Tags: Green IT, SCP, Sustainable consumption, Sustainable production
Sustainable consumption and production, SCP, is a core theme for the United Nations and EU when working towards sustainable development. The European Commission and the European Environmental Agency (EEA) have identified the SCP priority areas which are: housing, food and drink, and mobility. These are the areas that lead to the highest environmental impacts over their full life cycle. I suppose ICT is a great enabler within these areas: smart houses, software that takes care of the energy supply system and reduces the energy use is coming are only two examples. ICT is also a great enabler for reducing the travels, but also for making us wanting to travel and see more of the world…. We should keep an eye on the ICT:s as well and make sure they follow the goals within SCP: energy efficient, as low impact as possible on the environment and of high quality which makes them last longer and want to be used longer by the end user. Also, check out TCO Development White paper on Green IT.
Tags: choosing a projector, High Definition TV, image, image size, picture quality, projected image, projector, right projector screen size, TCO, TCO Certified, TCO development, viewing distance
I like the all new TCO Image size concept for Projectors. You will too and here’s why:
Getting bogged down in all the technical specifications of picture quality is the easy step to buying a Projector. It can spin your head so much that you may end up buying a projector that has more money guzzling performance than you need or even one that doesn’t meet your needs at all.
Much has been written about TVs and the screen size you should consider depending on the size of the room you’re viewing it in: A good High Definition experience deteriorates the further you sit from the screen. It’s said that to experience HD on a 32” TV you shouldn’t be more than 2meters from it and in a large living room that will mean a lot of empty space behind your armchair. So we go larger & larger and then we go bananas “Projectors”
So what about when it comes to choosing a projector? And you may well ask what the hell does the caption TCO Image size mean?
TCO Image size is the same size concept as with the TV:
First consider the screen size you want/need/have. It might be that screen hanging in the conference/meeting room or could even be that white bed sheet on the living room wall at home. When you know how much of that screen (in m2 or inches) that you’d like to fill with a projected image that will maintain visible High Quality up to the size you want, then TCO Certified gives you the next easy step by stating a projector’s maximum quality Image Size in just m² & inches.
Finally go out and buy a TCO Certified Projector that is a good match to your needs.
123 Easy Steps to getting your projector then:
Step 1. Find out the size of screen you want or have (just as you would a TV)
Step 2. Go to TCO Development’s web site and view the selection of TCO Certified projectors.
Step 3. Go buy and feel sure that the product also passes many of the toughest usability and environmental demands on the market.
Then with your Screen & Projector in place, stick your armchair anywhere you want in the living room.
Happy Viewing!
Tags: design, efficiency, energy, love It, sustainability, World Usability Day
This week was World Usability Day, all over the planet on 12 of November, so also in Stockholm. Lots of good presentations, discussions, work shops and a nice cosy summing up mingle at Clarion Sign Hotel.
One of the presentations was a splendid example of how to learn more about Usability, and then simply love it by doing and acting personally. Under the title ” I love it, how to make the climate question more simple, more fun and more interesting”, Mr Martin Magnusson, lead consultant on energy, efficiency and sustainability, working for Logica, Sweden, made this very obvious. He explained why the processing towards “loving” has to pass through the processes of “external pressure”; “should” and “being interested”. He showed a various kit of devices and services on how to save energy. These devices were carefully created in Design for high Usability, for the consumer, for the company as well as for the community, also on a national level. His summing up was Good Design that clearly showed how to improve Usage, leading to energy saving and higher efficiency.
Those of you who understand Swedish, follow Martin´s presentation on WUD´s website http://www.wud.se/
http://www.wud.se/aktiviteter/32.pdf
Tags: carbon footprint, dumping e-waste to developing countries, E-waste from USA, e-waste; Greenpeace, energy efficency, Green IT, Green IT Expo, ICT products, TCO Certified
Report from London Green IT Expo
My colleague Susanna and I went to London Green IT Expo, which took place on November 10-11th. We had expected to see some interesting innovations and hear some good discussions regarding green IT.
