Huu-Nghi Nguyen
email: huu.nguyen@ens-lyon.fr

Anthony Busson
email: anthony.busson@ens-lyon.fr

Isabelle Guérin
email: isabelle.guerin-lassous@ens-lyon.fr

Evaluation of an End-to-End Delay Estimation in the Case of Multiple Flows in SDN Networks

Though SDN (Software Defined Network) provides the executive building blocks for programming data-plane appliances, controller decisions must be grounded in an accurate outlook on the network topology and performance. In this context, we focus on the possibility of providing accurate measurements for the end-to-end (E2E) delay in SDN networks. In practice, like many variable quantities, a good description of the E2E delay requires characterizing its first two moments, i.e., expectation and variance. We propose to estimate the E2E delay by making use only of measurements collected locally on each node of the network. We extend a procedure that has been proposed to estimate the E2E delay in the case of one flow to handle the case of multiple competing flows. We compare its accuracy using several scenarios, with different types of traffic following real traces, different topologies and bandwidth. Also, an analysis of the computational and networking costs of our solution is proposed.

I. INTRODUCTION

Software Defined Networking (SDN) is a disruptive technology that thoroughly redefines the way computer networks are managed. SDN has two key features. First, within an SDN, the control plane is decoupled from the data plane. Second, the control plane of an SDN enables a controller to directly control data-plane appliances (e.g., routers and switches). Controllers decide rules describing how data-plane appliances handle packets and flows, and then communicate them to the dataplane appliances using an Application Programming Interface (API) such as OpenFlow [START_REF] Mckeown | Openflow: enabling innovation in campus networks[END_REF]. SDN computer networks can leverage this unified architecture in order to have a simple, efficient and scalable management of their resources [START_REF] Feamster | The road to SDN: an intellectual history of programmable networks[END_REF].

Though SDN provides the executive building blocks for programming data-plane appliances, controller decisions must be grounded in an accurate outlook on the network topology and performance. For instance, routing decisions for flows with stringent requirements of Quality of Service (QoS) could be supported by an estimate of the end-to-end (E2E) delay.

Other potential examples include admission control and load balancing. Hence, SDN controllers would highly benefit from having at their disposal a performance dashboard that they can query prior to take a decision. This dashboard will typically include metrics such as CPU utilization at virtual switches, current number of active flows at virtual switches, consumed throughput on link, and E2E delay.

In this paper, we focus on the possibility of providing accurate measurements for the E2E delay to the SDN controller. Broadly speaking, the E2E delay refers to the time taken for a packet to be transmitted across a network from its source to its destination. For flows like interactive video or audio streams, the E2E delay is a critical parameter [START_REF] Almes | A One-way Delay Metric for IP Performance Metrics[END_REF] as opposed to the round-trip time (RTT), which is of little interest in these cases.

Because packets taking the same path across a network typically may experience different amounts of delay, one should consider statistical metrics to characterize the E2E delay of a flow. In practice, like many variable quantities, a good description of the E2E delay requires characterizing its first two moments, i.e., expectation and variance. The expected value (or mean value) is the most important parameter to consider. However, estimating its variance (or, similarly, its standard deviation) can be of much interest because it enables a better understanding on the variation of the E2E delay, as well as probabilistic bounds on the range of possible values (e.g., Chebyshev's inequality).

Because the E2E delay is a one-way delay, its direct measurement requires two synchronized clocks at different locations. Unfortunately, this direct measurement approach would lead to inaccuracies due to the problem of clock synchronization, unless expensive GPS device are used [START_REF] Moon | Measurement and Analysis of End-to-end Delay and Loss in the Internet[END_REF], [START_REF] Choi | Analysis of Point-To-Point Packet Delay In an Operational Network[END_REF], [START_REF]Practical Delay Monitoring for ISPs[END_REF]. Moreover, most of the proposed solutions for estimating the E2E delay insert probing packets that may affect the performance of the existing traffic [START_REF] Wang | Survey on the End-to-End internet Delay Measurements[END_REF]. Alternately, we propose to estimate the E2E delay of a given path across the network by making use only of measurements collected locally on each node of the network. We assume that each node can monitor its buffers so that the SDN controller has local delay measurements for each node interface.

Given measurements of the delay at each node composing the path under study, the expected value of E2E delay is simply obtained by adding them all together. One could attempt to apply a similar approach to approximate the variance, or better yet, the whole distribution of the E2E delay. Though direct measurement approach would work if the delays at each node of the path were independent, it will lead in practice to large errors, usually underestimating the actual value of the variance. We illustrate the inapplicability of this approach by calculating the variance (resp. the distribution) of the E2E delay by summing up the delay variances (resp. convoluting the delay distributions) measured at each node composing a path of 5 nodes (similar to that considered in Section III). The approximate variance was found to be almost three times smaller than the exact one found by sampling the path. As for the whole distribution of the E2E delay, the approximate solution significantly differs from the exact one (see Fig 1). This example demonstrates that independency between the local delays composing a path cannot be assumed when estimating the variance of the E2E delay. Their strong correlation compels a more holistic approach. In a previous paper [START_REF] Nguyen | Towards a passive measurement-based estimator for the standard deviation of the end-to-end delay[END_REF], we described a procedure to estimate the first two moments of the E2E delay in case of a single flow transmitted on a path. In a separate work [START_REF]Approximating the end-to-end delay using local measurements: a preliminary study based on conditional expectation[END_REF], we proposed another procedure that pursues the same objective but using a different approach. In this paper, we extend the former procedure to handle the case of multiple competing flows. We compare its accuracy with that of the latter procedure using several scenarios, as well as their computational and networking costs. The rest of this paper is organized as follows. In Section II, we describe the proposed solution to estimate the first two moments of the E2E delay. Numerical results and comparison to another existing solution are reported in Section III. Section IV concludes this paper.

II. VARIANCE OF THE END-TO-END DELAY A. Assumptions and definitions

Considering that the SDN controller attempts to monitor the E2E delays for different flows in the network, we propose a procedure to estimate their mean and variance. Without loss of generality, we describe our procedure to obtain this quantity for a particular flow, hereafter named the primary flow, and denoted by f 1 . Note that in this paper, our definition of a flow refers to a set of packets entering and leaving the network at the same nodes, and, importantly, taking the same path. Thus, this flow can aggregate multiple IP flows, which happen to take the same path on their way to their destination.

We refer to the primary path as being the set of nodes and links traversed by the primary flow. We denote by N the number of nodes composing the primary path, numbered from 1 to N . The link between node k and node (k + 1) is characterized by its transmitting capacity C k (in Mbps), and its propagation time R k (in sec). Packets queued in each node and waiting for transmission are processed according to a First-In-First-out discipline.

Beside the primary flow, secondary flows may come across the primary path. Their packets compete with those of the primary flow in the access to the links. We use f k,l to denote a secondary flow entering the primary path at node k and leaving it at node l (with 1 ≤ k < l ≤ N ). Figure 2 illustrates two examples of primary path with several flows, including f 1 .

From a practical standpoint, our proposed method requires some information from the nodes composing the primary path. First, each node knows the transmitting capacities of the links composing the primary path. Second, nodes are able to measure the size, inter-arrival time and the waiting time (time queued in the buffer of the node) of incoming packets. Note that this latter quantity can be obtained using a single clock. Finally, based on the IP source and destination addresses, nodes are able to distinguish the different flows from each other.

B. Proposed solution by decomposition

We now describe our solution to estimate the variance of the E2E delay for the primary flow f 1 . Note that we do not address the case of the expectation of the E2E delay (i.e., its mean value) because its best estimate is simply obtained by summing all together the mean delays measured on each node composing the primary path. However, the variance of the E2E delay contains a complex covariance term, which captures the correlation between the local measurements. As we rely on a decomposition approach to approximate its value, we refer to our solution as the Decomposition method.

Let D be the random variable representing the E2E delay of f 1 , and D k be the random variables accounting for the times spent by packets of f 1 between nodes k and k + 1. Each D k has 3 main components:

• The waiting time, W k , corresponding to the amount of time packets are queued in node k prior to their transmission; • The transmission time, S k , expressing the time needed to transmit packets on the link between nodes k and k + 1 once their waiting times are over; • The propagation time, R k , on the link between nodes k and k + 1.

Note that the processing times, including the times to process the packet headers and to look for the routing rules, can be neglected in comparison with the other quantities. The prominent framework to process packets, DPDK library, enables the processing of a packet in less than 80 CPU cycles [START_REF] Pongrácz | Removing roadblocks from SDN: openflow software switch performance on intel DPDK[END_REF].

Besides, propagation times are constants, and hence their variances are zero. By definition, the E2E delay for f 1 can be expressed as:

D = k D k .
Applying the variance operator on this equation, we obtain:

V[D] = V[ N -1 k=1 D k ] = V[ N -1 k=1 (W k + S k )] (1) = V[ N -1 k=1 W k ] + V[ N -1 k=1 S k ] + N -1 k=1,l=1
Cov(W k , S l ).

We now explain how we approximate each of these terms. Let denote by P f1 k the random variable representing the packet size for the flow f 1 at node k. The transmission time on the k-th link is given by

S k = P f 1 k C k . The term V[ N -1 k=1 S k ] is computed by node N such as: V[ N -1 k=1 S k ] = N -1 k=1 1 C i 2 V[P f1 N ]. (2)
Using the definition of the covariance, Cov(W k , S l ) can be estimated by each node k with the following estimation:

Cov(W k , S l ) ≈ 1 C l E[W k P f1 k ] -E[W k ]E[P f1 k ] . (3)
At this point, the only quantity left unknown is

V[ N -1 k=1 W k ].
Its value is more complex as it contains the covariance capturing the correlation between the waiting times among the different nodes. By expanding it in different terms, we get:

V[ N -1 k=1 W k ] = N -1 k=1 V[W k ] + 2 N -1 k=1,l=2,k<l Cov(W k , W l ). (4)
The variance terms appearing in Eq. ( 4) can be calculated locally by each node using the classical estimator for variance. However, it is not possible to obtain a simple empirical estimator of the covariance terms. It would suppose to know the waiting times at the different nodes for the same packets, which requires a complex synchronization between nodes.

