Deepak's green computing

“Green computing” –
New Horizon of Energy Efficiency
and E-Waste minimization

By :Deepak Sharma
Course: B.TECH(CS&E)
Sem: 8TH SEM
DEPT. : ASET

What is Green Computing?
 Green Computing refers to environmentally
sustainable computing or IT.

 Green Computing can be described as the
environmentally responsible usage of computer
systems and related resources.

contd…
 It is also study and practice of designing,
manufacturing, using and disposing of
computers, servers and associated sub-systems
such as monitors, printers, storage devices etc
efficiently and effectively.

 It can also be termed as practice or study of
efficient and eco-friendly computing.

ORIGIN
 In 1992, the U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency launched “Energy Star”, a labeling
program designed to promote and recognize
energy efficiency in monitors, climate control
equipments etc. The term GREEN
COMPUTING was coined shortly after energy
star began.
 On October 2006 it was revised and a tiered
ranking system of approved products was
introduced.

WHY Green Computing?
 Growing public environmental awareness
 Reducing impacts on environmental and
human health
 Corporate social responsibility
 A step for need of tomorrow’s future.
 Greener IT.
 Helps to minimise the energy by educating
consumers on efficient ways to keep
power usage low.

contd…
 computer energy is often wasteful
 leaving the computer on when not in use (CPU
and fan consume power, screen savers
consume power)
 printing is often wasteful
 how many of you print out your emails or
meeting agendas
 printing out partial drafts
 for a “paperless” society, we tend to use more
paper today than before computer-prevalence.

contd…
 pollution
 manufacturing techniques
 packaging
 disposal of computers and components
 toxicity
 as we will see, there are toxic chemicals
used in the manufacturing of computers and
components which can enter the food chain
and water!

GOAL
 The Goal of green computing is to reduce the
use of hazardous material, minimize improper
use of power consumption, maximize energy
efficiency during product’s lifetime and promote
recyclability.
 Green Computing also contributes to prolong the
equipments life-time.

Approaches to GREEN
COMPUTING
• EPEAT
• Power Management
• Disposal
• Materials Recycling
• Product life cycle.

ENERGY STAR…
It is a government backed program which started
in USA and helps in protection of environment
through use of superior energy efficiency. It first
started as an attempt to reduce energy
consumption and also is an international standard
for energy efficient consumer products . Devices
having Energy Star logo use 20-30% less energy
than required by federal standards. It now uses a
tiered ranking approach for approved product.

EPEAT
EPEAT- Electronic Product Environmental
Assessment Tool, is a method for consumers to
evaluate the effect of a product on the
environment. It ranks products as Gold, Silver,
Bronze based on a set of environmental
performance criteria. It evaluates products on 51
criteria- 23 required and 28 optional.
For a product to be rated as Bronze it should
meet all 23 required criteria, for Silver- should
meet all 23 required criteria and 50% of optional
criteria and for Gold- should meet 23 required
criteria and 75% of optional criteria

POWER MANAGEMENT
The Advanced Configuration and Power
Interface (ACPI), an open industry standard,
allows an operating system to directly control the
power saving aspects of its underlying hardware.
This allows a system to automatically turn off
components such as monitors and hard drives
after set periods of inactivity.

Everyday example- Energy
Use of PCs
 CPU uses 120 Watts
 CRT uses 150 Watts
 8 hours of usage, 5 days a week = 562
KWatts
 if the computer is left on all the time
without proper power saver modes,
this can lead to 1,600 KWatts
 for a large institution, say a university
of 40,000 students and faculty, the
power bill for just computers can come
to $2 million / year

Ctnd…
 Energy used comes from
 electrical current to run the CPU,
motherboard, memory
 running the fan and spinning the
disk(s)
 monitor (CRTs consume more power
than any other computer component)
 printers

Manufacturing
 Using Greener technology
 PBDE(Polybrominated diphenyl ethers)-
free plastic
 lead-free soldering
 fewer toxic solvents
 Plastics labelled with recycling codes
 Less toxic material used

 Independent certification bodies must certify
their products. EPEAT should be followed.
 CRT – lead and zinc used in monitors are
hazardous waste, should be avoided.

Uses
 New technology often more energy efficient.
 Energy saver features are now standard.
 Recycling of products are put in practice.
 Energy star concept is on a rise.
 Waste management is practiced.

E-Waste – what…why?
 Electronic waste or E-waste or
WEEE(Waste Electrical and Electronics
Equipments), describes loosely
discarded, surplus, obsolete or broken
electrical or electronic devices.
 E-waste is due of improper practice of
disposing computer and its components.
 E-waste management includes recycling,
consumer awareness efforts, processing
techniques, also tells us benefits of
recycling.

