GREEN COMPUTING

1.Introduction:

Green computing is the study and practice of using computing resources efficiently. The goals are similar to green chemistry; that is reduce the use of hazardous materials, maximize energy efficiency during the product's lifetime, and promote recyclability or biodegradability of defunct products and factory waste. Taking into consideration the popular use of information technology industry, it has to lead a revolution of sorts by turning green in a manner no industry has ever done before. It is worth emphasizing that this green technology should not be just about sound bytes to impress activists but concrete action and organizational policy. Opportunities lie in green technology like never before in history and organizations are seeing it as a way to create new profit centers while trying to help the environmental cause. The plan towards green IT should include new electronic products and services with optimum efficiency and all possible options towards energy savings.The primary objective of such a program is to account for the triple bottom line, an expanded spectrum of values and criteria for measuring organizational success. Modern IT systems rely upon a complicated mix of people, networks and hardware; as such, a green computing initiative must be systemic in nature, and address increasingly sophisticated problems. Elements of such as solution may comprise items such as end user satisfaction, management restructuring, regulatory compliance, disposal of electronic waste, telecommuting, virtualization of server resources, energy use, thin client solutions, and return on investment (ROI). Today, data volumes are doubling every 18 months, and enterprises want to keep more data online and provide access to more users. The impact is huge increases in the amount of hardware infrastructure needed, resulting in corresponding increases in power, cooling and data center space needs. The recycling of old computers raises an important privacy issue. The old storage devices still hold private information, such as emails, passwords and credit card numbers, which can be recovered simply by someone using software that is available freely on the Internet. Deletion of a file does not actually remove the file from the hard drive. Before recycling a computer, users should remove the hard drive, or hard drives if there is more than one, and physically destroy it or store it somewhere safe. There are some authorized hardware recycling companies to whom the computer may be given for recycling, and they typically sign a non-disclosure agreement. Recycling computing equipment can keep harmful materials such as lead, mercury, and hexavalent chromium out of landfills, and can also replace equipment that otherwise would need to be manufactured, saving further energy and emissions. Computer systems that have outlived their particular function can be re-purposed, or donated to various charities and non-profit organizations. However, many charities have

recently imposed minimum system requirements for donated equipment. Additionally, parts from outdated systems may be salvaged and recycled through certain retail outlets and municipal or private recycling centers. Computing supplies, such as printer cartridges, paper, and batteries may be recycled as well. A 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 North America and Europe. The Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition estimates that 80% of the post-consumer e-waste collected for recycling is shipped abroad to countries such as China and Pakistan.

Benefits for using green computing practices

Environmental issues impact IT business competitive landscape in new ways, and enterprises with the technology and vision to provide products and services that address environmental issues will enjoy a competititve edge. Business face higher energy costs, and they may also incur additional government levies if they don`t address the environmental implications if their practices. Investors and consumers are beginning to demand more disclosures from companies with regard to they carbon footprint as well as their environmental initiatives and achievements, and they have started discounting share prices of companies that poorly address the environmental problems they create. As a result many businesses have begun showing their environmental credentials. For instance, the Carbon Disclosure Project (www.cdproject.net) us a recent initiative to petition global companies to disclose their carbon emissions. Adopting green IT practices offers businesses and individuals financial and other benefits. IT operations achieve better energy efficiency through green initiatives, which financially benefit them, especially when electrical energy is at a premium and energy prices are rising. In a survey by Sun Microsystems Australia involving 1,500 responses from 758 large and small organizations in Australia and New Zealand, respondents said reducing power consumption and lowering costs are the major reasons for using ecoresponsible practices, followed by a lower environmental impact and improves system use. Most companies are bound to prioritize environmental issues for environmental energy-efficiency, and cost-control imperatives. As concerns, regulations, and market based mechanisms to address climate change rise, businesses will focus environmental sustainability. Corporate and institutional buyers are asking their suppliers to take measures to green up their products and their manufacturing processes. For instance, companies such as Dell and Wal-Mart are adopting initiatives that force their suppliers to adhere to environmentally sound practices. People have begun to value the environmentally friendly attributes of IT, and in the next five years, green computing will become a common feature. Companies will offer a range of new green products and services, and new business opportunities will emerge.