Our solution relies on a recurrent function that allows a given node k to infer the waiting time that a packet is expected to experience in subsequent nodes l (with l > k). Arguments of this function include the packet sizes, the link capacities as well as the time elapsing between two successive arrivals. For the sake of clarity, in the following, quantities being found by this function are marked with a "hat" (e.g., ŵm k+1 ). To explain the inner-working of the recurrent function, let us consider the m-th packet of the primary flow at node k. We denote its size by p m k , and its transmission time on the k-th node by s m k . These quantities are estimated locally. Then, node k infers Îm k+1 the inter-arrival time between packets m -1 and m at the next node k + 1. Also, node k estimates ŵm k+1 the waiting time of packet m at node k + 1, and ŝm-1

k+1 = p m-1 k C k+1
the service time of packet m -1 at node k + 1. Eq. ( 5) details the recurrent function.

Îm k+1 = s m k + max{0, I m k -w m-1 k -s m-1 k } ŵm k+1 = max{0, ŵm-1 k+1 + ŝm-1 k+1 -Îm k+1 } , k ≥ 1. (5)
Any node k can apply this formula recursively in order to forecast the waiting time on a subsequent node (k + i), i.e., ŵm k+i .

We now discuss the applicability of this recurrent function. In fact, the estimates returned by the recurrent function may differ from the actual waiting times for two main reasons. First, in order to keep the calculations tractable, it only considers the primary flow, and hence explicitly neglects the secondary flows. By doing so, we assume that the additional delays caused by secondary flows are sufficiently independent from the waiting time in queue k so that they do no significantly affect the covariance terms. However, note that we implicitly do take into account the influence of secondary flows when we compute the variance of the waiting times, W k . Second, we do not consider the actual finite size of buffers in Eq. ( 5), thus neglecting potential packet losses. However, packet losses tend to occur rarely in wired computer networks due to their general oversizing [START_REF]ICFA SCIC Network Monitoring Report[END_REF]. Nonetheless, based on our numerical results (including different types of traces, network topologies, buffer sizes, and levels of load), it appears that this recurrent function provides fair predictions for our purpose.

Overall, every node k of the primary path can calculate

V(W k ), Cov(W k , S l ) (with l > k), as well as Cov(W k , W l ) (with l > k) using the proposed recurrent function. Node N can compute V[ N -1 k=1 S k ].
Then, they periodically communicate these values to the SDN controller that is in charge of summing them in order to obtain an estimate of the variance of the E2E delay of flows f 1 as given by Eq. (1).

III. NUMERICAL RESULTS

In this section, we assess the goodness of our proposed solution, i.e., Decomposition method, to approximate the second moment of the E2E delay. However, instead of considering the variance, we focus on the standard deviation of the E2E delay, denoted by σ hereafter. Note that the latter is simply the square root of the former. Dealing with the standard deviation is often more convenient from a practical standpoint as it is expressed in the same units as the mean.

The results provided by our Decomposition method are indexed by Dec. For the sake of completeness, we compare its found values for the standard deviation of the E2E delay, i.e., σ Dec , with those delivered by three other means:

• σ Exact , whose values are found by using the classical empirical estimator for the standard deviation on the actual E2E delay of packets. Though awkwardly implementable in a real network, this Oracle is used as the reference and allows us to estimate the error of the different methods and to compare them objectively; • σ T rivial , whose values are simply obtained by neglecting the correlation between the waiting times and between the transmission times. In other words, covariance terms in Eq. ( 2) and in Eq.( 4) are set to zero; • σ Cond , whose values are found using the solution described in [START_REF]Approximating the end-to-end delay using local measurements: a preliminary study based on conditional expectation[END_REF], which relies on a conditional approach. We implemented these four solutions in the discrete-event simulator NS-3.

f 1 1 2 3 4 C 1 C 2 C 3 f 2,3 f 2,3
Bottleneck (a) Scenario 1: 2 flows and 4 nodes.

f 1 + f 1,2 1 2 3 4 5 6 C1 C2 C3 C4 C5 f 1,2 f 2,4 + f 2,5 f 2,5 f 3,4 f 3,4 + f 2,4
Bottlenecks (b) Scenario 2: 5 flows and 6 nodes.

A. Scenarios

To illustrate the behavior of our solution, we consider two different scenarios. Scenario 1 represents a small topology wherein the primary path is made up of four nodes, and only one secondary flow competes to access some links. Fig. 2(a) illustrates this first scenario. In our second scenario, the primary path consists of 6 nodes and, aside the primary flow, four secondary flows cross the path. Fig. 2(b) depicts Scenario 2. Each scenario can operate in two modes: lowcapacity and high-capacity. In the low-capacity mode, the link capacities are expressed in Mbps, whereas when we consider the high-capacity mode, capacities are thousand fold larger, and thus expressed in Gbps. More precisely, the link capacities are as follows: C 1 = 8, C 2 = 5, C 3 = 3 for Scenario 1, and

C 1 = 6, C 2 = 4, C 3 = 7, C 4 = 3, C 5 = 5 for Scenario 2.
Secondary flows fill the primary path at a fixed and constant (in average) rate. In Scenario 1, f 2,3 is set to 2 Mbps (resp. Gbps) when considering the low-capacity (resp. high-capacity) mode. As for Scenario 2, f 1,2 , f 2,4 , f 2,5 and f 3,4 are configured to with a mean rate of 1, 0.8, 0.2 and 1.5 Mbps (resp. Gbps) for the low-capacity (resp. high-capacity) mode. Unless stated otherwise, all buffers are of size 15, 000 bytes when the lowcapacity mode is on, and 75, 000 bytes for the high-capacity mode.

We now discuss the statistical profile of the traffic used to generate the packets of the flows (primary and secondary flows alike). Packet sizes and inter-arrival times are drawn using one of the two real traces at our hand. Our first trace was captured on the campus of the Stuttgart University (Germany) [START_REF] Sass | The dormitory network "Selfnet" of the University of Stuttgart[END_REF]. The part of the trace we used spans over four hours of communications, from 6 p.m to 10 p.m, and contains 44 millions packets with a maximum workload measured at 60 Mbps (measured in one second). The second trace was downloaded from the Center for Applied Internet Data Analysis website (CAIDA) [START_REF]The CAIDA Anonymized Internet Traces 2015 Dataset[END_REF]. This trace originates from the Equinix exchange points in Chicago. It is composed of several files, each one contains one minute of traffic that represents between 15 and 30 millions of packets. Table I reports the distribution of packet sizes for each trace. While small packets account for almost half of the total packets in the Campus trace, they represent a third in the CAIDA trace wherein large packets are the majority.

By considering these two scenarios combined with two different real traces, we seek to evaluate the impact of the number of secondary flows, the path size, and the low/high transmission rates on the accuracy of our method, thereby providing a fair outlook on the accuracy of our proposed solution.

B. Distribution of the accuracy

We begin our analysis by calculating the standard deviation of the E2E delay found by our proposed solution, σ Dec , on each scenario wherein the traffic may either be extracted from the Campus trace or from the CAIDA trace. This leads to a total of four combinations.

As the value found for σ Dec depends on the particular considered excerpt of trace (besides the whole trace itself), we repeat its calculation over hundreds of independent excerpts. More precisely, we conduct 600 independent experiments using the CAIDA trace, and 1440 using the Campus trace, resulting in 600 and 1440 samples for each method. Each individual sample of standard deviation was found by running our proposed solution over 100 consecutive packets of the primary flow. We then use these samples to derive the median error, and the cumulative distribution function of the relative error committed by the different solutions. Note that the relative error is simply calculated as follows: |σ-σ Exact | σ Exact where σ can be σ Dec , σ Cond , or σ T rivial .

1) Scenario 1 with Campus trace: To begin with, we consider Scenario 1 wherein the traffic is generated from the Campus trace. We set links to the low-capacity mode. We consider two different levels of loads for the primary flow, f 1 : moderate and high, corresponding respectively to an average rate of 1 and 1.5 Mbps. Fig. 3 depicts the cumulative distribution for the relative error committed by our solution (σ Dec ), as well as by the trivial solution (σ T rivial ) and by the Conditional method (σ Cond ). Fig. 3(a) reports the case when the rate of f 1 is moderate, while Fig. 3(b) exhibits the case of a high load. Either way, the trivial solution leads to very poor predictions, thereby invalidating this approach. Indeed, only around 30% of samples differed by less than 10% from the exact value. As for the Conditional solution, it tends to lead to satisfactory results with almost 90% of samples being less than 10% away from the exact value. Finally, our proposed solution delivers a very high level of accuracy. Virtually all its samples are within less than 5% of the exact value. Due to space limitation, we do not present the results obtained with Scenario 1 with CAIDA trace in the highcapacity mode. Note that, our proposed solution provides very accurate predictions for the standard deviation of the E2E delay, that are even better than with the Campus trace.