To some extend our expectations were met: There were a lot about energy efficiency and efforts to increase the carbon foot print.
But there were surprisingly very little about e-waste and recycling of ICT-products at Green IT Expo.
Research director Andy Lawrence from The 451 Group, held a presentation about the coming trends within green IT for the next five years. All of the trends he presented were about energy efficiency and none about how the industry and the users should act on decreasing the problems with e-waste.
But there was one exception: Catalina McGregor from Green ICT Delivery, HM Government’s CIO/CTO Council held an interesting presentation on the topic: Dirty ICT: What it is? And How Do You Clean Up Your Act. Ms McGregor showed some videoclips from Greenpeace that illustrated the huge problems e-waste from the so called developed countries are dumping in the third world. See video from Greenpeace: one from India and one from Ghana
The messages from these films are that the best way to decrease the problems with hazardous substanses from e-waste is to don’t have these substances in the ICT products at all. TCO Certified is working in this direction by having criteria on minimized levels of hazardous substances and that the products must be repaired for recycling. The goal is to ban all hazardous substances. Another thing you can do to decreasing problems with e-waste is to buy a product with good performance that has a long life time, so you will keep your product longer.
It is definitely time for the richer countries to make some significant efforts when it comes to e-waste. In 2009 no people in the world should be exposed for hazardous and toxic substances as led, mercury and cadmium etcetera. And it is also about time that e-waste will have a bigger share of the Green IT concept.
If you would like to know more about the e-waste from USA, see this film
Posted by Birgitta Halvarsson
Tags:
“It’s about making our world work better and developing technologies in a way that serves people first” – That’s how the organizers of World Usability Day explain their mission in highlighting best practices in Usability throughout the world on Thursday, Nov 12.
World Usability Day was founded in 2005 as an initiative of the Usability Professionals’ Association to ensure that services and products important to human life are easier to access and simpler to use. Usability is a pillar of the TCO Certified program and this year we will participate in two Usability Day events: in Stockholm, Sweden (www.wud.se) and in the US, at the Headquaters of Sabre / travelocity.
For more about each of these events, or to find a local event in your area, log onto http://www.worldusabilityday.org/
Tags: CRT, dermatological symptoms, Displays, Electric and Magnetic fields, Emissions, exposure effects, LCD, long screen time fatigue, TCO screen
Are you still using a Tube display (CRT: Cathode Ray Tube)? If yes then you’re still getting the best response time, meaning that you shouldn’t be getting that double contour ghost affect on moving images.
Another kind of ghost, and this isn’t isolated to just CRT displays, is the kind you don’t see; the invisible Electric and Magnetic fields coming at you from the display.
We know that the degree of worker exposure to the sources of these fields is increasing and so whilst scientists remain divided on the harmful effects of long term exposure a precautionary approach is advised. The symptoms most commonly experienced include dermatological symptoms (redness, tingling, and burning sensations) as well as neurasthenic symptoms (fatigue, tiredness, concentration difficulties, dizziness, nausea, heart palpitation, and digestive disturbances).
Our precautionary stand is to demand of the manufacturer that emission levels be kept to a technically achievable low level. We want low levels to be kept at your place of work. A tip to display users: when possible please connect the display to a grounded socket, since this helps avoid levels that will be very many times more if you do not.
Harmful emissions may be a ghost you don’t believe in, but there are many that have, do and may eventually need to tolerate a number of sensitivity symptoms that can not be totally attributed to long screen time fatigue.
So believe it or not, if you don’t feel any negative effects then it could be thanks to the fact that you’re working with a TCO screen connected to ground…since we know, in the ground is where ghosts should be.
Tags: electrical products, electronic products, European Union restriction of hazardous substances, hazardous substances, RoHS, sustainable IT products, TCO Certified
The European Union Restriction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS) Directive plays an important role in promoting a transition to electrical and electronic products with less hazardous substances. The directive is currently being revised and TCO Certified strongly supports a legislation that helps guide the industry towards the development of more sustainable products. Please read our statement Time to move RoHS to the next level.
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