Green IT : Future of IT will be green alternatives

Recently while attending a seminar talking about innovation I came across a Presentation about LED Lighting. As the presentation progressed I came to realize how much Potential LED holds for us.

Apart from saving Energy compared to the regular Bulbs or Tubes that are used these also provide innovation in the Look and Feel.

So what are LEDs basically ?

Light emitting diodes, commonly called LEDs, are real unsung heroes in the electronics world. They do dozens of different jobs and are found in all kinds of devices. Among other things, they form the numbers on digital clocks, transmit information from remote controls, light up watches and tell you when your appliances are turned on. Collected together, they can form images on a jumbo television screen or illuminate a traffic light.

Basically, LEDs are just tiny light bulbs that fit easily into an electrical circuit. But unlike ordinary incandescent bulbs, they don’t have a filament that will burn out, and they don’t get especially hot. They are illuminated solely by the movement of electrons in a semiconductor material, and they last just as long as a standard transistor.

What are the advantages of using LED s ?

LEDs have several advantages over conventional incandescent lamps. For one thing, they don’t have a filament that will burn out, so they last much longer. Additionally, their small plastic bulb makes them a lot more durable. They also fit more easily into modern electronic circuits.

But the main advantage is efficiency. In conventional incandescent bulbs, the light-production process involves generating a lot of heat (the filament must be warmed). This is completely wasted energy, unless you’re using the lamp as a heater, because a huge portion of the available electricity isn’t going toward producing visible light. LEDs generate very little heat, relatively speaking. A much higher percentage of the electrical power is going directly to generating light, which cuts down on the electricity demands considerably.

Up until recently, LEDs were too expensive to use for most lighting applications because they’re built around advanced semiconductor material. The price of semiconductor devices has plummeted over the past decade, however, making LEDs a more cost-effective lighting option for a wide range of situations. While they may be more expensive than incandescent lights up front, their lower cost in the long run can make them a better buy. In the future, they will play an even bigger role in the world of technology.

But the important thing is LEDs are now practically being used. In India in a City called Pune this has replaced the conventional lightning mechanism.

If the street lighting in Pune was to change over to using LED street lights,this is how it would pan out.Pune has about 1,50,000 street lights, most of them being 250 watts Sodium Vapour.At a special rate of Rs.2.90 / kW, the electricity the PMC coughs up is approximately Rs.11 lakhs per day and carbon emitted by these inefficient lights is nearly 161 tons.By using LED based street lights which consume 45 watts,the PMC will spend Rs.2 lakhs for equal effect and will be save about Rs.60-70 per point per month on maintenance costs.Along with this the city will be benefited reduced carbon emission of approximately 130 tons per night.The value of carbon units amounts to more than Rs.2 lakhs per day.This means the city would be lit up at no cost!

A consumer handbook on how individuals and families can reduce their carbon footprint and monthly outgoings has been published by WWF. The WWF Pocket Guide to a One Planet Lifestyle contains top tips on how to be more environmentally-friendly in the home, the workplace and when planning a holiday.

The booklet’s publication follows the recent launch by WWF of their “Living Planet Report” which warned that humanity was heading towards an “ecological credit crunch”. It revealed that we currently use 30 per cent more resources than the planet’s ecosystems can naturally replenish. If everyone on earth had the same lifestyle as an average North American, we would need five planets to meet the demands for energy and resources. Europeans have a “three planet lifestyle”.

The One Planet Lifestyle guide also attempts to set a new standard in sustainable publishing. Available primarily as an online e-book, the printed version is produced digitally on-demand on FSC certified paper and bound by screw rivets so that readers can easily unbind the book and insert updates, thus avoiding the need for printing new editions. The paper size has been chosen to reduce wastage to virtually zero, and only uses non-hazardous inks.

WWF has researched a series of “Ten Top Tips” of how we can reduce the ecological footprint of our homes, eating habits and methods of travel. These are coupled with tools to help us measure our footprint, and reduce and neutralise CO2 emissions. There are model “sustainability plans” for companies to put into practice.

Please follow the link below to know more:

http://www.panda.org/about_wwf/what_we_do/policy/news/index.cfm?uNewsID=151361

We all know about the challenges that India is facing in dealing with rising demand for Houses and Buildings apart from Corporate houses. The Metro Cities are exploding with Construction with not even an inch to spare. All this is leading to deforestation and increase in Pollution level. The Rising temperatures and increase in Environmental Pollution all signify that somewhere India has to rethink the way new Constructions are done.