2) Scenario 2 with Campus trace: We now consider the more complex Scenario 2. Fig. 4 represents the corresponding results when the Campus trace is used to generate the traffic and the links are set to high-capacity mode. First, and regardless of the rate of the primary flow f 1 , the trivial solution fails to provide accurate results. Second, with this scenario, the difference between the Decomposition method (σ Dec ) and the Conditional method (σ Cond ) is much less marked. Both tend to deliver around 80% of samples within less than 10% when the rate f 1 is equal to 1 Mbps, while this number drops to less than 70% when the rate of f 1 grows to 1.5 Mbps. 3) Scenario 2 with CAIDA trace: In our last case, we use the CAIDA trace to generate the traffic while maintaining the Scenario 2, in high-capacity mode though. Here, we observe, on Fig. 5, that our proposed solution (σ Dec ) steadily outperforms the Conditional method (σ Cond ). Indeed, with f 1 = 1.0 Gbps, more than 80% of the found samples σ Dec differ by less than 10% to the exact value, against 60% of samples σ Cond . When the rate of f 1 is larger, both methods tend to be less accurate but the drop is less pronounced for our proposed solution.

C. Workload influence on the accuracy

In this section we study more carefully the influence of the rate of the primary flow f 1 on the accuracy of our proposed solution. To do that, we consider several rates for f 1 , ranging from a low level to a high level and we study the median of the empirical standard deviation of the E2E delay. Fig 6 clearly shows that the evolution of σ Dec as well as σ Cond are very close to σ Exact , which is not the case of σ T rivial . In Fig. 6(b), we see that the accuracy of σ Dec decreases. This can be explained by packet losses that increase with the workload and that skew our estimator.

D. Buffer size influence on the accuracy

Finally, we study the influence of the buffer sizes at each node on the accuracy of our proposed solution. This is of important matter because the most difficult component of the end-to-end delay is the waiting time that highly varies as it depends on the buffer state found upon arrival (e.g., its value is null if the buffer is found empty upon arrival). The workload of f 1 is set to 1.5 Mbps for the low-capacity mode (1.5 Gbps for the high-capacity mode). Fig. 7 shows the evolution of the median of σ Exact , σ Dec , σ Cond and σ T rivial for different sizes of buffer, ranging from 7,000 to 40,000 bytes for the lowcapacity mode (7,500 to 105,000 bytes for the high-capacity mode). As the size of buffers increases, so does the actual values of standard deviation of the E2E delay, as shown by σ Exact . We observe that, in this case, σ Dec tends also to increase with growing values of buffers, and is kept very close to the exact values in Scenario 1. With Scenario 2, the standard deviation median converges immediately to reach a plateau, meaning that the buffer size has a weak influence on the accuracy of our method in this case. The two standard deviations, σ Cond and σ Dec , present a similar behavior with

(3M + 2) + 2(11M + 3) if 1 < k < N -1 5M + 2 the k-th node (1 ≤ k < N ) N (17M + 5) -(k + 1)(14M + 3) N (3M + 2) + 11M + 3 if k = 1 or k = N -1 Computations at the N -th node only 2N + 3M + 1 2N + 3M + 1 0 Number of operations on the SDN controller N -1 4(N -3)L k + N -1 N -2
an error of approximately 10%. The difference with σ Exact is greater than the one found in Scenario 1. It is due to the path size and the number of secondary flows that are greater for this scenario.

E. Computational and networking complexity

In Table II, we show the number of operations required on the nodes (SDN switches) and controller to implement the three methods. An operation can be an addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, or the max operator (the one of the recurrence function). The computations that concern only node N correspond to the computations of Eq. 2. Otherwise, all the other local computations (i.e. V[W k ], Cov(W k , W l ) and Cov(W k , S l )) concern all the other nodes. We can notice that the complexity differs from one node to another. The trivial method is the less complex as it neglects some covariance terms. The difference between the Decomposition method and the Conditional method is the computation of cov(W k , W l ).

Concerning the networking complexity, the message sent to the controller contains only one value for the trivial and Decomposition methods, since a node sums all its estimates required to compute the variance. Consequently, the operations on the controller consists only in summing the values from the N nodes. For the Conditional method, a node has to send the sum of the different estimates and one or two histograms that describe the conditional expectation (one for nodes 1 and N and two for the others). In terms of packet monitoring, as already mentioned, each node has to measure three quantities for each packet: length, waiting time and inter-arrival time.

IV. CONCLUSION

Providing SDN controllers with estimates of the end-to-end (E2E) delay for flows can enable forthcoming SDN networks to have a better management of their resources, and to better deal with flows with stringent requirements of Quality of Services. In addition to the expectation (mean value), an estimate of its variance (or, similarly, its standard deviation) would allow a better characterization of the E2E delay.

In this paper, we extend a previous approach to estimate the E2E delay of a given path across the network by making use only of measurements collected locally on each node of the network. The initial approach was restricted to the case of a single flow, whereas, in this paper, we handle the case of multiple competing flows. We compare its accuracy with other solutions using several scenarios with different numbers of nodes, workload levels, buffer sizes and traffic traces. We also include a complexity study to assess the computational and networking cost of our proposed solution. Numerical results show the general good accuracy of our proposed solution under various conditions.

V. ACKNOWLEDGMENT

Fig. 1 .

 1 Fig. 1. Approximating the distribution of E2E delay by convoluting the delay distributions found on each node generally leads to poor results.

Fig. 2 .

 2 Fig. 2. Considered scenarios.

of f 1 : 1 . 5 Fig. 3 .

 1153 Fig. 3. Scenario 1 with Campus trace: Cumulative distribution function of the relative errors for the standard deviation of the E2E delay.

Fig. 4 .

 4 Fig. 4. Scenario 2 with Campus trace: Cumulative distribution function of the relative errors for the standard deviation of the E2E delay.

of f 1 : 1 . 5 Fig. 5 .

 1155 Fig. 5. Scenario 2 with CAIDA trace: Cumulative distribution function of the relative errors for the standard deviation of the E2E delay.

  Scenario 1 with campus trace, low capacity (in Mbps).

  Scenario 2 with Caida trace, high capacity (in Gbps).

Fig. 6 .

 6 Fig. 6. Median of the empirical standard deviation of the E2E delay.

Fig. 7 .

 7 Fig. 7. Evolution of the standard deviation against buffer sizes.

TABLE II NUMBER

 II OF OPERATIONS TO APPLY THE DIFFERENT METHODS ASSUMING A NETWORK OF N NODES AND M PACKETS. IN THE CONDITIONAL METHOD, L k ∈ [1..M ] IS THE NUMBER OF BINS CONSIDERED IN THE CONDITIONAL EXPECTATION AT k-TH NODE.

	Decomposition method	Conditional method	Trivial method
	Number of operations on	N

This work is partly funded by the French ANR INFRA DISCO under the "ANR-13-INFR-013" project.


Dalton Oswaldo Buccelli

Pedro Luiz De Oliveira

Costa Neto

CLEANER PRODUCTION EVALUATION MODEL: MULTIPLE CASE STUDY IN THE PLASTIC INDUSTRY

Keywords: Cleaner production, Environmental indicators, Management processes, Management quality, Plastic industry

This paper reports a study on the cleaner production program developed in the plastic industry in São Paulo -Brazil. An evaluation model was developed, using as reference the existing literature on business models and process management, as well as excellence models adopted by national quality awards from different countries. The model was applied for in-depth multiple case study in eight plastic companies to validate the importance of management processes in the implementation of cleaner production programs and to observe the results obtained with the cleaner production initiatives. The research has identified two companies with more than 92% compliance to the model which reached important environmental results in the last three years. The results are supplemented with the use of external performance indicators (material intensity, water and carbon footprint savings) to show that little changes inside the companies can reduce upstream impacts and bring greater benefits to the environment.

Introduction

Stone [START_REF] Stone | When case studies are not enough: the influence of corporate culture and employee attitudes on the success of cleaner production initiatives[END_REF] explains that the most common types of changes that are demonstrated by cleaner production case studies are technical, but these types of changes is unlikely to be enough by itself to bring about cleaner production in organizations. This is because of the human dimensions of organizational change. Taylor [START_REF] Taylor | Encouraging industry to assess and implement cleaner production measures[END_REF] recommends the use of tools for behavior change in the context of removing the identified barriers. These change tools could be: obtaining introductory commitments prior to larger requests; providing reminder prompts in appropriate locations; development of community social norms (peer pressure); credible and appropriate communication; and providing incentives.

Vendrametto et al [START_REF] Vendrametto | Cleaner production: A growing movement in brazilian companies[END_REF] conclude that it is better to use a combination of strategies, as well as awareness speeches, technical training and presentation of success cases to disseminate new approaches in the industrial sector, but initiatives to implement cleaner production opportunities were more effective in companies that had tried other methods to improve production processes, such as Lean Manufacturing and Total Quality Management. These organizations primarily seek to structure their management process as a way to make the initiatives solid and permanent. This is part of the absorptive capacity created with the former experience.

Taking into account these statements and experiences of experts, it is possible to assume that the presence of principles and concepts of cleaner production embedded in the management processes of the business is essential for effective implementation of projects to improve the products and operational processes (value chain), allowing them to achieve positive and lasting environmental results. This initiative requires an action that complements the technical knowledge and incorporates cleaner production concepts and principles into the management processes of companies to get permanent improvements in efficiency of production processes, minimize environmental impacts and increase performance indicators results.

The plastic industry brought the interest in analyzing the effectiveness of recent cleaner production initiatives implemented in the sector. The study began with the development of a model for evaluating the incorporation of cleaner production principles in the management processes of companies. The model was created using as reference the existing literature on business models and process management, as well as excellence models adopted by national quality awards from different countries. After that it was applied during multiple case study, a qualitative research to bring a deeper knowledge on key management processes to achieve positive and lasting results.

