As technology keeps improving every day at such a faster rate, we come to realize that our resources are limited and of course the future is starting to fall apart. This has helped us to focus more on searching for a sustainable solution that protects our and our children’s future. IT professionals are no exception, as they are also concerned about the environmental impact of their IT operation. Therefore, Green Computing is introduced to solve today’s issue (evolvit, n.d).
Green Computing or sometimes called Green Technology. Green Computing is defined as using computers and other related resources in eco-friendly use and environmentally responsible manner. Moreover, it is also defined as the study of designing, utilizing, manufacturing and discarding the computer devices in a way that does not affect the environment. The practices of Green computing started to become famous since the establishment of the Energy Star Program by the Environmental Protection Agency (techopedia, n.d).
Why Green Computing?
Today, computers are an essential device for human needs. Using computers makes human life easier by saving time and effort. However, it also increases power consumption and produces a huge amount of heat. Great amounts of power consumption and a significant amount of heat generated make the emission of greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide even larger. All of these emissions cause a very adverse effect on our environment and natural resources (Monika & et al, 2017). For example, Personal computers and data centers use a huge amount of energy due to their usage of different kinds of old technology. Data centers alone consume 6% of the world’s energy. In the United States, the emission of total carbon dioxide was 1.7 billion tons of CO2 in 2011, in which data centers are accountable for 3%. In addition, 8,000 tons of batteries were disposed of in Australia landfills every year. Batteries produce lithium and carbon that is destructive to the environment since it is difficult to recycle (Sambhanthan, 2015). As a result, these emissions cause pollution in our environment.
Green computing for data centers in the future should design a data center that uses less energy consumption. Furthermore, the current data centers should be placed with non-energy data storage methods. Emission control measures which are converting the heat from the data center to create another form of energy that could be new consumable energy. Additionally, green computing for batteries is that batteries should be produced by controlling electron transfer rates in the battery and using nanoparticle structure. By doing this, it will help to decrease the emission rates and also energy consumption, which will result in cleaner batteries (Sambhanthan, 2015).
By using green computing, we can reduce energy consumption by lowering carbon dioxide emissions. We can also save money from spending on the usage of energy and resources. Furthermore, green computing encourages recycling to help the environment. Lastly, it protects resources by using less energy to produce and dispose of products (Monika & et al, 2017).
In order to promote green computing, the four following concepts will be used:
- Green use: reducing the electricity of computers and other computing devices, also consuming them in an environmentally friendly manner.
- Green disposal: Recycling unwanted computing devices.
- Gren design: designing a computer device that is energy efficient.
- Green manufacturing: minimizing waste while producing the computer and other subsystems to decrease the environmental effect of these activities (techopedia, n.d).
Practical steps
All computer users can follow the following practical step, whether at home or work, to make their computing usage more green:
- Use a sleep mode when you are going to be away from your computer for a long period
- For energy efficiency, buy a notebook computer instead of desktop computers
- Turn on the power management features to manage energy consumption
- Dispose of the electronic waste properly
- Switch off the computer at the end of the day
- Refill printer cartridges instead of buying new ones
- Repurposing an existing device instead of buying a new computer
- Use the paper wisely and recycle waste paper properly (techopedia, n.d).
To sum up, green computing plays an important role in protecting our environment. As the need for computers increases, the need for green computing also becomes very significant. Since it provides a lot of benefits such as reducing environmental impact, lowering energy costs, long-lasting computing devices, so why not take it into consideration. If everyone can do this, our environment will become cleaner and our future will be safe.
References:
evolvit. (n.d). Green computing: Protecting the Future. (2019, April 12). Retrieved from https://evolvit.co.uk/it-support/computer-support/green-computing-protecting-the-future/
Monika, et al. (2017). Green Computing: Barriers and Benefits. Retrieved from https://www.ripublication.com/ijcir17/ijcirv13n3_03.pdf
Sambhanthan, A. (2015, June 23). Green Computing: What does the future hold? Retrieved from https://blog.ubiquity.acm.org/green-computing-what-does-the-future-hold/
Techopedia. (n.d). What is Green Computing? Retrieved from https://www.techopedia.com/definition/14753/green-computing
Moniroth Wildcat's MIS304 site 