Is Web 2.0 Really Green?
May 14, 2008 by Tris Hussey
Filed under Business News
Today is the Technology Channel’s Theme day and we’re looking at “green” technologies (I’ll have the round-up post link here when it’s posted). While we might think that tools like RSS (as Juned suggests in his post on RSS as green tech) are truly green, are they really?
Things are a lot better now, in terms of technology being green, than when I first started in tech years and years ago. Computers, monitors, etc all use less power. Better online tools, faster connections, PDF and collaborative editing have reduced the number of faxes and print outs needed (I still like to do a good edit from paper though), however the sheer number of computers have increased as have the number of servers powering everything.
Ever been in a server room? Especially an ad hoc server room, they are hot. So not only do servers consume electricity to run they consume more to stay cool (or at least the room they are in).
What about the stuff our computers are made of? Nasty stuff in there.
So as we consume more and more of this content online are we doing better or worse?
Honestly, I think we’re heading in the right direction. Slowly.
What can you do? One easy peasy thing is … stop using a screensaver. I got this from Gear Live. Yep, set the screensaver to “none” have have the screen turn off when you’d have the screensaver come on. Simple. This does two things, one is reduce the electricity your computer uses via the screen and it lets your computer cycle down to a lower power CPU state. All those “use your extra CPU cycle” tools? The one to analyze data? Those aren’t “extra” … your machine would idle down and use less power if you didn’t use them.
Now, are we Green 2.0? Yeah.
Outstanding point! Our work laptops were defaulted to having a screensaver. But at home, I not only keep that off, but we’ve also been instituting a “shut down at night” policy, which extends to the days when we’re not home. Any I only keep my Mac laptop plugged in when I need to recharge the battery. Every little step…
Tris, good points. And darn it, those servers ARE hot! When I do go into the office, my desk is in the “tech room.” As in, my roommate is our server. While we (me and the server) have the benefit of our very own air conditioner, I can’t think that me hanging out in there too often is all that healthy. Which is why I usually work from home, where we, like Matt, try to stick to a “shut down at night” routine.