www.sustainableinternet.org

Sustainable Internet is a manifesto for a wired sustainable future.
On the website ten guidelines are described, in order to outline a sustainable approach to the internet from an environmental, social and economic perspective. Existing problems, solutions and practices are presented, both for contents’ production and use. Also, some important thoughts are expressed, about sustainability issues related to the web’s infrastructure.

Though very simple, Sustainable Internet’s guidelines remind us of key concepts from human-centered design. Developers, designer, researchers, and the users themselves are invited to pay attention to those fundamental issues, as they all have the power to influence how the future of internet will look like.
Sustainable Internet is an initiative by Jorge Zapico, a PhD Candidate at The Royal Institute of Technology, researching the intersections of ICT and Sustainability at the Centre for Sustainable Communications.

I must say Apple devices at the beginning of his presentation are quite far from my idea of sustainable informatic development. Still, I do share many of his ideas and I’m looking forward to further development of his project.

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see also:

www.jorgezapico.com

itsagreenmobileworld.com

twitter.com/zapico

The Official Google Blog: A new approach to China; January 12th, 2010

On January the 12th a key post was published on The Official Google Blog. As a new year response from Google to the ever-existed reserves about its censorship policies abroad, its title said it all: a new approach to China.
The article informed that Google’s corporate infrastructure was stricken by a targeted attack originating from China. According to the American press, multiple attacks were coming from Taiwan, which is a quite usual practice for Chinese hackers.
In response to this attack, Google reacted very firmly: “we should review the feasibility of our business operations in China. We have decided we are no longer willing to continue censoring our results on Google.cn, and so over the next few weeks we will be discussing with the Chinese government the basis on which we could operate an unfiltered search engine within the law, if at all. We recognize that this may well mean having to shut down Google.cn, and potentially our offices in China”.
That way Google, a company present on the stock exchange, not an international institution, issues maybe the most relevant challenge ever directed to the Chinese government and its doubtful practices, dealing with human rights.

Investigations took place, in order to find out the importance of this attack; the potential relevance of such an action was that high, that the National Security Agency and other intelligence services looked closely at the event.
What Google found out from its investigations, was that “at least twenty other large companies from a wide range of businesses – including the Internet, finance, technology, media and chemical sectors – have been similarly targeted”; now we know they’re probably 34, and guardian.co.uk reported that Yahoo and Adobe appear to be among those companies.
In addition, evidence suggests that the attack was also targeted to Gmail accounts from Chinese human rights activists. Google stated that “only two accounts appear to have been accessed, and that activity was limited to account information (such as the date the account was created) and subject line, rather than the content of emails themselves”.
Also, mails from dozens of Gmail users who are human rights advocates in China (from the US, Europe and China) appear to have been accessed via phishing or malware.

Google choosed to share the informations about these attacks with a broad audience, above alle because they go to the heart of a global debate about freedom of speech. Its announcement bounced around the world press and, of course, it triggered a great discussion: while th US government declares its worries about the ability of operating with trust on the Internet, someone underlined the bad consequences of Google’s drastic retreat (though just potential, yet) from the Chinese market. In the meanwhile human rights campaigners, freedom of speech advocates and dotcom entrepreneurs all applauded the Californian company’s decision, and Chinese Google users offered bouquets of flowers at the Google China headquarters in Beijing.

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see also:

Huffington Post: Google In China LIVE BLOG

guardian.co.uk: Google, Yahoo, Adobe and who? January 14th, 2010

guardian.co.uk: Google’s move on Chinese censorship welcomed by human rights activists

rapid city journal: Google’s decision on China traces back to founders; January 13th, 2010

public intelligence: China Googleplex; January 13th, 2010

The New York Times: Google, citing attack, threatens to exit China; January 13th, 2010

Wired IT: Google dice no alla censura in Cina, ha inizio la cyber guerra fredda; 13 Gennaio, 2010
(Italian only)

pictures:
Elizabeth Dalziel
Jason Lee

Design with Intent: Smart meter design consultation. Chance to get involved; June 18th, 2009

Design with Intent: Smart meters. Some thoughts from a design point of view; June 18th, 2009

Dan Lockton’s research is about design intended to influence users’ behaviour; he called it “Design with Intent”. The whole theme is interesting in terms of sustainable design, both for what concerns inducted responsibile behaviours and the transmission of knowledge itself; sure it will be deepened in further posts.
Here, a couple of specific articles are presented as an example of approch to Design with Intent.

