1. Symposium on Sustainable Design –
Greening the Technology Industry
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Austin, Texas
REPORT

2. CONTENTS
About the Symposium 2
Organizers 3
Report 4
Introduction 4
Opening Remarks 7
Eco-Design in the Asian Electronics Sector 7
Transform Your Business through EcoInnovation 9
and Design Excellence
Demonstrating Sustainability Leadership through 11
Commitment and Collaboration
The Green Data Center 12
Sustainable Design: Greening of Semiconductor 13
Technology
Panel Discussion 14
Event Overview 15

3. ABOUT THE SYMPOSIUM
Sustainable, or “green” design for technology, is gaining momentum as the
industry aims to minimise the environmental impact of production processes
and outputs. The US and UK are home to companies that have made large
strides not only in elegant product design but in addressing the impact of their
goods and production on the environment. In response to these recent
developments, UK Trade & Investment and the Austin Technology Council
collaborated to host the “Symposium on Sustainable Design — Greening the
Technology Industry” to encourage dialogue about how best to bring the
technology industry to the forefront of green application through sustainable
design.
This landmark event was held March 18, 2008, in Austin, Texas. Distinguished
American and British technology experts from business, design, and academic
spheres provided presentations and participated in a panel discussion focusing
on technology design trends throughout the creation and use cycle.
During the symposium, audience members had the opportunity to engage with
the panel and learn firsthand about keys to improving process development;
design techniques that complement green initiatives; the use of life-cycle
analysis to determine a product’s environmental impact; and future concepts
in sustainable design.
2

4. ORGANIZERS
UK TRADE & INVESTMENT WHO WE ARE
UK Trade & Investment is the lead
Government organisation that supports
companies in the UK doing business
internationally and overseas enterprises
seeking to set up or expand in the UK. We
work in close partnership with the English
regional development agencies and the
national development agencies in Scotland,
Wales, and Northern Ireland. UK Trade &
Investment will provide you with the
support and strategic partners you need to
succeed in the UK.
WHERE TO FIND US
UK Trade & Investment has an extensive
global network. With commercial teams
based in offices around the world and a
network of specialists throughout the UK,
we are uniquely positioned to help your
business across national boundaries. For
more information visit us at
www.uktradeinvest.gov.uk
UK TRADE & INVESTMENT IN
HOUSTON
British Consulate-General
1000 Louisiana, Suite 1900
Houston, Texas 77002
713.659.6270 x 2145
AUSTIN TECHNOLOGY COUNCIL TECHNOLOGY IN AUSTIN
Since 1994, the Austin Technology Council has
been the principal point of connection for
companies from the technology industry that
represent a critical mass of businesses in
Central Texas. It is our mission to ensure that
Austin maintains its world-renowned
technology status, and a community that
capitalizes on its assets - university-based
research, venture funding, a broad array of
support services, an entrepreneurial culture
and a rich pool of intellectual talent and
leadership.
CONTACT ATC
Austin Technology Council
3925 West Braker Lane
Austin, Texas 78759
512.305.0023
info@austintechnologycouncil.org
3

5. REPORT
INTRODUCTION
UK Trade & Investment at the British Consulate-General, Houston and the
Austin Technology Council hosted the “Symposium on Sustainable Design –
Greening the Technology Industry” on March 18th, 2008, in Austin, Texas.
UK Trade and Investment (UKTI) is the UK Government organization that both
supports companies in the UK doing business internationally and overseas
enterprises seeking to locate in the UK. The Houston branch is operated out of
the Consulate-General and has supported the Austin Technology Council
through a five-year sponsorship. Since 1994, the Austin Technology Council
(ATC) has been the principal point of connection for companies from the
technology industry that represent a critical mass of businesses in Central
Texas.
The presentations and discussions were moderated by Joel Serface, Director of
the Austin Clean Energy Incubator, which is devoted to helping young clean
energy companies succeed. The panel of speakers included five leaders in
green Information Technology (IT), two from the UK and three from Austin:
• PAUL BALLENTINE | Senior Strategy Analyst, Freescale Semiconductor
Paul Ballentine is a Senior Strategy Analyst at Freescale Semiconductor where he is
responsible for market intelligence and long-range planning. Previously, he was a
member of the Technology Strategy Organization at Motorola Semiconductor. Before
joining Freescale, Paul helped to start two companies in the semiconductor
equipment industry.
Freescale Semiconductor is a global leader in the design and manufacture of
embedded semiconductors for the automotive, consumer, industrial, networking and
wireless markets. Freescale is one of the world's largest semiconductor companies
with design, research and development, manufacturing and sales operations in more
than 30 countries.
Paul is active in the Austin Clean Energy community through Solar Austin and the
Clean Energy Incubator. Paul holds a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering, an M.S. in
Mechanical Engineering and a B.S. in Physics.
• MARTIN CHARTER | Director, The Centre for Sustainable Design (UK)
Martin Charter is the Director and faculty member of The Centre for Sustainable
Design at University College for the Creative Arts (UCCA) in Farnham, Surrey, UK.
Since 1988, he has worked to address business and environmental issues in
consultancy, leisure, publishing, training, events and research. Martin also serves on
the Editorial Board of Greener Management International and is former editor of the
Journal of Sustainable Product Design and The Green Management Letter.
Presently, he sits on sustainability advisory boards of P&G and InterfaceFlor in
Europe.
4

