In this weeks blog we take a look at the world’s greenest computer, brought to you by the apple Mac book family. These line of computers have new features that reduce the environmental impact computers already have. They are highly recyclable and even more energy efficient. These so called environmental features include arsenic free display glass, BFR free (brominated flame retardants), mercury free LED backlight monitors, PVC free internal cables, highly recyclable aluminium and glass enclosure, reduced packaging volume and more energy efficient. These computers meet the energy star version 5.0 requirements and they are rated EPEAT Gold.

What the Mac Book doesn’t have is what makes it even more environmentally friendly. This was achieved by eliminating the toxic substances like mercury, arsenic, BFR’s, PVC and lead. Apple is not waiting for legislations to ban these harmful substances and this way of thinking is what has apple miles out in front of the other industries. Apple design their products smaller, thinner and lighter and are able to do more with less material. Something they continue to do.

The reduction in packaging with the 13- inch Mac Book in 2006 compared to the 13- inch Mac Book Pro in 2009 shows a staggering difference as it takes two planes to deliver the same amount of computers as it used to take three. Making the boxes smaller for the packaging is very good for our planet. As from above, you can see that making the boxes smaller means that you can fit more boxes onto each shipping pallet i.e. more boxes will be able to be fitted onto each plane and ship for delivery. With fewer ships and planes been used on each delivery means fewer CO2 emissions. This one small change shows a massive improvement on our environment and a sign to other companies how one small change in company can benefit massively to the environment.

The new Mac Book pro has a new precision uni-body enclosure that is formed from a single piece of solid, recyclable aluminium, replacing dozens of parts. Even the display is now made of recyclable glass. Both materials used in the manufacturing of the new Mac Book pros are very desirable to the recyclers. Hence these raw materials used in the new Mac Book pro can be reused for other products. This is very environmentally friendly.

The Mac Book pro meets the stringent low power requirements set by EPA, therefore giving it the Energy Star certification. It is engineered to be so efficient that it runs on a quarter of the power of a single light bulb. It also reaches the latest efficiency requirements of Energy Star version 5.0. The Energy Star 5.0 sets significantly higher efficiency limits for power supplies and forceful limits for the computers typical annual power consumption.

The electronic product environmental assessment tool, or also known as EPEAT, evaluates the environmental impact of a product based on how recyclable it is, how much energy it uses, and how it’s designed and manufactured. Every Mac Book pro has earned the highest rating of EPEAT Gold.

The new Mac Book pro has been equipped wit a new energy efficient lithium-polymer battery. The original batteries fitted in most notebooks are designed to be replaced every year or two. This means a lot of batteries are used up and discarded. With the new lithium-polymer battery in the new Mac Book pro lasts up to five years or 1000 recharges. Therefore it uses just one battery in the same time a typical notebook uses three.

With the new policy set by apple, state that all apple products will be sold with free 5 years extended exchange, free upgrade and sell back facility. They are allowing their registered customers to periodically check their apple asset values to date on their website. Another handy aspect is that their customers are able to sell their used products online to other apple customers or to apple to apple at the price stated at any time. In addition the customers can trade in there old apple products and can reimburse with their new apple products. This is a very good aspect of the company as it keeps a very strong customer base. These new policy’s will be very beneficial to our environment. A lot of companies around the world are taken in used products as trade- in and selling them back at a cheaper price. It’s a win win situation for these so called companies.

I conclude this blog by thanking Apple for been role model to the other industries around the world. The reason I appreciate Apple so much, is that Apple is continuously trying to improve their products to be more beneficial to the environment. To be honest I feel they are doing a very good job. They have achieved this by eliminating toxic substances from there products, using less material and they think highly of the end of life treatment. This can be seen through there policies and there materials choice.

The first step of the journey begins with the internet café. The aim of the internet café is to actively push issues such as positive local image, local environment and a discussion forum. The internet café will gather the people of Moyross together under one roof and begin or improve their interests in the area of computing. The internet café itself will have friendly staff on hand that will help and encourage anyone with or without an knowledge in computing. These internet café members will also be advised and guided towards attending the training centre to further there education.

