GREEN FIEND

DFC1033
INTRODUCTION TO
COMPUTER SYSTEM

6
CCHAPTER
HAPTER

GREEN COMPUTING

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Learning Outcome
At the end of the lecture, student should be able to:
•Define Green Computing.
•State the goals of Green Computing.
•Identify the regulation and industry initiatives (example: energy star logo)
•Explain the approaches to green computing :
a. Product longevity.
b. Software and deployment optimization
c. Power management
d. Materials recycling.
•e. Telecommuting.
•Identify and energy saving and material reuse in ICT: software and communication
technologies existing, new, and emerging hardware.
•Discuss the current ICT technology in organizational processes and management.
•Discuss the personal responsibility as a computer user in protecting the environment by:
a. Conserving energy
b. Recycling
c. Educate an ecological danger and the used of ecological sound product

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6.1 Understand Green

Computing

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Definition of Green Computing
• Green computing is the use of computers and related
resources in an environmentally responsible manner.
This involves the implementation of energy-efficient
central processing units (CPUs), servers and
peripherals as well as proper disposal of electronic
waste (e-waste).
• According to the Future of Things.com, "Green
computing, the study and practice of efficient and
eco-friendly computing resources, is now under the
attention of not only environmental organizations
but also businesses and other industries." 

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• Electricity usage accounted for by computers and

electronic gadgets is soaring.
• If left unchecked recent strides in power savings
will be lost.
• Even though many items have become more
efficient over time the recent demand for
electronics and their use has skyrocketed.
• This increase in power usage can impact
greenhouse gas emissions and power supply
needs. 

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• There is also a huge increase in electronic waste

(e-waste) that needs to managed in order to keep
the environment clean and safe.
• Green computing is important because it is
helping to minimize the energy used in computing
by educating consumers on efficient ways to keep
power usage low, by creating more economic
electronics, and by encouraging safe and complete
recycling. 

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The Goals Of Green Computing

1. Reduce the use of hazardous materials.
2. Maximize energy efficiency during the product's
lifetime.
3. Promote recycle ability or ability of defunct products
and factory waste.

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Regulations and Industry Initiatives

• The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development
(OECD) has published a survey of over 90 government and industry
initiatives on "Green ICTs", i.e. information and communication
technologies, the environment and climate change.
• The report concludes that initiatives concentrate on greening ICTs
rather than tackling global warming and
environmental degradation through the use of ICT applications.
• In general, only 20% of initiatives have measurable targets, with
government program's including them more frequently than business
associations.

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i) Act Green 
• Now, a lot of new arriving industries as well as the old and trusted ones have
entered into the mission of green computing.

• Though a lot of ideas and issues have been put forward during this decade,
efforts are being taken by Governmental as well as Non Governmental
Organizations to make the dream of green computing come true.

• Electronic components and associated systems are manufactured in such a

way that they create low or minimal impact on the environment. You might
be familiar with the eco-labeling in several products. These efforts aim a
realistic approach towards an economically sustainable and energy efficient
computing in the near future. 

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ECO- LABELL

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ii) Government
• Many governmental agencies have continued to implement standards and regulations
that encourage green computing.
• The Energy Star program was revised in October 2006 to
include stricter efficiency requirements for computer
equipment, along with a tiered ranking system for approved products.
• 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 on July 1,
2006.
• The directives placed responsibility on manufacturers for the gathering and recycling
of old equipment (the Producer Responsibility model).
• There are currently 26 US States that have established state-wide recycling programs
for obsolete computers and consumer electronics equipment.

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iii) Industry
Climate Savers Computing Initiative (CSCI)
• is an effort to reduce the electric power consumption of PCs in active and inactive states.
• The CSCI provides a catalog of green products from its member organizations, and information for reducing PC
power consumption.
• It was started on 2007-06-12.
• The name stems from the World Wildlife Fund's Climate Savers program, which was launched in
1999.
• The WWF is also a member of the Computing Initiative.

Green Computing Impact Organization, Inc. (GCIO)

• is a non-profit organization dedicated to assisting the end-users of computing products in being
environmentally responsible.
• This mission is accomplished through educational events, cooperative programs and subsidized auditing
services.
• The heart of the group is based on the GCIO Cooperative, a community of environmentally concerned IT leaders
who pool their time, resources, and buying power to educate, broaden the use, and improve the efficiency of, green
computing products and services.
• Members work to increase the ROI of green computing products through a more thorough understanding of real
measurable and sustainable savings incurred by peers; enforcing a greater drive toward efficiency
of vendor products by keeping a community accounting of savings generated; and
through group negotiation power.

