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GREEN BANKING

Green Banking Ver 13 Final (1 - IDRBT Practices/Green Banking... · GREEN BANKING FOR INDIAN BANKING SECTOR 1 FOREWORD Sustainable development and preservation of environment are

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GREEN BANKING

An IDRBT Publication, August 2013. All Rights Reserved. For restricted circulation in the Indian Banking Sector.C

Foreword.................................................................................................................... 01

Message from IBA....................................................................................................... 02

Message from Executive Director................................................................................. 03

Preface....................................................................................................................... 04

Green Banking: An Overview.......................................................................................

Greening Banking Processes, Products, Services and Strategies....................................

Greening Banking Infrastructure................................................................................. 09

Case Studies in Indian Banks........................................................................................ 16

Fostering Green Banking............................................................................................. 18

Glossary...................................................................................................................... 19

05

07

References................................................................................................................... 20

Contents

GREEN BANKING FOR INDIAN BANKING SECTOR

1

FOREWORD

Sustainable development and preservation of

environment are now recognised globally as

overriding imperatives to protect our planet from the

ravages inflicted on it by mankind. Various global

initiatives are underway to counter the ill effects of

development that we encounter today such as global

warming and climate change. A common thread

running across all these initiatives is the focus on

reducing the demand for fossil fuels by implementing

the 3R's viz. Reduce, Reuse and Recycle.

Banks and financial institutions can play a major and

decisive role in these global efforts to make our

planet a better place to live in. As providers of

finance, banks can ensure that businesses adopt

environment-friendly practices. Incentives by way of

offering cheaper funds for adopting green

technologies will have a long term beneficial impact

on the environment. As major implementers of

technology, banks themselves can adopt green

practices and thereby lead the way in this global

initiative. Also, product innovation and leveraging on

the use of technology enable banks and their

customers today to reduce the usage of resources

such as paper, thereby aiding in environmental

protection.

This book is a commendable initiative to propagate

the idea of green banking. It explains in a very lucid

style the various possibilities that exist in the banking

arena to increase energy efficiency and reduce the

usage of natural resources. The book dwells on

environment-friendly practices that banks can adopt

with respect to its IT infrastructure as also helpful tips

towards green products and services. The case

studies offer insight into what banks can potentially

achieve by being environmentally proactive. It is

hoped that the ideas offered in this book will act as a

catalyst to banks and financial institutions to further

intensify their efforts at reducing energy usage and

thereby contribute their bit to the ongoing global

efforts at ensuring sustainable development.

Anand Sinha,

Deputy Governor, RBI,

Chairman, IDRBT

2

MESSAGE FROM IBA

GREEN BANKING FOR INDIAN BANKING SECTOR

We are all aware that increased carbon emissions and

reckless development without paying attention to

environment, led to climate change. Many research

studies have pointed out direct corelation with climate

change and occurrences of natural disasters. It is believed

that natural disasters are bound to increase in future, if we

neglect the environment. According to the UN disaster

risk reduction agency UNISDR, natural disasters such as

the huge earthquake and tsunami that struck Japan

caused record $366 billion damage in 2011. Apart from

the loss of precious lives and properties, the cost of

reconstruction is also enormous. We cannot ignore these

warnings and all of us have to act together to minimise the

adverse impact on environment arising out of increased

pollution.

All over the world, banks and financial institutions are

concerned about the overall impact of depletion of

environment. General frameworks describing corporate

climate strategies are difficult to transfer to the banking

sector. Such frameworks usually focus on basic industries,

examining the dependency of companies on fossil fuels

and exploring the effects of extreme weather events and

regulation on corporations. However, banks are not

generally exposed to weather stresses nor are they

heavily dependent on fossil fuels in their operations.

Indeed, the main impact of climate change on banks is

indirect: they are affected to the extent that their clients'

activities and economic activities in general are

constrained.

The key issue for banks will be assessing the impact of

climate change on the asset quality of lending and

investment portfolios. This will influence financing and

investment policies as well as portfolio management.

This will help them to develop a business model which is

sustainable and adaptable to their environment policies.

While many banks understand the significance of

emission reduction, only very few have comprehensively

integrated climate change-related aspects into their

business processes. Besides this, internally, in their day-

to-day operations also banks are devising strategies to

make their systems and processes environment-friendly.

Green Banking is comparatively a new development in the

financial world. It is a form of banking taking into account

the social and environmental impacts and its main motive

is to protect and preserve environment.

Foreign banks are practising green banking on a much

serious note. Some of the foreign banks have introduced a

formal Environmental and Social (E&S) risk policy to

govern lending activities way back in 1997. They are also

signatory to the Equator Principles (EP), and moved ahead

in building on bank's work to measure social and

economic impact of lending, reduce annual paper

consumption of full-time employees and continue to

reduce energy and water consumption, etc.

The Indian banks are still taking baby steps into this form

of banking. Still, many of them are keen to actively pursue

this strategy. In this context, this report prepared by IDRBT

is quite significant. The report provides guidelines in areas

such as i) Greening Processes, Products, Services, and

Strategies ii) Greening Infrastructure. The report touches

on various but simple methods which could be adopted by

any bank for its building, data centre, internal processes,

educating customers on technology based transactions,

saving energy, etc. Some case studies are given in the

report for adoption by other banks. I congratulate

Mr. Sambamurthy and other members of the working

group for this initiative and I am sure, this will be

beneficial to all the banking and financial institutions in

their endeavour to protect the environment.

K Ramakrishnan,

Chief Executive,

Indian Banks' Association

3

Message fromExecutive Director

GREEN BANKING FOR INDIAN BANKING SECTOR

I read with great interest the document "GREEN

BANKING", prepared by your team members under

the active guidance of Dr. Gangadharan. It is a very

important and timely document as one of the

challenges faced by the countries world over as

technology took over our lives was the impact of

technology on environment.

As Indian financial sector moves to the next stage of

technology adoption, it is imperative that "green

banking" as the team calls it, is adopted by every

responsible financial institution. The framework put

forth is quite exhaustive. Apt case studies included

surely enhances the value of the document.

I understand Dr. Gangadharan has also co-edited a

text book on Green IT that has been adopted by

reputed educational institutions like IIM, Kolkata and

NIT, Surathkal. Such efforts enhance the reputation

of IDRBT which has been taken to a higher pedestal

with greater visibility.

G. Padmanabhan,

Executive Director,

Reserve Bank of India

4

PREFACE

GREEN BANKING FOR INDIAN BANKING SECTOR

Mathis Wackernagel and his colleagues measured the

ecological footprint of humanity and compared it to the

carrying capacity of the planet. They concluded that use

by human resources has already overshot the planet’s

carrying capacity by 20% already. (Limits to Growth by

Donella Meadows and others)

The case for sustainable growth is established beyond

doubt. Reckless and unimaginative growth is endangering

the planet and the adverse consequences are manifest in

global warming, climate change, fickle weather, floods,

droughts, pollution, high green house gas emissions, etc.

