Interesting read, should give Mr Brown another excuse for a stealth tax,

Couldn't read the article for some reason, but surely that argument depends on how the electricity used for PCs is generated - both in production and in use. It's a bit like the argument for electric cars: they're all very well provided the electricity used to charge the batteries comes from a non-polluting (and in an ideal world, renewable) source. If not, you might as well stick to petrol - it works out as LESS polluting overall!

Disingenuous.

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News [Desktop computers]

Friday 27th April 2007

Computing rivals aviation for CO2 emissions - Gartner 10:35AM, Friday 27th April 2007

The global information and communications technology (ICT) industry generates as much CO2 as aviation, according to new research by Gartner.

Gartner estimates that ICT accounts for around two per cent of global carbon dioxide emissions. The research firm believes that despite the overall environmental value of IT, this level is unsustainable.

ITC CO2 emissions combine output from the daily use of PCs, servers, cooling, fixed and mobile telephony, local area network (LAN), office telecommunications and printers. Plus, it includes amounts generated in the design, manufacture and distribution of large-volume devices, notably PCs and mobile phones. The Gartner figure also includes all commercial and governmental IT and telecommunications infrastructure worldwide, but not consumer electronics (other than cell phones and PCs).

'During the next five years, increasing financial, environmental, legislative and risk-related pressures will force IT organisations to get "greener"; that is to say, more environmentally sustainable,' said Simon Mingay, research vice president, Gartner. 'When enough buyers start demanding it and we get beyond the superficial, being "less bad" will no longer be anywhere near acceptable enough. That point will be reached in 2007 and 2008 for some geographies, particularly Europe, with other countries and regions taking longer.'

Gartner notes that until now few organisations were concerned about power costs and CO2 emissions. But, it says, intense media coverage has contributed to making 'environmentalists' out of millions of people worldwide, which is beginning to affect consumer and business buying decisions.

'The issue is no longer about whether the enterprise needs to care, and

more about the risk associated with doing nothing,' it warns businesses.

The ICT industry needs to gain a better understanding of the full life cycle of ICT products and services and to innovate to reduce environmental impact, Gartner argues, adding that this does not currently happen because of the lack of a commercial or legislative pressure. This will change, said Mingay.

'Vendors are being forced to gain a better understanding of the life cycle due to new legislation and directives in countries and regions worldwide, as well as an increasing interest from clients in life cycle assessment,' he said. 'The areas for innovation to reduce CO2 emissions are in the reduction of the materiality, energy consumption and use of hazardous substances throughout the life cycle, in addition to increasing the efficiency and effectiveness of recycling and the use of recycled materials.'

Gartner also recommends that leading ITC companies should develop initiatives that use their own technologies to cut emissions. These could include travel-substitution applications and compliance information tools to manage corporate social responsibility (CSR) and environmental polices.

It says that this could lead to 50 per cent of IT organisations declaring an environmental imperative by 2010,and more than one third of IT organisations having one or more environmental criteria in their top six buying criteria.

In the meantime, there are several measures that an IT department can implement immediately to monitor and reduce CO2 emissions, including: measuring power consumption; consuming fewer servers and printers by increasing use of virtualisation; stopping over-provisioning; improving capacity planning; improving the efficiency of cooling; turning power management on, using a low power state, or turning equipment off after hours; extending the life of assets by reusing within the enterprise and externally; ensuring and validating the correct disposition of all electronic equipment; and analysing all waste.

'Going green is no longer the reserve of a minority "doing the right thing"; it's becoming an essential activity for all IT leaders,' Mingay said.

Nicole Kobie

all that CO2 coming out of my computer must be caused by all the combustion that goes on inside:rolleyes:

mmmmm..

to fold or not to fold.

its ok, i disabled a few buildings in cnc3 so that should save on power output:thumbup:

That article is a lovely work of fiction

Still keeps people in a (pointless)job...

its ok, i disabled a few buildings in cnc3 so that should save on power output:thumbup:

That means you've avoided building that new power station you had your eye on. Very eco mentalist

Go steady on those sonic emitters though, they drink the juice.

On a different note, how much CO2 does ICT save when people can work from home which will save that trip to work or that flight to the New York office?

all that CO2 coming out of my computer must be caused by all the combustion that goes on inside:rolleyes:

Think I'll have mine converted to LPG then

That article is a lovely work of fiction

Still keeps people in a (pointless)job...

Is it me or do Gartner make some serious money from stating the obvious?