5 Signs The Computer Industry Is Finally Going Green

With world leaders currently convening high-level negotiations on how best to address the rising threat of global warming, and public apprehension about the phenomenon at an all-time high, it’s encouraging to note several recent developments coming from the high-tech sector.

It’s about time. Our ever-shrinking world is abuzz with activity attempting to address the manmade rise of greenhouse gases. Eco-visionary James Lovelock published a radical idea in Nature to increase ocean uptake of CO2 through giant ocean tubes. New Zealand has kicked off an ambitious plan to get 90% of its energy from renewable sources by 2025. JC Penny, Office Depot and Kohl’s have announced green building plans. In May, General Electric said it had doubled sales from environmentally friendly products, to $12 billion over, in two years.

One need only take a look at any online discussion thread of green issues to see anxiety, and often outright ridicule, about the sizable ecological impact so many of us web surfers are having. Computers are hard to (and rarely) recycled, and when they are it’s typically in developing nations by people without proper training or safety gear. Often they are children. That’s distressing, because today’s computers are made with a sizable amount of lead, cadmium, brominated fire retardants and plastics that can leach toxic breakdown products.

While processor speed has faithfully followed Moore’s Law, energy use has also swelled, as more and more people are able to afford hardware, and mobile devices have proliferated. Of the $250 billion spent globally each year powering computers, about 85% of that energy was simply wasted idling.

Computers and related equipment have been blamed for causing as much global warming as the airline industry, Pat Gelsinger, senior vice president for Intel’s digital enterprise group, recently told the press.

The industry has been gradually finding a green conscience. True, there have been some eco-pioneers, from NEC’s short-lived PowerMate Eco to the debate over whether a black search engine (e.g. Blackle) would cut back on global power drain. Now we have sophisticated power saver and hibernation modes and laptops that sip rather than guzzle from the plug. The widespread adoption of liquid crystal displays (LCDs) represents a substantial savings over less-efficient cathode ray tube (CRT) technology . But some bright new signs recently coming out of Silicon Valley suggest great green things to come.

1. Dell Going Carbon Neutral

Computer giant Dell continues its ascent up the green path. This week Michael (as he is known on company blogs) announced the manufacturer’s latest goal: to become the first major computer company to become carbon neutral. That means reducing emissions across all Dell facilities and operations, buying renewable power and offsetting the remaining balance (including business travel), at least in part through a cooperative tree-planting program.

As if taking a play from Wal-Mart, Dell will also be requiring suppliers to account for and report their emissions. Michael underscored the firm’s commitment to roll out ever more energy-efficient products.

2. Solar-Powered Workstations?

Lenovo’s new ultra-efficient “Blue Sky” A61e PC can actually be powered with a portable solar panel, namely the Solar-PowerPAC II from Advanced Energy Group. The heavy cart-on-wheels costs $1,229, and likely won’t be widely adopted anytime soon (although Dell has expressed a lot of interest in the concept). It sure stimulates the imagination!

Regardless of the solar panel possibility, Chinese manufacturer Lenovo has much to be proud of under the Blue Sky’s hood (which, incidentally, looks oddly like an old Betamax machine). The PC and its packaging is made of as much as 90% reusable/recyclable materials. Lenovo claims organizations that deploy 50 or more A61es should see energy savings of $1,000 a year, resulting in 10 fewer tons of carbon dioxide emissions.

At $399, the unit is certainly affordable. It received gold status from the Green Electronics Council’s Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool (EPEAT).

3. Green Data Centers

A recent EPA report found that data centers in the U.S. have the potential to save up to $4 billion in annual electricity costs through more energy efficient equipment and operations, as well as management best practices.

According to a recent survey of senior IT executives by data center operator Digital Realty Trust, about 55 percent of companies have already established detailed strategies for improving the energy efficiency of their data centers.

4. USB 3.0 Promises Energy Savings

Last week the “SuperSpeed” USB Promotions Group announced some preliminary specs for the future of peripheral connectivity. According to the group, the two main goals of SuperSpeed USB (USB 3.0) are to boost the data transfer rate by 10 times and to dramatically reduce power consumption. The USB 3.0 spec is expected to be finalized sometime in the middle of 2008, with initial devices available in 09 and broad deployment by 2010.

5. Industry Announces Sweeping Conservation Targets

Titans Google, Intel, Hewlett-Packard, Dell, Lenovo, IBM, Microsoft, Yahoo and Sun Microsystems have all joined with the EPA, the World Wildlife Fund and others to develop an ambitious industry-wide goal of slashing the amount of energy computers consume. The Climate Savers Computing Initiative has the goal of reducing computer energy use by 90% by 2010. If there’s follow through, the scheme is expected to save $5.5 billion in energy costs and cut emissions by 54 million tons a year, the equivalent of 11 million cars or 20 coal-fired power plants.

Industry observes have estimated that the energy-efficient technology will likely raise the price of each computer by around $20. However, consumers will save money in lower electricity bills. Some utilities may even offer rebates for new “green” PCs.

Final Thought

The leading edge of the fast-paced tech world has a distinctly green tinge. Not only should that improve reliability and ultimately save everyone money, but it will go a long way to protecting our precious planet. And it should evaporate much of the green guilt of computer users, and silence some of those flame wars on blog discussion threads.

Src: http://www.thedailygreen.com/2007/09/28/5-signs-the-computer-industry-is-finally-going-green/7316/
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The Greatest Green Event Ever

Today is World Environment Day. Today a movie being released worldwide by producers as "the greatest green event ever", a high-budget documentary to save the planet from Yann Arthus-Bertrand.

