THE GREEN OFFICE
WHAT IS GREEN COMPUTING?
G
lobal warming and Every time we leave computers on we
environmental change waste electricity without considering where
have become big issues that electricity comes from. The majority of
with governments, the world’s electricity is generated by
corporations and your burning fossil fuels which emit pollutants
average Joe alike all such as sulphur, and carbon dioxide into
seeking out new ways to green up their the air. These emissions can cause
daily activities. Computers certainly make respiratory disease, smog, acid rain and
up a large part of many peoples lives and global climate change. came out with the first computer to use
traditionally are extremely damaging to the lead-free solder, a fully recyclable
environment, which begs the question: THE FUTURE OF GREEN COMPUTING plastic case, and which contained no toxic
What is Green Computing? A Canadian company, Userful Inc. flame-retardants. Since then many
Green Computing is the study and (www.userful.com) have come up with a computer companies worldwide have
practice of minimising the environmental solution that turns 1 computer into 10 – started selling lead-free PCs and it is
impact of computers through efficient: DiscoverStation. Quickly becoming the becoming common practice for
manufacturing, use, and disposal. standard for green computing worldwide, companies to offer their customers free
DiscoverStation leverages the unused recycling of their old computers.
PROBLEMS OF ELECTRONIC WASTE computing power of modern PC’s to
Electronic waste is an increasing create an environmentally efficient GO GREEN
problem globally due to the quick alternative to traditional desktop Here are some suggestions that will
obsolescence of electronics, which make computing. Multiple users can work on a help you reduce your computer energy
up a staggering 70% of all hazardous single computer by simply attaching up to • Don’t use screen savers. They
waste. Computer waste is high in many 10 monitors, mice and keyboards. This waste energy, not save it.
toxic materials such as heavy metals and makes it possible to reduce CO
2
emissions • Buy computers & monitors
flame-retardant plastics, which easily by up to 15 tons per year per system and labelled “energy star” which can
leach into ground water and bio- reduce electronic waste by up to 80%. be programmed to automatically
accumulate. In addition, chip Userful has recently stated that in the last “power-down” or “sleep” when not
manufacturing uses some of the deadliest year their software has saved over 13,250 in use.
gases and chemicals known to man and tons of CO
2
emissions, the equivalent of • If you are using more than 1 PC,
requires huge amounts of resources. taking 2,300 cars off the road. More info Userful’s 10 to 1 advantage can
In an average year 24 million at: http://userful.com/greenpc save electricity and your wallet.
computers in the United States become • Turn your computer and
obsolete. Only about 14% (or 3.3 million) THE EUROPEAN UNION peripherals off when not in use.
of these will be recycled or donated. The The European Union is tackling the This will not harm the equipment.
rest – more than 20 million computers in problem twofold. Companies are now • Use flat panel monitors, which use
the U.S. – will be dumped, incinerated, required to produce computers free of the about half of the electricity of a
shipped as waste exports or put into worst toxic materials and are responsible cathode-ray tube (CRT) display.
temporary storage to be dealt with later. for taking back their old products. Faced • Buy ink jet printers, not laser
We never stop to consider what happens with disassembling parts and cycling them printers. Ink jet printers use
when our laptop dies and we toss it. The back into the fabrication process, 80 to 90 percent less energy than
reality is that it either rots in a landfill or companies are making more careful laser printers and print quality can
children in developing countries end up decisions about how those parts are be excellent.
wrestling its components apart by hand, assembled in the first place. In 2002 NEC
melting toxic bits to recover traces of
valuable metals like gold.
WASTING ELECTRICITY
The manufacturing of a computer
consumes 1818 kw/h of electricity before it
even gets turned on and when running, a
typical computer uses 120 watts. Research
shows that most PC’s are left idle all day,
and many of them are left on continuously.
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SUSTAINABLE FM | OCTOBER 2007
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