{"id":21912,"date":"2012-05-22T22:00:55","date_gmt":"2012-05-23T05:00:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/?p=21912"},"modified":"2018-02-01T22:56:27","modified_gmt":"2018-02-01T22:56:27","slug":"trendspotting-a-greener-apple-vows-to-clean-up-the-icloud","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/2012\/05\/22\/trendspotting-a-greener-apple-vows-to-clean-up-the-icloud\/","title":{"rendered":"Trendspotting: Shrinking the Carbon Footprint of the Cloud"},"content":{"rendered":"

Did the Greenpeace \u201cClean our Cloud\u201d campaign nudge Apple toward a stronger environmental stance?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"
Greenpeace demands a cleaner iCloud at Apple’s corporate campus.” credit=”Greenpeace<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Since April,\u00a0the environmental organization\u00a0Greenpeace has had a bull\u2019s-eye on Apple in its campaign to clean up the Internet “Cloud” that stores our music, apps, and photos.\u00a0It’s accused Apple of using high-carbon \u201cdirty fuels\u201d like coal to power its new data center in North Carolina and has used dramatic pranks<\/a> and slick videos<\/a> to get consumers involved.<\/p>\n

Last week, members of Greenpeace barricaded themselves in a giant iPod at Apple\u2019s Cupertino headquarters and dressed as giant iPhones to demand a cleaner iCloud. Two days later, in a rare demonstration of transparency, Apple released a detailed statement<\/a>\u00a0explaining how its new data center would be 100% green.\u00a0The whole drama made me curious to learn how the Cloud\u2019s power source and growth could impact the environment.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

So I paid a visit to Dennis Symanski at the Electric Power Research Institute (or EPRI<\/a>) in Palo Alto. He\u2019s an expert in energy efficiency and power delivery. He described the Cloud as a giant system of servers in remote data centers that store your electronic data, and estimates the Cloud uses between 2-3% of electric power consumed in the United States.<\/p>\n

That may not sound like much but Symanski says that “small” percentage amounts to about 92 Billion<\/em> kilowatt-hours per year \u2013 enough to power 7.6 million homes, double that of sprawling L.A. County.<\/p>\n

He says it\u2019s impossible to say exactly what the Cloud’s carbon footprint is, but some experts say that consolidating data in vast data centers can<\/em> result in greater efficiencies<\/em> and a smaller footprint<\/em> than traditional computing.<\/p>\n

\"\"
EPRI’s Dennis Symanski shows how fans work hard to keep the servers and the chips inside from overheating inside a data center.” credit=”Alison van Diggelen<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Symanski invited me to visit a small data center he oversees at EPRI and I saw what energy hogs these \u201cserver farms\u201d can be. Fans run 24\/7 to keep the pizza box shaped servers, and<\/em> the chips inside them, from overheating. There are so many fans in this 187 kilowatt data center, even Symanski doesn\u2019t have an accurate count.<\/p>\n

This one is a tiny fraction of the 20 megawatt data center Apple recently built in North Carolina to house its iCloud.<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s more than the energy guzzling that concerns Greenpeace. It accuses Apple of relying too much on \u201cdirty\u201d energy like coal from local utility Duke Energy and says Apple is misleading the public about its future iCloud power demands. The campaign is a lesson in effective social media and includes upbeat\u00a0Apple-inspired videos<\/a> featuring trendy young people doing cool things with their Macs and iPhones and then getting showered with coal dust.<\/p>\n

I spoke with Greenpeace senior IT analyst, Gary Cook who explained the rationale of its \u201cClean our Cloud\u201d campaign.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf Apple, along with other IT companies, went to Duke (Energy) and said what you\u2019re selling isn\u2019t good enough\u2026we don\u2019t want to be buying coal from mountaintop removal, we want clean energy,\u201d he says. \u201cDuke would have to listen and that would actually drive green power on the grid for everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n

But not everyone is thrilled about the Greenpeace campaign and publicity stunts. Some Apple fans have accused Greenpeace of \u201cdoing a Mike Daisey<\/a>\u201d on Apple. Daisey is the commentator who invented stories to highlight dangerous working conditions at Apple\u2019s Chinese factories.<\/p>\n

Some say Greenpeace is asking too much of the world\u2019s most valuable company.<\/p>\n

\u201cBefore you know it we\u2019ll be asking them to feed the hungry also,\u201d says Sandeep Grag, a Silicon Valley engineer.<\/p>\n

Gary Cook says Greenpeace has no interest in misrepresenting the facts.\u00a0\u201cWe\u2019re just trying to shine a light on who\u2019s doing well and who needs to do better as they grow their cloud,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Just a few of the fans that help cool the pizza box shaped servers at EPRI’s data center in Palo Alto. Photo: Alison van Diggelen” credit=”Alison van Diggelen<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