Two of the eight companies participating in the research were identified by the assessment model as having management processes with structured principles of cleaner production. Over the last three years consistent results were observed in internal environmental indicators such as reduction in consumption of fossil materials, water and electricity. These results were supplemented with calculations of external performance indicators (material intensity, water and carbon footprint savings), allowing to understand the consumption decreases from the nature perspective and showing that even small internal changes to the company can bring big benefits to the environment and society that would not be perceived with restricted use of internal indicators.

Business Processes and Cleaner Production in Plastic Industry

Business processes

Gonçalves [START_REF] Gonçalves | As empresas são grandes coleções de processos (in Portuguese)[END_REF] defines process as any activity or set of activities that receive an "input", adds value and provides an "output" to a specific customer. He classifies the processes of organizations in three categories: Primary Processes; Support Processes; and Business Processes. The French standard AFNOR FD X 50-176 [START_REF]de Normalisation -FD X 50-176, Management des processus[END_REF] recommends the classification of business processes in families to facilitate their identification and suggests the following grouping: Realization Processes; Supporting Processes; and Management Processes.

Rummler and Brache [START_REF] Rummler | Improving performance: how to manage the white space on the organizational chart[END_REF] subdivide existing activities in any company in three types of business processes: primary (processes that belong to the value chain; create products and services that meet the customer needs), auxiliary (processes that support primary processes) and management (processes that govern the operation of the company). Primary processes are concerned to sell, produce, deliver, provide technical assistance, improve and, where necessary, discontinue the product. Auxiliary processes are related to buy materials, recruit and select staff, maintain the company's equipment in working order, control the resources needed to build the product. However, the management processes are related to corporate governance, strategy formulation and deployment, goal setting, information management, definition of guidelines and organizational procedures, knowledge management and customer relationship. The third type of process acquires a prominent position due to assume important guidance and coordination with the other two types of processes.

Cleaner Production in Plastic Industry

The concept of cleaner production (CP) as the continuous application of an integrated preventative environmental strategy to processes, products and services to increase efficiency and reduce risks to humans and the environment, was first used in 1989 by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and in recent years has progressively being incorporated into the agenda of the business world. The basic CP principle is the implementation of advanced processes, technologies and equipment, improvement of management and comprehensive utilization of resources to reduce pollution at source, enhance the rates of resource utilization efficiency, reduce and/or avoid pollution generation and discharge in the course of production, provision of services and product use -so as to decrease the high cost generated by company's waste -and the increasingly scarce inputs like water and energy for society as a whole. According to Giannetti et al [START_REF] Giannetti | Industrial Ecology: concepts, tools and applications[END_REF] this concept was developed as a further challenge of continuous improvement on leading companies, to become an integral part of business. The CP can be applied to processes used in any industry, its products and various services provided. It is a broad term that encompasses other associated terms such as eco-efficiency, pollution prevention (P2), waste minimization and green production.

The plastic industry is a very important sector of the Brazilian economy, containing about twelve thousand companies and contributing significantly to the generation and distribution of wealth in the country, and being the third largest employer in the manufacturing sector with three hundred and forty eight thousand jobs, produced 6.66 thousand tons of plastic materials, generating about R$ 54 billion in 2012. Most companies in the industry are classified as micro and small enterprises employing less than 100 people and are located in the south and southeast regions of the country, which, together, account for more than 85% of the total. São Paulo State is the largest plastic manufacturer contributing with 45% of plastic industry gross revenues. The publication of the Technical Environmental Guide for Plastic Industry -CETESB [START_REF]Guia ambiental da indústria de transformação e reciclagem de materiais plásticos[END_REF] responds to unanimous global diagnosis that path to socioeconomic prosperity necessarily involves the sustained growth of industrial activity. This guide is part of the CP series of publications by CETESB which contributes to the precepts of sustainable development. In its pages can be found details on the practical implementation of cleaner production's concept specially designed by a group of industry experts to disseminate information and provide guidelines for employers and employees who work directly or indirectly with the plastic industry, as well as other interested parties in understanding the pathways that can lead to environmental preservation.

Methodology

Literature review and model building

In order to build a model for assessing environmental results and the introduction of CP concepts and principles into structured and standardized management processes, an extensive literature review was performed on organizational processes, as well as requirements and criteria to evaluate excellence in management processes, particularly those adopted in national and international quality awards [START_REF] Buccelli | Prêmio nacional da qualidade: Gestão da qualidade ou qualidade da gestão?[END_REF].

It is amazing the coincidence in the various approaches to business processes found in the literature review. While adopting proper terms, the types of processes and their meanings are very similar and, according to the subdivision of the business processes proposed by these references, management processes are those that ensure the coherence and integration of core business and support processes.

Management processes play a key role in the coordination and guidance of the other two types of processes (primary/core and auxiliary/support), and help leaders during decision making activities. Their proper structuring is essential for core business and support processes carrying out according to the guidelines established by the leadership and to measure, monitor and improve the performance of the organization.

The model with four macro-management processes (a-Governance, leadership and planning; b-Market, customer and society relationship; c-People and knowledge management; d-Management of core and support processes) and one group of environmental indicators was applied during the qualitative research with eight plastic companies from São Paulo State Plastic Industry Association (SINDIPLAST) to evaluate companies' environmental performance through the implementation of cleaner production opportunities.

Multiple case study

According to Leonard-Barton [START_REF] Leonard-Barton | A dual methodology for case studies: Synergistic use of a longitudinal single site with replicated multiple sites[END_REF], a case study is a history of past or current phenomena, drawn from multiple sources of evidence. It can include data from direct observation and systematic interviewing, as well as from public and private archives. Yin [START_REF] Yin | Case Study Research: Design and Methods[END_REF] adds that a case study is a complete research strategy which allows questions such as 'how' and 'why' to be studied. This strategy is moreover applicable to processes or to phenomena which have not yet been studied in depth. The author shows that the multiplication of cases is comparable with a multiplication of experiments, but the selection of case studies must be based on the principles of literal and theoretical replication. The former involves the selection of cases with apparently similar conditions and results; the latter requires cases which produce different results for more or less explicable reasons. The replication is based on theory and not on the statistical principle of sampling. These measures can help to reduce the degree of bias that the researcher is probably undergoing.

Based on these explanations eight plastic producers accepted to participate in the multiple case study to evaluate their management practices and environmental results. The form containing 20 statements about management processes and their examples of existing management practices, as well as 5 statements about outputs and examples of environmental indicators over the past three years was sent to fill.

In the first stage, all eight firms submitted the answered form and assigned the scores they considered appropriate to each of the statements related to existing management processes and the results achieved. Then these questionnaires were analyzed by the authors, who raised some points to be checked during a field visit.

To confirm the data previously collected a semi-structured interview was used. Managers and supervisors were interviewed to address the questions raised during the analysis of the questionnaires. Direct observation occurred during the field visits conducted by the authors. This technique was useful for providing additional information about good management practices and companies' results. Internal indicators were analyzed like as water consumption (m 3 of water / tone of finished product), electric energy consumption (MWh / tone of finished product), plastic waste during production process (tone of plastic / tone of finished product), and product scrap (tone of product scrap / tone of finished product).

To provide a broader vision of the results presented during the visits, to allow consistent evaluation of the benefits achieved from the savings and to compare results from different companies, producing distinct products and volumes, three methods were employed: Material intensity evaluation, Water footprint and Carbon footprint [START_REF] Giannetti | Cleaner production practices in a medium size gold-plated jewelry company in Brazil: when little changes make the difference[END_REF].

Results and Discussion

Eight companies were visited to verify if they had structured management processes deployed throughout the organization and other stakeholders. The form containing 20 statements about management processes and examples of existing management practices was grouped in 4 categories: a) Governance, Leadership and Planning; b) Society Relationship, Market and Customers; c) People and Knowledge Management; d) Management of Core Business and Support Processes. It was also possible to verify the environmental results obtained in the last three years. The full research form was completed by the responsible managers in each company and the answers were used as a guide of semi-structured interviews. Table 1 presents the percentages of the management processes and environmental indicators results in compliance with the requirements of the model. As can be seen, companies D and G obtained 92.0% and 95.2% of the total compliance with the model, demonstrating the existence of structured management processes and sustainable results in environmental performance indicators. Companies A, C and F presented recent environmental results during the review and still don't demonstrate positive trends. The other three companies could not show historical data to demonstrate indicators evolution and this fact is related with some missing management processes like leadership and strategic planning, customer relationship, people and knowledge management.

% of Companies' Compliance

A B C D E F G H a)
During the visit companies D and G presented improvement actions taken based on the 29 cleaner production opportunities proposed in the technical guide [START_REF]Guia ambiental da indústria de transformação e reciclagem de materiais plásticos[END_REF]. It may be noted that these companies had seriously adopted the recommendations of the guide and could show consumption reduction results. Table 2 presents major actions implemented by these two companies and their positive impact (reductions) on environment. Internal indicators -Material and energy savings per tons of finished product (tfp) were verified during the visits. The total reduction in water consumption, electric energy consumption and plastic material consumption after three years of CP interventions are shown in Table 3. The absolute quantities shown in Table 3 might be, at a first glance, considered small, but reductions in the consumption of material and energy brought significant advantages to the company. The consumption decrease was due to the implementation of some improvement opportunities presented in the technical guide [START_REF]Guia ambiental da indústria de transformação e reciclagem de materiais plásticos[END_REF]: efficient lighting, translucent tiles and lighting sensors, dispensers and automatic feeders, compressed air loss control, introduction of energy diagnosis, reuse of in-process material, waste recycling (outside process), etc.

