Published on 05/29/2017 | Technology
Improving environmental performance, tackling global warming and enhancing resource management are high on the list of global challenges to be urgently addressed. The Infor-mation and Communications Technology (IT) in industry needs further to improve its environmental performance. Today, this sector is responsible for around 2-3% of the global carbon footprint). IT applications in Industry and facilities have large potential to enhance performance across the economy and society. Governments and business associations have introduced a range of programs and initiatives on IT and the environment to address the global warming and to reduce energy costs by using energy more efficiently.
Despite the fact that Information and Communication Technologies today still are responsible for only a small part of worldwide greenhouse gas emissions, there is an increasing con-cern about the environmental impact of IT, induced by the fast growing demand of IT equipment and data centers in all sectors. At the same time there is a growing perception that IT, on the other hand, can substantially reduce the environmental impact in sectors such as smart grids, smart buildings, smart logistics, smart mobility and smart transportation in particular by optimizing or enabling entirely new and more energy efficient processes. The energy that could be saved has been estimated to be several times larger than the overall energy consumption of the IT equipment. According to a study from McKinsey (“Smart 2020”), IT can help to reduce the global CO2 footprint by 15%, firstly by reducing its own energy consumption, secondly by providing IT solutions to reduce the general energy consumption in the Industry, facilities and buildings. The technology in the IT sector is continuously improving their energy efficiency. By 2020, a five times larger CO2 saving could be accomplished compared to the entire emission generated by the IT sector equipment.
The 2012 Energy Efficiency Directives (2012/27/EU) established a set of binding measures to help the EU reach its 20% energy efficiency target by 2020. Under this directive all EU countries are required to use energy more efficiently at all stages of the energy chain from production to final consumption. All EU countries were required to transpose the directive ́s provisions into their national laws by June 2014. The European Commission recognizes the potential of deploying IT for energy efficiency.
In Germany all medium and large companies with over 250 employees and over 50 Million Euro revenue or a balance sum over 43 Million Euro have to provide the energy auditing results accordingly DIN EN 16247-1 of all subsidiaries not later than December 5th 2015. This Audit has to be repeated every four years to provide the results on the improvement on Energy Efficiency Directive 2012/277EU. Exceptions are granted to companies which have been certified according to ISO50001 or EMAS (Eco-Management and Audit Scheme).
You can read and download the full report on Advantech here.