6. Martin is also a member of the international advisory board of CARE electronics
network and works with multiple local and national British government entities as a
member of South-East England Development Agency (SEEDA) Waste Market
Development Group and an assessor on the Department of Trade & Industry (DTI)
Technology Programme.
He previously served as the Director of Greenleaf Publishing, Marketing Director at
the Earth Centre, and is the former co-ordinator of one the UK's first green business
clubs. He is a regular international conference speaker and author and editor of
various books and publications on green management, sustainability and eco-design.
• ROB HOLDWAY | Founder & Director, Giraffe Innovation (UK)
Rob Holdway is co-founder and Director of Giraffe Innovation, a consultancy firm
specialising in carbon and ecological footprinting, environmental legislation,
innovation management and sustainable product and packaging design. Giraffe was
listed by The Guardian newspaper as one of the 10 brightest independent UK green
businesses, and the company currently undertakes carbon and ecological footprinting
projects for clients around the world.
Rob has a B.A. (Honours) in Industrial Design and an M.A. from Brunel University.
He has served as a Fellow of the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts,
Manufactures and Commerce (RSA) for 14 years, and has won two RSA SONY Design
Awards. He also serves as an advisor to the UK government on EU legislation and
eco-design. As one of eight official advisors representing the UK Government, he
advises British business on EU Law such as the WEEE (Waste Electrical and Electronic
Equipment) directive and cleaner design.
Rob has written widely on sustainable design and has appeared on various news
programmes around the globe. Most recently, he served as presenter and expert on
the BBC’s DUMPED, a reality show that challenged volunteers to live for three weeks
off the rubbish in one of Britain’s largest landfills. He has also written academic
papers and magazine articles on design, innovation and the environment.
• MARK NEWTON | Environmental Policy Manager, Sustainable Business, Dell
Mark Newton is Dell's Environmental Policy Manager. In this role, he is responsible
for global policy development, stakeholder engagements and corporate
accountability on environmental issues, including material use, energy efficiency,
product recycling and climate strategy.
Mark joined Dell in 2003 as Manager of Dell Worldwide Environmental Affairs. Under
his leadership, Dell integrated global environmental design requirements into the
business as part of its ongoing commitment to environmental responsibility. His team
established robust compliance assurance processes, introduced stakeholder concerns
into the business and led policy and process development activities.
Prior to joining Dell, Mark also led product-focused environmental technology
programs at Motorola and Apple. He received a Doctorate in Chemistry in 1993 from
the University of Texas at Dallas.
5