A few months ago (May 12th, 2009) the UK government released its plans to mandate the replacement of all domestic electricity meters in the UK with smart meters. A post by Jamie Young, from design & behaviour, presented them as an opportunity for designers to make an effective contribution to the problem of climate change, stating that “the question of how to engage people is absolutely a design question”.
Dan Lockton answered on his website with two articles (see links below), underlining the most design-related questions in DECC’s smart meter consultation. According to the author “if, as independent designers – interaction designers, information designers, product designers, service designers – we can have some input to the consultation, we should make use of this opportunity. They don’t come along too often”.

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see also:

www.decc.gov.uk/…/smart_metering.aspx

design & behaviour: Calling Interaction Designers; May 12th, 2009

www.open-io.org

Open IO is a free public resource for estimating the sustainability of products and services. The data available on the website have been developed for everyone to use for any purpose and at no cost.
The team from Open IO welcomes others to join their community: “Collaboration with companies and researchers in new data development efforts are our cup of tea and we would also love to hear your feedback. Our model is built for continual improvement and we will keep working hard to enhance our resources that aim to provide the public with the best available free, open and transparent sustainability related information possible”.
Also, data are (almost) ready to be imported into openLCA (and SimaPro, which on his turn is neither free, nor open source) to be used as a Life Cycle Library.

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see also:

www.open-io.org/download.asp

openLCA: OpenIO_Import.pdf

ITgG: openLCA; July 15th, 2007

ITgG: openLCA Beta 1.0; September 26th, 2008

ecomo09.eventbrite.com

www.betavine.net/bvportal/community/sustainability

EcoMo09 is an event which took place in London the past September, 11th at 6:00 PM to 12th at 6:00 PM. It was open to all software developers who wanted to have a positive impact on society and the environment. Wi-Fi and power on location were provided, while laptops, software development kits and any other tools were to be brought by the participants.
Vodafone and Betavine organized the event, a 24-hour dev camp competition. Workshops on environmental data sources took place during the event, and developers used their “green” coding skills to create prototype software tools to help people reduce their impact on the environment. EcoMo09 was also intended to offer opportunities to socialise, collaborate and network with code peers.

EcoMo09 is one of a number of Vodafone initiatives in the area of sustainability. Based on the inputs received from a range of sustainability experts and activists a set of stimulus ideas for the event was developed, to act as a catalyst for prototypes.
At the end of the dev camp, the judging panel reviewed the prototypes and selected winners based on how well they have responded to the competition challenges. Following the event, the prototypes kick started an open source sustainability code bank to create, and build on, new tools.

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see also:

twitter.com/ecomo09

www.vimeo.com/user2311507/videos

Sustainability blog: The Carbon Tippy Toes project; Jun 11th, 2009

Sustainability blog: Workshops at EcoMo09; Aug 28th, 2009

Sustainability blog: EcoMo09 done… looking forward to EcoMo10; September 16th, 2009

Sustainability blog: EcoMo09 links-in-progress; November 14th, 2009

www.tinyurl.com/betavine-sustainability

picture: Kevin McDonagh

www.internetforpeace.org

On the cover of Wired n.10 (December 2009) there’s a quotation from Shirin Ebadi: “io nomino Internet patrimonio dell’umanità” (I designate Internet heritage of humanity). It’s the sentence which opens an issue of Wired Italia, entirely written around their proposal of the Web as a candidate to the Nobel Prize for Peace 2010.

