How Green is Your IT?
Clearpoint Technology intelligence dispatch #3 [More intel here]
June 19, 2008
Information technology helps the Earth. At least a gazillion trees have been saved by the web, email, electronic documents, online bill pay… you name it. And yet, even our earth-friendly IT industry is seeking to green itself by weighing the environmental cost of manufacturing, shipping, operating, and disposing of these electronic life lines.
The buzz about Green IT is hardly new – perhaps you count yourself among those already weary of vendors peddling earth-friendly solutions.(1) Nonetheless, sustainability is good for business, and big players in the tech industry are paying attention.
The Green Grid, a global consortium dedicated to energy efficiency in computing, includes industry leaders such as Dell, HP, Sun Microsystems, and many others. A virtual stack of white papers on The Green Grid’s website address the problem of energy consumption by increasingly large, increasingly densely packed data centers (http://www.thegreengrid.org/gg_content/).
The life cycle of computer hardware itself creates several stressors to the environment. Computer manufacturing requires a great variety of materials, including metals - some toxic and acquired mostly by mining - plastics, solvents, and myriad other chemicals that deliver the speed and performance we demand.
One could build a small city just with the cardboard, styrofoam, plastic bags, and twist ties that package a few months worth of new computer shipments from a typical large company. And when those shipments arrive, what do we do with the old stuff? Consider any Fortune 500 company with its generations upon generations of old computers - all chock full of those plastics and toxic materials, now glued together with old, dried up coffee spills.
If your company recycles old computers – you may be on the right track. But if you want to sleep well at night, choose your e-waste recycler very carefully. National Geographic Magazine reported this year that much of the 20% percent of e-waste we submit for recycling in the United States actually gets exported, often to developing countries.(2) There, computers and televisions are broken down and picked apart to get at the marketable scrap metals. The process releases known toxins and carcinogens such as lead, cadmium, mercury, and hexavalent chromium by dumping and burning. And yes, the people who do this work – sometimes children – often do it without any protection from the harmful effects.
To find a responsible recycler for your company’s e-waste, consider the list of eStewards compiled by the The Basel Action Network, an organization committed to stopping the export of toxins. “E-cyclers” on the list have pledged to recycle responsibly and without exporting or dumping (http://www.ban.org/pledge/Locations.html).
The most ecologically sound outcome for old computers is to reincarnate them as useful tools for someone else. Commercially refurbishing old cases, boards, and drives into workable components reduces the export and release of toxic materials as well as the need for new production.
Some manufacturers now have take-back programs that allow you to return the components for reuse. The Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition publishes a scorecard that may help you determine which manufacturers have more responsible manufacturing practices and take-back programs (http://www.etoxics.org/site/PageServer?pagename=svtc_computer_report_card).
Links
eStewards – Responsible e-cyclers listed by the Basel Action Network (BAN)
http://www.ban.org/pledge/Locations.html
2005 Report Card for Computer Manufacturers
http://www.etoxics.org/site/PageServer?pagename=svtc_computer_report_card
“High-Tech Trash”, National Geographic, January 2008
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2008/01/high-tech-trash/carroll-text
Silicon Valley Toxic Coalition
http://www.etoxics.org/
Basel Action Network
http://www.ban.org/
The Green Grid
http://thegreengrid.org/
Footnotes
1 Dignan, Larry, “Green IT: Fatigue setting in already?” ZD Net Blog: http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=6582
2 Carroll, Chris, “High Tech Trash”, National Geographic Magazine. January 2008. http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2008/01/high-tech-trash/carroll-text/1
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