And the cloud is growing rapidly. The more we share online, the faster the cloud must expand. According to research by Cisco Systems<\/a>, by the end of 2011, 20 households created as much Internet traffic as the entire Internet in 2008. IT energy experts say the cloud will double<\/em> in the next 3 to 7 years.<\/p>\n

That’s one of the reasons Greenpeace is targeting companies that rely on the cloud. Its \u201cUnfriend Coal\u201d Campaign<\/a> against Facebook led the social network to commit to clean energy for its future data centers. The environmental group also praises Google\u2019s\u00a0clean energy leadership<\/a> for investing millions in solar and wind power. In recent weeks, Greenpeace has also targeted Microsoft and Amazon, demanding they use renewable energy to power their Clouds.<\/p>\n

Yet despite Apple\u2019s announcement last week, Greenpeace says the smartphone maker can still do more to ensure the cloud gets cleaner as it grows and wants to see a data center siting policy that prioritizes clean energy.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey have been transformational in almost every other sector they\u2019ve touched and now we need them to accept that challenge \u2026and drive transformation in the energy sector,\u201d says Cook.<\/p>\n

On May 17, Apple explained how<\/a> its new data center will be 100% clean powered by the end of 2012. It will produce 60% from onsite Sunpower<\/a> solar arrays and Bloom Energy<\/a> fuel cells, said to be the largest private installations of their kind in the U.S. The remainder will come from local renewable energy purchases. It promises: no more coal.<\/p>\n

In a section entitled \u201cAccountability and Transparency\u201d Apple even invites the public to follow its clean energy production at the North Carolina Renewable Energy Tracking System.<\/a><\/p>\n

It would be naive to conclude that the Greenpeace campaign forced Apple to be greener overnight. These clean energy plans have obviously been in development for many months.\u00a0But it does look like the campaign helped nudge Apple towards greater transparency in its environmental leadership. That’s something that should please all environmentalists.<\/p>\n

