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2 Presentation. Green ICT: The Information Society’s Commitmentfor Environmental Sustainability — Juan-Carlos López-López,Giovanna Sissa, and Lasse Natvig

6 CEPIS Green ICT Survey – Examining Green ICT Awareness inOrganisations: Initial Findings — Carol-Ann Kogelman on behalfof the CEPIS Green ICT Task Force

11 The Five Most Neglected Issues in "Green IT" — Lorenz M. Hiltyand Wolfgang Lohmann

16 Utility Computing: Green Opportunities and Risks — GiovannaSissa

22 Good, Bad, and Beautiful Software – In Search of Green SoftwareQuality Factors — Juha Taina

28 Towards the Virtual Power Grid: Large Scale Modeling andSimulation of Power Grids — Peter Feldmann, Jinjun Xiong,and David Kung

41 Artificial Intelligence Techniques for Smart Grid Applications— María-José Santofimia-Romero, Xavier del Toro-García, andJuan-Carlos López-López

49 Green Computing: Saving Energy by Throttling, Simplicity andParallelization — Lasse Natvig and Alexandru C. Iordan

59 Towards Sustainable Solutions for European Cloud Computing— Kien Le, Thu D. Nguyen, Íñigo Goiri, Ricardo Bianchini,Jordi Guitart-Fernández, and Jordi Torres-Viñals

67 A State-of-the-Art on Energy Efficiency in Today’s Datacentres:Researcher’s Contributions and Practical Approaches — MarinaZapater-Sancho, Patricia Arroba-García, José-ManuelMoya-Fernández, and Zorana Bankovic

75 From Mondo Digitale (AICA, Italy)IT for EducationIT in Schools. A European Project for Teachers Training —Pierfranco Ravotto and Giovanni Fulantelli

81 Selected CEPIS News — Fiona Fanning

* This monograph will be also published in Spanish (full version printed; summary, abstracts, and somearticles online) by Novática, journal of the Spanish CEPIS society ATI (Asociación de Técnicos deInformática) at <http://www.ati.es/novatica/>.

Vol. XII, issue No. 4, October 2011

CEPIS NEWS

UPENET (UPGRADE European NETwork)

CEPIS UPGRADE is the European Journalfor the Informatics Professional, published bi-monthly at <http://cepis.org/upgrade>

PublisherCEPIS UPGRADE is published by CEPIS (Council of Euro-pean Professional Informatics Societies, <http://www.cepis.org/>), in cooperation with the Spanish CEPIS societyATI (Asociación de Técnicos de Informática, <http://www.ati.es/>) and its journal Novática

CEPIS UPGRADE monographs are published jointly withNovática, that publishes them in Spanish (full version printed;summary, abstracts and some articles online)

CEPIS UPGRADE was created in October 2000 by CEPIS and wasfirst published by Novática and INFORMATIK/INFORMATIQUE,bimonthly journal of SVI/FSI (Swiss Federation of ProfessionalInformatics Societies)

CEPIS UPGRADE is the anchor point for UPENET (UPGRADE Euro-pean NETwork), the network of CEPIS member societies’ publications,that currently includes the following ones:• inforewiew, magazine from the Serbian CEPIS society JISA• Informatica, journal from the Slovenian CEPIS society SDI• Informatik-Spektrum, journal published by Springer Verlag on behalf

of the CEPIS societies GI, Germany, and SI, Switzerland• ITNOW, magazine published by Oxford University Press on behalf of

the British CEPIS society BCS• Mondo Digitale, digital journal from the Italian CEPIS society AICA• Novática, journal from the Spanish CEPIS society ATI• OCG Journal, journal from the Austrian CEPIS society OCG• Pliroforiki, journal from the Cyprus CEPIS society CCS• Tölvumál, journal from the Icelandic CEPIS society ISIP

Editorial TeamEditorial TeamChief Editor: Llorenç Pagés-CasasDeputy Chief Editor: Rafael Fernández CalvoAssociate Editor: Fiona Fanning

Editorial BoardProf. Vasile Baltac, CEPIS PresidentProf. Wolffried Stucky, CEPIS Former PresidentProf. Nello Scarabottolo, CEPIS President ElectLuis Fernández-Sanz, ATI (Spain)Llorenç Pagés-Casas, ATI (Spain)François Louis Nicolet, SI (Switzerland)Roberto Carniel, ALSI – Tecnoteca (Italy)

UPENET Advisory BoardDubravka Dukic (inforeview, Serbia)Matjaz Gams (Informatica, Slovenia)Hermann Engesser (Informatik-Spektrum, Germany and Switzerland)Brian Runciman (ITNOW, United Kingdom)Franco Filippazzi (Mondo Digitale, Italy)Llorenç Pagés-Casas (Novática, Spain)Veith Risak (OCG Journal, Austria)Panicos Masouras (Pliroforiki, Cyprus)Thorvardur Kári Ólafsson (Tölvumál, Iceland)Rafael Fernández Calvo (Coordination)

English Language Editors: Mike Andersson, David Cash, ArthurCook, Tracey Darch, Laura Davies, Nick Dunn, Rodney Fennemore,Hilary Green, Roger Harris, Jim Holder, Pat Moody.

