GREEN ICT PRACTICES FOR ACHIEVING COST EFFECTIVENESS OF ELECTRICITY USAGE OF ICT IN SRI LANKAN APPAREL INDUSTRY Amarasinghe D M T (159103L) MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION IN INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY Department of Computer Science and Engineering University of Moratuwa Sri Lanka May 2017 ii GREEN ICT PRACTICES FOR ACHIEVING COST EFFECTIVENESS OF ELECTRICITY USAGE OF ICT IN SRI LANKAN APPAREL INDUSTRY Amarasinghe D M T (159103L) Thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Business Administration in Information Technology Department of Computer Science and Engineering University of Moratuwa Sri Lanka May 2017 iii DECLARATION I declare that this is my own work and this dissertation does not incorporate without acknowledgement any material previously submitted for a Degree or Diploma in any University or institute of higher learning and to the best of my knowledge and belief it does not contain any material previously published or written by another person except where acknowledgement is made in the next. Also, I hereby grant to University of Moratuwa the non-exclusive right to reproduce and distribute my dissertation, in whole or in part in print, electronic or other medium. I retain the right to use this content in whole or part in future works (such as article or books). ----------------------------------------------- --------------------- D M T Amarasinghe Date The above candidate has carried out research for the Master’s dissertation under my supervision. ------------------------------------------------------- --------------------- Dr. Shantha Fernando (Supervisor) Date Department of Computer Science and Engineering University of Moratuwa. iv ABSTRACT It is well known that the protection of the environment not only paves the way for a healthier life but also is required for the sustainability of our resources. Green concept has been identified as a perfect method to apply in all aspects of sustainability. Green Information Technology has occupied a leading role of Green concepts. Green ICT concept involves in reusing, reducing and recycling resources of ICT. The objectives of this research are to identify Green ICT practices that significantly reduce electricity consumption for ICT in Apparel Industry operating in export processing sector in Sri Lanka, to describe the barriers for implementing those practices and to determine how the apparel industry can overcome those barriers. The findings of this study can be utilized for the benefit of the organizations in apparel industry and other types of organizations which are interested to implement Green ICT practices successfully. There are certain organizations in apparel industry which are already successful in implementing Green ICT practices while others are yet to implement. Our results show that reducing datacenter power utility is the most significant practice for reducing electricity consumption of ICT while reducing electricity utilization for all equipment and printers’ power utility are also important contributory factors. Further, lack of awareness of Green ICT among the staff has been identified as the main barrier for implementing those practices. However, conducting awareness program and doing cost benefit analysis can overcome the barriers for implementing Green ICT practices. v ACKNOWLEDGEMENT There is a team who are happily enjoying the outcome of this research. My sincere thank should goes to this team since without their contribution, this study would not see the destination of tour. First and foremost, I would like to extend my sincere thank to my supervisor Dr. Shantha Fernando, Department of Computer Science and Engineering, University of Moratuwa, for his tremendous guidance, advices, support, encouragement and especially the kindness and patient throughout the research. Those qualities were always encouraged me to complete this research. I must thank Dr. Dilum Bandara, who is the coordinator for the MBA – IT 2015 batch and for being the facilitator for Research Skills subject. Further I extend my gratitude to all academic and non-academic staff of Department of Computer Science & Engineering and entire staff of the University of Moratuwa for their support in numerous ways. I sincerely thank all the ICT staff in Apparel Industry in Sri Lanka who responded to my interviews and questionnaire. All my mates in MBA – IT 2015 batch were awesome throughout the journey of this course. Finally my special thank should go to my wife Dr. Nadeeja Amarasinghe and my daughter Pudamsa for helping and being patient throughout this period and without your support, this research would not have been a success. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................ iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ........................................................................................... v TABLE OF CONTENTS ............................................................................................ vi LIST OF FIGURES .................................................................................................... ix LIST OF TABLES ....................................................................................................... x LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ..................................................................................... xi 1 INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................ 1 1.1 Current Status ................................................................................................ 2 1.2 Preliminary survey ........................................................................................ 3 1.2.1 Preliminary data collection .................................................................... 3 1.2.2 Interview ................................................................................................ 4 1.3 Problem Statement ........................................................................................ 4 1.4 Research Questions ....................................................................................... 5 1.5 Research Objectives ...................................................................................... 5 1.6 Research Design ............................................................................................ 5 1.6.1 Scope of the study .................................................................................. 6 1.7 Thesis outline ................................................................................................ 6 2. LITERATURE REVIEW ..................................................................................... 8 2.1 Importance of Green ICT .............................................................................. 8 2.2 How Organizations implement Green ICT practices .................................. 10 2.3 Barriers for implementing Green ICT ......................................................... 12 2.4 How Organizations have tried to overcome barriers ................................... 14 2.5 Summary ..................................................................................................... 