The Practice of Green Computing for Businesses

Abstract

Organisations are more than ever reliable on the extensive use of computing resources for their businesses. This has become more prominent with the pandemic situation of COVID-19. Many enterprises have been compelled to re-engineer their ways of doing business. They needed to turn towards information and communication technology to maintain their businesses. These have caused the use of computing resources to increase significantly among businesses. Many of them are looking forward to use computing devices in order to improve in terms of productivity and quality of products and services they offered. As a means of avoiding crowds, many of them are proposing online services. Others are making use of appointment booking systems so that customers do not have to queue for services at their offices. This is causing a significant increase in the use of computing resources, and this trend will surely continue to brighten the businesses. On the other hand, very little attention is being paid to the impact of computing on the environment. Lead, chromium and mercury in computer devices produce harmful chemicals that contaminate air and water in the environment. Computer accessories such as laser printers comprise toner particles that can affect the lungs. Prolonged use of computers promotes global warming. Computer parts are not biodegradable and are not recycled with the absence of disposal techniques. As there is much concern regarding the carbon footprint generated by computing resources, green initiatives must be encouraged at the level of the businesses. Green computing focuses on the effective design, efficient development, usage and disposal of computers together with its associated systems with minimal impact to the environment. The scope of green computing covers energy efficiency to the use of hazard-free systems. Almost every organisation has multiple computing devices. These devices are heavy consumptions of amounts of megawatts. Promoting the use of computers, servers and tablets that are energy efficient is now critical. New computing devices come on the market almost every day. Temptation to acquire the latest technology is high, and organisations must get rid of unwanted computing and electronic devices. There is a crucial need to devise appropriate disposal and recycling procedures for these unwanted devices. Green computing is a responsible use of computers and their resources in the environment. Green computing practices include the deployment of appropriate green knowledge to employees, efficient energy consumption computers, the use of energy harvesting technologies in data centres, dematerialisation with reduction of the use of paper-based documents together with enhanced disposal and recycling methods. This chapter focuses on the practice that organisations should put forward to achieve green computing initiatives.