The official presentation took place in Milan, November the 20th, within the “Science For Peace Live” events; Riccardo Luna outlined the project, supported by David Rowan and Chris Anderson, in live streaming; beyond the Editors (from Wired Italia, Wired Uk, and Wired US respectively), Nobel Peace Prize Winner Shirin Ebadi, Professor Umberto Veronesi and the stylist Giorgio Armani are Ambassadors for the initiative.

On the official website we can read the manifesto:


“We have finally realized that the Internet is much more than a network of computers. It is an endless web of people.
Men and women from every corner of the globe are connecting to one another, thanks to the biggest social interface ever known to humanity.
Digital culture has laid the foundations for a new kind of society. And this society is advancing dialogue, debate and consensus through communication.
Because democracy has always flourished where there is openness, acceptance, discussion and participation. And contact with others has always been the most effective antidote against hatred and conflict.
That’s why the Internet is a tool for peace.
That’s why anyone who uses it can sow the seeds of non-violence.
And that’s why the next Nobel Peace Prize should go to the Net.
A Nobel for each and every one of us.”

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see also:

www.youtube.com/user/internetforpeace

www.wired.it/internet-for-peace.aspx
(Italian only)

wired.co.uk: the Internet for peace campaign

press_release_1.zip

press_release_2.zip

twitter: #I4P

A few days ago I got an email from Greenpeace “Cool IT” campaign’s team; the mail reported some thoughts about COP15, the 15th United Nations Climate Change Conference which took place in Copenhagen from the 7th to the 18th of December, 2009. Such thoughts are presented from the IT point of view, saying how it could help cutting CO2 emissions. Beyond the bitter conclusions about the poor outcomes, the “Cool IT” team invites ICT companies to plan new policies, to be presented at the next summit, Mexico 1010.
I thought it would be nice to share.

Dear friends,
2009 should have been the year that governments and the market clearly signaled that the transition to a low carbon economy had begun in earnest on a global scale. It wasn’t however, and the IT sector will have to do better in 2010 to turn things around.

Copenhagen FAIL
The failure of world leaders in Copenhagen to deliver a fair, ambitious, and legally binding agreement is a setback to global efforts to respond to the urgent threat of climate change, and kick start the low carbon global economy. While governments have said they will be back to strike a deal at the UN climate summit in Mexico in 2010, Copenhagen’s “outcome” clearly begs the question: which countries will overcome the status quo voices of their fossil fuel industry, and put the necessary policies in place to commit their nation to climate protection and economic growth from a low carbon 21st century economy?

Dirty industry lobby at work
As we have seen throughout 2009, the fossil fuel industry and others benefiting from the status quo have been successful in using the weak economy to question whether we can “afford” meaningful efforts to reduce our emissions in line with what the science says is needed. Make no mistake: the Copenhagen Accord, if defined by current reduction pledges, would result in roughly 4°C of warming, more than doubling the 2°C critical threshold scientists have identified that must be avoided. Humanity surely cannot afford that.

IT engaged in climate debate in 2009
For ICT companies and others who have tremendous business opportunities in a drive toward a low carbon economy, looking back on 2009 and what they did, what are they going to do to make sure we get a different outcome in 2010?
We did see beginnings of important signs of stronger engagement from key IT leaders in the run up to Copenhagen, with Ericsson, Michael Dell, Microsoft, and Nokia calling on world leaders to act.
As a sign of the growing importance of the climate debate to IT industry, influential green tech press also began to pay attention to the UNFCCC in a significant way for the first time. The Guardian newspaper also hosted a roundtable on ICT and climate action from the conference centre in Copenhagen. The roundtable video recording “ICT as a tool to fight climate change” on the guardian.co.uk website is a great 20 minute introduction to where the discussion in the ICT industry is right now.
Many IT companies also arrived at the UN climate summit in Copenhagen in force for the first time, clearly eager to highlight the potential of IT technologies to reduce emissions. However, beyond regularly repeating the Smart 2020 report conclusions (that IT can lead to significant energy savings across the economy), IT companies at COP15 lacked a clearer strategy or a common voice for what they wanted or expected governments to deliver from Copenhagen.

