The Power Techie’s have to help the world go Green.

• Author: DigitalMind
• Filed under: Uncategorized
• Date: May 11,2008

Techie’s have an enormous burden and responsibility that most don’t even realize they bear. Most technological things use power and contain harmful chemicals. When business’s decide to buy new technology, it’s the techie that shops for it and makes the recommendations. We (The Techie’s) need to start taking into consideration the ecological factor of the products we recommend.

Things techie’s need to take into account :

- CRT monitors draw more than twice the power of LCD monitors the same size. Don’t let a cheap employer fill up an office with CRT monitors just to save some money in the short term. Don’t tell them it’s an option, only suggest LCD monitors.

- Data centers take a LOT of power. Lots take more than they really need because of how they’re set up. Did you know there are lots of GREEN webhosting companies that either power almost everything with wind / solar power or off-set their emissions with Renewable Energy Credits ? Help save the environment by hosting your website with someone who is doing the same.

- Computer Power Supplies draw a lot of power. Now days, with the high end computers that are available at affordable prices, you often don’t need to have all your servers in separate boxes. Put your mail server, web server, SQL server, whatever you can really, into ONE REALLY GOOD server computer. You can install VMWARE to keep it as if they were all seperate computers. You’ll help a lot by having only a fraction of the servers you would in the past in your server room.

- RECYCLE TECHNOLOGY PROPERLY ! Don’t let your customers or people who depend on you throw out their towers, monitors, cell phones, batteries, etc into the regular garbage. A lot of these things contain harmful and dangerous chemicals and need to be disposed of properly. Don’t get me wrong, your 1 AA battery in the garbage won’t blow up your street, but what happens once it’s in the landfill and there are LOTS AND LOTS of batteries in there slowly starting to leek their dangerous chemicals. Staples has started a recycling program for technology.

- Make sure the computers you setup are configured to go to sleep after a few hours of inactivity.

The bottom line is, think about the environment before making decisions. People listen to you and take you seriously. I’m not asking you (or me) to give up on technology, but if there’s a greener way to get the same thing you should go that route even if it’s a little more expensive.

Please take the time to read how to be green at the office, and how to be green at home !