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Roads to Green Computing 

• To comprehensively and effectively address the environmental impacts of computing/IT,
we must adopt a holistic approach and make the entire IT lifecycle greener by
addressing environmental sustainability along the following four complementary paths:

Green use — reducing the energy consumption of computers and other information
systems as well as using them in an environmentally sound manner 

Green disposal — refurbishing and reusing old computers and properly recycling
unwanted computers and other electronic equipment 

Green design — designing energy-efficient and environmentally sound components,

computers, servers, cooling equipment, and data centers 

Green manufacturing — manufacturing electronic components, computers, and other

associated subsystems with minimal impact on the environment. 

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Approaches to Green Computing

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1. Product Longevity
• Gartner maintains that the PC manufacturing process accounts for 70% of the
natural resources used in the life cycle of a PC.

• More recently, Fujitsu released a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of a desktop that
show manufacturing and end of life accounts for the majority of this desktop
ecological footprint.

• Therefore, the biggest contribution to green computing usually is to prolong the

equipment's lifetime.

• Another report from Gartner recommends to "Look for product longevity, including
upgradability and modularity.“

• Manufacturing a new PC make far bigger ecological footprint than manufacturing

new RAM module to upgrade an existing one

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2. Software & deployment optimization

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a) Algorithmic efficiency
• Algorithm – a process or set of rules to be followed in calculation or in problem
solving operation.

• An algorithm must be to determine its resource usage. 

• As computers have become more numerous and the cost of hardware has declined
relative to the cost of energy, the energy efficiency and environmental impact of
computing systems and programs has received increased attention.

• New goal of energy efficiency gives rise to algorithmic problems involving

optimizing/managing energy, temperature, and power as resources.

• New IT technology developed for energy efficiency reasons gives rise to new
resource management (scheduling) problems.

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b) Virtualization
► The process of running two or more logical computer systems
on one set of hardware.

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b) Virtualization
► Virtualization helps a company / enterprise lower
power and cooling consumption, by reducing the
number of machines and servers it needs.

► Virtualization platforms can run across hundreds of

interconnected physical computers and storage devices,
to create an entire virtual infrastructure.

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c) Terminal Servers
• Terminal servers have also been used in green computing methods.

• When using terminal servers, users connect to a central server; all of the
computing is done at the server level but the end user experiences the
operating system.

• These can be combined with thin clients, which use up to 1/8 the amount
of energy of a normal workstation, resulting in a decrease of energy costs
and consumption.

• There has been an increase in using terminal services with thin clients to
create virtual labs.

• Examples of terminal server software include Terminal Services

for Windows and the Linux Terminal Server Project (LTSP) for the Linux
operating system.

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3. Power Management

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Power Management
►Energy Star 4.0 compliant PCs
•Power Management
•Now 80% power efficiency
•Next 90% efficiency by 2010

►Energy Star 4.0 compliant servers

•Now 85% power efficiency
•Next 92% efficiency by 2010

Caution : Screen savers do not save energy !

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The recommended strategy in power

management settings
1. The Monitor or the Display Sleep: the computer will
automatically turn off after 15 minutes or less.

2. The Turn Off Hard Drives or the Hard Disk Sleep: likewise, the
computer will automatically turn off in exactly 15 minutes or
less.

3. The System Standby or the System Sleep: after 30 minutes or

less the computer will automatically be in Sleep or Standby
modes.

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a) Power supply
• The 80 Plus program (www.80plus.org) is a voluntary
certification system for power-supply manufacturers.
• If your PC requires only 20 percent of the total power
of a 500-watt PSU, the system will consume no more
than 100 watts. Only when the PC requires full power
will the PSU run at the full wattage load.
• An 80 Plus power supply can save about 85 kilowatt-
hours per PC, per year. In many ways, it's the heart
of a green PC, since it manages the power for all the
other components. It also has the most effect on
your energy bill. 

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a) Power supply
Sea Sonic SS-650HT
An eco-friendly 80 Plus PSU

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b) Storage
• Smaller form factor (e.g. 2.5 inch) hard disk drives often consume
less power per gigabyte than physically larger drives.

• Unlike hard disk drives, solid-state drives store data in flash

memory or DRAM.

• With no moving parts, power consumption may be reduced

somewhat for low capacity flash based devices.

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c) Video Card
• A fast GPU may be the largest power
consumer in a computer.
• Energy efficient display options include:
– No video card - use a shared terminal, shared thin
client, or desktop sharing software if display
required.
– Use motherboard video output - typically low 3D
performance and low power.
– Select a GPU based on average wattage or
performance per watt.