19 3. METHODOLOGY ............................................................................................. 21 3.1 Preliminary study ........................................................................................ 22 3.2 Research Method ......................................................................................... 23 3.3 Data collection ............................................................................................. 23 vii 3.4 Data Sample ................................................................................................ 23 3.5 Data Analysis .............................................................................................. 23 4. ANALYSIS OF THE DATA ............................................................................. 25 4.1 Validity and reliability test .......................................................................... 26 4.2 Responsibility level of the responded IT professionals............................... 26 4.3 Other responsible designations for ICT ...................................................... 27 4.4 The organizations’ operating hours per day ................................................ 28 4.5 The companies which have Datacenters in the premises ............................ 28 4.6 Number of Servers in the Datacenter and separate power supply for DC .. 30 4.7 Monthly average cost of electricity for Datacenters ................................... 31 4.8 Measuring Electricity utilization ................................................................. 32 4.9 Desktop computers usage ............................................................................ 33 4.10 Energy star compliance concern for ICT equipment .................................. 34 4.11 Computers operating for 24 hours ............................................................... 35 4.12 Laptop computers usage .............................................................................. 36 4.13 Green ICT practices implementation .......................................................... 37 4.14 The Practices that have been identified as significant for reducing electricity consumption for ICT .............................................................................................. 38 4.15 The Practices that have been implemented ................................................. 39 4.16 Barriers faced while implementing Green ICT practices ............................ 40 4.17 Techniques used to overcome barriers ........................................................ 42 4.18 Electricity saving by implementing Green ICT .......................................... 43 4.19 Other Green ICT practices which have been implemented ......................... 44 4.20 Barriers identified by Green ICT unimplemented organizations ................ 45 4.21 Techniques identified by Green ICT unimplemented organizations........... 46 4.22 Relationship test between Green ICT unimplemented organizations against the organization size ............................................................................................... 47 5. CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS ............................................... 48 5.1 Discussion ................................................................................................... 48 5.1.1 Practices identified as significant for reducing electricity consumption for ICT 48 5.1.2 The Green ICT Practices that have been implemented ........................ 49 viii 5.1.3 Barriers for implementing Green ICT practices .................................. 49 5.1.4 Techniques used to overcome barriers ................................................. 50 5.1.5 Monthly electricity saving by Green ICT ............................................ 52 5.1.6 Validity and Reliability of the results .................................................. 52 5.2 Recommendations ....................................................................................... 53 5.3 Limitations of the Research ......................................................................... 54 5.4 Future Research ........................................................................................... 55 5.5 Conclusion ................................................................................................... 55 6. REFERENCES ................................................................................................... 56 7. List of Appendices .............................................................................................. 61 Green ICT Project – Questionnaire ........................................................................ 61 ix LIST OF FIGURES Figure 2.1: RMIT Green ICT framework 12 Figure 2.2: Illustration of how PUE would be calculated in a data center 18 Figure 3.1: Research methodology 21 Figure 4.1: Number of Desktop & Laptop usage 25 Figure 4.2: Level of IT responsibility in the organization 27 Figure 4.3: Other responsible ICT professionals 27 Figure 4.4: Organizations’ operating hours per day 28 Figure 4.5: Datacenters in the premises 29 Figure 4.6: The location of the datacenters if not in the premises 30 Figure 4.7: Number of servers in DC 31 Figure 4.8: Separate power supply for DC 31 Figure 4.9: Monthly average cost of electricity for DC 32 Figure 4.10: Measuring electricity utilization for DC 33 Figure 4.11 Usage of desktop computers 33 Figure 4.12: Concern on Energy star compliance 34 Figure 4.13: Energy star compliance computers 35 Figure 4.14: Computers operate for 24 hours 36 Figure 4.15: Laptop computers usage 37 Figure 4.16: Significant practices for reducing electricity consumption for ICT 39 Figure 4.17: Practices which have been implemented 40 Figure 4.18: Barriers faced while implementing Green ICT practices 41 Figure 4.19: Techniques used to overcome barriers 43 Figure 4.20: Monthly electricity saving 44 Figure 4.21: Other Green ICT practices implemented 45 Figure 4.22: Barriers identified by Green ICT unimplemented organizations 46 Figure 4.23: Techniques identified by Green ICT unimplemented organizations 47 x LIST OF TABLES Table 1.1: Monthly energy utilization for ICT 4 Table 2.1: Three level approach to PUE measurement 18 Table 3.1: Monthly energy utilization for ICT 22 Table 5.1: Validity and Reliability 52 xi LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS Abbreviation Description AEEMA Australian Electrical and Electronic Manufacturers’ Association AELA Australian Environmental Labeling Association AVE Average Variance Extracted CBSL Central Bank of Sri Lanka CD Compact Disc CEPIS Council of European Public Professional Informatics Societies CIO Chief Information Officer CR Composite Reliability CSI Corporate Sustainability Index DC Datacenter GAP Global Action Plan GM General Manager IT Information Technology ICT Information and Communication Technology ICTA Information and Communication Technology Agency IMS Intelligent Manufacturing Systems MWh Megawatt Hour PC Personal Computer PUCSL Public Utilities Commission of Sri Lanka PUE Power Usage Effectiveness xii RMIT Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology TRB Technology Business Research TWh Terawatt Hour UK United Kingdom USA United States of America