What Is Green Computing

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

"Green Computing is the environmentally responsible use of computers and related resources or study of design and innovate a new product using recycle material" said by Cory Janssen Co-founder of Techopedia.com. (Cory Janssen, n.d.) Green Computing is promoted widely is to minimizing the environmental impact and maximizing economic feasibility. This is the reason why Green Computing is introduced to save our earth and the future generation. There are many computer manufacturer join the Green Computing campaign such as the Apple, Asus, Gigabyte, Samsung, Seagate, Western Digital and others. The aim of Green Computing is:-

Reduce in the usage of hazardous materials.

Increase in energy efficient.

Understand the crucial of recycling.

Source from: http://www.ecofriend.com/go-green-use-technology-the-eco-friendly-way.html

Source from: http://www.techopedia.com/definition/14753/green-computing

What is Green Computing?

The aim of Green Computing is to study and practice how to dispose the faulty part of the computer components with efficient and effective way. Green Computing is to encourage the manufacturer invent the new device by using eco-friendly and biodegradable material but with high quality. There are some researches try to invent the device which is powerful but consume less electricity for an example Seagate Barracuda Green Hard Disk Drive (HDD). The spin speed of this Hard Disk Drive (HDD) is 5900 RPM and the capacity of the HDD can up to 2TB, while 70% more of the material to make up this HDD are recyclable (refer figure 1-1).

Source from: http://www.seagate.com/internal-hard-drives/desktop-hard-drives/barracuda-green/

Figure 1-1: Comparison table between two types of HDD

Traditional HDD

Eco-Green HDD

Why the environment need to be "Green"

"According to the Environment Protection Agency (EPA) in US, there is more than 3 million tons of e-waste ended up is US landfills" (Noraida, n.d.). E-waste means rejected of electrical and electronic device. Some organizations upgrade their machine every 3 to 4 years and this has caused the percentage of e-waste increased year by year. Computer components were produced with various types of heavy metal and some might affect the environment such as Lead, Mercury, Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC) and many more (refer table 1-1).

Hazard Material

Contained in which part

Effect

Lead (Pb)

Soldering components and Printed Circuit Board (PCB)

Damaged to human central nervous system, poor muscle coordination, fertility problem (men and women)

Mercury (Hg)

Battery

Genetic mutation, chronic damage on brain, paralysis, insomnia

Source from: Poison PCs and Toxic TVsPolyvinyl Chloride (PVC)

Wire jacket, monitor case

PVC will release both dioxin and DEHP and might cause cancer to the kidney

Table 1-1: Types of heavy metal might harmful to human being

This table shows some hazard material that might harmful to human being such as Lead (Pb) might cause fertility problem and Mercury (Hg) can cause genetic mutation. Keep the environment green not only can save human future and also help the animal to save their shelter.

Climate Change: The more the greenhouse gases released, the climate has change and cause the natural disasters happen. This has brought a big effect to the human being and the animal.

Reliability of Power: Energy efficient product helps to save up the electricity bill and also protect the product from any unnecessary accident happen.

Source from: Poison PCs and Toxic TVs

Source from: Eco-Friendly Computing: Green Computing

Source from: A study on Electronic Waste (E-waste) by Noraida bt Yusof, Faculty Civil Engineering, UTM

Eco-Green Organization

There are many Non-Government Organization (NGO) support Green Computing to reduce the emission of CO2 and the disposal of e-waste from the computer hardware or components. There are some NGO which is Green Computing Initiative (GCI), World Wildlife Fund (WWF), Foundation for Environmental Education (FEE) and Energy Star. These NGO conduct seminar frequently in University, high school and IT organization about Green Computing to encourage them protect the environment and keep the environment clean. Energy Star is one of the member of EPA and also the US department of Energy to help the consumer save money and protect the environment through energy efficient product and practices.

Figure 2-2: Green Computing Initiative logo

Figure 2-1: World Wildlife Fund logo

Green Computing Initiative (GCI)

Figure 3-1: Certification and training that provided by Green Computing Initiative Organization

Source from: http://www.greenci.org/GCI establish in year 2007 as an international collaboration among ICT trainers North America and Asia. The vision of GCI is to strive for a healthier and richer environment for the future generation while their mission is to promote environmental protection as well as social and economic. GCI do provide training and certification (refer figure 3-1) to educate the IT professionals and users to innovate a new product using disposal material. Other than that, GCI do offer government consultant service on carbon footprint determination, energy efficient strategies and low carbon economy program. This is to make sure that the carbon footprint for each project would not exceed and pollute the environment. Green of ICT projects were certified by GCI through the Green Computing Carbon Standard (GCCS). Innovation, research, development and commercialization are also a part of GCI. There are some certificate which are certified by GCI is Certified Green Computing User Specialist, Certified Green Computing Architect and Certified Green Computing Professional. Certification of GCI is to evaluate the knowledge about Green Computing, understanding about using Green Computing product and solution to solve the non-eco-friendly product. C:\Users\Kenny\Desktop\IA Assignment\logo.jpg