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d)Display
• CRT monitors typically use more power than LCD
monitors.
• LCD monitors typically use a cold-cathode
fluorescent bulb to provide light for the display.
• Some newer displays use an array of light-
emitting diodes (LEDs) in place of the fluorescent
bulb, which reduces the amount of electricity
used by the display.
• Fluorescent back-lights also contain mercury,
whereas LED back-lights do not.

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d)Display

LCD monitors

CRT monitors

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Technique To Reduce Energy Consumption In
Daily Using Computer
• Turn off the computer when not in use, even if just for an
hour
• Turn off the monitor when not in use (as opposed to running
a screen saver)
• Use power saver mode
• Use hardware/software with the Energy Star label
• Don’t print unless necessary and you are ready
• Use LCDs instead of CRTs as they are more power efficient

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4. Materials Recycling
• Computer systems that have outlived their particular function can be
repurposed, or donated to various charities and non-profit organizations.

• Recycling computing equipment can keep harmful materials such as lead,

mercury, and hexa valent chromium out off and fills, but often computers
gathered through recycling drives are shipped to developing countries where
environmental standards are less strict than in North America and Europe.

• The Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition estimates that 80% of the post-consumer
e-waste collected for recycling is shipped abroad to countries such as China
and Pakistan.

• Computing supplies, such as printer cartridges, paper, and batteries may be

recycled as well.

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5. Telecommuting
• Teleconferencing and telepresence technologies are often
implemented in green computing initiatives.

• The advantages are many; increased worker satisfaction, reduction

of greenhouse gas emissions related to travel, and increased profit
margins as a result of lower overhead costs for office space, heat,
lighting.

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5. Telecommuting

Teleconferencing

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Existing, new, and emerging hardware, software and
communication technologies for energy saving and
material reuse in ICT.
1. Energy saving - Data Centres and Client Equipment
•Client equipment (desktop computers and printers) consume more energy and materials than data
centres. The Natural Edge Project (TNEP) suggest four steps for minimizing energy and materials
consumption:

i) Assess energy consumption by monitoring client equipment

ii) Consolidate operating client equipment only when necessary and removing unnecessary
equipment
iii) Innovate by:
• Right-sized client equipment: do not buy more, or more powerful, equipment than needed
• Power management strategies: Turn off client equipment when not needed and turn on
power management options in the equipment.
• Low-energy equipment: Select low energy component and equipment, such as processors,
monitors, power supplies, RAM, flash memory and hard disks.
• Eco-Labels: Look for equipment meeting low energy standards.
iv) Manage and monitor the equipment and schedule high energy activities out of peak periods.

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2. Materials Use

Energy reduction is only part of making a Green ICT system, there is also the
issue of use of materials and hazardous substances.
i) E-Waste
•Electronic waste ("e-waste") is the material from unwanted electrical or electronic
devices. Some e-waste can be sold for recycling and is described as "commodity" to
distinguish it from "waste" which can't be reused.
•E-waste may contain toxic material is mostly not biodegradable.
•Many countries have regulations covering e-waste, including bans from landfill in
Europe. Metals, including gold and silver make some e-waste commercially viable to
reprocess.
•The Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous
Wastes and Their Disposal (Basel Convention) is an international treaty limiting the
movement hazardous waste between nations, particularly from rich to poor nations.
Australia, the EU and many developed nations apart from the USA have ratified the
treaty.

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3. Methods and tools

• Methods and tools can be used in the planning, development, operation,
management and maintenance of systems for Energy saving and to
plan Materials Use.
• Scope and methodology for analysis of the role of ICT in energy use;

i) estimating the carbon footprint of ICT and how it may be used to reduce
emissions in other sectors by using ICT.
ii)The analysis measures emissions CO2e, assuming, the ICT sector covered:
- Personal Computers (PCs) and peripherals: workstations; laptops; desktops
and; peripherals such as monitors and printers.
- IT services: data centres and their component servers; storage and cooling.
- Telecoms networks and devices: network infrastructure components; mobile
phones; chargers; broadband routers and IPTV boxes.

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Current ICT technology and practices into

organizational processes and management
1. By learning how to use company resources efficiently the company is
able to lower costs and increase income.

2. The other component of green computing is its focus on making the

company use less of the computing products that use hazardous materials.

3. When the company used energy saving LCD monitors or less power
consuming computer products it does not only lower energy costs but it
also saves the resources used to produce the electricity. That is also one
reason why a company should use at least 80% efficient power supply.