On the other hand, the internet café will be very useful to the area of Moyross as it will gather the locals under one roof in a safe and productive environment, where socially there will be improvements too. The internet café will be built to a high environmental standard that will set the bar high for under companies to follow. Renewable energy will be a focus to our centre as the environment is a core to our company.

Overall in the north side area of limerick there are roughly 15000 people with about 5500 in Moyross itself. So therefore, the internet café will be built to house 150 cyber active members at one time. The thin client system has been chosen for the centre as we feel it will be the more environmentally friendly. The difference of consumption between a thick and a thin client system is about 88% lower in favour of the thin client system.

Both clients require similar investment, but in the long run, the thin client system is more cost effective because of the lower total consumption and the simplicity of maintenance. Delta Electronics in Plassey Tech park Limerick are going to upgrade their thin client server, therefore we are going to do business with them and we are going to buy it for a very good price of 2000euro. We will be saving 2000euro as a new server is worth 4000euro. The thin client is a “Pixil Thin Client – 100 User 2”. With a simple IMB Pentium 4 refurbished is about 120euro. So, for 130 computers, we are saving 84% of the total cost of the processing HW. So economically thin client system is better and also impacts 43% less on the environment over its total life cycle.

All the computers in the internet café will run on windows XP. We brainstormed XP with other operating systems like vista and windows 7. And from our analysis we find that XP will be more suited to our environment. Also on hand in the internet café, we have given the option to the beginners to work on Limpus Linux interface. This is a very simple operating system, which would be perfect for the first time users. All monitors in the centre will be LED backlight screens. As from our SLCA we previously did, we calculated that it will be 32% less on the environment than the CFL screens. We are also going to purchase our furniture from Green Works4, a company that removes old furniture from offices, refurbishes and sells it to the public at a good price. Reusing office furniture saves around ¾ the amount of carbon produced to make a new item. We are also saving money.

The training centre will be the heartbeat of computer enterprise as our objective as a team is to bring up education and promote business in the areas. Within the training centre there will be courses thought for all disciplines. The courses will be run in a flexible way to facilitate single parents etc. Courses like ECDL and the FETAC courses will be run here. Within the centre we have two separate training rooms to maximize flexibility. Each room will be well ventilated, 12 computers all running with XP and office 2003, trainers laptop, projector, colour printer and each student will have their own log in name and password. There will be catering facilities and a separate dining area onsite as well as a conference room for hire and secretarial services will also be available on request. There will also be electronic drawing pads for the artistic people in the area. On arrival there will be an aptitude test when they first register, so we can see what level they are at. The system will be run fron a foundation level up to level 5. Our aim is to bring our students to level 5 so they could apply for access courses and directly to institutes and universities.  We are also setting up for guest speakers from local colleges and companies to provide assistance in our centre.

The training centre will be sister linked to sister centres around Ireland. There will be competitions between all centres with prizes for the winners. The centres will be linked to colleges in the area. For Moyross, it will be linked to UL, LIT, Mary I and college of art and design. We hope to also have local partners to place promising students in co-op jobs, internships and any sort of relevant work experience.

Our business centre will include such services as Office space, culinary space, conference rooms, dining area, loading docks, materials handling equipment for shipping/receiving, copiers, fax machines, on site parking and on site security.

It has been stated that up to 80% of businesses in an enterprise centre succeed, as opposed to a figure below 30% for people who start businesses independently (The Business enterprise Centre). This centre is well furnished, well equipped, well connected, its accessible, its affordable, its flexible and its well secure.

For the local residents, thin client computers will be available to them for further training and personal use for there homes. To avail of this opportunity the locals would have to visit the centre on a regular basis. As previously mentioned the thin clients are more environmentally friendly. These computers can’t be used by anyone outside the area. We have decided to run wires from the centre to the homes in the area so the houses will have internet. The server will be located in the training centre.

