Going Green" is a rising trend establishing itself as the preferred way of doing things while saving the environment. This now appears in a large number of aspects in our lives, such as recycling, energy-efficient devices, clean energy sources, eco-friendly vehicles, green buildings.
Computing has also established its share to contribute to saving the environment under the concept "Green Computing". Green computing is the environmentally responsible and eco-friendly use of computers and their resources. In broader terms, it is also defined as the study of designing, engineering, manufacturing, using and disposing of computing devices in a way that reduces their environmental impact. Green Computing, also known as Green Technology or Green IT, has quickly emerged as the most effective means of utilising technology.
How Green Computing benefits the environment?
In basic terms, Green Computing involves reducing the environmental impact of technology. That means using less energy, reducing waste and promoting sustainability. Green computing aims to reduce the carbon footprint generated by the Information Technology and Systems business and related industries. Energy-efficiency and e-waste are two major techniques involved in green computing. Energy efficiency involves implementation of energy-efficient central processing units (CPUs), servers and peripherals as well as reduced resource consumption. And e-waste is the proper disposal of electronic waste.
Why Green Computing?
If we think computers are non-polluting and consume very little energy, in fact the use of computer plays a big role in environment pollution. It is estimated that out of $250 billion per year spent on powering computers worldwide only about 15% of that power is spent computing, the rest is wasted idling (i.e. consumed by computers which are not in use but still turned ON). That consumed energy is the main reason of CO2 emission, thus, energy saved on computer hardware and computing will equate tonnes of carbon emissions saved per year.
It started back in 1992, when the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) launched the Energy Star program, a controlled labelling program to promote and recognise energy-efficiency. The Energy Star label has now certified more than 75 different product categories, homes, commercial buildings and industrial plants. The program has also resulted in the widespread adoption of sleep mode among electronics' consumers.
