Going green no longer optional

If one message stood out among the others at the Green Computing Summit in Washington, DC, it was that going green is no longer just good for the bottom line; it's absolutely necessary, says IT World. And it's not just the tree huggers who are saying so.

Prominent business executives and top ranking federal officials are leading a green revolution that promises to radically change computer technology and the way it is managed.

Given industry projections of computer growth, dramatic increases in online data storage and additional floor space that could be required by expanding data centres along with the resultant power and cooling upgrades, energy issues will clearly move from problem to crisis if efforts to bring energy consumption under control are not successful.

Microsoft plans to support four academic research projects focused on energy-efficient computing as part of its Sustainable Computing Programme, reports VNUNet.

The initiatives focus on data centre power efficiency, power management and the creation of parallel computing architectures with decreased energy demands.

The idea is to stimulate research across a broad range of areas with the potential significantly to improve energy efficiency.

The day-to-day energy consumption of a computer in use is relatively easy to assess from the technical information on most manufacturers' Web sites. Some processors use less power than others, and all operating systems offer automatic energy-saving modes, says BDOnline.

However, manufacture is the real sustainability issue, requiring high levels of embodied energy and components that contain toxic heavy metals and organic compounds. Manufacturers' standards are key to controlling the risks these pose to the environment, and are most easily compared by consulting a suitable pressure group.

Gooshing is a price comparison Web site which runs ethical ratings alongside prices on a five-star basis. More comprehensively, the Corporate Critic scores companies out of 20. Greenpeace provides an environmental rating of the top 20 or so consumer electronics firms.