Thorsten Staake, Tobias Graml, and Markus Weiss, Bits to Energy Lab ETH Zurich

Please explain briefly what the Bits to Energy Lab does?

Thorsten Staake, Chair of Information Management, ETH Zurich: The Bits to Energy Lab is a joint research initiative of different divisions of ETH Zurich with the University of St. Gallen’s Institute of Technology Management. The Lab investigates the potential benefits of information technologies for a sustainable development. Our aim is to help achieve a more rational use of energy and to make resource consumption more transparent to companies and consumers. In this context, we investigate how sensor and actuator technologies can be applied to increase energy and resource efficiency in production, logistics, and home environments. We also explore how people react when they see the ecological footprint of the processes, products, and services they use.

How can IT help companies produce sustainably?

Tobias Graml, Chair of Information Management, ETH Zurich: Information and Communication Technology (ICT) enables companies to increase their resource and energy efficiency in many different ways. ICT helps collect and represent data on consumption patterns, emissions, waste, etc., thereby forming the baseline for many ongoing efforts for improvement. Many companies are working to achieve "supply chain visibility" to cut their costs. That same "supply chain visibility" is as important for cutting emissions and using energy more efficiently as it is for saving money.

An interesting example is the application of IT systems that help report fine-grained emissions and support CO2 accounting. With such systems, companies can monitor their "ecological footprint." In the future, the EPC Network may even allow for calculating the greenhouse gas emissions related to an individual product – and allow the consumer to choose environmentally friendly goods.

Are there other benefits for companies that use "Green IT" besides preserving the environment?

Markus Weiss, Distributed Systems Group, Institute for Pervasive Computing, ETH Zurich: "Green IT" helps reduce considerably a company’s expenses, especially since energy costs have become a major factor. Relatively short investment cycles allow for timely replacement of devices with those that are more energy efficient. In addition, companies can benefit from a better image with consumers and investors, since "Green IT" is ecologically responsible. In fact, "green" data centres are a hot topic. However, let me emphasise that energy-efficient IT can do much more than reduce the energy needed to run it. It can actually help to improve production and logistics and get a better understanding of the consumer.

In the consumer goods sector, companies have been focusing on how to use RFID to improve process efficiency. Can RFID also be used to help the environment?

Markus Weiss: Ecological efficiency is often a welcome by-product of process efficiency. One of our research projects investigates how RFID can be used to speed up the distribution of perishable goods. Typically, some fruit has to be thrown away at some stage during transportation from a plantation to multiple distribution centres and on to a supermarket. Nowadays, visual inspections are the only method to estimate a product’s condition. With RFID, managers can track storage temperatures for fruits during the distribution journey and better estimate when it will spoil. With this information, logistics managers can give priority in distribution centres to more perishable items and supermarket managers to try to sell such food first. And if perishable items cannot be sold in time, they can still be used for juice production. This example shows how RFID tags, in combination with sensors, can help reduce waste.

Are there other potential ways besides logistics for RFID to help the environment?

Tobias Graml: RFID is a technology for the automatic identification of physical objects. Through this technique, identified real-world objects can be connected to related information, or product data. This is especially useful in logistics for optimizing processes, such as tracking the routes of an object in a delivery process. But managers can also couple objects with information about the environmental impact they had during their production, delivery, and use. In the future, RFID may help us base our buying decisions not only on the calories of a product, but also on its carbon footprint or the energy needed for its manufacturing.

Finally, do you have a tip on how consumers can save energy with IT?

Thorsten Staake: Yes. "Smart" electricity meters really help consumers save energy at home. More and more suppliers will offer systems that provide near-real-time information on current energy consumption. They will also offer related information such as current energy costs or the availability of excess power from wind power plants. Often consumers will be surprised to learn what different devices consume during standby or how high the maximum load can be. Such visualization technologies help increase the consumer's energy-awareness and thereby lead to a more rational use of energy. The measurement infrastructure represents the first step towards a network of smart energy-aware devices, which also represent one of our core research foci.

The Bits to Energy Lab is a joint research initiative of ETH Zurich together with the University of St. Gallen. It is dedicated to investigate the potential benefits of Ubiquitous Computing (UbiComp) technologies such as RFID for a sustainable development.

www.bitstoenergy.ch