Green Computing is the design of technological and computing products that reduce the use of hazardous substances and radiation. The focuses are similar to those of green chemistry; reduction of the use of hazardous materials such as lead at the manufacturing stage, maximized energy efficiency during the product's term of use, and recyclability or biodegradability of both a defunct product and of any factory waste.
In 1992, the EPA provided Energy Star [1], a voluntary labeling program, designed to promote and recognize energy-efficiency in monitors, climate control equipment, and other technologies. This resulted in, among other things, the widespread adoption of sleep mode among consumer electronics.
The European Union's directives 2002/95/EC (RoHS), on the reduction of hazardous substances, and 2002/96/EC (WEEE) on waste electrical and electronic equipment required the substitution of heavy metals and flame retardants like PBBs and PBDEs in all electronic equipment put on the market starting 1 July 2006. The directives placed responsibility on manufacturers for the gathering and recycling of old equipment.
Suggestions for better power economy and paper consumption:
- make use of automatic power management, that will turn off the disk, or monitor, or quickly dump the memory state to enable a power-down of the entire machine (hibernation), if the system is idle.
- only power on peripherals (monitor, printer, speakers) when needed.
- reduce the monitor's brightness, by adjusting the settings and choosing dark desktop wallpapers.
- review documents and emails on-screen; print as little as possible.
- share printers using the network, and use recycled-content paper.
- reduce the use of paper communication, such as fax and memo.
for similar initiatives in other fields, see also:
Green chemistry
External links
the European RoHS-WEEE directive
University at Buffalo's guide to Green Computing