From New York's Central Park to the Champs de Mars by Paris Eiffel Tower, the French photographer known for the "Earth From The Air" books and "Seen From The Air" on TV, is releasing the green-awareness movie "Home" in over 100 countries simultaneously.

"More than a movie, Home will be a major event,"

the producers said.

Shot from the air in a chopper, the environmental documentary will be available across the globe June 5, mostly free of charge, in open-air spaces as well as theatres, TV, DVD, and the Internet.

"The idea is to explain what`s happening to the planet by beginning at the beginning, by the miracle of life on earth,"

the photographer-director told reporters.

Kicking off with stunning aerial views of the earth's natural wonders before focusing from the air on polluting factories, airfields and oil platforms, the message translated into more than a score of languages is: "It's too late to be a pessimist."

"Although there's a general trend towards an awareness of ecological issues, concrete action is still too little, too slow,"

he says.

"In 200,000 years on earth," adds the film, "humanity has upset the balance of the planet. Humanity has barely 10 years to reverse the trend."

The commentary, narrated by Glenn Close in English and Salma Hayek in Spanish, was submitted for editing to 2007 Nobel-prize winner Al Gore and Lester Brown, the US environmental guru.

It took almost three years to finalize the mega-movie, shot over 217 days in 54 countries, providing 488 hours of footage.

"We have the power to change so what are we waiting for?" it asks.

French movie mogul Luc Besson is distributing the 10-million-euro movie, a huge sum for a documentary put up by the luxury consortium PPR headed by Francois Henri Pinault.

"The massive and free distribution of the film will enable anyone, anywhere, to see it, whatever their income," Pinault said.

Speaking to reporters, Arthus-Bertrand said it was time to call a halt to a world where 20 percent of the population consumed 80 percent of the planet's riches.

"I explain what is happening, I don`t offer solutions," he said. "But we all have solutions within ourselves."

"We would live better by consuming less and sharing more, and we need more courageous policies".

"The idea is to convince people to push politicians to action."
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Apple's New Green Computer

If you are in the market for a new computer or laptop there are now greener options. Computers and laptops that are manufactured normally contain harmful chemicals, including brominated flame retardants (BFRs) and polyvinyl chloride (PVC), in the circuit boards, internal cables, connectors, insulators, and adhesives. Apple has worked to remove these chemicals from the aluminum-based MacBook family by launching green computers.

The new MacBook Pros are the greenest ever. Made with arsenic-free glass, BFR-free internal components, Mercury-free LED-backlit display, PVC-free internal cables and highly recyclable aluminum and glass enclosures, Apple’s laptop range can now be recycled a lot easier than the earlier versions. On top of all this, the battery in the new 17-inch MacBook Pro lasts up to five years or 1,000 recharges. This means that the laptop uses just one battery in the time that typical notebooks use three. Apple is also committed to using between 34% - 37% smaller packaging for the notebooks.

Apple also created the new Mac mini desktop computer which uses a combination of highly recyclable aluminum and polycarbonate, and is only 6.5 by 6.5 by 2 inches, making it a fraction of the size of a typical desktop tower, which requires less packaging and allows more units to be transported at a time.

On the technology side of things, the new Mac mini uses an advanced power management system that allows it to use up to 45 percent less power at idle than its predecessor, making it the most energy-efficient desktop computer. According to the Apple website, “Mac mini meets the stringent low power requirements set by the EPA, giving it ENERGY STAR certification. In addition, Mac mini meets the latest efficiency requirements of ENERGY STAR Version 5.0 Specification for Computers before its July 2009 effective date.”

Source:http://www.examiner.com/x-4443-Philadelphia-Green-Living-Examiner~y2009m3d15-Apples-new-green-computers
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Asus First Green Wireless Monitors

Today at CeBIT, Asus not only unveiled its new "green" series of LCD monitors, but the world's first wireless monitor as well.

Earlier this morning, Asus revealed two different LCD models, each offering unique features that very well may cause buyers to pull out their hair. In one corner, Asus offers the energy-efficient Green monitors, the VH192C and the VH196, designed to conserve energy and protect the environment. However, in the other corner, Asus has brought forth a mighty contender, the world's first wireless LCD monitor utilizing a new generation of EzLink technology. It's certainly easy to be indecisive: take the cool wireless route, or save the world and pick up a Green LCD monitor?

While the decision-making process may drive some consumers to drink, buyers may appreciate Asus' direction in creating an environmentally friendly LCD monitor. Asus said that it kept the environment in mind during the design process, utilizing low levels of mercury during construction and just two lamps to save more than 20 percent in power consumption. Both the Green Asus VH192C and VH196 make good use of an advanced optical film that provides brilliant image performance without sacrificing brightness. The Aspect Control feature even offers a 4:3 aspect ratio or full screen playback without distortion. Additionally, the Green Asus VH192C incorporates the Color Shine glare-type panel, "enriches" image color density and saturation, clarifies borders and improves image clarity.

As for the EzLink wireless monitor, Asus provided very little detail, nor did it say when the monitor would actually become available on the market. However, the EzLink technology will enable users to connect displays either through a Wireless Host Controller Interface (WHCI), or through a Wireless USB HWA (Host Wire Adapter) which delivers the same performance as a conventional display. The EzLink series is ideal in the business environment, eliminating the need for professionals to worry about connecting a monitor to a PC or notebook.

Source: http://www.tomshardware.com/news/LCD-Wireless-Green-Asus,7204.html
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Dell Launches New 24-inch Green Monitor

Recently Dell Launches New 24-inch Green Monitor. One of the biggest places that you can save on your power usage in your home or business is by cutting off devices like TVs and PC LCDs that draw power even when they aren’t being used. Dell has announced a new 14-inch LCD that has features for green power savings.