7. • PATRICK O’ROURKE | Senior Consultant, IBM Systems & Technology Group
Patrick O’Rourke serves as the technical lead on green technologies, system
hardware, processor technologies and virtualization technologies for IBM. In over 29
years with IBM, Patrick also worked as an RS/6000 Product Marketing Specialist and
as a Systems Engineer concentrating on DOS/VSE, CICS, and VM.
The IBM Executive Briefing Center in Austin, Texas, is a showcase for IBM System
p™ server hardware and software offerings. Its main mission is to assist IBM
customers and their marketing teams in learning about new IBM System p™ and IBM
System Storage™ products and services, providing tailored customer briefings and
specialized marketing events.
Patrick received a B.S. in Mathematics from Northeast Missouri State and an M.S. in
Math Education from Northern Illinois.
• JOEL SERFACE | Director, Austin Clean Energy Incubator (Moderator)
Joel Serface serves as the Director of the Austin Clean Energy Incubator, the first
entity of its kind focused on accelerating the birth and growth of renewable energy
technologies. With an extensive track record as an environmental engineer
pioneering “cleantech” investments and shaping public policy, Serface brings to CEI a
wealth of expertise and experience in generating and nurturing clean energy
innovations.
Prior to his current role, Serface served as Partner at Eastman Ventures, the
strategic investing arm of Eastman Chemical Company. With the support of
Eastman's CEO to deliver "greener and smarter products" to market, Serface
developed new green product strategies and led the company’s cleantech
investments. Prior to Eastman Ventures, Serface was a Director at Sierra Ventures
where he led its first energy technology investments.
Serface holds an M.B.A. from the MIT Sloan School of Management, and he received
a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemical Engineering with concentrations in
Environmental and Biomedical Engineering from The University of Texas at Austin.
The symposium included presentations with international perspectives on issues
related to IT and sustainability. Topics included supply chains and implementations
of particular technologies. Mr. O’Rourke and Mr. Ballentine spoke specifically about
the opportunities for data centers and semiconductors, while all speakers
emphasized the need for more holistic approaches, collaboration and knowledge
sharing. Externally, IT products hold a vast opportunity as enablers of advancements
in many renewable energy technologies and efficient control systems for optimal
energy use. Internally, IT companies can begin to consider their embodied
environmental footprints and costs throughout the supply chain and rethink their
management and operations in a systematic way.
6

8. OPENING REMARKS
Joel Serface began the symposium by highlighting Austin’s IT and
computational roots, which provide Austin’s IT community the opportunity to
be a world leader in alleviating environmental impacts from manufacturing
facilities to clean energy. Identified impacts included material waste and
emissions from energy use in manufacturing and computing. Mr. Serface noted
that as a result of legislative material restrictions in the US, Europe, and
Japan, computer manufacturers now have the responsibility to consider end-
of-life management at the beginning stages of design to be sure that lead,
mercury, arsenic, cadmium, beryllium and other toxins do not jeopardize
groundwater supplies. Moreover, companies with large data centers are facing
increasingly greater energy needs to support their operations. For example,
instantaneous computational power use in data centers has topped an
estimated 12 GW in the United States. Strategic planning for more efficient
energy use includes optimizing server operating efficiencies, decreasing
cooling costs through current facility redesign, and considering ambient
cooling in future data center development projects. The symposium provided a
sounding board from which Austin leadership could share its ideas and
solutions to these problems.
ECO-DESIGN IN THE ASIAN ELECTRONICS SECTOR
Martin Charter, Director, The Centre for Sustainable Design (CfSD) at
University College for Creative Arts, Farmham, United Kingdom
Martin Charter opened his remarks by defining sustainability as an act that
goes far beyond merely mitigating climate change. Resource productivity,
resource security, clean technology, water, and pollution are all equal factors
driving innovation, legislation, and demand for sustainable technology and
design. To address these concerns, Mr. Charter stressed the need for
environmental transparency throughout the supply chain, starting from Austin
and reaching out to China. He drew upon his knowledge of current drivers in
sustainability and the Asian electronics sector to describe how IT should
approach the greening of supply chains.
Mr. Charter cited three significant drivers for sustainable design: costs of
resources, legislative pressure, and consumer awareness. He stated that $2.9
billion USD were invested in clean technology in 2006 after oil prices reached
over $100 per barrel as just one example of higher costs yielding innovation.
Around the world, corporate management teams are hiring an increasing
number of sustainability experts to cope with global growth and the increasing
resource scarcity and cost.
Mr. Charter also referred to the green design legislation provided by Japanese
and European governments. He concluded that Japan’s 2001 Green Purchasing
Law, which required state purchases to include eco-friendly goods and
services, encouraged manufacturers to provide more environmental
transparency and boosted eco-labeling organizations. Likewise, he specified
two pieces of European Union environmental legislation - the RoHS (Restriction
of Certain Hazardous Substances) and WEEE (Waste Electrical and Electronic
Equipment) Standards— as the most demanding electronic legislation to date
7

