The Importance Of Green Computing Information Technology Essay

Green computing refers to environmentally sustainable computing. It minimize the use of electricity as well as energy and reduce the environmental dissipate when we are using a computer. The green computing has the same goals with green chemistry, which is longer the life time of the product and makes the product more efficiency of energy, advance the discarded product and factory waste to be more easily recycled and biodegradable, use of the less-hazardous materials.

According to San Murugesan, green computing is the study of designing, manufacturing, using, and disposing of computers, servers, and related subsystems-such as monitors, printers, storage devices, and networking and communications systems which is efficiently and effectively with minimal or no impact on the environment. It also strives to get economic achievability and better system performance and use due to abide your social and ethical responsibilities. In the economic sense, it has efficiency energy, a save the total cost of ownership, which includes the cost of disposal and recycling. Therefore it is the study and practice of using computing resources efficiently.

Origin

The labeling program which is known as Energy Star was one of the earliest initiatives toward in United States. In 1992, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) started to promote all kinds of hardware of energy efficiency, also climate control equipment, and other technologies and it was regarded as Energy Star. The label of Energy Star became a general sight, mainly in notebook computers and displays. In Europe and Asia, similar programs have also been implemented. The sleep mode is then adopted among consumer electronics. After the Energy Star program began, the term “green computing” was probably invented shortly.

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. Logo of Energy Star

Pathways to Green Computing 

In accordance with San Murugesan, the study of green computing which is related to use, disposal, designing, and manufacturing, here are the elaborations of the above.

There are ways to achieve green computing, aim to make the whole IT lifecycle greener. The following four complementary paths dealing with environmental sustainability are:

Green use. Using computers and other information systems in an environmentally sound manner such as reduce the energy consumption.

Green disposal. When dealing unwanted compurs or electronic equipment, recycle them properly. Old computers are also encouraged to be reuse or refurbished.

Green design. Designing energy-efficient and environmentally sound components, computers, servers, cooling equipment, and data centers

Green manufacturing. Manufacturing electronic components, computers, and other associated subsystems with minimal impact on the environment.

Important of Green Computing

Why should we have the idea of green computing?

When the news claimed that the environment was not a renewable resource, it really hit home and people started realizing that they had to do their part to protect the environment. Therefore, green computing is an important idea to keep our environment clean and safe. When it gets involved in recycling computer, it is difficult to dispose the old computers and some more that they take up much space in landfills. Somehow, the problem is that the electronic waste is increasing tremendously within this decade. Many negative effects are gradually showed up towards this environment, especially to human. Due to the quick obsolescence of electronics, it resulted a dreadful 70% of all hazardous waste. Computer waste is high in many toxic materials such as heavy metals and flame-retardant plastics, which easily leach into ground water and bio-accumulate. In addition, to manufacture chips of the electronic requires huge amounts of resources and some deadliest gases and chemicals are used to man.

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In an average year, 24 million computers have become obsolete in United States. Only about 14% (3.3 million) of these will be recycled or donated. Over 20 million computers, the rest in U.S. will be get rid of, destroyed or shipped as waste products or to be dealt with later in the temporary storage. We do not care about what happens when our laptop dies and just stop to consider it. The reality is that it either decomposed in a landfill or developing countries. The children there wrestling its components apart by hand and melting toxic bits to discover traces or valuable metals like gold.

Moreover, E-Waste trade chain is created in developing nations for the imported obsolete electronics. They employ several workers, collectors, segregators, middlemen, scrap dealers and recyclers to take components apart, reuse the functional components, burning or acid dipping and other unprofessional techniques to recycle the non-functional components. After burning and other wastes are disposed, the spent acids and other chemicals, solid wastes eventually end up in rivers. This resulted serious problem of pollution of water, the source we depend , which can threaten our lives.C:UsersUserDocumentsCSCpics80415_beware_free_electronic_waste_collection_events_300dpi.jpg

. Landfill

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3. Unprofessional technique used by the woman that maybe endangers health.

2. Workers in landfill.

Another reason that triggers us to look important on green computing is the emissions of harmful gases which come from generating electricity can cause respiratory disease, smog, acid rain and global climate change. These reactions can be avoided if we save the electricity and do not leave computers on continuously because the majority of the world’s electricity is generated by burning fossil fuel pollutants such as sulphur, mercury, and carbon dioxide.

Supporting Theory

Greener supply chains have become the norm and the trend of green IT. It is because the companies have tried to squeeze very dime out of their supply chains to improve the bottom line and deliver less-expensive products to their customers. Instead of focusing on purely financial improvements, they also try to make the greatest interest in making the supply chains greener. While greening the supply chain, the importance of gathering data and analysis become obviously. So that it is no surprise that IT and electronics equipment manufacturers have been on the leading edge of this field for years. It is because the suppliers are pressured by most of their customer to reduce their carbon footprints, minimize waste that would need to be stored in landfills and use less water.

The European Union is tackling with difficulties of producing computers which are free of the worst toxic materials and the responsibility for taking back the company their own old products too. They try to manage with cycling the disassembling parts back into the fabrication process. Finally, in 2002, NEC came out with the first computer to use lead-free solder, a fully recyclable plastic case, and which contained no toxic flame-retardants. It is becoming a common practice for companies to offer their customers free recycling of their old computers since the worldwide of computers company have started selling lead-free PCs.

