".

Also inspired by this report, we have noticed that we need broader viewpoints about "green", to balancing with external issues for consideration, such as security in life, productivity in business, creativity in culture/science and dependability on systems. For example, security issues in cyberspace or anti-terrorism issues are other bottlenecks than "green", and those are also so essential for us to have the future of ideal Internet economy in our hands. Some of the high carbon feedbacks seems to be related to these complex combination of independent issues, and could not be avoided unless finding the way to balance the importance and co-existence of each solutions will be very important to think comprehensive design of future Internet economy.

We would like to add some related concern about WWF's concept of low/high carbon feedback and our future policy proposals to the policy makers. When we think about the feedbacks, we may have to define the range of feedbacks, such as local/national/global levels or single/multiple industry, before we share the clear image of realistic feedbacks from those initiatives.

As many experts say, IT is an essential enabling technology for sustainability. We appreciate the 10 best solutions to reduce carbon footprint shown in this report. These are powerful examples to prove the functionalities of IT. In our analysis, IT has the power of "dematerialization", "optimization", "integration", "visualization" and "structural change", all of which are so fundamental to change the business styles and life styles suitable to sustainability of this world. Also IT has the power to change the behavior of people, which we think commonly integrated in all of WWF's 10 typical solutions. Communication and sharing the knowledge and experiences through the power of IT, will be the "low hanging fruits" we can expect in the next step.

Again, we appreciate WWF's excellent work in this report and we very much look forward to collaborating with WWF in any ways to more deeply analyze the mechanisms of greener Internet economy.”

Counselor Dr. Takao Shiino
Professor Makoto Yokozawa
Nomura Research Institute, Ltd.

Carbon-rich Nanomaterials from China for a low carbon future

Had a great meeting with a team of professors from the Nanomaterial Research Group at the National Center for Nanoscience and Technology of China (NCNST) here in Beijing. We discussed the nanotechnology project that I run together with Eric Drexler. We agreed to start cooperating and the first steps include:

1: Help to translate the folder about Nanotech into English (don’t think I have posted the project description, but will try to do this as soon as possible). Look into translating the roadmap Eric developed earlier.

2. Look into a joint seminar discussing ways forward for nanotechnology in China

3. Develop a short folder building on the work NCNTC have done. Preliminary title:” Carbon-rich Nanomaterials for a low carbon and resource efficient society - Delivering tomorrows energy solutions with today’s state of the art technology“

Nanotech is really an area that deserves a lot more attention and the fact that NCNTC already has an integrated approach (thinking about how different nanosolutions can work together) this could be really really really interesting.

I look forward to further work with Zhiyong Tang, Linjie Zhi, Bao-Hang Han and Zhixiang Wei. With people like this saving the planet is no big problem…

New paper from HP Offers Solutions Contributing to 1 Billion Tonnes of CO2 Emissions Reductions

Post no.3 the 19th of June. I must admit that I think it is one of the most exciting and important posts in a a long time. This is the first time (as far as I know) a major IT company not only talk about the potential and/or ask consultants to calculate the potential (both are important), but actually becomes concrete and help customer to understand what that could translate to in concrete action. I look forward to follow this up.

The report can be downloaded here

The press release
HP offers the first low carbon IT solutions guide for customers

PALO ALTO, Calif., June 19, 2008

HP published a guide that identifies the potential to reduce carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions by using existing HP solutions.

HP's white paper, titled "Low Carbon IT Solutions," further supports the company-wide HP Eco Solutions program.

Beyond documenting the efficiency of information technology (IT) solutions, the white paper helps customers identify those products and services that can help them transition to operate with a lower carbon footprint.

"HP is committed to developing products and services that provide our customers with the opportunity for smarter growth," said Pierre Delforge, manager, Energy and Climate Strategy, HP. "HP has identified eco solutions that provide countries, businesses and individuals with the tools to significantly reduce their climate impact."

HP's white paper builds upon the report developed by Dennis Pamlin, global policy advisor, WWF-Sweden, called "The potential global CO₂ reductions from ICT use: Identifying and assessing the opportunities to reduce the first billion tonnes of CO₂." The report identifies 10 existing IT solutions that reduce CO₂ emissions in areas including buildings, transportation networks and industrial production. With additional data and further analysis, particularly in the emerging economies, the ultimate potential of information and communication technologies (ICT) for curbing emissions can be further quantified.

Solutions described in HP's white paper include:

• HP research into smart cooling and its use in the design of data center facilities that reduce energy usage and greenhouse gas emissions from commercial premises.
• HP innovation in telepresence and videoconferencing that enable improved virtual collaboration to reduce the environmental impacts of international travel. HP's use of this technology is expected to save approximately 20,000 international trips and at least 32,000 tonnes per year of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO₂e), an internationally recognized measure of greenhouse emissions.
• HP mobile computing technology, including flat panel displays and notebook PCs, which increases workplace flexibility to reduce energy consumption from non-critical travel.
• HP office and digital print solutions that help customers establish on-demand print and workflow processes that help avoid unnecessary printing and transportation of physical materials.

The "Low Carbon IT Solutions" white paper from HP is available at http://h41111.www4.hp.com/globalcitizenship/uk/en/pdf/1billiontonnessolutionsfinal.pdf.

"This guide to low carbon IT solutions by one of the world's largest technology companies is welcomed and an important contribution in response to the urgent climate challenge," said Dennis Pamlin, global policy advisor, WWF-Sweden.

More information on the report,"The potential global CO₂ reductions from ICT use: Identifying and assessing the opportunities to reduce the first billion tonnes of CO₂," is available at www.wwf.se/source.php?id=1183710. The executive summary is available at www.wwf.se/source.php?id=1183711. The report is the first in a series of three, which will be released this fall.