Hot air will not stop global warming

Companies in the developed world must take the lead on cutting carbon emissions, but are networking vendors doing enough to help?

The recent report by the Foreign Office’s top climate expert John Ashton that revealed that China is now building two coal-fired power stations every week left me dumbfounded. If Ashton means China is building power stations like the one in Selby, North Yorkshire, which has an output capacity of 4,000 megawatts and is capable of supplying seven percent of the UK’s energy needs, then we’re all in serious trouble.

Of course, shouting “We’re doomed”, and not lifting a finger to boost recycling and reduce energy consumption, is not the way to proceed. We will never be able to convince countries like China whose carbon emissions dwarf our own if we are not seen to be fighting the good fight ourselves.

So how are networking vendors helping to reduce the UK’s emissions? Well, video conferencing and web collaboration vendors are very quick to claim that their offerings can help businesses to be greener. Interest in these systems has certainly grown as environmental issues have climbed the IT agenda. Cisco’s recent acquisition of Webex is a clear indication that remote collaboration technology is entering the business mainstream. But while video conferencing might reduce the time executives spend jetting around the globe, is this enough to offset the environmental damage being done by the growth in cheap holiday flights?

Networking standards are also beginning to reflect the growing importance of green issues. Earlier this year the Institute of Electronics and Electrical Engineers (IEEE) announced its Energy Efficient Ethernet standard, which aims to reduce power consumption in switches. The idea is that switches based on the standard will have the ability to power-down, go idle and move to 10Mbit/s, 100Mbit/s, 1000Mbit/s and 10Gbit/s data transfer rates, seamlessly. This initiative sounds promising, but I worry that switches based on this spec will generate more publicity than actual energy savings.

Whenever there’s a new standard on the radar, some vendors jump the gun and release products before the spec is ratified. So it’s no surprise to learn that one of the switch vendors, D-Link, has already announced energy-efficient switches that will ship years before the IEEE Energy Efficient Ethernet standard is finalised.

Maybe D-Link thinks the stakes are so high that we can’t afford to wait for the standard. If so, I’d be curious to know what D-Link’s attitude is towards the new PoE-Plus Power-over-Ethernet standard, otherwise known as 802.3at. This could see up to 60 watts of juice being delivered over network cables for power-hungry devices like 802.11n access points and high-end swivel and tilt web cameras. Is D-Link going to take the moral high ground and refuse to deliver these types of products in an effort to cut business emissions? Don’t hold your breath.