Green Computing Introduction-Green computing or green IT, refers to environmentally sustainable computing or IT.

It defines the field of green computing as "the study and practice of designing, manufacturing, using, and disposing of computers, servers, and associated subsystemssuch as monitors, printers, storage devices, and networking and communications systems efficiently and effectively with minimal or no impact on the environment. The goals of green computing are similar to green chemistry; reduce the use of ha ardous materials, ma!imi e energy efficiency during the product"s lifetime, and promote the recyclability or biodegradability of defunct products and factory waste. #esearch continues into key areas such as making the use of computers as energy$ efficient as possible, and designing algorithms and systems for efficiency$related computer technologies.%e love our computers for all the ways they make our lives &and the world' better $$ the wealth of knowledge &and democrati ing force' of the Internet, the instantaneous communication, the sophisticated tools that help us work and create and share. (ut this modern world"s greatest tool is among our most disposable and resource$heavy items. )erformance$wise, computer design has progressed staggeringly well and astonishingly fast but looking at it from a green perspective, the work has barely begun. It takes a lot of energy to create, package, store, and move every *+$,+ megabytes of data. -ven with energy prices as cheap as they are now, it will soon cost more to power a computer for four years than it does to buy a new one. %hen a computer dies it either rots in a landfill, or children in the developing world end up wrestling its components apart by hand, melting to!ic bits torecover traces of heavy metals. -co$.riendly Green /omputing 0efinition defines -co$.riendly Green /omputing as the study and practice of the design, development, implementation, utili ation and disposal of IT infrastructure efficiently and effectively with low or ero impact on the environment whilst reducing operating costs. /urrently the I/T industry is responsible for 12 of the world"s energy consumption. %ith the rate of consumption increasing by ,+2 a year, ,+1+ will be the year when the world"s energy consumption will double because of the I/T industry. 3rgani ations use the Green /omputing 4ifecycle when designing and implementing green computing technologies. The stages in the 4ifecycle include 5trategy, 0esign, Implementation, 3perations and /ontinual Improvements. The 6 core green computing technologies advocated by G/I are Green 0ata /enter, 7irtuali ation, /loud /omputing, )ower 3ptimi ation and Grid /omputing.

Origins
In *88,, the 9.5. -nvironmental )rotection :gency launched -nergy 5tar, a voluntary labeling program that is designed to promote and recogni e energy$efficiency in monitors, climate control e;uipment, and other technologies. This resulted in the widespread adoption of sleep mode among consumer electronics. The term "green computing" was probably coined shortly after the -nergy 5tar program began; there are several 95-<-T posts dating back to *88, that use the term in this manner.=,> /oncurrently, the 5wedish organi ation T/3 0evelopment launched the

T/3 /ertification program to promote low magnetic and electrical emissions from /#T$based computer displays; this program was later e!panded to include criteria on energy consumption, ergonomics, and the use of ha ardous materials in construction.

Regulations and industry initiatives

The 3rganisation for -conomic /o$operation and 0evelopment &3-/0' has published a survey of over 8+ government and industry initiatives on "Green I/Ts", i.e. information and communication technologies, the environment and climate change. The report concludes that initiatives tend to concentrate on the greening I/Ts themselves rather than on their actual implementation to tackle global warming and environmental degradation. In general, only ,+2 of initiatives have measurable targets, with government programs tending to include targets more fre;uently than business associations. Government-?any governmental agencies have continued to implement standards and regulations that encourage green computing. The -nergy 5tar program was revised in 3ctober ,++@ to include stricter efficiency re;uirements for computer e;uipment, along with a tiered ranking system for approved products. 5ome efforts place responsibility on the manufacturer to dispose of the e;uipment themselves after it is no longer needed; this is called the e!tended producer responsibility model. The -uropean 9nion"s directives ,++,A86A-/ &#estriction of Ba ardous 5ubstances 0irective', on the reduction of ha ardous substances, and ,++,A8@A-/ &%aste -lectrical and -lectronic -;uipment 0irective' on waste electrical and electronic e;uipment re;uired the substitution of heavy metals and flame retardants like )olybrominated biphenyl and )olybrominated diphenyl ethers in all electronic e;uipment put on the market starting on Culy *, ,++@. The directives placed responsibility on manufacturers for the gathering and recycling of old e;uipment. There are currently ,@ 95 states that have established state$wide recycling programs for obsolete computers and consumer electronics e;uipment.The statutes either impose an "advance recovery fee" for each unit sold at retail or re;uire the manufacturers to reclaim the e;uipment at disposal. In ,+*+, the :merican #ecovery and #einvestment :ct &:##:' was signed into legislation by )resident 3bama. The bill allocated over D8+ billion to be invested in green initiatives &renewable energy, smart grids, energy efficiency, etc.' In Canuary ,+*+, the 9.5. -nergy 0epartment granted DEF million of the :##: money towards proGects that aim to improve the energy efficiency of data centers. The proGects will provide research on the following three areasH optimi e data center hardware and software, improve power supply chain, and data center cooling technologies. Industry-