External indicators (Material intensity evaluation and water footprint) -

This method, developed at the Wuppertal Institute by Ritthoff et al [START_REF] Ritthoff | Calculating MIPS: Resources productivity of products and services[END_REF], is a practical application of the material input per service concept (MIPS) to evaluate the environmental harm associated with the extraction or diversion of resources from their natural flows and cycles. Material intensity factors (g/unit) are multiplied by each saving (material or energy), respectively, accounting for the total amount of abiotic and biotic matter, water and air, that are no longer required in order to provide that material to the company. According to Hoekstra [START_REF] Hoekstra | The Water Footprint of Modern Consumer Society[END_REF], water footprint is the total amount of freshwater used directly and indirectly by a person, business, institution or country to produce the goods and services. The interest in the water footprint increased with the recognition that human impacts on freshwater systems is linked to products consumption, and that issues like water shortages and pollution can be better understood and addressed by considering production and supply chains as a whole. The water footprint concept can be used to quantify and map the water use behind consumption and how it can guide reduction of water use to a sustainable level. Table 4 shows the values of material intensities and water footprint of the selected individual savings achieved by CP interventions. A considerable environmental benefit is related to the avoidance of environmental impact associated with the extraction or diversion of resources from their natural ecosystem pathways. The water footprint quantifies the water use behind consumption and how it can guide reduction of water use to a sustainable level. Table 5 summarizes the material savings in the three environmental compartments (abiotic matter, air and water) achieved by CP interventions. The water compartment corresponds to the reduction in the water footprint. It can be observed that the relatively small quantities of materials saved within the companies led to huge external preservation of materials, in particular water.

External indicators (Carbon footprint) -

The carbon footprint is a measure of the total amount of carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) emissions that is directly and indirectly caused by an activity, or is accumulated over the life stages of a product. This includes activities of individuals, populations, governments, companies, organizations, processes, industry sectors etc. Products include goods and services. According to Wiedmann and Minx [START_REF] Wiedmann | A Definition of 'Carbon Footprint[END_REF], in any case, all direct (on-site, internal) and indirect (off-site, external, embodied, upstream, downstream) emissions need to be taken into account. Only CO 2 is included in the analysis, being well aware that there are other substances with greenhouse warming potential. However, many of those are either not based on carbon or are more difficult to quantify because of data availability. Tables 6 and7 show the values of carbon footprint intensities for plastic and electric energy.

Conclusions

The qualitative research has been performed in eight companies in the plastic manufacturing sector and, due to the results relevance, it can be inferred that the proposed evaluation model allows identifying organizations that are effectively managing their processes through cleaner production principles and therefore possess the necessary requirements to obtain favorable environmental results. The multiple case study helped to select two companies that handled more than 90% of the model requirements, compared with the percentage of compliance of 85, 75 and 56% from the other companies. After being identified by the model as having structured and standardized management processes these companies (D and G) demonstrated the deployment of more than ten opportunities for cleaner production presented in the cleaner production technical guide [START_REF]Guia ambiental da indústria de transformação e reciclagem de materiais plásticos[END_REF] and showed a reduction in the consumption of water, electrical energy and raw material in the last three years.

The results of external performance indicators allowed to look at the consumption decreases from the perspective of nature and showed that even small internal changes to the company can bring big benefits to the environment and society that would not be perceived with restricted use of internal indicators. With these multiple case study findings it is expected that the leading companies in the sector include concepts of cleaner production into their management processes to assist them in developing improved operational processes and obtaining favorable and sustainable environmental results. This will cause the follower companies adopt similar strategies in their management systems, making the concepts of environmental management to solidify in the producing and recycling of plastic industry.

Table 1 .

 1 Percentages of companies' compliance with the model.

Table 2 .

 2 Major cleaner production interventions.

	Cleaner Production Interventions (Technical Guide)	H2O	Reduction Natural Energy Resources Consumption	Solid Waste
	Opp3 -Use of new technologies for energy saving and productivity increase		X	X	X
	Opp4 -Optimize the logistics of raw materials and use of more economical and returnable packaging	X	X		X
	Opp5 -Reprocessing of no conforming materials		X		X
	Opp6 -Improvement in equipment sizing -Production Planning			X	X
	Opp7 -Predictive, preventive and corrective maintenance	X	X	X	X
	Opp8 -Continuing education of production workers	X	X	X	X
	Opp9 -Efficient Lighting and translucent tiles			X
	Opp 11 -Use of additives in the process water	X
	Opp12 -Adoption of efficient cooling towers	X		X
	Opp14 -Use of cooling towers and closed circuit	X
	Opp16 -Use of water saving devices	X
	Opp19 -Avoid losses due to problems in compressed air piping		X	X
	Opp22 -Energy diagnosis			X

Table 3 .

 3 Reductions after three years of CP interventions.

	Total Savings	Company D	Company G
	Plastic material reduction (kg)	250	400
	Electric energy reduction (kWh)	1,110	2,910
	Water consumption (liter)	70	3,000

Table 4 -

 4 Material intensity and water footprint Material intensity is the material input in relation to a unit of measurement. The factors are used to express material intensity of production inputs (materials or energy), expressed in mass unit of resources per unit of input (e.g. kg/kg or kg/kWh). Source: Ritthoff et al[START_REF] Ritthoff | Calculating MIPS: Resources productivity of products and services[END_REF] (**) The electricity data were adapted for the Brazilian energetic matrix multiplying the worldwide average of intensity values (Abiotic = 1.55 kg/kWh; Water = 66.73 kg/kWh; and Air = 0.54 kg/kWh) by the value of 0.23. A fraction of 0.23 was obtained by dividing the percentage of the contribution of the thermoelectric in the power generation in Brazil (18.2 %) by the percentage of the worldwide contribution (79.3 %). Source: ANEEL[15]. (***) The water footprint is an indicator of the total water use measured in terms of water volumes consumed, evapotranspirated and/or polluted, expressed in mass unit.

		(*) Material intensity
		Abiotic Matter	Air	Water (***)
	Polypropylene (kg/kg)	4.24	3.37	205.48
	(**) Electric energy (kg/kWh)	0.36	0.12	15.35
	Water (kg/kg)	0.08	0.01	2.20

(*)

Table 5 .

 5 Material and water savings due to CP interventions.

	Company	Material savings (kg) Abiotic matter Air	Water (*)
	D	1,465	976	68,562
	G	2,983	1,757	133,460
	(*) Total reduction in water footprint, showing the total water saved, expressed in mass unit (kg).

Table 6 -

 6 Carbon footprint intensity for plastic.

		(i) Intensity of energy	(ii) Intensity of	(i+ii) Total	(*) Intensity of
		contained in the fuel used in	energy contained	intensity of	indirect CO 2
		material transportation	in the raw material	fossil energy	emissions
		(MJ/kg)	(MJ/kg)	(MJ/kg)	(kg CO 2 /kg)
	Plastic material (from crude oil)	39.70	51.20	90.90	6.99
	(*) Intensity of indirect CO2 emissions obtained by multiplying the total intensity of fossil energy by the value of
	76.92 x 10 -3 kgCO2/MJoe (oe = oil equivalent). Source: Brown and Ulgiati, 2002 [17].

Table 7 -

 7 Carbon footprint intensity for electric energy. The companies D and G carbon footprints (expressed in mass unit kg CO 2 ), saved after CP interventions are shown in table 8. It can be observed that the CP interventions on reduction of raw material accounts for practically 90% of CO 2 emission reduction.

	Electricity generated	(*) Intensity of CO 2	(**) Contribution	Intensity of indirect
	in thermoelectric	emissions	according to the Brazilian	CO 2 emissions
		(kg CO 2 /kWh)	energy matrix (%)	(kg CO 2 /kWh)
	Gas	0.60	10.3	0.062
	Oil	0.97	5.6	0.054
	Coal	1.08	2.3	0.025
		Total		0.141
	(*) Source: Herendeen, 1998 [18].
	(**) Source: ANEEL [15].

Table 8 -

 8 Carbon footprint intensity reduction due to CP interventions.

  kWh electric energy reduction/t fp x 0.141 kg CO 2 /kWh =156.5 kg CO 2 G 400 kg plastic reduction/t fp x 6.99 kg CO 2 /kg = 2,796.0 kg CO 2 3,206 kg CO 2 2,910 kWh electric energy reduction/t fp x 0.141 kg CO 2 /kWh = 410.3 kg CO 2

	Comp anies	CP Interventions	Carbon Footprints
	D	250 kg plastic reduction /t fp x 6.99 kg CO 2 /kg = 1,747.5 kg CO 2 1,110	1,904 kg CO 2

Acknowledgements

The authors thank SINDIPLAST for data and information supplied and PROSUP / CAPES for the financial support in the form of a PhD scholarship.


Nilo Serpa
email: niloserpa@gmail.com

Ivanir Costa
email: icosta11@live.com

Rodrigo Franco Gonçalves

Green IT and Waste Paper in Governmental Institutions: The Proposal of the Infotercio Financial Model

Keywords: green IT, ecological education, waste paper, infotercio, sustainability, cleaner production

This work discusses waste paper generation in IT environments and the need to reduce the output of reports, source codes and forms in Brazilian governmental institutions to carry out a true policy of sustainability. Green IT is tackled from the premise that paper is the most bulky solid waste daily generated by informatics and the most easily controllable by people. The authors explain a green IT management model which combines nance and cleaner production so that it makes possible to rescue ethical values little remembered today at governmental level, thus keeping public treasury. Present work also explains the mathematics of the model including a preliminar simulation to clarify basic ideas.

