Global warming and environmental change have become big issues with governments, corporations and your Average Joe alike, and all are seeking new ways to “green up” their daily activities. Computers certainly make up a large part of many people’s lives, and traditionally computers are extremely damaging to the environment, so can computing be more environmentally friendly?
Green computing is the study and practice of minimizing the environmental impact of computers through efficient manufacturing, use and disposal.
Problems of Electronic Waste
Electronic waste is in increasing problem globally due to the quick obsolescence of electronics, which make up a staggering 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, chip manufacturing uses some of the deadliest gases and chemicals known to man and require huge amounts of resources.
In an average year, 24 million computers in the United States become obsolete. Only about 14% (or 3.3 million) of these will be recycled or donated. The rest—more than 20 million computers—will be dumped, incinerated, shipped as waste exports or put into temporary storage to be dealt with later. We never stop to consider what happens when our laptop dies and we toss it. The reality is that it either rots in a landfill or children in developing countries end up wrestling its components apart by hand, melting toxic bits to recover traces of valuable metals like gold.
Wasting Electricity
The manufacturing of a computer consumes 1,818 kw/h of electricity before it even gets turned on and, when running, a typical computer uses 120 watts. Research shows that most PCs are left idle all day, and many of them are left on continuously. Every time we leave computers on, we waste electricity without considering where that electricity comes from. Burning fossil fuels, which emit pollutants such as sulphur and carbon dioxide into the air, generates the majority of the world’s electricity. These emissions can cause respiratory disease, smog, acid rain and global climate change.
The Future of Green Computing
A Canadian company, Userful, (www.userful.com) has come up with a solution that turns one computer into 10: Userful Desktop. Quickly becoming the standard for green computing worldwide, Userful Desktop leverages the unused computing power of modern PCs to create an environmentally efficient alternative to traditional desktop computing. Multiple users can work on a single computer by simply attaching up to 10 monitors, mice and keyboards. This makes it possible to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by up to 15 tons per year per system and reduce electronic waste by up to 80%. Userful has recently stated that in the last year, their software has saved 29,000 tons of carbon dioxide emissions, the equivalent of taking more than 5,000 cars off the road.
