ASUS Produces World’s First Notebook Computer to Receive Carbon Footprint Certificate Taipei, Taiwan, October 16, 2009 – ASUS, the global IT industry leader in green innovation, today announced that its N51V notebook computer is the world’s first notebook to receive both Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) and carbon footprint (PAS 2050:2008) certificates. The awarding of both certificates demonstrates ASUS’ keen awareness of, and commitment to, enhancing energy savings and reducing carbon footprints—thus lessening the impact of computer manufacturing on the environment. ASUS is the first Taiwanese IT manufacturer to participate in EPEAT and to have its products registered at the Gold level. It is also the first to participate in EU Flower and have products its awarded the EU Flower.
6. Wiring for a sustainable world Even as regulatory frameworks continue to evolve, environmental stewardship and sustainability clearly are C-level agenda topics. What’s more, sustainability is fast becoming an important corporate-performance metric—one that stakeholders, outside influencers, and even financial markets have begun to track. Information technology plays a dual role in this debate: it is both a significant source of environmental emissions and a key enabler of many strategies to mitigate environmental damage. At present, information technology’s share of the world’s environmental footprint is growing because of the ever-increasing demand for IT capacity and services. Electricity produced to power the world’s data centers generates greenhouse gases on the scale of countries such as Argentina or the Netherlands, and these emissions could increase fourfold by 2020. McKinsey research has shown, however, that the use of IT in areas such as smart power grids, efficient buildings, and better logistics planning could eliminate five times the carbon emissions that the IT industry produces. Companies are now taking the first steps to reduce the environmental impact of their IT. For instance, businesses are adopting “green data center” technologies to reduce sharply the energy demand of the ever-multiplying numbers of servers needed to cope with data generated by trends such as distributed cocreation and the Internet of Things (described earlier in this article). Such technologies include virtualization software (which enables the more efficient allocation of software across servers) to decrease the number of servers needed for operations, the cooling of data centers with ambient air to cut energy consumption, and inexpensive, renewable hydroelectric power (which of course requires locating data centers in places where it is available). Meanwhile, IT manufacturers are organizing programs to collect and recycle hazardous electronics, diverting them from the waste stream. IT’s bigger role, however, lies in its ability to reduce environmental stress from broader corporate and economic activities. In a significant push, for example, utilities around the world are deploying smart meters that can help customers shift electricity usage away from peak periods and thereby reduce the amount of power generated by inefficient and costly peak-load facilities. Smart grids can also improve the efficiency of the transmission and distribution of energy and, when coupled with energy storage facilities, could store electricity generated by renewable-energy technologies, such as solar and wind. Likewise, smart buildings embedded with IT that monitors and optimizes energy use could be one of the most important ways of reducing energy consumption in developed economies. And powerful analytic software that improves logistics and routing for planes, trains, and trucks is already reducing the transportation industry’s environmental footprint. Within the enterprise, both leaders and key functional players must understand sustainability’s growing importance to broader goals. Management systems that build the constant improvement of resource use into an organization’s processes and strategies will raise its standing with external stakeholders while also helping the bottom line. Podcast: Microsoft’s chief environmental strategist, Rob Bernard, says that existing technologies hold enormous, latent potential to boost energy efficiency—but not without substantial changes in human behavior. Download the podcast or listen in the player below. Podcast: Collaboration across industry boundaries, says McKinsey’s Markus Löffler, is critical to forging the technology innovations needed for sustainable growth. Download the podcast or listen in the player below. Further reading: Smart 2020: Enabling the low carbon economy in the information age, The Climate Group, 2009. Giulio Boccaletti, Markus Löffler, and Jeremy M. Oppenheim, “How IT can cut carbon emissions,” mckinseyquarterly.com, October 2008. William Forrest, James M. Kaplan, and Noah Kindler, “Data centers: How to cut carbon emissions and costs,” mckinseyquarterly.com, November 2008.
The “zen” in the word “kaizen” has nothing to do with Zen Buddhism. This is a mistake we often see in books or presentations. kaizen.png Kaizen means continuous improvement, or literally “to change and make good” (改善とは改めて善くすること) but we can recognize a lot of Zen in kaizen, by examining the Four Noble Truths. 1. Existence is suffering (dissatisfaction) Zen Buddhists (as all branches of Buddhism) believe that suffering (a stronger form of dissatisfaction) comes from our egos and desires because we perceive that we are distinct and separate from the rest of reality (our customers and suppliers). In the world of Lean, work is waste. When a process is separate and distinct from the entire end-to-end order to delivery process, there appears to be optimization but this in fact is an illusion (sub-optimization) that creates waste and causes suffering. When we do kaizen and make what we think are improvements based on our own ideas and egos, but not based on the rest of reality (observable facts and statistics), we suffer. First Zen of kaizen: Focus on your customers, because your customers are everyone but you. 2. Suffering (dissatisfaction) is due to desire (pull) We suffer, or are dissatisfied because we live in a world of imperfect processes. As customers we want perfect safety, quality, deliver and cost yet this is never achieved. Dissatisfaction occurs when there is a pull (desire) that is not fulfilled. Zen is concerned with seeing deeply into the true nature of things through direct experience. Lean is concerned with seeing deeply into the true nature of things through direct observation. Just as Zen encourages meditation, Lean requires deep reflection the problems in order to understand their true natures (root causes). We suffer because we think we know. We do not, yet we act as if we do. Second Zen of kaizen: Focus on observation and learning. 3. Ending attachment can end suffering Instead of focusing on the process, and improving every day, we focus on results because we desire rewards and recognition. We are attached to these things and this distorts our measurements and rewards wasteful behavior. The failure of prevailing accounting practices to accurately reflect the benefits of Lean, and financial markets that reward short term stock performance at the expense of the long-term health of enterprises and communities are just two such examples. The heroic efforts that people make to achieve results in spite of broken processes, rather than stopping to directly observe and fix the processes, causes further suffering. Third Zen of kaizen: Focus on the process and the results will follow. 4. How to end suffering (follow the path) Buddhism teaches that detachment and the end to suffering comes from correct mindsets and behaviors that lead to moderation, known as the Eightfold Path. These eight consist of right thought (recognizing the condition of badness), right speech (speaking the truth), right actions (follow the rules), right livelihood (making a profit based on the previous three), right understanding (wisdom), right effort (perseverance), right mindfulness (awareness of current condition), and right concentration (focus and long-term thinking). Zen is about attaining wisdom through action. Zen Buddhists believe that daily life and daily work teaches you more than sacred texts, theory or certifications. This is learning by doing, in kaizen terms. Just as in kaizen, Zen encourages practitioners to learn from sensei (teachers) as well as from other practitioners, through direct experience as much as possible. Fourth Zen of kaizen: Focus on doing the right thing.
