GreenTech Pastures
Heather ClancyFiguring out when less is more, from a business carbon standpoint
Summary
My interview with a customer of today’s blog topic, Aspen Technology, prompted me to think a little more deeply about that tired old corporate management adage: “Do more with less.”
That’s because Aspen’s software, which includes the AspenONE carbon dioxide capture-simulation software, allows companies to explore what-if scenarios related to their carbon emission reductions. In effect, [...]
Topics
Blogger Info
Heather Clancy
Biography
Heather Clancy
Heather Clancy is an award-winning business journalist with a passion for green technology and corporate sustainability issues. Her articles have appeared in Entrepreneur, Fortune Small Business, The International Herald Tribune and The New York Times. In a past corporate life, Heather was editor of Computer Reseller News, where she was a featured speaker about everything from software as a service to IT security to mobile computing.
Heather started her journalism life as a business writer with United Press International in New York. She holds a B.A. in English literature from McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, and has a thing for Lewis Carroll.
My interview with a customer of today’s blog topic, Aspen Technology, prompted me to think a little more deeply about that tired old corporate management adage: “Do more with less.”
That’s because Aspen’s software, which includes the AspenONE carbon dioxide capture-simulation software, allows companies to explore what-if scenarios related to their carbon emission reductions. In effect, the technology figures out whether or not the “more” that a company is thinking about doing to produce fewer emissions in their manufacturing or production processes will actually have the intended impact. Aspen Technology believes that companies will use this software to assess and analyze their carbon profile which, in turn, will allow them to figure out how to participate in cap and trade emissions marketplaces.
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (which actually had a part in the original creation of Aspen Technology during the 1970s oil crisis) is using the software to analyze potential data related to parasitic energy loads created through carbon dioxide capture. Randy Fields, executive director of the conservation research program for the MIT Energy Initiative, says the university’s staff and students uses the software to help explore the impact of various post-combustion capture methods that could be applied at coal plants. “The Aspen software is allowing us to look at the what-if scenarios around the clean-up,” Fields says. “We’ve also done some studies on new technologies.”
Other users of the Aspen Technology software are the Research Institute of Innovative Technology for the Earth, the University of Texas at Austin, Cansolve Technologies, American Electric Power and Rentech.
Heather Clancy is an award-winning business journalist with a passion for green technology and corporate sustainability issues.
Disclosure
Heather Clancy
Writing publicly about what the high-tech industry is actually doing to help itself and the world get greener or more sustainable is one way I figure I can contribute more meaningfully to said effort. I�m also a big OMG-kind-of-fan of smart leadership, which is why the goodly folks who publish this blog let me go on about this topic and why I am always on the hunt for forward-looking business management ideas.
My daily writing is focused on looking for topics for my blogs, GreenTech Pastures and Business Brains. I also write often about emerging technology trends such as mobile computing, unified communications and cloud computing. Occasionally, I will pop up at an industry conference in some sort of speaking capacity. In cases where a speaking engagement involves a sponsor that may be covered in this blog, that fact will be disclosed in coverage as appropriate.
My corporate writing work usually consists of crafting research white papers about some aspect of technology. In the event that my commentary (in written, audio or video form) mentions a company for which I have provided consulting advice, I will disclose that fact. However, there is no connection between these projects and the topics that I�m covering in my blog.
Biography
Heather Clancy
Heather Clancy is an award-winning business journalist with a passion for green technology and corporate sustainability issues. Her articles have appeared in Entrepreneur, Fortune Small Business, The International Herald Tribune and The New York Times. In a past corporate life, Heather was editor of Computer Reseller News, where she was a featured speaker about everything from software as a service to IT security to mobile computing.
Heather started her journalism life as a business writer with United Press International in New York. She holds a B.A. in English literature from McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, and has a thing for Lewis Carroll.
More from “GreenTech Pastures”
Related Discussions on TechRepublic
Did you know you can take part in these discussions with your ZDNet membership?Talkback - Tell Us What You Think
Get it the way you want it
ZDNet Newsletters
Get the best of ZDNet delivered straight to your inbox
Vendor Showcase
Blog Roll
- All About Microsoft
- The Apple Core
- Between the Lines
- BriefingsDirect
- Collaboration 2.0
- Dev Connection
- A Developer's View
- Digital Cameras & Camcorders
- Ed Bott's Microsoft Report
- Emerging Tech
- Enterprise Web 2.0
- Five Nines: The Next Gen Datacenter
- Forrester Research
- Googling Google
- GreenTech Pastures
- Hardware 2.0
- Home Theater
- iGeneration
- India IT
- Irregular Enterprise
- IT Project Failures
- Laptops & Desktops
- Lawgarithms
- Linux and Open Source
- Managing L'unix
- The Mobile Gadgeteer
- On Sustainability
- The Semantic Web
- Service Oriented
- Smartphones and Cell Phones
- Social Business
- Social CRM: The Conversation
- Software & Services Safari
- Software as Services
- Storage Bits
- Team Think
- Tech Broiler
- Tom Foremski: IMHO
- The ToyBox
- Virtually Speaking
- The Web Life
- ZDNet Education
- ZDNet Government
- ZDNet Healthcare
- Zero Day
Blog Archive
White Papers, Webcasts, & Resources
- Ten Things You Should Know about Windows 7There's a lot to Windows 7 - as one might expect, in a 17GB operating ... (Global Knowledge) Download Now
- 10 Dying IT SkillsThere are some things in life, like good manners, which never go out of ... (Global Knowledge) Download Now
- WPA2 Security: Choosing the Right WLAN Authentication Method for Homes and EnterprisesAsk a hundred CIOs what three things about WLANs (wireless LANs) strike ... (Global Knowledge) Download Now