Introduction

Researchers, environmentalists and professionals in computer science agree that the practice of green IT is a real need today. Green IT not only minimizes ecological impacts but favors cost containments and reduction of energy consumption [START_REF] Cristóvão | Can: A Case Study on the Benets that Virtualization Provides the IT and its Positive Impact on the Environment[END_REF]. In particular, management of paper is of great importance because the signicative waste bulk that characterizes its use. Nevertheless, in countries like Brazil, informatics does not seem to have come to optimize processes in reducing emissions of paper (printed reports, source codes and forms). Paper generally constitutes a large portion, if not the greater, of regular oce waste. Several institutions feed their giant databases and use BI (Business Intelligence) tools, but, as not satised with on line or batching results and not fully procient in business intelligence, they print a cornucopia of documents, putting a great part into the drawers. More than half of these outputs end up in the trash having attended no objective requests. Worse yet, they fall into the trash with no use as drafts. Also, there is a large information redundancy in administrative proceedings, since the online reports and dashboards add up to printed replicas without any logical reason in a counterproductive and paradoxical process of solid waste generation.

There is a slow but growing understanding as well as a fast increasing of information technology that environmental problems are not separated from everyday business activity, this latter having become part of the great discussion about environmental sustainability since the nineties. Although green IT is much focused on environmental certications and metrics on general waste emissions [START_REF] Jenkin | An Agenda for 'Green' Information Technology and Systems Research[END_REF], little was writen specically about IT's oce paper disposal. Many works on general waste paper management are published ( [START_REF] Levlin | The Limits of Paper Recycling[END_REF], [START_REF] Merrild | Life Cycle Assessment of Waste Paper Management: The Importance of Technology Data and System Boundaries in Assessing Recycling and Incineration[END_REF], [START_REF] Villanueva | Paperwaste-Recycling, Incineration or Landlling? A Review of Existing Life Cycle Assessments[END_REF]), and, as a paticular report, the great work of Villanueva and Eder about an end-of-waste criteria and related technical requirements for waste paper to cease to be waste in the European Union [START_REF] Villanueva | End-of-Waste Criteria for Waste Paper: Technical Proposals[END_REF].

This article seeks to highlight the importance of establishing institutional programs to reduce emissions of printed paper in IT environments in view of the increasing contribution of informatics to the total volume of waste paper released. In addition, it is well known that making paper from raw materials we consume 60% more energy than recycling paper by modern advanced processes, also creating 74% more air pollution and 35% more water pollution [START_REF] Siegler | A Practical Approach to Green IT[END_REF], a fact that justies all eorts toward the optimization of paper consumption.

2 Some remarks on present state One of the factors that contributes to the increased generation of waste paper is the lack of political commitment to the realization of certifying entities for the dissemination of systematic security by digital signature. A huge amount of paper consumed is due to the requirement of manual signatures. This feature adds to a pathetic and obsolete system of register oces which only serves to enrich socially dead loss institutions. Thus, almost all that concerns to green IT is just trick in Brazil, where the bureaucracy is the mainstay of some fortunes.

As the authors highlighted above, the literature deals with the disposal of waste paper as a whole, mainly in household trash, with less attention devoted to the waste paper from IT. The problem is that, acting in this way, institutions aimed at environmental preservation leave aside the issue of environmental education in each work sphere. The environmental and ecological information could only contribute to behavior changes in respect to the environmental preservation if we localy develop a mindset beyond the needs of the productive systems as a basis for our actions on the world, decreasing the uncertainties about the future of the Earth. To do this, communication diculties in transferring information to other social actors need to be overcome in order to make information circulate from specialized spheres to connecting with the people aected by the environmental problems within participatory processes. Also in this eld, priorities and lines of research looking at the real needs have to be dened.

In Brazil, each IT governmental area should establish a real library of recycling associated with its Committee on Information Technology (CIT) with the premise that each worker plays a key role in solid waste management, either by reducing consumption, or by reusing materials, or by prior separation of recyclables materials to be sent for recycling. Available documents would be videos, books, magazines, technical reports and scientic journals plus practical experience workshops of reusing materials, mainly fucusing paper recycling, although we know there are limits for this recycling [START_REF] Levlin | The Limits of Paper Recycling[END_REF].

Environmental reasons to reduce paper consumption

The challenges of paper recycling concern to the amount of generated pollutants and the cost of production. Indeed, in comparison to manufacturing new paper, conventional recycling technology applied to oce paper leads to high costs in cover and energy, releasing more carbon dioxide due to the consumption of less renewable fuel sources. Counsell and colleagues described in details conventional and new technologies of paper recycling [START_REF] Counsell | Desktop Paper Recycling: A Survey of Novel Technologies that Might Recycle Oce Paper Within the Oce[END_REF]; they studied energy demands and climate change impacts from life cycle of generic oce paper. Nevertheless, prices were diminishing by economies of scale, and by decreasing the average prot margin [START_REF] Pinto-Coelho | Reciclagem e Desenvolvimento Sustentável no Brasil[END_REF]. In Europe, recycled paper on an industrial scale can cost even cheaper than virgin due to the eciency of selective collection and more dicult access to cellulose. In Brazil, the recycled paper used to cost 40% more than virgin paper at 2001 against only 3% to 5% at 2004 [START_REF] Pinto-Coelho | Reciclagem e Desenvolvimento Sustentável no Brasil[END_REF]. Although modern paper recycling is less pollutant and expensive, the ideal measures are to break o paper use replacing it by un-printing or through the use of electronic-paper [START_REF] Counsell | Reducing Climate Change Gas Emissions by Cutting out Stages in the Life Cycle of Oce Paper[END_REF], cutting back demands on energy, impacts on water and emissions of climate change gases.

The only eective way to inhibit the consumption of IT oce paper in governmental areas is establishing policies for release of funds associated with reduction of emissions of typical printed outputs as reports, source codes and forms. This is what the infotercio nancial model proposes to do. [START_REF]Improving Air Quality in Your Community[END_REF] The technical proposal and its ethical and environmental implications

Governmental budgets for IT in Brazil are still modest, leaving managers to practically live with leftovers from other areas. This is due to the failure to recognize the IT strategic role in process optimization. On the other hand, corruption scandals succeed in a way that seems to leave no margin of solution at least in the next two generations, a sad reality that leaves a trail of unnecessary purchases and deviances that led to the scrapping of various items of infrastructure along the last two decades. Moreover, there is the fact that people completely unprepared assume by political reasons positions that require extreme technical competence and solid general education. Given the above, only a governmental system of independent IT nancial management could minimize the social damage caused by this situation of ethics bankruptcy. And whenever it congures the absence of ethics it becomes impossible to talk seriously about green IT or sustainability.

5 The infotercio nancial model

The infotercio nancial model has its origins in the early nineties, when it was discussed in some young IT sectors at Brazil the course of informatics, economics and technology in general. Serpa and Chy Hen Gin hypothesized ways to reduce the direct involvement of governmental institutions with funds annually transferred by the central government, creating mechanisms to protect public resources from the embezzlement of unethical politicians [START_REF] Serpa | Talks on the Way You Pay for Nothing[END_REF]. At that time, on the eve of the Gulf War, the IT certications were still mirages; Michael Stanton honed the former Rio Network, the structural basis for the corporate web which would be established, while systems analysts and programmers seeking the best way to democratize information after so many years of authoritarian government. Ironically, while discussing the idea of the infotercio and its benets in the boardrooms of Dataprev (Brazilian abbreviation for Data Processing Company of Social Security), President Collor, elected by the people, and his colleagues conceived an act of banditry, one of the most sinister plans that we have news, the banking conscation in blatant disregard to the constitutional right to property. Twenty years later, the model reappears associated with the concept of "green IT" and advances in digital technology and telecommunications. The infotercio ($INFO) is now a unit of green nancial credit based on the principle that the greater the reduction in the emission of printed paper the higher the available credit to purchase equipment for upgrades in machinery and other IT implements including security devices and accessories as tables and chairs. There is no cash involved, just green credits computed in the organ or agency responsible for IT audits. Unlike carbon credits, infotercio credits are not matter of trade; they can not be sold, not even exchanged. The name (info = "informatics" + tercio = "a third part") was coined in the sense that the nancial amount allocated to IT should be divided into three global groups of major processes, namely Planning, Development and Production.

The fundamental equations governing the evolution of decreasing paper emissions and growth of credits are w = w 0 e -ηt

(1)

and c = k ln (ηt) , ( 2
)
where w is the remaining percentage of waste paper, w 0 is its initial percentage, η is the coecient of waste decay (depending on the internal green IT policies), t is the time in years, k is the nancial constant (dened by government in infotercios) and c is the nal credit in infotercios. It is very simple to show that the relation between equations ( 1) and ( 2) is given by

c = k ln ( -ln ( w w 0 )) . ( 3
)
Exponential functions are widely used because they cover various everyday situations characterized by very fast growth or decrease, that is, situations where the growth or decrease rate is considered very signicant. As everything in IT evolves rapidly, exponential functions are excellent for simulations to implementing strategic plans with regard to updates of technology and methodologies with their spendings. They contribute satisfactorily to obtain results from quantiqualitative analysis. Thus, it seems logical to use the exponential function and its inverse, the logarithmic function, to represent conjugated processes of growth and decrease. Fig. 1. a shows how the reduction of waste paper, year after year, from 100% of paper outputs to almost zero output, determines the credit growth in infotercios. For the simulation we consider k = 100, 000. The reader must note that credits start after a period of execution of a waste paper management plan; the more ecient the reduction, the more the bonus in credits. Institutions whose reduction of paper emission occur more slowly begin to credit infotercios later. If equation (2) equals to negative values, this means that institution is still not fully working to credit infotercios in face of its coecient η (Fig. 1. b). So, to credit infotercios, the institution must prove that it operates according to a planning for paper outputs reduction. Each IT manager receives the infotercio green IT card as designed in Fig. 2, with which they can monitor the available amount of credits and release the amount required to purchase a given service or equipment when approved by the Federation General Comptroller (FGC). The Sunower picture is a sponsor trade mark of Gauge-F Enterprises, a company that provides an unpaid program of environmental education for children. The unit value of the infotercio is assigned by the government, according to public policies of economy and sustainability. Each governmental institution forwards to the FGC its Term of Reference on the acquisition of some equipment or IT service. Faced with availability in infotercios, the term is referred to legal analysis and, once approved, it will be initialized the bidding process based on technology and price. Although each institution manages its bidding processes, only the FGC will approve or not the end result of the bidding and the liberation of funds, making direct payments and auditing the performance of the contracts. No money is transferred to the requesting institutions. Annual credits are available along with the budgets of each ministerial portfolio. Receiving of credits is permanent and works as an independent annual budget for IT, ensuring technological autonomy for each institution and environmental sustainability.