While still there is no consensus among the countries on

sharing the burden of ecological footprint, most of the

countries have been taking aggressive measures to tackle

global warming and climate change.

Banks also contribute to ecological footprint directly and

indirectly through investment/lending in their customer

enterprises. As such they need to play a key role in

optimizing /reducing the carbon footprint. It is said that

what is not measured, is not managed.

Green Grid, a nonprofit organization which is

spearheading green initiatives has come out with

recommended metrics to measure the effectiveness of

green initiatives in information technology and data

centers. Some of the important metrics are:

Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE)

Data Centre Infrastructure Efficiency (DCIE)

Carbon Usage Effectiveness (CUE)

Water Usage Effectiveness (WUE)

Data Centre Productivity (DCP)

Consumption/use of physical and financial capital are well

accounted for and these standards are universally

adopted. But accounting for consumption and use of

NATURE CAPITAL lags far behind and needs to be adopted.

This would bring about better accountability and adds to

maturity and sophistication of market for NATURE

CAPITAL.

Electronic Disposal Efficiency (EDE)•

B. Sambamurthy,

Director, IDRBT

While procuring hardware, banks may factor in

environmental attributes through deployment of

Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool

(EPEAT). Banks shall encourage and deploy renewable

energy like solar, wind power. Use of thin/zero clients and

virtualization helps in energy efficiency.

Banks may designate CHIEF GREEN OFFICER to champion

the cause and drive these initiatives across the enterprise.

Boards of banks shall lay down specific policies and

targeted levels for each of the measures and monitor

them on annual/semiannual basis.

These measures need not be confined to IT space but can

be implemented in other areas and we can even mandate

clients in service and manufacturing enterprises.

We are not putting numbers, but banks themselves may

measure where they are and track trends in improvement

and ultimately reach global benchmarks. It is a journey

but brooks no delay to start with. Achieving carbon

neutral state shall be the goal. At the end of the day, being

frugal, doing more with less is basic commonsense.

Let us give a new and added push to Green Banking.

GREEN BANKING:AN OVERVIEW

Chapter 1

5

GREEN BANKING FOR INDIAN BANKING SECTOR

INTRODUCTION

The disastrous impact of recent storms, floods, droughts,

and excessive heat that many people have experienced

around the world, motivate us to think seriously about

global warming and its impact and to do whatever we can

to address this problem. Governments, enterprises, and

people, all have roles to play in combating global warming

and building a sustainable environment. A good thing is

that there is now greater awareness and a growing

commitment to address environmental problems we

face. Inaction to arrest environmental degradation would

significantly affect not only current but also future

generations and our further progress. So, a proactive

multipronged action is necessary by all the industry and

business sectors, regulatory agencies and the individuals.

What can, and should, Banking, Financial Services, and

Insurance (BFSI) sector do in creating a greener and

sustainable environment? What can each person in the

BFSI sector do individually and collectively to address

global warming and create a sustainable environment?

Internationally, there are several initiatives to create a

common protocol to manage environmental concerns.

Among them the United Nations Environment Program

Finance Initiative (UNEP FI) and the Equator Principles

(EPs) are the two key initiatives.

The United Nations Environment Programme Finance

Initiative (UNEP FI) seeks to encourage better implemen-

tation of sustainability principles at all levels of operations

in financial institutions, namely through the incorporation

of environmental, social, and governance factors in risk

analyses. This initiative is a public-private partnership

established between the United Nations Environment

Program (UNEP) and the financial sector. It works closely

with over 200 members including leading banks,

investment funds, and insurance companies to develop

and promote linkages between sustainability and

financial performance.

The Equator Principles are a set of voluntary guidelines for

the categorization, assessment and management of social

and environmental risks in project financing. The EPs are

based on the International Finance Corporation

Performance Standards on social and environmental

sustainability and on the World Bank Group

Environmental, Health, and Safety (EHS) Guidelines.

Currently, 78 financial institutions in 32 countries have

officially adopted the EPs, covering over 70 percent of

international Project Finance debt in emerging markets.

The EPs have promoted convergence around common

environmental and social standards.

In December 2007, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) issued

a circular (RBI 2007-2008/216) highlighting the

importance for banks to act responsibly and contribute to

sustainable development and emphasizing the need for

Indian banks to establish institutional mechanisms to

enshrine sustainability.

Enterprises are now increasingly interested in

establishing and implementing strategies that will help

them to address environmental issues and also pursue

new opportunities. The reasons for going green are

manifold, and the key among them are: increasing energy

consumption and energy prices, growing consumer

interest in environmentally-friendly goods and services,

higher expectations by the public on enterprises'

environmental responsibilities and emerging stricter

regulatory and compliance requirements. Further,

enterprise will increasingly feel the effects of

environmental issues that impact their competitive

landscape in ways not envisaged earlier. For instance,

investors have started discounting the share prices of

companies that poorly address the environmental

problems they create. When making purchasing, leasing

or outsourcing decisions, many customers now take into

consideration the company's environmental records and

initiatives. Investors are increasingly placing their money

on initiatives that are green or that develop and promote

THE RELEVANCE OF GREEN BANKING

6

GREEN BANKING FOR INDIAN BANKING SECTOR

green products and services. Government agencies,

investors and the public are demanding more disclosures

from enterprises regarding their carbon footprint and

their environmental initiatives and achievements. As a

result, enterprises with the technology and vision to

provide products and services that address

environmental issues will enjoy a competitive edge.

Like any other enterprises, as consumers of natural

resources, banks directly interact with the environment.

For instance, banks contribute towards the carbon

emission directly in their day-to-day operations in terms

of use of paper, electricity, lighting, air conditioning,

electronic equipment and other things, although this is

moderate compared to other carbon sensitive industries

like steel, oil and gas, etc. Banks affect the environment

indirectly by financing intermediaries who are the major

source of long term funding to various industries that

pollute the environment heavily. Hence, it is imperative to

understand the need for sustainable practices for

banking.

Currently, in India, the concept of green banking is

catching up and banks are actively looking for ways to

portray themselves as a Green Bank.

Green Banking is an umbrella term referring to

practices and guidelines that make banks

sustainable in economic, environment, and social

dimensions. It aims to make banking processes

and the use of IT and physical infrastructure as

efficient and effective as possible, with zero or

minimal impact on the environment.

Considering the nature of banking processes and

infrastructures, in this report, we offer guidelines

for greening banking in two levels.

Making day-to-day business

operations, banking products and services

greener by following simple practices and making

them environmentally friendly.