The display is called the G2410 24-inch Wide Green Flat Panel monitor. Typically, 24-inch LCDs have a resolution of 1920 x 1200, but dell cuts the G2410 back to 1920 x 1080, plenty for full 1080p movies and content. However, the gamer out there will be disappointed by the lack of full resolution.

Still the display is rather cheap for the screen size at $349 and it supports 16.7million colors with a 1000:1 contrast ratio. The panel has a response time of 5ms, a bit slow compared to other LCDs but that should be plenty fast for gaming. Dell equips the LCD with features for power saving called PowerNap and Dynamic Dimming, though the computer giant doesn’t describe exactly what the features do.

Related Post: Dell Shows Its Green Stripes At Greener Gadgets
New Green Cases for Green Computers

Source: http://www.slipperybrick.com/2009/02/dell-whips-out-green-24-inch-lcd/
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Dell Shows Its Green Stripes At Greener Gadgets

Last Friday, at the Greener Gadgets conference in New York City, EcoGeek had the chance to sit down with Michael Murphy, Dell’s senior manager of environmental affairs. Mr. Murphy was at the conference to participate in a panel discussion entitled "Measuring Your Hue of Green" – where he talked about how consumer electronic businesses can lead and are already leading the industry in green corporate practice.

Over the last year, Dell has been embarking on various green initiatives, the most prominent of which was their announcement that the company was, officially, 100% carbon neutral. Some critics questioned this title, pointing to the fact that a large part of that “carbon netural” tag came from carbon offsets. When asked to address this, Mr. Murphy pointed out that Dell’s Austin headquarters were entirely run on renewable energy, as were the offices in Oklahoma City. He said that Dell was committed to running on renewable power wherever it was available, and that the offsets are only for those geographies where renewable power is not feasible.

He also made it clear that Dell’s products rightfully deserved to be called green. One of Dell’s big pushes was to build laptops whose displays used LED back lights. LEDs make a laptop more power efficient, and they contain no mercury. More importantly, though, power-sipping LEDs give what all customers want the most – longer battery life.

According to Murphy, the LED move summarizes Dell’s green philosophy: make a better product, and it will naturally be greener. A green computer is not a computer that skimps on performance. It is a computer that is built out of better materials, in a smarter way, will last longer, and will cost less.

Dell has also been taking steps to consider the overall lifetime of the computer. Dell offers the only free consumer recycling and take back program across the globe, and they also have developed a program called Reconnect with Goodwill Industries. This program not only allows people to donate their old computers rather than throw them away, but also provides jobs for people in the recycling industry. Mr. Murphy pointed out that Dell had become so involved in these recycling programs that they were making changes in the way they designed machines -just so that the recycling could be done more smoothly and efficiently.

Dell is doing a lot. Some may take issue with the term carbon neutrality, or with offset usage in general. But it is clear that Dell is delivering when it comes to leadership. They are not only working to embody green values, but are teaching the lessons of responsibilities to all their partners, at every step in their supply chain. As Mr. Murphy’s put it, Dell is learning a lot by trying to make its own facilities greener, and they see it as their duty to share what they learn with the rest of the industry.

Source: http://www.ecogeek.org/content/view/2598/73/
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QSC gives 65 Green Computers to the Eid Charity

(QSC) handed over 65 Green Computers to the Eid Charity yesterday. The green computer project launched eight months ago aims at utilising computer parts which are discarded by users and recycling them to make new ones.

“The effort was launched with the help of Microsoft and many other companies who had handed over their unwanted PCs to be recycled,” said Hassan Abdula A Al Abdallah (sixth right in the picture), secretary-general, QSC, and the chairman of Green Computer Project.

“In this way we have made computers which are ready to be used as new. 65 of them have been handed over to the Eid Charity. The computers will be given to children who cannot afford computers either in Qatar or abroad,” he told The Peninsula.

The project is environment-friendly as it recycles the various parts of the computer. Muhammad Hammoudi (third left), of Microsoft Qatar also attended the function held at the QSC yesterday.

Source: http://www.thepeninsulaqatar.com/Display_news.asp?section=Local_News&subsection=Qatar+News&month=February2009&file=Local_News200902242248.xml
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Ways to Go Green and Save Green

Going green is all the rage for a lot of reasons. Although some of this green talk is hype, a lot of it is the real deal. There are a number of things that you can do in your business to easily and cheaply jump on the green bandwagon and saving your organization a few dollars at the same time you help reduce your impact on the planet.

Green desktops. Most PC vendors today have an option for more efficient power supplies in desktop PCs. These power supplies reduce heat waste in your computers and can help to lower your overall energy costs. For example, Dell's Studio Hybrid consumes only 26W when idle and 44W at full load. In contrast a typical desktop computer can consume two, three & four times this amount. At the same time, make sure that power management is enabled on desktop PCs so that power consumption is, for example, greatly reduced by turning off a monitor after 20 minutes of idling.

Go to the cloud for your desktop services. Does your small business have relatively simple needs limited to email, word processing, spreadsheets and Internet access? CherryPal offers a service that can reduce energy costs related to desktop computing by up to 98%! CherryPal's unique PC consumes just 2W of power, although you will still have to power a monitor separately as you do for another other PC. CherryPal desktop computers have very minimal software installed and rely on users making use of Internet resources, such as GoogleDocs, although an open source word processor is installed on the unit.

Virtualize. If you have any kind of significant server infrastructure in place in your organization and you haven't virtualized everything humanly possible, do it today. Stop reading right here, go virtualize your servers and then come back and pick up where you left off. Seriously - it's almost the easy if you use a product like PlateSpin, which automates the process of converting physical machines to virtual servers. With the number of options out there for virtualizing hardware, there is no reason at all anymore to default to a physical server support for anything, unless absolutely required due to hardware compatibility issues or sheer processing needs. Virtualizing your server hardware to fewer boxes will save you money both in hardware and in energy savings.

