While on the face of it, computing has plenty of benefits to the environment. Emails, E-readers and online communication saves paper, while telecommuting and conferencing saves gas. Computers, however, are anything but eco-friendly. The resources used in computer production, combined with the energy demands of computers, servers, data centers, and even the increase in air-conditioning and heating, to keep us comfortable while we spend long hours over the keyboard, all take their toll on the environment.
But there is an increasing trend towards greener computing, with manufacturers and service providers intent on reducing the impact that computer has on the planet, and in particular climate change. However, there is more to eco computing than just getting the latest low energy laptop, any attempt to reduce the environmental impact of our increasing reliance on computers needs to be multifaceted, and the key to all of it is the user.
Hardware and Software Demands
Computers use power, there’s no getting away it. In recent years there has been an increasing drive towards more energy efficient machines, particularly in the laptop industry, with LED backlights replacing energy hungry fluorescent tubes and a move towards digital flash drives rather than the motor driven hard drives. But while this trend towards more energy efficient models is certainly beneficial, trading in your older PC or laptop for a low energy model may be doing more harm than good. The carbon footprint of manufacturing a new machine is huge. Nearly three quarters of the natural resources used in the life cycle of a PC go into its production. Furthermore, discarding a PC also has a detrimental effect on the environment, with the average computer containing dozens of hazardous materials that are difficult to recycle.
Longevity, therefore, is one of the best methods of computer energy consumption, but with the exponential rate computers advance, it is something many users struggle with, but upgrading an older system is far better than replacing it completely. The resources required in producing a new RAM module is far lower than that of producing a new PC – however, upgrading software can have the opposite effect. An independent study by French IT firm GreenIT found that Windows 7 and the latest Microsoft Office requires 70 times more memory than the versions used ten years ago, meaning that if users stick with older programs for longer, the energy consumption of their computer use will be reduced.
Searching and Web Hosting
Web searching may seem like a benign act. When we search for the latest mobile phone, a new organic mattress or quotes for car insurance, it doesn’t occur to most people that quite a large amount of energy has gone into getting us our results. However, in 2009, Harvard physicist Alex Wissner-Gross worked out that a typical Google search on a desktop computer produced about 7 grams of CO2, that’s equivalent to the same energy used in boiling a kettle every two searches! Google has made tremendous strides since then, with their data centers using 50 % less energy than they used to, and intends to power its data centers with 35% from renewable sources by 2012, investing heavily in solar and wind energy, but it still emits 1.5m tonnes of carbon every year, the equivalent of a small country such as Laos.
Websites too use a considerable amount of energy to keep up and running. Servers need to run 24 hours a day and require energy not just to power the machines that hold all the data, but also the air conditioning that maintains the stable temperatures necessary for the servers to keep running. Attempts are being made here too, with an increasing number of web hosting companies looking to renewable energy to power their data centers. Some companies are managing better than others, so choosing the right web hosting company can also go a long way in helping reduce the environmental impact of computing.
And the user can make even further savings in energy use too, by using power saving settings, turning off machines when not in use and resisting the urge to replace machines every year, which can all go a long way in helping to make computing a far greener activity, which will benefit everybody.
