Green IT Toolkit

Greener IT the day after tomorrow?

Andrew Donoghue ZDNet.co.uk

Published: 08 Jun 2004 16:35 BST

The latest Hollywood shock-buster, "The Day After Tomorrow", carries a rather heavy-handed lesson on the dangers inherent in our fast-paced, consume-all culture; humankind will reap a terrible price for pushing the technological envelope uninhibited by any kind of environmental conscience.

Melting polar ice-caps and the resulting tsunami engulfing Manhattan are beautifully illustrated using the latest CGI technology -- as fundamental to the modern blockbuster formula as the reluctant hero, sassy damsel in distress and wise-cracking but expendable sidekick. But the heavy use of IT in this instance comes with a certain amount of subtle irony. Computers -- the very engines that keep the wheels of polluting big business turning -- also provide the most dynamic means of illustrating the downside to a conscious-free, consumption-hungry society.

It's obviously a bit of a reach to claim that computers are the engines of some impending ecological disaster. They are after all a vital tool for environmentalists, scientists and green-do-gooders the world over. But the insatiable approach to the purchase of new IT equipment could be seen as the most obvious example of the downside of a society fantastically geared to production and purchase but hopelessly inefficient at disposal.

The hard-wired desire for the latest, fastest, shiniest piece of kit means that every year 1.5 million PCs are dumped into landfills sites in the UK alone. According to research carried out by the UN, the majority of PCs that are considered to be ripe for disposal could go on to give up to another 6,000 hours of service.

But impending EU legislation is about to deliver a very real wake-up call to IT manufacturers and customers alike. The Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Directive, due to be transposed into UK law in August, will require manufacturers to take more responsibility for disposal of old kit. According to analyst firm Gartner, this added responsibility could result in vendors having to raise their prices by around £50 to soak up the extra costs of recycling and disposal.

Trying to get vendors such as Dell or HP to admit that price hikes might be in the offing is, as you'd imagine, nigh on impossible. They are playing a waiting game and are basically refusing to discuss the ramifications of WEEE until the draft copy of the directive is released next week. However, it is clear from talking with both companies that they are taking the issue seriously and are extremely clued up on what some might regard as a peripheral issue to the industry up to now. Both were able to provide very competent spokespeople on the issue with very short notice -- a sure sign that the wagons are being circled in case the EU decides to turn the environmental thumbscrews.