Webroot offers free security hardware recycling

IT security firm Webroot has teamed up with recycling company Centillion to launch a Go Green (PDF) campaign, which offers to recycle legacy security hardware for free when customers sign up to Webroot's software-as-a-service (Saas) offering.

The new programme is available to any customer who replaces a security appliance or an on-premise security system with a Webroot SaaS security product.

As part of the deal, the company will send the customer a prepaid shipping label to transport the hardware to the closest Centillion facility in the UK.

"When we realised that the tremendous success of security SaaS solutions would be making hardware-based security obsolete, we took steps to provide a socially responsible alternative for recycling this influx of electronic waste, " said Peter Watkins, chief executive at Webroot.

"The move to the SaaS model will greatly reduce the need for on-premise hardware, which will help lower the amount of electronic waste and conserve energy."

Once the hardware has been properly recycled, the customer will receive a certificate of authentication to help with compliance.

"The European WEEE Directive calls for businesses to dispose of electronic and electrical equipment efficiently and safely, and we are excited to be working with Webroot on its Go Green computer initiative to aid those companies to become compliant with EU legislation," said Craig Millward, sales and marketing director at Centillion.

Estimates from the US Environmental Protection Agency suggest that 2.25 million tons of TVs, mobile phones and computer products have already been discarded in the US. Only 18 per cent, or 414,000 tons, was collected for recycling, and the remaining 1.84 million tons was sent to landfill sites in the US and third world countries.

Source: vnunet.com/vnunet/news/2231848/webroot-offers-free-security
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Buy Green Computer

Q:- My old computer finally bit the dust and I am in the market for a replacement. Are there any particularly Green Computer for sale these days?

Ans:-Thanks in part to pressure from non­profits like Greenpeace International – which has published quarterly versions of its landmark "Guide to Greener Electronics" since 2006 – computermakers now understand that consumers care about the environmental footprints of the products they use.

The latest version of Greenpeace's guide gives high marks to Toshiba, Lenovo, Sony, and Dell for increasing the recyclability of their computers and redu­cing toxic components and so-called "e-waste" (refuse from discarded electronic devices and components). The group also credits Apple, HP, and Fujitsu for making strides toward greener products and manufacturing processes, but adds that even top-ranked companies have lots of room for improvement on the environment.

PC Magazine recently assessed dozens of personal computers according to environmental standards it developed in-house based on energy efficiency, recyclability, and the toxicity of components. The publication also factored in various "green" certification schemes such as the US Environmental Protection Agency's Energy­­Star program, the European Union's Restriction of Haz­ardous Sub­stances directive, Taiwan's Green­mark, and the computer industry's own Electronic Products Environmental Asses­­sment Tool.

The top choices for green desktop computers, according to PC, are:

•Apple's Mac Mini

•Zonbu's Desktop Mini,

•HP Compaq's 2710p and dc7800

•Lenovo's ThinkCentre a61e

•Dell's OptiPlex 755

As for laptops, the greenest current models include:

•Dell's Latitude D630

•Everex Zonbu

•Fujitsu's LifeBook S6510

•Toshiba's Tecra A9-S9013

Perhaps more important than the greenness of your new computer is what you do with your old one. Putting it in the trash may be the worst thing you can do, as heavy metals and other toxins inevitably get free and migrate into surrounding soils and water. If the machine still works, give it to a local school that can put it to use, or to Goodwill or the Salvation Army, either of which can resell it to fund programs. Another option: Donate it to the National Cristina Foundation, which places outdated technology with needy nonprofits.
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Where can I find a 'green' computer?

Q: My old computer finally bit the dust and I am in the market for a replacement. Are there any particularly "green" computers for sale these days?

– Brian Smith, Nashua, N.H.

A:Thanks in part to pressure from non­profits like Greenpeace International – which has published quarterly versions of its landmark "Guide to Greener Electronics" since 2006 – computermakers now understand that consumers care about the environmental footprints of the products they use.

The latest version of Greenpeace's guide gives high marks to Toshiba, Lenovo, Sony, and Dell for increasing the recyclability of their computers and redu­cing toxic components and so-called "e-waste" (refuse from discarded electronic devices and components). The group also credits Apple, HP, and Fujitsu for making strides toward greener products and manufacturing processes, but adds that even top-ranked companies have lots of room for improvement on the environment.

PC Magazine recently assessed dozens of personal computers according to environmental standards it developed in-house based on energy efficiency, recyclability, and the toxicity of components. The publication also factored in various "green" certification schemes such as the US Environmental Protection Agency's Energy­­Star program, the European Union's Restriction of Haz­ardous Sub­stances directive, Taiwan's Green­mark, and the computer industry's own Electronic Products Environmental Asses­­sment Tool.

