Twitter EWaste News Online! EWasteUSA

You can now Twitter with EWaste News Online!
Find us at: EWasteUSA
www.twitter.com/EwasteUSA

MAJOR CORPORATIONS STEP UP FOR GREEN CERTIFIED ELECTRONICS RECYCLING

15 April 2010 (Seattle) – The Basel Action Network (BAN), the group that first documented the dumping of toxic electronic waste in China and Africa, announced today the official launch of the world’s first global e-waste recycler certification and the first such program backed by environmental organizations and major corporations alike. The accredited, third-party audited certification program has not only been endorsed by Greenpeace USA, the Sierra Club and the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), the Electronics TakeBack Coalition and 68 other environmental organizations but has also drawn the support of major corporate “e-Stewards Enterprises” including:


Apollo Group, Inc.
Bank of America
Capital One Financial Corp.
Ind. Distributors of Electronics Assoc.
Natural Resources Defense Council
Nemours Foundation
Premier, Inc.
Premier Farnell
Resource Media
Samsung
Sprout Creation
Stokes Lawrence
Wells Fargo

“Samsung is honored to be the first electronics manufacturer recognized with the e-Stewards standard for rigorous recycling and e-waste materials management,” said Mr. J.C. Ser, senior vice president for Samsung Electronics America. “This is a major validation of our efforts as we have responsibly recycled more than 20 million pounds of e-waste since the beginning of our Samsung Recycling Direct program in 2008, and plan to continue strengthening our commitment and leadership in this industry.”
At the heart of the program is the e-Stewards Standard, created by BAN with the advice of industry leaders and health and environmental specialists. It calls for recyclers to eliminate exports of hazardous e-wastes to developing countries; to halt the dumping of such wastes in municipal landfills or incinerators, and to cease the use of captive prison populations to manage toxic e-wastes. It also calls for strict protection of customer’s private data and occupational health safeguards to ensure that workers in recycling plants are not exposed to toxic dusts and fumes.

“The e-Stewards Enterprise program makes it easy for us to demonstrate that our electronic waste management standards are responsible and align with best practices. By using e-Stewards Recyclers, we know that our old computers and other electronics aren't going to be disposed of in a way that harms people or the environment and that, when possible, electronic components are recycled and reused,” said Mary Wenzel, director of Environmental Affairs, Wells Fargo.
Currently there are about 50 e-Stewards Recyclers, each of which has passed a rigorous internal review by BAN as a preliminary step to full certification. All are regarded as responsible recyclers, and each has committed to becoming fully certified by September 2011. Today’s announcement names the first companies that have become fully certified. They have passed additional, independent audits conducted by three ANAB accredited certifying Bodies: AQA International LLC, Orion Registrar Inc., and SAI Global. These very first Certified e-Stewards Recyclers are:

Newport Computer Services, Inc. (one US location)
Redemtech (all 4 US locations)
WeRecycle! (one US location)

Already, there are an additional twelve companies that are next in line, having contracted with certifying bodies to begin the process. These next-in-line companies are: A greenSpan Computer Recycling, California Electronic Asset Recovery (CEAR), CloudBlue, Creative Recycling Solutions, eGreen IT Solutions, Glezco (Mexico), Materials Processing Corporation, Metech, Nextend, Regency Technologies, Surplus Exchange, and Universal Recycling Technologies.

“We are making history here,” said Mick Schum, President of WeRecycle!. “Today, e-Stewards Recyclers and their customers are taking a significant step forward in achieving the most responsible level of management for obsolete electronic equipment. Now, we can provide a competitive domestic alternative to the irresponsible exportation and dumping that runs rampant throughout the industry. Finally, consumers can really know they are doing the right thing when they recycle their old electronics and as Certified e-Stewards Recyclers, we can prove it.”