Green computing standards and regulations

Green computing standards and regulations Epeat, the Energy Star 4.0 standard, and the RoHS directive can help you design green computers and other it hardware and classify them based on their environmental attributes. Epeat Promoted by the need for an evaluation tool that allows the selection of electronic products based on environmental performance, the Green Electronics Council has launched the Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool. Epeat assists buyers to evaluate, compare, ad select desktop computers, notebooks, and monitors based on their environmental attributes. It also helps manufacturers promote their products as environmentally sound. Epeat evaluates electronic products on 23 required criteria and 28 optional criteria which are grouped into eight performance categories reducing and eliminating environmentally sensitive materials, designing for the products end of life, product longevity, energy conservation, end of life management, corporate performance and packaging. Epeat identifies its registered products as bronze, silver, or gold. Bronze products meet all 23 required criteria. Silver products meet all 23 required criteria plus at least 14 optional criteria, and gold products meet all 23 required criteria plus at least 21 optional criteria. Manufacturers can pick and choose among the optional criteria to boost their Epeat score to achieve a higher level of registration. All Epeat registered computers have reduced levels of cadmium, lead, and mercury to better protect human health. These are more energy-efficient and easier to upgrade and recycle. In fact, manufacturers of Epeat products must offer safe recycling options for the products when they`re no longer usable. Energy Star 4.0 Standard The new Energy Star 4.0 standard regulates energy performance of externat and internal power supplies and gives power consumption specifications for idle, sleep, and standby modes for a number of different devices including PCs, desktops, and gaming consoles. Computers meeting the new requirements will save energy in all modes of operation. Regulations for computers in idle mode are new, as previous standards addressed only sleep and standby modes. The new specifications require OEMs to educate users about power management. RoHS directive The restriction of Hazardous Substances in Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive aims to restrict the use of certain hazardous substances. It also bans placing new electrical and electronic equipment on the European Union market if it contains

more than the agreed-upon levels of lead, cadmium, mercury, hexavalent chromium or flame retardants.

2.Approaches to Green Computing

Virtualization:
Initiatives in this area include server virtualization and consolidation, storage consolidation and desktop virtualization. These projects typically improve cost and energy efficiency through optimized use of existing and new computing and storage capacity, electricity, cooling, ventilation and real estate. Moving desktops to a virtual environment and employing thin-client machines reduces energy consumption and environmental impact of user infrastructure. As one senior partner at a 100-employee services firm reports, [Thin clients have] no CPU, no RAM, no moving parts, and connect to the virtual desktop environment. Our typical computer used up to a 250-watt power supply; our thin client uses a 4.8-watt power supply, so the reduction in electricity usage is 97, 98 percent, with all the functionality. Energy savings result, as does cost avoidance, thanks to extended refresh cycles provided by thin client equipment. Mid-size businesses face a preponderance of issues when it comes to the server room. In this study, businesses cite the following reasons for undertaking server room upgrades and the construction of new server rooms: Decrease cost and increase effectiveness of cooling and ventilation systems. Many existing HVAC systems cannot keep up with smaller, more powerful servers that throw off more heat than older, low-density equipment. Most server rooms were not designed to keep pace with the modern complement of fully virtualized servers and consolidated storage. Increase server and computing capacity. Server room spaces are simply maxed out; they are either too small to house needed servers, or inadequately equipped to deal with a high rate of virtualization on fewer devices that run hotter. Questionable reliability of aging server room infrastructure; the server room design of yesterday no longer supports business needs of today, in terms of uptime and availability. Mounting maintenance and management costs for older facilities, which may not affordably handle growth of computing and storage. The need to decrease real estate costs, through server room infrastructure that supports denser, smaller footprints of new servers and storage. Computer virtualization is the process of running two or more logical computer systems on one set of physical hardware. The concept originated with the IBM mainframe operating systems of the 1960s, but was commercialized for x86- compatible computers only in the 1990s. With virtualization, 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. Several commercial companies and open-source projects now offer software packages to enable a