The top choices for green desktop computers, according to PC, are:

•Apple's Mac Mini

•Zonbu's Desktop Mini,

•HP Compaq's 2710p and dc7800

•Lenovo's ThinkCentre a61e

•Dell's OptiPlex 755

As for laptops, the greenest current models include:

•Dell's Latitude D630

•Everex Zonbu

•Fujitsu's LifeBook S6510

•Toshiba's Tecra A9-S9013

For green PC support call on 1-800-237-3901

Source: csmonitor.com/2008/0430/p14s01-sten.html
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How to manage e-waste

At the end of the road of fast paced technological innovations lies heaps of electronic carcasses which cause severe contamination of air with hazardous toxic substances like lead, cadmium, mercury and carcinogenic substances

When old computers laptops, mobile phones, MP3 players and TV sets near the end of their useful life, we easily dump them in the warehouse or give them away to a kabadi at a dirt cheap price, not realizing our contribution to the grave menace of e-waste.

Electrical and electronic equipments are made up of a multitude of components, some containing toxic substances which can have an adverse impact on human health and the environment if not handled properly. Often, these hazards arise due to the improper recycling and disposal processes used.

When thrown away carelessly, electronic products end up in landfills or incinerators, or are recycled in environmentally harmful ways, leading to the severe contamination of air with hazardous toxic substances like lead, cadmium and mercury and carcinogenic substances like polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs).

The burgeoning problem of landfills inundated with abandoned high-tech electronic appliances is a source of growing concern among corporate enterprises, governments and environmental groups around the globe.

With the rapid technology change, low initial cost and even planned obsolescence, the amount of ewaste is estimated to grow fourfold in the next few years.

In India the problem is more acute as we not only generate a large quantity of e-waste locally but we also serve as a dumping ground for e-waste from other countries. It is estimated that approximately 1 million units of e-waste were brought into India last year.

So far preliminary estimates suggest that total e- waste generation in India is approximately 1, 46,000 tons per year. Moreover, the methods adopted for processing the e-waste involve uncontrolled burning, disassembly and disposal causing environmental and health problems, including occupational safety and health effects.

Proper treatment of e-waste is the need of the day. If recycled appropriately a lot of reusable valuable substances can be extracted from it.

Advanced technology has indeed tremendous fruits to reap but leaves at the fag end the sour taste of electronic scrap resulting from the sheer negligence on the path of the users. We can either adopt the more practical solution of reusing our appliances or perhaps recycling them suitably.

Source:TOI
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Save Your Business...and Environment With Green PCs

The Age of Computers dawned with the ecologically friendly promise of a paperless office. That broken promise aside, the rapid advancement of computer technology has had a very nasty and unforeseen impact on the environment.

If saving the Earth's environment isn't your thing, perhaps saving your hard-earned money is. Going Green means using cleaner, safer, cooler computers, which means becoming more energy efficient, which saves money. We'll review a few green PC systems here, plus give you a checklist that will help you shop for other systems and upgrades.

Buying a New System

The average computer lasts 3 years, so odds are you'll be in the market for a new PC pretty soon. Unless you're upgrading parts or building your own green computer (see below), you'll want to keep an eye out for what's inside the newest PCs.

HP Compaq is offering two new green PCs. There's the tiny HP Compaq dc7800 Ultra-slim Desktop PC with SSD ($1,258), and the bare bones model dc5800 ($579). Both feature energy-efficient hardware as well as software, resulting in faster boot-ups, as-needed power consumption, and timely auto shutdowns. These Energy Star compliant machines produce less heat, reducing cooling energy by 15-30%. They use half as much electricity to run, and up to 75% less energy in sleep mode. Use of lead-free components further enhances their "greenness."

Going even further, Lenovo is offering 42 different PC models approved by EPEAT (Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool), a set of standards set by the US Environmental Protection Agency. Lenovo's A 61e ThinkCentre is one of the greenest PCs in the world. The desktop is small and light, and 90% of its components are recyclable. The AMD dual core Athlon 64X2 processor uses less than half the energy of a standard CPU, living up to its cool and quiet claims. Available imminently in North America, it could start in the $400 range before upgrades.

Green Habits

Develop some simple habits to enhance your PC greenness. Screen savers don't save energy, so go to your PC's power management utility and set your screen to turn off after 5 minutes of inactivity, and for your hard drive to spin down (hibernate, sleep, suspend) after 10 minutes of inactivity. Turn off your PC if you're not using it. For more on how to reduce the power consumption of your PC, read our article "Reduce Your PC's Power and Operating Costs: Tweak Windows Power Settings."

Always recycle. Replacing computers and components with greener technology still leaves you with the responsibility to dispose of your old technology responsibly. HP Compaq and Lenovo, as well as many local landfills and entrepreneurial ventures are making it easier to dispose of these machines properly. They will break down the components, recycle what they can, and dispose if the rest in ways that protect the environment.