Cover page designed by Concha Arias-Pérez"Luminous Recharge" / © ATI 2011Layout Design: François Louis NicoletComposition: Jorge Llácer-Gil de Ramales

Editorial correspondence: Llorenç Pagés-Casas <[email protected]>Advertising correspondence: <[email protected]>SubscriptionsIf you wish to subscribe to CEPIS UPGRADE please send anemail to [email protected] with ‘Subscribe to UPGRADE’ as thesubject of the email or follow the link ‘Subscribe to UPGRADE’at <http://www.cepis.org/upgrade>

Copyright© Novática 2011 (for the monograph)© CEPIS 2011 (for the sections Editorial, UPENET and CEPIS News)All rights reserved under otherwise stated. Abstracting is permittedwith credit to the source. For copying, reprint, or republication per-mission, contact the Editorial Team

The opinions expressed by the authors are their exclusive responsibility

ISSN 1684-5285

Monograph of next issue (December 2011)"Risk Management"

MonographGreen ICT: Trends and Challenges(published jointly with Novática*)Guest Editors: Juan-Carlos López-López, Giovanna Sissa, and Lasse Natvig

6 CEPIS UPGRADE Vol. XII, No. 4, October 2011 © Novática

Green ICT: Trends and Challenges

Keywords: CEPIS, Digital Agenda for Europe GreenICT, Energy Efficiency, Europe 2020, Green ICT Task Force,ICT, ICT Manager, Sustainability.

1 IntroductionIn recent years, ‘being green’ has become synonymous

with the far-reaching possibilities of ICT in achieving en-ergy-efficiency for the ICT sector itself, and in all other day-to-day activities of citizens, organisations, and governmentadministrations, to name but a few. ICT has a key role inenabling energy efficiency in most areas, including the re-duction of its own sector’s carbon emissions. Organisationsare coming under increasing scrutiny for how they are us-ing energy efficient methods in the day-to-day running ofthe business, and whether energy is being wasted throughvarious ICT-related processes.

The European Commission has embarked on a numberof activities to address the enabling role that the ICT sectorcan play in diminishing the high carbon emissions of theICT sector itself, and in various other sectors to becomemore energy efficient. For example as part of the Europe2020 strategy with the Digital Agenda for Europe initiative,two specific actions1 are focused at analysing and manag-ing the energy consumption of the ICT sector and other majoremitting sectors. In addition to these highly effective ac-tions, the European Commission is also currently workingon developing guides to calculate the environmental foot-print of products2 and companies3 in general.

The European Commission’s Europe 2020 strategy hastargeted three key areas for sustainable growth:

1. 20% increase in energy efficiency2. 20% reduction of greenhouse gas emissions3. increase the share of renewables by 20%Organisations in particular have a responsibility in en-

suring the energy efficient use of their ICT products, proc-esses and services as much as possible. Since ICT Manag-ers of organisations are usually responsible for the manage-ment, installation and maintenance of ICT hardware and

Author

The CEPIS Green ICT Task Force carries out the strategicobjectives of CEPIS around Green ICT, including but not limitedto promoting the concept of Green ICT across Europe andcontributing to the protection of the environment through thecreating and disseminating of good practices. The Task Forceis composed of a group of experts from various CEPIS MemberSocieties across Europe and led by Manolis Labovas from theGreek Member Society, Hellenic Professionals InformaticsSociety (HePIS).

Members of the group include Matei Dimitriu from AsociatiaPentru Tehnologia Informatiei si Comunicatii in Romania; Fran-cisco Esteve and Luis Fernández-Sanz from Asociación de Téc-nicos de Informática, ATI, in Spain; Laura Georg from SwissInformatics Society, Panagiotis Georgiadis from HePIS; PeterLawless from the Irish Computer Society; Marco Mevius fromGerman Informatics; Volker Schanz from Informationstechnische Gesellschaft im Verband der ElektrotechnikElektronik Informationstechnik in Germany; Giovanna Sissafrom Associazione Italiana per l’Informatica ed il CalcoloAutomatico, AICA, in Italy; Arjan Van Dijk from Verenigingvan Register Informatica in The Netherlands; Chris Wallacefrom British Computer Society; and Brian Warrington fromComputer Society Malta.

