Everything's Gone Green... (Oct-07)
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Full story: Everything's Gone Green...(Oct 07)
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Green is the new currency of choice . . . as all hi-tech companies on both sides of the Atlantic scramble over themselves to develop green technologies that are more energy efficient and have the feel-good effect of reducing carbon emissions.
PC makers HP and Dell, chip manufacturers Intel and Advanced Micro Devices, as well as Microsoft and Google, have joined consortia to improve the energy efficiency of hardware within organisations' giant data centres.
This new greening of technology probably owes as much to the colour of money as it does about saving the planet - you don't make money by selling less. At the corporate level the cost of running data centres has soared because of the ever-rising global price of electricity coupled with the fact that the energy consumption of servers and data centres has doubled in the past five years, with experts expecting them to almost double again in the next five years.
While hi-tech companies and their corporate customers have definitely been converted to the need to curtail energy consumption, there are signs that consumers are also seeing the light.
A recent report from Ipsos, suggests a majority of respondents would buy consumer products from companies that demonstrate their environmentally sensitive credentials. These could include an Energy Star label or a manufacturer's commitment to discarding older technology products in an environmentally friendly manner. Once again though, the savvy marketers are making a competitive advantage out of a legal requirement . . . ethical disposal under the newly implemented Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Directive is an obligation, but its already featuring in TV adverts as a value added service.
As far as we the consumers are concerned, it's difficult not to be cynical about our commitment to the green agenda when we see that on purchases such as short haul flights, our loyalty can be bought for anything between £5 and £20. We are a fickle lot!
- Source: National Computing Centre
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