Ditch your phone system. If you're large enough to have your own phone system and it's reaching the end of its useful life, look for a replacement that uses less energy. We recently replaced our outdated phone switch with a unit that uses half the energy. Obviously, we didn't replace the system just to save energy as the cost/benefit would have been way off, but it's a nice benefit.

Force duplex printing. Do you printers have duplexing units that allow you to print on both sides of paper? If so, force the printers to print duplex by default.

Consider recycled toner cartridges. This one is tricky as using the wrong vendor can ruin your printer and voice your warranty and there are a lot of scam artists out there. We've located a great recycled toner cartridge vendor local to Westminster College and we've had outstanding success... less toner waste goes to the landfill and we're saving a ton of money to boot. Do you research, get references and test!

Put your PCs on power strips. Even when they're not on, desktop PCs consume a small amount of electricity. By putting your PCs on power strips and asking your employees to turn their computers off at night by flipping the switch on the power strip, you'll eliminate this trickle of power. Be warned, however, that going down this road will also eliminate your ability to perform automatic nightly maintenance on desktop computers since they will be unable to receive any communication from the network.

Unplug the chargers. When your employees aren't charging their cell phones and other devices, ask them to unplug their chargers. Even when not actively charging anything, chargers do consume power.

Consider work-from-home arrangements. Do your employees perform work that must be handled from a central location or can they work from anywhere? If possible, consider allowing your employees to work from home and provide them with laptops. By doing this, you avoid having to have space for as many people; this is space that you have to light and heat. Further, your employees themselves will have less of an environmental impact since they won't be on the road as much.

From: http://www.itworld.com/green-it/62228/9-ways-go-green-and-save-green
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New Green Cases for Green Computers

Apple may have cornered the market on cool chic designs for wrapping its computers in but they aren’t the snitz when it comes to the green movement. No sirree Bob. Never mind all that brushed aluminum is for the artsy fartsy Web 2.0 crowd. Us real folks we’re into a whole new way of boxing up our computer goodies and we’re earth friendly to boot.

Yup folks the new green for computer cases is really cardboard brown in colour as evidenced by the two example I bring to you. The first is Francesco Biasci’s Cardboard green computer Case; which was a top entrant in the Greener Gadgets Design Competition recently. With this design you get the steel wool in name only instead of being used to make the case.



Which on the inside is made up like this



Next up on the cardboard front we have the Recompute which was also a part of the same competition.



This might be a cool way to show off how ‘green’ you are but I’m not sure about the real usability of them.

Source: http://www.inquisitr.com/17355/cardboard-brown-is-the-new-green-for-computers/
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How to Buy a Green Business Desktop

While energy efficiency PC is important to home users, it's vital to the owners of small or medium-sized businesses. Electricity is a major expense these days, and with rising oil prices, the cost of electricity is sure to rise in the future. Buying an energy-efficient desktop is the first step for the owner of a new or expanding business. If your current PCs are too slow to support your business, the latest crop of energy-efficient desktops should be on your shopping list.

Look for buzzwords like EPEAT and Energy Star 4.0. Both are standards that point you to systems that have been certified as environmentally friendly and energy efficient. PCs like the power-sipping Apple Mac mini use very little juice compared with the behemoths that people bought only a few years ago. In fact, these systems use less power when idle than the incandescent work lights on many desks.

We looked at a couple of configurations for this story: the small-form-factor PC (the HP Compaq dc7800 Ultra-Slim Desktop and Lenovo ThinkCentre a61e) and the tower PC (the Dell OptiPlex 755). All three of these business-oriented Windows systems are available in multiple chassis configurations, but use the same internals (CPUs, motherboards, on-board graphics). This enables you to use the same software on the towers as you do on the small desktops. This makes sense for medium-size businesses. Most clerical workers can use small-form-factor PCs while specialized workers like the art department or desktop-publishing specialists may need towers that support discrete graphics cards or other PCIe expansion cards.

Don't leave out the Mac. On a functionality-per-cubic-foot basis, the Mac mini is one of the most efficient systems we've ever reviewed. It uses only as much power as a toy lamp, is both Mac OS and Windows XP/Vista compatible, and takes up very little space on a desk.

Whether your company is growing or just starting, equipping it with energy-efficient PCs makes great business sense. Today's power-saving desktops not only can do wonders for your electric bill, but they have the oomph to get the job done right.

Source: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2286036,00.asp
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World's First Green Zero-Watt PC

Fujitsu Siemens (FSC) will shortly show off what it claims will be the world's first PC that consumes not a jot of power when it's placed in standby mode, the computer said today.



Dubbed the Zero-Watt PC, the machine can still be managed in a standby state by an IT department - despite consuming no power, FSC claimed.

It's keeping mum about how this is achieved, but it pledged to spill the beans at the CeBIT show, where the Zero-Watt PC will get its first public outing. CeBIT kicks off on 3 March in Hannover, Germany.



EU legislation demands that from 5 January 2010, new PCs and other electronics products must consume less than a Watt of power when placed in standby mode.