For More Information Contact:

Mr. Jim Puckett, BAN Executive Director , 206-652-5555, 206-354-0391 (mobile), jpuckett@ban.org

Ms. Sian Wu, Resource Media, 206-374-7795, x102, sian@resource-media.org

Mr. Jose Cardona, Corporate Communications, Samsung, 201-229-4118, jcardona@sea.samsung.com

Ms. Stephanie Rico, Assistant Vice President Environmental Affairs, Wells Fargo, 415-396-5804, Stephanie.Rico@wellsfargo.com

Mr. Mick Schum, President, WeRecycle! LLC, 914-530-2350 x2209, mschum@werecycle.com

For Complete Press Kit: http://e-stewards.org/news/press-kit/ - including lists of environmental organization endorsements and company quotations

New e-Stewards Website: www.e-stewards.org

Uncovering the Shortcuts to Data Center Energy Efficience

By Matthew Wheeland
Published April 28, 2010
http://www.greenbiz.com/blog/2010/04/28/uncovering-shortcuts-data-center-energy-efficiency


Data centers have been around for a long time, but only lately have they started to appear on the radars of small- to medium-sized companies.
This is due in large part to the increased reliance on computing for companies that are now seeing big opportunities from internet-facing sales, and also to the simultaneous awareness of the high costs of and limited power available to rapidly expanding data centers or server rooms.

David Chernicoff, the author of a new book from Realtime Publishers, "The Shortcut Guide to Data Center Energy Efficiency," has been working on data centers since the late 1980s, and he sees now as an opportune time for data centers to upgrade and get greener at the same time.
Because the majority of data centers are aging, between 10 and 20 years old, and are getting close to the end of their useful lives -- Gartner estimates that as many as 80 percent of data centers are in need of overhauling -- Chernicoff says he's getting more calls than ever about energy efficiency in data centers.
"People will pick up the phone and ask me, 'What does it mean to be a green data center?'" Chernicoff explained in a recent phone interview. As his customers, which consist largely of SMEs, look at how much technology has changed since their data centers were originally built, they want to know all about "green IT."
The problem? "Everyone says they want to be green," Chernicoff said, "but no one wants to spend any money on it."
It's the oldest story in the book, of course, and one that is especially true with green projects in general. But Chernicoff says that the benefit of green technologies like virtualization is that it makes many IT revamp projects possible with ROI times so short as to seem almost immediate.
"I usually step people back from the green part of it," he explained. "I'll walk through what happens when you virtualize: If you go from 10 servers to one, there you go -- you're greener."
Chernicoff added that people are finally starting to realize that there are too many servers out there doing too little, and that for a lot of simple projects, virtualization makes a lot of sense.
But even for bigger projects, virtualization makes it easier to cram more computing power into a smaller space than ever before. Chernicoff summed up a typical project in a thumbnail sketch:
"I can concatenate this entire data center into a dual-rack row, wrap it up as a hot aisle, and I can deliver five times the power of what I did five years ago."
Of course, the reality is quite a bit more complicated than that, and that's where Chernicoff's book comes in. It is aimed at those companies that have older data centers, ones that were built in the days when computing capacity and availability was the only relevant statistic, before the rise of PUEs and DCiEs.
These firms are looking to expand and improve their computing capacity, rather than building entirely new facilities, and they know they can do things to improve efficiency and performance, but don't know where to begin.

Chernicoff's book provides a details walkthrough of every aspect of data center operations, beginning with a section on virtualization, and progressing through data center design, critical issues for heating and cooling servers, and strategies for upgrading currently operating data centers.
As he writes in the section on "The Costs of Not Upgrading" a data center:
As power costs continue to increase, there will be a hidden tax on inefficient data centers. This wasted money is difficult, in many cases, to quantify, but it is a problem nonetheless. With tight IT budgets the norm, wasting money because of a lack of progressive thinking in your data center is a waste that can be difficult to sustain. Beyond the simple cost issues, there are potential problems that can arise from failing to update your data center.
The most significant is the inability to deliver the services and technologies that the business will demand in the near future to remain competitive or to create a competitive advantage. With the changes in IT technology resulting in much more dense data center IT loads, it is critical that IT be able to support those loads and have an agile and adaptable data center infrastructure. The inability to deliver the necessary power and cooling services in the data center will prevent the business from taking advantage of the technological edge that efficient IT can deliver.
Regardless of any legislation impacting data center owners or energy providers, the steadily rising costs of energy -- as well as predicted increases in power shortages -- mean that a shift to more efficient IT now will save headaches later.
"It boils down to if you don't spend the money now, you're going to spend it in the future."
David Chernicoff's book, "The Shortcut Guide to Data Center Energy Efficiency," is available as a free download from RealTime Publishers.





