Green Computing

A way towards environmentally sustainable future

Prajyot Ranbhise
Building Technology, CT DC AA
Siemens Technology & Services (STS)
Pune, India
prajyotranbhise@gmail.com

Abstract—The ever increasing growth of technology has efficiency, bio degradability of products, carbon emission and
drastically increased the amount of ‘information’ that is getting recyclability to name a few. Companies now compete in a
generated and therefore caused an increase in necessary facilities ‘green’ market and thus require more holistic approach for
and infrastructure to manage it. This has inevitably increased the achieving high value gains in their products and services along
energy consumption and demands along with the emission of with higher environmental sustainability.
greenhouse gases (GHGs) thereby posing a grave threat to the
environment. Information computing technologies (ICTs) must
adopt green computing - principals and strategies which aim at II. THE NEED
reducing the adverse impact on environment and minimizing the We are living in an age that has witnessed tremendous
carbon footprint to increase environmental sustainability. Green increase in information, and the necessary infrastructure and
computing is dealt with multimillion dollar organizations in equipment’s’ which generate, process, store, and use the same.
relation to areas like data center optimization, renewable emery The rate at which technology is getting outdated is another
sources, optimization of process and many more. However this factor which is leading the existing products being outdated
topic is overlooked when it comes to medium or small scale
and generation of electronic waste.
organizations or startup companies. And why just the ICT, green
computing principles can be extended to others businesses as Three major areas which can significantly impact an
well. This paper defines the problems in different areas and organizations carbon emission are,
presents with recent approaches towards overcoming the same.
Also it presents a model that can be adopted to implement • Organization structure and functions
comprehensive green strategy within small businesses.
• Data centers
Keywords— computing, carbon footprint, datacenters, energy • Technology
star, RoHS, green grid, HVAC, ACPI, DVFS, virtualization,
undervolting, steedstep, UEPs, e-waste.
A. Organization structure and functions
Organizations assume the availability and affordability of
I. INTRODUCTION
resources and energy for their functioning and hence since the
As businesses are growing computing is becoming beginning the focus has been on development of IT equipment
increasingly evident, despite the scarcity of resources and and services to meet the ever increasing demand of business.
desperate need to reduce adverse impact on the environment. Power processing, system speed, high operational productivity,
ITCs require various components such as hardware, assured profits are some of the key factors that drive companies
infrastructure, energy resources for powering up data centers in today’s global markets. However, less attention is given to
and server. Right from the manufacturing of these components, issues like energy consumption, carbon emission, e-waste
throughout the use and disposal huge amount byproduct is generation, energy sources and sustainability and so on.
generated posing a threat to the environment. The first section
of the paper talks the need of green computing highlighting Companies often over allocate resources when they are not
some of the key initiatives in this area. needed. For instance, some departments buy more processers,
memory sticks and disk space even when the server needs a
Green computing is a topic that needs to be understood and small fraction of the same. This is normally done because of
implemented at all levels within organizations whether big or capital budgetary reasons rather than scalability. Company
small. Players like Google for instance are taking steps for policies for hardware, server and computers configuration
achieving green business; however the parameters that drive plays vital role in power consumption.
them might not be the same when it comes to smaller business.
The later section of the paper talks about a model for getting Organizations \ individual lifestyle or process is causing
started with green strategies and sheds a light on recycling increase in the carbon foot print. Direct fuel consumption,
process crucial for minimizing e-waste generation. business visits, acquiring large infrastructural spaces for offices
where not required, improper operation and maintenances of
Gone are the days when organizations were measured in allied systems like heating ventilation and air conditioning
terms of profit margins and financial growth, but in addition
they will be evaluated based on parameters like energy

978-1-4799-6629-5/14/$31.00 2014
c IEEE 1094
(HVAC) systems causes increased energy consumption along
with adding to the financial cost.

B. Data centers

Fig. 2. Worldwide electricity consumption.

