Green Computing: How the Technology Sector is saving itself from itself

Our blog will mainly focus on the benefits of technology and information systems, and the role they can play in improving the world around us. We assume that technology can only be a help to us, and we rarely stop to think about the negative effects that technology can have on our environment. Luckily some people have thought about this. Green computing is the study or practice of environmentally friendly computing and IT. This definition is very broad and encompasses four main ideas; the green use, disposal, design and manufacturing of computers (Techopedia, 2017).

Many big tech companies are actively trying to improve their manufacturing processes in order to reduce their environmental impact nowadays. Even companies that you mightn’t naturally think of are doing fantastic work behind the scenes to change the materials they use in their production facilities. Global powerhouses such as Apple, HP, Dell and Philips are all big names that have active policies in place to improve their environmental impact. These companies have made changes that have had a much wider impact just beyond changing the makeup of their products. For example, HP has its own recycling plant which processes roughly 4 million pounds of electronic goods per month (Greener Solutions Now, n.d.). This has allowed them build on their goal to use more recycled goods in their laptops. They have approached changing their production processes in a variety of ways, from eliminating lead soldering to using recycled or recyclable materials.

Green design incorporates everything that goes into the design process of creating energy efficient technology. In this aspect designers look at the entire life cycle of a product instead of just the performance of it. The first aspect that they must consider is the longevity of a product. The trend of rapid technological advancements coupled with everyone’s desire to have the newest iPhone or iPad means that products become obsolete quickly. This is a nightmare from an environmental viewpoint and so designers are looking for ways to make products last longer. Designers also look at aspects such as modularity, the end of life of a product and the packaging. Nowadays designers are designing components to have multiple uses in order to adhere to development in environmental regulations, as well as reducing waste in their production process. In addition, the end of a products life is looked at. This means that designers look at ways that the materials used can be salvaged to be used in the next generation of products instead of having the products end up in landfill.

Green disposal follows on from Green design and is concerned with the most environmentally friendly way to dispose of old electronics. Of course, nearly everyone wants to do the most responsible and eco-friendly way but sometimes that just isn’t possible. At the moment its estimated that around 40 million tons of electronic waste are produced each year and only 12.5% of that is recycled (Moser, 2019). The majority ends up in landfills which is

very dangerous as many electronic goods contain hazardous materials like lead and mercury. Luckily there are some companies who specialise in the safe disposal and repurposing of electronic goods. Insight run a program which helps companies repurpose old electronic products or else dispose of them safely. If a product must be disposed of it is completely recycled by Insight. This model is inspirational, and we should be looking to see how we can copy it ourselves.

Green use primarily focuses on reducing the energy impact caused by technology. Obviously, this can be done by reducing the use of technology, but it can also be reduced by making processes more efficient. For example, the vast servers used by many modern companies to store data get very hot and require a lot

of energy to cool. By investing in more efficient cooling systems, and more efficient servers, we can use a twofold system to reduce energy consumption (Jones, 2018). Similarly, on a smaller scale, buying a laptop with an SSD drive instead of a conventional hard drive means you can do your own bit for green computing. An SSD can use less than half of the energy of a comparable hard drive (The Revisionist, 2016).

Great strides are being made to make technology more efficient, both in terms of energy consumption and environmental impact. These developments are coming at a rate of knots, and to be honest its badly needed.

References

Greener Solutions Now, n.d. Green Computing. [Online] Available at: https://sites.google.com/site/greenersolutionsnow/home [Accessed 11 February 2020].

Jones, N., 2018. How to stop data centres from gobbling up the world’s electricity. Nature.com, 13 September.

Moser, S., 2019. IT Goes Green: Responsible Computer Recycling and IT Disposal. [Online] Available at: https://www.insight.com/en_US/content-and-resources/archive/241775272-it-disposal-and-recycling-program-makes-every-day-earth-day.html [Accessed 11 February 2020].

Techopedia, 2017. Green Computing. [Online] Available at: https://www.techopedia.com/definition/14753/green-computing [Accessed 10 February 2020].

The Revisionist, 2016. Does an SSD or HDD Consume More Power for Your Computer [Online] Available at: https://www.therevisionist.org/reviews/ssd-vs-hdd-power-consumption/ [Accessed 11 February 2020].