M a k i n g I T

infrastructure (including data center) and

physical infrastructure (including buildings)

greener and taking initiatives so that a bank

could itself generate electricity for its own

consumption.

Greening Processes, Products, Services, and

Strategies:

G r e e n i n g I n f ra s t r u c t u r e :

Green Banking

GREENING BANKING

PROCESSES,

PRODUCTS,

SERVICES,

AND STRATEGIES

Chapter 2

7

GREEN BANKING FOR INDIAN BANKING SECTOR

Select vendors by the sustainability rating of their

products, services and operations.

Design and offer banking products and services in

such a way that consume less resources and

energy and thereby reduce carbon footprint

Implement effective systems for product end-of-

life management that have minimal impact on the

environment.

Banks are developing new products and services that

respond to consumer demand for sustainable choices.

Following are some of the options that banks should offer

to their customers, if they are not offering already:

Electronic and telephone banking, facilitating

customers to perform most of their banking needs

anytime, anywhere

Automatic payments reduce the need to write and

send cheques by mail

Electronic (paperless) statements, product

information, guides and annual reports to

customers and stakeholders

Offering and promoting mutual funds that focus

investment in 'green' companies

Offering a special line of credit to help

homeowners invest in energy-efficiency upgrades

for their home

Offering credit cards co-branded with

environmental charities.

Engage with key stakeholders and create awareness

of environmental issues and their impact on the

economy, the environment, and the society. Also,

explain to them the business and environmental

value and the necessity of greening the bank

processes, products, and services

Sourcing and Procurement

Product Life Cycle Management

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GREEN PRODUCTS AND SERVICES

GREEN BANKING STRATEGIES

A bank is a financial institution and a financial

intermediary that accepts deposits and channels those

deposits into lending activities, either directly or through

capital markets. Banks offer different channels to access

their different banking products and services through

ATM, Branch, Mobile banking, Internet banking, etc.

There are four major avenues for greening banks –

processes, products and services, strategies and other

activities – which are briefly outlined here.

A Green Bank requires each of its functional units and

activities to be green – environmentally friendly and help

to improve environmental sustainability. Several

opportunities are available for banks to green their

functional units and activities. Key among them are:

Adopt techniques and plans to minimize inventory

and wasted freight

Adopt networked design using a carbon footprint.

Facilitate paperless transactions

Adopt techniques for workforce and parts

optimization as well as intelligent device

management.

Use electronic means, wherever possible, to

maintain contact with and correspond with

customers and potential customers, and minimise

paper-based correspondences.

GREEN PROCESSES

Supply Chain Management

Enterprise Resource Management

Customer Relationship Management

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GREEN BANKING FOR INDIAN BANKING SECTOR

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Conduct energy audits and review equipments

purchases and disposal policies and practices.

Assess IT's environmental and cost impact and

identify areas to be “greened”

Set SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable,

Realistic, and Timely) green goals as the internal

targets to reduce your carbon footprint along with

timelines. Develop criteria for measuring progress

towards the goals

Develop and implement a green policy that aims to

achieve higher utilization of systems while

reducing energy use and lessening their

environmental impact

Encourage, motivate, and energize the workforce

to follow the green path and to come up with and

implement their own ideas. In addition, also

encourage clients, suppliers, and outsourcers to

adopt green practices

Monitor the progress regularly; watch industry

trends and new developments. Revise the green

policy as required

Publicize your environmental policy, actions, and

achievements and thereby get credits and

accolades from customers, peers, industry groups,

environmental advocates, government agencies,

and society at large.

OTHER GREEN BANKING ACTIVITIES

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Banks may formulate innovative financial

solutions and redesign the existing ones so as to

incorporate environmental perspectives

Banks may provide loans with concessions to

corporates or individuals who undertake

environment-friendly projects such as projects

employing sun, wind equipment, manufacturers

of fuel-efficient automobiles

Banks can introduce green funds for customers

who would like to invest in environment-friendly

projects

Banks can involve themselves in carbon credit

business, wherein they can provide all the services

in the area of clean development mechanisms and

carbon credit business

Banks can support projects ranging from

community cleanups to national initiatives on

climate change, water, air, biodiversity and more.

Drawing on the above guidelines, opportunities and

options, banks need to set their near-term and long-term

green goals, develop their green strategies, and execute

their greening activities in a phased manner.

GREENING

BANKING INFRASTRUCTURE

Chapter 3

9

GREEN BANKING FOR INDIAN BANKING SECTOR

GREENING IT INFRASTRUCTURE

Going green is more than just a social incentive. Making a

bank's infrastructure (including physical and IT) more

environmentally friendly can also reduce costs

significantly.

In today's environment, all banks are computerized. In

this IT-enabled environment, bankers should make use of

these IT resources in an eco-friendly manner. Following

are some of the guidelines for greening the use of laptops,

desktop computers, and servers in a bank.

According to various studies, quite a lot of energy is

wasted in a laptop when the laptop is being charged. The

chargers step down the voltage and convert the AC to DC.

This happens as long as the charger is connected to the

power socket, irrespective of whether the laptop is

connected to the charger or not, thus resulting in waste of

energy. Hence, it is very important to switch off the power

supply when it is not in use.

There are green chargers in the market, which can detect

whether a charger is connected to a notebook computer

or any other device, and reduce the power consumption

when a charger is not connected to a device.

Monitors consume about 20 to 30% of the total energy

used by a laptop; hence it is important to reduce the

power consumption of the monitors. Strategies that help

in reducing the power consumption of monitors include:

Reduce the brightness of the monitor to the

appropriate level. A brighter screen consumes

more energy

When some background task is running in the

computer and there is no need to use the monitor

during this time, switch off the monitor instead of

using screen savers as screen savers also consume

some energy

Most of the computer operating systems provide

Greening Use of Laptops, Desktop Computers,

and Servers

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power saving profiles which when enabled,

reduces the amount of energy consumed by the

computer. For example, when the laptop is starting

up or when the laptop is shutting down, these

applications reduce the screen brightness to a

minimum.

The processors of laptop also consume a lot of power

particularly when carrying out computationally-intensive

tasks. Many aspects of applications that run on a system

impacts power consumption. The following guidelines

will help in optimizing the energy consumption:

The background processes and other applications

which are not being used are kept running to keep

the processor active, thus resulting in energy

wastage. So, when an application is not in use,

close the application and also stop the background

processes that are not being used

Multitasking is a tradeoff between CPU time spent

executing tasks and inefficiencies brought in by

context switching. When a task starts running

slower than it would normally run, one of the likely

causes is due to inefficiencies owing to context

switching. It is advisable to reduce the number of

tasks when such slowing down is noticed

The more the processes that are set to start at

startup, the more the amount of time the laptop

needs to boot up, thus resulting in more

unproductive time for the processor and the

monitor. So, keep the number of processes that

start at the startup of the computer to a minimum.