 Leading the way is an Indian Architect Karan Grover. The architect has taken initiatives to Renovate the way in which Construction is done. He says he gets inspiration from Ancient Indian Architectures which not only managed with less resources but were also Eco Friendly.

Traditional Indian architecture not only reflected ancient ecosystem but it evolved out of environment. Natural solutions had to be found for extremes of Heat and Cold, to searing winds and torrential rains.

While it may come as a surprise to many that the world’s ‘greenest’ building stands on Indian soil, a reading of the specifications of the CII-Sohrabji Godrej Green Business Centre (GBC) in Hyderabad is enough to dispel any doubts.

Designed by Vadodara-based architect Karan Grover, the 20,000-square-foot business centre, which stands on a five-acre site, uses the traditional Indian circular courtyard design to enhance air and light.

The design incorporates a number of energy-saving features. Two 45-foot wind towers and screen walls provide air pre-cooled by 10 degrees to the air-conditioning system, thereby reducing the amount of energy required for cooling. Says Grover: “This is called the ‘venturi effect’ in modern buildings. It helps pre-cool the air.” Pointing out the jali (lattice) work in a photograph of the Taj Mahal, he explains: “It’s not the first time for India. We have been doing it since ancient times.”

The Rs 6 crore structure also has photovoltaic panels built into it to generate solar energy that takes care of 20% of the building’s annual energy requirements. Likewise, the electrical fixtures have been automated to save power; 90% of the building does not require any artificial lighting during the day because its circular design allows sunlight to reach every part of it. The building also boasts variable speed motors for its blowers and pumps, and the elaborate use of sensors feeding back to the controls.

Thanks to its circular design, fewer materials were used in the building’s construction. Those that were, were recycled and eco-friendly — broken mosaic tiles, steel, wood, glass, fly ash brick, oil-and CFC-free equipment and the locally-available bettum cherla stone. Inside, all the carpets and paint are non-toxic. The workers employed in the building’s construction were all local people.

Water is regarded as a precious resource — the building employs water-harvesting methods and wastewater is treated on-site and diverted for storage, to a water body on the edge of the plot, to be used for the garden. Here again there is a harking back to ancient architecture. “The root zone water regeneration system we have used in the GBC is very common in Mughal gardens,” says Grover.

Given all these factors, bagging the title of the world’s greenest building, awarded by the United States Green Building Council (USGBC), Pittsburgh, was a cinch. The council recognises structures that combine new technologies and materials with energy-efficient architecture.

Grover’s design received an unprecedented ‘Version 2 Platinum’ rating, credited with 57 of the 62 parameters it competed in, under the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED), a system of rating environmentally conscious buildings. This is the highest possible award for sustainable design, ahead of ‘Version 1 Platinum’, won by only three other buildings in the United States. In fact, the Indian design was considered so revolutionary that the USGBC had to upgrade its rating system to recognise its unique characteristics.

“We have hundreds of years of legacy in such construction, which we have all but forgotten. We decided to revive all our traditional methods and present it in the modern idiom,” said Grover who received the USGBC award in Pittsburgh, on November 14.

Awards aside, what is significant about the Hyderabad building is that it is dedicated to propagating environmental consciousness among Indian industry.

The Hyderabad building, which will be formally inaugurated in January 2004, was conceived by the CII (Confederation of Indian Industry)-Godrej combine during US President Bill Clinton’s 2000 visit to the city. Former head of the CII, Jamshed Godrej, funded the project, which received active support from Andhra Pradesh chief minister Chandrababu Naidu. Godrej named the building after his uncle, an ardent environmentalist.

Grover himself is not new to the green approach. His design for the CII-ABB Centre for Quality, outside Bangalore, is already known for its eco-friendliness. Preserving history has been part of his work since his student days — from his Masters on housing for the urban poor in London to getting world monument status for the medieval site of Champaner in Gujarat.

Grover is delighted that his project has won such recognition. “From the very beginning we aimed to get the top award in the business, not for the sake of the award but simply to showcase some of our forgotten methods,” he says.

Grover is one of the few men taking initiatives to think for the future. Eco Designs  is the need of the hour and it will certainly help in redefining the future of many nations.

With technology gearing up to face the future major transformations are going on. Its an all new world with a different approach to change the effects that gases like CO2 are having and to make things better and eco friendly.

Initiatives have been taken in the IT sector and in the electronics sector with Investments being made to develop Products that are Environment Friendly.