This centre will generate jobs for the local people, as cleaners, canteen staff and qualified local people for the maintenance of the server. There will be also positions for lecturing and secretarial services created. This sustainable computing centre will greatly develop the north side area as it will draw attention of businesses to set up in the area as well as take potential students from the area to work for them.

To distinguish which TV was more environmentally friendly, the use of a streamlined life cycle assessment was utilized. The SLCA studied both LCD TV’s under the headings of global warming potential, resource depletion and toxicity and examine the LED backlight LCD TV and the fluorescent backlight LCD TV at the levels of resource extraction, manufacturing, transportation, product use, re-cycling and disposal. The SLCA was scaled on a 0 to 5 with 0 been terrible and 5 been excellent.

First of all I will examine the TV’s under their global warming potential. Both LCD TV’s have harmful material to be mined. For the LED backlight LCD TV, the likes of arsenic and gallium have to be extracted and the fluorescent backlight LCD TV, the likes of mercury and phosphor have to be extracted. The fact that both TV’s need materials to be mined have a huge impact on the environment as seen earlier in the previous blog and presentation “what’s the problem”.  On a manufacturing point of view the LED backlight LCD is the worse as the LED is based on semiconductor technology. The manufacturing of semiconductors is high energy consuming while the manufacturing of the CCFL is a lot cheaper and uses less energy but the main concern is the use of mercury. The transportation of both TV’s is exactly the same as both TV’s are of same size and of same packaging and would take the same mode of transport. Under product use the LED backlight LCD TV is far better than the fluorescent backlight LCD TV as it uses 40% less power consumption. The advantage is that the LED can turn on and off more quickly than the CCFL. The end of life treatment of the LED is by far better than that of the CCFL. The LED can be re-cycled while the CCFL requires dedicated disposal because of the mercury and phosphor. Overall the LED backlight TV is much better on a global warming front.

Next is to examine the TV’s under resource depletion. For the LED backlight LCD TV the likes of arsenic and gallium need to be mined. These materials will deplete after time like all resources. But for the fluorescent backlight LCD TV the likes of mercury have to be mined, which is very rare. Therefore the LED is better. When manufacturing the LED a lot of power is consumed as they are based on semiconductor technology, therefore would use a lot of resources to power the factory. As the fluorescent backlight uses lesser power in manufacturing, therefore it is better than the LED. Once again the transportation factor is exactly the same as the packaging; cost and mode of transport would be the same. The LED backlight TV uses lesser power so therefore is better than the fluorescent backlight TV hence there is less power consumption from the home. The LED can be fully recycled while the CCFL requires dedicated disposal because of the harmful mercury. The CCFL would be disposed of in landfills. The LED wins hands down on resource depletion.

Finally I will examine the two TV’s under the heading of toxicity.Both TV’s have harmful materials to be mined so therefore are of equal value. The manufacturing of the LED requires more power so therefore would be more harmful to the environment. The transportation of the two types of TV’s is the same as once again the TV’s would use the same packaging and same mode of transport. Under the product use the LED is by far better as it uses 40% less power than the CCFL. Because the CCFL have to disposed off and contain mercury they are dangerous when they come to the end of life while on the other hand the LED can be fully recycled. Once again the LED wins under the heading of Toxicity.

Overall the SLCA score total was 50:24 in favour of the LED backlight LCD TV. From the SLCA you can see that the LED backlight LCD TV is a lot more environmentally friendly.  The LED backlight LCD TV’s are the future. There is progression in this area with the introduction of a sidelight LCD TV. This type of TV contains LED around the edge of the screen which disperses the picture along the screen. There is progression as well with CCFL TV as you can see from the links in the presentation. I conclude this blog by saying the LED backlight TV is by far more environmentally friendly than that of the fluorescent backlight LCD TV.

 Life cycle thinking has become a key focus in environmental policy making. Take a look at the ISO standards specifically designed for LCA application. There are four all together:

ISO 14040: Principles and framework.

ISO 14041: Goal and Scope definition and inventory analysis.

