Forrester: Green IT services landscape shifting

Itt have to believe in climate change to see that there are substantial benefits for companies that apply environmental-driven common sense to their IT strategies and procurement.

Forrester has just come out with a report, that illustrates how green IT has matured since I started contributing to this blog. There are two big changes on the horizon for IT managers to consider.

First, your team is likely to see a shift away from energy efficiency projects into projects that call for IT-enabled green business processes. Its not that energy efficiency is going away, its that the latter is deemed especially strategic as the economy moves back into a growth phase. By 2013, IT services companies focused on green initiatives expect the following mix:

Second, projects in North America will increase in the next three years, while European projects will taper. Approximately 33 percent of green IT services revenue will be attributable to North America projects by 2013, compared with 26 percent in 2010.

Overall, Forrester predicts there will be approximately $6.85 billion spent on sustainability consulting services: $3 billion will go to green IT services, $2.4 billion will go to IT-for-green projects, and $1.49 billion will go to green business initiatives that include an IT component. The public sector leads IT projects related to sustainability today, however the manufacturing sector will take a lead in investments by 2013, according to the Forrester projects.

Certain IT services companies have staked a serious claim in services of this sort. The players watched closely by Forrester include (in alphabetical order):

• Accenture


• Altos Origin


• Booz & Company


• BT Global Services


• Capgemini


• Cisco


• Cognizant


• CSC


• Deloitte


• EcomNets


• Fujitsu


• Getronics


• Hewlett-Packard


• IBM


• Infosys Technologies


• ITC Infotech


• KPMG


• Logica


• Orange Business Services


• PricewaterhouseCoopers


• SAP


• Siemens IT Solutions and Services


• Tata Consultancy Services


• T-Systems


• Wipro

Cisco still atop Greenpeace 'Cool IT' list

The Cisco green types must be all puffed up with pride over two major pieces of good news this week: Not only did the company score a major information technology efficiency project with energy giant Royal Dutch Shell, but the company sits atop the latest Greenpeace Cool IT Leaderboard ranking. Again.

First, the Greenpeace news. Cisco, which earned a rank of 70 out of 100, was cited by Greenpeace for its Energy Impact (25 out of 100 points) and Political Advocacy (35 out of 100 points). Ericsson was No. 2 on the ranking, with 57, while Fujitsu was No. 3 with 52.

When the Greenpeace list was last updated in the spring of 2010, Cisco had a score of 62 out of 100. Ericsson was also No. 2 on that ranking. The biggest difference near the top is that Fujitsu s Cool IT leadership.

Cisco actually won just one of the individual sub-categories, the one for Climate Solutions, where it earned 31 out of the 40 possible points. Another clear example of its leadership in this area came earlier this week in the form of a major energy-efficiency project with Shell, focused on how the company can use IT to reduce its carbon footprint. The project, which includes both AT&T and the Cisco Internet Business Solutions Group, will cover a broad range of optimization activities including server virtualization, storage consolidation and s buildings.

IBM earned the highest score, a 21 out of 25, for its work on Energy Impact, which covers factors such as the companys absolute emissions reduction target, mitigation strategies, and supply chain efficiency and footprinting initiatives.

Google was the highest-scoring company for Political Advocacy, with 30 out of 35. Greenpeace cited the companys efforts in two areas: its work to support the European Unions attempt to establish 30 percent reduction targets for cuts of greenhouse gas emissions by 2020, and its help (along with Cisco and HP) in thwarting the California Proposition 23, which sought to overturn the states global warming law.

White House Should Coordinate Geoengineering Research to Help Fight Climate Change

The White House should come up with a strategy for federal research into large-scale intervention in the Earth's climate system that could help tackle climate change, a new watchdog report concludes.

The Government Accountability Office found in its report more than 50 current studies, totaling slightly more than $100 million, focusing on piecemeal strategies to reverse climate change, but none directly addresses what would happen if adventurous programs on carbon dioxide reduction and solar radiation management were put in place.

"Without a coordinated federal strategy for geoengineering, it is difficult for agencies to determine the extent of relevant research, and policymakers may lack key information to inform subsequent decisions on engineering and existing climate science efforts," the report said, adding that most of the $2 billion spent each year on federal climate science research could also help geoengineering with better coordination.

Geoengineering either removes carbon dioxide from the atmosphere or offsets temperature increases by reflecting sunlight back into space.

GAO cautioned that these strategies poses some environmental risks that could be hard to contain.

"Major uncertainties remain regarding the scientific, legal, political, economic and ethical implications of researching or deploying geoengineering," the GAO report read.

The GAO prepared the report for Rep. Bart Gordon, D-Tenn., chairman of the House Committee on Science and Technology.

Mexican President Hopes Republicans Change on Climate

AP Photo/Israel Leal

Mexico's President Felipe Calderon speaks during an interview with The Associated Press in Cancun, Mexico, Monday Nov. 29, 2010. Calderon is in Cancun to attend the United Nations Climate Change Conference, the first full U.N. meeting since the letdown last December of the Copenhagen summit.

CANCUN, Mexico Arriving at an accord on climate change would be easier without the Republicans, some say.

Asked about the impact of the November election in the U.S. on global climate efforts, Mexican President Felipe Calderon says he can understand why U.S. voters in an economic crisis turned to the opposition party. But he hopes the Republicans will eventually accept the need to protect the planet's climate.