Source: http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2009/01/20/fsc_green_pc/
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Energy efficient Green PCs

There are three reasons as to why any company would want to go Green—to save money, to earn money (through carbon credits) and due to government regulations. Although there are no government regulations in India that compel companies to think Green, companies are finding newer ways to reduce energy consumption on their own owing to their corporate social responsibility. The issue is one of sustainability rather than cost, although energy-efficient products help customers lower the cost of ownership and help meet the broader goal of protecting the environment. The focus on energy efficiency is to design a product that helps customers to decrease power consumed by the system and the system’s operating cost, which is long approach. Desktop PCs and workstations often consume huge amounts of energy that are overlooked by most organizations as they keep their ‘green’ focus limited to the data center. In many cases, organizations want to reduce power consumption of desktop PCs but are not too sure how to go about the same. There are myriad product offerings in the market to reduce the carbon footprint of desktops and workstations in an organization but it is important to understand what suits your organization the best.

Green PC initiatives

We see a greater emphasis on energy efficiencies in the desktop PC market. [The recent IDC ‘Go Green PC Power Play Study’ had some interesting statistics. The report found that the US federal government could save more than $82.4 million in energy costs—the equivalent of conserving more than 1.3 million barrels of oil in just one year—if its more than 10 million existing ENERGY STAR 3.0 PCs were updated to the new 4.0 standard.

Dell’s recently launched new line of commercial desktop solutions cut power consumption by up to 43%. A major trend is that we witnessing small form factor devices in the desktop space, where Dell’s offerings include the Optiplex 755, 740, 960 with the option of the ultra small form factor in the Optiplex 760.

Dell also launched two new models aimed at the business user. Pallab Talukdar, Director, Enterprise Business, Dell India explained, “The Latitude E-Series notebooks were designed after listening to the needs of nearly 4,000 businesses and IT professionals. The result is Dell’s thinnest, lightest and most powerful business notebooks ever and all-day computing with breakthrough battery life of up to 19 hours.”

“Dell in India is committed to bringing the same energy and commitment towards environment-friendly policies as in other parts of the world and continues to take the lead through its products, processes and policies,” Talukdar added.

HP’s initiative in Green PCs keeps Indian conditions in mind. Deepti Dang, Head of Marketing-Commercial and SMB, Personal Systems Group, HP India said, “We have a design center called IDC or the India Design Center and the basic objective of this center are to make products for India that suit Indian conditions—products that consume less power and give better productivity keeping global warming in mind.”

One of the products developed at the HP India Design Centre is called the Mini DT or the HP Compaq dx2009. This business PC is a high-performance machine that has the ability to withstand harsh Indian working conditions. It has a small form factor and is ideal for organizations, which struggle with challenges such as space limitations, data security and power consumption, especially in the ITES sector.

Lenovo also offers various desktops and notebook PCs that are targeted at reducing energy consumption. The company recently announced the launch of the ThinkCentre A62 in the Indian market. It is a cost-effective, environmentally responsible and manageable desktop PC, which provides enterprise and SMB customers with improved TCO throughout a longer PC lifecycle. Additionally it uses up to 40% less electricity than its ThinkCentre predecessor due to the efficiency of the new AMD 15W CPU, the Athlon 2650e, which is available on select models. The system is GREENGUARD and EPEAT Gold certified, ENERGY STAR 4.0 rated, and has as an option, the ‘Green’ fingerprint keyboard made of 35% post consumer recycled material.

On the notebook front, the new ThinkPad T Series from Lenovo has improved energy efficiency by more than 25% over previous T Series models. Hardware improvements such as LCD Backlight Displays and SSDs use less battery power and generate less heat. Switchable graphics let users move to lower quality graphics when they need to maximize battery life. Addition, when there is no activity, the optical disk drive and audio auto switch to a low power state. Coupled with software enhancements such as the new Green Power Scheme, Battery Stretch, and ThinkPad Energy Saver technology, the ThinkPad T Series lets users get the most out of their mobile computing time. Battery stretch is a new feature that allows temporary selections in extreme situations to extend battery life beyond what regular Power Manager Settings might produce. With this easy interface, users can, for example, minimize the display refresh rate or disable certain wireless communications devices to help preserve the power users need to finish their work unplugged.

“In the current scenario, all over the world corporates are turning towards innovative solutions to lower their power costs,” said Vinay Shetty, Product Manager, Components Business, ASUS (India). He continued for example, our Eee Box is a conventional desktop that runs only on 20 Watts of power, which results in 90% power saving as compared to a normal desktop.

Green components

Now that we have seen some of the initiatives and offering from major PC vendors, let us try to understand how they achieve this low power envelope. Following are some of the components that most vendors target to cut energy consumption.

* Monitor: Apart for a number of other benefits that LCDs offer over CRTs, power consumption is of prime concern. A CRT consumes about 60-80 Watts for a 15-inch model to almost 70 to 150 Watt for 17 and 19 inch models whereas an LCD monitor’s power consumption is only about 25 Watts. A backlit LCD helps reduce energy consumption for notebooks.
* Storage media: While HDDs remain the most sought after media for storage on PCs, SDDs are gradually becoming popular. An SSD reduces the power consumption by 50% when compared to a conventional Hard Disk Drive. SSDs do not heat up, reducing the power that is required to cool a PC. Although SSDs are a common option for notebooks, even a few desktops offer SSDs for storage. However, due to extremely high prices of SSDs, this technology might see higher adoption in the notebook space, where its durability and quick boot advantages make more of an impact, when compared to desktops. Many organizations and individuals who need the benefits of using an SSD do not mind the additional expense.
* Cooling: There are varieties of fans that go inside a PC to prevent it from heating up. The function of a traditional air fan is both, to take in fresh air and at the same time expel hot air from the CPU cabinet. Fans with variable speeds can largely reduce the power consumption, considering the fact that average CPU utilization levels are below 20% in both desktops as well as notebooks.
* Processor: With the shrinking of the x86 micro-architecture and emergence of multi-core processors, power consumption is also taking a dip. A shift towards 45 nm micro-architecture has helped reduce the power envelope for both desktops and notebooks. Ensuring that you are using the latest make of processor can further help in reducing power consumption.