ISO 14042: Life Cycle Impact assessment.

ISO 14043: Interpretation.

In 2006, two draft standards had been published which replaced these four standards:

ISO/DIS 14040: Principles and Framework.

ISO/DIS 14044: Requirements and Guideline.

The ISO (International Organization for Standardization) 14040 describes the principles and framework behind life cycle assessment. With the aid of LCA you can locate the damaging areas and can try to minimise the values of impact.

LCA is broken down into four elements; which are goal and scope, Life Cycle Inventory analysis (LCI), Life Cycle Impact Assessment (LCIA) and Interpretation.

First of all we have the goal and scope of LCA. The object of study is described in terms of functional unit. It defines the goal and intended use of the LCA, and scopes the assessment concerning system boundaries, function and flow, required data quality, technology and assessment parameters. The common categories of assessed damages are global warming (greenhouse gases), acidification, smog, ozone layer, depletion, eutrophication, eco-toxicological and human-toxicological pollutants, habitat destruction, desertification, land use as well as depletion of minerals and fossil fuels. The goal and scope should address the overall approach used to establish the system boundaries.

 Next we have the Life Cycle Inventory analysis (LCI). LCI is an activity for collecting data on inputs (resources and intermediate products) and outputs (emissions, wastes) for all the processes in the product system.  ’Inventory’ involves data collection and modelling of the product system, as well as description and verification of data. The data must be related to the functional unit defined in the goal and scope definition. The LCI has all data related to environmental (e.g., CO2) and technical quantities for unit processes within the study boundaries.

 Then we have the Life Cycle Impact Assessment (LCIA).LCIA is the phase of the LCA where inventory data on inputs and outputs are translated into indicators about the product systems potential impacts on the environment, on human health, and on the availability of natural resources. Life Cycle Impact Assessment is aimed at evaluating the contribution to impact categories such as global warming, acidification, etc .The three steps involved are classification/characterization, normalization andEvaluation/weighting. The Normalization provides a basis for comparing different types of environmental impacts, giving all impacts the same unit. Weighting assigns a weighting factor to each impact depending on their importance.

 Finally we have the Interpretation. The Interpretation is defined as the phase where the results of the LCI and LCIA are interpreted according to the goal of the study and where sensitivity and uncertainty analysis are performed to qualify the results and the conclusions. The Interpretation is a very important as an analysis of the major contributions, sensitivity analysis and the uncertainty analysis, which leads us to the finale whether the goal and scope of the Life cycle assessment of the product or function can be met. From the Interpretation we also see what can be learned from the LCA? This is a very important element.

 Take a look at a computer chip life cycle for instance. The first step of this journey is the mining and purification of the silicon. Energy is one of the inputs of the mining and purifying process, while the purified silicon is the output. The next step is to the computer chip factory. The factory takes the purified silicon and makes it into a crystal wafer form. Only about 43% of the pure silicon crystal used in the process becomes part of the chip. The silicon that does not end up in a chip either comes out as a recyclable output or as waste.

 Then the factory “etches” circuits on the silicon wafer and cleans the etched wafer, and places the transistors and other circuits on the chips. The input for this process is chemicals to etch the silicon and water to flush it out. For a 2-gram, 32-megabyte memory chip and its plastic package, about 70.5 pounds of water is used (Williams, et al, 2002). Before the water can be used in this process, it must be purified first. Once purified, it is then used to wash the silicon wafers and is passed out of the system as waste, or effluent. This effluent contains the chemicals, washed off the wafers, and therefore has to be disposed according to federal and state regulations.

Finally, the factory cuts the wafer up into the actual chips that are packaged in a form ready for assembling in other products.

Computer chips have a high environmental impact relative to their weight. For every gram of a microchip, 630 grams of fossil fuels are used, whereas for every gram of an automobile, only 2 grams of fossil fuels are used. This is due to the fact that large energy inputs are needed to create a computer chip.