The required applications can be started when

needed.

The peripheral devices that are connected to the

computer also consume energy, even though they might

not be in active use. For example, devices connected to

the USB ports in a computer draw power even when the

device is not in use.

Most laptops today are provided with power

management features and software. The power

management software can help in regulating the use of

the battery and electric power. It monitors the load on the

hard disk, the activities on the laptop, and the ambient

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GREEN BANKING FOR INDIAN BANKING SECTOR

brightness and changes the various settings in the

computer to make optimal use of power. The software

also allows users to set timings for the computers to

automatically go to standby or hibernate mode.

A typical desktop uses about 115 Watts of power. CRT

monitors were the primary output device used in the

desktop PCs till a few years back. CRT monitors consume a

lot of energy and are inefficient. It also contains a lot of

environmentally sensitive materials. LCD and LED

monitors are energy efficient and small in size. The power

management systems and techniques for monitors that

were described on laptops also holds good for desktops.

The processors used in desktops consume a lot more

power than their laptop counterparts. The processor and

hard disk power optimization techniques that were used

in the laptops also apply here.

In many cases, desktops are kept always on, so that it can

be remotely accessed from a laptop or some other

desktop. In most cases, desktops are left switched on

24×7 even during holidays. Hence, most of the time

desktops remain idle and waste a lot of energy. To avoid

having to leave the desktops switched on all the time, we

could use remote wake up methodologies.

In banks, where there are many desktops in use, it is

important to globally monitor the usage of all the

desktops to get a holistic picture on the usage efficiency of

the desktops. Tools like NightWatchman (www.1e.com),

‘TheEnergyDetective'(TED) (www.theenergydetective.com),

'eMonitor' (www.powerhousedynamics.com) and

'Conserve Insight' (www.belkin.com/conserve/insight/)

help managers in assessing the power usage trends of

many of their desktops over time by monitoring the usage

trends and presenting the data in the form of a

dashboard.

Banks also need management tools, which allow remote

control of desktops. Though most operating systems have

group policies, which allow certain configurations to be

enforced on the desktops, they are not as effective as

management tools which allow granular control over the

desktops. Tools like 'Night Watchman' help enterprises

have more control over the desktops. These tools allow

enterprises 'securely, remotely and centrally', power

down desktops. They also allow enterprises to apply

power schemes at different times in multiple locations,

globally from a single console, maximizing power savings

without impacting users. Though there might be

resistance from employees to the implementation of such

systems, it is important to make the employees

understand the benefits and advantages of the system

and then implement solutions.

Servers are computers designed to serve the needs of

other computers. In general, server computers run one or

more services that will be used by other computers in the

network. They have powerful CPUs and have large

amount of memory RAM. They are ON most of the time

and in most cases redundant servers are used to provide

increased reliability. These servers are generally placed in

data centers. Servers in general generate a large amount

of heat due to large power consumption by servers and

hence they require better cooling mechanisms. The

energy efficiency aspects of servers are discussed in detail

in Greening Data Centers section.

Many design parameters have to be considered while

designing and implementing IT data centers. These design

parameters include reliability, availability, serviceability,

scalability, modularity, flexibility and security. The

increase in the number of online service users, leading to

an ever-increasing demand for computing resources, has

resulted in an increase in the requirement of power and

space to host these computer resources and IT

infrastructure. Power consumption and power densities

are rising and the old techniques of power supply and

cooling in a typical, traditional data center are no longer

able to cater to today's needs.

About half of the data centers will have insufficient power

and cooling capacity to handle emerging high density

equipments. The power and cooling infrastructure

accounts for 50 percent of the total energy consumption

by data centers. Most of the electrical energy in a typical

data center is utilized by the infrastructure which includes

servers and storage devices, chiller units, centralized air

Greening Data Centers

Need for Green IT Data Centers

11

GREEN BANKING FOR INDIAN BANKING SECTOR

conditioners, uninterrupted power supplies (UPS), etc.

Some electricity is also utilized by the lighting system and

humidifiers.

Increase in power and space requirement, along with the

increase in global warming has forced the IT fraternity to

rethink and reconsider the traditional design and

implementation approach in developing data centers.

Typical cooling techniques, using centralized air

conditioning system, in a traditional data center are not

proving to be efficient and sufficient to cater to the needs

of today's IT infrastructure demands. Centralized air

conditioning and floor cooling is not enough for cooling

high loads. The cooling effect remains concentrated and

localized to lower heights and cannot cool the overall IT

equipment in high density racks of data centers.

Various innovative ideas and best practices are evolving to

ensure optimal utilization of power, space and cooling

requirements, leading to development of green IT data

centers, which are eco-friendly. A green IT data center is

designed keeping in view many design parameters,

creating an eco-foundation, and leading to a lower cost of

ownership. These parameters range from physical layout

and design, cooling system, cabling, power system, IT

infrastructure including servers and storage devices; and

IT design parameters like consolidation and virtualization

for most energy efficient and optimal utilization. These

parameters are based around (a) scalable, repeatable,

and modular architectures; (b) modular, flexible and

optimized power and cooling; (c) simplified, flexible

cabling and plumbing; and (d) real-time energy

monitoring.

Green Data Center Model

Green data center is defined as “a computing

environment that uses resources in a more efficient

manner and has less impact upon people and the

environment.”

Data centers have a typical energy intensity which can be

15 to 200 times that of regular commercial buildings. This

is caused due to three reasons:

Data centers, being mission- critical facilities, are

designed with several back-ups and redundancies

A data center would have a lifespan that is

upwards of 10 years. While the IT racks are

populated and loaded slowly across these years in

tandem with business growth, the site

infrastructure is traditionally provisioned and

deployed upfront

The rack density in data centers is increasing

unremittingly over the past two decades. The

energy needed per compute unit has decreased,

but with the corresponding compaction of IT

equipment as well, the average density of racks

has begun to touch double digits in terms of kW/

Rack, with some HPC (High Performance Cluster)

densities scaling 60 kW/ Rack.

However, the “green-ness” of a data center is not only

determined by the usage of energy, but by several other

factors as well. These factors are summarised visually in

this green data center model below:

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GREEN BANKING FOR INDIAN BANKING SECTOR

Opportunities for Greening the Data Center

These sets of opportunities are classified under four

headings:

In its lifetime, a small 1U server

could have a carbon footprint of 4 metric tonnes.

Therefore, it is incumbent upon data center

owners to ascertain the “cleanliness” of their

power source when setting up a data center.