Energy Star

"Energy Star (trademarked ENERGY STAR) is an international standard for energy efficient product" (Energy Star, n.d.). Energy Star was created in 1992 by the EPA and developed by John S. Hoffman which is the inventor of the Green Program in EPA. "Energy Star works closely with the IT industry as voluntary labelling program to label the computer and printer product which is design with energy efficient" (Margaret Rouse, 2010) In 1995, this program is expand significantly to the home heating and cooling product such as oven, refrigerator, air-conditional and others. Energy Star specification is different for every product, for an example the minimum requirement for computer is 80 Plus Bronze level or higher power supply. There are some of the manufacturer design their product and get verified by Energy Star, but the product must meet the guidelines that set by the EPA:-

Product must contribute significant energy saving nationwide.

Product must be demanded by the consumer and also increase the energy efficiency.

Product cost must not cost more than the less energy efficient product.

Product energy consumption can be measured and verified during the test.

Below is a table (refer Figure 4-1) that create by Energy Star to indicate that how to use home computer efficiently.

Figure 4-1: How is the electric bill affected by the effectiveness use of computers

Source from: http://www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?fuseaction=find_a_product.showProductGroup&pgw_code=CO

Product which manufacturer with Eco-FriendlyC:\Users\Kenny\Desktop\81sXES1PMnL__AA1500_.jpg

Asus Monitor (ML238H)

One of the Asus model monitor (refer figure 5-1) is designed to meet the requirement of the Energy Star. From figure below, the power consumption when normal use is less than 33W while during the monitor is on the saving mode, the power consumption is less than 1W. This monitor is produce without using any mercury and 80% of the packaging can be recycled. This monitor is packing with slim-flat so that the cargo can fit more cartons. This was helped to reduce the transportation cost and also minimize the emission of greenhouse gases.

Source from: http://www.asus.com/Monitors_Projectors/ML238H/

Figure 5-1: Monitor which design to meet the specification of Energy Star

IPhone 5

Apple Inc. invents their entire product by using eco-friendly and recyclable material. "In the past decades, Apple has made up an analysis to regulate the rate of the greenhouse gases" (Apple Inc. n.d.). According to the pie chart (refer figure 6-1) shows that 98% of the carbon footprint come from the Product Life Cycle while only 2% come from the Facilities. Table below (refer Table 2-1, Figure 6-2 and Figure 6-4) indicate the metric tons of greenhouse gas emission for each process.

Process

Metric tons of greenhouse gas emission

Total Footprint

Manufacturing

14,096,000

61%

Transportation

1,239,000

5%

Product Use

6,995,000

30%

Recycling

396,000

2%

Facilities

378,000

2%

Source from: http://www.apple.com/environment/Total

23,104,000

100%

Table 2-1: Metric tons of greenhouse gas emission in the process of manufacturing IPhone 5

Apple choose to use the material which can be recycle and make sure that their product are lead-free, BFR-free, PVC-free and also mercury free (refer figure 6-3). "Apple design products to be energy efficient and lower energy consumption with energy efficient" (Apple Inc., n.d.) (refer Figure 6-5) built in feature, such as:-

Ambient light sensor

The light sensor will detect the surrounding brightness and automatically adjust the suitable brightness to display for the user.

Wake on demand

Apple has a service called Bonjour Sleep Proxy which maintains the PC in wake mode while transferring file and the PC will back into sleep mode after the file transfer has been done.

Automatic graphics switching

Some of the Mac Book Pro comes with Intel Integrated Graphic and also the third-party graphic accelerator. When the user is on idle mode, the PC will automatically runs Intel Integrated Graphic while in gaming mode, the third party graphic accelerator will replace the Intel Integrated Graphic.

Standby power

Mac systems use energy efficient hardware to works along with the OS to conserve power. OS X spins down HDD activate sleep mode automatically and place the system in an ultra-low power mode.

Figure 6-3: Products which is free from hazardous material.

Figure 6-1: Part of the most carbon is released.

Figure 6-2: Percentage of greenhouse gases during the process to manufacturer IPhone 5.

Source from: http://www.apple.com/asia/environment/

Source from: http://www.apple.com/environment/energy-efficiency/

Figure 6-4: Emission of CO2e by the Apple product.

Figure 6-5: Energy consumption of Apple product.

Gigabyte Motherboard

Gigabyte is one of the manufactures that was certified by the Energy Star. "Dynamic Energy saver 2 is a unique technology from Gigabyte, it was an intelligent feature that uses the hardware and software design of the computer to enhance the PC system energy efficiency, reduce power consumption and provide auto-phased-switching for the CPU, RAM, HDD and others" (Gigabyte, n.d.). Gigabyte Easy Energy Saver (refer figure 7-2) is one of the functions which integrated with the motherboard package. The developer designs this software to ease the user to control or tweak the voltage of the CPU and the user can also identify the real-time CPU power consumption in Watts. The user can identify the Dynamic LED (refer Figure 7-1) which is on the motherboard to know how the CPU loads.