Apple is taking the pioneer and the leader to green computing. The New Mac mini is a good start.

Figure Advertisement of Apple the new MacBook

The Apple MacBook Pro is the best example of product of green IT.

It eliminated many harmful toxins. For example, the mercury used in CCFL backlights and the arsenic contained in the glass of traditional LCD displays.Apple has removed these toxins from all new MacBook Pro notebooks, and they’ve done the same for the new MacBook Air, iMac, Mac Pro, and Mac mini; Apple LED Cinema Display; and iPod touch, iPod classic, iPod nano, iPod shuffle, and iPhone.

It is highly recyclable. The material of the product is formed from recyclable glass, recyclable aluminum and so on. The raw materials used in new MacBook are very desirable by recycler and it can be reused in other products.

Its packaging is reduced. About 41, 37 and 34 percent smaller (13-, 15-, and 17-inch, respectively) than the original one. The reason using smaller boxes is due to we can fit more boxes as possible we can on each shipping pallet. Since more products fit on each plane or boat, fewer boats and planes are used and therefore results in CO2 emissions is reduced.

It is more energy efficient. Because Apple makes both hardware and software for Macbook Pro, they manage to design them work together and control every aspect of the production. There are many functions allow the MacBook use less electricity: the MacBook Pro hard drive spins down automatically when inactive. MacBook Pro

The Userful MultiSeat takes 1 ordinary PC and turns it into 11 standard USB. Up to 11 users can work on a single computer, each with their own monitor, mice, and keyboards. Not only 80% of hardware cost is saved, the infrastructure (power plugs, cabling, etc.) is reduced by factor of 10. The company, Userful, declared that their software have saved over 13,350 tons of CO2 emissions in the past year, which is same with taking 2,300 cars off the road. This application makes the possibility to reduce the emissions of CO2 by up to 15 per year per system and up to 80% the electronic waste can be reduced.

Analysis and Solution of the Problem

Why does green computing less common practice in our country?

Although we know that green computing is important, but some people just does not do the practical action to save our earth. They constantly think that:” I am just one person, I cannot make any difference to something as global as climate change.” They underestimate themselves, and continuing destroys the earth. Somehow, this common attitude of human can be an obstacle to the way of “green world”. If we reluctant to make practical changes in behavior, such as turn off the computer when not in use or recycle used paper, the earth will easily sick one beyond our expectations because of all of us behaves the same attitude and no one willing to change. Green computing will not work out anymore in this instance.

In the other hand, there is a common view that man-made emissions are too small to cause climate change. Although it is true that only a small amount of emission caused by human in the annual cycle amount, we cannot be blind as the population increases, our consumption of energy also inevitably in a high demand. Hence, global warming resulted in fast-pace virtually.

Therefore, our response is influential because it practically shows how individuals can make a difference by demonstrating the good behavior of everything. Let us say that if everyone uses two sheets less per day in an office of about 1,000 people, it would save a tree every week. We can say we are enough to make difference.

Does green computing really go green?

The answer may be no definitely 100% of green IT. It depends on the manufacturing process used to produce the electronic. Most products are produced in China or other Asian countries and most of the computer components are outsourced from there. Why? Generally, companies tend to gain more benefit than lose a penny, developing in China or other Asian countries is the way to save the cost of production. How? Because there is not much strict environmental regulations and the labor standards are lax. In addition, products do not often meet the green standards by those manufacturers which are set by the companies, also including Apple headquarters in the United States. Finally, the working conditions, being paid in fair wages, and working reasonable hours also must we consider to ensure to product is truly green. Therefore, labor of production which must be considered in case.

Recommendation

We should take our responsibility to reduce the environmental impact of computing in order to keep our planet clean and healthy. As users, we could do our part by altering our habits. Here are the ways we can make our world better if we: using computers and devices that comply with the Energy Star program, telecommuting instead of travelling by planes or ship, using paperless method to communicate or in business.

In my opinion, technology is created and improved in our generation is to upgrade our quality of life. We should appreciate this advantage but not misuse it. If we waste our resources restlessly and there will not be any chances for us to repent and our live seems to reach the end. Because of the non-renewable resource, which is a natural resource, such as fossil fuel, cannot sustain in a long time if we use them without conservation. This is because the resources often existed in fixed amount, and we keep consuming that much faster than the nature can create them. We use them in our daily life, how would it be if we run out of petroleum? No transport, no food, economic crisis…. More disasters will happen with unexpectedly fast. Therefore, we can change our attitudes now as long as we still have chance to live. In addition, we have only one earth, so treat it well!

Conclusion

To come to our knowledge, the man-made greenhouse gas emissions increasing is a major contributing factor to global warming, enterprises, governments, and also our society. In the mean time, people trying to tackle environmental issues and adopting environmentally to live in harmony and peacefully with this earth. Therefore, greening our IT products, applications, services and practices are both economic and environmental essential, as well as our social responsibility. As a result, a growing number of IT vendors and users are moving toward green computing and thereby assisting in building a green society and economy.

Through the effort of developing sustainable energy, we can create a better quality of life for the coming generation. We can put our effort to learn more about knowledge of computer disposal to protecting the environment. By green computing technology, we are trying to make the whole process surrounding computers more friendly to the environment, economy, and society.