/limate 5avers /omputing Initiative &/5/I' is an effort to reduce the electric power consumption of )/s in active and inactive states.The /5/I provides a catalog of green

products from its member organi ations, and information for reducing )/ power consumption. It was started on ,++F$+@$*,. The name stems from the %orld %ildlife .und"s /limate 5avers program, which was launched in *888. The %%. is also a member of the /omputing Initiative. The Green -lectronics /ouncil offers the -lectronic )roduct -nvironmental :ssessment Tool &-)-:T' to assist in the purchase of "greener" computing systems. The /ouncil evaluates computing e;uipment on 6* criteria $ ,1 re;uired and ,I optional $ that measure a product"s efficiency and sustainability attributes. )roducts are rated Gold, 5ilver, or (ron e, depending on how many optional criteria they meet. 3n ,++F$+*$,E, )resident George %. (ush issued -!ecutive 3rder *1E,1, which re;uires all 9nited 5tates .ederal agencies to use -)-:T when purchasing computer systems. The Green Grid is a global consortium dedicated to advancing energy efficiency in data centers and business computing ecosystems. It was founded in .ebruary ,++F by several key companies in the industry J :?0, :)/, 0ell, B), I(?, Intel, ?icrosoft, #ackable 5ystems, 5pray/ool, 5un ?icrosystems and 7?ware. The Green Grid has since grown to hundreds of members, including end$users and government organi ations, all focused on improving data center infrastructure efficiency &0/I-'. The Green6++ list rates supercomputers by energy efficiency &megaflopsAwatt, encouraging a focus on efficiency rather than absolute performance. Green /omm /hallenge is an organi ation that promotes the development of energy conservation technology and practices in the field of Information and /ommunications Technology &I/T'. The Transaction )rocessing )erformance /ouncil&T)/' -nergy specification augments the e!isting T)/ benchmarks by allowing for optional publications of energy metrics alongside their performance results. The 5)-/ )ower is the first industry standard benchmark that measures power consumption in relation to performance for server$class computers.

Reason to use Green Computing

J computer energy is often wasteful K leaving the computer on when not in use &/)9 and fan consume power, screen savers consume power' printing is often wasteful K K K how many of you print out your emails or meeting agendas printing out partial drafts for a LpaperlessM society, we tend to use more paper today than before computer$prevalence

pollution K K K manufacturing techni;ues packaging disposal of computers and components

to!icity K as we will see, there are to!ic chemicals used in the manufacturing of computers and components which can enter the food chain and waterN

Energy Use of PCs

K K /)9 uses *,+ %atts /#T uses *6+ %atts J I hours of usage, 6 days a week O 6@, P%atts K J K if the computer is left on all the time without proper power saver modes, this can lead to *,@++ P%atts

for a large institution, say a university of E+,+++ students and faculty, the power bill for Gust computers can come to D, million A year

-nergy use comes from J J J J electrical current to run the /)9, motherboard, memory running the fan and spinning the disk&s' monitor &/#Ts consume more power than any other computer component' printers.

Reducing Energy Consumption

K K K Turn off the computer when not in use, even if Gust for an hour Turn off the monitor when not in use &as opposed to running a screen saver' 9se power saver mode J in power saver mode, the top item is not necessary, but screen savers use as much electricity as any normal processing, and the screen saver is not necessary on a flat panel display

9se hardwareAsoftware with the -nergy 5tar label J -nergy 5tar is a Lseal of approvalM by the -nergy 5tar organi ation of the government &the -):'

K K

0onQt print unless necessary and you are ready 9se 4/0s instead of /#Ts as they are more power efficient.

Chemical Elements Used:

K K K

ead

used in soldering of printed circuit boards and other components J also used in glass for /#Ts It is estimated that between *88F and ,++E, *., billion tons of lead was used in computer components The problemH J lead can cause damage to the central and peripheral nervous systems, blood system, kidneys, endocrine system and cause negative effects on child brain development lead accumulates in the environment and has to!ic effects on plants, animals and microorganisms electronics contribute E+2 of the total amount of lead found in landfills and can make its way from landfills into the water supplies.

