The whole idea of “green” everything is intriguing to me. Part of my job as a civil engineer is closely related to efficient uses of materials and energy. We work on LEED projects and I have done site work for ethanol and solar plants. I’ve always been interested in the environment and renewable energy sources such as solar, wind, and geothermal. And the idea of getting the same output for less energy and cost is fascinating to me. Plus, green is my favorite color.
Growing up, my Dad made sure that I knew I should turn off lights when I left a room and close doors. There was no need to air condition the neighborhood. It used to bother me to think about all the light bulbs that were left on across the world every day. Now I think about how much energy is wasted every day on computers idling.
As computers and technological equipment become the most widely used items of production across the globe, efficiency for those items will become a major issue and possibly a major problem. There are many reasons to place an emphasis on green computing and many large companies are taking steps to lead in energy conservation as illustrated by Mr. Weber’s presentation. However, there are still many small companies and individuals that have not placed much importance on energy efficiency.
I see two main reasons for this. One is that many businesses and homeowners don’t want to spend money now to save money over time. In many cases, people and companies just don’t have the available cash to spend (to save). They are barely getting by right now and they don’t have any extra money to spend on increasing their energy efficiency; even if they did know that it would save them money over time (which in many cases they don’t). And that leads me to the second main problem, people are not aware of how much energy they are wasting and how much money they could save. Or they are skeptical and don’t believe they are wasting as much as they are.
Prof. Michael Brown taught me that a penny saved is not a penny earned. A penny saved is actually $1.63 earned because of taxes. Money saved should always be near the top of the list of priorities for all managers. I know that a lot of these energy savings are insignificant when considered individually, but I also know that insignificant items add up. Until we start thinking about what all of us can do to save energy individually, I don’t believe much is going to happen. And generally it takes large costs or catastrophic events to reach the amount of people that we need to make a difference. Until then, 75% of the electricity that the U.S consumes could be saved. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Efficient_energy_use) I think the U.S department of energy should do more to teach everyone about energy conservation. Until then, even if they don’t care about the environment, energy conservation should be on every responsible manager’s mind.
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