In his speech at the Conservative party conference last week, Tory leader David Cameron said that the government must create ‘binding targets for carbon reduction, year on year’, so that equipment that produces more carbon is more expensive.
As Cameron says, such measures will place a heavy responsibility on business, and firms are increasingly looking at ways to reduce environmental impact without spending more money.
Power-hungry and environmentally toxic computer hardware is a good place to start. The sixth point of Computing’s Green Charter is: when purchasing new IT equipment, choose energy-saving devices that have been manufactured in an environmentally-conscious fashion.
With the European Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) directive due to come into force in January, and the Reduction of Hazardous Substances (ROHS) law already in force, the legal requirements placed on electronic equipment will only increase.
‘Businesses are now forced by legislation to take responsibility for their products from the manufacturing stage right through to disposal in terms of their environmental impacts,’ said a spokesman for government advisory group Envirowise.
The environmental impact of IT hardware falls into two categories: the toxic chemicals used in the manufacturing process; and the level of energy efficiency when the product is used.
Recent independent laboratory tests of various IT hardware by environmental pressure group Greenpeace found several highly toxic chemicals – including lead, brominated flame retardants (BFRs) and polyvinyl chloride plastics – in a number of products from some of the world’s leading manufacturers.
Several big hardware suppliers have green policies, but Dell and HP are leading the way in practice, says Greenpeace toxics campaigner Iza Kruszewska.
‘Dell and HP have made commitments and given us timelines that set out when they will stop using these hazardous chemicals,’ said Kruszewska.
‘Most companies have stopped using poisonous substances in the casings of computers, but the most toxic parts are the semi-conductors and circuit boards.
‘We still don’t know what goes in to making semi-conductors, but the resins used to build circuit boards all contain brominated chemicals,’ she said.
Poisonous components cause problems regardless of whether the equipment is discarded, recycled, smelted or incinerated, says Kruszewska.
Historically, businesses have not paid much attention to where their electronic waste goes or how toxic it is.
Greenpeace has found BFRs and high levels of lead in scrap yards in China and India, often the final resting place of other countries’ hardware. But green schemes across the world are starting to make a difference.
The US Electric Product Environmental Assessment Tool initiative offers environmentally friendly procurement guidelines for business buyers, and Japan has green purchasing laws.
The UK’s ROHS law came into effect in July. This law prohibits manufacturers from selling equipment that contain excessive levels of restricted chemicals such as cadmium, mercury and hexavalent chromium.
And both the European Commission and the UK government are working on green procurement guidelines, which will include IT hardware.
Businesses are in a strong position to encourage suppliers to do more, says Rakesh Kumar, vice president at analyst Gartner.
‘Vendors do not really have a policy in manufacturing that entails the proactive use of materials that can be recycled, and if you look further down the food chain it goes down to component suppliers who may not really give a hoot about issues such as these,’ said Kumar.
‘Energy efficiency will become a much more critical buying criteria, because it will save businesses money,’ he said.
Gartner is also considering a green label scheme as part of its hardware evaluation criteria.
Schemes for rating the environmental friendliness of office equipment are starting to take off. The Energy Star label is a European Union and US initiative to identify and promote energy efficient hardware.
The initiative is less well-known outside the US, where it helped save $12bn (£6.4bn) on utility bills in 2005. But awareness is growing and the British government is vocally backing the scheme.
Department of Trade and Industry energy minister Malcolm Wicks says Energy Star could make a real difference.
‘If we are serious about tackling climate change and developing a more sustainable society, we must ensure that we power our economy and adopt a way of life that is cleaner, greener and more efficient,’ said Wicks.
‘Because of Energy Star, new PC models available from August this year already show a significant improvement in energy consumption even compared with models that were released this spring,’ he said.
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