IBM crafts carbon-measuring toolset, ‘cold battery’

Big Blue reveals more details of Project Big Green, including CO2-measuring tools and an efficient ‘cold-storage system’

Like awkward teenage males hitting puberty, more companies are becoming self-conscious of the size of their footprints — specifically their carbon footprints.

As part of its recently announced billion-dollar Project Big Green iniative, IBM today announced in the United Kingdom plans to offer a toolset for measuring organizations’ carbon footprint, available through the company’s Zodiac consulting services.

The Zodiac tool draws from a large database “to establish the total power consumption and carbon footprint of a customer’s server banks, across all platforms,” according to The Inquirer.

IBM also will provide a free questionnaire-based tool on the Web, helping organizations determine the energy efficiency of their data center. Later in the year, the company will deilver a tool to help companies uncover information about government incentives for adopting more energy-efficieny hardware and practices.

“The aim is to not only let customers see the staff and space savings that come from server consolidation, but also the energy and CO2 savings,” Steve Bowden, green computing consultant at IBM’s Systems and Technology Group, told the UK-based ITweek. “It means firms also have the information they need to offset their emissions if they choose.”

The toolset will likely be of interest to companies that are becoming increasingly concerned with greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions such as carbon dioxide, which has been linked to global warming. A recent study from The Conference Board found that 75 percent of organizations are “actively measuring” their carbon footprints. And while 95 percent said they envisioned “a carbon-concerned future creating both business risk and opportunity,” just one half said they had a program in place to “actively reduce or offset GHG emissions.

IBM also revealed plans for a new “cold battery,” according to the UK reports. Situated between the a company’s chiller and HVAC unit, it would act as a cold store: Companies could run their chilling units at full force — during off-hours, for example — until the battery was “full,” then power them down or off.

The cooling system, due out in the U.S. in July, could HVAC-power consumption by 45 percent, according to reports.