Green drive in Singapore switches to higher gear

Business Times 29 Mar 10;

The brightening economy, rising awareness and new 'green' technologies are helping to intensify the eco-friendly and sustainability focus in Singapore and across the region, reports ONG BOON KIAT

WITH the economic doldrums lifting and loosening purse-strings of businesses, eco-friendly, clean-energy and sustainable practices are expected to gain traction among organisations this year.

And for those hoping to slash their carbon footprint, a raft of new green technologies are emerging to help them do so more effectively.

The result, experts say, is an acceleration of the push to go green by businesses across the world this year. Singapore, which has a high per-capita rate of emissions relative to its neighbours, is expected to embrace the movement. One indication: the Republic recently pledged to cut carbon pollution by 16 per cent against projected business-as-usual levels by 2020.

The rising tide of public awareness of green practices and deepening worry over global warming is fuelling the movement, market watchers say, despite the fractious nature of last December's United Nations climate summit in Copenhagen and the recent controversy over climate science.

Technology is seen as a key enabler of green and sustainable practices. In a study last August, research firm IDC predicted that information and communications technologies (ICT) can collectively reduce global emissions by over 25 per cent annually by 2020, compared with 2006 levels. IDC added that companies in Asia Pacific can contribute to some 40 per cent of these potential reductions.

'Companies should not be focused myopically on profits and allow themselves to plunder the world. There should be prudent use of water, fuel, electricity and other resources in order to minimise waste and pollution,' said Sundeep Khisty, the green practice leader of HP Enterprise Services for Asia-Pacific and Japan.

Besides, he pointed out, going green today can give organisations a crucial market differentiation edge for commoditised products and services.

'Singapore businesses will experience greater shareholder value for their companies if they adopt green practices. If a company has the right green governance, their products and services will attract better pricing power.'

Upcoming trends

The green IT buzzword arrived about three years ago. The main focus then was around achieving better energy-efficiency within data centres and existing IT infrastructures, noted Philip Carter, associate research director of IDC Asia-Pacific.

'Obviously, oil prices was at a high in that period. It was also because new technologies that arrived then were based around virtualisation and automation, which helped to ensure that data centre operators can run their data centres in a more effective manner.'

But now, another green facet has emerged: sustainable practices.

'Here we see the adoption of more intelligent technologies in a more proactive fashion to actively reduce carbon emissions associated with normal business process,' said Mr Carter, whose research areas include green IT and sustainability practices.

IDC recently identified 17 key technologies that are most likely to have a positive impact on reducing greenhouse gas emissions. These technologies - among them smart metering, intelligent power generation, smart lighting, teleworking, virtual conferencing and telecommuting and electronic media - could help curb carbon dioxide emissions by 5.5 giga tonnes by 2020, the research firm said.

Mr Carter singled out video-conferencing and green building as among key technologies on IDC's list that will be important for Singapore.

'Video-conferencing is important for Singapore because this country is a regional hub for MNCs (multinational companies), which are looking at using this technology to reduce employee air-travel.'

Green building technologies are important for Singapore because of the fast pace of new building construction here.

Another driver for green projects is regulation and compliance, such as those around carbon emissions, recycling and waste material handling. Carbon emission regulations, however, could take a while to come to Singapore, he said.

'There is no regulatory environment in Singapore that relates to carbon emissions. Although Singapore has set a target at a country level, that hasn't been passed down to businesses,' Mr Carter noted. 'But there is no question in anyone's mind that at a global context, we have to move to a lower carbon-type of economy and more regulations will come.'

Lee Fook Sun, president of Singapore Technologies Electronics (ST Electronics), points to three key green trends that will be important for organisations in Singapore. The first is corporate initiatives to reduce, reuse and recycle. The other two are virtualisation and the use of solar energy.

He believes more companies will be implementing conservation practices, like tweaking their air-conditioning systems to match optimal conditions, using recycled paper, encouraging staff to car-pool, and using video-conferencing applications for meetings to cut down staff travel.

He said: 'Apart from contributing to a greener environment, these initiatives help firms bring down operating costs without compromising the quality and productivity of work.'

Mr Lee believes that solar energy could eventually become an important alternative energy source for Singapore, given that it is a tropical country. However, its adoption on a large scale is feasible only when solar energy cost is comparable to that of conventional energy sources, he noted.

Virtualisation, transparency

Virtualisation, a familiar green IT buzzword for the past few years, will continue to be a key trend this year, said Edwinder Singh, practice head, professional services, data centre solutions, Datacraft Asia.

'This is because in a typical data centre, server virtualisation is the easiest to implement and has the largest impact in terms of its many benefits,' he said.

Virtualisation refers to a set of technologies that lets IT managers carve out multiple virtual servers from a single physical server, or consolidate far flung hard drive systems as if they are a single unit. Doing so helps organisations maximise the usage levels of those resources and thus correspondingly, reduce their power consumption. In a data centre, virtualisation can help dramatically slash equipment cooling costs.

Said HP's Mr Khisty: 'The journey to change starts with being transparent. One key trend we're seeing is requirements of the firms to provide more transparency of their environmental social governance policies and to report a triple bottom line, consisting of planet, people and profit.'

Another trend is the growing pressure on the supply chain to reduce carbon footprint and increase energy efficiencies. Mr Khisty gave the example of HP's move to get its thousands of partners to reduce their carbon footprint.

Organisations are also looking at how to reduce power and cooling energy consumption on a long-term basis - a perennial concern for those which operate data centres. 'We have reached a boundary and now we have to push through that boundary. We have to rethink the whole model of delivery and use machines more productively and more efficiently,' he said.

Challenges

Vendors interviewed by BizIT see the high cost for certain green technologies and the general lack of perceived commercial value of green technologies as the key obstacles, among others, to their proliferation today.

Harold Klaje, director of sales for Asia-Pacific at IT management software firm SolarWinds, noted that the 'single, biggest challenge facing the adoption of green and sustainable practices is balancing the short-term investments and cost against the long-term return on investment', but this is where IT departments can help convey the value of such investments to their management.

ST Electronics' Mr Lee said: 'Economically, it is not yet viable or attractive enough for companies to dive into implementing green initiatives in a big way.' For instance, the cost of solar-powered solutions are still relatively expensive, he said.

'Many Singapore SMBs (small and medium-sized businesses) have yet to actively participate in the reduction of their carbon footprint and addressing the danger of global warming, because they probably feel that any impact made by them would not be significant, and that mega enterprises and governments should take the lead.'

He added: 'The government's efforts in educating the public on the importance and need to protect the environment, as well as appropriate regulations and incentive schemes can certainly influence the pace of adoption of green practices in the business community.'

Datacraft's Mr Singh said: 'With regard to measurement and reporting, getting accurate data is always a challenge. However, we are seeing an increase in technology that enables us to record and report the effectiveness of our programmes.'

HP's Mr Khisty said there is still a lack of awareness of the issue at the business level, on how it impacts organisations. Other barriers include the lack of expertise to develop a comprehensive business case and take the 'green journey'.

He also noted that while the Singapore government has initiatives in place to improve energy efficiencies in the building and real estate sector, 'more could be done to make carbon emissions reduction the primary driver to reduce Singapore's climate change impact'.

'Singapore should ask the public and private sector to show transparency in carbon footprint reporting as other countries are slowly initiating regulations to change behaviours and establish governance.'