The Green Side Of Technology

Technology hasn’t always been the greenest industry, but more and more companies are putting the environment at the centre. We take a look at some interesting takes on cleantech.
Good news for the Netflix-bingers out there: Amazon, which hosts Netflix’s streaming service, has vowed to run on 100% green energy. This is significant because video streaming is quickly becoming the biggest slice of the pie for consumer internet use according to Greenpeace, which estimates video will represent 76% of consumer internet traffic by 2018.
Apple, Google and Facebook have also pledged to move to 100% green energy. Last year Apple announced it will spend $850 million to build a solar energy facility to power its California operations. Apple have also announced solar projects in China, as the company works hard to keep up with the power consumption of the steady-expanding Cloud.
But there’s still a significant environmental cost to the booming technology industry, as the average lifespan of a mobile phone or handheld gadget is just 18 months. Up to 50 million tons of electronic waste are generated each year worldwide, according to the Electronics Takeback Coalition. Most of it involves precious metals and dangerous contaminants which often end up in landfills as electronic recycling initiatives have a long way to go still.
Greener data centres should lighten our carbon footprints though, especially now that increasingly more technology is kept in the cloud instead of on hardware. Here are four other technologies who’re doing their bit for the environment:
Computer chips from wood
Chips is a high volume business, so making a semiconductor chip from wood is a marvellous idea. Nanoscale cellulose fibres were used to create a substrate, as the average chip only has a thin layer on top performing the electronic functions. Thanks to researchers at the University of Wisconsin, working with the US Department of Agriculture Forest Products Laboratory, this new wood chip could go a long way to make the average tech device all that much greener.
Heating computers
They call it “nerd power” and they mean it quite literally: “nerdy” devices, in this case computers, are used to replace power to generate heat. Dutch start-up Nerdalize realised that a hot-running computer didn’t necessarily have to be a waste of energy, as it could be used to heat up rooms. The Nerdalize e-radiators are actually part of a data centre, where fibre-optic connection enables the servers to sit where the heat is needed, instead of being stored in a data centre under an air conditioning unit.
Temperature-controlling furniture
This is a table that looks normal from the top, but underneath is a layer of wax which essentially works as a temperature controller. Architect and engineer Raphaël Ménard and designer Jean-Sébastien Lagrange created this clever table which absorbs heat from the air when the temperature reaches 71 degrees, and releases the heat again when the temperature drops. The designers say the table can help offset 60% of the heat that would normally be used in an office, and 30% of the energy used for air conditioning.
Pedal-powered washing machines
This is cute: a mini washing machine which requires no electricity, but runs on pedal power. The Yirego was created for cramped city living, but it has sparked the most interest in countries where electricity and water is scarce. The Drumi also reduces the user’s carbon footprint by around 5 to 10 pounds weekly, according to founder Yi Jiang, who’s planning a crowdfunding campaign to make the product internationally available.