transition to virtual computing. Intel Corporation and AMD have also built proprietary virtualization enhancements to the x86 instruction set into each of their CPU product lines, in order to facilitate virtualized computing. Server Virtualisation increases network utilization and reduces network equipment needs by allowing multiple virtual servers to share one or more network adapters within the confines of a single physical server. On the switch side, features such as Cisco's Virtual Switching System allow one switch to function like many, which means more than one server can connect to the same port. This works because most organizations overprovision switching capacity based on peak loads. Reducing the total number of physical ports required lowers overall power consumption. Similarly, 1HP's Virtual Connect technology abstracts HP server blades from Ethernet and Fibre Channel networks. It requires fewer network interface cards, reduces cabling requirements and increases network utilization. One of the primary goals of almost all forms of virtualization is making the most efficient use of available system resources. With energy and power costs increasing as the size of IT infrastructures grow, holding expenses to a minimum is quickly becoming a top priority for many IT pros. Virtualization has helped in that respect by allowing organizations to consolidate their servers onto fewer pieces of hardware, which can result in sizable cost savings. The datacenter is where virtualization can have the greatest impact, and its there where many of the largest companies in the virtualization space are investing their resources. Virtualization also fits in very nicely with the idea of Green Computing; by consolidating servers and maximizing CPU processing power on other servers, you are cutting costs (saving money) and taking less of a toll on our environment Storage virtualization uses hardware and software to break the link between an application, application component, system service or whole stack of software and the storage subsystem. This allows the storage to be located just about anywhere, on just about any type of device, replicated for performance reasons, replicated for reliability reasons or for any combination of the above.

PC Power Management:
Many look to managing end-user device power consumption as an easy, effective way to reduce energy costs. These power management initiatives include the following: Using software that centrally manages energy settings of PCs and monitors. Enforcing standardized power settings on all PCs before distributing to end users. Procuring energy-efficient equipment, such as Energy Star certified devices. Older computers can use up to 300 watts during peak load, but less than eight watts during sleep modes. By maximizing the number of PCs and monitors controlled for hibernate, sleep or shut-down times, companies reduce the amount of energy consumed during lengthy idle times, particularly overnight. Procuring Energy Starcompliant devices or more energy-efficient equipment can also reduce power consumption during equipment use. This includes replacing old desktops with laptops, or refreshing CRT monitors with LCD flat-screens. Altogether, these power management strategies result in significant energy and maintenance cost savings; such benefits are realized by 65% of companies that complete such initiatives.

Power management for computer systems are desired for many reasons, particularly: -Prolong battery life for portable and embedded systems. -Reduce cooling requirements. -Reduce noise. -Reduce operating costs for energy and cooling.

Power Supply:
Power supplies in most computers (PSUs for short) aren't designed for energy efficiency. In fact, most computers drain more power than they need during normaloperation, leading to higher electrical bills and a more dire environmental impact. The 80 Plus program is a voluntary certification system for power-supply manufacturers. The term "80 Plus" is a little complicated, so bear with me for a moment. If a PSU meets the certification, it will use only the power it needs at a given load: In other words, it won't use more power than it needs. For example, if your PC requires only 20 percent of the total power of a 500-watt PSU, the system will consume no more than 100 watts. Only when the PC requires full power will the PSU run at the full wattage load. An 80 Plus power supply can save about 85 kilowatt hours per PC, per year. In many ways, it's the heart of a green PC, since it manages the power for all the other components. It also has the most dramatic effect on your energy bill. Of course, all 80 Plus power supplies are also lead-free and RoHScompliant Desktop computer power supplies (PSUs) are generally 7075% efficient, dissipating the remaining energy as heat. An industry initiative called 80 PLUS certifies PSUs that are at least 80% efficient; typically these models are drop-in replacements for older, less efficient PSUs of the same form factor. As of July 20, 2007, all new Energy Star 4.0-certified desktop PSUs must be at least 80% efficient. Various initiatives are underway to improve the efficiency of computer power supplies. Climate savers computing initiative promotes energy saving and reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by encouraging development and use of more efficient power supplies

Storage:
Smaller form factor (e.g. 2.5 inch) hard disk drives often consume less power than physically larger drives. Unlike hard disk drives, solid-state drives store data in flash memory or DRAM. With no moving parts, power consumption may be reduced somewhat for low capacity flash based devices. Even at modest sizes, DRAM based SSDs may use more power than hard disks, (e.g., 4GB i-RAM uses more power and space than laptop drives). Flash based drives are generally slower for writing than hard disks.

