UK Government Carbon
Footprinting of ICT
Bob Crooks
susitbob@gmail.com
20th March 2018
ICTFOOTPRINT.eu Workshop
Amsterdam

Agenda
Origins
Methods
Results
Challenges

Origins

UK Cross-government footprint to 2008 by product category
(Centre for Sustainable Accounting)

by GHG Scope…

Defra/DECC Footprint
Best Foot Forward report – Sept 2010

xGov Sustainability strategy (SOGE/GGC)
for each product sector…
 Scope 1 – Direct
 Use of transport, eg car fleet, air travel
 Scope 2 – Use of electricity
 Renewables
 Product operation
 Scope 3 – Supply chain
 Procurement standards

For ICT…
 Scope 1
 Collections/deliveries
 Scope 2
 Across service asset chain
 Scope 3
 Gov Buying Standards (GBS)
 Energy Star, ECMA

Methods

Approach for UK Gov ICT sector…
 2011 – 2015 Greening government ICT Strategy
 Progress checking with Defra to provide tools and methods
 Maturity Model and target
 Top tips/Best practices
 Across life cycle
 Procurement Standards
 E-waste and target
 Carbon footprinting
 See https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/ict-strategy-
resources#greening-government-ict for reports and tools

Scope 2 ICT footprinting
 Determine asset types
 End User
 Network
 Hosting
 Determine annual energy consumption
 Determine carbon emissions of power supply source
 Build/choose model to provide consistency and flexibility

Defra/IBM pilot…
 Why? What’s the purpose?
 Can we provide absolute figures?
 Can we show improvement?
 Can we meet requirements for SOGE/GGC reporting
 Organisation Scope to match SOGE/GGC
 Core dept, RPA, Animal Health, Natural England

ICT Devices/Method
 number * annual energy * official emission factor(SOGE/GGC)
 determining annual energy consumption …
 Direct consumption figures
 Sampling direct consumption with meter
 Estimating using Energy Star or Supplier ratings (sleep, idle, hibernate etc) and typical
profile of annual use
 End User Access => Sampling
 Printing => Sampling & Estimating
 Network => Estimating
 On-site servers and cooling => Sampling & Direct
 Off-site servers/data centres => Direct (EU CoC Participants)

Defra Pilot Outcome
t CO2e
Month laptops desktops printers networks
on-site
servers
off-site
servers t CO2e
Oct-10 0.7 0.3 0.7 1.3 1.8 11.6 16.4
Nov-10 0.7 0.3 0.7 1.3 1.8 11.4 16.1
Dec-10 0.7 0.3 0.7 1.3 1.8 11.1 15.8
Jan-11 0.7 0.3 0.7 1.2 1.8 11.1 15.8
Feb-11 0.7 0.3 0.7 1.3 1.8 11.3 15.9
Mar-11 0.7 0.3 0.6 1.2 1.8 11.4 16.0
0,0
0,5
1,0
1,5
2,0
laptops
desktops
printers
networks
on-site
servers

Underlying IBM Defra workbook 2010/2011
Total Total Laptops ……
Month Month end kWh CO2e Number kWh CO2e
Apr-10 30/04/2010 #N/A #N/A #N/A #N/A #N/A
May-10 31/05/2010 #N/A #N/A #N/A #N/A #N/A
Jun-10 30/06/2010 #N/A #N/A #N/A #N/A #N/A
Jul-10 31/07/2010 937948 511.4 8118 37288 20.3
Aug-10 31/08/2010 938791 511.8 7923 36267 19.8
Sep-10 30/09/2010 897871 489.5 7887 34925 19.0
Oct-10 31/10/2010 929750 506.9 8695 39828 21.7
Nov-10 30/11/2010 884870 482.4 8317 36822 20.1
Dec-10 31/12/2010 896562 488.8 8268 37899 20.7
Jan-11 31/01/2011 896452 488.8 8226 37711 20.6
Feb-11 28/02/2011 817499 445.7 8239 34118 18.6
Mar-11 31/03/2011 908557 495.4 8238 37767 20.6

Changes in Defra footprint from 2013 to 2017
0 2.000 4.000 6.000 8.000 10.000 12.000
laptop nos.
kWh/laptop
desktop nos.
kWh/desktop
printer nos.
kWh/printer
network device nos.
kWh/network device
server nos.
kWh/server
2017 2013
kWh/pa

Change April 2015 to March 2017

And since then….

