Spotlight: Insights from the first North West Green Computing workshop

What is Green Computing?

According to IBM, “Green Computing (also known as green ICT or sustainable ICT) is the design, manufacture, use and disposal of computers, chips, other technology components and peripherals in a way that limits the harmful impact on the environment, including reducing carbon emissions and the energy consumed by manufacturers, data centers and end-users. Green computing also encompasses choosing sustainably sourced raw materials, reducing electronic waste and promoting sustainability through the use of renewable resources.”

North West Green Computing Workshop 

On the 26th March Innovate UK Business Connect in collaboration with WHPC (Women in High Performance Computing),hosted the first North West Green Computing workshop, bringing together a diverse group of people across academia, business, industry, government and not-for-profit organisationsto catalyse the growth of a green digital community whose ambition is to make their use of computing technologies as (environmentally) sustainable as possible. The event highlighted the role of women in the sector. 

The event, held within the 1830 Warehouse of Manchester’s Science and Industry Museum – the site of the Manchester terminus of the world’s first intercity railway. Sustainable Futures were in attendance, representing the University of Manchester alongside Professor Michael Fisher, Royal Academy of Engineering Chair in Emerging Technologies.  

Talks covered a wide range of challenges and opportunities for the green computing space, from strategy, through data centres, hardware and software applications and the next steps to create a green computing network across the North West. 

Talks included keynote presentations from Michael Rudgard, CEO of Alces Flight, a major data service and HPC solutions provider. Michael highlighted the role of grid carbon to the environmental impact of compute, and the opportunities presented by correct siting of data centres to take advantage of lower carbon production. Notably, Alces Flight have identified a link between cost and emissions – less expensive electricity tends to have the lowest carbon intensity, no-doubt due to the growth of renewables and the constant, ‘always-on’ demands of data centres. Focus was also given to regulatory mechanisms and reporting in recent EU and UK directives with regards to the social and environmental impact of data. 

The presentation highlighted the need to consider scope 3 emissions when considering the environmental impact of HPC, with manufacturing representing 90% of scope 3 emissions for server hardware – this could potentially be alleviated through the redeployment of older equipment. 

Martin Juckes of CEDA (Centre for Environmental Data Analysis)highlighted the contribution of the research community to the development of tools to allow the environmental impact of research compute to be evaluated. This work is being developed alongside NERC, who, later in the workshop, held a roundtable discussion on opportunities arising from the developing Net Zero Digital Research Infrastructure Network. Sustainable Futures were on hand to contribute ideas to the discussion in terms of environmental research and the need for sustainability indicators in big data associated projects. 

Continuing the theme of research data, Jess Farmer explained how STFC (Science and Technology Facilities Council)were using innovative methods to measure energy usage and to develop green computing clusters within their operations. 

Barton Finn spoke next, from TCO Development. TCO have delivered the TCO Certified ecolabel, a ‘type 1’ standard that measures sustainability data in computers and office equipment. Factors include such impacts as modern slavery, resources, repairability, reusability and compatibility, crucial in terms of battery technology and critical minerals extraction and efficiency, through a life cycle analysis approach.  

Next was a meeting to discuss next steps – including the building of academic and industry links and the role of local policy makers. The need to set up a regular meeting to discuss the subject of green computing was raised, with specific reference to the academic and industry resources available locally, and the potential to make the North West a go-to place for green HPC research, development and employment.  

The day wrapped up with a second keynote, from Mark Bjornsgaard of Deep Green. Mark told the group about innovative approaches to cloud and edge computing – taking compute away from centralised data centres to allow the re-use of waste heat to be used locally. Servers have been sited at municipal pools and breweries, the waste heat used to heat water or drive industrial processes. Deep Green has high hopes for this technology, partnering with Octopus Energy and identifying a wide range of applications for their technology to provide inexpensive heat and reduced emissions. This technology could provide a huge advantage to cash-strapped councils aiming to heat public spaces, schools and pools in a cheaper, cleaner way. Heata were also in attendance – their technology takes a similar approach but focuses on a much smaller scale – the domestic boiler. Servers can be retrofitted to standard water heaters, taking advantage of fast broadband and fibre optic networks to distribute compute and provide cheap, green energy to households through waste heat harvesting.  

The event opened upa huge range of opportunities for collaboration. There is clearly a large appetite in the sector to develop sustainable solutions, and the enthusiasm in the (spectacular) room will hopefully lead to more work in this area. Sustainable Futures will no-doubt play a key role in convening key stakeholders and supporting the development of sustainble solutions for the Green Computing sector. Surely a fitting tribute to the Victorian engineers of the 1830 warehouse. 

If you are working in any of the topic related to Green Computing or interested in the topic, please get in touch with Sustainable Futures (sustainblefutures@manchester.ac.uk to explore further opportunities.  

 

Article by Dr. Steve Lowe, Research Associate, Sustainable Futures