Category — Leadership

Nowaday’s companies have been very keen in protecting the environment. A lot are geared to changing how companies and their programs can help the environment. We have been hearing a lot of news about how different companies can in some way affect our environment and have not been keeping in mind the safety of the rest of the people. This is why green leadership was established to save the environment and spread the news on how to still continue being a successful company and at the same time be conscious about the environment.

In the lean and green leadership era, initiatives seek to increase and enhance executive discussion and awareness around the ways IT organizations can reduce energy drain and impact business gain by consolidating storage systems, embracing efficient computing practice, and introducing power-saving techniques. In this program leaders will examine ways to address the accelerating energy demands and rampant waste of data center power, along with methods to increase IT yield and data productivity.

A press release dated April 16. 2008 stated that the new BPM forum study finds that IT curbing has failed to curb data center energy consumption despite the increasing number of those concerned. Despite the stated concerns and priorities for making data center operations more environmentally friendly, still only a few organizations have any specific plans in place. Most IT managers give their operations failing grades in reducing energy consumption. Data center energy consumption continues to rise due to rising energy costs amid increasing environmental concern over global warming. Nearly half of IT managers surveyed say that their organizations have run out of energy resources in the past.

BlueArc is a leading network storage company focused on high performance and scalability, and on making environmentally responsible computing both possible and cost-effective.  The company also has the ability to drive server consolidation in reducing complexity, lowering the total cost of ownership and cutting power and cooling expenses at the same time. They have helped companies expand ways to explore, discover, research, create, process and innovate in data-intensive environments. Replacing complex and cost-inefficient and power-hungry products with high performance and environmentally beneficial scalable and easy to use systems is one field that BlueArc has been involved in.

BlueArc has conducted a study assessing issues and opportunities presented by green computing and ways to address accelerating energy and performance demands and perceived waste in the data center. The findings reflect responses from more then 150 IT professionals in an online survey completed February of 2008. The study revealed the following:

• Three-quarters of respondents gave their organization a C grade and found them to be worse in their ability to control IT energy consumption.
• There were no specific plans in place for the data center for almost two-thirds of the respondents.
• About 20 percent of those polled spend more than a million dollars annually on IT energy consumption and 8 percent spend more than 10 million.
• Another 20 percent of respondents set goals of 5 percent energy reduction or less and almost two-third had set goals of 25 percent reduction or less.
• Last year, almost half of those spoiled IT energy consumption increased in their organization and even in their cost of energy.
• And finally, forty-six percent of respondents reported that they had run out of space, power and capacity.

The study gave an overall result which pointed to a gap between what IT leadership knows, what it needs to do, and what it has accomplished to date in terms of environmental responsibility. (Derek Kober, Director of BPM forum). Derek also said that in polling the marketplace and talking with industry leaders, they have heard that there are opportunities for those who deliver on the environmental promise to also save substantial cost and drive revenue opportunities through more efficient and enhanced data performance practices.

The BPM, better known as the Business Performance Management Forum, is a new management mantra that is aimed at bringing business gain to the value chain through enhanced trading partner visibility, flexibility and new levels of verifiable sustainability which applies across the entire demand and supply ecosystem of global corporations.

 Its current programs have been unifying, focusing and controlling complexes which are globally distributed and highly synchronized value networks in turbulent, unpredictable times. They also require real-time operational insights down to the product level, accurate sourcing and sell-through intelligence, and relentless dedication to eliminating waste and realizing new efficiencies in all areas of the go-to-market process.

At the same time these programs have followed the economic, social and regulatory dynamics and are putting real pressure on global companies to be both “lean and green” in their product sourcing, logistics, transportation, distribution and operational practices as well.

Now that there is a growing number of organizations and programs such as the ‘lean and green initiative’ and BlueArc, people have high hopes that these newly formed programs will inspire other individuals and companies to follow in their footsteps. They are role models in environmental preservation.

For anybody interested to find out about some other aspects of this topic, feel free to review a recent article at http://tinyurl.com/dfurmc

We only have one earth, one environment and one world, and if we all work to save, conserve, and use environmentally friendly programs and processes, our children and future generations will have a more sustainable environment than what we are creating if we don’t act in a conscious “Green-Leadership” approach.

I invite everybody using computers, working with data centers and computing-intensive fields to join the movement and become eco-conscious pioneers, so that we can leave the world a better place without loosing any of the comforts and benefits of modern technology.

