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SAS Analyzing Environmental Impact of Technology
Green Technology Featured Articles
May 05, 2008

SAS Analyzing Environmental Impact of Technology

By Nathesh
TMCnet Contributor

The current trend for any company is to market itself as a green enterprise, as customers are now growing more eco-conscious than ever. But, companies often cannot accurately assess their environmental impact, which has prompted SAS (News - Alert) Institute to offer software solutions for companies to compute their eco impact. SAS is a provider of business intelligence and predictive analytics software.

 
SAS for Sustainability Management applies business intelligence capabilities to environmental performance. They are based on performance management measurements provided by Global Reporting Initiative. These metrics were derived from a list of 1,500 businesses worldwide to measure the economic, environmental, and social impact of their operations. The SAS application can simulate a model based on the company’s records and can calculate the carbon emissions resulting from the company’s actions and predict the costs and complexities involved if the company wants to make a change in its infrastructure. SAS predictive analytics and risk management apps can also forecast trends related to sustainability, such as the possibility that government fines for environmental violations could go up in the future, raising costs.
 
The downside of the application is it cannot analyze fast-payback factors, such as the profitability of customers or new revenue opportunities. Even with that it will appeal for companies expecting stricter environmental regulations or looking to keep away from negative exposure from an environmental misfortune.
 
“But don’t underestimate the momentum behind the green movement, or the importance of having an organized, intelligent way to assess these efforts. Businesses face pressure from many directions, from customers to employees. If you’re ‘green washing,’ which means just saying it but not doing it, today’s generation won’t accept it,” said Jonathan Hornby, a SAS marketing director. SAS says its software will provide transparency to separate the truly green from the green talkers.
 
Cisco (News - Alert) Systems is using the SAS tools to assess emissions at each of its facilities, prioritizing which need the most focus, and running predictive analytics on how various energy-efficiency projects might reduce emissions. “Our analysis prior to the SAS software was very basic — primarily the power of Excel,” says Rob Rolfsen, Cisco’s director of sustainable development.
 
Data centers are quickly becoming a greater source for greenhouse gas emissions with increasing energy costs, but this is mostly due to due to poor management. IT, business, and facilities management functions are doing too little in terms of demand and capacity planning. So, companies are looking for ways to use metrics that combine IT and facilities costs to track energy use.
 
Even though SAS apps are unique, they are not the first ones to measure the environmental impact of technology. SAP’s (News - Alert) governance, risk, and compliance business offers apps that help with emissions management and recycling of electrical and electronics waste, among others. Microsoft (News - Alert) has developed a new online application that is being used by cities to control and calculate pollution. There are also some European companies that produce products on sustainability.
 
“It’s early in this effort, and hard business issues will drive adoption more than the altruistic desire to be a good corporate citizen”, says John Davies, an AMR Research analyst. He points to the Carbon Disclosure Project, created by Goldman Sachs, Citibank, and other investors, which requires large companies they invest in to report carbon emissions. “It’s traditional risk management, but in areas that are being spotlighted in a way they had not before,” he says.
 
Nathesh is a contributing editor for TMCnet. To read more of Nathesh’s articles, please visit his columnist page.
 
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