9. and therefore primary drivers for design changes in the IT sector. Globally,
IT’s sustainable design challenge is to surpass the market’s most stringent
regulation.
Lastly, Mr. Charter described the modern concern of water shortages and
climate change as a reawakening of consumer awareness. He explained that
green trends tend to come in waves. The first began with pesticides usage in
the late 1960s and the second with recycling in the early 1990s. As science
develops, consumers respond by actively giving preference to more ethically
responsible goods and services. With each wave, businesses have had to
redesign their supply chains to satisfy these public demands. With the current
environmental concerns, many firms need to rebuild their ecological knowledge
base rather than simply expand on it. Mr. Charter stressed that the knowledge
from previous environmental consumer waves needs to be maintained as we
approach future inevitable concerns.
In order to respond to the drivers of sustainability, Martin Charter advised IT
companies to assess their supply chain and make changes by instituting
advisories and “out-of-the-box” thinking to increase transparency and
environmental standards. His study with the CfSD discovered that many
companies are not aware of what is happening in their own supply chains.
Providing an example, Charter described the ensuing panic in a supply chain
when the RoHS standard was passed and cautioned that many non-compliant
products (those containing lead, etc.) are still imported because of ineffective
checkpoints.
To assist in the greening of the supply chain, CfSD is looking to create eco-
design clubs within Asian countries to diffuse eco-design information and
spread its application. Mr. Charter mentioned that within China specifically, the
awareness of eco-design issues is sparse and related programs within
universities, companies, or the Chinese government do not exist. He said that
among the 26,000 electronics companies in China, virtually none exhibit
awareness of eco-design and its implications.
He contrasted China—a country with a competitive drive that is crippled by
little awareness—with Japan, a country with a history of environmental
activity. Mr. Charter cited that Japan implemented energy efficiency in the
1970s and their more systematic and “on-time” version of the WEEE directive
was passed in 2001. He added that the Japanese Business Council was
organized in Europe to increase eco-design information accessibility and that
Korea has followed with a similar strategy. Japan is very aware of the
competitive advantage provided by sustainability and has a higher critical
mass of knowledge from which to derive strategy.
Martin Charter believes that Japan’s system can act as a model as well as a
driver. He pointed out that Japan has not only built 40-50 recycling factories,
but has begun to develop and understand an efficient recycling system.
Ideally they will be disseminating the knowledge on how to run similar systems
throughout the world. Additionally, he extended Japan’s influence to contract
manufacturers in Taiwan that are receiving their first pressures from Japanese
companies.
8

10. Martin Charter concluded by pointing out that environmental requirements
from Japanese companies and European legislation have begun to create more
sustainable practices in developing countries that are part of the supply chain.
However, he stressed that for sustainability to spread throughout locations
such as China, IT companies in cities like Austin must begin launching
environmental concepts. Mr. Charter urged that it is time for the majority of
companies to think about setting up pilot eco-design projects to build
knowledge, training, and preparedness for the future. He believes that
correctly responding to the cost, legislative, and consumer pressures through
green design and green supply chains is a strategic issue. If an IT company
fails to meet increasing environmental concern and awareness, it could see its
brand removed from the market, specifically in Europe, with a subsequent drop
in share price.
TRANSFORM YOUR BUSINESS THROUGH ECOINNOVATION AND DESIGN
EXCELLENCE
Presented by Rob Holdway, Director, Giraffe Innovation Limited
Rob Holdway presented sustainability as an opportunity to attract consumers,
streamline supply chains, and reduce costs. Mr. Holdway argues that
traditionally, many companies within the US and UK focus on recycling without
considering the entire supply chain. He went on to stress that companies need
to consider two major obstacles to effective recycling: recycling activity is
underutilized and recycling lowers the value of material and incurs additional
transportation and recycling steps, making it preferable only over landfill and
incineration. Thus, he pointed out that reuse elimination of excess material
throughout the supply chain is much more cost effective and influential than
simply recycling alone.
In order to address growing concerns of waste and climate change, companies
must expand their understanding of sustainable design so as to address
impacts and resource flows occurring within the entire supply chain as well as
innovate more green products that people want. If a company begins to assess
its products by considering the opportunities within the life cycle and the
desires of consumers, the company will ultimately save millions of dollars by
simply making small changes throughout the supply chain.
Mr. Holdway offered the simple example of packaging redesign as one small
change that provides significant profits and resource savings. It is also a
change that is beginning to be regulated. For example, Europe has already
instituted laws against excess packaging. Mr. Holdway completed an analysis
of a Belkin product with a box that did not meet these packaging
requirements. By simply cutting down the size of the box and changing to less
harmful materials, Belkin was able to redesign the packaging and obtain $5
million of savings from a single product. Mr. Holdway emphasized that many
firms across the globe have realized similar savings from small modifications,
generating vast opportunities for companies to work together both locally and
internationally.
Communication of sustainable design and management knowledge across
industries was then emphasized. Mr. Holdway’s survey of the sustainable
design field shows that global experts are either sparse or isolated to a single
9

