http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/10/01/technology/PTBASICS02.php
After doing our first assignment on solar panels, I thought I would continue with same theme of keeping green and what better way then to start with an asset and activity that most everyone particpates in, computer usage. The article in the Herald Tribune discussed different ways to conserve energy and how to reduce the footprint your little desktop can make on the earth.
We have a bad habit of leaving our computers on, they compared the expenditure of doing that as more kilowatt usage than a refirdgerator creates in one year. Apparently a screensaver consumes alot of energy because you're hard drive is working just to have the graphic on, the article claimed "those are just throw back concepts."
Even when your computer is turned off, it still is technically on stand by so that it can keep data in its memory. Completely shut off your laptop or at least modify it to where it goes to sleep after 15 minutes of inactivity.
Dowload a free power management tool to get advice on how to better conserve energy. Googles energy saver shows collective energy savings and other stats to compare different programs and manufacturers.
Get a computer that is Energy Star Compliant, these computers have to meet energy use guidelines, and nowadays most are. A disturbing stat that was brought to my attention was in "2005, used and unwnated electronics amounted to 1.9 million to 2.2 million tons of waste. 1.7 were disposed in landfills and 345,000 were actually recycled" according to an environmental agency.
Computer manufacturers have various recycling programs but Dell does one better by recycling any equipment that is theirs no matter how old the product and they offer pick up, now, you being lazy isn't an excuse.
Alex Sanjuan
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Good points. For us to have a way to self-monitor our energy usage is, I think, really key to our motivations to conserve, to not take for granted what we have.
This relates to a mentality and behavior that is more responsible and consistent with what we SAY we want to see of a cleaner environment vs. undermining that desire with a mentality and habit of wasteful, throw-away "disposal."
Seeing that there are consequences to our choices, then why not devise built-in ways for us to make BETTER choices. The central concept of innovation and technology compels us to think in holistic terms, where we consider the roles and impacts of and upon business/private enterprise, the economy, the environment, human behavior and health, education, government, and society.
Doesn't it make sense then that products and systems should be designed and implemented with those interrelated factors in mind? I.e., all the way from concept, to how we use products/systems, to the waste-stream/recycling process. In other words, that in the design and implementation phases we remain conscious of the entire "life cycle" of a product or system, and how human activity intersects with these upon the environment.
To that end, I think it's critical that products and systems have built-in ways for users to SEE how much energy their activity is consuming, measure it against an equivalent loss or gain (such as your computer usage this month just helped save or destroy the equivalent of one tree), and have built-in infrastructural systems of disposal or recycling that are CONVENIENT.
An example of this is the "Sunspot Solar Monitoring" computer program, which is used by CSULB's Facilities Maintenance department to monitor exactly how much energy their solar installations are generating and using at any given moment. As an easy-to-read visual graphic, it also provides equivalent-use info that tells you, for example, how much solar energy generated/used, in any given moment, is equivalent to the energy required/used by how many average homes, or the equivalent to how many cups of coffee could have been brewed, etc.
Make it easier for people to do the right thing, give them incentives to do what's beneficial, and they will. The more society is structured in this way, the more our everyday habits are trained toward appreciating and enjoying what we already have, to think creatively and innovatively, and thus foster new opportunities, and basically not make choices that are counterproductive to these.
That way, people tend to be more self-motivated to do the "right thing," because the benefits to everyone and the future are more tangible.
- Misako M.
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