Being Green - What Is It ?
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When I first read that Micheal Dell was touting ‘being green’ at the Consumer Electronics Show, in las Vegas, my first thought was recycling computer parts to save our landfills from toxic waste. During the next few weeks after the show had ended, I read more articles which explained exactly what some of the major companies were doing and I had a better understanding what ‘being green’ was all about.
So I thought I would pass on some of things I learned from my research.
‘Being green’ does include recycling old computers systems. Some of the large OEM’s provide a Free service and will take that old PC in for recycling, when you buy a new PC from tehm. One company that does this is Apple.
Other companies have reduced the amount of packaging for their products, to reduce excess waste.
And reducing energy use is now a prime concern of both Intel and AMD. Where once they touted the speed of their chips, they now also include how energy efficient they have become. By using less energy, the chips also produce less heat, which in turn reduces cooling costs as well.
Hewlett-Packard will pay you to return your used print cartridges. I know that Staples is involved in this effort as well. The print cartridges are then recycled when possible.
And other major companies also have their specifics on ‘being green’ And states are also getting into the act and either impose a recycle fee and hold vendors responsible for recycling their products.
Here is one figure I stumbled on in my research:
‘Gartner estimates 925 million PC’s, will be replaced worldwide between 2006 and 2010.’
Now that’s a eye opener.
Comments welcome.
6 Comments
Tony
August 29th, 2007
at 8:39am
“Being green” in the largest sense, is about taking note and taking care of the various flows of energy and resources in our lives.
In simple terms, let’s use Bill McDonough’s terminology and say we organize all our products and services into two categories: organic and technical ‘nutirients’.
Organic ones are completely distinct from the technical ones, and should only include things compatiable with the food suppllies for all life on the planet. generally this means no persistent toxins, no endocrine disruptors, no genetically modified organisms, etc.
Technical nutrients are everything else necessary to create the things we need. They need to be 100% REcyclcable, not DOWNcyclable, because you cannot continue to produce things that clog the bottom of the recycling loop (e.g., plastic bags become clothing, become shoe treads, become park benches, become railroad ties… then what?). All toxic technical nutrients need to be isolated with existing technology completely and permanently. Bleed over creates the kinds of problems we experience with cancer clusters, etc. If it can’t be controlled, it should be illegal to make.
You can read more about this in “Cradle to Cradle.” And when we really and truly look into the eyes in that cradle, I think we understand how important being “green” really is.
Like the City of Chattanooga, we need adopt this attitude about sustainability: it takes everyone, and it takes forever.
Computer and cartridge recycling is a great first step toward capturing technical nutrients (high value resources!) from the food chain.
peace.
Tony
Ron Schenone
August 29th, 2007
at 11:43am
Hello Tony,
Thanks for sharing your thoughts with us. They are appreciated.
Ron
Lee
October 31st, 2007
at 5:21pm
I really think being green is just being conscious of how much of our natural resources we use or abuse. Conserving energy and water, limiting pollution, recycling, choosing natural products over Styrofoam and plastics… things like that. I’m not saying you have to start foregoing toilet paper and brushing your teeth with pure baking soda, just pay attention to what impact you have on th environment, We are replacing our bathroom and our choosing green fixtures. Water saving shower head, water saving toilet, tankless water heater.. things like that. I found a lot of the product ideas at Enviro Pages.
Ron Schenone
November 1st, 2007
at 5:38am
Hi Lee,
Thanks for the comments and the link.
Exothermic Reaction
July 8th, 2008
at 6:34pm
Well, I did post a nice story about how it is good to be green, but many of the so called green mandates fail to consider the total impact of what the propose.
I got the following error:
Sorry, your comment has been rejected because it contains one or more of the following words: (the name of a state starting with T and ending with s).
Please try posting your comment again, but without these words.
I would repost it, but the page is lost.
So I’ll just let you wonder what I had to say on the subject.
Ron Schenone
July 8th, 2008
at 6:54pm
Thanks. I just tried writing Tex s and mine was rejected as well.
I’ll pass this on.
TIA, Ron