The Green Computing Initiative], stewards of the industry standard EFGCD® – Eco-Friendly Green Computing Definition defines Eco-Friendly Green Computing as the study and practice of the design, development and implementation of IT infrastructure efficiently and effectively with low or zero impact on the environment whilst reducing operating costs.
Currently the ICT industry is responsible for 3% of the world's energy consumption. With the rate of consumption increasing by 20% a year, 2030 will be the year when the world's energy consumption will double because of the ICT industry.
Organizations use the Green Computing Lifecycle when designing and implementing green computing technologies. The stages in the Lifecycle include Strategy, Design, Implementation, Operations and Continual Improvements.
The 5 core green computing technologies advocated by GCI are Green Data Center, Virtualization, Cloud Computing, Power Optimization and Grid Computing.
The University of Vermont reports that if 8,000 computer users activated sleep mode on a regular basis, there would be a total savings of 1.6 million kWh per year. This is equivalent to blocking the annual emissions of 150 cars, or planting 367 acres of trees.
shopping online could save enough energy to power a car for almost 200/11 miles or circle the globe almost 44,800/33 times, 7/57,200 cars for a year, a CFL for 7,099/10,768,230 years, 7/11 pounds of green house gases, 15/22 gallons of gasoline, 40/33 gallons of oil, a 400,000/11 cubic meter lake from being polluted, 916/55 pounds of co2, a 916/24,585 cubic meter lake, 229/73,755 pounds of mercury a year, 3,206/368,775 kwh of energy, 160/33 acres of soil from being polluted, 1,603/3,687,750 metric tons of limestone, 1,603/275,000 pounds of biomass, almost $185.00
activating sleep mode on one computer could save 200 kwh of energy per year, 29,727/640 trees, 89,181/80,000 tons of co2 a year, 160 gallons of water, 125/6 tons of waste, 4/5 ounces of mercury a year, 89,181/64,000 tons of air pollution per year, 160 pounds of coal, 40/7 metric tons of toxic lead, 1,250/81 cubic yards of landfill space, 10 metric tons of limestone, 8,095,653/160,000 metric tons of fossil fuels, 1,341/10 pounds of biomass, 4,771/8,000 tons of dust each year, 149/2 pounds of carbon, enough energy to power a CFL for 31/56 weeks, $24.00, gain almost 386,451/64,000 tons of oxygen per year