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

Great demand for eco-labelled mobile Phones
Why is it that manufacturers put eco labels on computer displays, TVs and printers but not on mobile phones? There is a huge demand among institutional purchasers and consumers who would like to see mobile phones with an eco label. Every week get several e-mails and phone calls from people around the world asking us at TCO Development why there are no TCO certified mobile phones, or which mobile phone can we recommend that has a minimal impact on the environment and that also has good usability.

An opportunity for mobile phones manufacurers to take the lead
If I was a marketing director at a mobile phone company and wanted to increase my market share I would definitely try to certify mobile phones according to an environmental certification program. Today this is an open window for the mobile manufacturer that truly would like to take the position as the brand to choose for green mobile phones.

The buzz word within the ICT industry has during the last 18^th month been Green IT and now it seems the trend it moving to include another buzz word; Sustainable IT. This trend is of course very positive.

In the discussions of Green IT so far there has been a lot talk about lower energy consumption. Low energy consumption is an important factor to reduce the CO2 emissions, but focusing only on lower energy consumption for a computer display can mean lower image quality.

It’s simple – a product with high performance and good usability has a longer life span and is less likely to enter the waste stream prematurely. This is another important environmental aspect that we unfortunately not see too much of in the discussion of Green IT or Sustainable IT.

No trade off between usability and environment
My point is that truly sustainable ICT products also must include the aspect of usability. A product that performs well and has low energy consumptions as well as low levels of hazardous substances is the best choice for the environment. Therefore there should not be any trade off between usability and environment aspects for ICT products!

What about products that don’t work if yoy try to be climate smart?
Last week I had a personal experience of usability vs. environmental aspects when I tried to be climate smart by switching off the printer at home. The printer is in standby mode 24 hours a day. Standby means less energy consumption but still it consumes energy, therefore I switched it off. The pleasure of a silent office and a good environmental conscience was on top when the printer was off. However there were no feelings of pleasure the next day when I was going to print a document. I had switched the printer on again, the control panel showed that the document was in the line for getting printed and that the printer was connected – but I did not get the document printed!  This doubly frustrating – firstly for not being able to get my documents printed and sceondly,  that I unnecessarily cause CO2 emissions because the printer doesn’t work if I switch it off properly.

Do you have similar experience of technology that makes it impossible to combine usability and environmental aspects? Let me know.

Make your comment here, or e-mail: birgitta.halvarsson@tco.se

Yesterday’s big green event here in Stockholm was the Sustainability Day: a one day conference about CSR held by the environment magazine Miljöaktuellt and The Swedish Association of Environmental Managers (NMC).

This was the fifth time the Sustainability day was organized. The big question for the conference this year was if companies could afford to prioritize a sustainable work considering the changing conditions due to the financial crisis.

Thomas Nauclér from McKinsey

The most interesting part of the Sustainability Day was the two sessions held by
Klas Eklund, Senior Economist at SEB (Bank and financial company), and Thomas Nauclér from McKinsey. They talked about the financial aspects for companies who contribute to less CO2 emissions.

One conclusion is that many companies will not voluntarily do anything to stop the global warming unless they can make money from their green efforts.

However, there are many low cost ways that companies can contribute to a significant reduction of the global warming and at the same time save money.

By using their equipment in a more energy efficient way companies can reduce their CO2 emissions by 50% without any investment and at the same time get lower cost for energy!
As the cost for energy will continue to rise working with energy efficiency will become more rewarding from a financial perspective.

From a branding perspective, companies can gain a lot by showing their market that they are actively working for true a contribution on reducing the global warming.

These two aspects are also part of TCO Certified: All products with the TCO label have very low energy consumption. The TCO Certified label also gives the signal to the market that the companies that offer TCO Certified products are working actively for sustainability.

TCO Development exhibited at the Sustainability Day