The Green ICT Task Force has its own LinkedIn group, at<http://www.linkedin.com/groups?mostPopular=&gid=3899686&trk=myg_ugrp_ovr>.

This paper has been authored by Carol-Ann Kogelman fromthe CEPIS Secretariat on behalf of the Green ICT Task Force.Contact <[email protected]>

CEPIS Green ICT Survey – Examining Green ICTAwareness in Organisations: Initial Findings

Carol-Ann Kogelman on behalf of the CEPIS Green ICT Task Force

Green ICT is an increasingly important issue for many organisations across Europe today. This paper presents the initialfindings of research to assess how ICT Managers in different countries implement energy efficient methods in their organi-sations. The CEPIS Green ICT Task Force is conducting this work and these preliminary results are based on 300 re-sponses received so far.

1 See <http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/newsroom/cf/pillar.cfm?pillar_id=49&pillar=ICT%20for%20Social%20Challenges>.2 See <http://ec.europa.eu/environment/eussd/product_ footprint.htm>.3 See <http://ec.europa.eu/environment/eussd/corporate_footprint.htm>.

This paper presents thepreliminary results of the survey

conducted by the CEPISGreen ICT Task Force

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software, they are ideal candidates for assessing whether aculture of energy efficiency exists in European organisa-tions. The Council of European Professional Informatics

CEPIS UPGRADE Vol. XII, No. 4, October 2011 7© Novática


Figure 2: Procedures for Removal of Old Computers.

Since ICT Managers of organisations are usuallyresponsible for the management of ICT HW and SW,

they are ideal candidates for assessing whether a cultureof energy efficiency exists in European organisations

The European Commission has embarkedon a number of activities to address the enabling rolethat the ICT sector can play in diminishing the high

carbon emissions of the ICT sector itself

Figure 1: Implementation of Green IT Practices.

Societies, CEPIS, in 2011 through its Green ICT TaskForce launched the CEPIS Green ICT Survey. TheCEPIS Green ICT Survey is aimed at ICT Manag-ers, to examine awareness regarding energy con-sumption & energy efficiency of ICT equipment &policies within organisations. The survey’s final re-sults will be compiled into a pan-European reportdepicting how ICT Managers in different countriesimplement energy efficient methods in their organi-sations. This can provide useful business informa-tion that many ICT managers may find important, inorder to see how their organisation’s ICT usage &green ICT practices compare to organisations in othercountries.

Members of the CEPIS Green ICT Task Forcebrought together their expertise on the topic of GreenICT and created this survey that includes over threedozen comprehensive questions. The Task ForceMembers represent over 10 different countries inEurope, including Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy,Malta, Romania, Spain, Switzerland, The Nether-lands, and UK. Since launching the survey, the Task

Force aims to achieve at least 50 respondents ineach of their own countries. Such a result willachieve a fair and balanced sample of responsesto create a comparative analysis of Green ICTawareness in organisations across Europe today.The data collection phase for this research is stillongoing and so far the survey has reached a sub-stantial number of countries through Task ForceMembers’ efforts. Here below we provide youwith the initial findings so far. The survey is stillopen, and after reading these exciting results we en-courage you to contribute to this ground-breakingresearch project by taking the survey at the follow-ing link: <http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/CEPISGreen ICTSurvey>.

Over 300 survey respondents so far have pro-vided information on a range of topics by answer-ing questions in the survey such as "Does yourorganisation implement green IT practices?" tosimply "Do you use recycled printer supplies/car-tridges?". However the Green ICT Task Force isopen to more participation for this research to be

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Over a third of organisations in Europe do not implementgreen IT practices, the most prominent reason given

is that there is no official legislationin their countries enforcing green IT practices

of greater value.Below you may find an overview of the

findings we have compiled so far during thison-going research process.

2 Initial Findings of the CEPIS GreenICT Survey

2.1 Energy Managers/OfficersAn energy manager or officer plans, regu-

lates and monitors energy use in an organisa-tion. Of the approximately 300 responses thathave been received so far, almost three quar-ters do not have a person dedicated to this taskfor their organisation.

2.2 How ‘Green’ is your Organisation?It appears that from the responses, just over

a third of organisations in Europe do not im-plement green IT practices, the most prominentreason given is that there is no official legis-lation in their countries enforcing green ITpractices. The second most given reason is that

there is no pressure from management or cus-tomers to follow such practices. (see Figure 1.)

2.3 Disposal & Use of ICT ProductsOver half of organisations who responded to

the survey do actually dispose of their old com-puters with electronics recycling companies. Andjust over a fifth of respondents donate their oldcomputers to charitable organisations. (see Fig-ure 2.)