Today, the tariff we

pay per kWhr of energy consumed is heavily

subsidised. In the future, if the regulatory

authorities mandate a pass-through, then the case

for onsite generation will become increasingly

strong.

Data centers merit onsite

generation for three valid reasons:

For those data centers warranting Tier-IV

architecture based on their cost of downtime,

the Uptime Institute allows the leeway of

viewing onsite generation as the primary source

and the grid as the economic alternative or

second source

For those data centers where there is a gap

between quantum of power requisitioned and

what is sanctioned, this gap can be bridged by

onsite generation

Running data centers mostly have a scenario of

saturating available power before they run out

of space, due to the increasing densification of

racks. These many-a-times forces organisations

to prematurely build their next data centers.

With onsite generation, requisite power

augmentation to further utilise available space

would become possible.

The Uptime Institute

requires 12 hours' back-up worth of diesel stored

at site. This has a sizeable carbon footprint.

Site infrastructure in the data center refers to the

“facilities” or services such as the civil, structural, power,

cooling, fire safety, physical security, access and building

management systems.

1. Power Train

2. Site Infrastructure

Source of Power:

Transmission and Distribution:

Onsite Generation:

Back-up Generation:

Energy:

Water:

Materials:

IT Hardware:

Network and Communication:

IT Architecture:

Energy is the biggest consumable in the

data centers, and the biggest operating cost

contributor year-on-year. Especially for medium

and small-sized data centers, many are not aware

of the amount of energy consumed. This is further

true when the data center is housed in a shared

corporate facility, where there may not be meters

to measure the energy fed to the data centers

alone. Conceptually, the metric PUE (Power Usage

Effectiveness) is:

For those data centers using water-based

cooling, the need for water at the data centers can

run into lakhs of litres per day. Adequately

provisioning for this asset and making availability a

qualifying criterion for site election is a must.

Several materials are bought, used and

discarded on an ongoing basis in data centers –

starting with the displacement of topsoil when

building right up to the regular replacement of UPS

batteries. Responsible procurement practices

specifying energy-efficient products are a must.

Also, the responsible disposal of hazardous waste

such as e-waste should be carried out.

PUE= (Consumption + Overhead + Wastage)/ Consumption

3. IT Infrastructure

Equipment with energy-efficiency

star ratings should be the qualifier for

procurement, or where these are still not widely

available, should give the supplier an added

advantage during the evaluation process. Pay-back

calculations for these energy- efficient products

should be a part of the product specifications

provided by the supplier, making their selection a

robust financial choice.

To the maximum

level possible, hygiene in maintaining data cables

under the raised floor should be done so as not to

reduce air-conditioning efficiency.

It has been established that IT

infrastructure is heavily under-utilised in data

centers. The average utilisation of servers globally

in data centers is between 7-27%. This is due to the

redundancies built into the IT architecture, as well

13

GREEN BANKING FOR INDIAN BANKING SECTOR

as the spreading out of applications across more

servers than needed. Enabling the power

management system in servers to reduce

consumption of energy when idling is a must.

Virtualization

and consolidation are the key design parameters of

green IT data centers. Consolidating many servers

into one, and vitalising the application and data

can lead – to reduced server count, also reducing

the overall server sprawl, and further leading to

efficient space, power and cooling requirements,

simultaneously improving IT infrastructure

optimisation, and better utilisation in a secured

and optimised manner. Virtualization is possible at

every level in IT infrastructure, starting from

operating system to the physical servers, storage

devices and network, and even at client access

devices. IT vendors are now coming up with

energy-efficient and eco-friendly hardware, which

include servers populated with central processing

units not requiring more power than an electric

bulb and with an overall power requirement of less

than 500 watts per server. These servers are also

space-efficient, taking a maximum of 1 (one) rack

unit space and hence leading to overall best space,

power and cooling utilisation. Most of the IT

servers today are bundled with virtualization

technologies, which enable consolidation of

thousands of application into one single server

without any performance overheads. These

servers have provisions for creating logical

domains, using hyper visor technology, and

enabling installation and configuration of

heterogeneous operating environments, running

variety of application in a space and power

efficient single server.

A colocated data center in a large IDC

(Internet Data Center) should be greener. The

rationale is that a large colocation service provider

would see profit linked directly to energy efficiency

and lower energy bills. Therefore, they would

necessarily track and control PUE in their IDCs. A

4. Operating Models

� Virtualization and Consolidation:

Colocation:�

bank, hosting their servers in such a facility, would

by proxy to enjoy this benefit as compared to

achieving such levels of efficiency in their own EDC

(Enterprise Data Center).

When migrating non-critical

applications to the cloud, similar benefits as above

would be realised. Further, if the cloud service

provider's IDC is in geography with cooler climes,

significant opportunity for free cooling would

further drive down PUE. Similarly, the use of clean

energy in such IDCs due to geographical advantage

would reduce the carbon footprint per banking

transaction.

Mature service providers

are able to set up remote farms, from where a bank

could buy wheeled power. Heavy subsidies are

available from the Ministry of New and Renewable

Energy. Payback of 4-5 years is promised by such

service providers.

Many generator

companies have established leasing or rental

models, where they can bill energy consumed by

the data center on a subscription basis. A

combination of co-generation or tri- generation in

this model, along with the use of natural gas, can

make the case for a green data center.

While the opportunities are many, there are several

influencers on how green a Bank chooses to make their

Data Center:

A lot is decided by the bank’s

managements and the data center manager’s

attitude on how green to be. In a running data

center, the change management needed is even

greater. Some opportunities are:

Cold and hot aisle arrangement

Blanking panels in racks

Partitioning (including plenum) out unused

data center areas

Regular cleaning

Detangling under raised floor

Shutting down excess capacity in site

Cloud Computing:

Wheeling and Banking:

Onsite Energy as a Service:

� Attitude:

Influencers to Greening the Data Center

14

GREEN BANKING FOR INDIAN BANKING SECTOR

infrastructure (UPS, PAC, etc.), without

compromising redundancies

Variable capacity cooling

Correct placement of vented tiles in cold aisle,

not in hot aisle

Sealing of air leakages.

Organisational policies sometimes drive or

constrain green initiatives in a data center. The new

TC 9.9 guidelines from ASHRAE recommends

temperature envelope from 18 to 27 Celsius, with

some prescribed limits for rate of change and

humidity. Efficient operations can be observed till

24 Celsius, provided it is an existing DX-type PAC

(Precision Air Conditioner), it can receive the

correspondingly high return temperatures.

Similarly, green procurement policies can help

green a data center even during hardware

refreshes.

Energy efficiency achieved in any data

center is a direct outcome of utilisation. A Data

Center, when it is built, envisions a certain growth

in business and corresponding loading of IT Racks

over the next 10 years.

