I’ve been thinking about the steps you can take to green the tech sector, and the more I think about it, the more I think the biggest step for most web/SaaS companies, is likely to be how they power their infrastructure, if it isn’t related to employee transport.
This is confirmed somewhat by the CSR reports by various companies mentioned in this fantastic new resource, climateActTech:
A quick way to estimate what your company’s carbon footprint might be is to find a peer who has a similar business model. At most “cloud based” technology companies the majority of the carbon footprint comes from data center energy use. At other companies it might be from fabrication and manufacturing processes, company travel or directly from other company business interests. Here are a few examples.
“Cloud Heavy” Companies
- Facebook: 72% datacenter, 9% travel, 5% offices
- Workday: 53% datacenter, 14% offices, 3% travel
- Salesforce: 50% datacenter, 32% travel, 10% offices
Manufacturing Companies
- Apple: 72% manufacturing, 17% product usage, 4% product transportation
- Fairphone: 82% manufacturing, 13% product usage, 7% product transport
Consulting Companies
Knowing where the bulk of your carbon pollution comes from will help you achieve the greatest gains by directing your efforts appropriately.
The thing is, if you’re a large company like Google and Apple it’s possible to do some power purchase agreement (PPA) to effectively power your infrastructure with renewabbles, but as companies get smaller, the options (short of using Google’s own infra, for example) become more restricted too.
So, this piece in Green Biz caught my interest, as it’s the first time I’ve read about smaller companies clubbing together to do a ‘virtual PPA’ :
With FERC’s blessing, Apple and others can participate in so-called “physical” PPAs, where the contract holder actually takes ownership of the energy generated by a project and its sustainability certificates. For those without FERC clearance, a “virtual” PPA offers a chance to buy clean energy from a project at a long-term fixed price without technically being the owner of the power in play.
“Most deals, aggregated or not, are going to be virtual,” Kelly said.
How those agreements are divvied up in an aggregated deal could vary.
One model is to have each company sign its own power purchase agreement — the predominant model to date in the deals that Kelly has seen. An alternative could be an “anchor tenant model,” Kelly said, where one company signs a PPA and others agree to individual contract terms.
In the latter scenario, however, the anchor tenant would become as a middle man that must be comfortable with other participants’ credit ratings.
“It’s kind of putting its own balance sheet out there,” Kelly said.
When you have organisations like Lumenaza offering ‘virtual power stations’ by aggregrating supply from loads of micro scale power generators, and I’m now wondering how small these PPAs can realistically get.
Also, given how Feed In Tariffs in Europe are dwindling over the next two years, it feels like there will be a lot of micro scale generators looking around for new purchasers of power, to keep their plants financially sustainable.
If there are companies who are looking for green power, and providers who will increasingly be looking for new purchasers of power, surely this service must exist already, right?
Right?