New Year’s Resolution for IT climate leaders
IT companies engage throughout the year at the national and international level if we expect to get the policies in place to drive the low carbon economy and deliver a meaningful outcome at COP16 in Mexico at the end of the year. If they really believe in their solutions and the businesss opportunities a low-carbon economy will bring them, the ICT companies should speak with much greater authority and a common voice.
Cisco’s CEO John Chambers seems to have gotten the take home message to businesses from Copenhagen, when he said simply “make yourself (politically) relevant”.
The days when just cutting your own emissions or offering products that are less harmful to the environment was good enough are over. In the climate battle the next step for corporations is to choose sides in the biggest issue facing the planet.

Thank you for your interest and support.
And good luck in 2010!
The Cool IT campaign team

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see also:

unfccc.int

en.cop15.dk

Greenpeace Italia: Aziende IT. Non abbastanza “cool” per raffreddare il pianeta; 27 Ottobre 2009
(Italian only)

Greenpeace: Google, IBM and Microsoft with their heads in the clouds; October 27th, 2009

Inside Nokia: Nokia CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo; The Cost of Doing Nothing; November 30th, 2009

Microsoft on the issues: Contributing to the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen; December 2nd, 2009

Today is the third Blog Action Day.
Though I joined the initiative since the first edition, I would catch this year’s BAD as an opportunity to bring some novelties on IT goes Green.
The themes chosen by BAD, today and in the past years, all intersect in a wider, urgent, critical topic which is sustainable development. ITgG always dealt with IT from that global point of view; this is why every BAD theme always fitted perfectly with this blog’s philosophy; this is why, also, boundaries among topics such as “Environment”, “Poverty”, “Climate Change” seem to be that blurred in ITgG’s posts; and this is why, finally, so many different solutions and theories are presented over this blog, as equally urgent and important.


As I said above, I want to catch this year’s initiative as an opportunity to do something new on this blog.
First, today I will write in first person: until now I always preferred an impersonal form, as I was publishing posts which (in most of the cases) were just to point out article from others’ sources.
Compared to other blogs dealing with green Information Technology, ITgG always privileged long-term, systemic solutions and innovative theories (though relatively “old”) to fresher news. Main aim of this choice was to outline an holistic frame to look at sustainable development as whole. Explaining explicitly this systemic approach is something new I’ld do on this blog with this article.
Finally, being not my English that good, I’ve never been able to translate long articles on this blog, though pretending to keep it (almost) entirely bilingual. This article was written originally in English and will be fully translated, I do hope it won’t be just an exception as regards future articles.


I won’t spend too many words explaining what climate change is, since many other, authoritative sources are available for this purpose on the web. Beyond the faithful Wikipedia, I do suggest to take a glance at BAD’s 8 Great Climate Change Resources. Here, I’ll just underline a few key-concepts for the sake of this article’s clarity:
- climate change is related to many natural phenomena, but it is mostly caused by CO2′s concentration in the atmosphere. According to Wikipedia, other relevant causes are aerosols and ozone depletion
- both CO2 concentration and climate are changing extremely fast; too fast
- human activities all around the globe are the biggest, most influent cause of the speed, at which the above changes are taking place


Many are the reasons why anthropogenic factors are that influent on climate change: from the unsustainable use of the most spreaded energy sources, to the emissions related to manufacturing, transportations, fruition and disposal of goods, to the green areas’ impoverishment (because of deforestation, land exploitation and animal agriculture, desertification).
Among all of the mentioned activities, the impact of those related to Information Technology is astonishingly high: around 2% of the world CO2 emissions are caused by IT; more or less the same quantity produced by the entire avionics’ sector.


