Technology with the Environment in Mind

Green Homeowners as Lead Adopters: Sustainable Living and Green Computing

PERCEPTIONS OF COMPUTING DEVICES

Having situated our research in terms of social shifts in environmentalism, green consumerism, the increasing importance of social networking, and the historical referents these phenomena exhibit, we now turn to a more specific consideration of technologies in the lives of our research participants. Many participants in this study expended tremendous effort and funds to behave in environmentally responsible ways and to make environmentally responsible purchasing decisions. They frequently performed sophisticated and complex analyses to determine their preferred course of action, often drawing on many facts and heuristics to make decisions about transportation, home energy use, water use, food purchases, etc. [21]. However, they had invested significantly less energy in considering the environmental impacts of computing devices and consumer electronics, and their analyses were much less sophisticated in this area relative to others.

Susan lives in affordable rental housing in the Los Angeles area. Susan recently purchased her first new car. Prior to the purchase, she and her friends did research and performed detailed calculations about the expense of a hybrid car versus a conventional gas-powered car. Susan and her friends ultimately concluded that, over the life of the car, it would cost Susan $2000 more to have a hybrid car rather than a conventional gas-powered car. Susan decided that it was worth it to her to spend $2000 extra to do what was right for the environment. She purchased the hybrid car and was very proud of her decision. We asked Susan what considerations will go into her next computer purchase. She said she usually just considers the speed of the computer—she wouldn't know how to think about the purchasing decision for a computer in an environmental way, she just doesn't have that knowledge.

In some cases, participants appeared to draw simple analogies from other areas to try to reason about environmentally responsible behaviors and purchasing decisions for computing devices and consumer electronics. For example, one participant spoke at length about packaging and the amount of styrofoam in the packing box as a dominant concern in her purchasing decisions for stereos and other similar devices. In addition, participants often had a sense that they should recycle electronic products, although their understanding of the recycling process and potential environmental impacts of different recycling options seemed extremely limited when compared with the complex issues raised in publications such as Grossman's High Tech Trash [22]. Even participants who were quite technical did not have as much knowledge as one might expect about issues such as the recycling of electronic products.

Participants also often had a strong inclination to keep computers turned off and to have as few electronic devices as possible (in keeping with conservationist heuristics). Participants often optimized energy use of their computers by shutting them down entirely when they were going to be away from their computers for even short periods of time. Some participants were very concerned about "phantom loads" (energy that is consumed by devices when they are off or in stand-by mode). A common strategy for addressing phantom loads was to plug devices into a surge protector and then cut off power to the devices when they were not in use by turning off the surge protector. This suggests some opportunities for device design—features such as fast wake-up or other energy management functions would plainly be appealing to this audience, although careful consideration would have to be given to the energy consumption of the device while in stand-by mode.

Many participants evidenced a pragmatic attitude toward computing devices, expressing that computers had poor environmental qualities but that they were necessary or that their use of the computer was an overall benefit to the environment because they were using it to promote green causes.

Cory: We both use computers every day in our jobs…We use them as tools. And so even though we know they're toxic, we know there's all sorts of things in them that aren't sustainable, they help us do our work, which is promoting sustainability, so we move on.

In addition to being used for green-related work such as designing green buildings or running a green business, computers were very commonly used as a resource for searching the Internet for information about green living and green purchasing.

Adam: [The water reclamation system] is all automated, it is all mechanically automated.

Jay: How did you find out about that?

Adam: Let's see, there was a Web site that I was researching—when I was researching the systems I came across this product. It's manufactured in…the Midwest and there is a lot more water harvesting in the agricultural region in Texas and so forth, and they use it more for irrigation, but they come up with these little devices. It's fun to apply it here.

Christopher: For one thing, in and of itself [the Web is] more sustainable than having people mail you stuff all the time. Catalogs and whatever… And I view it as being more current. You can find the latest information. You can find more impartial information. You don't have to wait for a brochure from a company who's trying to sell you something to send you this brochure. You can get more original research off the Web if you search carefully. And you can look up things about, you know, lifecycle analysis on different materials and so on, like that.

Overall, while computers were seen as a useful tool for green work-related activities, the purchasing choice and day-to-day operation of the computing devices themselves was seen as a somewhat marginal issue from a green perspective. One possible explanation as to why participants had a relative lack of awareness or interest in this area is that the historic counterculture roots of environmentalism did not embrace electronic devices. Therefore, early proponents of environmentally responsible activities may not have reflected in detail on electronic devices, in contrast to their more sophisticated consideration and dissemination of information in regard to (for example) food. As awareness of environmental issues has reached a wider audience, this early anti-technology bias may have left a gap in knowledge and education. We believe this gap may present an opportunity for education and (re)positioning of computing devices and electronics relative to environmental concerns.

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