As of today, in India, there is no

regulation or statutes specific to data centers. Even

the Energy Conservation Building Code (ECBC),

2009 by the Bureau of Energy Efficiency for generic

buildings is only applicable for voluntary adoption

at this point of time. However, the qualifying size of

a building as per the ECBC is:

Policy:

Utilisation:

Statutes:

When ECBC compliance becomes mandatory, then it

would be a given that all medium-sized and large data

centers would qualify for compliance. Whatever is the

nature of exceptions, compliances and administrative

methods that emerge for the ECBC in due course,

knowledge of this significant framework would be useful

even today.

In the data center, the following can be taken up as well-

considered choices by a bank:

Choosing to locate a data center in a

city with opportunity for free cooling, availability

of (preferably piped) natural gas and relatively

cleaner sources would be recommended, in

addition to other technical, administrative,

financial and corporate criteria.

PUE is one of the best recognised

metrics in the industry, and defined as:

The higher the PUE, the more inefficient the data center. It

is very likely that an enterprise data center such as that of

a bank may have a PUE that is greater than 2

The unequivocal methodology to measure PUE, as

defined by the Green Grid is given as follows. It is

recommended that all banks at the least start measuring

PUE Category 1.

Green Choices and Initiatives

Site Selection:

Measurement:

Connected Load 100KW or More

120 KVA or More

1,000 Square meters or more

Contract Demand

Air-conditioned AreaIT Energy

MeasurementLocation

PUECategory

0*

PUECategory

1

PUECategory

2

PUECategory

3

Definition of

IT Energy

Definition of

Total Energy

UPSOutput

UPSOutput

PDUOutput

ITEquipment

Output

Peak ITElectric

Demand

IT AnnualEnergy

TotalAnnualEnergy

Peak TotalElectric

Demand

TotalAnnualEnergy

TotalAnnualEnergy

IT AnnualEnergy

IT AnnualEnergy

*For PUE Category 0, the measurements are electric demand (kW).

PUE = (Total Data Center Energy Consumption

or Power / IT Energy Consumption or Power)

15

GREEN BANKING FOR INDIAN BANKING SECTOR

Certification:

Innovation:

Certification is a way to encourage

data centers for maintenance of a green data

center.

Several opportunities present

themselves to deploy green equipment,

technologies and operating models in the data

center, as discussed earlier. One additional area

not mentioned above is the use of a good DCIM

(Data Center Infrastructure Management)

application, available off-the-shelf from many

providers today. Integrating this with all site

infrastructure equipment, and then, among other

things, tracking PUE constantly would be useful.

In conclusion, whatever else may be achieved towards

greening data center, new or old, the one key

consideration remains energy. A green and energy

efficient data center can not only deliver significant

savings in operating costs and reduction in capital cost,

but achieve national recognition for the bank in terms of

corporate social responsibility and contribution to

sustainability.

A green building is a building which is energy efficient,

resource efficient and environmentally responsible,

which incorporates design, construction and operational

practices that significantly reduce or eliminate its

negative impact on the environment and its occupants.

Energy efficiency in buildings could be achieved by

realizing the best design and engineering approach. A

sustainable procurement process and a conformance

assessment of existing codes and regulations for energy

efficiency make the realization of building to be energy

efficient. The renovation of existing buildings towards

being more energy efficient makes sustainable

modernization.

On a practical level, this encompasses the use of design,

materials and technology to reduce energy and resource

consumption and create improved human and natural

environments.

GREEN BUILDINGS

Ways to Greening Buildings

Self-Energy Generation Techniques

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Building designed according to trees on site for

preserving more trees and integrating them into

the design

Good interior design for better daylight

penetration

Building plans and windows designed for cross

ventilation

Efficient air conditioning and heating systems

Reduction in water usage

Highly reflective roofing materials

Preserving and Protecting landscape during

construction.

Banks can start harnessing renewable energy for

satisfying their own energy requirement by:

Installing roof top solar panels/collectors

Installing façade of photovoltaic film/panels

Installing Algae bioreactor to fix carbon dioxide

and produce biofuel for power supply

Installing biomass combined-heat-and-power

boi ler burning vegetable oi l that wi l l

simultaneously generate heat and electricity.

CASE STUDIES IN

INDIAN BANKS

Chapter 4

16

GREEN BANKING FOR INDIAN BANKING SECTOR

CASE STUDY 1:

Most servers used in the ABC bank today utilize between 5

and 15% of their total capacity while consuming 60 to 70%

of their maximum energy consumption at idle. This was

seen by the bank as a big challenge and area for potential

saving. To address the challenge, ABC bank had embarked

on server virtualization journey. ABC bank had adopted

VMware virtualization technology for x86 servers and also

did consolidation of servers as appropriate. By server

virtualization, the bank has saved on the following

components of the infrastructure / datacenter.

Avoidance of server administration cost

Improved central processing unit utilization

Reduced deployment times for servers, new

applications (from 6 to 8 days to within a day)

Server provisioning savings due to shared

infrastructure

Procurement costs reduction in release of

purchase order

Improved application availability and reduction in

downtime.

ABC bank consolidated multiple IBM Power5 RISC based

servers to more powerful Power7 based servers across

three datacenters requiring much lesser footprint and

multiple benefits.

Reduction in rack space, power, cooling – 12 P7

770 servers with 416 P7 cores with 12 GB

memory/core occupies about 12 racks space in

place of 60 racks occupied by around 140 P5

servers

P7 servers require around 60% less power and

cooling requirements as compared to older

generation P5 servers

GREEN INITIATIVES BY ABC BANK

Server Virtualization

Server Consolidation

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F Centralized management of the new P7

infrastructure with basic monitoring dashboard

reducing administration overheads.

ABC bank embarked on virtualization of desktops and

setup Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) in its

datacenters. 5000 users have been migrated on 16 blade

servers in VDI, giving cost reduction in power and real

estate.

ABC bank started rolling out network based laser printers

through a printing solutions provider across 1250 offices.

This enabled the bank to reduce the number of printers to

nearly one third and thus reduced maintenance related

issues.

By consolidating mail servers, ABC bank has managed to

reduce the server count from 912 physical servers to 744.

New branch users are also being accommodated on

existing consolidated servers, thereby reducing server

footprint. This has been achieved by optimally using 64-

bit processor architecture.

CASE STUDY 2:

XYZ Bank has implemented Green Banking Channel in

select branches to facilitate debit card holders to self-

service transactions at branch counters. It had developed

green banking channel where the customer can initiate a

transaction by swiping the debit card in a point of sale

machine kept at a lobby. The transaction thus initiated by

customer will automatically get posted in Core Banking

Solution where it is verified by the branch teller. In the

whole process, manual filling up of challans or vouchers

are dispensed with and the transaction is authenticated

through ATM PIN – a green initiative for paper-less mode.