11. region. Germany, for example, has performed about 1/3 of the world's life
cycle assessments and therefore 1/3 of the world’s expertise needed to enact
changes throughout its supply chain is limited to one region. Mr. Holdway
stressed that such life cycle information about environmental impacts and
practices from every region must be shared across continents in order to
assess the holistic effects of a company’s supply chain. If this knowledge
sharing can be achieved, the organization as a whole can profitably eliminate
or reuse waste.
Mr. Holdway also emphasized the opportunity for companies to advertise green
innovation for publicity and public education. When promoting product
advancements, companies need to provide scientifically sound information
regarding the product’s environmental impacts and improvements. If
companies do not provide environmental facts in addition to modifying designs
and supply chains, they lose the marketing advantage of being green and open
themselves to consumer prejudice based on misinformation and
misunderstanding.
Rob Holdway continued with his discussion by describing his TV show,
"Dumped", in which participants lived for three weeks using the contents of a
landfill. He served as a presenter and expert on the television program that
highlighted the inefficiency of resources and exposed the public to the idea of
reusing products and materials. He was also involved in the project to build
the WEEE man, a public structure composed of 90% recyclable materials,
including ferrous and non-ferrous materials, platinum and gold, to show the
immense waste produced by companies and consumers alike. He reminded the
audience that customers are beginning to think about environmental factors in
purchasing decisions and companies must respond. A smart move was Sony’s
implementation of an EcoLogo used to advertise to consumers and educate the
public about the environmental design of Sony’s products. Unmarked products
go unnoticed, failing to entice environmentally conscious consumers, and
unmarked recyclables go straight to landfills.
With consumer interest and holistic redesign goals, the first course of action
for any business is to consider the entire production infrastructure, including
the embodied energy and emissions from resource extraction to disposal. A
good assessment considers the embodied effects of the final product and then
alters processes, re-routes portions of the supply, and removes components
based on environmental and customer factors. Mr. Holdway referenced one
case in which a rash redesign removed a low impact component only to find
that customers requested the return of same that component. Without a
thorough holistic assessment, a company will find themselves with a solution
that is worse than the original problem.
Mr. Holdway explained Giraffe Innovation’s work as quantifying the emissions
that occur throughout the entire supply chain. Giraffe crosses borders and
manufacturers to determine the net carbon and energy footprints of
components and packaging. It was revealed that the IT sector’s energy use
alone makes its carbon footprint equal that of the aviation industry. According
to Mr. Holdway, a 400W server’s output is on par with a Range Rover driven
25,000 km/year. Consequently, IT firms need to tackle these aspects of
business. The simple translation of a 400W server to a Range Rover suggests
that the CO2 taxes and penalties that currently apply to the auto industry will
10