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Practice the personal responsibility

a. Conserving energy

• Power down the CPU and all peripherals during extended

periods of inactivity.
• Try to do computer-related tasks during contiguous,
intensive blocks of time, leaving, hardware off at other
times.
• Use liquid-crystal-display (LCD) monitors rather than
cathode-ray-tube(CRT) monitors.
• Use notebook computers rather than desktop computer
whenever possible.
• Use the power-management features to turn off hard
drives and displays after several minutes of inactivity.
• Employ alternative energy sources for computing
workstations, servers, networks and data centers.

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Practice the personal responsibility
a. Conserving energy

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Practice the personal responsibility

b.Recycling
•Minimize the use of paper and properly recycle waste
paper.
•Dispose of e-waste according to federal, state and local
regulations.

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c) Educating others about ecological dangers and

using ecologically sound products.

• According to a UN study, the production of just one workstation computer

requires more than 240 kilograms of fossil fuels, such as oil and coal,
about 22 kilograms of chemical products and 1,500 litres of water.
• The ecological assessment of this production is not environmentally
friendly, nor are the local conditions of its production.
• Many of the metals needed to produce a computer are rare (including
copper, aluminium, nickel, zinc, gold, platinum, koltan, cobalt).

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c) Educating others about ecological dangers and

using ecologically sound products.
• The hazardous content of these materials pose a threat to
human health and environment.
• Discarded computers, televisions, VCRs, stereos, copiers, fax
machines, electric lamps, cell phones, audio equipment and
batteries if improperly disposed can leach lead and other
substances into soil and groundwater.
• Many of these products can be reused, refurbished, or recycled
in an environmentally sound manner so that they are less
harmful to the ecosystem.

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c) Educating others about ecological dangers and

using ecologically sound products.
• E-toxic components in computers could be summarized as circuit boards containing
heavy metals like lead & cadmium; batteries containing cadmium; cathode ray
tubes with lead oxide & barium; brominated flame­retardants used on printed circuit
boards, cables and plastic casing; poly vinyl chloride (PVC) coated copper cables
and plastic computer casings that release highly toxic dioxins & furans when burnt
to recover valuable metals.
• Basel Action Network (BAN) estimates that the 500 million computers in the world
contain 2.87 billion kgs of plastics, 716.7 million kgs of lead and 286,700 kgs of
mercury.
• The average 14-inch monitor uses a tube that contains an estimated 2.5 to 4 kgs of
lead.
• The lead can seep into the ground water from landfills thereby contaminating it. If
the tube is crushed and burned, it emits toxic fumes into the air.

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Effects of E-Waste constituent on health

Source of e-wastes Constituent Health effects
Solder in printed circuit boards, glass •Damage to central and peripheral nervous systems, blood systems and
panels and gaskets in computer Lead (PB) kidney damage.
monitors •Affects brain development of children.
•Toxic irreversible effects on human health.
•Accumulates in kidney and liver.
Chip resistors and semiconductors Cadmium (CD)
•Causes neural damage.
•Teratogenic.
Relays and switches, printed circuit •Chronic damage to the brain.
Mercury (Hg)
boards •Respiratory and skin disorders due to bioaccumulation in fishes.

Corrosion protection of untreated and

•Asthmatic bronchitis.
galvanized steel plates, decorator or Hexavalent chromium (Cr) VI
•DNA damage.
hardner for steel housings

Burning produces dioxin. It causes

•Reproductive and developmental problems;
Cabling and computer housing Plastics including PVC
•Immune system damage;
•Interfere with regulatory hormones
Plastic housing of electronic equipments Brominated flame retardants
•Disrupts endocrine system functions
and circuit boards. (BFR)
Short term exposure causes:
Front panel of CRTs Barium (Ba) •Muscle weakness;
•Damage to heart, liver and spleen.
•Carcinogenic (lung cancer)
•Inhalation of fumes and dust. Causes chronic beryllium disease or
Motherboard Beryllium (Be)
beryllicosis.
•Skin diseases such as warts.

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Management Of E-wastes
• In industries management of e-waste should begin at the point of
generation. Waste minimization in industries involves adopting:
– inventory management,
– production-process modification,
– volume reduction,
– recovery and reuse.

• Minimization of hazardous wastes should be at product design stage itself

keeping in mind the following factors:
– Rethink the product design
– Use of renewable materials and energy
– Use of non-renewable materials that are safer

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Responsibilities of the Citizen

• While buying electronic products for those that:
– are made with fewer toxic constituents
– use recycled content
– are energy efficient
– are designed for easy upgrading or disassembly
– utilize minimal packaging
– offer leasing or take back options
– have been certified by regulatory authorities.
– Customers should  choose for upgrading their computers or other
electronic items to the latest versions rather than buying new
equipment's.

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