Green banking channel supports cash withdrawal, cash

deposit and fund transfer.

Desktop Virtualization

Printer Consolidation

Mail Server Consolidation

Green Banking Channel

GREEN INITIATIVES BY XYZ BANK

17

GREEN BANKING FOR INDIAN BANKING SECTOR

In green banking channel implementation, the bank has

integrated multiple systems such as ATM switch, Core

Banking Solution and point of sale network to provide

seamless experience to customer. This has substantially

reduced the usage of paper withdrawal or deposit slips in

the branches, thus contributing towards greener

environment.

XYZ bank has centralized the business processes being

followed in the branches or offices, including

centralization of account opening process, centralization

of account servicing, centralization of trade finance

process, and centralization of overseas customer account

opening.

In order to automate and track the process at every stage

of processing, the bank implemented Document

Management System with workflow capability. To reduce

the turnaround time, XYZ bank has implemented

scanning at branch concept wherein documents are

scanned at branches. The system automatically

categorises the documents based on the intelligent

character recognition or optical character recognition

technology.

Once the documents are exported into Document

Management System, the same is available to National

Processing Centre for processing. XYZ bank has created

separate processing centre, one for account opening and

account servicing and other for trade finance processing.

In order to implement the system, XYZ bank has

integrated Document Management System with Core

Banking Solution, Lending Automation System, Mail

Messaging System, SMS, SWIFT, FAX, Intranet Portal, etc.

This has helped in straight through processing between

various systems.

Besides increasing efficiency, reducing cost, and

turnaround time, this system helped in eliminating the

need for keeping the multiple copies of documents in the

branches. It is a “Green Initiative” by the XYZ bank,

reducing the dependency on papers, in turn helping in

saving the environment.

Centralization of Operations

CASE STUDY 3:

PQR bank took a social responsibility towards proper

handling of e-waste management with a view to protect

the environment which may be polluted by toxic gases

and other non-biodegradable substances which are

discharged through e-waste. PQR bank has put in place, a

well defined and transparent e-waste management policy

in accordance with E-waste Rule, 2011 notified by

Ministry of Environment and Forest, Government of India.

E-waste policy of the bank contains broad guidelines or

procedures for effective e-waste management in all units

of the bank located in India. The policy aims at generating

awareness amongst all the working staff for proper

maintenance of electrical and electronics equipments.

The e-waste management initiative of the bank

emphasizes on the following:

Reduction in e-waste generation by locating

electronic equipments in proper environment,

regular maintenance of equipments and use of

centralized printing or photocopying facilities

Wherever possible, to take into account buy-back

arrangement with the vendor(s) for new purchase

Purchase of energy efficient and eco-efficient

technology products by giving preference to

higher star-rated electric or electronic items

Identification of e-waste and their timely disposal

(ensuring that no official data is released to

outside parties)

Repairs or upgrade of the equipments if the cost to

be incurred is reasonable and commensurate with

the extended life of the equipment

Reckoning of the usefulness of items and donating

them to trusts or schools, NGOs, etc.

GREEN INITIATIVES BY PQR BANK

E-waste Management

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FOSTERING

GREEN BANKING

Chapter 5

18

GREEN BANKING FOR INDIAN BANKING SECTOR

Green banking can be an avenue to reduce pollution and

save the environment aiding sustainable economic

growth. Green Banking is a multi-stakeholders'

endeavour where banks have to work closely with

government, NGOs, regulator, consumers, and business

communities to reach the goal.

We propose the introduction of standard rating for green

efficient banks and banking practices among Indian

Banks. Under this rating system, both the infrastructure

and operations of the banks are being considered. We

have coined the term of Green Rating Standard as “Green

Coin Rating”. Banks' primary business must not be money

making only, but it should also keep in mind social and

environmental issues relating to its operations.

Green Coin Rating will be in line as energy star rating given

for appliances. Banks will be judged based on the rate of

carbon emission out of their operations, the amount of

reuse, refurbish and recycling concept being used in their

building furnishings and in the systems used by them such

as computers, servers, networks, printers, etc. They are

also being evaluated on the number of green projects

being financed by them and the amount of rewards and

recognition they are paying for turning businesses green.

The primary objectives behind Green Coin Rating are as

follows:

Improving the energy and carbon efficiency of

bank

To estimate energy usage and wastage

Comparative assessment of banks and its products

efficiency for the customers and other

stakeholders in relation to environment impact

assessment

Recognize and reward the environment-conscious

financial institutions.

Financial institutions and banks in particular have an

important role to play in going green by contributing to

the creation of a strong and successful low carbon

economy. They should expand the use of environmental

information in the credit extension and investment

decisions. The endeavor will help them proactively

improve their environmental performance and creating

long term value for their business.

Even the customers want ecologically friendly products

and services to reduce their impact on the environment.

The banks going green in the technologies and services

that they are providing, will not only save their energy and

water consumption but will also appraise them in the eyes

of environment supporting customers. The Green

approach adopted by the banks will impact the customers

in the following ways:

Better choice for customers and businesses

Customers will be attracted to relationship-driven

approach built on foundation of core values

designed to enhance environmental, social, and

financial well being of communities

Active lending to sustainable businesses

Green credit being provided to the customers.

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Carbon

Emission

Green

Building

Paper

work

Green

Investment

Reuse/

Recycle/

Refurbish

Green

Rewards

GREEN

COIN

RATINGS

19

GREEN BANKING FOR INDIAN BANKING SECTOR

GLOSSARY

Carbon Footprint

Climate Change

Cloud Computing

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) –

Data Centre infrastructure Efficiency (DCiE) –

e-waste –

Environmental Sustainability –

A measure of an organization's or

entity's impact on the environment in terms of the

amount of greenhouse gases produced, measured in

units of CO equivalent.

Changes in temperature and weather

patterns due to certain human activity like burning fossil

fuels. The changes include global average air and ocean

temperature, widespread melting of snow and ice and

rising global sea levels.

A new computing or IT paradigm in

which computing resources – computing capacity, storage

and applications – are delivered and consumed as a

service accessed over a network. It is easily scalable and

highly flexible, and users pay for the services they use.

A form of

corporate self-regulation about how companies manage

their business processes to produce an overall positive

impact on society. Its goal is for a company to embrace

responsibility for its actions and encourage a positive

impact through its activities on the environment,

consumers, employees, communities, stakeholders and

all other members of the public sphere. Integrated into its

business model, a business' CSR policy functions as a

built-in, self-regulating mechanism whereby a business

monitors and ensures its active compliance with the spirit

of the law, ethical standards and international norms.

A metric

used to determine the energy efficiency of a data centre.

It is the ratio of information technology equipment power

to total facility power, and is expressed as a percentage.