J J

Chemical Elements Used: !ercury

K ?ercury is used in J batteries, switches, housing, printed circuit boards J J mercury is found in medical e;uipment, data transmission e;uipment, telecommunications e;uipment and cell phones as well if is estimated that ,,2 of the yearly use of mercury is in electrical and electronic e;uipment K although a small amount of mercury is used, it is used in nearly all computer construction amounting to E++,+++ pounds of mercury used between *88F and ,++E

The problem J J J mercury spreads out in water transforming into methylated mercury which easily accumulates in living organisms it enters the food chain through fish that swim in polluted waters methylated mercury can cause chronic brain damage

Other Chemical Elements

K /admium is used in resistors for chips, infrared detectors and in semiconductors &plus older /#Ts' J estimated that between *88F and ,++E, , million pounds of cadmium was used in computer components The problemH J J J K cadmium is classified as to!ic, these compounds accumulate in the human body, particularly the kidneys cadmium is absorbed through respiration and also food intake cadmium has a half life of 1+ years so that cadmium can poison a human body slowly through the humanQs life

Be!avalent /hromium &/hromium 7I' is used to treat steel plates &an anti$corrosive' and it is estimated that between *88F and ,++E, *., million pounds were used in computer components J if youQve seen -rin (rokovich, you know that this can lead to cancer and a number of other medical problems

Plastics
K )lastics are found throughout the computer, largely from casings but also internally to hold components together J E billion pounds of plastic were used to build computers and components between *88F and ,++E 3ne specific form of plastics used is polyvinyl chloride &)7/' which is used in cabling and housings J )7/ is difficult to recycle and the production and burning of )7/ generates dio!ins and furans

The plastics in computers are often treated with flame retardant chemicals, particularly brominated flame retardant J J these chemicals can act as endocrine disrupters and increase risk of several forms of cancer they have been found entering the food chain.

Chemical Elements "ound in Computers and Components

K K K -lements in bulkH lead, tin, copper, silicon, carbon, iron and aluminum -lements in small amountsH cadmium and mercury -lements in trace amountsH J germanium, gallium, barium, nickel, tantalum, indium, vanadium, terbium, beryllium, gold, europium, titanium, ruthenium, cobalt, palladium, manganese, silver, antimony, bismuth, selenium, niobium, yttrium, rhodium, platinum, arsenic, lithium, boron, americium

4ist of e!amples of devices containing these elements J J almost all electronics contain lead R tin &as solder' and copper &as wire R )/( tracks', though the use of lead$free solder is now spreading rapidly leadH solder, /#T monitors &4ead in glass', 4ead$acid battery.

#olutions
K Reuse: donate your computer components to people who may not have or have lesser ;uality computers J inner city schools, churches, libraries, third world countries K this however leads to the older computers being dumped but there is probably no way around this as eventually the older computers would be discarded anyway

Refur$ish: rather than discarding your computer when the ne!t generation is released, Gust get a new /)9 and memory chips J upgrade rather than replace J while you will still be discarded some components, you will retain most of the computer system &e.g., monitor, the system unit housing, cables'

:re there ade;uate incentives to do either of the aboveS 0o computer companies encourage refurbishingAupgradingS

Recycling: K K K K K K If companies can recycle the plastics and other components, this can greatly reduce waste and to!ins however, the ha ardous materials in e$waste can harm the recycle workers if they are not properly protected in undeveloped countries, a lot of the recycling chores are left up to unprotected childrenN 0eveloped countries now have facilities for recycling e$waste however, in -urope, the plastics are discarded instead of recycled because the flame retardant chemicals are too to!ic to work with To resolve these problems, the computer manufacturers must start using recyclable chemicals.

%pproaches
Green computing is the "the study and practice of designing, manufacturing, using, and disposing of computers, servers, 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." ?urugesan lays out four paths along which he believes the environmental effects of computing should be addressedH=*> Green use, green disposal, green design, and green manufacturing. Green computing can also develop solutions that offer benefits by "aligning all IT processes and practices with the core principles of sustainability, which are to reduce, reuse, and recycle; and finding innovative ways to use IT in business processes to deliver sustainability benefits across the enterprise and beyond". ?odern IT systems rely upon a complicated mi! of people, networks, and hardware; as such, a green computing initiative must cover all of these areas as well. : solution may also need to address end user satisfaction, management restructuring, regulatory compliance, and return on investment &#3I'. There are also considerable fiscal motivations for companies to take control of their own power consumption; "of the power management tools available, one of the most powerful may still be simple, plain, common sense."

