Two weeks ago I had the pleasure of kicking off a very green work week by attending a Green Computing breakfast presentation coordinated by One Community in Cleveland, Ohio. Prior to attending the event, I thought green computing had something to do with reducing energy use in computers. Well, I was partially correct, green computing is defined by Wikipedia as "the study and practice of using computer resources efficiently." Basically, the attempt to use computers and technology in a way that maximizes the triple bottom line - people, planet, profit. So this would include, energy efficiency, materials recycling and telecommuting. As we have become a nation of gadget-holics, the amount of trash from these mercury and lead laden doo-dads has risen exponentially over the decade. Why is this a bad thing? Click here to read the e-waste post from Ethiorussian and you will understand. This issue will be an agenda item for the House of Representatives in 2009. Anyway, One Community, a technology based non-profit in Cleveland, Ohio has devised a wonderful solution to the e-waste issue that benefits the environment and education. The organization is offering to pick up old computers and related hardware from area businesses and organizations, strip information from the drives and refurbish them to meet the needs of the Cleveland Municipal School District or recycle them with a 100% no landfill guarantee. Is your computer ancient? Don't worry, no computer is too old to serve a child given thin client solutions that enable a central server to do most of the processing. This is a win-win as it enhances the educational experience of our children, unclutters closets and storage rooms of donors and reduces the amount of toxins in the environment. Awesome!! Do you want to help solve the e-waste problem? Check out this Earth911 listing of resources that reuse old electronics. Be sure to go to e-Stewards.org to confirm that the stuff isn't being shipped overseas to poison the lives of others.
No comments:
Post a Comment