Source: http://www.expresscomputeronline.com/20090119/greenit02.shtml
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Cheap Green Servers Suitable for Small Business

I recently completed an analysis of servers, inspecting the newest generation for a cost effective solution to this problem. The results were pleasantly surprising. There is a new classification of simple and easy-to-use servers that are suitable for personal and small business use. They also are inexpensive and environmentally friendly.

These devices are known as network attached storage (NAS). The new NAS devices are inexpensive and easy to use. Simply buy the device from your favorite retailer, and also purchase one or more hard drives and slide them in the back. Thereafter, you attach it to your network, do a 10 minute setup exercise and begin use. There is no need to load any software because it's built-in.

I selected two models with which to experiment from Linksys and Netgear. One I purchased refurbished off of eBay for $34.90 and the other new from Circuit City (which, unfortunately, just announced its liquidation), for $150. Both appear to be a great value. The rest of this article relates to server model NAS200 from Linksys.

The device is very small, about seven inches by eight inches and five inches high. It has room for two internal hard drives, and USB plugs for two additional external drives. In my case I purchased two 500 GB hard drives from Western Digital. These drives are from the Green Power product line, which is designed to use less electricity. The device is physically plugged into the network with a standard Ethernet cable.

Speed

The performance is very good and it can stream high definition video without problems. I have measured the read/streaming performance at 30 MB per second, which is normally more than enough for multiple staff simultaneously accessing it in a small office setting. I have configured the hard drives to mirror each other so the data is simultaneously written onto both drives (providing a safety net in case one drive fails). Even with this mirroring overhead, the device is able to write with sustained rates of 20 MBPS. These performance figures are outstanding, considering the total price of $350.

Electricity

Since servers run 7x24, it's important that they consume minimal electricity. The measured power consumption for the NAS200 is tiny and is enhanced by the sleep mode; when the device is not used for a while, it goes into a low-power idled setting and automatically wakes itself up when accessed. The actual measured electricity consumption is one-tenth that of a similar server in this office!

Results are as follows:

* Maximum while writing to 2 drives = 16 Watts (29kva).
* Minimum at idle = 6 Watts (11kva).
* Estimated monthly usage and cost = 6.4 kwh or about $0.64/mo.

Security

No discussion about servers would be complete without considering security. These NAS devices are designed for easy access. While access can be protected with passwords it is not as robust of a Security System; you would get with a full-fledged, expensive server running UNIX or Windows Server. A hacker, once inside your networks, would most likely have access to the devices and their contents.

However, it seems that this risk is no greater than with any other PC in your network. With the peer-to-peer network features built into Windows, the risk is similar to any PC on your internal network. Just make sure this server is installed inside your firewall/perimeter security systems.

There is one aspect of these devices which may give a security advantage compared to traditional servers. In the case of the Linksys, the server software runs from firmware. It's more difficult for hackers to install rogue software, and there is no additional susceptibility to SQL injections or Trojans installed in the server software. Certainly someone could place viruses onto the device like on any hard drive; however there is no operating system software that can be manipulated from the outside.

Conclusion

If you are looking for a low-cost way to share files in a small office or your home, then I recommend evaluating these devices. They are inexpensive, quiet, easy to install, and friendlier on the environment than traditional servers because of their low energy consumption.

Source: http://wistechnology.com/articles/5382/
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How green is your Google search?

That time you are spending on Google has its price for the planet. But how big that price is a little less clear.

The buzz started with this headline Sunday morning in the Times of London: "Revealed: the environmental impact of Google searches - Physicist Alex Wissner-Gross says that performing two Google searches uses up as much energy as boiling the kettle for a cup of tea".

But of course, it's not that simple. The story cites an upcoming paper by Wissner-Gross, an M.I.T grad with a Ph.D. from Harvard, on the energy consumption of web sites for some of its numbers, and then apparently factors in things like running your computer to get their number.

Wissner-Gross also calculated the CO2 emissions caused by individual use of the internet. His research indicates that viewing a simple web page generates about 0.02g of CO2 per second. This rises tenfold to about 0.2g of CO2 a second when viewing a website with complex images, animations or videos.

So guess who wasn't happy? Maybe, (break out the Church Lady voice here, people), Google? Urs Holzle responded late Sunday night on the company's official blog - saying that by their estimates, a Google search requires the same amount of energy that your body burns in 10 seconds - and in terms of greenhouse gases it is about 0.2 grams of CO2 produced.

That's about a thousandth of the greenhouse gas produced by driving your car one kilometer, according to Holzle.

And Jason Kincaid on TechCrunch notes that producing a book creates around 2500 grams of CO2, and that by some estimates building a cheeseburger is 3600 grams.

He also notes that if that Google search keeps you from driving to the library, we all win.

So is it 0.2 grams? 7 grams? Well, here's the punchline. In interviews, Wissner-Gross says he never mentions Google by name in his research! "Our work has nothing to do with Google," he told Tech News World. "Our focus was exclusively on the Web overall, and we found that it takes on average about 20 milligrams of CO2 per second to visit a Web site."

He did tell Tech News World that the Times quoted him correctly in the story as saying, "A Google search has a definite environmental impact" and "Google operates huge data centers around the world that consume a great deal of power," he confirmed.

"I don't think anybody would disagree with those statements," Wissner-Gross said. "Everything online has a definite environmental impact. I think everybody can agree on that, including Google."

So ultimately - two facts. First, we're all in this together - Google has every reason to seek out alternative ways to efficiantly run its data centers for speed and energy efficiency. And second - everything you do online leaves a carbon footprint.

