If you want to visit a compelling laboratory of a country tackling sustainability issues, try Singapore. Ultramodern with a dynamic economy, Singapore has its challenges: water scarcity has become an issue, the city has little room for waste, and the population will only grow. Energy is a concern, too: the city-state has to import most of its energy.
Energy is a huge issue because of the nation’s data centers. For the past 20 years Singapore has become an important information technology center. Data centers are now huge energy hogs in Singapore--especially when you consider the country’s tropical, humid climate.
This will change. Established after a recent conference, the
Singapore Standard for Green Data Centers has set environmental and energy guidelines for data centers operating within the country. Contributors to this new standard includes the Singapore IT Standards Committee, the Infocomm Development Authority to Singapore (IDA) and SPRING Singapore. Such a step is important for Singapore’s business climate: The 10 largest data centers consume the equivalent of 130,000 Singaporean households.
Countries who must deal with diminishing energy sources, increasing fuel prices, and a growing need for IT services had better take a hard look at the Singapore Standard for Green Data Centers. What has occurred in Singapore is an innovative example of how the private and public sectors can cooperate and confront volatile energy prices while creating more economic opportunities. Expect this portal to cover this
issue even more, and I have already discussed data centers once on
The Guardian.
To that end, Singapore’s
Green Business Times, led by its Editor,
Eugene Tay, is a great source for gauging the green business climate in Singapore.
[...] indicate that Dubai could be a thriving technology center that has helped other economies like Singapore and even Bulgaria gain strength. Zones like the Dubai Silicon Oasis (pictured here, click to [...]