None of us can make do without a computer these days. But few of us think about how our laptops contribute to worldwide warming and global pollution.
Computers still soak up energy and contain toxic material, that ends up in landfills.
Many of the servers and desktop boxes in use soak up significant amounts of electricity. Even more miserly portables are addicted to the juice, as are iPods, cell phones and the like.
Many of these machines also use toxic substances and fail to incorporate recycled material. The result is toxic substances find their way into landfills, particularly in developing countries in Africa and Eastern Europe.
This is changing at a fairly rapid pace – and a big new industry of green computing is taking shape. This year, for instance, Energy Star ratings were put into place for servers.
ABI Research calculates the green computer market will grow five fold in the next four years from $37 billion to $190 billion in 2013. By then, the total PC market will be $323 billion.
That could make green computers a key customer selling point and a welcome step to reduced energy use.
