You don’t need to have seen ‘An Inconvenient Truth’ of read the latest climate change research to know that the world is facing an environmental crisis. According to the government commissioned Stern Report, global warming – if left untackled – will have serious consequences for us all: it only takes a global temperature rise of another 2 degrees for between 15% and 40% of species to face extinction.
We in the UK might not be in the firing line, but neither can we afford to be complacent and we can all do a little bit to help.
According to figures from the ecological analysis firm Best Foot Forward, computers are responsible for 2.6% of the UK’s energy consumption. What’s more, the PC and consumer electronics industries consume a surprising amount of energy and resources, and are rapidly creating a huge mountain of waste, much of it dangerous.
If you are concerned about the environment, but still feel that a PC is an important part of your life, there are things you can do to help and keep computing.
Recycling
More Recycling - Printers and Ink
New Green Computers
During the lifetime of your PC
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Recycling is a very important issue; one RHCC take seriously. Nowadays many of the new computers that are sold replace an obsolete model that needs to be disposed of somehow. RHCC don’t believe in such waste. Where possible we try to advise on upgrades for your current computer, however if this is not possible we are happy to take away any old computers or obsolete parts for recycling when we visit.
All unwanted parts we acquire are fully tested, and if still working or can be repaired, are either sold on as Second User Parts in our shop or passes on to a local charity for use in new computers for the Third World. If any parts cannot be repaired, only then are they taken to a recycle centre for careful and secure destruction. Did you know that every single element of every circuit board can be broken down and used again?
We would NEVER consider sending any of our waste to a landfill site and neither should you!
While we believe in this method of recycling, we also realize that obsolete computers often contain very sensitive and personal data. Security of your data is important to us and in this respect we DO NOT attempt to repair of resell any second user Hard Drives or other storage hardware. All Hard Drives are disabled on site to prevent any future use, before being taken to a recycling centre for secure destruction. A certificate to this effect can be obtained if required.
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Recycling doesn’t just mean old parts though. Many empty ink cartridges can either be recycled or even refilled (which saves you money). Likewise recycling in this manner also helps raise money for charity, as well as saving the environment. If you don’t currently recycle your empty ink cartridges, please feel free to use the link below and help raise money for our chosen local charity – Paws and Claws Animal Rescue.
Equally if you are looking to buy an inkjet printer take time to look at its ink consumption as not all inkjets are equally efficient. In fact there is a surprisingly large disparity in terms of how much ink in a cartridge ends up on the page. According to tests carried out by PC Pro, only half of the ink used in an Epson R240 actually ended up on the page in addition to the fact that Epson cartridges have limited recycling possibilities, while Hewlett Packard printers were much more efficient, with more than 95% of the ink being used. HP has been pushing its Vivera cartridge technology for exactly this reason.
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Many companies are slowly but surely unveiling the addition of ‘green’ computers to their range. RHCC are also keen to follow suit and provide you with green alternatives.
In the shop you will find the highly recommended Esprimo from Fujitsu-Siemens.
This versatile desktop computer combines high expandability with the latest technology and environmental conscience, providing an environmentally conscious design, with silent and reliable operation, and secure and easy administration. The Esprimo has much the same power as our Net Cruiser with the added benefits of:
- Lower Energy Consumption – Helping to reduce not only the impact on the environment, but also the impact on your wallet. With
- Switched Monitor Outlet, which powers to display through the system. Switching of the system means that you disconnect the display, thereby saving up to 20% of the display’s annual power consumption.
- Software and BIOS power management solutions to reduce the overall average power consumption.
- A comprehensive set of manageability features and sophisticated security solutions also add further to the total cost of ownership reductions.
- Built with specially selected materials, including lead-free soldering and the use of N2 gas rather than water to wash the circuit boards after soldering to save valuable resources, the Esprimo Green PC brings economy and ecology in harmony. Equally from development to production, from transport to recycling, the Esprimo is built to minimise the impact on the environment and limit the use of unrecoverable resources.
- Sophisticated hardware design with optimised fans and air flow that provides an almost silent system for an efficient working environment.
- Access and data protection with sophisticated hardware and software components for secure systems, with the additional benefits of secure data and limited access with SmartCard Reader.
- Versatile desktop case, which can be positioned either horizontally or vertically.
In additional to the environmentally conscience features of the Esprimo, RHCC have also included a carbon neutral package in the price, which plants a tree in the West Sussex area to offset the average energy consumption during the life time of the computer. In theory this provides you with carbon free computing for the future and a slightly clearer conscience!
Carbon Neutral Packages complete with a personalised certificate can also be purchased from our Shop, under the Special Offers Category, so you can help to go some way to offset CO2 emissions, as well as provide wildlife habitats, plant native British trees and enhance the natural UK landscape, no matter which PC or laptop you decide to use. RHCC charge to cover their administration costs only on this product and do not profit from this offer.
RHCC, are also in the process of developing other ‘Green Machines’, including a beautiful rage of sustainable wood cased monitors, keyboards, mice and speakers. So watch this space!
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Even if you are not buying or disposing of equipment, there are measures you can take to reduce your carbon footprint. For a start, you can manage the way you or your computer use power.
A report by the National Energy Foundation in October 2006 estimated that the 1.7 million employees who don’t run off their PCs at the end of the day contribute about 700,000 tones of CO2 emissions every year – that’s equivalent to the annual emissions of 120,000 ‘Chelsea tractors’ or the exhaust emissions of a city the size of Liverpool. This isn’t only helping turn Torquay into a Mediterranean hotspot; it is also costing business an additional £9 per employee per year in electricity bills!
The best solution is to switch off at the plug. Also instead of setting up your computer to run a screen saver, use the power-management setting to suspend all activity when not in use for a while. Did you know that a screen saver actually uses just as much power as the Windows Desktop; even more if it is a 3D intensive Demo! Also make sure you turn off printers and scanners or any other devices when not in use. Similarly don’t leave phones, cameras or PDAs permanently charging and connected to your PC.
- Will switching off damage the PC or my data?
No it won’t. The boot and shutdown process don’t put any significant strain on the PSU or the major components, and modern hard drives are designed to park the head safely away from the surface o the platter when the drive is powered up or down.
- Shouldn’t I leave my PC on to do updates overnight?
No, there is really no need to do this. These days, the processing impact of anti-virus and security updates is minimal, so there is no reason why updates and scans can’t take place while you are working on the computer. And if you have a new dual core CPU system, there is no excuse whatsoever!
If you are waiting for a large download, system update or lengthy scan to run, at least turn off your monitor – especially if the system is going to be left on overnight.
- It wastes time waiting for my computer to start up!
If a system takes longer than a minute to boot, then it needs looking at. And how valuable is one minute in the grand scheme of things?
To make things easy, have everything plugged into one power-strip, preferably with a surge protector to protect it, and switch it off at the end of the day. You could try our recommended OneClick Intelliplug in the shop, which automate the switching off and on of attached peripherals when you power up or down your PC, or look at the other products to offer in the Surge Protection category.
Facts quoted thanks to PC Pro Issue 149 March 2007
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