Green IT Edge » save energy

Is Industry Collaboration the Future of Green IT?

Clare Hobby — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 03:25:54 +0000

While major electronics brands compete to develop more eco-friendly PC products, some areas of Green IT are actually shifting towards greater industry collaboration. A couple of recent stories caught my attention. Firstly, at CES I attended an Electronics Takeback roundtable, hosted by the US EPA and featuring senior environmental managers from Panasonic, Best Buy and L.G. When discussing the challenges of implementing a cohesive takeback infrastructure, industry reps agreed there is a need to work together to create a common eco-system and create efficiencies in how takeback is handled across multiple product categories.

Second, the Green Touch project was announced this week in a cross-industry effort to reduce PC processory energy use 1000-fold. In real terms, this would mean being able to run the world’s communications networks, including the internet, for nearly three years using the same amount of energy it currently uses in one day. The Green Touch project kicks off in February. More details here

More energy efficient computers with new EU-directive

Anna Pramborg — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 11:51:31 +0000

-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.

Myths on PC power management

Emma Sjogren — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 06:10:06 +0000

Even though several reports show how much energy is possible to save by PC power management, there is still hesitancy at some organizations to implement PC power management. Why? Perhaps some companies let some of the myths about PC power management affect their decision. In a recent report by Forrester titled “How Much Money is Your Idle PCs Wasting?” five such myths are outlined. We’ve all heard them at some point – but is there any truth in them?

1. The power used turning my PC on negates any benefits of turning it off.

2. I use a screen saver – that saves me energy.

3. Turning my PC on and off will reduce its performance and useful life.

4. I need to run updates and patches – I can’t do that in lower-power states.

5. My PC users will not tolerate any downtime for power management.

Of course, none of these myths are true (except possibly no.5, but that problem is possible to overcome). I found this great blog where these five myths are debunked (based on the Forrester report), have a look at http://www.infoworld.com/d/green-it/five-pc-power-myths-debunked-888

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