Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
using, reusing, or recycling electronic devices
such as computers, monitors, and cell phones. The
EEBC is available to any organization interested in
determining the benefits of their own electronics
stewardship activities.
This act leaves the initiative and the responsibil-
ity for recycling and disposal in the hands of the
manufacturers and the organizations using the
Information Technology products.
Power Management
Utilization and Disposal
Energy consumption of Information Technology
within the organization can be better managed
by reducing power consumption of individual
computers and data centers and by implementing
innovative technologies such as virtualization.
In order to be environmentally friendly and
green, the utilization of Information Technology
products in any organization should be aimed at
maximizing the life of the product and minimiz-
ing the energy used by the product. Sanitizing
data and refurbishing computers for reuse within
the same organization is a practice used by many
organizations.
At the end of the Information Technol-
ogy products' life cycle, the products must be
disposed of responsibly by organizations. The
approach towards disposing of electronic waste
(E-waste) provides a marked difference between
environmentally responsible and environmentally
irresponsible companies.
As stated earlier, organizations are the entities
that act on governmental legislations in greening
and sustainability. For example, the WEEE (Waste
Electrical and Electronic Equipment) Act was
approved in 2003 in the European Union and is
currently being implemented in all countries of the
European Union. Also, the EPR (Extended Pro-
ducer Responsibility) Act has been implemented
requiring European sellers and manufacturers to
recycle 75% of the products sold.
In the United States, the White House Task
Force on Waste Prevention and Recycling, in
conjunction with the Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA) of the U.S., has been working on
the National Computer Recycling Act since 2005,
but this act has yet to be approved. Currently, there
is no national legislation that governs the disposal
of e-waste in the United States. Some states,
however, have taken the initiative to provide some
guidelines on e-waste. The Californian Electronic
Individual Computer
Power Management
A typical desktop system is comprised of the
computer itself (the CPU or the “box”), a moni-
tor, and a printer. Typically, the power usage of
an individual system can range from 250 to 350
watts. The CPU may require approximately 100
watts of electrical power, the monitors 50-150
watts, and the printer 5-100 watts. Even in the
idling mode, a computer uses up energy.
Data Center Power Management
Data centers consume an enormous amount of
energy. According to an August 2007 report
released by the U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA), in 2006 the electricity use at-
tributable to the nation's servers and data centers
was estimated at about 1.5 percent of total U.S.
electricity consumption (EnergyStar, 2007). Any
attempts to reduce the use of energy consumption
in data centers would significantly enhance the
greening efforts of an organization. One such ef-
fort is to consolidate an organization's disparate
data centers into a single environment.
Another way of increasing energy efficiency
is to make a physical server perform the role of
multiple servers. This is made possible by the
concept of virtualization which allows multiple
virtual servers to run on one physical server,
