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INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF INFORMATION AND SCIENCE ISSN NO: 0972-1347

Green Computing: A perspective view

Ashok Kumar, Shant Kaushik DAV College, Ambala City

Abstract

Green computing is an effective study in which disposing, and manufacturing of computers and electronic devices is taken into account. Green Computing or Green IT benefits the environment by improving energy efficiency, lowering green house gas emissions using less harmful materials, encouraging reuse and recycling of the various components of . The goal of green computing is to reduce the use of hazardous materials, maximize energy efficiency during the product’s lifetime, and promote the recyclability or biodegradability of products and electronic waste. In this paper an effort has been made to analyse steps to utilize the concepts of green computing; recent implementations and their effects.

Keywords: Green Computing, E-waste, Energy Saving, Environment

I. INTRODUCTION

Green technology comprises of the study of advanced materials to be used in everyday life and the study of new generation techniques. The main topic of concern in green technology is to reduce the environmental impact of industrial processes along with the growth in population resulting in innovative technologies. Green, has become a popular term for describing things that are good for the environment, generally healthful and, economically sensible. Going Green, implies reducing one’s energy use and . The technology community, specifically computer users, have popularized the term Green Computing, which is indicative of the reduction of the pollution and energy footprint of computers. Basically, the efficient use of computers and computing is what green computing is all about. This considers social responsibility, economic viability and the impact on the environment. The huge amount of computing manufactured worldwide has a direct impact on environment issues, and scientists are conducting numerous studies in order to reduce the negative impact of computing technology on natural resources. A central point of research is testing and applying alternative non-hazardous materials in the products’ manufacturing process. The idea is to make computers from beginning to end a green product. Green computing refers to “environmentally sustainable computing” which studies and practices virtually all computing efficiently and effectively with little or no impact on the environment. Green computing or Green IT refers to environmentally sustainable computing. It can be seen as the study and practice of designing, manufacturing, using, and disposing of computers and associated subsystems such as monitors, printers, storage devices, and networking and communications systems — efficiently and effectively with minimal or no impact on the environment. The ideas or design of Green Computing has to go through the steps like (a) Green use (b) Green disposal (c ) Green design and (d) Green manufacturing

II. Some Negative impacts:

Computers add to environment problems which are mostly not realized. Computer affects environment in many ways. In case of a computer’s life, from its production, its use throughout, and its disposal, presents environmental issues. Computer is made up of various hazardous, toxic materials such as lead, mercury and hexavalent chromium. This computer waste is a major source of widespread damage to the environment at large. Toxic materials are present in computer wastes primarily consisting of Cathode Ray Tubes (CRTs), Printed board assemblies, Capacitors, Mercury

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switches and relays, Batteries, Liquid Crystal Displays (LCDs), and Electrolytes. Computer waste contains toxic substances such as lead and cadmium in circuit boards; lead oxide and cadmium in monitor Cathode Ray Tubes (CRTs); mercury in switches and flat screen monitors; cadmium in computer batteries; polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in older capacitors and transformers; and brominated flame retardants on printed circuit boards, plastic casings, cables and Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC) cable insulation that releases highly toxic dioxins and furans when burned to retrieve copper from the wires and printed circuit boards which are hazardous because of their content of lead.

Total electrical energy consumption by servers, computers, monitors, data communications equipment, and cooling systems for data centers is steadily increasing. This increase in energy consumption is directly related to the increased . Each PC in use generates about a ton of carbon dioxide every year.

III. Solutions

Many efforts have been made to achieve a bit of green environment and reduced hazards of computers. Some of the popular are:

a) : Computer virtualization is the process of running two or more logical computer systems on one set of physical hardware. With virtualization, a system administrator could combine several physical systems into virtual machines on one single, powerful system, thereby unplugging the original hardware and reducing power and cooling consumption. b) Efficient processors: More-efficient processors are another critical energy-saving element, as , , and all have adopted the green religion technology. c) Turn Off Equipment: When Not In Use Powering down equipment is the simplest, most effective and most obvious way to reduce computing power consumption. d) A that uses more than 100 watts working can use as little as 5 watts when in standby mode, using one twentieth of the electricity it used when working. Another case is Hibernate Mode. This mode goes one step further than standby mode by completely powering off the computer. Invoking the hibernate mode causes the memory state to be saved onto the hard disk before powering down. When coming out of hibernate mode, the computer restores the memory state, returning the computer to its pre-hibernate state. A desktop computer will consume approximately 3 watts in hibernate mode vs. 5 watts for standby. e) Purchase Efficient Devices: Inevitably a computer will need replacement. When purchasing a new computer, special attention should be paid to several criteria. First, the computer should be energy efficient, following a compliance standard such as , indicating a recognized conformance to low energy use goals. Second, the manufacturer of the new computer should have a recycling program for used computers to reduce waste. Third, the computers themselves should be made up of as few toxic materials as possible. f) Reducing Paper Waste: Rather than creating a paperless office, computer use has vastly increased paper consumption and paper waste. One of the suggestions for reducing waste can be to Print as little as possible.