By Matthew Wheeland

Published April 28, 2010
Read more: http://www.greenbiz.com/blog/2010/04/28/uncovering-shortcuts-data-center-energy-efficiency#ixzz0ozCh0EQk

Putting Green IT to Work in Sustainable Business Practices

Putting Green IT to Work in Sustainable Business Practices

By Mark O'Neill

Published May 05, 2010
http://www.greenbiz.com/blog/2010/05/05/putting-green-it-work-sustainable-business-practices?page=0%2C0


[Editor's note: This is an excerpt from a new book, Green IT for Sustainable Business Practice, by Mark O’Neill; the excerpt originally appeared on BusinessGreen, and is reprinted with permission.]

An appropriate mantra for any organization committed to green IT should be "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle." Organisations should use the green IT program as an ideal opportunity to reduce the amount of legacy IT equipment that is currently installed on their infrastructure.

Replacement of older PCs with energy efficient (Gold EPEAT rating) PCs should be considered, and if this is not financially or logistically viable at least replace any old CRT terminals that are still in use with far more efficient LCD models.

In recent tests, the average energy usage of a traditional 20-inch CRT VGA monitor was sixty three percent higher than a 20-inch wide-screen LCD monitor. Another option for organizations may be to upgrade from a cold cathode fluorescent lamp (CCFL) to a light-emitting diode (LED).

Another consideration for organizations is to reduce the number of PCs that exist on their infrastructure by ensuring they only provide one PC per user. In fact, many organizations are implementing PC sharing schemes to reduce the PC estate to less than one PC per user. This initiative is becoming more viable and accepted especially as modern workforces nowadays tend to be more fluid than static and job-sharing schemes become more popular.

Away from the workplace, users are already used to sharing PCs, for example when visiting libraries and internet cafes. It is essential of course that security issues are identified and addressed. Whenever an individual uses a computer, its cookies, browser history and other settings save the information that has been accessed. It is therefore essential that all the files and settings are deleted once the user logs off, and before the next user accesses the machine. To ensure the user's data and files are kept safe a robust password and data access process needs to be implemented.

There are many different ways in which an organization can reuse unwanted, retired or legacy infrastructure. A best practice Asset and Configuration Management process will assist an organization in identifying where assets can be re-assigned and reused. A popular practice is the passing on of unwanted infrastructure to schools or charitable organizations. This is an initiative that organizations may wish to manage themselves or carry out using a specialist third party, for example Computer Aid.

In addition to reusing infrastructure, organizations should also consider recycling the remaining infrastructure that cannot be reused. To enable more effective and efficient recycling, organizations should only source electrical products that are designed so they can be easily disassembled to component level, using universally available tools. The ultimate aim for any organization is to ensure no electronic or electrical waste is disposed of in a landfill site.

1) Virtualization to Support green IT

At its simplest level, virtualization allows you to have two or more computers, running two or more completely different environments, on one piece of hardware. For example, with virtualization you can have two different Operating Systems on one system; alternatively, you could host a MS Windows XP desktop and a MS Windows Vista desktop on one workstation. Virtualization essentially decouples users and applications from the specific hardware characteristics of the systems they use.

2) Data Center Management and Improvement

IT data centers are potentially the largest contributor to an organization's carbon footprint and must become more efficient if organizations are going to reduce their overall environmental impact.


Read more: http://www.greenbiz.com/blog/2010/05/05/putting-green-it-work-sustainable-business-practices?page=0%2C0#ixzz0nbOTPwo8

by:By Mark O'Neillhttp://www.greenbiz.com/blog/2010/05/05/putting-green-it-work-sustainable-business-practices?page=0%2C0

Published May 05, 2010