Average temperatures in Alaska, western Canada and eastern Russia have risen at twice the global average. (Arctic Climate Impact Assessment report 2004)
The United Nations Environment Program announced that a small community living in the Pacific island chain of Vanuatu had to relocate due to sea level rise. (Dec. 2005)
Sea levels may rise as much as 59 centimeters (23 inches) by the end of this century. A rise of 10 centimeters (4 inches) could flood many South Seas islands and swamp large swaths of Southeast Asia. (IPCC Report – 2007)*
Depending on whose science or projections you believe, the world is melting, its waters rising and its future looking a lot like the movie "2012." It may well be. Among the many stepping forward to help save it, the global teleport industry is now taking its turn.
With more governments and businesses beginning to address either the "inconvenient truth" of a planet heading toward a climactic, anthropomorphic catastrophe, or else the exaggerated claims of one that is simply doing what planets in a volatile planetary system do, the satellite industry has taken its first step. It is a step based on a simple premise that requires no debate: the need for better financial results.
In a new nine-page report being prepared for international release by World Teleport Association ("The Green Teleport: the Business Case for Sustainability" – www.worldteleport.org), the challenge of global warming is defined as a good business proposition within the service of a popular cause. On December 1st, the association unveiled its Teleport Energy Management Campaign, the first of its kind in the satellite industry. The initiative will make available key energy management resources to its members. These resources will include data from a members’ survey; a members’ forum on the subject next year at the law firm of Paul Hastings and this new report. WTA will also handout the industry’s first "Green Teleport" Award on March 16th at its annual awards luncheon during the Satellite conference in Maryland.
The introductory paragraph of its report states the rationale for its initiatives clearly, "It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to tackle one of the biggest challenges facing a teleport operator today. More like an accountant." The report, authored by Executive Director Robert A. Bell, provides a highly practical overview, details near-term solutions and outlines a long-term approach. It puts the $13 billion teleport industry, which produces nearly one-fifth of the world’s satellite communications revenue, squarely in the camp of the "green movement."
Once the domain of fringe political parties and championed by baby boomers for whom the Woodstock Music Festival was its generation’s moral equivalent of the hajj, the energy management industry is today formed by a body of scientific data from respected sources like the Goddard Institute for Space Studies and the U.N’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). IPCC’s 2007 report (endorsed by 2,500 scientists in 130 nations) concluded that humans are causing most of the current warming.
With its backbone of engineers and its cautious, technical approach to business management, the teleport industry has embraced the issue in an attempt to get a grip on rising costs and competitive pressures.
Its approach is the right one, according to industry leaders. Teleport energy costs are soaring. The world’s major teleport facilities spend between USD$300,000 and one million each year to power their operations. The WTA report, based in part on work done by former GlobeCast America CEO Mary Frost, states that a combination of easy steps, which rely on common sense as much as a technical or strategic initiative, are immediately available. These can be followed by more complex decisions about investments in new technologies.
Raising the "Energy IQ"
A combination of energy audits, increases in the "energy IQ" of teleport staff, investments in new systems such as virtual servers and modular generators and a willingness to look to "off-the grid" investments is the proscribed diet advocated.
According to Frost, basic energy conservation practices and operational efficiencies can cut the average teleport energy bill by 20-40%.
"I have been to many teleports over the years," said Frost. "There are so many obvious things operators can do to cut energy-related expenses and, over time, turn a cost center into a producer of revenue".
As a member of WTA’s board of directors, she brought the issue forward within WTA. She believed so strongly in the potential of the energy management industry that she left the teleport industry to launch a start-up firm, Power to Change US. The company has worked with WTA, at no cost, to help shape its comprehensive energy management program. Power to Change US is focused on helping organizations generate sustainable efficiencies and new revenues from energy conservation.
Referring to WTA’s energy audit program, which will be available on the company’s website, Frost noted that a facility audit will first pick low hanging fruit from the cost side and deliver visible, near-term energy savings. It puts money back into the operational side of the business.
WTA hopes that alongside the audit, employee education becomes prevalent. The days of employees with space heaters at their feet in July (due to inefficient cooling systems) can end by July 2010. Programmable thermostats and automated light fixtures are "easy and affordable ways to increase comfort and decrease costs." From there the real work begins.
If a previous generation of satellite and teleport industry leaders were defined by the work many did on programs such as NASA’s Apollo 11 and the deployment of a global fleet of satellites which ushered in the information age, it is hoped that the current generation will pursue equally innovative content distribution, but leave as its legacy an end of the anxiety over a planet in peril. Teleport operators such as Arqiva, GlobeCast, Crawford, TIBA and hundreds of others will not arrest the problem individually, or even collectively. However, they now have a chance to contribute.
*—National Geographic website: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/12/1206_041206_global_warming.html
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Lou Zacharilla is the Director of Development of the Society of Satellite Professionals International (SSPI). He can be reached at lzacharilla@sspi.org