Axel Meierhoefer & Marie Saycon

As we get closer to Earth Day I keep an eye out for interesting projects. Tis one in my own community caught my eye and I felt it would be good to make it public on my blog

April 13, 2009, Santa Barbara
Written by MATT BLOISE

The future home of Lisa and Bryana Camarillo is quickly taking shape in the park at the corner of Santa Barbara and East Sola streets. The structure displays green features and fire safety provisions for the public to see.

The house is a unique project, combining private philanthropy, public awareness and environmental technology to create a home for a family displaced from the Tea Fire. At the same time, it showcases construction features that can make future homes more energy efficient.

John Heffner, project coordinator at the construction site, said “a pretty good portion” of the house will be completed by Earth Day, almost a week away. The first phase of construction will complete 80 percent of the home, built in just over a week, using largely donated materials and labor to raise the home in the park. Exterior and interior work — including cabinetry, front hall and back half — should be completed by that time, he said, and will also be framed and insulated. Donations from members of the community have also help build the house, he said.

Up where the former Camarillo residence once was, the foundation was also being laid for the new home, added Mr. Heffner, which would be ready to install by the time the house is done. The Tuesday after Earth Day, it will be shipped in two halves, and Mr. Heffner said that within a month and a half, the mother and daughter should be able to live in it.

Many of the visitors to the park had come to see the green technology at work. “We are doing some work on our house, and we’re interested in green (approaches),” said an onlooker. “If we’re doing something in the house or making modifications, we want it to be green.”
The house will be designed to be as fire-proof as possible “in all ways” in a mountainous region prone to fires. “Fire will always find the chink in the armor,” Mr. Heffner said.

Scott Coffman, a retired firefighter from Carpinteria who responded to the Tea Fire, explained some of the features that will protect the house from fires. The siding will be fiber-cement, a fire-resistant material that will not ignite if fire is lit next to it. The house will have eaves — the portion of the roof that hangs down over the walls — that will be boxed in, so that any embers cannot fly up to the roof and start a fire there. The roof will be recycled steel that will also be fire-retardant and will be Class A, the highest level of fire protection. Additionally, the house will have a 100-foot defensible space, meaning that there will not be sufficient vegetation around the home to fuel a fire if embers spread into the area.

“There were some houses that we saved because they had defensible space,” said Mr. Coffman. “If you can keep the fuels away from the house, you can save the house. Without defensible space, you’re in a world of hurt.”

Mr. Coffman said that while he had faced larger fires, during the Tea Fire the forest was filled with a wave of embers — tiny flaming pieces of wood or vegetation that flew in the air — and that could settle in any piece of a house and start a fire. “The intensity was unbelievable, probably about as intense as anything we’ve ever seen,” he said. These embers contributed to the greatest destruction. The house being built will also avoid a ventilation system above ground, so that embers cannot travel through the vents to start a fire.

Mr. Coffman predicted future homes in the area will be built with an eye to preventing the infiltration of embers. He expects many residents of the area will embrace fire safety approaches and green technology.

Before getting into today’s article, please do me a favor, scroll down the page and become a friend on Google Friend Connect on the left side. This will help you link to here and help me link with you. Thanks

Do you sometimes get messages from a well meaning friend or someone who is looking for answers to urgent problems? I do.

Recently I received a message on Facebook form a friend there. She forwarded information a family member had received about the way to solve our energy and fuel problems once and for all without having to go to any Arab country or anywhere away form the US.

I thought she would tell me about a new technology that was found or a new invention that would soon allow us to become independent. Instead the news was about large oil fields discovered in the Dakotas, called “The Bakken”

Here is my response and below you find the original message I received

Thanks Friend (to protect the innocent)
I think it is true. What I heard about it is that it is very complex to recover this oil. Under good circumstances, the oil industry recovers about 3% of a field. That is under good conditions. When it is complicated, like is probably the case with these finds, they probably don’t get much more than 1%. Even that would still be substantial.

South Dakota

What is really the flaw in all of this is the approach itself. If a formula would have been found in 1910 that would have allowed to raise, grow and sustain horses that would have been stringer, eat less than normal horses, and don’t create a much poop as typical horses, while costing no more than what we were used to, do you think we should have all gone back to horse buggies?

The main point is that this oil is basically a huge carbon storage field. If it is brought to the surface and burned, the carbon will be released and our climate will get worse even faster than it already is.