Product longevity
Gartner maintains that the )/ manufacturing process accounts for F+ 2 of the natural resources used in the life cycle of a )/.?ore recently, .uGitsu released a 4ife /ycle :ssessment &4/:' of a desktop that show that manufacturing and end of life accounts for the maGority of this laptop ecological footprint.Therefore, the biggest contribution to green computing usually is to prolong the e;uipment"s lifetime. :nother report from Gartner recommends to "4ook for product longevity, including upgradability and modularity.".or instance, manufacturing a new )/ makes a far bigger ecological footprint than manufacturing a new #:? module to upgrade an e!isting one.

#oft&are and deployment optimi'ation

%lgorithmic efficiency The efficiency of algorithms has an impact on the amount of computer resources re;uired for any given computing function and there are many efficiency trade$offs in writing programs. %hile algorithmic efficiency does not have as much impact as other approaches,it is still an important consideration. : study by a physicist at Barvard, estimated that the average Google search released F grams of carbon dio!ide &/3'.Bowever, Google disputes this figure, arguing instead that a typical search produces only +., grams of /3. ?ore recently, an independent study by GreenIT.fr demonstrate that %indows F T 3ffice ,+*+ re;uire F+ times more memory &#:?' than %indows 8I T 3ffice ,+++ to write e!actly the same te!t or send e!actly the same e$mail than *+ years ago. Resource allocation :lgorithms can also be used to route data to data centers where electricity is less e!pensive. #esearchers from ?IT, /arnegie ?ellon 9niversity, and :kamai have tested an energy allocation algorithm that successfully routes traffic to the location with the cheapest energy costs. The researchers proGect up to a E+ percent savings on energy costs if their proposed algorithm were to be deployed. Bowever, this approach does not actually reduce the amount of energy being used; it reduces only the cost to the company using it. <onetheless, a similar strategy could be used to direct traffic to rely on energy that is produced in a more environmentally friendly or efficient way. : similar approach has also been used to cut energy usage by routing traffic away from data centers e!periencing warm weather; this allows computers to be shut down to avoid using air conditioning. 4arger server centers are sometimes located where energy and land are ine!pensive and readily available. 4ocal availability of renewable energy, climate that allows outside air to be used for cooling, or locating them where the heat they produce may be used for other purposes could be factors in green siting decisions. (irtuali'ation /omputer virtuali ation refers to the abstraction of computer resources, such as the process of running two or more logical computer systems on one set of physical hardware. The concept originated with the I(? mainframe operating systems of the *8@+s, but was commerciali ed for !I@$compatible computers only in the *88+s. %ith virtuali ation, a system administrator could combine several physical systems into virtual machines on one single, powerful system, thereby unplugging the original hardware and reducing power and cooling consumption. 7irtuali ation can assist in distributing work so that servers are either busy or put in a low$power sleep state. 5everal commercial companies and open$source proGects now offer software packages to enable a transition to virtual computing. Intel /orporation and :?0 have also built proprietary virtuali ation enhancements to the !I@ instruction set into each of their /)9 product lines, in order to facilitate virtuali ed computing.

)erminal servers Terminal servers have also been used in green computing. %hen using the system, users at a terminal connect to a central server; all of the actual computing is done on the server, but the end user e!periences the operating system on the terminal. These can be combined with thin clients, which use up to *AI 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. -!amples of terminal server software include Terminal 5ervices for %indows and the 4inu! Terminal 5erver )roGect &4T5)' for the 4inu! operating system.

Po&er management
The :dvanced /onfiguration and )ower Interface &:/)I', an open industry standard, allows an operating system to directly control the power$saving aspects of its underlying hardware. This allows a system to automatically turn off components such as monitors and hard drives after set periods of inactivity. In addition, a system may hibernate, where most components &including the /)9 and the system #:?' are turned off. :/)I is a successor to an earlier Intel$?icrosoft standard called :dvanced )ower ?anagement, which allows a computer"s (I35 to control power management functions 5ome programs allow the user to manually adGust the voltages supplied to the /)9, which reduces both the amount of heat produced and electricity consumed. This process is called undervolting. 5ome /)9s can automatically undervolt the processor, depending on the workload; this technology is called "5peed5tep" on Intel processors, ")ower<owN"A"/ool"n"Uuiet" on :?0 chips, 4ongBaul on 7I: /)9s, and 4ong#un with Transmeta processors.

*ata center po&er

0ata centers, which have been critici ed for its e!traordinary high energy demand, are a primary focus for proponents of green computing.The federal government has set a minimum *+2 reduction target for data center energy usage by ,+**.%ith the aid of a self$styled ultraefficient evaporative cooling technology, Google Inc. has been able to reduce its energy consumption to 6+2 of that of the industry average.