Discussion

One immediate advantage of this model is to reduce the risk of malpractice with public resources. Furthermore, we recover the importance of technical criteria in choosing the most advantageous solution for society. Also, the institutional potential to generate infotercios is proportional to the ecological enlightenment of workers in IT and to the execution eciency of the IT strategic planning with regard to environmental issues. Obviously, in practice the reduction process is asymptotic, since it would be dicult to completely abolish IT's oce paper. Assuming that the institution shall stabilize at a certain level of containment of paper emissions, it shall remain getting the same value in infotercios. Lastly, deadlines must be made less conservatives, something like 4-6 years for the entire cycle of reductions considering internal bureaucracy. Although there is not the case to detail the subject for reasons of strict constraint, it is interesting to consider the future implementation of a study focusing the return on investment associated with the infotercio nancial model. A promising analysis of return on investment can be found in the explanatory work of Williams and Parker directed mainly to the discussion of the decrease in volumes generated by industrial activities [START_REF] Williams | Measuring the sustainable return on investment (SROI) of waste to energy[END_REF]. This work shows how it is possible to calculate in monetary terms the noncash and external costs and benets coming from a project, converting to dollars the relevant social and environmental impacts of that project. This process of conversion, operating at the intersection of economics and sustainability, is referred to as the Sustainable Return on Investment (SROI).

Another important aspect is that the model gives rise to the need for widespread knowledge about the ways of consuming paper in order to promote a better quality material for recycling, since successful recycling requires paper free from lth, such as grease, food or glue, which make dicult the recycling. Also, wood bers may be recycled ve, six, maximum of seven times before they become too small to be recycled into renewed good paper. But not only this; much of the waste produced in underdeveloped countries is incinerated, releasing in the air a wide range of substances harmful to health. A considerable portion of this waste is constituted by various kinds of paper. Severe health issues like cancer, adverse reproductive development and suppression of the immune system are caused by dioxin, a very toxic chemical release present in smoke from burning waste paper and other trashes ( [START_REF]Improving Air Quality in Your Community[END_REF], [START_REF]MH -Ministry of Health: Technical Guidelines for Preparation of the Program of Health Education and Social Mobilization (HESMP); Implementation, Expansion or Improvement of Systems of Treatment and Final Disposal of Solid Waste for the Control of Diseases[END_REF]). Thus, the less paper waste is generated by IT, the lower the risk of dioxin emissions, and the more the organization and preparation of waste paper under policies of reuse, the greater the possibility of recycling.

Conclusion

Obviously, green IT is not limited to the issue of waste paper generation from unnecessary forms and reports, but, from the point of view of economy and disposal procedures within the reach of technical people in their day-to-day role, waste paper stands out as the most striking solid polluter in terms of spoilage volume. This article presented the so-called infotercio nancial model to centralize the management of governmental IT resources in Brazil into the scope of cleaner production and sustainability as an alternative for the current administrative patterns still lacking in ecological education. Programs of this type suggest a certication system for both managers and institutions, ensuring quality and environmental responsibility. Such a system will be the subject of another study in the light of the ISO 14000 family and its Brazilian derivatives. Present article also starts a wide debate on green IT, motivating experiments that can show the entire feasibility of the model.

Fig. 1 .

 1 Fig. 1. a (left): the mathematical evolution of the paper waste reduction and the corresponding credits in infotercios for distinct values of the coecient of waste decay; Fig.1. b (right): same simulation but since negative values of credits.

Fig. 2 .

 2 Fig. 2. First design of the Green IT Card.


Nilo Serpa
email: niloserpa@gmail.com

Ivanir Costa

Diego Rodrigues

Rodrigo Franco Gonçalves

The Green IT Certication Ruled by the Infotercio Financial Model

Keywords: green IT, people CMM, green certication, waste paper, infotercio, sustainability, cleaner production

Present article gives continuity to the elaboration of the infotercio nancial model proposed as an alternative to implementing environmental management systems in governmental institutions based on the emission reduction of printed reports, source codes and forms originated from IT activities. It discusses procedures of green IT certication for managers and governmental institutions derived from ISO 14000 family and People CMM, combining both in a new set of requirements. Also it summarizes the reasons for such a certication system, noting that waste paper is now a major global problem, not only in terms of direct environmental impacts but from the point of view of the unreasonable and unnecessary use of paper in governmental business processes, generating high costs, mismanagements and time losses, at the same time causing reduction in the available physical space in corporate environments and increase in fuel consumption for transport.

Introduction

From the strong conicts between public and private interests concerning environmental management during the seventies and the eighties, the growing general awareness about the damage caused to Earth and human health along the evolution of production processes and the huge social inequalities existing around the planet have allowed organizations to manage their ecosystemic impacts with higher responsibility. The concept of sustainable development, created in 1987 by the United Nations, came up with the aim of promoting agreement between contender parties.

In a former work , the authors pointed out that paper constitutes a large portion of IT waste in governmental institutions as spurious or unnecessary printed reports, source codes and forms, although the subject is still not treated with the tting attention but included in a generic approach of sustainable development Entitled "Green IT and Waste Paper in Governmental Institutions: The Proposal of the Infotercio Financial Model", also submitted and accepted in APMS 2014.

( [START_REF] Merrild | Life Cycle Assessment of Waste Paper Management: The Importance of Technology Data and System Boundaries in Assessing Recycling and Incineration[END_REF], [START_REF] Villanueva | End-of-Waste Criteria for Waste Paper: Technical Proposals[END_REF], [START_REF] Villanueva | Paperwaste-Recycling, Incineration or Landlling? A Review of Existing Life Cycle Assessments[END_REF]). As they note, green IT is now much focused on environmental certications and metrics on general waste emissions ( [START_REF] Jenkin | An Agenda for 'Green' Information Technology and Systems Research[END_REF], [START_REF] Siegler | A Practical Approach to Green IT[END_REF]) and virtualization as a mean for reducing signicantly electricity rates [START_REF] Cristóvão | Can: A Case Study on the Benets that Virtualization Provides the IT and its Positive Impact on the Environment[END_REF]. Actions of Green IT supporting businesses have been described with little written specically about IT oce paper use and disposal. To cease to be waste, paper from IT services has to be considered under a set of emissions reduction procedures connected to a certain green certication for organizations and managers.

This article takes as starting point the infotercio nancial model, explained earlier, proposing a green certication system associated with the model and characterized by maturity levels to both institution and manager. The Standard to be proposed contains only those requirements that can be objectively audited for certication/registration and/or self-declaration refering to waste paper management. Additional guidance on other matters relating to environmental management must be searched in ISO 14000 family. The authors emphasize that it is essential to read the previous article so that we can have a full comprehension of the subject.

Background

As we know, more than half of all oce waste is constituted by paper. Worldwide paper is one of the bigest sources of trash. The numbers are astronomical; just to give an idea, according to the Department of Environment and Conservation (DEC), Sydney, until 2005 Australians consumed around 3.5 million tonnes of paper each year, in which only 11% of total oce paper was recycled [START_REF]Reducing Paper Waste at Work[END_REF]. At 2007, Brazil spent 42 kg/inhab.year compared to larger consumers like United States, for example, with a per capita consumption of 288 kg/inhab.year and France with a rate of 144 kg/inhab.year. Founded on these rates, it is expected that consumption shall increase very fast in next decades whether nothing is done ASAP.

The infotercio ($INFO), as previously dened, is a unit of green nancial credit to promote IT governance in compliance with the green principle that the greater the reduction in the emission of printed paper the higher the available credit to modernize IT areas (see Fig. 1). The value in dollars of that unit depends on the current governmental policies. As no cash is involved, just green credits computed by external IT audits, the model helps to reduce the risk of misappropriation of public funds. It was created specically for IT governmental management also with the objective of environmental education in public institutions about the use of paper and its disposal after utilization, linking resources availability to corporate performance regarding the reduction of waste paper. Unlike carbon credits, infotercios may not be transferred or sold to other institutions. To achieve signicant adhesion to green IT under the infotercionancial model it is necessary to go through the adoption of a certication ritual that is not limited only to the institution but capable of being extended to the IT manager himself. Brazilian public institutions are far from achieve consolidated internal processes to reduce waste generation. In particular, with respect to the waste paper there is a complete slouch on the amount of unnecessary or misdened printed reports, which invariably end up in the trash or in the drawers of managers without even serve as scratch paper. Cardboard boxes accumulated in the corridors of the IT coordinations serve as trash cans for printed papers coming from the bad exercise of environmental sustainability and from the absence of document management frameworks. Although concerned to the issue of resources for IT, the infotercio nancial model emerges as a solution to the problem of waste paper in governmental institutions, promoting improvements, environmental education and professional qualication. The ISO 14000 family [START_REF]Environmental Management: The ISO 14000 Family of International Standards[END_REF], at rst glance regarding only private environmental management, provides an organization with standards and management tools to voluntarily control environmental aspects related to its existence and daily interactions with human beings, urban or rural landscape and others . This set of tools and standards, if well implemented, provides economy associated with environmental benets. Accordingly ISO, among these benets we have reduction of waste generation and optimization of waste management, using processes such According to NBR-ISO 14004 (1997), the environment is considered the surroundings in which a certain organization conducts its business, including air, water, land, natural resources, ora, fauna and humans, as well as their interrelations.

as recycling to treat solid waste. The only standard series ISO 14000 certiable with respect to environmental management is ISO 14001:2004.