Oil Pipeline

There are still a few people who don’t want to believe that we are living in a time of rapid climate change. They point to snow in New York and Washington this year as a sign that the scientists are all fools. When we review the larger studies being done on a regular basis, we can clearly find that the plant is changing. Yes, we can wait to see if it is really the carbon. I think we should rather go with Tee Boone Pickens and find alternatives. The oil we preserve should be used for the things nobody is talking about, like all the plastics we use, the creams and cosmetics we apply, and many many more things made on oil based components.

Yes we should all write to our congressmen and women, but to tell them that now is the time to take us into a new future, where we are not dependable on foreign oil because we use the wind, and the sun, and the warmth in our soils to generate more than we need.

Here is a plan that would actually work and get us into a new era of energy independence while leaving the carbon storage places, like Bakken, where they are.

I think that’s a better plan. Good thing we both try to find ways to get the country independent from foreign oil and foreign radical influence.

Axel

“The Green Leadership Coach”

AEM.EDBD

Here is the original message from my friend. Tell me what you think about it

If there is any truth to this, then we should all be writing our Congressmen. I tried to check it out on truthorfiction.com, but all I could get were references to Bakken Oil sites. Given the state of our government at this moment, it is probably true. Interesting reading, regardless. I’ve written to all of our Oklahoma congressmen, but they are essentially useless, so doubt that they will even bother to read it.

The U. S. Geological Service issued a report in April (’08) that only scientists and oil men knew was coming, but man was it big. It was a revised report (hadn’t been updated since ‘95) on how much oil was in this area of the western 2/3 of North Dakota; western South Dakota; and extreme eastern Montana …… check THIS out:

The Bakken is the largest domestic oil discovery since Alaska ’s Prudhoe Bay, and has the potential to eliminate all American dependence on foreign oil. The Energy Information Administration (EIA) estimates it at 503 billion barrels.. Even if just 10% of the oil is recoverable… at $107 a barrel, we’re looking at a resource base worth more than $5.3 trillion.

‘When I first briefed legislators on this, you could practically see their jaws hit the floor. They had no idea.’ says Terry Johnson, the Montana Legislature’s financial analyst.

‘This sizable find is now the highest-producing onshore oil field found in the past 56 years.’ reports, The Pittsburgh Post Gazette. It’s a formation known as the Williston Basin, but is more commonly referred to as the ‘Bakken.’ And it stretches from Northern Montana, through North Dakota and into Canada. For years, U. S. oil exploration has been considered a dead end. Even the ‘Big Oil’ companies gave up searching for major oil wells decades ago. However, a recent technological breakthrough has opened up the Bakken’s massive reserves…. and we now have access of up to 500 billion barrels. And because this is light, sweet oil, those billions of barrels will cost Americans just $16 PER BARREL!

That’s enough crude to fully fuel the American economy for 41 years straight.
2. And if THAT didn’t throw you on the floor, then this next one should - because it’s from TWO YEARS AGO!

U. S. Oil Discovery- Largest Reserve in the World!
Stansberry Report Online - 4/20/2006
Hidden 1,000 feet beneath the surface of the Rocky Mountains lies the largest untapped oil reserve in the world. It is more than 2 TRILLION barrels. On August 8, 2005 President Bush mandated its extraction. In three and a half years of high oil prices none has been extracted. With this motherload of oil why are we still fighting over off-shore drilling?

They reported this stunning news: We have more oil inside our borders, than all the other proven reserves on earth. Here are the official estimates:

- 8-times as much oil as Saudi Arabia
- 18-times as much oil as Iraq
- 21-times as much oil as Kuwait
- 22-times as much oil as Iran
- 500-times as much oil as Yemen
- and it’s all right here in the Western United States .

HOW can this BE? HOW can we NOT BE extracting this? Because the environmentalists and others have blocked all efforts to help America become independent of foreign oil! Again, we are letting a small group of people dictate our lives and our economy….WHY?

James Bartis, lead researcher with the study says we’ve got more oil in this very compact area than the entire Middle East -more than 2 TRILLION barrels untapped. That’s more than all the proven oil reserves of crude oil in the world today, reports The Denver Post.

Don’t think ‘ OPEC’ will drop its price - even with this find? Think again! It’s all about the competitive marketplace, - it has to. Think OPEC just might be funding the environmentalists?

Got your attention/ire up yet? Hope so! Now, while you’re thinking about it …. and hopefully P.O’d, do this:

3. Pass this along. If you don’t take a little time to do this, then you should stifle yourself the next time you want to complain about gas prices … because by doing NOTHING, you’ve forfeited your right to complain.