Electronic waste, e-waste, e-scrap or Waste

Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) comprises

discarded electrical or electronic devices. It is one of the

fastest growing segments of our waste stream.

The design and provision

of products and services that incorporate and promote

waste minimization and the efficient and effective use

and reuse of resources. Its aim is to protect the

2

environment for the benefit of current and future

generations. It is all about meeting needs and seeking a

balance between people, the environment and the

economy. According to the United Nations, sustainable

development meets the needs of the present without

compromising the ability of future generations to meet

their own needs.

The rising average temperature of the

Earth's atmosphere and oceans and its projected

continuation. In the last 100 years, the Earth's average

surface temperature increased by about 0.8 C (1.4 F) with

about two-thirds of the increase occurring over just the

last three decades. Most global warming is caused by

increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases produced

by human activities such as deforestation and burning

fossil fuels.

A resource-efficient building that uses

less water, optimizes energy efficiency, conserves natural

resources, generates less waste and provides healthier

spaces for occupants, as compared to a conventional

building. A green building reduces its carbon footprint

throughout a building's life cycle design, construction,

operation, maintenance, renovation and demolition.

A data centre in which IT systems,

air-conditioning systems, electrical and mechanical

systems and the buildings that house the data centre are

designed and operated for maximum energy efficiency,

low carbon footprint and minimum environmental

impacts.

A term referring to environmentally sound

information technologies and systems, applications and

practices. It is the study and practice of designing,

manufacturing and using computers, servers, monitors,

printers, storage devices and networking and

communications systems efficiently and effectively with

zero or minimal impact on the environment. It is also

about using IT to support, assist and leverage other

environmental initiatives and to help create green

awareness. Green IT encompasses hardware, software,

tools, strategies and practices that help improve and

foster environmental sustainability.

A wide range of different gases

that can absorb thermal infrared radiation (heat) which is

o o

Global Warming –

Green Building –

Green Data Centre –

Green IT –

Greenhouse Gas (GHG) –

REFERENCES

20

GREEN BANKING FOR INDIAN BANKING SECTOR

emitted from the earth, and then re-emit it. The most

significant GHGs are CO , methane, nitrous oxide and CFC

gases.

The ISO 14000 standards family

addresses various aspects of environmental manage-

ment. ISO 14001 deals with the requirements of an

Environmental Management System (EMS), and ISO

14004 offers general guidelines for EMSs. The other ISO

14000 standards and guidelines address specific

environmental aspects such as labelling, performance

evaluation, life cycle analysis, communication and

auditing.

LEED consists of a suite of rating systems for the design,

construction and operation of high-performance green

buildings, homes and neighbourhoods. Developed by the

US Green Building Council, LEED is intended to provide

building owners and operators a concise framework for

identifying and implementing practical and measurable

green building design, construction, operations and

maintenance solutions.

A metric used to

determine the energy efficiency of a data centre. PUE is

the ratio of the amount of total power consumed by a data

centre to the power used to run the computer

infrastructure within it. PUE measures how much

overhead energy is required to house and cool computers

inside a building relative to the amount of energy that the

computers consume themselves.

The philosophy that

unwanted computers, monitors and other hardware

should not be thrown away as rubbish, as they will then

end up in landfills and cause serious environmental

problems. Instead, we should refurbish, reuse or recycle

(i.e. dispose of) them in environmentally sound ways. This

is also known as the three 'Rs' of greening unwanted

hardware.

A process of creating a virtual (rather than

actual) version of something, such as a hardware

platform, operating system, a storage device or network

resources, with the aim to centralize administrative tasks

whilst improving scalability and overall hardware

resource utilization.

2

ISO 14001 standard –

Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) –

Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) –

Reuse, Refurbish, and Recycle –

Virtualization –

Harnessing Green IT: Principles and Practices.

UNEPFI:

Equator Principles:

Banks Going Green

Competitive Advantage on a Warming Planet.

Banks and the Environment.

LEED Certificates:

ICT for a Low Carbon Economy: Smart Buildings

ASHRAE Data Center Technical Guidebooks.

Best Practices for the EU Code of Conduct on Data

Centers,

Evaluating the Carbon Reducing Impacts of ICT:

Assessment Methodology.

Report to Congress on Server and Data Center Efficiency.

Smart 2020: Enabling the Low Carbon Economy in the

Information Age

AC versus DC Power Distribution for Data Centers

Data Center TCO: A Comparison of High Density and Low

Density Space

Energy Efficiency in Buildings: Business Realities and

Opportunities

The Uptime Institute:

The Green Grid:

Greener and Smarter: ICTs, the Environment, and Climate

Change,

A New Era of Sustainability: UN Global Compact –

Accenture CEO Study 2010,

San

Murugesan and G.R. Gangadharan (Editors). 2012 by

Wiley IEEE Publishers, United Kingdom.

, Sahitha Abdulla

Harvard

Business Review, 85, 2007.

Canadian Bankers

Association.

, Technical

report, European Commission, 2009.

2011.

An

Global eSustainability

Institute, 2010.

US Environmental Protection Agency, 2007.

. Global eSustainability Initiative, 2010.

, APC

White Paper, 2011.

, Intel White Paper, 2008.

, Technical report, World Business Council

for Sustainable Development. 2008.

Green Building Council, South Africa,

OECD, 2010.

United Nations Global

Compact, USA, 2010.

http://www.unepfi.org/

http://www.equator-principles.com/

http://www.mbatious.com/article/banks-going-

green?page=6(Feb.2012)

http://www.usgbc.org/leed

www.gbcsa.org.za

www.thegreengrid.org

http://uptimeinstitute.org

IDRBT Green Banking Working Group

An IDRBT Publication, August 2013. All Rights Reserved. For restricted circulation in the Indian Banking Sector.C

MEMBERS

Dr. G.R.Gangadharan,

Assistant Professor, IDRBT

Mr. Anil Tembhe,

AGM, State Bank of India

Mr. G. S. V. Surya Prasad,

Executive Vice President & Head,

Infrastructure Technology Group,

HDFC Bank.

Dr. San Murugesan,

Director, BRITE Professional Services,

Australia

Dr. Sateesh Kannegala,

Senior Technical Manager, HP India

Mr. Koyal Mandal,

Program Head - ESF,

Institute for Financial Management

and Research, India

Mr. Anil Kuril,

DGM, Union Bank of India

Ms. Shaheen Meeran,

Managing Director,

SCHNABEL DC Consultants (I) Pvt. Ltd.

Ms. Swarnalatha Mylavarapu,

Researcher, IBM Research India

MENTORS

,Shri. B. Sambamurthy

DIRECTOR, IDRBT

Shri. Patrick Kishore,

Chief Operating Officer, IDRBT