Environmental Impact of manufacturing, using and disposing of computers.

Curriculum for Excellence From my studies of sustainable development, I can reflect on the implications and ethical issues arising from technological developments for individuals and societies. TCH 3-08a

Environmental Impact In this section you will learn about: Energy use Carbon footprint Disposal of IT equipment

Energy Use How do computers use energy? The factories making computers use lots of energy, especially electricity much of which is produced using fossil fuels. Energy is measured in Watts or Kilowatts. All of our computing equipment uses energy in operation: desktops laptops servers & cooling systems smartphones printers networks

Website task Create a Masterpage for a website that has a suitable colour scheme and navigation bar Create a site structure with the following pages:- Home Energy use Carbon footprint Disposal of computers

Energy Use - Computers Note the difference in power consumption between a tablet computer and a desktop. Why is this the case?

Energy Use – Gaming Computers Top end gaming desktops use lots of electricity. Why do gaming machines require more power?

Energy use - Internet The servers and equipment needed to keep the Internet running use lots of energy. One minute spent on the Internet uses the same amount of power as driving a kilometre in a modern car!

Energy use - Servers All of the companies that make and run servers are now designing and using servers that are smaller and more energy efficient so that they will emit less carbon and cost less. Google uses around 1,000,000 servers world wide. Facebook uses 180,000 servers The energy to run the servers costs more than the actual servers themselves!

Energy use - processors Compare these High power use processors With these Low power use processors What is the problem when a lower power processor is used?

Laptop energy use comparison Compare the energy use of these laptops, which one is more environmentally friendly?

Website task Add some text and graphics to the following pages of your website:- Home Energy use

Carbon footprint The carbon footprint is the amount of greenhouse gases produced by people or a particular activity. A green house gas is a gas produced by burning a fossil fuel to make power. Greenhouse gases have an environmental impact because they absorb heat and can therefore cause global warming. Computer systems contribute about 2% of global greenhouse gas emissions, nearly the same amount as the airline industry!

Reducing the Carbon Footprint We can save energy use by: Switching off computers and associated equipment when not in use Use power saving mode when the computer is not in operation. Choose a computer with a low power processor and lower power memory chips (DDR3) Use energy star and epeat products Energy star products meet the energy efficiency requirements. Epeat products meet environmental criteria including: energy conservation, product longevity, packaging.

Reducing Carbon Footprint Don’t take unnecessary printouts: check your work before you print it out Can you just email it instead? Print both sides of the paper. Recycle used printer ink and toner cartridges and purchase remanufactured cartridges.

Reducing Carbon Footprint Tasks Create a word processed poster to encourage people to email work instead of printing it out. Email it to your teacher Look at the previous slides. Tick the measures that you take at home. http://www.cartridgediscount.co.uk sell remanufactured ink and toner cartridges. Find the price of a cartridge and compare it with a non-manufactured cartridge. Write your findings below:

Low Power memory The amount of power used by memory units is important especially when used by large scale super computers and servers which have terabytes of memory There are two main types of RAM memory units in common use: DDR2 and DDR3 DDR 3: memory units have lower power consumption and faster data transfer rates than DDR2 but are more expensive. DDR 3 - double data rate type three synchronous dynamic random access memory

Reducing Server energy use HP has launched the Gemini servers that use a very small amount of power, based on an Intel Atom chip called Centerton and more efficient use of memory resources A Gemini server will consume 6 watts of power, compared to the more typical 80-watt to 100-watt server

Using the Internet to help the environment Other ways of using the Internet to help the economy and the environment are: working from home, teleconferencing, e-commerce, telemedicine distance learning. Why would the list above help the environment?

Website task Add some text and graphics to the Carbon footprint page of your website

Disposal of ICT equipment Computers contain substances which are harmful to the environment and can cause pollution if they are just thrown away They contain:- Heavy metal – cadmium, lead and mercury Other elements - antimony, arsenic, chromium, cobalt, mercury, selenium Other substances - Brominated Flame Retardant, beryllium oxide

Disposal of ICT equipment The disposal of ICT equipment is governed by the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Regulations The aim of WEEE is to recycle at least 85% of electronic waste by 2016 .

Disposal of ICT equipment WEEE puts the responsibility for collecting and recycling onto the manufacturers of the equipment sold after 2005. Manufacturers have to set up systems for free return of the equipment when it is no longer in use and pay for the recovery of waste equipment from recycling centres

Disposal of IT equipment Businesses and organisations must Store, collect, treat, recycle and dispose of WEEE separately from other waste. Obtain and keep proof that WEEE was given to an authorised waste management company, and was treated and disposed of in an environmentally sound way.

Disposal of IT equipment by re-cycling A good way for people to dispose of IT equipment is to re-cycle. Give it to someone who doesn’t have a computer or charity Sell it Part-exchange for a newer model Give it to the company you are buying the new one from for recycling.

Disposal of IT equipment by re-cycling Look on ebay and gumtree for second hand computer equipment in your area. Use http://www.envirofone.com/ to find out how much you could earn from your old phones.

Precautions when giving away or selling a computer You must completely wipe your hard disk so that none of the data is recoverable. It is recommended that you use specialist software to wipe the contents. If the hard disk is not going to be recycled many users will smash it with a hammer! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v= 4WIMSP_lMGs In 2009 it was estimated that 40% of the hard disks listed for sale on e-bay had personal or sensitive information still stored. This could lead to identity theft!

Website task Add some text and graphics to the Disposal of IT page of your website

Questions State two ways computers have an impact on the environment? Which type of computer system has the least environmental impact in terms of energy usage? What is the carbon footprint? State two actions that you could take to reduce the carbon footprint in relation to computers? Should IT equipment be just thrown in the bin when it is broken? Name 3 things you could do with out of date IT equipment. What precaution should you take before you give a away or sell an old computer?