Operating system support

The dominant desktop operating system, ?icrosoft %indows, has included limited )/ power management features since %indows 86.These initially provided for stand$by &suspend$to$#:?' and a monitor low power state. .urther iterations of %indows added hibernate &suspend$to$disk' and support for the :/)I standard. %indows ,+++ was the first <T$based operating system to include power management. This re;uired maGor changes to the underlying operating system architecture and a new hardware driver model. %indows ,+++ also introduced Group )olicy, a technology that allowed administrators to centrally configure most %indows features. Bowever, power management was not one of those features. This is probably because the power

management settings design relied upon a connected set of per$user and per$machine binary registry values,effectively leaving it up to each user to configure their own power management settings. This approach, which is not compatible with %indows Group )olicy, was repeated in %indows V). The reasons for this design decision by ?icrosoft are not known, and it has resulted in heavy criticism.?icrosoft significantly improved this in %indows 7ista by redesigning the power management system to allow basic configuration by Group )olicy. The support offered is limited to a single per$computer policy. The most recent release, %indows F retains these limitations but does include refinements for more efficient user of operating system timers, processor power management,and display panel brightness. The most significant change in %indows F is in the user e!perience. The prominence of the default Bigh )erformance power plan has been reduced with the aim of encouraging users to save power. There is a significant market in third$party )/ power management software offering features beyond those present in the %indows operating system available. ?ost products offer :ctive 0irectory integration and per$userAper$machine settings with the more advanced offering multiple power plans, scheduled power plans, anti$insomnia features and enterprise power usage reporting. <otable vendors include *- <ight%atchman. 0ata 5ynergy )ower?:< &5oftware', .aronics )ower 5ave and 7erdiem 59#7-W3#.

Po&er supply
0esktop computer power supplies &)59s' are in general F+JF62 efficient,=18> dissipating the remaining energy as heat. :n industry initiative called I+ )495 certifies )59s that are at least I+2 efficient; typically these models are drop$in replacements for older, less efficient )59s of the same form factor.:s of Culy ,+, ,++F, all new -nergy 5tar E.+$certified desktop )59s must be at least I+2 efficient.

#torage
5maller form factor &e.g., ,.6 inch' hard disk drives often consume less power per gigabyte than physically larger drives.9nlike hard disk drives, solid$state drives store data in flash memory or 0#:?. %ith no moving parts, power consumption may be reduced somewhat for low$capacity flash$based devices. In a recent case study, .usion$io, manufacturers of the world"s fastest 5olid 5tate 5torage devices, managed to reduce the carbon footprint and operating costs of ?y5pace data centers by I+2 while increasing performance speeds beyond that which had been attainable via multiple hard disk drives in #aid +.In response, ?y5pace was able to permanently retire several of their servers, including all their heavy$load servers, further reducing their carbon footprint. :s hard drive prices have fallen, storage farms have tended to increase in capacity to make more data available online. This includes archival and backup data that would formerly have been saved on tape or other offline storage. The increase in online storage has increased power

consumption. #educing the power consumed by large storage arrays, while still providing the benefits of online storage, is a subGect of ongoing research.

Display
/#T monitors typically use more power than 4/0 monitors. They also contain significant amounts of lead. 4/0 monitors typically use a cold$cathode fluorescent bulb to provide light for the display. 5ome newer displays use an array of light$emitting diodes &4-0s' in place of the fluorescent bulb, which reduces the amount of electricity used by the display..luorescent back$ lights also contain mercury, whereas 4-0 back$lights do not.

!aterials recycling
#ecycling computing e;uipment can keep harmful materials such as lead, mercury, and he!avalent chromium out of landfills, and can also replace e;uipment that otherwise would need to be manufactured, saving further energy and emissions. /omputer systems that have outlived their particular function can be re$purposed, or donated to various charities and non$profit organi ations.Bowever, many charities have recently imposed minimum system re;uirements for donated e;uipment. :dditionally, parts from outdated systems may be salvaged and recycled through certain retail outlets and municipal or private recycling centers. /omputing supplies, such as printer cartridges, paper, and batteries may be recycled as well. : drawback to many of these schemes is that computers gathered through recycling drives are often shipped to developing countries where environmental standards are less strict than in <orth :merica and -urope.The 5ilicon 7alley To!ics /oalition estimates that I+2 of the post$ consumer e$waste collected for recycling is shipped abroad to countries such as /hina and )akistan. In ,+**, the collection rate of e$waste is still very low, even in the most ecology$responsible countries like .rance. In this country, e$waste collection is still at a *E2 annual rate between electronic e;uipments sold and e$waste collected for ,++@ to ,++8.