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IV. Some initiatives:

(1) US Environmental Protection Agency’s project ‘Energy Star’ is a program that is designed to promote and identify energy-efficiency in climate control equipment, monitors and other technologies. This resulted in the widespread adoption of among consumer electronics.

(2) ’s Plant a Tree for Me project allows customers to offset their carbon emissions by paying an extra 120 rupees to 240 rupees, depending on the product purchased. The silicon-on-insulator (SOI) technology in its manufacturing, and strained silicon capping films on transistors (known as ―dual stress liner technology), have contributed to reduced power consumption in its products.

(3) VIA Technologies, a Taiwanese company that manufactures motherboard chipsets, CPUs, and other , introduced its initiative for "green computing" in 2001. Solar cells fit VIA's power- efficient silicon, platform, and system technologies and enable the company to develop fully solar-powered devices that are nonpolluting, silent, and highly reliable. As part of VIA's pc-1 initiative, the company established the first-ever solar-powered cyber community center in the South Pacific, powered entirely by solar technology.

(4) HP's Planet Partners recycling service or recycling facilities helps in recycling discarded computers. Thus reducing the amount of discarded computers in and thus in tern reducing toxin metal and other harmful emissions to be released in the environment.

(5) Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool registered products are promoted by nonprofit Green Electronics Council. It helps institutional purchasers evaluate, compare and select desktop computers, notebooks and monitors based on environmental attributes by providing a clear, consistent set of performance criteria for the designing of products.

(6) The Climate Savers Computing Initiative (CSCI) has introduced a catalogue that helps people choose green products.

(7) Restriction of Hazardous Substances Directive (RoHS) adopted by European union in 2003 restricts the use of six hazardous materials in the manufacture of various types of electronic and electrical equipment.

(8) Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive (WEEE), which sets collection, recycling, and recovery targets for electrical goods and is part of a legislative initiative that aims to reduce the huge amounts of toxic e-waste.

V. Some Proposal:

(1) Offsetting carbon dioxide can be achieved in different ways. One way is to plant trees that absorb CO2 as they grow, in the region in which the processors were purchased.

(2) Wetlands also provide a great service in sequestering some of the carbon dioxide emitted into the atmosphere.

(3) Solar computing is an effective technique to utilize green computing technique

(4) Green-computing’s initiative is the development of energy-efficient platforms for low-power, small form-factor (SFF) computing devices. This is done by the application of Quiet Computing techniques.

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(5) One should reduce the paper consumption by recycling paper regularly, using both sides of the paper, using smaller fonts and margins, and selectively printing required pages and use services like emailing and electronic archiving to minimize paper wastage.

(6) Turn off the computer when the period of inactivity is more.

(7) Organic light-emitting diodes should be used instead of the regular monitors.

(8) The manufacturing of disks and boxes needed for video games takes up a lot of resources. manufacturers can offer their games online for download, leading to reduction in e-waste. This move can cut down on the transportation/shipping cost.

(9) Data centers can potentially improve their energy and space efficiency through techniques such as storage consolidation and virtualization

(10) Undervolting is a process in which both the amount of heat and electricity consumed is managed manually by the user by adjusting voltage supplied to the user.

(11) While buying a monitor one should keep in mind one’s requirements as a 17-inch monitor uses 40 percent more energy than a 14-inch monitor. Also, the higher the resolution, the more energy it needs. Thus one should make one’s choice wisely.

(13) Ink-jet printers, though a little slower than laser printers, use 80 to 90 percent less energy

VI. CONCLUSION

Need of the hour is to develop a positive attitude toward addressing environmental concerns and adopt forward-looking, green-friendly policies and practices. Consumers haven’t cared about ecological impact when buying computers; they’ve cared only about speed and price. Green computing presents a responsible way to address the issue of global warming. The greenest computer will possibly contain the entire feature to save energy and protect our environment and health. The green computer will be the product of years of improvements over its previous models. By adopting green computing practices, business leaders can contribute positively to environmental stewardship— and protect the environment while also reducing energy and paper costs.

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