Video Card:
A fast GPU may be the largest power consumer in a computer. Energy efficient display options include: - No video card - use a shared terminal, shared thin client, or desktop sharing software if display required.

- Use motherboard video output - typically low 3D performance and low power. - Reuse an older video card that uses little power; many do not require heat sinks or fans. - Select a GPU based on average wattage or performance per watt. The easiest way to conserve power is to go with integrated video. This is the lowest performance option, but for office users, casual browsing, and pure 2D use, it's more than adequate and well worth saving the 10W, 20W, or even 35W from a discrete video card. Motherboards spitting out integrated video via DVI or HDMI aren't that hard to find, so power-users with their massive LCDs don't have to suffer

Displays:
LCD monitors typically use a cold-cathode fluorescent bulb to provide light for the display. Some newer displays use an array of light-emitting diodes (LEDs) in place of the fluorescent bulb, which reduces the amount of electricity used by the display.

IT Equipment Recycling:
After youve finished with your IT products, what happens when theyre no longer needed? In nature, organic materials rot down and feed future growth, so why not dismantle products at the end of their lives and use the elements as raw materials for future products? Several reputable computer manufacturers use metal and easily separated plastics in order to maximize raw material reuse. Its important that the environmental costs of recovery dont exceed the benefits expected. And that, of course, loops back to design in the first place The priorities for all material things are reduce, reuse and recycle - in that order of importance. If you can extend the working life of your IT products, you reduce the environmental consequences of mining, manufacture, packaging, shipping and disposal. Can you upgrade something rather than finish using it? If you have to replace it, can someone else inside your organisation use it? If not, charities and refurbishing organisations may be able to extend the products life. And, waiting at the end of the line, many organisations, including some manufacturers themselves, are willing to take equipment back and recycle the components into new products.Out of all initiatives in this study, the success of IT equipment recycling relies not on a business case with cost savings, but on a combination of environmental responsibility and regulatory pressures. The single most important factor in adopting recycling initiatives is to decrease waste sent to landfills Recycling computing equipment can keep harmful materials such as lead, mercury, and hexavalent chromium out of landfills. Obsolete computers are a valuable source for secondary raw materials, if treated properly, however if not treated properly they are a major source of toxins and carcinogens. Rapid technology change, low initial cost and even planned obsolescence have resulted in a fast growing problem around the globe. Technical solutions are available but in most cases a legal framework, a collection system, logistics and other services need to be implemented before a technical solution can be applied. Electronic devices, including audio-visual components (televisions, VCRs, stereo equipment), mobile phones and other handheld devices, and computer components, contain valuable elements and substances suitable for reclamation, including

lead, copper, and gold. They also contain a plethora of toxic substances, such as dioxins, PCBs, cadmium, chromium, radioactive isotopes, and mercury. Additionally, the processing required to reclaim the precious substances (including incineration and acid treatments) release, generate and synthesize further toxic byproducts Most major computer manufacturers offer some form of recycling, often as a free replacement service when purchasing a new PC. At the user's request they may mail in their old computer, or arrange for pickup from the manufacturer.Individuals looking for environmentally-friendly ways in which to dispose of electronics can find corporate electronic take-back and recycling programs across the country. Open to the public (in most cases), corporations nationwide have begun to offer low-cost to nocost recycling, and have opened centers nationally and in some cases internationally Such programs frequently offer services to take-back and recycle electronics including mobile phones, laptop and desktop computers, digital cameras, and home and auto electronics Companies offer what are called take-back programs that provide monetary incentives for recyclable and/or working technologies. While there are several health hazards when it comes to dealing with computer recycling some of the substances you should be aware of: - Lead common in CRTs, older solder, some batteries and to some formulations of PVC.Can be harmful if not disposed of properly. - Mercury in fluorescent tubes. With new technologies arising the elimination of mercury in many new model computers is taking place. - Cadmium in some rechargeable batteries. It can be hazardous to your skin if exposed for too long. Although many people are exposed to it everyday it just depends on the amount of exposure. - Liquid crystals are another health hazard that should be taken into consideration although they do not have the nearly the same effects as the other chemicals.

