“Great things are done by a series of small things brought together.” – Vincent Van Gogh

As mentioned in my earlier blog, Green Computing aims to reduce the carbon footprint generated by the Information Technology and Systems business. This can help in preventing global warming that causes improper function in the natural atmosphere. From a practical perspective, Green Computing could be realised on both macro (organisational) and micro (individual) levels, as green technologies are available for an entire organisation or a single person. An organisation or a person should not be stalled by the initial larger investment in green technology and fail to realise the long-term benefits and cost savings.

At the organisational (macro) level, investigating in green technologies allow businesses to save money and provide a reputation boost. Examples of green technologies include virtualisation and cloud computing. Virtualisation eliminates the need for hardware by replacing physical servers with virtual machines (VMs). Cloud Computing employs the virtualisation concept by relocating servers on the internet, allowing companies to reduce their need for energy-consuming servers. Cloud computing is also used in networking, data storage, operating systems and software applications, potentially reducing hardware and associated energy consumption. Also, switching to cloud computing results in businesses saving time, money, resources on maintenance and support.

Utilising renewable energy sources for computers, networks, servers, and data centres is an environmental rewarding investigation. Policies, such as telecommuting and teleconferences pose additional benefits by reducing the amount of carbon dioxide produced by travel, as seen in the impact of COVID-19 lockdown on air pollution.

At the individual (micro) level, there is plenty that can be done by simple practices that count and can have a huge impact on costs and the environment. These practical measures, available to all computer users (at work or at home) are easy and user-friendly. Power management is an easy and effective way of going green and conserving energy. The following actions can make one’s computing usage greener: using sleep or hibernate mode in the individual computer, buying energy-efficient (energy star labelled) devices, deploying virtual technologies. Energy-intensive peripherals (e.g. printers, scanners) should be powered-up and -down on a need-to-use basis. When feasible, the use of notebook computers is appreciated than desktop computers for energy efficiency purposes. The power-management features should be set to turn off hard drives and displays after shorter periods of inactivity. During long periods of inactivity, the CPU and all peripherals should be powered-down. Going further, one can do computer-related tasks during concentrated blocks of time and switch off the computer for the rest of the time.

Going paperless or (at least) limiting printing is also easily doable by emailing memos, printing in smaller fonts and using the double-sided option. This is complemented by properly recycling paper and refilling ink cartridges instead of buying new ones. Participating in Electronic Recycling Programs for safe electronic waste disposal, hardware recycling and refurbishing is also a good individual contribution, with many programs are rewarding. Instead of purchasing a new device, try a refurbished one.

Greening is possible in all sorts of computing endeavours, such as hardware, software, data centres. Making the earth greener will happen when efforts at all levels will be brought together.

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