Green IT Blog!!!

Yes, Yes, indeed, bad times are upon and yes, I am being too presumptuous, almost stupid to think that someone is really going to spend their depreciating INR on me. Yet, in hope we live, and so do I.

So in case you are feeling generous in this season, these are a few gifts on my wish-list:

Rollable Solar Charger:
This waterproof solar charger can provide electricity for everything from laptops to car batteries. The cadmium-free solar cells are mounted on a thin film, allowing you to roll it up for easy packing.

Green Desktop:
This green PC runs on an energy-efficient power supply and has an outer shell made of responsibly harvested bamboo. It uses a fraction of the power of a typical tower, but has most of the regular features of a full-size model.

Kill-a-watt Charger:
With displays of voltage, kilowatt-hours, and leakage current, this power strip helps track inefficient appliances. Just knowing how much energy a product uses allows you to cut down on consumption. Read more…

Carbon neutrality is a term that really flummoxes me these days. With much concerns over climate change issues, anything to do with environment becomes a hot topic. While the hype and hoopla that surrounds such green is much welcome, but at times there is the danger of going overboard and losing relevance. Carbon neutrality is one such thing.

Let me just list what really is carbon neutrality. In our mundane modern day existence, we as individuals are responsible for lot of direct and indirect carbon (to be more precise CO2) emissions in the atmosphere. Right from the toothpaste that we use (after all its manufacturing and transportation must have cost much energy), to the food we consume (oranges from Nagpur, apples from Shimla, mangoes from Raigad, Kellogs from the US, chocolates from Switzerland, tea from Assam, rice from Orissa, etc.) and other similar things are what constitute indirect emissions. Now, coming to the direct ones, namely, our commuting, the electricity that we consume directly namely the air conditioners, the PCs, even the food that we consume, for instance meat and non-vegetarian stuff is considered to have a high carbon footprint.

Essentially, the difference between direct and indirect boils down to one simple things, things that can be changed by individual choices (direct) and things that be influenced in a round about way (indirect). The first step towards leading a more eco-friendly life is to first measure these emissions; the sum of all is referred to as a carbon footprint. Expressed in CO2 tonnes, for instance my personal carbon footprint is 4.85 tonnes per year (courtesy: http://calculator.carbonfootprint.com/calculator.aspx).

(Digressing a bit, according the same calculator:

* The average footprint for people in India is 1.20 tonnes
* The average for the industrial nations is about 11 tonnes
* The average worldwide carbon footprint is about 4 tonnes
* The worldwide target to combat climate change is 2 tonne) Read more…