Source: http://www.necn.com/Boston/SciTech/2009/01/13/How-green-is-your-Google/1231852857.html
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Go Green with Your Computer

Shutdown Your Computer Without Losing the Perks of an Always-On PC

Obviously, computers require electricity to run, so shutting down, sleeping, or hibernating your computer when you're not using it conserves energy. Every modern operating system has its own settings for conserving power, so the first thing you should do—if you haven't already—is open the power settings of your computer and set them for optimal energy use. Set your computer to put your monitor to sleep, spin down your hard drives, and put your computer to sleep when you're not using it. Even better, since your computer uses less power when hibernating than when sleeping, set up your computer to hibernate rather than just go to sleep.

One of the biggest turn-offs (no pun intended) about shutting down or sleeping your computer is that you miss out on some of the finer things your computer provides even when you're away. For example, if you're downloading a large file, you may want the download to continue even when you're away. Likewise, we've covered tons of ways to remotely access your computer, all of which no longer work if your computer's turned off. Luckily you can continue using your computer during these times but still conserve power the rest of the time.

Save Paper when Printing

When it comes to the environment, one of the first places most offices can improve is the giant pile of discarded paper by the network printer. Aside from obvious things you can do on your own—like printing duplex, printing to PDF, previewing before printing, and not printing hundreds of copies of an email forward to plaster around the office—there are a few other tools you can use to minimize wasting paper and ink when printing.

Turn Off Peripherals to Kill the Vampires

Now that you've put good energy practices into use on your PC, it's time to move onto the power-hungry peripherals you've got plugged into it. Whenever possible, you want to turn off any peripheral when you're not using it—like your printer or monitor. Likewise, you should be aware of any gear in your computing setup that draws standby power (a.k.a., vampire power) even when you've turned off the device in question. Vampires commonly stand out as large, unsightly AC adapters.

While you could diligently unplug your wall warts or keep them plugged into a power strip that you switch off when they're not in use, you can go even further and automate the process with gadgets like the Energy Saving Smart Strip (original post) and the Power Minder (original post), both of which monitor your PC's power state and automatically shut down other peripherals when you turn off your computer.

Source: http://lifehacker.com
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IBM Blue Gene/P supercomputer Goes Green

Operators of the supercomputing centre at Argonne National Laboratory used innovations in both computer architecture and cooling methods to achieve over Rs.5.00 crore ($1 million) in annual energy savings for its IBM Blue Gene/P supercomputer.

Supercomputers typically consume multiple megawatts of electricity. At 557 teraflops, Argonne's Blue Gene/P is one of the fastest green supercomputers in the world, but uses as little as one-third the power consumed by other supercomputers.

"The most important part of how we got 'green' was to work with to design a system from the ground up specifically for energy efficiency, but without sacrificing performance," said Peter Beckman, director of Argonne's Leadership Computing Facility. "Our platform uses two to three times less power than other installed systems of similar computing size."

The biggest reason the IBM Blue Gene/P runs cooler is its clock speed, which was reduced to just 850 MHz, about three times slower than typical high-end cores. Power savings were greater than three-fold, according to officials at the Illinois lab. The reason is that the relationship between speed and power consumed is not linear, but exponential. To compensate for slower speed, the system uses many low-voltage parallel cores, in particular 163, 840 cores with 80 terabytes of semiconductor memory and eight petabytes of mass storage.

"By scaling back the frequency and voltage of each of the cores, and then aggregating very large number together into a single machine, we get a supercomputer that is both green and fast," said Beckman.

The architecture of each supercomputer processor board was designed to reduce energy consumption, Beckman said, by incorporating four cores, networking controllers, memory managers and other logic onto a single SoC, thereby eliminating power-hungry interface circuitry that must be glued together on supercomputer cores.

Argonne Labs also used an innovative cooling system to reduce power consumption. Air conditioners were replaced with fans to move 300,000 cubic feet of water-chilled air per minute to maintain a room temperature of 64°F. The technique uses only 60 per cent more energy for cooling than the supercomputer itself draws, compared to over twice the power for typical supercomputers.

Argonne Labs is currently constructing a new building, which will tap into the chilled water plant to circulate water through pipes inside the racks holding the supercomputers. Electrical components will then use mini-heat exchangers to cool the supercomputers chips directly with the cold water rather than air.

The lab also is seeking to reduce power usage in electronic components through smart power management functions that turn off chips and storage systems when they are not being used. Power-intensive computing jobs are also being scheduled to run at night, when temperatures are lower and the power grid has excess capacity.

Source:http://www.eetindia.co.in/ART_8800557674_1800001_NT_6e819e0b.HTM
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Tips on how to save money, energy and the planet

Dreaming of a green Christmas

With a little bit of effort - maybe much less than you thought - you and your family can enjoy the holiday and help save the planet at the same time.

Holiday lights

Save money and energy by switching your old strands of incandescent holiday lights with newer light emitting diode holiday lights, which also are safer.

Plus, LEDs stay cool to the touch so they will not burn the tree or a child's fingers.

And, during the day shut off your holiday lights. It saves energy, and it allows your lights to last longer.

Wrapping

"Think about Christmas morning - you get done, and you have all these garbage bags full of trash," said Susan Angel, a green events planner from Boise.

The biggest thing someone can do to green their holiday, Angel said, is to do away with traditional wrapping paper and packaging, which often cannot be recycled.

Last year she made gift bags out of fabric.

"They are so easy to sew - three seams and a hem with a piece a ribbon," she said.

