Page 193 -

W h a t Y o u C a n D oh a t Y o u C a n D o
164
164 P P a r t I I I : a r t I I I : W

If you’re looking at overall responsibility in manufacturing, think about issues such as
these:
• Are machines and parts designed so that they can be assembled and disassembled
with universally available tools?
• Require that metal casings be readily recyclable. Metal casings are recyclable. Plastic
casings require flame retardants and are not recyclable.
• Require recycled-content computers.
• When possible, use remanufactured or refurbished equipment—it’s less expensive
and saves another box from a landfill.
• Look for manufacturers who do what they can to lessen their products’ toxicity in
adhesives, labels, coatings, finishes, fasteners, and metallic paint.
• Machines should be Energy Star compliant for overall energy use as well as sleep
modes. Require that Energy Star is active upon delivery.
• Require online or electronic documentation.
• Choose printers and copiers that use remanufactured toner cartridges.
• Think about air quality when selecting printers. Environment Canada requires a
desktop printer’s ozone concentration not to exceed .04mg/m3. Dust concentration
cannot exceed .24mg/m3.

Remote Desktop
You can also make life easier for workers who are on the road or occasionally have to work
from home or a remote site. They can access their office computers, if they’re using
Windows, via Remote Desktop.
But it isn’t just out-of-the-office workers who can benefit from Remote Desktop—people
inside your organization can also use it. It can be used for the following purposes:
• To power thin clients If you buy thin clients, Remote Desktop can be used to
connect your thin clients to the server.
• To extend the life of existing machines Rather than getting rid of old machines,
you can turn them into thin clients and run applications from the server.

Remote Desktop is a feature that was initially rolled out with Windows XP. It allows the
user to access their computer—as the name suggests—remotely. Suppose a user needs to
access their computer from home or from another computer on the company network;
Remote Desktop allows the user to access everything on the remote computer—including
files, applications, and network connections. Remote Desktop not only allows the user to
access the remote computer’s files, but the desktop appears exactly as it does on the remote
machine.
There are two components to a Remote Desktop connection:
• Server The remote computer to which you will be connecting. It could be your
office desktop computer or a special computer set up for road warriors to access
when they’re out and about.