Problem 2 Presentation

 From my own point of view, everything we do will effect our environment and it’s been like that since we came to this earth. Take the Stone Age, when forging of metals began and the birth of fire. These were two aspects that were the beginning of the polluting of the air we breathe. Then the major blow for our environment came, the industrial revolution. The industrial revolution, in my own analysis gave birth to the environmental pollution as we know today.

 To be honest there are so many problem’s. It all begins with the mining for resources. The resources you obtain are used to create whatever you desire, but mining for these resources have drastic effects and as time goes on they will just keep getting worse until there is no more resources left to mine.

Once something is mined it cannot be replaced. With mining, the problematic areas include the extraction, transportation and mineral processes. Even the transport of these materials inside the mine and to the processing plant, have a huge impact on our environment. Approach roads have to be built, so therefore land will have to be disturbed. To transport these materials tucks, cleavers, spades, drags and wheelbarrows are needed. All these so called machines needed to be built for this purpose and are all diesel slugging machines as well. This is even another blow to our environment. These mining processes always produce alterations above and below the land. Mining effects air we breathe and the water we drink, but we need to be aware that there is only so much you can mine. What will we do when the resources are all gone?

 When our mining processes are done, we have our next blow, the industry sector. In my opinion, it does’nt matter how big or small your company is, we all have a part to play in keeping our environment healthy. When it comes to the industry sector, this area pollutes our environment in many different ways. In my own opinion, when we produce our product every action has a reaction, and it is the environment that is suffering as we speak.

From my own research, look at Los Angeles aka the city of angels; it is the largest city in California and the second biggest state in the United States. This once beautiful city is been overshadowed by smog. Its smog levels are very high, due to the city been highly populated, loads of industry and the public being over dependant on vehicles. The Chumash, a Native American tribe have named the city “the valley of smoke”.

 For our industry to work we need power i.e. Power stations. With hydroelectric power stations, the problem is thermal contamination. With electricity generation, it is a major source of atmospheric emissions and then we have the combustion of fuel, which releases energy. Most power plants burn fossil fuels to drive generators. Hydroelectric power stations really alter the environment as a dam has to build and therefore the wildlife is also affected. Like most industrial processes, a power plant creates waste materials, producing a number of by-products including dust, ash particles and gases. The waste materials that is difficult to collect or are of little use, must be monitored and controlled to avoid environmental impacts. But are we doing enough? These environmental impacts include sulphur dioxide, carbon dioxide and nitrogen oxides being emitted into our atmosphere, which has been slowly dwindling away, our ozone layer. We need to change our way of living dramatically.

 From my analysis, everything has waste; take the electronic waste created by industry, electronic waste is what you would imagine, obsolete or defective dumped electrical equipment. The dumping and processing of these materials have serious environmental and health implications. This is due to the presence of nasty compounds such as lead, cadmium and beryllium. At the moment we are dumping our waste in landfills and incinerating waste, but you can only dump so much and burn so much. Nowadays you have countries like the USA sending their electronic waste to countries like China, Malaysia, India, Kenya, and various African countries. Increased regulation of electronic waste and concern over the environmental harm which can result from toxic electronic waste has raised disposal costs. So therefore, USA is sending their electronic waste elsewhere as they have no regulations as regards export of hazardous waste.

The electronic waste is sent over seas, which their they take what is useful like the copper of the circuit boards i.e. the commodities and dump the waste the obsolete components away, and would dump the harmful acid into the water. There are so many environmental and health problem’s with this way of living. The workers been directly exposed to the chemicals, solder smoke etc which the workers work with no protective equipment whatsoever available. This just goes to show how bad their health is been effecting as well as the environment we live in.

From this blog, in my own opinion I have highlighted areas that need to be tackled and that need to be tackled right away. Companies around the world are improving standards in their workplace, but they are also making their products environmental friendly. But they need to be doing more before it’s to late. Don’t get me wrong it’s not just companies it’s the everyday me and you that have just a huge impact on our environment. We need to improve too, immediately. In my opinion we are on the road to healthier environment. But hopefully it’s not too late.

