Technology with the Environment in Mind

Green Homeowners as Lead Adopters: Sustainable Living and Green Computing

STRATEGIES FOR GREEN COMPUTING

Technology is understood to have a complex relationship with environmental issues. As discussed above, while traditional environmentalism argued for a reduction in technology, more recent environmental perspectives tend to recognize positive opportunities for simultaneous advances in environmental responsibility, quality of life, and economic growth. Accordingly, while computing technology can be viewed as "part of the problem" via issues such as e-waste and energy consumption, computing technology can simultaneously be viewed as "part of the solution" by enabling better use of resources in a wide range of domains (e.g., telecommuting, optimized route planning for fleets of trucks, smart buildings). These two perspectives correlate with two broad categories of an overall green strategy for computing technology:

Minimize: Minimize computing technology's contribution to the problem in both products and operations, e.g., through novel energy-efficient products, product design for reuse, reduced use of materials, recycling, etc.

Enable: Maximize computing technology's contribution to the solution by enabling green applications of computing technology, e.g., green design, smart buildings, dematerialization, etc.

Inspired by the actions and attitudes of our participants as well as by our review of secondary research materials, we have developed a framework of opportunities for green actions in these categories. This framework appears in Table 1.

Table 1: Strategies to (1) Minimize harmful environmental impacts of products and operations, and (2) Enable green behavior through computing
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First, Table 1 lists green strategies to minimize harmful outputs and the use of resources: Reduce, Reconstitute, Reuse, Recycle, Reparation, and Re-think. These strategies underlie a wide range of environmentally responsible behaviors. To illustrate the generality of these principles we include examples of both actions that might be taken by a technology company (e.g., reducing emissions) as well as actions that might be taken by people in their daily lives (e.g., turning off the lights).

Second, Table 1 lists strategies to enable green processes, products, and actions: Design and Invent, Optimize and Automate, Minimize Miles, Monitor and Model, Operate and Sell, and Educate and Persuade. In the descriptions and examples in the table, we focus in particular on how information and communication technologies can enable each of these strategies. Note that these Enable strategies implicitly enact Minimize strategies. For example, a green building can be designed to reduce energy use, reuse water, etc.

To date, the bright green perspective has tended to emphasize areas such as alternative energy sources and transportation. However, computing technology has much to offer in this arena as well. A comprehensive strategy for green computing will both Minimize and Enable, by making computing technologies that are themselves environmentally conscious and by deploying technologies to meet environmental challenges. Many of these directions are already being pursued, and many exciting opportunities lie ahead.

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