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C O O v e r v i e w a n d I s s u e s v e r v i e w a n d I s s u e s 5 5

FIGURE 1-1 6
Computers are 2
loaded with toxins, 3
and if they aren’t 8
disposed of PART I
properly, those 1 7
PART I
PART I
toxins can hurt the
environment.
9
4
5

Consider the computer system in Figure 1-1.
This figure shows where various toxins can be found on your desktop computer—or the
thousands of desktops in a large organization.

1. Lead in the cathode ray tube and solder
2. Arsenic in older cathode ray tubes
3. Antimony trioxide used as flame retardant
4. Polybrominated flame retardants in plastic casings, cables, and circuit boards
5. Selenium used as a power supply rectifier in circuit boards
6. Cadmium in circuit boards and semiconductors
7. Chromium used as corrosion protection in steel
8. Cobalt in steel for structure and magnetism
9. Mercury in switches and the housing

Power Consumption
On your way to work each day, you drive by a factory and see smokestacks billowing
pollution into the atmosphere. You take a measure of comfort when you get to work,
knowing that you work in the IT industry and aren’t polluting the planet. Unfortunately,
although you aren’t polluting as demonstrably as that factory, your datacenter is taking
its toll.
What You Use
All your desktop PCs, all your servers, all your switches, and so forth use electricity to run.
Also, a fair amount of electricity is used to cool your electronics. This electricity not only
costs you money to buy from the electrical utility, but the utility has to generate the
electricity, quite often by using fossil fuels, which generate more greenhouse gas emissions.
Power usage is an especially relevant issue for operating a green information system—
the more power that’s used, the more money that’s spent and the greater the carbon
footprint. The place to start is knowing how much power is being used. However, according
to research from Intel, 80 percent of businesses have never conducted an energy audit and
only 29 percent of businesses are investing in energy-efficient PCs—Intel, 2006. Those
companies are losing money because they don’t know just what they’re spending and how
they can reduce those costs.