An Apple spokeswoman points to the company\u2019s new LEED Platinum data center<\/a> in North Carolina which she says will be the greenest<\/em> in the world. Or as Steve Jobs might have said, \u201cinsanely green.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hear the entire radio story<\/a>, airing May 23 <\/em>on <\/em> The California Report.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Did the Greenpeace \u201cClean our Cloud\u201d campaign nudge Apple toward a stronger environmental stance?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10333,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,5],"tags":[13,28,56,109,126,158,266],"coauthors":[],"series":[],"affiliates":[],"programs":[],"collections":[],"interests":[],"class_list":["post-21912","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-government-business","category-power","tag-activism","tag-apple","tag-bloom-energy","tag-clean-energy","tag-cloud","tag-data-centers","tag-greenpeace"],"acf":{"template_type":"standard","featured_image_type":"standard","is_audio_post":false},"yoast_head":"\nTrendspotting: Shrinking the Carbon Footprint of the Cloud | Climate Watch<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/2012\/05\/22\/trendspotting-a-greener-apple-vows-to-clean-up-the-icloud\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Trendspotting: Shrinking the Carbon Footprint of the Cloud | Climate Watch\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Did the Greenpeace \u201cClean our Cloud\u201d campaign nudge Apple toward a stronger environmental stance?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/2012\/05\/22\/trendspotting-a-greener-apple-vows-to-clean-up-the-icloud\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Climate Watch\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-05-23T05:00:55+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2018-02-01T22:56:27+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/54\/2012\/05\/Greenpeace-Apple-ipod-protest-cloud-photo.png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Alison van Diggelen\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Alison van Diggelen\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/2012\/05\/22\/trendspotting-a-greener-apple-vows-to-clean-up-the-icloud\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/2012\/05\/22\/trendspotting-a-greener-apple-vows-to-clean-up-the-icloud\/\",\"name\":\"Trendspotting: Shrinking the Carbon Footprint of the Cloud | Climate Watch\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2012-05-23T05:00:55+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-02-01T22:56:27+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/#\/schema\/person\/2e7921dc75356d08f22757113a2174e7\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/2012\/05\/22\/trendspotting-a-greener-apple-vows-to-clean-up-the-icloud\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/2012\/05\/22\/trendspotting-a-greener-apple-vows-to-clean-up-the-icloud\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/2012\/05\/22\/trendspotting-a-greener-apple-vows-to-clean-up-the-icloud\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Trendspotting: Shrinking the Carbon Footprint of the Cloud\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/\",\"name\":\"Climate Watch\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/#\/schema\/person\/2e7921dc75356d08f22757113a2174e7\",\"name\":\"Alison van Diggelen\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/9249e99b7e6e4657843ef40e6ebd5144\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/408a488c99c1f31d69dff44585339190?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/408a488c99c1f31d69dff44585339190?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Alison van Diggelen\"},\"description\":\"Alison van Diggelen is founder and host of Fresh Dialogues, an interview series featuring green thought leaders in Silicon Valley and beyond. A former columnist for the San Jose Mercury News and contributor to KQED\u2019s Climate Watch, Alison now writes for the Huffington Post and moderates events for the Commonwealth Club and the Computer History Museum in Silicon Valley. She has lectured and moderated presentations on sustainability and entrepreneurship at the University of Edinburgh and UC Santa Cruz, Silicon Valley Extension. In 2001, the Women's Fund of Silicon Valley nominated Alison for a \\\"Woman of Achievement Award\\\" in communication. She has been an interview guest on KTVU, Silicon Valley Business, KGO radio and BBC radio. Alison hails from Bonnie Scotland and has a master's degree from the University of Cambridge.\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/www.freshdialogues.com\/\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/author\/alisonvandiggelen\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Trendspotting: Shrinking the Carbon Footprint of the Cloud | Climate Watch","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/2012\/05\/22\/trendspotting-a-greener-apple-vows-to-clean-up-the-icloud\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Trendspotting: Shrinking the Carbon Footprint of the Cloud | Climate Watch","og_description":"Did the Greenpeace \u201cClean our Cloud\u201d campaign nudge Apple toward a stronger environmental stance?","og_url":"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/2012\/05\/22\/trendspotting-a-greener-apple-vows-to-clean-up-the-icloud\/","og_site_name":"Climate Watch","article_published_time":"2012-05-23T05:00:55+00:00","article_modified_time":"2018-02-01T22:56:27+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/54\/2012\/05\/Greenpeace-Apple-ipod-protest-cloud-photo.png"}],"author":"Alison van Diggelen","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Alison van Diggelen","Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/2012\/05\/22\/trendspotting-a-greener-apple-vows-to-clean-up-the-icloud\/","url":"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/2012\/05\/22\/trendspotting-a-greener-apple-vows-to-clean-up-the-icloud\/","name":"Trendspotting: Shrinking the Carbon Footprint of the Cloud | Climate Watch","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/#website"},"datePublished":"2012-05-23T05:00:55+00:00","dateModified":"2018-02-01T22:56:27+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/#\/schema\/person\/2e7921dc75356d08f22757113a2174e7"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/2012\/05\/22\/trendspotting-a-greener-apple-vows-to-clean-up-the-icloud\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/2012\/05\/22\/trendspotting-a-greener-apple-vows-to-clean-up-the-icloud\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/2012\/05\/22\/trendspotting-a-greener-apple-vows-to-clean-up-the-icloud\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Trendspotting: Shrinking the Carbon Footprint of the Cloud"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/#website","url":"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/","name":"Climate Watch","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/#\/schema\/person\/2e7921dc75356d08f22757113a2174e7","name":"Alison van Diggelen","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/9249e99b7e6e4657843ef40e6ebd5144","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/408a488c99c1f31d69dff44585339190?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/408a488c99c1f31d69dff44585339190?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Alison van Diggelen"},"description":"Alison van Diggelen is founder and host of Fresh Dialogues, an interview series featuring green thought leaders in Silicon Valley and beyond. A former columnist for the San Jose Mercury News and contributor to KQED\u2019s Climate Watch, Alison now writes for the Huffington Post and moderates events for the Commonwealth Club and the Computer History Museum in Silicon Valley. She has lectured and moderated presentations on sustainability and entrepreneurship at the University of Edinburgh and UC Santa Cruz, Silicon Valley Extension. In 2001, the Women's Fund of Silicon Valley nominated Alison for a \"Woman of Achievement Award\" in communication. She has been an interview guest on KTVU, Silicon Valley Business, KGO radio and BBC radio. Alison hails from Bonnie Scotland and has a master's degree from the University of Cambridge.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.freshdialogues.com\/"],"url":"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/author\/alisonvandiggelen\/"}]}},"template_type":null,"featured_image_type":null,"is_audio_post":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21912","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10333"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21912"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21912\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24555,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21912\/revisions\/24555"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21912"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21912"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21912"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=21912"},{"taxonomy":"series","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/series?post=21912"},{"taxonomy":"affiliates","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/affiliates?post=21912"},{"taxonomy":"programs","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/programs?post=21912"},{"taxonomy":"collections","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/collections?post=21912"},{"taxonomy":"interests","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/climatewatch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/interests?post=21912"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}