A government-wide tool
Joint IS Committee (JISC) offered their Sustainable ICT Forum’s tool
See EU ICTFootprint tool repository
- https://ictfootprint.eu/en/cost-and-carbon-comparison-tool-thick-vs-thin-clients
Why?
- Flexible
- Driven by asset numbers, but can add actuals
- Can add new assets, energy factors

JISC Workbook

JISC Example Worksheet – Server rooms

Defra’s 2016/17 JISC workbook….
Changes from 2016 to 2017
Category
Energy Use
(kWh/y)
%
Energy Cost
(£/y)
CO2
emissions
(kg/y)
Number of staff
covered
Average
kWh/y staff
Average
£/ staff
Average
kg CO2/
staff
AV -202,972 -1.3% -19,688 -93,812 10,736 -26 -3 -12
End User 393,110 1.0% 38,132 181,692 1,063 11 1 5
Imaging -27,007 -0.4% -2,620 -12,482 1,063 -3 0 -1
Networks 814,901 4.3% 79,045 376,639 1,063 38 4 18
Servers 85,977 -3.8% 8,340 39,738 1,063 -27 -3 -12
Telephony 41,456 0.1% 4,021 19,161 1,063 1 0 1
TOTAL 1,105,466 107,230 510,935 -6 -1 -3
All Defra
2017 being Core, MMO, APHA, NE, RPA, CEFAS, VMD and EA
Category
Energy Use
(kWh/y)
%
Energy Cost
(£/y)
CO2 emissions
(kg/y)
Number of staff
covered
Average
kWh/y
staff
Average
£/ staff
Average
kg CO2/
staff
AV 52,375 0.3% £5,080 24,207 19,563 3 £0 1
End User 3,602,524 20.9% £349,445 1,665,051 19,563 184 £18 85
Imaging 515,150 3.0% £49,970 238,097 19,563 26 £3 12
Networks 1,927,504 11.2% £186,968 890,873 19,563 99 £10 46
Servers 10,784,939 62.7% £1,046,139 4,984,691 19,563 551 £53 255
Telephony 331,696 1.9% £32,175 153,307 19,563 17 £2 8
TOTAL 17,214,189 100% 1,669,776 7,956,226 880 £85 407

So what…
-40
-30
-20
-10
0
10
20
30
40
50
AV End User
devices
Imaging Networks Servers Telephony
Change in Average kWh/y staff from 2016 to 2017
=> See change and seek explanation

 Identify hot-spots eg which product types not improving …
 Orders of magnitude and importance
 Provides consistent, transparent approach year by year
Also …

2017 Central Government ICT footprint
New Returns
2017
Returns
Carried Forward from
2016
DFE DFID
Defra MOD
HMT HMRC
CPS DH
Met Office DFT
HO DECC
MOJ Cab off
DCLG
Highways
FCO
DWP
Category
Energy Use
(kWh/y)
%
Energy Cost
(£/y)
CO2 emissions
(kg/y)
Number of staff
covered
Average
kWh/y staff
Average
£/ staff
Average
kg CO2/
staff
Audio Visual 20,236,074 5.1% 1,962,899 9,352,911 504,280 40 4 19
End User 65,798,484 16.6% 6,382,453 30,411,402 504,280 130 13 60
Imaging 54,439,860 13.8% 5,280,666 25,161,559 504,280 108 10 50
Networks 96,800,219 24.5% 9,389,621 44,740,093 503,647 192 19 89
Servers 178,849,062 45.2% 17,348,359 82,662,248 504,280 355 34 164
Telephony 31,233,004 7.9% 3,029,601 14,435,582 504,280 62 6 29
TOTAL 2017 447,356,703 113% 43,393,600 206,763,795 504,175 887 86 410
TOTAL 2016 395,774,692 100% 38,390,145 182,923,105 418,338 856 83 396

Issues and Challenges
 Increasing intensity of technology eg devices per person, user hours/day
 Widening scope eg smart phones
 Move to Cloud (TechUK/UK Gov project)
 Clear purpose eg absolute or relative footprint?
 Comparison year on year – beware changing co-efficients!
 In hands of suppliers and contract constraints
 Fails to measure wider lifecycle (Scope 1 and 3) emissions
 Manufacture
 Disposal

Thank you
Any Questions?