Within this blog I focus predominantly on a passion of mine - online media and channels. Specifically, the development of investor relations, communications and PR as new online tools and approaches emerge and become a integral part of strategy.
Another area I am very interested in is sustainability, awareness of carbon footprint, in both personal and corporate settings. With this in mind I have been taking a look at a few things related to sustainability and the area my Blog focuses on, Media - both print form and online.
Firstly I have looked at media companies as a whole - which looks mainly at print. In terms of online I have looked at the environmental impact of internet use which is something I think we all should keep in mind. I see News Corp. announced it would be going climate neutral by 2010), so it is front of mind for at least the big players in the industry. Google, the biggest online player is also, chasing carbon neutrality, “asserting” that it intended to be carbon neutral in 2007.
If you are short for time I would recommend reading the Reflections of a Newsosaur piece, “an inconvenient truth for publishers” - it is very good.
I think this is an area of increasing and urgent importance that all of us as media and communications professionals, offline/online or both should be across. I think it is important to make an effort to stay up to date with developments, metrics of how the sector as a whole is performing, who the green leaders are and how we can become green leaders in our personal and professional lives.
MEDIA CARBON FOOTPRINT
Some stats:
- Publisher selling 250,000 newspapers on each of the 365 days of the year adds nearly 28,000 tons of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere. This is equivalent to the carbon dioxide spewed from 3,700 Ford Explorers being driven 10,000 miles apiece per year.
- “With all the satellite trucks that get $15 miles per gallon, the gas generators powering the lights, and the helicopters covering that car chase. That is a great deal of carbon monoxide, why can’t the media really be green?”
MEDIA CARBON FOOTPRINT LINKS
Martin Stabe - What is the medias carbon footprint?
Learnings:
- Newspaper industry is gulping forests for newsprint which is then distributed by fuel belching trains & planes. This doesn’t include reporters flying around on assignment.
- Each consumers education (incl books & newspapers) accounts for 0.49 tonnes of carbon per year.
- Trinity Mirror is working with carbon trust to produce a carbon audit of their supply chain. Read the full PDF Carbon Trust Report of “Carbon Footprints in the supply chain” from Trinity Mirror here
- For online media, a growing awareness of the environmental impact of internet use - both PC’s and industrial size warehouses where web servers are stored.
Environmental Leader - Media companies face unique CSR challenges
Learnings:
- Vice President of Corporate Responsibility at Warner Bros. “We don’t necessarily see people tune into a show because of the CSR values of the company - it’s about enjoyment.”
- Crozier feels that “the call is not so much for business practices to be socially responsible, although we have been a leader in sustainability for a decade, but for our programming to reflect it.”
Reflections of a Newsosaur- Inconvenient truth for publishers
Learnings:
- Every aspect of the print business does uncontestable violence to the environment.
- Newspapers and magazines not only consume tremendous amounts of energy but at the same time require the harvest of millions of trees that otherwise would be gobbling up CO2 via photosynthesis.
- Even more energy is consumed when old newspapers and magazines are responsibly collected and hauled off for recycling, where the process (apart from felling more trees) essentially begins anew.
- While thriving companies like Google have the profits to invest in green projects or buy their way to carbon neutrality, the deteriorating economics of publishing argue against the likelihood of similar voluntary investments by newspapers and most magazines. Govt mandates will add to commercial stress.
Greening of the HuffPost
Learnings:
- Great site: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/green/
ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT OF ITÂ
Some stats:
- Russell Seitz, estimates that the internet may have 75 to 100 million servers consuming 350 to 550 watts each. This works out at 40GW of energy consumption. Read more “Weighing the We” by Russel Seitz here
- According to the Carbon Disclosure Project :Intel emitted directly and indirectly 4.073 million tonnes of carbon dioxide. Chip foundry operations are hugely energy-intensive.IBM disclosed it indirectly emitted 2.451 million metric tonnes of carbon. HP declared a total for 2005 of 1.550 tonnes. Dell declared it had produced about 350,000 tonnes of carbon in fiscal year 2006. Cisco was about the same level with 356,178 tonnes of carbon emissions in 2005.Yahoo, Google and Susmicrosystems did not reply because either they did not know their footprint or did not want it to be known.
Watch a video with Paul Dickinson, Director of the Carbon Disclosure Project
ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT OF IT LINKS
Google’s IT Footprint: Techworld
Learnings:
- The size of Google’s carbon footprint will depend upon the number of its datacentres and the numbers of servers and storage arrays within them. Datacentres: According to Search Engine Genie Google has 72 datacentres. According to Threadwatch.org it has 41.No-one but Google knows exactly how many datacentres it has. The total would seem to be somewhere between 40 and 60 and growing fast. Servers: can reasonably suppose that the total has passed half a million and that they are spread across 40 to 60 datacentres, meaning an average of over 8,000 servers per datacentre.
- Googles footprint - according to PR rep “is calculated globally and includes our direct fuel use, electricity, business travel, estimates for employee commuting and server manufacturing at our facilities around the world.”
- Google is running some of these by hydroelectric , solar and nuclear power.
- Putting a lot of $$$ in to energy offsetting but may be the IT world’s largest indirect contributor to global warming.
The information factories: Wired
Top green IT users and vendors
Learnings:
- Green computing promises an enormous win for IT: a chance to save money — and the environment. Not many players truly standing out.
Newsosaur quoted ” happy to report that it produces less than a quarter of a ton of CO2 each year by limiting energy consumption to a single laptop that is turned off a night, a DSL router shared with the family, a single-bulb desk lamp and the power required to run a simple mobile phone.”
Lucindigo.com has about the same carbon footprint estimate as Newsosaur above and is currently investigating options for carbon offsetsÂ
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