LG recently presented its Laptop, an ecological laptop concept that uses fuel cell batteries and features organic light-emitting diode (OLED) display technology. This concept notebook received a Red Dot Award nomination for “Best Concept Design” for 2006. The batteries of the LG e-Book use natural gas, methanol, and other eco-friendly liquid fuels. The fuel is stored in a transparent cylindrical hinge. The LG’s future laptop uses organic light-emitting diode (OLED) panels for display instead of the current liquid crystal display (LCD) panel. Unlike LCD, OLED does not need a frame around it, and it consumes less electricity. The keypad will also be made of a singe OLED panel, like the one used in LGs Chocolate Phone.

So the new buzz is the use of OLEDs. Currently, OLEDs are used in small-screen devices such as cell phones, PDAs and digital cameras.OLED’s are extremely flexible and have a wide viewing angle, low power and high contrast ratio. Viewing content on an OLED laptop will certainly be more entertaining then content on a normal OLED screen. Imagine rolling up your laptop and storing it in your pocket until you get to your local cafe where you can unroll and use it instantly!

So lets get started by understanding the concept of OLED and how it will storm the market and change the way Electronic Products look and work.

OLED !!

Imagine having a high-definition TV that is 80 inches wide and less than a quarter-inch thick, consumes less power than most TVs on the market today and can be rolled up when you’re not using it. What if you could have a “heads up” display in your car? How about a display monitor built into your clothing? These devices may be possible in the near future with the help of a technology called organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs).

OLEDs are solid-state devices composed of thin films of organic molecules that create light with the application of electricity. OLEDs can provide brighter, crisper displays on electronic devices and use less power than conventional light-emitting diodes (LEDs) or liquid crystal displays (LCDs) used today.

That was a little sneak peak on the world of OLED. There are a number of useful resources on internet to gain an insight into the working of OLEDs.

Several companies have already built prototype computer monitors and large-screen TVs that use OLED technology. In May 2005, Samsung Electronics announced that it had developed a prototype 40-inch, OLED-based, ultra-slim TV, the first of its size [source: Kanellos]. And in October 2007, Sony announced that it would be the first to market with an OLED television.

Research and development in the field of OLEDs is proceeding rapidly and may lead to future applications in heads-up displays, automotive dashboards, billboard-type displays, home and office lighting and flexible displays. Because OLEDs refresh faster than LCDs — almost 1,000 times faster — a device with an OLED display could change information almost in real time. Video images could be much more realistic and constantly updated. The newspaper of the future might be an OLED display that refreshes with breaking news (think “Minority Report”) — and like a regular newspaper, you could fold it up when you’re done reading it and stick it in your backpack or briefcase.

The future cerainly belongs to OLED enabled devices and this will further help in achieving better things but not at the cost of Environment.

Major debates are on to find solutions to the increasing effects of Global Warming. Studies show that there is no time left to start moving to alternatives if Planet Earth is to be saved from the effects of Global Warming.

Right from Floods and Natural Calamities to rising temperatures all are consequences of this phenomenon.

The amount of Carbon Dioxide in the atmosphere is a major contributor to Green House effect.

So what is Green House effect?

Water vapour, carbon-dioxide and methane form a natural blanket of air around the Earth. However, the burning of fossil fuels and deforestation has led to a massive increase in the amount of carbon-dioxide released into the atmosphere. We are also releasing larger quantities of other greenhouse gases, such as methane and nitrous oxide. The surface of the earth is heated by the sun. As it warms up, it reflects heat back into the atmosphere. About 70% of the sun’s energy is radiated back into space. But some of the infrared radiation is trapped by greenhouse gases, which warm the atmosphere, and reflect heat back down to Earth.
As a result of the greenhouse effect, the Earth is kept warm enough to make life possible. But some scientists say that increased emissions of greenhouse gases are disturbing the balance of this complex system, causing global warming. In the last 100 years, the average global temperature has increased by about 0.4 to 0.8° C.

Consequences :

Right from Floods and Droughts this will lead to rising temperatures due to which glaciers will melt and subsequently continents will start sinking.

Saving Earth :

Numerous debates are beng done and efforts are being made to switch to alternative sources of energy so that harmful gases such as Carbon Dioxide can be prevented.
Its neccessary on every nations part to come up with innovative solutions to handle this problem.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is known for its inspections of nuclear facilities around the world. But it’s quite surprising to learn that the IAEA is collaborating with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) to apply nuclear science to food security. ‘IAEA scientists use radiation to produce improved high-yielding plants that adapt to harsh climate conditions such as drought or flood, or that are resistant to certain diseases and insect pests.’ This mutation induction technique has been used for a number of years — even if I’m discovering this today. More than 3,000 crop varieties of some 170 different plant species have been released through the direct intervention of the IAEA, from rice to barley, and from bananas to grapefruits. But read more on this at :

Nuclear technology to beat world hunger?

