Green touch to the technology

Green computing is also usually referred to as Green IT. The idea is to have least human impact on the environment. Apart from this, it aims to achieve environmental sustainability through environmentally responsible use of computers and their resources.
21st century is the ear of computers, gadgets, technologies and these are fuming the energy issues. As the topics like global warming, climate change, carbon emission is getting hotter; it’s the time to “go green” not in our regular life but also in technology.

Green computing or green IT, refers to environmentally sustainable computing or IT, efficient use of resources in computing. This term generally relates to the use of computing resources in conjunction with minimizing environmental impact, maximizing economic viability and ensuring social duties. Most of us think computers are nonpolluting and consume very little energy but this is a wrong notion. It is estimated that out of $250 billion per year spent on powering computers worldwide only about 15% of that power is spent computing- the rest is wasted idling. Thus, energy saved on computer hardware and computing will equate tonnes of carbon emissions saved per year. Taking into consideration the popular use of information technology industry, it has to lead a revolution of sorts by turning green in a manner no industry has ever done before.

Green It is "the study and practice of designing, manufacturing, using, and disposing of computers, servers, and associated subsystems—such as monitors, printers, storage devices, and networking and communications systems—efficiently and effectively with minimal or no impact on the environment. It includes the dimensions of environmental sustainability, the economics of energy efficiency, and the total cost of ownership, which includes the cost of disposal and recycling."

Opportunities lie in green technology like never before in history and organizations are seeing it as a way to create new profit centres while trying to help the environmental cause. The plan towards green IT should include new electronic products and services with optimum efficiency and all possible options towards energy savings. Like recycling computing equipment can keep harmful materials such as lead, mercury, and hexavalent chromium out of landfills, and can also replace equipment that otherwise would need to be manufactured, saving further energy and emissions. power supply are helping fix this by running at 80% efficiency or better. Power management soft-wares also help the computers to sleep or hibernate when not in use. On the far horizon, reversible computing (which also includes quantum computing) promises to reduce power consumption by a factor of several thousand, but such systems are still very much in the laboratories. The best way to recycle a computer, however, is to keep it and upgrade it. Further, it is important to design computers which can be powered with low power obtained from non-conventional energy sources like solar energy, pedaling a bike, turning a hand-crank etc.

Modern IT systems rely upon a complicated mix of networks and hardware; as such, a green computing initiative must cover all of these areas as well. There are considerable economic motivations for companies to take control of their own power consumption; of the power management tools available, one of the most powerful may still be simple, plain, common sense.
Product longevity
PC manufacturing process accounts for 70 % of the natural resources used in the life cycle of a PC. "Look for product longevity, including upgradeability and modularity." For instance, manufacturing a new PC makes a far bigger ecological footprint than manufacturing a new RAM module to upgrade an existing one, a common upgrade that saves the user having to purchase a new computer.
Resource allocation
Algorithms can also be used to route data to data centers where electricity is less expensive. This approach does not actually reduce the amount of energy being used; it only reduces the cost to the company using it. However, a similar strategy could be used to direct traffic to rely on energy that is produced in a more environmentally friendly or efficient way. A similar approach has also been used to cut energy usage by routing traffic away from data centers experiencing warm weather; this allows computers to be shut down to avoid using air conditioning.
Virtualization
Computer virtualization refers to the abstraction of computer resources, such as the process of running two or more logical computer systems on one set of physical hardware
Terminal servers
Terminal servers have also been used in green computing. When using the system, users at a terminal connect to a central server; all of the actual computing is done on the server, but the end user experiences the operating system on the terminal. These can be combined with thin clients, who use up to 1/8 the amount of energy of a normal workstation, resulting in a decrease of energy costs and consumption.
Power management
The Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI), an open industry standard, allows an operating system to directly control the power-saving aspects of its underlying hardware. This allows a system to automatically turn off components such as monitors and hard drives after set periods of inactivity. In addition, a system may hibernate, where most components (including the CPU and the system RAM) are turned off.
With this green vision, the industry has been focusing on power efficiency throughout the design and manufacturing process of its products using a range of clean-computing strategies, and the industry is striving to educate markets on the benefits of green computing for the sake of the environment, as well as productivity and overall user experience. And few initiatives will change the overall structure:
Carbon-free computing
The idea is to reduce the "carbon footprint" of users — the amount of greenhouse gases produced, measured in units of carbon dioxide (CO2). PC products certified carbon free, taking responsibility for the amounts of CO2 they emit. The company’s use of silicon-on-insulator (SOI) technology in its manufacturing, and strained silicon capping films on transistors (known as “dual stress liner” technology), have contributed to reduced power consumption in its products.
Solar Computing
Solar cells fit power-efficient silicon, platform, and system technologies and enable to develop fully solar-powered devices that are nonpolluting, silent, and highly reliable. Solar cells require very little maintenance throughout their lifetime, and once initial installation costs are covered, they provide energy at virtually no cost.
Energy-efficient computing
Green-computing initiative is the development of energy-efficient platforms for low-power, small-form-factor (SFF) computing devices. In 2005, VIA company introduced the VIA C7-M and VIA C7 processors that have a maximum power consumption of 20W at 2.0GHz and an average power consumption of 1W. These energy-efficient processors produce over four times less carbon during their operation and can be efficiently embedded in solar-powered devices. Intel, the world's largest semiconductor maker, revealed eco-friendly products at a recent conference in London. The company uses virtualization software, a technique that enables Intel to combine several physical systems into a virtual machine that runs on a single, powerful base system, thus significantly reducing power consumption.
Power supply
Desktop computer power supplies (PSUs) are generally 70–75% efficient, dissipating the remaining energy as heat. An industry initiative called 80 PLUS certifies PSUs that are at least 80% efficient; typically these models are drop-in replacements for older, less efficient PSUs of the same form factor. As of July 20, 2007, all new Energy Star 4.0-certified desktop PSUs must be at least 80% efficient.
Storage
Smaller form factor (e.g. 2.5 inch) hard disk drives often consume less power per gigabyte than physically larger drives.


Green use — reducing the energy consumption of computers and other information systems as well as using them in an environmentally sound manner
Green disposal — refurbishing and reusing old computers and properly recycling unwanted computers and other electronic equipment
Green design — designing energy-efficient and environmentally sound components, computers, servers, cooling equipment, and data centers
Green manufacturing — manufacturing electronic components, computers, and other associated subsystems with minimal impact on the environment