"If you are not real crafty, consider pillow cases tied with a ribbon." Other options include cloth or reusable gift or tote bags or wrapping gifts in usable items like dish towels or scarves. And try old newspapers, magazine pages, paper bags or old maps.

Last-minute shopping

Need to run to the mall one more time? BYOB; that's bring your own bag. Take your own cloth shopping bag and turn down clerks' offers of plastic bags.

Trees

Fake holiday trees are not environmentally friendly. Most are made in China from petroleum-based plastic and are not biodegradable, so they will sit in landfills for decades.

For a "greener" holiday tree consider a live, uncut tree, which can be replanted in your yard after the holidays.

Living Christmas trees can be purchased at some retail lots, choose-and-cut farms and some nurseries and garden centers.

The trees require a little extra attention. They need to acclimate for a couple of days in a garage or enclosed porch before being brought indoors, where they should not remain for more than one week. Then they should be gradually reintroduced to colder outdoor temperatures before being planted.

Fresh-cut Christmas trees from tree farms are a better choice than trees harvested from the wild.

Most fresh-cut Christmas trees now come from tree farms, so deforestation isn't an issue.

Additionally, Christmas tree farms keep large swaths of land from being developed. When the trees grow, they emit oxygen into the air.

When a cut holiday tree is past its glory, it can be recycled into mulch.

If you want to recycle your tree, do not use tinsel or spray it with fake snow, as tinsel and white trees cannot be recycled.

Gadgets

Here's a good rule for when your fancy new Christmas present replaces last year's electronics: If the gadget still works, donate it. If it is broken or antiquated, recycle it. But whatever you do, don't throw it in the trash.

E-waste is a growing environmental and public health concern as the world becomes more wired and companies introduce new products at a faster pace.

Discarded computers, televisions, cell phones, radios, batteries, cameras and other electronic gadgets contain a stew of toxic metals and chemicals such as lead, mercury, cadmium, chromium, brominated flame retardants and polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs.

The average cathode ray tube, found in green computer monitors, televisions and other electronic devices, contains up to 8 pounds of lead, which can leach into the ground and contaminate groundwater.

Old cell phones can be dropped off at Staples office supply stores for recycling.

And don't forget the batteries. Buy rechargeable batteries to accompany your electronic gifts, and consider giving a battery charger as well.

Related Post: Ways to go green with the remnants of your Christmas

Source: http://ydr.inyork.com/ci_11290435
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Top 10 Tips for a Green New Year

With Christmas just days away and the endof the year looming, many individuals and organizations are thinking about "green" New Year's resolutions and the best ways of recycling obsolete computers and other hardware.

10 Green Technology( Green Computer)Tips for 2009

1. Set a green goal for the year and encourage everyone in your office todo the same. Make a difference in 2009!

2. Set the "sleep" (power management) settings on your computer to automatically turn your monitor, hard drive or entire system off after specific periods of inactivity, and ask your organization to implement a policy on it. Save money and electricity!

3. Print double-sided, narrow the print margins and use print-management software such as Green Print.Save money, paper, water and forests!

4. Use rechargeable batteries. Save money and reduce toxics in landfills!

5. Choose refurbished computers or EPEAT-rated new computers. Save money and reduce toxics in landfills! Qualifying nonprofits and libraries can find low-cost refurbished computers at Tech Soup Stock.

6. Use re-manufactured toner and ink cartridges or get personal one srefilled. Save money and reduce toxics in landfills!

7. Buy or lease re-manufactured copiers, printers and all-in-one machines(e.g., copier, printer, scanner, fax). Companies such as IKON provide"like new" machines at a reduced cost. Save money and reduce toxics in landfills!

8. Use smart power strips. Save money and electricity when they automatically turn off your accessories (i.e., monitor, speakers, printer)when you shut down your computer!

9. Use electronic fax solutions, such as My Fax, an Internet-based secure faxservice. Reduce your need for paper, toner and hardware and save money,paper and toxics in landfills! Qualifying nonprofits and libraries can find this product donation at Tech Soup Stock.

10. Recycle your old electronics (anything with a plug), batteries, CFLsand ink cartridges. Reduce toxics in landfills! You can learn how to recycle electronics and find recycling centers here.

Source:ibtimes.com/prnews/20081223/green.htm
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World's First Eco-Computer Produced in Ireland

The world's first biodegradable computer, the iameco, has been manufactured in Dublin from bio-degradable wood panels made from waste products in the lumber and pulp industry.

During a visit to the company by Ireland's Minister for Science and Innovation, Jimmy Devins, the inventors of iameco, MicroPro Computers Ltd, said they could implant the seeds of native-tree species into the wood panels.

The minister's visit coincided with the announcement of details of a new Enterprise Ireland Green Technology Support for businesses.

"Our business is built around green technologies and using them to produce healthier, more energy-efficient and cheaper computers that have less impact on the environment," said Paul Maher, chief of MicroPro.

He added: "One advantage of iameco is that when the components are buried in landfill the wood gets wet, breaks down and new plants begin to grow from old computers."

In addition to the iameco computer, which uses one third less energy than conventional computers, the biodegradable wood can also be used to manufacture the computer monitor casing, keyboard and mouse.

Commenting on the success of iameco, Devins said: "The iameco computer story is a true example of innovation at work. Not only have MicroPro Computers developed a new, profitable product range but consumers now have the option of buying an environment Eco friendly computer or TV."

He added: "Enterprise Ireland's GreenTech Support can help companies find ways to reduce air pollution and effluents, conserve water and save energy in the workplace as well as come up with new environmentally friendly products."

Source:economictimes.indiatimes.com/Infotech/Hardware/Worlds_first_eco-computer_produced_in_Ireland/articleshow/3835796.cms
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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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