3.Roles of IT vendors in green computing

I. Apple
Four areas of particular attention are product and packaging design, materials, energy efficiency, and recycling. Each aspect of the design cycle provides significant challenges, yet our efforts in these areas have resulted in some impressive results. Product design: It all begins here. Reducing the environmental impact of our products starts with the product design phase. Design dictates the quantity of raw materials as well as the type and recyclability of materials used. It also determines how much energy is consumed during manufacturing and product use. For example, the amazingly slim 20- inch iMac is made from highly recyclable glass and aluminum and it is so energy efficient it consumes about the same amount of power as a standard light bulb when on. Materials: Apple helps to safeguard the environment - as well as consumers safety by restricting the use of environmentally harmful compounds in our materials and manufacturing processes. In addition to the substances that have already been

restricted or eliminated, Apple is removing elemental forms of bromine and chlorine from our products, not just polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and brominated flame retardants (BFRs). The new MacBook family also uses mercury-free light-emitting diode (LED) displays, with arsenic-free display glass. Energy efficiency: A devices greatest contribution to greenhouse gas emissions comes from its consumptions of energy over time. Apple has made great strides in recent years to optimize the energy efficiency of our hardware and created tools, such as the Energy Saver feature in Mac OS X, that allow consumers to manage the power consumption of their computers. Since 2001, Apple desktop computers, portable computers, and displays have earned the ENERGY STAR rating. Recycling : Apples holistic, lifecycle approach to recycling includes using highly recyclable materials in products in addition to providing extensive take-back programs that enable consumers and businesses to safely dispose of used Apple equipment. Since our first take-back initiative began in Germany in 1994, we have instituted recycling programs in 95 percent of the countries where our products are sold diverting over 53 million pounds of electronic equipment from landfills worldwide. Apple is on track to eliminate toxic chemicals from our products. In the2008 Environmental Update Steve Jobs provides an overview on Apples progress to eliminate mercury and arsenic from displays and Brominated Flame Retardants (BFRs) and Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC) from internal components. Steve Jobs also talks about Apples policy on climate change, steps taken to improve product energy-efficiency as well as overall recycling performance during 2007.

II. Google
Google's mission is to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful. Hundreds of millions of users access our services through the web, and supporting this traffic requires lots of computers. We strive to offer great internet services while taking our energy use very seriously. That's why, almost a decade ago; we started our efforts to make our computing infrastructure as sustainable as possible. Today we are operating what we believe to be the world's most efficient data centers. The graph below shows that our Google-designed data centers use considerably less energy - both for the servers and the facility itself - than a typical data center. As a result, the energy used per Google search is minimal. In fact, in the time it takes to do a Google search, your own personal computer will use more energy than we will use to answer your query. But sustainability is about more than electricity, so we've gone beyond just reducing our energy consumption. Before the end of 2008 two of our facilities will run on 100% recycled water, and by 2010 we expect recycled water to provide 80% of our total water consumption. We also carefully manage the retirement of our servers to ensure that 100% of this material is either reused or recycled. Finally, we are engaging our users and peers to help build a clean and efficient energy future. This broader impact could be significant; if all data centers operated at the same efficiency as ours, the U.S. alone would save enough electricity to power every household within the city limits of Atlanta, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Washington, D.C.

