Tags: climate smart, Green IT, OECD
I am currently participating on the 2-day OECD conference on how ICT can improve the environmental performance and mitigate climate change in all sectors of the economy. Around 230 high-level experts and government representatives have gathered to develop some solutions. Some of the highlights as I see it has been the emphasis on the need for investment in education and R&D regarding Green IT – both to reduce the environmental impact of ICT and using ICT reduce other kinds of environmental impact. “The global economic crisis is 50 % pain and 50 % opportunity”, said Esko Aho, former prime minister of Finland who lead the country through a similar local crisis.
Another interesting point made by Marcus Courtney from Union Network International was that a significant part of the problem is that 75 % of all ICT equipment manufacturing is outsourced to low cost countries where there is less control with environmental factors and labor rights. We need producers who can guarantee and document that they meet both environmental and labor right standards.
When it comes to the use eCollaboration tools for travel reduction, Jeanette M. Wing from the US National Science Foundation, was not impressed how this technology has evolved. As a professional researcher she expected this technology to be much better by now. Talking with her afterwards she made a point out of that several criteria must be evaluated when choosing such systems. In my own view there seems to be certain criteria that will be mostly helpful for users to find good eCollaboration systems. These critieria include sound and picture quality as well as synchronization and increased user friendliness of such products.
The discussion continues tomorrow and I’ll be back to share more impressions with you then, so stay tuned.
Erich Must Wessel
Blogger for TCO Development
Helsingör, Denmark
Tags: climate conscience, climate smart, CO2 emissions, combine usability and environmental aspects, computer display, energy consumption, frustration, Green IT, hazardous substances, ICT products, image quality, standby, sustainable IT, usability
The buzz word within the ICT industry has during the last 18th 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
Posted by Birgitta Halvarsson
