INTRODUCTION TO GREEN COMPUTING

Green computing (also called Green IT or ICT sustainability) can be defined as the study and practice of
designing, manufacturing, using, and disposing of computers, servers, and associated subsystems, such
as projectors, monitors, printers, storage devices, and networking and communications systems,
efficiently and effectively with minimal or almost no impact on the environment. The goal of green
computing is to reduce the use of hazardous materials, maximize energy efficiency during the product’s
lifetime, and promote the recyclability or biodegradability of defunct products and factory waste. Green
computing also attempts to achieve economic feasibility and improved system performance and use,
while abiding by our social and ethical responsibilities. It also provides solutions that save energy at
various levels of use. These include (i) hardware, (ii) software and (iii) services.2 The hardware should be
energy-efficient PCs, thin-client architectures. In the software and service area, there is significant
potential in virtualization, solutions for dynamic capacity management and data-center planning, and
storage-system off shoring. The current trends of green computing include energy efficient CPUs and
peripherals, power reduction through known energy-conserving approaches, and the proper recycling
and disposal of all the components. The idea of “green computing” started in 1992 when the US
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) launched a voluntary labeling program, known as Energy Star, to
promote energy efficiency in hardware of all kinds. The Energy Star label has now become a common
sight and an important certification. Today, servers, laptops, displays, gaming systems, and many other
computing peripherals offerings include Energy Star compliance in their product descriptions.

Benefits of Green Computing

The benefits of green computing are enormous. It is not only from just the consumer, or business, or
country’s viewpoint, but a global benefit. It helps reduce energy demands, waste, cost and how we use
technology which positively effects the environment.

Some of the benefits of green computing.

Tangible Benefits

• Capital improvement-maintenance saving

• Better and safer lighting
• E waste reduction-energy saving and efficiency
• Space saving
• Technological advancement
• Travel reduction (video conferencing and collaboration)
• Utilize resource more efficiently

Intangible benefit

• Environmental benefit like pollution control , economic benefit (Eco sustainable development).
• Social benefit
• Secured head disbursement issue controlled
• Increased user efficiency
• Simple and reliable IT infrastructure
• Testing application software on multiple platform is easy
 • Emotional risk minimizing
• Behavioral risk minimizing

Benefits to an organization

• Reduces overall energy consumption

• Reduces data center footprint
• Encourages efficient utilization of natural resources
• Optimize server capacity and performance
• Reclaiming valuable floor space through virtualizations
• Provide rapid and secure access to required data
• Increase is of system and solution management
• Recycle end-of-life equipment
• Free-up budget components

. Important Facts about Computing

• The use of screen savers does not save energy.

• Leaving a computer running consumes electricity and adds to computing costs.
• It is estimated that a typical desktop computer with a 17-inch flat panel LCD monitor requires
about 100 watts-65 watts for the computer and 35 watts for the monitor. If it left on 24×7 for
one year, it will consume 874 kilowatt hours of electricity and release around one ton of
• Data centers typically account for 25% of total corporate IT budgets and for information-
intensive organizations, it can account for over 50% of the total corporate carbon footprint.11
• Data center power and cooling costs have increased 800% since 1996.
• In the next five years, it is expected that most U.S. data centers will spend as much on energy
costs as on hardware, and twice as much as they currently do on server management and
administration cost

Factors Driving the Adoption of Green Computing

Following are some of the trends that are impacting data centers, servers and desktop computers for
driving the adoption of green computing practices.

• The rapid growth of the internet and ICT usage

• Increasing cooling requirements for equipment
• Increasing equipment power density
• Increasing energy costs
• Restriction on energy supply access
• Low server utilization rates
• Growing awareness of IT's impact on the environment

Objectives for Green Design

The main objective for green designing is to ensure a sustainable future for our society, in regard to both
resources and ecological health. It is essential to modify and develop new technologies for future
generations. Simultaneously, these technologies should be eco-friendly and may overcome me by the
environmental problems caused now.

Basically, there are three main objectives for green design for a sustainable future.17

 Reduce or minimize the use of non-renewable resources

 Manage renewable resources to ensure sustainability, and
 Reduce, with the ultimate goal of eliminating, toxic and otherwise harmful emissions to the
environment, including emissions contributing to global warming

COMPUTING STANDARDIZATION AND COMPLIANCES

The Organizations for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has published a survey of
several government and industry initiatives on green ICT to avoid the environment and climate change.
Many government agencies have proposed to execute certain policies that support green computing.45
Green computing can lead to education in energy costs from servers, cooling, and lighting. Present IT
industries rely upon a complex networks and hardware but the green computing project should be
universal and simple in nature. The solution towards green computing should comprise items such as
end user satisfaction, management reformation, regulatory obedience, proper disposal of electronic
scrap and waste, telecommuting, and virtualization of server resources, energy use, thin client solutions,
and return on investment (ROI). Many nations worldwide have initiated some Standards and Regulations
for energy-management programs, a few are as follows.

 VIA Technologies Regulations

 Energy star
 Restriction of Hazardous Substances Directive (RoHS) Computing
 China energy conservation program
 Energy conservation center, Japan
 EPEAT(Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool)
 Tjänstemannens Central-Organization (TCO)
 Blue Angel
 Manufacturing Resource Planning (MRP II)
 Climate Savers Computing Initiative
 ISO standardization

Green Computing Certifications and Programs

Energy Savings Certificates

Energy savings certificates (ESCs) are used in some nations as a system through which third parties, such
as commercial and industrial companies, can help utilities to meet with energy efficiency targets. These
certificates keep track of the measurement and verification of the actual reduction in energy usage.

Green Computing Programs

Several programs are conducted every year throughout the world in an effort to educate people to build
and maintain systems while reducing its negative impact on the environment. The Australian National
University (ANU) offers “ICT Sustainability” as part of its information technology and engineering
masters programs. Athabasca University offer a similar course “Green ICT Strategies,

CONCLUSIONS

The aim of this report is to focus on the effect of Green Computing in the environment and
overall the world. Green Computing is not only a new trend; it is a technology of itself. The
move to become more environmentally friendly is more than just a means to a better corporate
image; it is also a means to cost reduction in an ever inflating IT budget. New and improved
ways of using this technology seem to appear everyday. The important key to remember is that
while all of these technologies are beneficial in some way, the most beneficial to existing
corporations are those that directly affect their processes and IT infrastructures. Reducing the
number of servers using virtualization is a great way to consolidate but in order to get the
maximum benefit the corporation must reorganize its datacenter infrastructure and in addition,
rethink processes and procedures that utilize these resources from the user’s stand point.

In order to utilize the new IT technology, an individual needs to be aware of the products they
are buying. Paying attention to things like the energy star rating along with the general
components of a computer can help to greatly reduce the amount of electricity used on a day
to day basis. Replacing old equipment with new and more efficient equipment is only effective
if the efficiency difference is high and the old equipment can be recycled or reused instead of
simply ending up in a landfill.

Switching over to green technology doesn't have to be a sudden and unnerving step for
authorities. ‘Being Green’ should be understood as a long-term commitment that solves the
purpose of creating a greener and sustainable infrastructure. Many organizations have already
started displaying figures of the amount of money they have saved in a calendar year by
adopting practical, greener methods. Organizations which are new to ‘Being Green’ should seek
the help of such successful models to establish a list of measures that are most appropriate for
their respective.

References
 https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_computing
 http://wei-wu.blogspot.com/
 https://www.researchgate.net/publication/235632619_A_Review_on_Green_Computin
g_for_Eco-Friendly_and_Sustainable_IT