Sustainability is good for the environment, but it makes good business sense too. Most of our work is focused on saving resources such as electricity and water and, more often than not, we find that these actions lead to reduced operating costs. Being "green" is essential to keeping our business competitive. It is this economic advantage that makes our efforts truly sustainable. Googles five step plan: 1. Minimize electricity used by servers 2. Reduce the energy used by the data center facilities themselves 3. Conserve precious fresh water by using recycled water instead 4. Reuse or recycle all electronic equipment that leaves our data centers 5. Engage with our peers to advance smarter energy practices III. IBM In May 2007, IBM unveiled Project Big Green -- a re-direction of $1 billion USD per year across its businesses to increase energy efficiency. New products and services are expected to reduce data center energy consumption and transform clients' technology infrastructure into green data centers, with energy savings of approximately 42 percent for an average data center. As part of Project Big Green, IBM is building an $86 million green data center expansion at its Boulder, Colorado location and will consolidate nearly 4,000 computer servers in six locations worldwide onto about 30 refrigerator-sized mainframes running the Linux operating system. Project Big Green outlines a five-step approach for data centers that is designed to improve energy efficiency: 1. Diagnose: evaluate existing facilities -- energy assessment, virtual 3-D power management and thermal analytics. 2. Build: plan, build or update to an energy efficient data center. 3. Virtualize: Virtualize IT infrastructures and special purpose processors. 4. Manage: seize control with power management software. 5. Cool: exploit liquid cooling solutions -- inside and out of the data center. By investing in systems that deliver better performance per watt, businesses can make significant long-term savings and reduce their carbon footprint. Project Big Green invests in delivering continual advances in power-performance for each new generation of its server and storage technologies, enabling clients to run the same business workload at lower cost and with reduced environmental impact IV. Sony Sony has developed an environmentally friendly prototype battery that runs on sugars and can generate enough electricity to power a music player and a pair of speakers, the Japanese company said. The bio battery's casing is made of a vegetablebased plastic. It measures an inch and a half along each edge and works by pouring sugar solution into the unit; where enzymes break it down to generate electricity. Test cells had an output of 50 mill watts. Sugar is a naturally occurring energy source produced by plants through photosynthesis. It is therefore regenerative, and can be found in most areas of the earth, underlining the potential for sugar based batteries as an ecologically friendly energy device of the future

V. VIA
VIA Technologies, a Taiwanese company that manufactures motherboard chipsets, CPUs, and other computer hardware, introduced its initiative for "green computing" in 2001. With this green vision, the company has been focusing on power efficiency throughout the design and manufacturing process of its products. Its environmentally friendly products are manufactured using a range of clean-computing strategies, and the company is striving to educate markets on the benefits of green computing for the sake of the environment, as well as productivity and overall user experience. Carbon-free computing : One of the VIA Technologies ideas is to reduce the "carbon footprint" of users the amount of greenhouse gases produced, measured in units of carbon dioxide (CO2) VIA aims to offer the world's first PC products certified carbon free, taking responsibility for the amounts of CO2 they emit. The company works with environmental experts to calculate the electricity used by the device over its lifetime, generally three years. Solar computing: Amid the international race toward alternative-energy sources, VIA is setting its eyes on the sun, and the company's Solar Computing initiative is a significant part of its green-computing projects. For that purpose, VIA partnered with Motech Industries, one of the largest producers of solar cells worldwide. Solar cells fit VIA are power-efficient silicon, platform, and system technologies and enable the company to develop fully solar-powered devices that are nonpolluting, silent, and highly reliable. Solar cells require very little maintenance throughout their lifetime, and once initial installation costs are covered, they provide energy at virtually no cost. Worldwide production of solar cells has increased rapidly over the last few years; and as more governments begin to recognize the benefits of solar power, and the development of photovoltaic technologies goes on, costs are expected to continue to decline. As part of VIA's pc-1 initiative, the company established the first-ever solar-powered cyber community center in the South Pacific, powered entirely by solar technology.

4.Bibliography
http://www.brighthub.com/environment/green-computing/articles/15703.aspx http://www.via.com.tw/en/initiatives/quietcomputing/resources.jsp http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_computing Microsoft Green computing research www.climatesaverscomputing.org http://www.computeruser.com/articles/the-future-of-green-computing.html