"I hope they can realize sooner or later how important it is for the future," Calderon said Monday.

The election of a Republican majority in the House of Representatives in the Nov. 2 elections has made it all but impossible to pass legislation to cap carbon emissions, Calderon argued, which would be essential for drawing other nations into a new, more stringent pact to succeed Kyoto, which expires in 2012.

In an echo of President Barack Obama, Calderon, a former Mexican energy secretary, said political leaders must explain better to their people that a climate-friendly transformation from polluting fossil fuels to renewable energy would actually boost their economies.

"We need to persuade people that we are going to help them to recover the economy, to recover their jobs -- and at the same time we need to take action in favor of new generations, and probably they can find their new jobs in this new green economy," he said.

Calderon said it was difficult to comment on a neighbor's internal affairs, but said that "the economic crisis in the United States was a setback to the quality of life for millions and millions of Americans, and it is a very important factor in the opinion of the people. I can understand that."

Asked whether he believed bigger developing nations, such as Mexico, would ever join with industrial nations in a new binding treaty on climate, Calderon said Mexico "has the will" to do it -- on condition it's done on the basis of "common but differentiated responsibilities," climate treaty language taken to signify that poorer countries would not be required to actually roll back emissions, but only to institute other controls.

But he cited "other countries, especially big emitters, that express the radical position that they will not accept by any means any kind of binding commitments."

Is China among them? "It could be China, and other countries," he replied.

But he quickly added that "in my experience, the Chinese government is starting to take action in terms of these issues, particularly in terms of the energy efficiency program, very aggressive."

Calderon, Mexico's president for the past four years, was animated and engaged in a 40-minute interview on the climate with the Associated Press. He's expected to take a personal hand next week in trying to resolve disputes over secondary treaty issues debated here, while the world waits for an end to the gridlock on a new global accord.

He lamented that the "big players" are stalling progress for everybody else, and said others "need to start already on what is possible."

As an example, he cited his government's soon-to-be-announced plan to replace traditional incandescent light bulbs with new energy-saving bulbs.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Developing nations: Climate change treaty in 2010

CAPE TOWN, South Africa –  CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) ג€” Four influential developing nations say the world must work for a strong climate change agreement this year.

Summing up strategy talks in South Africa on Sunday, South African Environment Minister Buyelwa Sonjica and her counterparts from Brazil, China and India said they want year-end talks in Mexico to produce a binding international agreement to reduce greenhouse gases and help poor countries cope with climate change. But they add success could still come from a 2011 round in South Africa.

Hopes for success in Mexico have been fading since acrimonious talks in Copenhagen last year failed to produce a binding agreement.

The 1997 Kyoto Protocol, with provisions capping industrial countries' greenhouse gas emissions, expires in 2012.

Inventec shipping 60,000 Chrome OS netbooks to Google

Yesterday, the Chrome OS-based Cr-48 notebook was announced. Today, Inventec is reportedly shipping 60,000 Chrome OS-based netbooks to Google.

[Image Gallery: Google's Cr-48 Chrome OS laptop]

According toֲ DigiTimes, the units “are expected to be used for testing.”ֲ So does that mean 60,000 people will be participating in the pilot program? Honestly…who knows? It’s possible that quantity could be solely for the test program, or a select number could be reserved for in-house at Google. (Hopefullyֲ ZDNet’s Christopher Dawson will selected as one of the lucky participants!)

But that figure is certain to grow whenever the Cr-48 is cleared for an official launch.

Related coverage on ZDNet:

• Google, Verizon promise free 3G data with purchase of Chrome OS netbook
• Google’s Chrome OS is here… sort of, kind of
• Google’s Chrome updates: Browser, Web store and notebook OS will redefine “cloud computing”
• Google’s Chrome Web store and the future blurring of Web, app design

Pearltrees brings curation to next level, adds Team feature

As the Internet grows, finding content that’s relevant to you becomes tougher. Sure, there’s your basic Web search and then there’s aggregation, similar to what Google and Yahoo do with news headlines. But another form of information discovery is starting to gain some momentum: curation.

Just about a year ago, I wrote a post about a French company called Pearltrees, which was just launching a service that was best described as bookmarking, but with a social twist. The idea is simple, really. When I come across something on the Web that interests me, I “bookmark” it in Pearltrees. When someone else puts that same URL into Pearltrees, we’re connected - not like friends on Facebook or a follower on Twitter, but simply as two individuals who shared an interest in a specific topic. And if there’s something else in that other person’s Pearltree that’s similar in topic, I would be able to see it.

Today, at the LeWeb conference in Paris, the company is launching Pearltrees Team, a collaboration tool that takes the curation concept and brings it to a group that may be working together on a common topic - something as critical as medical professionals gathering information on a specific disease to something fun like collecting information about local restaurants or attractions for an upcoming conference.

CEO Patrice Lamothe said that in the year that the company has been around it has grown to 6 million monthly page views and about 4 million pages curated. It didn’t seem like such a big number to me but Lamothe explained that the quantity of the pages in Pearltrees is less important than the quality of the content. The value of curation, he said, is the ability to add and delete pages.

After all, if you’re looking for quantity, you can simply do a Google search and sift through the hundreds of items that are returned in the query results to find the most relevant. Or you can start curating content into Pearltrees and possibly find others with common interests who have also been curating.

“The quality of the database is much more important than a number,” Lamothe said.

Related: Curation versus aggregation represents human web versus machine web