Printed materials weigh a lot. From books to corporate brochures, these bulky materials are costly to ship and costly for the environment in terms of emissions from the planes, trains and trucks that transport them.

Normally, books are printed in one place, shipped worldwide to distributors and then forwarded to booksellers, each step of which can significantly contribute to the total volume of greenhouse gases an organization or company emits.

That opens a niche for what some organizations and entrepreneurs are calling “green” publishing — using technology to print these materials on-site rather than burn money and fuel on shipping.

(Newspapers like the International Herald Tribune, owned by The New York Times Company, already use information technology to print hundreds of thousands of copies sent by satellite to dozens of print sites around the world every day.)

According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, a think tank for industrialized countries, “green” publishing is particularly appropriate for readers and customers in far-flung global markets.

Fittingly, starting on Tuesday, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in Paris will be printing and selling its latest primer on sustainable development, “O.E.C.D. Insights: Sustainable Development,” at a bookstore in Australia on a device called the Espresso Book Machine.

The machines also will be used to print the book, which aims to outline ways countries can promote sustainable economic growth, as needed at locations in the United States, Canada, Britain and Egypt.

The O.E.C.D. says that by using the machine – which prints books on demand complete with color cover in a few minutes – will be practicing what it preaches: Each of the books printed and sold through the Angus & Robertson bookshop in Melbourne will save 5.8 kilograms in carbon emissions, the agency calculates.

“Using this approach, publishing can become a ‘just-in-time’ business that is both economically more efficient and friendlier to the environment,” said Toby Green, the head of publishing at the O.E.C.D.

But like so much that is leaner and greener, the initiative comes at a cost.

The Espresso Book Machine, made by a company called On Demand Books, costs about $100,000 for a single unit. Still, On Demand Books says the concept of what it calls an “ATM for books” has a bright future and that it already has printed, bound and automatically trimmed thousands of “library-quality perfect-bound” books in sites across the world.

(That would include the New York Public Library, which began experimenting with an E.B.M. unit in the summer of 2007.)

Mr. Green of the O.E.C.D. said bookstores and libraries around the world either lease or buy the machines from On Demand Books. He said revenue from printing the book on sustainable development would be split in roughly three ways, between the bookstore and On Demand Books and with a royalty for the O.E.C.D.

The biggest changes to shake up architecture in a long time may have their origins in the very, very small. Nanotechnology, the understanding and control of matter at a scale of one- to one hundred-billionths of a meter, is bringing incredible changes to the materials and processes of building. How ready we are to embrace them could make a big difference in the future of architectural practice. Read the full article on nanotechnology in architecture by GTF director George Elvin in Architect magazine :

http://www.architectmagazine.com/industry-news.asp?sectionID=1006&articleID=492836&artnum=1

Last year, Steve Jobs promised that Apple work work toward less toxic, easier-to-recycle consumer products. So how do the new iPod Nanos measure up?

It came as no surprise to the consumer electronic press that Apple introduced a sleek new line of iPod Nanos at its “Let’s Rock” media event Tuesday afternoon. The Nano media players was a bit overdue for a refresh, and it’s the time of year when companies look ahead to the Christmas retail season.

But the attention given during Steve Jobs’ presentation to the environmental improvements to the 4th generation Nanos underlines how seriously the company takes improving its Green cred. That’s a tough sell for the electronics industry. Those cute little entertainment devices and wireless phones we carry around punch beyond their weight in terms of materials you’d rather not see getting back into our soil and drinking water: Brominated Fire Retardants (BFRs), Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC), and a variety of exotic metals used in semiconductors.

Green My Apple :

Apple’s environmental policies began drawing fire a couple years back when Greenpeace mounted its Green My Apple website. The campaign highlighted Apple’s lack of leadership in Green electronics — something you wouldn’t expect from a commercial concern so geared to artsy, socially aware consumers.

We love Apple. Apple knows more about “clean” design than anybody, right? So why do Macs, iPods, iBooks and the rest of their product range contain hazardous substances that other companies have abandoned? A cutting edge company shouldn’t be cutting lives short by exposing children in China and India to dangerous chemicals. That’s why we Apple fans need to demand a new, cool product: a greener Apple.

– From the Green My Apple website

Apple responds

In the spring of 2007, Apple responded with a five-page environmental statement called a Greener Apple. While pointing out that the company had, indeed, been making progress, Company CEO Steve Jobs laid out an aggressive program to reduce product toxicity and improve recyclability by 2010.