Although most small and medium enterprises (SME) have little knowledge or interest in environmental issues [START_REF] Halila | Creating Synergies Between SMEs and Universities for ISO 14001 Certication[END_REF], the number of organizations certied by ISO 14001 has grown worldwide and should remain so in face of the increasing demands for environmental sustainability. In European Union, Marimon et al. point 1,096 IT organizations certied in 2008 compared to only 139 in 2000 [START_REF] Marimon | Comparative Analysis of Diusion of the ISO 14001 Standard by Sector of Activity[END_REF]. The number does not seem very meaningful in a computerized world partly due to the high costs associated with the implementation of ISO 14000 [START_REF] Wiengarten | ISO 14000 Certication and Investments in Environmental Supply Chain Management Practices: Identifying Dierences in Motivation and Adoption Levels Between Western European and North American Companies[END_REF], in particular ISO 14001, a fact that can indeed become a barrier for institutions. However, for governmental institutions like Ministries not all features of ISO 14000 are necessary, since these organizations do not carry out processes of recycling or incineration but can perform reductions of paper emissions implementing ECM (Enterprise Content Management) and business intelligence dashboards, so that those high costs can no longer be a barrier if institutions start from a basic environmental management systems (EMS). Also, while ISO 14001 species only general requirements for operating EMSs with no resolves on how or to what extent to do this [START_REF] Oliveira | Does ISO 14001 Work in Brazil?[END_REF], organizations can develop their own solutions to be in compliance with the standard's demands. This is what infotercio nancial model must provide: a green IT certication based only in paper economy. This certication shall be linked to a special Brazilian norm, named NBR-INFO 2014, prescribing scopes, gradual aims and patterns with sudgestions about tools and processes, so that institutions can rationalize the use of renewable and nonrenewable resources. [START_REF]Environmental Management: The ISO 14000 Family of International Standards[END_REF] The Green People Capability Maturity Model

The IT manager career has been gaining more and more expression from the beginning of the 21st century at the same time that main focus has shifted to services. It is a sophisticated prole, in a constant process of adaptation and acquisition of diverse knowledge about various subjects. Although not formally recognized, in practice it has, by analogy, the same importance of the old systems analyst during the 80s. As an administrative career on IT processes and technologies, it can be valued through specializations, postgraduate courses and certications, though none of them replace the accumulated experience. The infotercio nancial model provides a green certication based on People Capability Maturity Model (P-CMM) as a way to characterize the manager's expertise, offering an important item of professional ascension within a market increasingly competitive in quality.

The P-CMM is a tool that employs a maturity framework of best practices for managing and developing human resources based on the successful Capability Maturity Model for software (SW-CMM), guiding institutions in the improvement of their processes related to the pursuit of the human capital excellence by ve maturity levels. P-CMM helps institutions to characterize the maturity of their people practices, establishing a program of continuous amelioration and integrating people development with process improvement. Version 1 of P-CMM was released in 1995. Version 2 has been designed to correct Version 1, since experience has pointed that many organizations start formal development of workgroups while working toward Maturity Level 3, on the contrary of placing team-building activities at Maturity Level 4 as prescribed in Version 1. So, Version 2 starts process-driven workgroup development at Maturity Level 3.

The infotercio nancial model presumes a green P-CMM solely concerning to management prociency on environmental issues. Based on the adapted model from Rodrigues [START_REF] Rodrigues | Um Modelo de Assistente Reexivo para Suporte à Educação Continuada em Ambiente Organizacional[END_REF], we consider a proposal for continuing professional education, inserting the concept of maturity levels targeted to green IT. Rodrigues identies four levels of maturity in their adapted model: (i) Level 0 -Denition of parameters, (ii) Level 1 -Planning, (iii) Level 2 -Quantication of Performance, (iv) Level 3 -Optimization of Performance, as shown in Fig. 2, considering indicators KMB (Knowledge Monitoring Bias) and KMA (Knwoledge Monitoring Accuracy) [START_REF] Rodrigues | Um Modelo de Assistente Reexivo para Suporte à Educação Continuada em Ambiente Organizacional[END_REF]. Each of the four maturity levels points to a dierent stage of organizational capability for managing and developing human resources in the sense of to attain sustainable processes of waste paper control. Maturity levels provide layers for continuous improvement of workforce prociency in environmental sustainability. On one hand, in the rst article the authors established the so-called green IT card to be granted to the IT manager interested in establishing corporate policies to reduce the emission of printed paper. On the oder hand, levels of personal maturity are assessed throughout the career of the manager according to its prociency to lead the trend of exponential emission reduction of printed paper. Thus, the green IT card shall also have four levels (Fig. 3), each of them oering some additional privileges: i) Level 0 -no stars; ii) Level 1 -one star; c) Level Fig. 3. The four green cards.

2 -two stars; d) level 3 -three stars. This card will be activated whenever the manager take public charges and disabled when targeted for natural exoneration.

4.1

The perspectives of the NBR-INFO 2014

The NBR INFO-2014 is a standard still under development, now submited to consideration of many stakeholders, researchers and academics. It applies to those environmental aspects of waste paper that can be controlled by the workforce of a governmental institution like consumption and waste disposal. Since there is already a full standard on environmental management for the ISO family 14000, it would be redundant to prescribe a new standard with basically the same requirements. Thus, the NBR-INFO 2014 shall specify detailed requirements on environmental management only with regard to the use and disposal of paper generated by the activities of IT and the means to process optimization that can contribute to reduce the emission of reports, source codes and forms according to the infotercio nancial model and its remuneration policy of continuous improvement of IT in order to achieve sustainable containments on paper consumption. This standard applies to all types and sizes of governmental institutions, adapting to dierent geographic, cultural and social conditions. Indeed, system's success shall depend on the degree of commitment of all corporate areas, starting with senior management, since there is compli-ance between corporate governance and IT governance [START_REF]MH -Ministry of Health: Technical Guidelines for Preparation of the Program of Health Education and Social Mobilization (HESMP); Implementation, Expansion or Improvement of Systems of Treatment and Final Disposal of Solid Waste for the Control of Diseases[END_REF]. Thus, the NBR-INFO 2014 adhering institutions shall set their own environmental goals while balancing environmental protection and pollution prevention with social needs.

The reader must pay attention to the fact that this specication shall describe the requirements for certication/registration and/or self-declaration of the EMS of a governmental institution, with guidelines not intending to cover issues with market and competitive implications. It should be noted that this standard does not establish absolute requirements for environmental performance beyond the expressed commitment within the corporate internal policy, in compliance with infotercio nancial model's prescription of continual improvement. [START_REF] Jenkin | An Agenda for 'Green' Information Technology and Systems Research[END_REF]

Comments

As an integral part of the overall management system of the organization, the EMS provides order and consistency to addressing ecological concerns through ongoing evaluation of practices, procedures and processes in coordinated action with eorts of other areas such as quality, operations, nance and health [START_REF] Jorgensen | Integrated Management Systems: Three Dierent Levels of Integration[END_REF]. According to proposed approaches in the former article, green IT card allows IT managers to lead the implementation of the EMS sustainability measures, being a symbol of responsability and prociency since it may only be granted to managers with proven experience and expertise in environmental issues, and ongoing interest in the acquisition and preservation of their certications.

Unfortunately, in Brazil it is not enough the existence of standards like ISO 14000 to be fullled to achieve production improvements. There are serious problems in education and ethical issues that still require additional inspection agencies. Also, institutional maturity remains a barrier to be overcome. The authors have sudgested the Federation General Comptroller (FGC) as the institution responsible for the audits on the results achieved, with their internal automated processes having drastically reduced emissions of reports, keeping working through frameworks for information management and real-time monitoring of their databases related to institutional programs of sustainability. Interacting with this organization, each governmental IT manager detainer of a green IT card, with which he can monitor the amount of available infotercios, can also compute professional credits every successful action within the proposed corporate planning, registered and monitored by the FGC, thus composing his portfolio of accomplishments for further analysis of personal maturity level.

Conclusion

This article presented the natural extension of the infotercio nancial model, that is, the green IT certication process for institutions and managers that conduct internal policies to reducing emissions of printed paper from IT services. The proposal is inserted into the scope of cleaner production and sustainability as an option to control current state of paper consumption in governmental institutions still not much concerned to ecological principles in Brazil. Restraining the use of paper in governmental business processes, it shall be possible to reduce costs, mismanagements and time losses, increasing the available physical space in corporate environments and economizing fuel for transport. Our expectation is that the complete model can be presented and tested soon at the ministerial level, demonstrating feasibility and raising discussions that promote improvement of the standard NBR-INFO 2014, now in development.

Fig.

  Fig. The mathematical evolution of the paper waste reduction and the corresponding credits in infotercios for distinct values of the coecient of waste decay (η).

3

  The ISO environmental state-of-art and the new NBR-INFO 2014

Fig. 2 .

 2 Fig. 2. The four maturity levels of the green P-CMM.