12. soon be impacting the IT sector. Policy makers are beginning to grasp the
impact of IT by assessing life cycle environmental footprints.
Because of potential savings, market advantage, and future legislation,
company management is now looking at environmental performance
indicators. Some of the work that Giraffe does is merely due diligence, but
companies like HP are beginning to tackle new concepts, such as
environmentally sound materials, cornstarch-derived plastics, and smart
textiles. One service that Giraffe provides is environmental benchmarking of
competitors to not only identify areas for improvement to companies but to
assist brokers in investments. Environmental awareness and action now incurs
higher confidence by investors because it shows at the very least,
preparedness for further legislation. But, Mr. Holdway ended his presentation
with the reminder that:
“. . . ultimately, no organization, no matter how adroit, can make
money from a poisoned population and a dead planet. “
DEMONSTRATING SUSTAINABILITY LEADERSHIP THROUGH COMMITMENT
AND COLLABORATION
Presented by Mark Newton, Senior Manager, Environmental Sustainability, Dell
Mark Newton presented Dell’s approach to sustainability. He used Wal-Mart’s
activity in improving the environmental responsibility throughout its supply
chain as an example of how purchasing power from an influential global
company impacts other companies’ decisions. Mr. Newton explained that
Dell’s suppliers, including those in Asia, understand the importance of Dell’s
sustainability standards and initiatives, which extend to both Dell’s
environmental and social responsibilities.
Because Dell views sustainability as more than a response to environmental
issues, labor rights and social responsibility share equal consideration. Mr.
Newton mentioned issues spanning from childhood obesity to the AIDS
epidemic. Additionally, he presented Dell’s list of opportunities for future
programs, on which he named climate change (energy efficiency and
greenhouse gases), labor rights, and chemical content of hardware as Dell’s
current highest priorities. He presented this list as an informed and dynamic
agenda. For example, because of the success of take-back programs, where
computers may be returned to the company for recycling, computer reuse has
become a high priority venture.
Mark Newton attributed the dynamic and social qualities of Dell’s sustainability
strategy to a turning point caused by the original take-back program. The
original program employed prison labor for recycling. When activists began
picketing against the use of prisoners, Dell realised the opportunity to reach
out to these external stakeholder groups and gain a new perspective in
developing sustainable solutions. Subsequently, Dell began discussing
transparency with a variety of NGOs, outside investors, and single-issue
oriented groups. Mr. Newton expressed Dell’s commitment creating new
dialogues and partnerships with groups, and cited the Texas Campaign for the
Environment as one that was particularly helpful to Dell in 2004.
11

13. Mr. Newton described Dell’s revised and current take-back program as both
large and well regarded. One advantage was a noticeable increase in Dell’s
connection with the customer. The program allows customers to purchase a
new Dell computer when returning their first. He argued that this effect of the
program makes it more cost effective in addition to allowing for resource
recovery, reducing liability for waste equipment, and reducing data security
concerns.
In addition to the take-back program, Mr. Newton also described Dell’s
commitment to Energy Star regulations. It began as a simple requirement,
(sleep mode availability), with 100% market saturation. However, Energy Star
and other environmental and energy targets are becoming more exclusive,
with only 20% of the market meeting regulation. It was pointed out that this
change meant customers expecting to see the Energy Star label 100% of the
time would now expect Dell and other companies to meet the new
requirements as well. Dell met these increased expectations by giving
customers the choice to include Energy Star components and features.
Overall, Mr. Newton attributed Dell’s success to a strategy of ‘staying ahead of
the curve’ on both public interest and policy. His advice for the IT sector was
to anticipate, rather than follow, future regulation and consumer preference.
This can be accomplished by looking closely at current legislation to identify
similarities and predict future legislation. For example, a precautionary
chemical use policy should be in place that pays attention to currently
restricted chemicals and considers those that are not yet restricted. Dell has
found that anticipating environmental requirements from consumers and
legislation gives more lead-time to engage suppliers and more room to offer
incentives to suppliers.
THE GREEN DATA CENTER
Presented by Patrick O'Rourke, Senior Consulting IT Architect/Specialist, IBM
Corporation
Patrick O'Rourke categorized the current energy situation for data centers into
three primary challenges. The first challenge is meeting increasing demand
which requires additional, larger, and more efficient data centers. The second
challenge is relieving increasing operational costs. Costs of personnel and
environmental concerns are almost doubling, though the cost of hardware
remains relatively constant. The third challenge is that most existing data
centers were not built with efficiency in mind. From these three challenges,
Mr. O'Rourke introduced IBM's plan and achievement: doubling computing
power without increasing energy demand.
According to Mr. O’Rourke, when clients come to IBM, many of them are facing
ceilings regarding power thresholds. IBM faces this problem internally. IBM
provides its customers five building blocks to pursue operational savings:
building solutions, virtualizing environments, focusing on cooling technologies,
managing and measuring systems, and diagnosing and analyzing problems to
find solutions. These building blocks assist customers by reducing their power
and cooling, increasing their server/storage utilization, and reducing their data
center space.
12