How to face a problem of such huge proportions?
Trying to find a single, universal solution is just wrong. As for any other systemic issue, systemic solutions are needed. When dealing with environmental and global issues, we always need to keep in mind how deeply interconnected is every actor and every phenomenon on earth, with all the others.
As the world’s climate quickly gets hotter, glaciers, coastal cities, food supplies, biodiversity are seriously threatened. Such threats comes from a variety of causes, not a single one, and they ask for different, complementary solutions. By this, I mean not only that each issue must be faced by re-thinking the whole system of human activities; I also mean that every single activity must be looked at from a varierty of perspectives, each one suggesting its solutions.

And here we get to what ITgG is trying to do since 2006.
My aim since then is to show how many different technologies and techniques, designs, practices, researches and studies are already available or anyway feasible in a reasonable period. As they continuosly grow and develop, those resources are promising more and more to lighten the burden of IT’s impact, which at present presses the environment, the biosphere, the mankind’s health and safety. What is to be made yet, is to find smart ways to make these resources work together, to become systemic, start virtuous circles, produce positive emergence.
I would focus on two last critical topics, too often underestimated, before I conclude this article: knowledge and practice. Both of them are indispensable, but no real solutions can be found and no problems can be really understood, if education and information aren’t fully available for everyone at anytime; also, no practice is adequate enough, if it is not learnt from the past, understood in the present and tested by the experience.
This should give you the idea of how important I consider BAD’s initiative and the spreading of worthing words, coming from people: ideas can be made real with dedication and with the will of acting in first person.
In order to trigger a new (actual) informatic revolution, Information Technology must be redefined. That revolution could cut (hopefully eliminate, in a longer period) CO2 emissions, from activities which can be made more efficient and from the IT sector itself. That revolution could give us a good hope.
It is a long hard way but it’s too relevant not to take care of.

Thanks BAD, thanks readers, thanks activists,
Stefano Cieri

www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/stories/ghana804/video/video_index.html

On the outskirts of Ghana’s biggest city sits a smoldering wasteland, a slum carved into the banks of the Korle Lagoon, one of the most polluted bodies of water on earth. The locals call it Sodom and Gomorrah. Peter Klein and a group of graduate journalism students from the University of British Columbia went there as part of a global investigation, to track a shadowy industry that’s causing big problems there and around the world.

Right now there are no tough U.S. laws regulating the disposal of e-waste, leaving companies and consumers to sort out the claims of recyclers on their own. Following the recycling process as a consumer would, students drop off some e-waste at a facility on America’s West Coast. They are assured that what they are bringing in will be disposed of safely and locally. A few weeks later, their reporting takes them to the port of Hong Kong.
Just a few miles from Hong Kong’s port, are mountains of computer monitors, printer cartridges, relics of old video arcades. In China, e-waste has become big business. The southern Chinese city of Guiyu has been completely built around the e-waste trade. Miles and miles of nothing but old electronics.
On the last trip of the assignment, the team heads to India. No longer just a dumping ground, India is now generating its own e-waste at an alarming rate, thanks to a growing middle class with a taste for high tech. “Last year, we sold more than seven million PCs in India” says Indian businessman Rohan Gupta. “We generated 330,000 tons of electronic waste within India. So all these are going to comeback to the waste stream sooner or later. It’s a growing industry”.

www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/stories/ghana804

SpringerLink: Urban Waste Pollution in the Korle Lagoon, Accra, Ghana; November 2nd, 2004

picture: Jane Hahn ©

www.google.org

blog.google.org

In 2004, when Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin wrote to prospective shareholders about their vision for the company, they outlined a commitment to contribute significant resources, including 1% of Google’s equity and profits in some form, as well as employee time, to address some of the world’s most urgent problems. That commitment became Google.org.

Google.org is an integral part of Google Inc., and works closely with a broad range of “Googlers” on projects that make the most of Google’s strengths in technology and information; examples of this approach include Flu Trends, RechargeIT, Clean Energy 2030, and PowerMeter.
Google also established the Google Foundation in 2005, which is a separate private foundation. The Google Foundation is managed by Google.org and supports the project’s mission and core initiatives as one of the sources of funds for grant making.

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see also:

www.google.org/about.html

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google.org

www.google.org/flutrends

www.google.org/recharge

www.google.org/powermeter