Source from: http://www.gigabyte.my/microsite/98/html/technology-guide-power-efficient-1.htm

Figure 7-2: Interface of Easy Energy Saver

Figure 7-1: Dynamic LED to show the computer loading statusC:\Users\TEMP\Downloads\easysaver.jpg

How to use the computer with energy efficient

There are many website do provide information about how to save up the electricity that used by the computers. Although there are many method but this are some method that recommended by Energy Star.

Buy energy efficient product

Disable Screen Saver.

Enable standby mode after 15 minutes without touching the computers.

Switch the computer into Hibernate mode when not using it temporarily.

Shut down the computer when not in use.

Adjust the brightness of the monitor to the suitable ones.

Use Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) instead of Cathode Ray Tube (CRT) Monitor.

Use computer very efficiently and keep the hardware off when not in use.

Purchase low-power but efficient processor, motherboard, RAM, Power Supply and hard drives.

Refill the ink cartridge instead of replace a new one.

These are some of the ways that may help the consumer to save up their electricity bill. This is just a small part of it, to really save out on the electricity bill, the consumer have to choose the energy efficient product which has been certified by Energy Star. This is because every single product that certified by Energy star is proved with less power consumption but high efficiency. Screen saver must be disable on the PC is because screen saver will draw more power from the PC and prevent the PC went into sleep mode. According to Energy Star, LCD monitors draws average 70% less energy in on-mode than the CRT monitor. Change the setting of the PC into auto sleep mode after 15 minutes. "PC with is certified by Energy Star will not loss it internet connection when loaded into sleep mode" (Energy Star, n.d.). The body of the inkjet cartridge is made up by using crude oil, it takes around 1000 years to decompose an inkjet cartridge and this is one of the reasons to cause pollution of landfill increased. Other than replace a new cartridge, the consumer can refill the old cartridge with low price and also save up the environment.

Source from: http://www.techopedia.com/definition/14753/green-computing

Source from: http://searchdatacenter.techtarget.com/definition/green-computing

How to dispose computer faulty part with the correct way

3R has been introduced to reduce the rate of disposal waste. 3R can be classified as Reduce, Reuse and Recycle.

Reduce: Buy the only item that you need.

Reuse: Try to repair the item that already damage and reuse it again

Recycle: Separate the faulty part with its different kind of material and dispose it by following the type of the material such as plastic, PCB, wire and others.

There are also some organization help to process the unwanted E-waste such as Dell Asia Pacific, Eco Knights and also All IT Sdn. Bhd. Dell Asia started its computer recycling initiative in Penang in October 2002. The company partnered with the Penang Municipal Council and the others private sector in the recycling project, naming it Private Partnership Programme (PPP). "Mr Yong said so, according to the international data 1.15 million units of computers were purchased but Dell Asia Pacific only manages to collect 2% of that for recycling" (Yong Kim Yoong, 1st August 2006). PC recycling is crucial to minimise e-waste in landfills and prevent from air and water pollution. This is because the lead inside the Cathode Ray Tube Monitor (CRT), cadmium in notebook batteries and mercury which found from notebook lamps are potentially hazardous if did not dispose in s proper way. From 2009 onwards, Dell Inc. had pledged to phase out BFR and PVC as the material for the laptop and others product. "During this recycle program, 50 cent cash of rebate is provided for every kilogramme of the faulty equipment". There are 5 tonnes of computers and some other related equipment has been collected by Dell Asia Pacific. Other than that, Dell Inc. do offer trade in services. This had been benefiting the consumer to purchase a new laptop or PC without worry about how to settle the old ones. The faulty equipment that collected by Dell Asia Pacific is then sent to a main recycling partner to sort out either reuse or recycle it. The faulty equipment which can be reuse are refurbished and repaired before sold to the market. For an example, copper and resin that found in PCB is blend into powder form and mixed with liquid. This is to collect back the copper from the PCB to melt it for other uses.

Source from: http://thestar.com.my/lifestyle/story.asp?file=/2006/8/1/lifefocus/14793678&sec=lifefocus

Conclusion

As a smart consumer, energy efficient product is the first selection to purchase. Everyone has the responsibilities to protect the environment and reduce the emission of greenhouse gas. Consumer can follow the tips that recommended by some NGO to save up the environment and also cut down their cost on the electricity bill. Sleep mode function that introduce by Energy star is a very useful and simple feature to cut down the power consumption of the computers. Other than that, computer professional can also attend the green innovation course to improve their Green Computing knowledge to practice only use energy efficient product and try to reuse or recycle the faulty equipment such as use LCD monitor instead of CRT monitor which consume more electricity and also consists of hazardous material. Where to dispose the faulty computer equipment is the most crucial process because if anything went wrong it might cause critical pollution to the whole landfill.

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