14. The centerpiece of IBM's methodology is Virtualization that offers the promise
of increased server utilization with fewer physical resources. Data Center
Cooling is a fundamental example of the majority of energy consumption. An
important part of IBM's diagnosis and analysis is to find hot spots within the
data center and adjusting cooling implementations to focus cooling on hot
spots instead of cooling empty space or overcooling in general. Mr. O'Rourke
described a data center that was built on a raised eight-foot floor to allow for
maintenance but disregarded the consequent increase in cooling demand and
cost. The data center therefore contained a much larger volume of cooling
space and created a major inefficiency.
Other key pieces Mr. O’Rourke introduced were the need for data centers to
perform a complete analysis of matching workloads with the appropriate server
technology, to implement charge backs, to re-examine the geographic location
of the data center and power intake. Most data centers only operate at about
a 10% utilization rate of their servers. Driving up this utilization rate will not
only allow for more productivity but also allow for certain machines to be
turned off, resulting in a 100% processing and cooling power decrease for
those machines. Components like transformers can incur a 45% loss; building
data centers closer to power plants will reduce transmission losses. Data
centers should also be built in cool environments and regions to save on
cooling costs.
Ultimately, IBM recognizes that businesses and IT providers need to collaborate to
find new solutions. IBM is working with green technology providers to enhance its
own internal data centers, work with clients to enact greater energy efficiencies, and
to design and build smarter data centers to meet future computing demands.
SUSTAINABLE DESIGN: GREENING OF SEMICONDUCTOR TECHNOLOGY
Presented by Paul Ballentine, Senior Strategy Analyst, Freescale
Semiconductor
Paul Ballentine emphasized IT as an enabler of green innovation during his
discussion of Freescale Semiconductor's green strategy. He presented
Freescale Semiconductor’s view of sustainability, which includes four integral
components: production, life cycle analysis, end-use markets, and cleaner
energy technologies.
The first component he introduced was the production process and its
environmental impacts. He specified reducing energy and material use in
manufacturing as well as encouraging environmentally friendly behavior by
Freescale employees. Reassessing manufacturing and management systems
results in a more efficient and streamlined system. The second component
Freescale considers is the impact of product life cycles. It is necessary to
monitor hazardous substances and where and how products are used and
recycled. The third component is the end-use market for a Freescale product.
Freescale Semiconductor is aware of how its products can influence both
current energy consumption and the development of new super-efficient and
clean technologies. The fourth and final aspect of Freescale’s green strategy
was the use of cleaner energy technologies.
13

15. All semiconductor manufacturers, including Freescale, AMD, and Intel, are
tracking, measuring, and publishing their environmental impacts, such as
waste, global warming emissions, hazardous materials, and energy
consumption. Many semiconductor manufacturers are making the commitment
to employ clean energy as well. Freescale realizes however that the most
important impact a semiconductor manufacturer has is its products’ end-use.
For example, Freescale Semiconductor’s product design plays a large role in
realizing advanced efficiency technologies, such as controls for reducing
energy use by application. For the automotive industry, Freescale processors
have a key role and responsibility to enable improvements in mileage and to
reduce energy use in Internal Combustion Engines, Hybrid Electric Vehicles,
Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles, and more. For the building sector, Freescale’s
products enable intelligent control of motors, utility grids, smart meters to
turn appliances on and off during peak load, sensing, and general auto-
regulation of energy use. Freescale also views its design team as having a
commitment to enabling alternative sources of energy through its products.
The company can enable solar manufacturing through control circuitry and
allow for increasing the control of windmills to adjust blades and speeds.
Overall, Mr. Ballentine emphasized Freescale’s activity in developing cleaner
energy technology and more efficient control systems. He showed that the IT
sector not only has the opportunity to implement green practices and
technology within building and manufacturing facilities, but it also has the
potential to create and enable the next generation of those technologies for
the global market.
PANEL DISCUSSION
Led by Joel Serface, Director, Austin Clean Energy Incubator
Joel Serface began the open panel discussion with three key questions. The
first question raised the international perspective of environmental targets
around the world and uneven development within the United States. He asked
if the United States can catch up or if the country will need to continue
importing its knowledge base. Additionally, he asked if IT needs to eliminate
planned obsolescence. And finally, he asked if the industry is ready for a
complete rethinking of IT; if the necessary paradigms, sets of materials,
processors and solutions are in place to do so.
Martin Charter addressed the first question by reminding the audience that
many US firms were environmental leaders in the 1990s. Mr. Charter
emphasized that the problem in the US and in other places is that
environmental knowledge is lost as we move from concerns with pesticides to
recycling to climate change and, in the future, water. Mr. Holdway supported
this comment by saying that US consumers are not as aware of environmental
issues as European consumers. US firms, Holdway suggested, should more
actively respond to European consumers and follow the lead of international
counterparts by investing aggressively in new technologies. Mr. Ballentine
offered Freescale Semiconductor’s experience as a global company as an
example. Freescale, he said, does not see the US as an environmental leader
and instead prioritizes demands from European consumers and seeks
information from sources such as Japan.
14