Fig 2 shows energy bands in which four most commonly

Fig. 1. Google’s PUE.
used office equipment operate in. The average computer draws
Data centers constitute an important part of any between 1.5W and 3W when it is turned off but plugged into a
organization as they are primarily responsible for the data mains socket [2]. It is estimated that out of $250 billion per
storage, management and processing. The large and ever year spent on powering computers worldwide only about 15%
increasing amount of electricity use of data center makes them of that power is spent of computing, the rest is wasted idling.
important source of greenhouse gases (GHG’s). Enterprise data The study by Kawamoto as in [2] found that the average
centers can easily account for up to a half of the company computer is idle for 3.9 hours a day. If a computer goes into
energy bill and approximately half of the companies carbon low power mode after 5 minutes of idle time it will spend 76%
foot print. of those 3.9 hours in low power mode. If a computer goes into
low power mode after 30 minutes of idle time it will spend just
Energy efficiency of data centers can be measured in 34% of those 3.9 hours in low power mode [2].
Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE), developed by the green grid
consortium [1, 9]. Choice of equipment also influences energy consumption,
therefore a high configuration hardware must be made
PUE = Total facility Power / IT equipment power available for use unless absolute necessity. For instance, ink jet
printers consume up to 80 percent less energy. A 17 inch
Average PUE is 1.0 which indicates that the data center is
monitor consumes up to 40 percent more energy than a 14 inch
100% efficient with respect to the total power consumed by IT.
monitor. The higher the resolution more is the energy
Google reports a comprehensive trailing twelve-month (TTM)
consumption. While recent year have shown increase in use of
PUE of 1.12 across all their data centers, in all seasons,
LCD and LED monitors and TV sets, the traditional CRT is
including all sources of overhead [21]. The new Facebook data
still heavily used in rural and suburban markets despite the
center PUE is 1.07 calculated at full load [3]. PUE of 2.0
environmental harm caused by them [23].
means that the data centers uses twice the power that is needed
to power up its IT equipment.
Data centers are powered using energy generated by state
of government facilities. Such power production centers are
usually located remotely leading to the establishment of power
transmission infrastructure. Substantial amount of power is lost
during transmission.
Starting with the server build, up to the transportation to the
data centers, rack space utilization, power and cooling, lighting
systems and finally to the eventual end-of-life management,
each server deployed or not has an impact on the environment
[9].
Fig. 3. Annual Unit Energy Consumption for desktop and laptop.
C. Technology
Technology has touched almost every part of every industry Improper architecture of application, faulty product, with
and there by brought the need to address some of the important sub-optimal algorithms and work flows can lead to issues like
issues which didn’t persist till today. The ever increasing memory leaks and poor performance in terms of speed. Such
demand from business to provide computerized solutions has software impose load on processors, servers there by
increased the use of computers and electronic devices. These consuming more electrical energy and emitting more heat [9].
demands were met by organizations un-reluctantly based on the Heavy User interfaces containing images, animations tend to
assumption that resources, capital and infrastructure to develop consume more processing and thus power consumption is
what is needed will always be available. higher.

