Tags: Anna-Karin Jönbrink, Ecocomputer, EU-directive, legislation, monitors, save energy, Swerea
-A new EU-directive will likely drive the market to lower the use of energy for computers and displays. After January 7, 2010 computers will be required to use less energy than today, says Anna-Karin Jönbrink, from Swerea the EU expert on computers and monitors and their environmental performance. If the computer manufacturer manages to meet the legislation it will be possible to save up to 30 percent of the energy used today. These savings will add up, as there are about 300 million computers and displays in Europe. Two important ways to lower the energy use for computers are a) changing our usage patterns so that we all switch off the computer when not in use. And b) increase the efficiency of the computer itself, for example by choosing a power supply unit with higher efficiency. Other important energy savers are for example LED in displays (light emitting diodes), a technology already in place in many displays. You can find more about this at ecocomputer.
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: Green IT, procurement, usability, verification
..and another to offer green it solutions. Since we at TCO Development started to develop our certification programme that declared greener displays with better usability we have had many contacts with public procurers and private professional purchasers. When it comes to actually purchasing a greener product it can sometimes be difficult to know whether a product really fulfils the criteria the purchasers have set up, and the vendors sometimes have difficulties translating and understand the demand and criteria set up by the purchasers. Verification and certification schemes are often of good help here. And, therefore I got very excited when I saw Consip, the Italian company working with efficiency in public administration, asking vendors to offer them 75.000 computer desktops that were according to the requirements in TCO-certified. A clear statement; this is what we want. The users should have a green desktop with proven usability qualities. Action is everything!
Also, see the cut-and-paste procurement document developed by UNEP/ICLEI: http://procureitfair.org/publications-en/Publication_2744/at_download/fullfile
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We have made some calculations that it is possible to save up to 80 percent of the climate impact of IT use in
three simple steps:
1. Purchase energy efficient computers and electronics.
2. Switch off the ICT-equipment when not in use – a simple change of user habits can make a big difference.
3. Enable the energy saving functions in your equipment.
These three simple steps really can have a great impact. If all computer user, both at workplaces and at home did this, all over the world, could we save both energy and it would reduce the carbon dioxide emission quite dramatically. I will be contributing more on the topic of energy saving and climate issues in upcoming posts. Also click here to check out our report “Your computer and the climate” for more information and advice on selecting and using IT products for reduced climate impact.