Specifically targeted: reducing lead, cadmium, arsenic, mercury, and PVCs in computers and home entertainment components. Apple has also been giving some thought to its packaging, opting for biodegradable materials and reducing unnecessary bulk wherever possible. This summer’s 3G iPhones shipped in Styrofoam-free trays made from potato starch.

Greener Nanos

At today’s Apple event — staged to introduce a general overhaul of the company’s iPod line and announce the availability of iTunes 8 — Jobs took a few minutes to highlight some of the environmental improvements to the new Nano line. They include:

Arsenic-free display glass
Construction free of Brominated Flame Retardants (BFRs)
No use of mercury
No use of PVCs
Highly recyclable metal casings
These moves are consistent with Apple’s promise to green its products as suitable eco-friendly materials and technologies become available. Of course, dedicated Greenies will resist impulse purchases of manufactured goods, particularly those manufactured and shipped from overseas. But for most consumers, programs such as Apple’s represent a growing trend by companies to respect consumer desire for cleaner, less toxic products.

The new Nanos are priced at $149 for 8 GB storage and $199 for 16 GB. Featuring nine colors, an improved video display, and the addition of the motion-sensing accelerometer first introduced in Apple’s popular iPhone, they’re already onsale at the Apple Store. Retail outlets should stocked by this weekend.

Information Technology is a sector that is contributing not only in the automation of all processes but also in making life easier and effortless. But in achieving this the IT firms are facing issues when it comes to making the process Eco Friendly.

Context of Green IT: The Information Technology industry is responsible for greater than 2% of global CO² emissions, most resulting from the power consumption of PCs, servers and cooling systems. Most of the IT industry stakeholders are looking at devising their own green strategies, and are zeroing in on innovative measures to achieve their objectives.Green IT starts with manufacturers producing environmentally friendly products and encouraging IT departments to consider more friendly options like virtualization, power management and proper recycling habits.

What is Green IT? “Green IT” is an important agenda that most of the IT industry must deal with. Government organizations are more directly challenged because they play key roles in regulating and supervising environmental impact and because green IT will become more politically sensitive going forward. Green IT has three dimensions that one has to consider before embarking on crafting out a Green IT strategy,
A) Meeting regulatory needs

B) Reduce CO² emissions as a social responsibility

C) Adopting and promoting Green policies.

What organizations can do about Green IT?Greener business and healthier bottom line is what every company aspire for. Organizations can take numerous Green IT initiatives to help address their environmental responsibilities whilst maintaining or improving costs and service levels.

IT Related iniatitives

A) Greener Data Centres that ensure lesser emission and

smarter cooling

B) Better and smarter cooling systems for machine and people

C) Usage of tight policies on screen saver, shut desktops after

office hours

D) Usage of Grid computing, virtualization and KVM

E) Architect an application or hardware with Conscience

F) Use of technology to stitch the gap for communication and transport department thus enabling smarter utilization of company provided transport. Other areas are in the space of Building Automation Systems (BAS) which controls the lighting and temperature of the facilities.

G) Convergence of IT systems thus enabling lesser space utilization per person, thus bring down the overall area per square feet requirment per employee.

HR Related iniatitives

A) Introduce Work from home option where ever possible

B) Move to complete paperless office

C) Introducing CO² burn points against each BU/LOB

D) Creating Green policies that would be part of G&O of individuals

Enterprise Related iniatitives

A) Greener buildings

B) Use natural light and Change all light bulbs into CFL

C) Smarter options of landscaping the office premise

D) Telecommute instead of air travel

E) Use the power of Sun to fuel the energy requirements

F) Sensible ways to dispose e-waste

G) Ensuring no plastic bags are used for any product that is sold by the corporate

Conclusion: India has several large companies that has ingredients which can make it successful in the alternative energy area: availability of natural resources, cost-effective engineering and manufacturing talent. It also has the will to identify green iniatiatives. Its important that these iniatiatives have clear agenda in each sphere of the organization. This topic clearly identifies the IT side of the story.

If we were to go back to our early adaptor of green buildings, Emperor Shahjahan and if he were alive today, surely he could have gone in for a LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification for the Taj Mahal and his other magnificent buildings and palaces. In fact, he could have earned quite a few million dollars through the CERs gained (much like Olympia Technology Park). The money earned could have easily gone in to finance the Black Taj Mahal that he wished to make. And we would have one more magnificent edifice that we could admire and pride on.