Green computing refers to environmentally sustainable computing. It minimize the use of electricity as well as energy and reduce the environmental dissipate when we are using a computer. The green computing has the same goals with green chemistry, which is longer the life time of the product and makes the product more efficiency of energy, advance the discard product and factory waste to be more easily recycle and biodegradable, use of the less-hazardous materials.
Origin of Green Computing
The labeling program which is famous as Energy Star was one of the earliest initiatives toward in United States. In 1992, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) start to promote all kinds of hardware of energy efficiency, also climate control equipment, and other technologies and it was regard as Energy Star. The label of Energy Star became a general sight, mainly in notebook computers and displays. In Europe and Asia, similar programs have also been implement. The sleep mode is then adopted among consumer electronics. After the Energy Star program began, the term “green computing” was probably invent shortly.
Importance of Green Computing
In an average year, 24 million computers have become obsolete in United States. Only about 14% (3.3 million) of these will be recycle or donate. Over 20 million computers, the rest in U.S. will be get rid of, destroy or ship as waste products or to be dealt with later in the temporary storage. We do not care about what happens when our laptop dies and just stop to consider it. The reality is that it either decomposed in a landfill or developing countries. The children there wrestling its components apart by hand and melting toxic bits to discover traces or valuable metals like gold.
Moreover, E-Waste trade chain is create in developing nations for the imported obsolete electronics. They employ several workers, collectors, segregators, middlemen, scrap dealers and recyclers to take components apart, reuse the functional components, burning or acid dipping and other unprofessional techniques to recycle the non-functional components. After burning and other wastes are dispose, the spent acids and other chemicals, solid wastes eventually end up in rivers. This resulted serious problem of pollution of water, the source we depend , which can threaten our lives.
Does green computing really go green?
The answer may be no definitely 100% of green IT. It depends on the manufacturing process used to produce the electronic. Most products are produce in China or other Asian countries and most of the computer components are outsource from there. Why? Generally, companies tend to gain more benefit than lose a penny, developing in China or other Asian countries is the way to save the cost of production. How? Because there is not much strict environmental regulations and the labor standards are lax. In addition, products do not often meet the green standards by those manufacturers which are set by the companies. Also including Apple headquarters in the United States. Finally, the working conditions, being paid in fair wages, and working reasonable hours also must we consider to ensure to product is truly green. Therefore, labor of production which must be consider in case.
Conclusion
To come to our knowledge, the man-made greenhouse gas emissions increasing is a major contributing factor to global warming, enterprises, governments, and also our society. In the mean time, people trying to tackle environmental issues and adopting environmentally. To live in harmony and peacefully with this earth. Therefore, greening our IT products, applications, services and practices are both economic and environmental essential, as well as our social responsibility. As a result, a growing number of IT vendors and users are moving toward green computing. Thereby assisting in building a green society and economy.