Over two thirds of organisations do use recy-cled printer supplies/cartridges. Further almosthalf of respondents return their used ink cartridgesto companies that recycle. It appears that manyorganisations make an effort to use recycled prod-ucts, but also to recycle used products themselves.

From initial responses it appears that organi-sations are aware of using printers in an energyefficient manner. Over half of respondents an-swered that 75 – 100% of the printers used in theirorganisations are LAN connected and shared withother users (see Figure 3). Just over a third of the

Figure 3: Printers connected to LAN and shared with OtherUsers.

Figure 4: Restrictions to Use of Printers.

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Less than one fifth of organisations actually monitorhow employees reduce their energy consumption“ ”

CEPIS UPGRADE Vol. XII, No. 4, October 2011 9© Novática


printers also have a double-sided print function-ality, but only two fifths of those have the dou-ble-sided printing option as the default option.

Interestingly over half of respondents con-firmed that there are no printing restriction poli-cies within their organisations.

With those organisations that do have print-ing restrictions in place, almost half stated thatthe reduction measure is that "There is a spe-cific number of users that have the right to print".Some other ‘reduction measures’ from organi-sations included avoiding printing as much aspossible, and using common sense when print-ing. (see Figure 4.)

2.4 Employees’ Energy ConsumptionDuring the survey ICT Managers, (the main

target audience for this survey) are asked to de-termine the level of awareness of other employ-ees within their organisations towards energy

do not monitor the energy consumption inany of their areas such as data centres, oreven within the whole IT department itself.

Significantly, overall energy consump-tion is measured within most European or-ganisations only on a monthly basis. How-ever over a third of organisations seem tonever measure the energy consumption anda significant proportion of respondents didnot know if energy consumption was meas-ured or not. (see Figure 6.)

ICT Managers’ decision making proc-esses in purchasing products are also inves-tigated during the survey. From the responseswe have received so far, two thirds of re-spondents take into account the product’senergy consumption before deciding to pur-chase. They also rate knowing the level of en-ergy consumption of a product as importantand very important. Yet almost half do not takeinto consideration whether the product is madeof recycled materials, but those that do, ratethis value as important. (see Figure 7.)

Figure 6: Frequency of Energy Consumption Measurement.

efficiency. The responses so far show thatthere is an even split with regard to whetheror not computer users have been informed/trained in energy consumption reductionprocedures. In any case just under half ofall respondents agree that their employeeshave been trained in some way.

Less than one fifth of organisationsactually monitor how employees reducetheir energy consumption (see Figure 5).

Of those organisations that monitoremployees, around 40% noticed that theenergy consumption was reduced afterthree months. Yet two thirds did not pub-lish these results.

Within their own departments, ICTManagers responded that over two-thirds

Figure 5: Monitoring Reduction of Energy Consumption by Employees.

Figure 7: Importance given to Knowing the Level of Energy Consumption.



3 ConclusionWe have described the initial results of the CEPIS Green

ICT Survey. The Green ICT Task Force has been heavilyinvolved in disseminating and continuing to disseminate thesurvey link to ICT Managers within their respective socie-ties. If you are interested in seeing the final outcome of thispioneering research project, we encourage you to check ourGreen ICT Survey page4 in future.

The Green ICT Task Force also has its own LinkedIngroup5 , where regular updates will appear about upcomingactivities, events, and the progress of this research.

We invite you to take the CEPIS Green ICT Survey at<http://www.surveymonkey. com/s/CEPISGreenICTSurvey>!

Annex: Invitation to Digital Trends 2011 – GreenICT and Cloud Computing

CEPIS and the Hellenic Professionals Informatics So-ciety (HePIS), the Greek CEPIS Member Society, are co-hosting Digital Trends 2011 in Athens, on 2 December2011. This is the first Forum of its kind in Greece and hasbeen established to create dialogue on the contribution ofthe ICT sector to economic growth, increased productivity,and the advancement of a creative digital culture. In par-ticular the conference aims to focus on how the ICT sectorcontributes to the adoption of ‘Green’ and ‘Cloud’ prac-tices, and the strengthening of the overall role of profes-sionals within the business community.

Digital Trends 2011 will focus on the business dimen-sion of Cloud Computing and Green ICT through offeringICT and business professionals a useful guide to the intro-duction of an organisation to a new business environment.Issues to be discussed at this event include relating to GreenICT include:

How are green practices being implemented?What are the benefits of Green IT?Why are Green IT practices not implemented in many

organisations?We invite you to visit the Digital Trends 2011 Website

at <http://www.digital trends.gr/>.

4 See <http://cepis.org/index.jsp?p=1152&n=2667>.5 See <http://www.linkedin.com/groups?mostPopular=&gid= 3899686&trk=myg_ugrp_ovr>.

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