Green IT Legislation, Codes of Practice etc



In this section we provide an overview of some of the existing Legislation, Standards and Codes of Practice that relate to Green IT.

Legislation surrounding sustainability is growing and increasingly requiring companies to act. There is no doubt that the quantity and scope of legislation will increase substantially in the future. We are already seeing the emergence of ‘target’ based legislation relating to carbon emissions, with financial consequences for non compliance.

Some Examples of existing Legislation & Standards include:

• UK Government Greening initiative
• UK Carbon Reduction Commitment
• EU - WEEE Legislation
• EU - 20 20 by 2020: Europe’s Climate Change Opportunity
• EU – Data Centre Code of Conduct
• PAS2050
• ISO 14064 & 14065
• IS0 14067
• Australian Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme
• New Zealand Climate Change Response (Emissions Trading) Amendment Bill
• Swiss Emissions Trading Scheme and CO2 Tax – Mandatory
• USA - Voluntary Reporting of Greenhouse Gases Program

Important Note

As yet there are no Standards, Codes of Practice etc that are specifically related to measuring the ICT Carbon Footprint. At Greenwise-IT through experience we have used PAS 2050 and ISO 1604 as the basis for developing our own ICT Carbon Footprint measurement methodology.

UK Government Greening ICT initiative

The two stated aims of this initiative are to make energy consumption of central government ICT systems carbon neutral (not through offsetting) by 2012, and to make them carbon neutral across their lifetime (including manufacture and disposal) by 2020.

CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme (formerly known as the Carbon Reduction Commitment)

This is the UK's mandatory climate change and energy saving scheme (started April 2010). It is designed to improve energy efficiency in large organisations. It will cover large public and private sector organisations, which are responsible for about 10 percent of the UK’s emissions. This will affect around 20,000 organisations (but it will grow, and the scope will increase!).

It will operate as a 'cap and trade' mechanism, providing a financial incentive to reduce energy use by putting a price on carbon emissions from energy use. So if an organisation reduces electricity consumption it will benefit financially. The scheme also features an annual performance league table, which will be publicly available, that ranks participants on energy efficiency performance.
So this scheme provides both a financial and a corporate reputation incentive to improve.

WEEE

The Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment directive (WEEE Directive) was introduced in January 2007 and is now widely used by many organisations.

20 20 by 2020: Europe’s Climate Change Opportunity

This legislation sets targets for climate change action, i.e. a 20% reduction in greenhouse gases by 2020, rising to 30% if there is an international agreement committing other developed countries to similar targets.

PAS 2050

The Carbon Trust & DEFRA have co-sponsored the development of PAS2050 by the BSi.

Specifies a consistent way of counting greenhouse gas emissions embedded in goods and services, and can be used across a range of goods, services and industry sectors including ICT. Please see below as it is expected that the need for PAS 2050 will be superseded by ISO14067.

ISO 14064 & 14065

The ISO 14064 and ISO 14065 standards are aimed at injecting credibility and assurance to Green House Gas emissions reports and claims made in regard to reductions or removal of GHGs. The standards are not aligned with any particular scheme, rather they are independent and may be used by organizations participating in a number of trading, project or voluntary emissions reduction mechanisms. The standards may also be applied to all GHG types and are not limited to CO2.

ISO 14064:2006 is a three part standard comprising a set of GHG accounting and verification criteria. The standards define international best practice in the management, reporting and verification of the greenhouse gas information and data. The use of standardized approaches for the accounting and verification of emissions data should ensure that one tonne of CO2, for example, is always the same wherever it occurs. Uncertainties surrounding the emissions statements should thus be comparable throughout the globe and end user groups such as governments, market traders and other stakeholders may rely upon the data presented and the claims made.

The more recent ISO 14065:2007 has been developed to deliver assurance in the verification and validation process itself and defines requirements for companies performing greenhouse gas validation and verification.

ISO14067 – This Standard is in development and is expected to be released in 2011 / 2012

The International Standards Organization has published a draft standard aimed at measuring the carbon footprint for the lifecycle of products. The proposed standard, ISO 14067, will be used to calculate the greenhouse gas emissions from companies and their activities.

The standard builds largely on the existing ISO standards for life cycle assessments (ISO 14040/44) and environmental labels and declarations (ISO 14025) and is planned to be published by March 2011. It is expected that this Standard will render the need for PAS 2050 obsolete.

It will benefit organisations, governments, project proponents and stakeholders by providing clarity and consistency for quantifying, monitoring, reporting and verifying the carbon footprint of products.

Part 1 specifies principles and requirements for studies to quantify Carbon Footprint of Products (CFP), based on the method of life cycle assessment (LCA).

Part 2 specifies requirements for the development of information to communicate the carbon footprint of products, calculated according to Part 1 of ISO 14067, and guidelines how to use such information on the CFP.

EU Data Centre Code of Conduct

The European Commission's Code of Conduct on Data Centres' Energy Efficiency comprises a series of voluntary measures (expected to form the basis of more stringent legislation in the future). The ultimate aims of the Code are:
• To drive Data Centre Infrastructure Efficiency (DCiE) from its current levels of 50% or less at most sites to more like 80%,
• To make IT directors aware of how inefficient their existing facilities are by encouraging them to measure power usage

Australia- Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme

A mandatory emissions trading scheme covering emissions of all Kyoto Protocol GHGs from stationary energy, transport, industrial processes, waste and forestry.

New Zealand -Climate Change Response (Emissions Trading) Amendment Bill

This Bill sets out measures for the gradual introduction by 2013 of an emissions trading scheme for all six Kyoto Protocol greenhouse gases, with emissions caps set for all major sectors of the economy: forestry, transport, stationary energy, industrial processes (non-energy), agriculture and waste.

Switzerland - Emissions Trading Scheme and CO2 Tax

A mandatory emissions trading scheme targeting large commercial and public sector organisations using more than 6,000MWh of electricity through mandatory half hourly meters. Organisations will have to buy allowances for emissions at an auction, with the total number of allowances set by the Government.

The above are just a few examples of what exists today in a few selected countries. What is certain is that this is only the start.

If you want to know more about Green IT related Legislation & Standards and how it affects your organisation please contact us at enquiries@Greenwise-IT.com