2014 International Conference on Contemporary Computing and Informatics (IC3I) 1095

 III. GREEN COMPUTING STRATEGIES disassemble and meets the European Union’s RoHS standards
for the restriction of the use of certain hazardous substances in
A. Green Data Centers electrical and electronic equipment. Moreover, 25% of the
An efficient data center can enhance business performance rp5700’s packaging materials are made of recycled material
and help lower cost. The concept of green data centers has [6].
focus on the data center management and infrastructure from Part of the VIA Green Computing Initiative, VIA Solar
the perspective of energy saving and minimizing Computing seeks to overcome the challenges of power
environmental impact. Organizations are thinking on ways infrastructure deficiencies, especially in rural and remote areas,
which can help save electricity usages by analyzing various and to define clean energy solutions for developed urban
aspects of power generation, transmission, infrastructure markets[12]. In 2005, the company introduced the VIA C7-M
management. and VIA C7 processors that have a maximum power
The prime area of focus is using renewable energy sources consumption of 20W at 2.0GHz and an average power
for power generation. Due to the large scale of such projects, consumption of 1W. These energy-efficient processors produce
huge capital involved and the regulatory concerns, such over four times less carbon during their operation [11].
projects are usually handle by government or state agencies.
However, private ICT orgs can align with them and device C. System and application level control
strategies for planning their data center and other heavy Operating systems have become more sophisticated in
processing centers infrastructure appropriately to efficiently terms of exploiting the hardware’s capacity to operate under
use generated electricity with minimal losses in storage and minimum energy. It is now possible to control the hardware’s
transmission. power consumption from OS. Current Microsoft® Windows®
World demands more strategically located data center near operating systems (XP, Vista®, and Windows 7) not only
renewable energy sources like a hydroelectric power plant for provide the ability to enter low power states but also allow the
instance, which can cut down the transmission losses and save ability to control how soon systems perform these transitions as
huge amount of energy. “It is always cheaper to move data then well as which power states are used for these transitions.
energy”. Microsoft and other companies have built data centers Below figure depicts a typical transition sequence [13, 14].
in central Washington to take advantage of the hydroelectric
power produced by two dams in the region. The Microsoft
facility, which consumes up to 27 megawatts of energy at any
given time, is powered by hydroelectricity [6]. Not to mention
Google’s wind energy powered datacenters or Apple - who has
acquired a hydroelectric power facility not far from its
datacenter in Prineville, Oregon [8].
Intelligent cooling mechanisms must be developed that will
provide maximum cooling with minimum energy
consumptions, like the Google’s multi-stage ultra-efficient
evaporative cooling technology which provides efficient
cooling [6].
Global consortium of computer companies, including
AMD, Dell, IBM, Sun Microsystems, and VMware, organized
The Green Grid in 2007, with the goal of improving energy Fig. 4. Transition sequence when PC is idle.
efficiency in data centers and business computing systems.
There companies collaborate with other companies and guide Advance Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) allows
them in achieving data center efficiency by providing the OS to control power saving aspects of the underlying
recommendation on best practices, metrics, technologies, and hardware. ACPI specifications were developed to establish
strategies [9]. industry common interfaces enabling robust operating system
(OS)-directed motherboard device configuration and power
B. Innovation and Advancement in IT management of both devices and entire systems.
Innovation is based upon the idea that existing systems Concepts like undervolting can be used to increase the
have faults or deficiencies that can be corrected through the efficiency of your computers [14, 15]. During intensive
development of new more efficient systems. The computer for processing, the CPU runs at a higher frequency and thus
instance occupied a whole room once. Hewlett-Packard increase amount of heat produced, than when it is idle.
recently unveiled what it calls “the greenest computer ever”— Reducing the voltage of your CPU has great impact on power
the rp5700 desktop PC [10] which exceeds U.S. Energy Star consumption. The trick here is to adopt an optimal
4.0 standards and has an expected life of at least five years with undervolting strategy so that to avoid drawbacks associated to
90% of its materials being recyclable. The computer is easy to it like frequent reboots or blue screens.

1096 2014 International Conference on Contemporary Computing and Informatics (IC3I)

Fig. 5. Model to achieve green buisness strategy This also may require capital investment in order to get certain
strategies implemented. Day to day actives, daily routines, and
SpeedStep is a technology used in some Intel usual operations can possess lot of loop holes with regards to
microprocessors that allow the clock speed of the processor to efficiency. Such workflows or tasks have to been redefined to
be dynamically changed by software [16]. This allows the eliminate or minimize the consequences. Fig 5 presents a
processor to meet the instantaneous performance needs of the model which can be used for implementing a green strategy.
operation being performed, while minimizing power draw and 1. Realization of the need and making the decision for
heat generation. adopting green practices is the most important step to begin
Based on the Power state of the machine WPF application with as in most cases green computing is only looked at from a
can use less intensive presentation experience to minimize profit aspect and not from environmental impact point of view.
power consumption [9]. It uses notification mechanism to This is especially true with small standalone businesses where
notify the system power changes to the application. The the investment and gain are less and single handed impact on
dependency properties in WPF can be used to reveal certain the environment is very less or negligible.
information like the applications current power plan to the 2. The varying needs of business require taking into
operating system. Another technique is to use windows consideration the present situation in order to propose a
messages to alert listening application about the power related strategy. For instance, for a manufacturing company that
changes [17]. produces light bulbs, amount of electrical energy required at
Virtualization is another concept which can be used to various stages of its production life cycle needs to be analysed.
simulate certain environments like server, storage device, This data will help in determining the production states which
network or even operating system. Devices, applications and consume majority of energy. Having done this for a specified
human users can interact with such virtual users as if it were a time will generate statistical data for further study.
logical resource. It saves capital and operational cost by 3. Once the ground work is ready it will be easy to detect
increasing energy efficiency requiring less hardware [18]. possible loop holes with in a process. For instance in a bakery,
the amount of temperature required to heat a substance in
IV. GREEN MODEL FOR SMALL BUSINESSES summer might be less as compared to that in winter. Thus
An Over the past few decades the world has seen slightly lowering the temperature during summer might help in
tremendous increase in small businesses across various sectors saving energy.
and technology industry is no exception to this. Today there
4. Optimization can be done in various ways depending
around 600 multinational companies (MNCs) undertaking upon the nature of workflows. For instance, in the bakery
product research and development (RnD) activities in their example state in point 3, the current heating and cooling
subsidiaries in other countries like India. [24]. New ideas are process could be automated using preprogramed controller and
brought in market which is leading to growth of product sensors to increase efficiency. To go one step ahead modern
development companies. The prime focus of such companies is HVAC systems can be used for the same.
to increase profit and securing strong position in the industry
due to which compliance towards topics like green computing 5. Too much of automation can be disastrous. Hardware
often takes a back seat. dependency can be expensive. Concepts like cloud computing
can be used to optimize hardware use. Electrical equipment’s
Moving from a non-green to an environmentally friendly are often operated with the default settings that are created by
organization requires a great deal of work in multiple areas. the manufactures. Operating adjustments can not only increase

