As 21st century belongs to
computers, gizmos and electronic items, energy issues will get a serious ring
in the coming days, as the public debate on carbon emissions, global warming
and climate change gets hotter. Taking into consideration the popular use of
information technology industry, it has to lead a revolution of sorts by
turning green in a manner no industry has
ever done before.
We love our computers for all the ways they make our lives (and the
world) better -- the wealth of knowledge (and democratising force) of the Internet,
the instantaneous communication, the sophisticated tools that help us work and
create and share. However, this modern world's greatest tool is among our most
disposable and resource-heavy items. Performance-wise, computer design has
progressed staggeringly well and astonishingly fast but looking at it from a
green perspective, the work has barely begun. It takes a lot of energy to
create, package, store, and move every 10-20 megabytes of data. Even with
energy prices as cheap as they are now, it will soon cost more to power a
computer for four years than it does to buy a new one. When a computer dies, either
it rots in a landfill, or children in the developing world end up wrestling its
components apart by hand, melting toxic bits to recover traces of heavy metals.
Normally, computers can
contain 4 to 8 pounds of lead alone, according to green experts. It is no
wonder that computers and other electronics make up two-fifths of all lead in
landfills. To counter this growing pollution threat all over the world due to
the growing use of electronic device in general and computers in particular
there a need to look for a green computer. So far, consumers have not cared
about ecological impact when buying computers, they have cared only about speed
and price. However, as Moore's Law marches on and computers commoditize,
consumers will become meticulous about being green. Devices use less and less
power while renewable energy gets more and more portable and effective. New
green materials are developed every year, and they are already replacing many
toxic ones. The greenest computer will not miraculously fall from the sky one day;
it will be the product of years of improvements. The features of a green computer
of tomorrow would be like efficiency, manufacturing & materials, peccability,
service model, self-powering, and other trends. Green computer will be one of
the major contributions, which will break down the 'digital divide', the
electronic gulf that separates the information rich from the information poor.
It is worth emphasizing
that this “green technology” should not be just about sound bytes to impress
activists but concrete action and organizational policy. Opportunities lie in
green technology like never before in history and organizations are seeing it
as a way to create new profit centres while trying to help the environmental cause.
The plan towards green IT should include new electronic products and services
with optimum efficiency and all possible options towards energy savings. Faster
processors historically use more power. Inefficient CPU's are a double hit because
they both use too much power themselves and their waste heat increases air
Conditioning needs,
especially in server farms--between the computers and the HVAC.
Here is how designers
plan to make future computer more eco-friendly across its entire life span,
from manufacture to recycling:
energy-intensive manufacturing of computer parts can be minimized
by making manufacturing process more energy efficient
by replacing petroleum-filled plastic with bioplastic—plant-based
polymers—require less oil and energy to produce than traditional plastics with
a challenge to keep these bioplastic computers cool so that electronics won't
melt them
landfills can be controlled by making best use of the device by
upgrading and repairing in time with a need to make such processes (i.e.,
upgradation and repairing) easier and cheaper
avoiding the discarding will not only control e-waste out of dumps
but also save energy and materials needed for a completely new computer
power-sucking displays can be replaced with green light displays
made of OLEDs, or organic light-emitting diodes
use of toxic materials like lead can be replaced by silver and
copper
making recycling of computers (which are expensive and time
consuming at present) more effective by recycling computer parts separately
with an option of reuse or resale.
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