Green IT is suddenly trendy, but fashion isn’t the only reason to produce the hardware itself. Secondly, especial interest must be
for companies to take a keener interest in the environmental afforded the hazardous and dangerous materials included in the
side of its computer network. In an exclusive piece for Eco production of the hardware.
Executive Dave Pritchard, head of technology strategy at
Fujitsu Siemens Computers, shares his thoughts on the The manufacture of computers and electronics does take up a great
subject of sustainable IT deal of energy and resources. However, there are ways to mitigate
this consumption. For example, Fujitsu Siemens Computers makes
C
onsideration of the environment is very much in fashion the most of raw materials, energy and water during production by
across many industries and IT is no exception. It is often incorporating recycling loops into the assembly lines. By distilling the
quoted that the IT industry is responsible for approximately water used to wash soldering masks and printing screens during
two per cent of global CO2 emissions – equivalent to that of the mainboard production, 99 per cent of the water can be reused.
aviation industry. And of course, IT is growing faster than aviation
so it is set to exceed such figures. Numerous measures introduced since the mid-1990s have cut the
electricity required to manufacture a PC at Fujitsu Siemens Computers’
There are three main drivers for the current keen focus on all things Augsburg facility by more than 50 percent, and power consumption
green and technological. First there is a huge push from legislation. The at the plant continues to decline even as production rises.
Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive (WEEE Directive) is
the European Community directive on waste electrical and electronic Of course, it is worth mentioning that for all hardware manufacturers,
equipment which, together with the Restriction on Hazardous Substances this is a source of financial savings as well as a greener profile. This
(RoHS) Directive became European Law in February 2003. is important as these savings enable manufacturers to offer green
alternatives without a price premium to the end-user organisation.
WEEE sets collection, recycling and recovery targets for all types
of electrical goods. The directive imposes the responsibility for With regards to hazardous substances, the Directive on the
the disposal of waste electrical and electronic equipment on the Restriction of the Use of Certain Hazardous Substances in Electrical
manufacturers of such equipment. Those companies should and Electronic Equipment (commonly referred to as the Restriction of
establish an infrastructure for collecting WEEE, in such a way that Hazardous Substances Directive or RoHS) was adopted in February
“Users of electrical and electronic equipment from private households 2003 by the European Union. The directive took effect on 1 July 2006,
should have the possibility of returning WEEE at least free of charge”. and restricts the use of six hazardous materials in the manufacture of
Also, the companies are compelled to use the collected waste in an various types of electronic and electrical equipment. These are:
ecological-friendly manner, either by ecological disposal or by reuse/
refurbishment of the collected WEEE. 1. Lead
2. Mercury
Secondly there is increasing demand from customers and partners 3. Cadmium
that a business should account for green considerations as part of its 4. Hexavalent chromium
corporate and social responsibility (CSR) programme. Many hardware 5. Polybrominated biphenyls
vendors have finally woken up to this and begun redesigning their 6. Polybrominated diphenyl ether
portfolios to offer more environmentally aware products. At Fujitsu
Siemens Computers we have a bit of a head-start on this, having Many manufacturers have begun phasing these elements out or
launched our first green PC in 1993. reducing them significantly. However, it is important to recognise that
simply meeting RoHS is, in many cases, not good enough – the
Lastly, for many businesses the greatest motivation to adopt green standards must be excelled to have a significant impact.
technology and procedures is financial. Many studies now point to
the fact that “going green” yields significant operational savings and Primary use and deployment
lower costs throughout a business. We will return to the source of
these savings throughout this article. There are some obvious categories for greener computing in action.
Top of the list for many consumers and organisations is reducing
However, to maximise these potential benefits and ensure green power consumption and there are many ways to do this.
technology delivers on all of the promises that currently accompany
the hype, it is vital that a green sensibility is employed throughout the Technologically speaking, desktop computer power supplies (PSUs)
entire lifecycle of any piece or fleet of technology. are generally 70–75 per cent efficient, dissipating the remaining 30-
25 per cent of energy used as heat. As of July 2007 all new Energy
Manufacture and production Star 4.0-certified desktop PSUs must be at least 80% efficient.
Certifications such as these play an increasingly important role in
Before the first machine is developed, it is critical that, from the earliest advising organisations of the option for going green.
possible design stage, consideration is given to the full lifecycle of
any piece of IT hardware. Only then can it be designed to account for An open industry standard called Advanced Configuration and
its use, re-use and disposal in a “green” fashion. Power Interface (ACPI) provides a standard programming interface
that allows an operating system to directly control the power saving
Looking at production and manufacture there are two main elements aspects of the hardware. This allows the system to automatically turn
that must be accounted for – first the energy and resources needed off components such as monitors and hard drives after set periods
51 | ecoexecutive
GreenTech.indd 51 18/4/08 16:08:06
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