Green Components

The greener PC systems use lead-free components and avoid the four main power hogs: CRT monitors, energy-wasting power supplies, souped-up graphics cards, and inefficient CPUs. Here's what you should look for:

* The biggest environmental offender in a PC system is the CRT monitor - those old heavy cathode ray tube monitors. Most are full of deadly lead, mercury, barium, cadmium and phosphorous. Similar sized flat LCD screens burn half as much energy and are free of the exotic toxins.
* PC power supplies used to run full tilt whether or not they needed to. A new initiative called the 80 Plus Program certifies lead-free power supplies designed to deliver only the power called for at the moment.
* High performance graphics cards can actually draw more than three times the power of a CRT monitor. Gaming may be fun, but it's an environment killer.
* CPUs are traditional power-drainers. Still, Intel's latest Core 2 Duo E6700 processor and AMD's X2 series processors use less energy yet run faster than their Pentium D class of chips. VIA's latest processors can use up to 80% less energy.
* New variable speed CPU fans are available that work only as hard as necessary to keep your CPU cool. Additional heat sink features increase efficiency.
* Seagate and Samsung are the forerunners in developing SATA hard drives that are lead-free and energy efficient, with single instead of multiple platters to decrease the eventual discarded hazardous waste.
* Intel has a lead-free DG965SS microATX motherboard, which consumes less power and eliminates the need for graphics and sound expansion cards because they're already integrated into the board.
* Sony is leading the way with lead-free DVD/CD drives.
* Avoid getting too much RAM - even the lead-free variety. You may never need the extra module, and avoiding it keeps energy waste down.

Bottom Line

When shopping for green PCs or upgrade components, look for lead-free circuitry, "80 Plus" certified power supplies, variable CPU fans with heat sinks, LCD monitors, and in general don't buy more capability than you need. EPEAT approval and Energy Star compliance are also good signs. Be sure to recycle your old PCs and components. You'll save money. And, oh yeah, you'll save the planet.

Source:pcworld.ca/
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Tackling the E-Waste Problem

While interest in green IT is growing across the Asia-Pacific region, awareness is generally low and action is rare, according to Springboard Research's findings.

However, "leading companies, including Hewlett Packard, Microsoft, Dell, Ericsson, Philips and Cisco Systems have joined a United Nations initiative that aims to standardize world policy and legislative approaches to electronic recycling processes," noted Chris Perrine, Springboard's chief operations officer and executive vice president of sales and marketing E-Mail Marketing Software - Free Trial.

"Dell has taken the lead in the area of Green IT as it is the only computer maker to offer consumers free recycling, whether or not they are buying a new Dell product," Perrine told TechNewsWorld.

Dell: Latest News about Dell plans on extending its recycling services to business customers in mainland China and Hong Kong. The company says it is on target to recover nearly 275 million pounds worth of used computers from customers by 2009.

HP: Latest News about Hewlett-Packard provides a recycling service for all IT products for a fee ranging from US$13 to $34, according to Perrine.

"In addition, HP customers who recycle old computers independently can get credit toward future HP purchases, which offset most of the recycling costs. HP aims to recycle as much as 1 billion pounds of hardware and supplies in 2007," he said.

Apple: Latest News about Apple has frequently been criticized for lagging behind in its environmental programs, Perrine noted. The company has a relatively low 36 percent score the Computer TakeBack Campaign -- an international effort by a coalition of 16 top environmental groups to address the growing problem of computer e-waste -- gave Apple for its disposal of computer equipment.

"However, Apple recently claimed that by 2010 it might be recycling significantly more than either Dell or HP, as a percentage of past sales weight

Src: http://www.ecommercetimes.com
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E-waste Questionnaire: Windows to Linux

IS Switching from a Windows-operated computer to a Linux-operated one could slash computer-generated e-waste levels by 50%?

The answer is: YEs

A UK government study in late 2004 reported that there were substantial green benefits to running a Linux open source operating system (OS) on computers instead of the ubiquitous Windows OS, owned by Microsoft. The main problem with Windows users was that they had to change their computer twice as many times as Linux users, on average, thereby effectively creating twice as much computer-generated e-waste.

The report, titled, "Office of Government Commerce: Open Source Software Trials in Government - Final Report" reported the following:

"There are also potential Green Agenda benefits, through reducing the energy and resources consumed in manufacturing replacement equipment, and reducing landfill requirements and costs arising from disposal of redundant equipment.

"Industry observers quote a typical hardware refresh period for Microsoft Windows systems as 3-4 years; a major UK manufacturing organisation quotes its hardware refresh period for Linux systems as 6-8 years."

(Source: EcoGeek; California Environmental Protection Agency)
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