E-waste Disposal
 Current e-waste disposal program represents a
best practice.
 E-waste is divided into two separate streams, CRT
monitors and all other electronic equipment
― General e-waste is sent to Production Works
where it is dismantled and redistributed to scrap
companies and recyclers.
― CRT monitors sent to an environment friendly
Toronto-based company.
Also as hazardous and non-hazardous.

Land Fills

 Europe has outlawed using landfills for
computer components
 the US and Europe export a lot of e-waste
to Asian landfills (especially China even
though China has outlawed the importing of
e-waste)
 in addition, dumping of computer
components leads to air pollution and
airborne toxins

Recommendations –
Disposal
 Obtain suitable space for storage of e-
waste and monitors.
 Develop and implement methodology for
tracking tonnage diverted from landfill.
 Formalize reuse and reallocation
procedures and policies.

Global Effects
Electronic wastes :
•In the U.S. alone, 500 million obsolete electronic
equipments.
•Computers, and 130 million cell phones are
thrown out every year.

E Waste- Chemicals Found
 Elements in bulk: lead, tin, copper, silicon,
carbon, iron and aluminum
 Elements in small amounts: cadmium and
mercury
 List of examples of devices containing these
elements
 almost all electronics contain lead & tin (as solder)
and copper (as wire & PCB tracks), though the use of
lead-free solder is now spreading rapidly
 lead: solder, CRT monitors (Lead in glass), Lead-acid
battery

Elements Used: Mercury, Lead
Plastic etc.
 Mercury is used in
 batteries, switches, housing, printed circuit
boards
 mercury is found in medical equipment, data
transmission equipment,
telecommunications equipment and cell
phones as well
 if is estimated that 22% of the yearly use of
mercury is in electrical and electronic
equipment
 although a small amount of mercury is used, it is
used in nearly all computer constructions.
 Plastics are found throughout the computer,
largely from casings but also internally to hold
components together
 The plastics in computers are often treated with
flame retardant chemicals.

Reducing Energy Consumption

 Turn off the computer when not in use, even
if just for an hour
 Turn off the monitor when not in use (as
opposed to running a screen saver)
 Use power saver mode
 screen savers use as much electricity as any
normal processing
 Use hardware/software with the Energy Star
label
 Energy Star is a “seal of approval” by the Energy
Star organization of the government.
 Don’t print unless necessary.
 Use LCDs instead of CRTs as they are
more power efficient.

Other Solutions…
 Reuse: donate your computer components to
people who may not have or have lesser quality
computers.

 Refurbish: rather than discarding your computer
when the next generation is released, just get a new
CPU and memory chips – upgrade rather than
replace.

TO KEEP IN MIND…
When Purchasing:
•Check EPEAT rating (if available)
Energy Star only

•Contact for eventual disposal
•Don’t become an e-waste site for someone else
•Minimize packaging & documentation copies for bulk
purchases
Disposal
•Investigate and set up responsible vendor or independent
disposal program
•Donate good working computers and related equipment

One More Solution:
Recycling
 If companies can recycle the plastics and
other components, this can greatly reduce
waste and toxins
 however, the hazardous materials in e-waste can
harm the recycle workers if they are not properly
protected.
 Developed countries now have facilities for
recycling e-waste.
 To resolve these problems, the computer
manufacturers must start using recyclable
chemicals

“Material Recycling”
E-waste handling

Recent implementation of
Green Computing

Blackle
 A search-engine site powered by Google Search.
 Based on the concept that :
when presenting an empty word page or the Google
home page, If a computer screen is :
White it consumes 74W & when
Black it consumes only 59W.
 switching from Google to Blackle :
Earth would save 750MW/ yr.

Summarize…
• Green computing is a novel and an innovative
trend in the world of computing which has
minimum or no impact on the environment.
• Green computing has introduced a range of
equipments and technologies which help in
limiting the impact on the environment.
• Use of EPEAT help in different aspects of the
computing world and recognizes the areas for
improvement.

References…
 www.research.microsoft.com/pubs/78813/AJ18
_EN.pdf
 www.techno-preneur.net
 http://www.slideworld.com
 http://www.authorstream.com/Presentation/pira
tebhai-727374-green-computing/
 http://www.techrepublic.com/whitepapers/5-
steps-to-a-successful-green-computing-
solution/1104485
 http://www.epeat.net
 http://greencomputing123.com

Deepak's green computing

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