I feel that the world is striving for sustainable development and that sustainable development is mine, and should be your goal. On the other hand the development must be profitable to encourage investment and entrepreneurship, as it’s the three pillars of social, economic and the environment we need to keep erect for as long as we can.

In my own opinion it’s our environment that is taking the full blow and that needs to stop before it’s too late. Companies nowadays are implementing techniques and processes into their work to reduce the impact they are having on the environment. For example Shannon Airspace who are implementing “Lean Management” into their company. Lean Management is derived mostly from the Toyota production system. The use of Lean Management into a company like Shannon airspace is used to eliminate inflexibility, waste and variability while it also aims to optimise cost, quality, and delivery and enhance safety.

Take a look at Sweden and how they have taken the fore front to achieving all our goals, sustainable development. I am amazed at their determination as the minister for sustainable development; Mona Sahlin has declared that Sweden is going to be the first country in the world to break the dependence on fossil fuels. In my opinion that is a huge achievement as the world has become over dependant on fossil fuels. If I was Swedish, I would be honoured and privileged of such a statement by Mona Sahlin. Sweden will stop using oil by 2020 and eventually the energy supply of the country will be based on renewable energy only. Their goal is to gradually rid the country of gasoline run cars and oil heated homes.

I’m amazed at these facts, in Sweden, in the 1970’s; a massive 77% of energy produced was produced from oil. In 2003 oil accounted for 32% of energy produced. In 2006, 26% of Swedish energy came from renewable sources as opposed to the EU average of 6%.

I feel that this shows how Sweden is leading the way forward for sustainable development and how the rest of the world will have to pick up the pace and their act before it’s too late. It is our way of life that is destroying the environment and we badly need to adjust. For example let me illustrate how un-stainable development had taken over a once beautiful place, Easter Island.

Up until 1700; Easter Island was a very advanced Stone Age civilization that had their own class system, religion, kings and learned scholars with their own language.

The people of today have little knowledge of their ancestor’s culture or what happened to their once glorious civilization. This is due to the fact that they were nearly wiped out in 1877; the population stood at 111 and all the stories handed down were unreliable or lost.

            Their is two reasons for the destruction of once a glorious sub tropical island; first of all, they cut down all their trees to transport the statues and cook, degraded the top soil ,wiped out half the plant species, drove animals to extinction and this led to civil war and cannibalism as well as the that their eco system had been weakened by the natives and that diseases brought in by missionaries and slave traders from Peru and English colonists finished them off.

            In my opinion, it was the deforestation of Easter Island which led to the destruction of their once beautiful ecosystem. With the destruction of the island’s animals highlights how un-stable this civilization was. Every species of native land bird became extinct. Even shellfish were overexploited, until people had to settle for small sea snails instead of larger cowries.

            Because the civilization had destroyed the forest, the timber for building seagoing canoes vanished and fish catches declined. I feel this just highlights the three pillars perfectly, Easter Island had destroyed their environment i.e. Pillar 3 and now the Social and Economic factors began to be eroded and fall apart (Pillars 1 and 2 began to fall). Look at how the crop yields also declined. This was because the deforestation of the Island allowed the soil to be eroded by rain and wind, dried by the sun, and its nutrients to be leeched from it. This just proves my point how all the pillars are held up by each other and if one falls, the rest will soon follow.

            With the disappearance of food surpluses, Easter Island could no longer keep a complex society running. In other words, the Island fell apart because of their way of living. The three pillars of sustainable development fell apart. Their downfall was in parallel to the destruction of once a magnificent subtropical Island; Easter Island by its own people.

            I conclude this blog by just highlighting that the story of Easter Island is a sad tale but should be an eye opener to us! We ourselves, the inhabitants of planet earth have a limited supply of resources and even most of our resources are affecting our world. Easter Island suffered the consequences of becoming a island with un-stainable development, but we are on the fence at the moment. I feel we are on the road to sustainable development with the likes of Sweden leading the way. I’m opinion I hope we haven’t left it too late.