2014 International Conference on Contemporary Computing and Informatics (IC3I) 1097

Fig. 6. Used electronic product (UEPs) end-of-life cycle

life of the equipment but also help reduce energy consumption. Donating electrical equipment’s can be the best possible
For instance, a reduction of around 10% in screen way of recycling. Manufacturing a PC makes a far bigger
brightness/contrast might save 3 watts power consumption ecological footprint than manufacturing a new RAM to
without degrading the quality of display. upgrade an existing one.

V. RECYCLING A. Formal Recyclers

A Technological innovation, intense marketing strategy and Formal recyclers are registered organization which have be
increased customer demands have led to rapid turnover of provided appropriate licensing for carrying out e-waste
electrical and electronic equipment’s (EEE). Due to decreasing recycling activities. These licenses are issued by the provincial
cost of electronics and increase in the value in terms of Environmental Protection Bureaus. Depending on the type of
features; old products are piling up resulting in generation of e- material to be recycled, licenses for handling hazardous waste
waste. Recycling used electronic equipment can save some are also sometimes necessary, as required by the State
amount of waste. Environment Protection Administration (SEPA) [20]. The
“Administrative Measures on the Prevention and Control of
U.S. is the world’s largest market of new electronic Environmental Pollution by Electronic Waste” (SEPA, No.40,
products, and hence generates significant amount of used effective since February 2008) prohibits any individuals or
electronic products (UEPs). It is estimated that US collectors enterprises not listed in the e-waste dismantling enterprise list
and Processers concluded $20.6 billion sales of UEPs in 2011 to engage in the dismantling, recycling and/or disposal of e-
[19]. Fig 6 describes the various stages in recycling of UEPs. waste. Currently, 130 e-wastes recycling enterprises are

1098 2014 International Conference on Contemporary Computing and Informatics (IC3I)

 E-Waste Informal recycling Potential occupational hazards Potential environmental hazards
Components process
Cathode Ray Breaking, removal of • Silicosis Lead, barium and other heavy metals leaching into
Tubes (CRTs) copper yoke and • Cuts from CRT glass in case of implosion ground water, release of toxic phosphor
dumping • Inhalation or contact with phosphor containing
cadmium or other metals
Printed circuit Open burning of PCB’s • Toxicity to workers and near by residents from tin, • Immediate environment contamination with tin
boards (PCBs) that have had their chips lead, brominated dioxin, beryllium, cadmium and and lead including surface and ground water
removed to remove final mercury inhalation. • Brominated dioxins, beryllium, cadmium and
metal • Respiratory irritation mercury emissions
Gold from De-soldering and • Tin and lead inhalation Emission of same substances in air
printed circuit removing computer • Possible brominated dioxin, beryllium, cadmium
boards chips and mercury inhalation
Chips and other Chemical stripping • Acid contact with eyes and skin may result in • Hydrocarbons, heavy metals, brominated
gold-plated using nitric and permanent injury substances etc. discharged directly into river and
components hydrochloric acid along • Inhalation of mists and fumes of acids, chlorine and banks.
riverbanks sulphur dioxide gases can cause respiratory • Acidifies the river, destroying fish and flora.
irritation, pulmonary edema, circulatory failure and
even death.
Plastic from Shredding and low Probable hydrocarbons, brominated dioxin, and heavy Emission of hydrocarbons, brominated dioxins into
computers and temperature melting to metal exposures the air, water and soil
peripherals be re-utilized in low-
grade plastics
Toner cartridges Use of paintbrushes to • Respiratory tract irritation Toner containing toxic chemicals getting dispersed
recover toner with no • Carbon black is a possible human carcinogen into the immediate environment.
protective gear • Cyan, yellow and magenta toners contains unknown
toxicity.
Computer wires Open burning to recover Brominated and chlorinated dioxin, polycyclic Hydrocarbon ashes (including PAH) discharged
copper aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) exposure to people into air, water and soil
living and working in the burning areas
Fig. 7. Informal e-waste treatment methods and associated hazards in china
VI. CATEGORIZATION OF MATERIAL
registered on the e-waste Dismantling Enterprise List. As of Recyclable goods are often categorized based on the raw
May 2012, 53 e-waste treatment enterprises in 15 provinces material that they are composed off. There are about 6 common
and cities have received the necessary treatment licenses, non-hazardous recyclable materials such as paper, glass,
indicating that they have met the required technical and plastic, metal, textile and other miscellaneous like debris [22].
environmental standards over a three-year monitoring period. However there is no concrete measure to say how much
recyclable a certain electronic or hardware component is
B. Informal Recyclers without knowing its exact composition and the nature of raw
These are the actors and participants outside the official materials used to manufacture the same.
regulatory institutional or government controlled bodies. Their Organization must come up with a categorization system
processes and outcomes are not tracked or recorded by the state stating the recycling value of their products. A percentile based
as they are not registered and thus are illegal. They use band system must be used to rate a commodity based upon the
substandard processes and lack appropriate facilities to safe collective recycling value of its raw ingredients. Consider a
guard human health and environment – fig 7. classification with 4 bands Green, Yellow, Orange and Red.
The main focus of informal recyclers in to extract parts, Products which are 80-100% recyclable will constitute green
materials of value from the imported second hand products. band, those with 50-80% will constitute yellow band and so on.
This way of e-waste management has been prevalent since long
time. The most common out comes of such process are Low recycling High recycling
refurbished appliances and valuable material. value value