16. While responding to the question of obsolescence, Mark Newton commented
that there is increasing demand for newer, chic industrial design. A possible
solution he cited to alleviate the strains this demand places on materials and
equipment was biomaterials. Mr. O’Rourke replied that IBM is employing a
zero-waste initiative and pursuing organic materials.
Finally, the new IT paradigm was offered by Martin Charter as a route for
better strategies, such as closed loops, in addition to new design and
technology. He cited Xerox as a company that achieves seven lives out of their
product through six diversions of modules from landfills. Rob Holdway
suggested that companies should begin looking for ways to implement more
abundant materials and resources in addition to employing biomaterials and
loops. Mr. Charter offered the RoHS legislation as an example in which
paradigms shifted and companies ended up with a better product. Better
design from the beginning, he said, can also create improvements such as
energy efficiency. Mr. Holdway and Mr. Newton both agreed that development
of a truly sustainable business begins with management and needs to
permeate through the supply chain so that corporate goals match with those of
the suppliers and designers. An important step, they established, is to close
the knowledge gap requiring more global knowledge, consulting and inclusion
of the commercial segments. Joel Serface concluded by saying that the first
necessary step in Austin is to establish a strong green design network and that
this symposium—along with working with partners such as The University of
Texas at Austin and Austin Energy—is part of that societal and advanced
computing technology lead.
EVENT OVERVIEW
Presentations and discussion at the Symposium for Sustainable Design
addressed the best interests of both local shareholders and the global
community in terms of alleviating air, water, and land pollution and
greenhouse gas emissions from IT. Joel Serface summarised the messages of
each speaker as the following primary points:
• Consumer awareness and legislative drivers are reshaping the competitive
advantage of providing green products, services, and supply chains
worldwide. Businesses that provide a “green alternative” will address a
growing consumer preference while positioning themselves to meet
increasingly stringent material and carbon dioxide emission regulation.
• The expectation for continuous improvement gives IT companies the ability
to drive efficiency solutions beyond their primary product offerings to the
breadth of consumer electronics.
• To accomplish these goals successfully, solutions should be rethought in a
systematic way by addressing full supply chains and facilities in addition to
the narrow focus on product/subsystem performance.
• Effective dissemination of information requires that lessons learned within
company microcosms should be made widely available, beyond the walls of
the company. Provided to the public, institutional knowledge can have an
15

17. enormous overall impact on both developing technology and consumer
impacts.
Austin’s IT community has the opportunity to not only create more sustainable
practices at home but around the globe as well. Designers are challenged to
make their products more environmentally efficient. Management is challenged
to assess the impacts of their supply chains. The IT sector overall is poised to
work in partnership to share sustainable techniques and knowledge and enact
changes throughout supply chains both within the United States, Europe, and
countries in developing parts of the world. Collaboration and a common holistic
goal for sustainability is the next step in IT’s sustainable paradigm.
16

18. CONTACT DETAILS
Conference Report prepared by:
Cassandra Telenko
Maura Nippert
Dr. Caryolyn Seepersad
Dr. Michael Webber
Cockrell School of Engineering
University of Texas at Austin
1 University Station C2200
Austin, TX 78712
Email: webber@mail.utexas.edu
Phone: (512) 475-6867
Web: http://www.webberenergygroup.com
17