Environmentally friendly computing
At ABC Innovations, we want to do everything in our power to help improve the environment. This page of our website is dedicated to helping to heal the natural world around us, by properly utilizing the world of technology. This page includes tips on things that you can do to lessen your impact on the environment, and even help repair the damage that has already been done. The suggestions in this article not only save energy and reduce pollution, but they also save you money on your energy bills. We hope that you find this information useful, worthwhile, and beneficial toward a just cause.
Power Management
When you leave your computer on, even if it's not doing anything, the typical computer is consuming 195W. For people who leave their computers on overnight, or other times when the computer is not in use, this is a waste of energy and money. Fortunately, your computer has built-in features to reduce energy usage. If you go to Start and select the button to power off your computer, you will notice a variety of options. These can help you save energy without needing to shut your computer down all the way.
Sleep or Stand By
For Windows XP users, it's called Stand By, for Vista users, it's called Sleep, but does the same thing either way. When you know that you will be away from your computer for a while, don't just leave your machine on. Put it in Sleep mode. In Sleep mode, your computer uses (on average) only 10W. You do not need to close out of any open programs or documents to enter Sleep mode. Simply activate Sleep, and then, when you come back to your computer, press the power button on your computer tower to wake up your computer. You machine will wake up within seconds, leaving all of your open programs and files exactly how they were when you left. Sleep eliminates the long boot time of having to turn your computer on and off, and saves power while you're away.
Hibernate
This is a more extreme version of Sleep, in which your computer will save more energy, but consequently take longer to wake up. To use Hibernate in Windows XP, go to Start > Turn Off Computer and hold down the Shift key. Suddenly, Stand By becomes Hibernate. Hibernating computers do not use any power. In hibernation, your computer saves the current state of the computer to your hard drive, and then turns off. When you wake up your machine, it boots from the saved file on the hard drive. Therefore, it still has to boot up, which takes some time, but not quite as much time as it would without that saved hibernation file. Hibernate wastes more time, but wastes much less power and money.
Turn Off or Shut Down
The best way to save power is still to turn off your computer when you do not plan to use it for an extended period of time. A complete Shut Down is often necessary to install updates, recover from an error, or change system settings. While Sleep and Hibernate are useful tools, don't forget that restarting your computer clears its temporary memory, allowing it to run faster and giving your computer a clean start.
It is advisable to save all work before entering Sleep or Hibernate, just in case the computer loses power.
Laptop users should note that Sleep and Hibernate still consume energy, so leaving a laptop unplugged while using such a feature can drain the battery, resulting in loss of power and the loss of unsaved work.
| Create Your Own Shortcuts Right click on the Desktop and select New > Shortcut. Paste one of the below codes in to create an desktop icon that makes your computer Sleep, Hibernate, or more. |
Sleep or Stand By %windir%\System32\rundll32.exe powrprof.dll,SetSuspendState | Turn Off or Shut Down %windir%\System32\shutdown.exe -s |
Hibernate %windir%\System32\rundll32.exe powrprof.dll,SetSuspendState Hibernate | Restart %windir%\System32\shutdown.exe -r |
Screensavers
If you have an older CRT monitor, then a screensaver helps prevent burn-in. On a CRT monitor, if the same image is displayed for an extended period of time, that image may get stuck on the screen permanently. Screensavers constantly change the image on your screen when you don't use your computer, preventing this burn-in.
No More Burn-In
For most computer users, however, burn-in is a thing of the past. Modern CRT monitors are much less susceptible to burn-in, and LCD monitors are completely immune to the problem. Screensavers, therefore, have become merely decorative, or sometimes used for security purposes (screensavers can require passwords to enter back into Windows). The fact is, you don't actually need a screensaver, and screensavers are only supposed to activate when you're not around anyway; so you will not be looking at your own screensaver very often. Therefore, the smartest thing to do is to choose a screensaver that uses less energy. 
Screensavers Use Energy
The average computer uses 305W when in use. When not in use, a graphics-intensive 3D screensaver consumes more energy (225W) than a simpler, 2D screensaver (195W). A simple screensaver, such as scrolling text, only uses about as much energy as your computer would normally use when idle (195W). The best option, however, is to have your computer go into a low power mode when not in use.
Right click on the desktop and chose Properties. Under the Screen Saver tab there is a Power button. Click that, and you will be taken to a window where you can set your monitor and/or hard disks to turn off after a certain amount of time after you are idle. Setting these to shut off when not in use can save you even more power (160W), substituting a screensaver for an energy saver.
Monitors
If you have an old CRT monitor, it may be time to upgrade to an LCD. Not only are LCD monitors cooler looking, thinner, and brighter, but they actually use less energy, reducing your impact on the environment, as well as the impact the monitor leaves on your electric bill. CRT monitors use on average 150W when in use. LCD monitors only use about 47W. Depending on how much you use your monitor, as well as its size, you could be saving $50 or $100 a year simply by switching to LCD. Your new excuse for the flat screen: it's all part of going green!
Reduce, Reuse, Recycle
These three R's apply to the computer industry as well. You can save money and reduce the size of landfills by reducing the amount of hazardous technological waste you create, reusing computer components, and recycling PC junk.
Reduce  The average American consumes 700 pounds of paper on a yearly basis. That, coupled with the price of printer ink, should encourage everyone to print, mail, and fax much less.
Email files to another person instead of printing out a copy to show them. Pictures and documents can be scanned into a computer and then sent via email, instead of being faxed or mailed. You can make your surveys and forms available online, instead of on paper. When you do print, use both sides of the page. Use the internet as much as possible for the transference of information, documents, and pictures, rather than wasting valuable and expensive resources. A scanner and an email address make a great low-cost, low-impact substitute to a printer, a fax machine, paper, ink, toner, envelopes, and stamps. | Reuse  Landfill size would be greatly reduced if everyone could reuse all of their trash. In the world of computers, you often can.
Instead of burning information on to CDs and DVDs which will later be discarded, use reusable mediums instead. Transport files on a USB Flash Drive, or on rewritable CDs and DVDs. Those modes of transportation will not create waste, because, when you no longer want the content of the USB Flash Drive or rewritable disk, you can simply overwrite them with new data. They never get thrown away. | Recycle  Anything and everything to do with your computer is recyclable in one way or another.
Paper should always be recycled, so that new paper can be created without further loss of trees. Empty ink and toner cartridges can be taken in to local stores to be recycled, sometimes in exchange for a few dollars back. Larger hardware components, such as old printers, computers, and monitors can be taken to various stores or shipped to various companies and organizations to be recycled. |
Just be sure to always completely remove your data from any computer that you recycle. A simple deletion is often not enough; someone could recover deleted files from your hard drive with the proper tools. Specialized software is sold to securely remove data from your old computer, and ABC Innovations also provides this service free for anyone who wants us recycle their old computers and hardware. At ABC Innovations, we offer free technology recycling as part of our effort to go green.
Earthle From the creators of Google comes a bright idea that's surprisingly dim. Earthle is a clone of the popular search engine, Google, with one small difference. The color scheme has been changed so that, instead of a white background with black text and bright blue links, your Google (or rather, Earthle) searches are performed on a black background with light gray text and dull green links. The difference? CRT monitors use much less energy displaying dark pixels than they do displaying bright ones. Google's bright white background, therefore, uses way more power to display than its darker version; Earthle. You can substitute Earthle for most of your regular searching needs, but when you switch to Image, News, or Video searching, you're back in the bright white light. If you use an LCD though, you won't save any power. |