Many other parts of the world including Bangalore,

Chennai, Delhi in India, Lagos in Nigeria and Karachi in
Pakistan are seeing increase in informal e-waste recycling
activities. Primary reasons for this are (i) unwillingness of the Fig. 8. Categorization based on recyclablility
customers to pay for disposal of their electrical appliances, (ii)
Unregulated import of goods for use as second hand. (iii) Lack The rp5700 desktop PC [10] for instance, will fall in green
of awareness among the customers, collectors, recyclers about band as compared to standard PCs. Such classification will
the hazards of improper e-waste handling, (vi) lack of proper help in determining the recycle value and thus predicting the
methodology, infrastructure and management to carry out amount of e-waste that a product will generate. Innovation can
extraction and disposal processes, (v) lack of interest in e-waste help in devising new ways of manufacturing same products but
management by multinational IT companies and lack of with more eco-friendly raw materials thus helping in moving
willingness to pay incentives [20]. from red band towards green band.

2014 International Conference on Contemporary Computing and Informatics (IC3I) 1099

 VII. CONCLUSION [19] United States International Trade Commission, “An examination of U.S.
Exports”, Feb 2013.
Well organized business process, policies and practices [20] Feug Wang, Ruediger Kuehr, Daniel Ahlquist and Jinhui Li, “E-waste in
aligned with green patterns and tactics, promoting use of China : A country report”, ISSN: 2219-6579 (Online), April 2013.
renewable energy resources, efficient and power aware IT [21] Efficiency: How we do it – Google Data Centers,
application development, effective resource utilization within [http://www.google.co.in/about/datacenters/efficiency/internal/].
data center, awareness and initiatives, recycling, proper [22] Gary Davidson, John Morrisey and Rochelle Owen, “Material
disposal of e-waste are some of the key areas that need to be Categorization Guide”, “unpublished”, Prepared at Dalhousie university,
considered while implementing a green strategy. July 2011.
[23] Writankar Mukherjee, ET Bureau, “Indian TV market: It's CRT vs
Moving towards a green business is not an easy task. It LED”, India Times Report, 15th Nov 2013
requires monitoring, measuring and comparing energy usages [24] Nasscom – Software Product Study Executive Summary.
of distributed IT and non-IT environments which demands time
and precession. It is an ongoing process that must influence
each product’s lifecycle right from the inception of an idea
through the architectural and design phases up to development
and end-of-life management.
With the world moving towards digitalization and
technology booming, green computing must be mandated by
governments and organization in order to build a clean
sustainable future. Emerging business must incorporate green
concepts right from the beginning rather than realizing the need
at a later point in time. Organization must develop products
with higher recycling value and 100% disposability to check
the e-waste problem.

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1100 2014 International Conference on Contemporary Computing and Informatics (IC3I)