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Text File | 1993-08-16 | 17.1 KB | 292 lines

---------------------------------------------------------------- ENVIRONMENTALLY SAFE COMPUTING ---------------------------------------------------------------- Computing has impacts on the earth and I would like to share a few constructive suggestions and tips about saving resources and protecting the environment. Computing uses paper. Keep two wastebaskets by your desk and recycle. Same for cardboard packing boxes and packing materials which arrive with computing equipment. But let's go a little deeper with the paper issue: Do you really need to print on multiple part carbonless forms and heavyweight computer paper? I use a lightweight 18# paper in my little dot matrix printer. How about carbonless and two part forms? The chemicals used in the manufacture of carbonless paper are toxic. Do you really need a two part form (or 6 part form in the case of some corporations which go wild with multipart forms?) Why not see if a single part form can be made with a tear off stub or perhaps a file saving feature in the software that traps the data and saves it to disk for "your copy" of the form? Just like banks: ask the customer if they want their checks back: meaning does your customer need seven copies of a form or will your monthly invoice statement cover the bill? Environmentally responsible computing also means ONLY upgrading machines when you really need to or buying a used computer. Here's why: the manufacture of integrated circuits used in computers uses large amounts of concentrated acids, gasses and caustic chemicals. These are stored, recycled or (hopefully) dumped into approved waste sites in normal practice, but the point is do you really need the latest machine and its impact on our planet given the toxic nature of computer manufacturing processes? PC-LEARN is programmed on an XT class machine. I don't need anything better, and when I do, I hope to find a USED "recycled" computer of higher quality rather than buying a new one. Same with printers, modems and so forth! Here in Seattle, several computer brokers specialize in reselling used computers on consignment. Head that direction for your next purchase! It's less expensive and helps the planet! As a commercial photographer by training, I use a Seattle film lab for some of my photo processing. The lab uses an 8 1/2 by 11 inch TWO part carbonless form to log in each order, they later mail me a THREE part carbonless invoice for EACH order within a few days by mail, then a final billing statement at the end of the month AND they have 4 computer terminals in the order processing customer counter area of the lab! I am sure their accounting is extraordinarily well documented, but there may not be enough trees on this earth to support this kind of "information flow" if every business operated this way. I could do with a small claim stub when I drop off my film, a little itemization printed on the paper envelope which contains the finished order and perhaps a monthly statement printed on recycled paper to summarize the account activity. The ironic footnote is that the same lab has a sign prominently posted in the lobby as to willingness to accept cardboard and plastic (from things like film containers) for the benefit of the environment! Clearly the right hand doesn't know what the left hand is doing and sadly computers are pushing the waste factor in this real life example. If you suspect I am beating the environmental drum too loudly, back up and consider the financial COST to an operation like the film lab mentioned above. Unwise from the financial end and equally unwise from the environmental end. Computing uses electricity. If you are just stepping out of the office for a half hour or so, it is probably best for the machine to leave it on and the hard drive spinning to prevent the wear and tear of machine startup which eventually wears out a hard drive. However, turn off the monitor if you are away for even short periods using its own separate power switch (leaving the PC on) even if you use screen blanker software since the monitor is still drawing power! When should you turn off the machine completely? Use the two hour rule: if you are away from the PC NO MORE than two hours, leave the machine on. If away MORE than two hours, shut it off. Also factor in the dust argument which follows: Don't leave a PC on all night or LONG periods of time. The dust sucked through your machine by constant fan use will more than offset the savings in wear and tear you may gain by leaving the hard drive spinning! The dust impacts the power supply which is the heart of the system. If the power supply goes bad due to overheating (because of a thick blanket of internal dust) it can destroy your entire PC! For the curious or mechanically adept, open the power supply WITH ALL APPROPRIATE PRECAUTIONS IN AN UNPLUGGED AND COMPLETELY DISCHARGED MACHINE. You will be stunned by the dust you see! I regularly take my pc and power supply cover off and give the internals a LIGHT blast of compressed air (not ozone-destroying freon) to free the dust and help the machine run cooler. I do this every six months. Do a calculation for your office on your PC: how much wattage does an average PC in your office draw per hour? How many PC's in your office? What is the TOTAL economic cost leaving them ALL on during the night (12 hours?) versus turning them off? Now how much a month, then how much a year. Finally, multiply by the cost per killowatt hour for cost per year. This doesn't even consider maintenance savings or waste - just electricity! Plastics and computing are everywhere. Talk to a recycler and see if they can accept polyethelene packing bags, stryrofoam packing, printer cartridges and so forth. If you are involved in large corporate purchases, ask the vendor to supply a one page sheet describing how they use LESS in an environmentally safe way in providing your computing equipment needs (e.g., do they use popcorn from a growing plant (which is now common) rather than styrofoam chips for packing, do they recycle paper in their organization, etc.)? Vendors just might take notice if large organizations asked for a one page "computing impact statement" from each computing supplies vendor. If your vendor doesn't know what you mean by a "computing impact statement," send THIS printout as an example and ask them again for their statement. Try to recharge printer ink cartridges if possible. Same with laser printers. A nutty but workable method of recharging a FABRIC printer cartridge is to take it outside, lay it on a piece of newspaper, pry off the plastic cartridge lid and lightly spray the ribbon with the lubricant WD-40. Replace the lid of the printer cartridge and allow a few hours for the WD-40 oil to redistribute ink from the edges of the ribbon (where the printhead does NOT strike the ribbon) to the center strip of the ribbon. Recharged cartridges at the cost of a few pennies of WD-40! This method works best with cloth fabric ribbons not mylar ribbons, but I am told a few people have even tried this with the mylar ribbons too. Professional ink and ribbon recharge companies exist, investigate this option! Consider using shareware rather than commercial software. How does this positively affect the environment? Simple. Shareware uses simple packaging or NONE AT ALL since it frequently travels electronically by BBS/modem methods, isn't returned to the wholesaler to be sent to the garbage dump if too many packages are manufactured, supports a small software programmer who has less impact on the earth as a single human being rather than a large corporation and provides you with high quality at a fair price which goes well with the environmental features. This isn't just a sales pitch, shareware DOES have less negative impact on the environment than commercial software! Speaking of laser printers, the environmental cost and economic cost is NOT favorable. Toner, paper, electricity, everything about lasers is less favorable to the earth. Use a humble dot matrix printer unless you are ready for the final draft. Lasers need more maintenance, too. Finally people are forever buying MORE plastic font cartridges and upgrades for lasers. In this respect, a good compromise if you need laser quality and sharpness in printing, is to consider using BUBBLEJET printers which produce crisp "near laser" quality, but use far less ink, plastic cartridge material and electricity than a conventional laser printer. Most software packages now support bubblejet printers. Back to the paper issue. Do you really need to send a memo or submit a rough draft on paper? Can you get the boss to accept the memo on disk and teach the boss how to use a simple file browser to read the file? Pick up the phone and call with the information, it is a faster, more human in scale and saves resources. Let's talk about envelopes: if your office uses window style envelopes for billings or mailings, try to design or use window envelopes WITH EMPTY WINDOW OPENINGS RATHER THAN CLEAR PLASTIC WINDOW OPENINGS. The billing address peeks out the front just the same and becomes recyclable! Plastic containing envelopes cannot be recycled. Otherwise try to pre-print the address on the return envelope - anything but plastic windows. FAX processes are wonderful. Investigate FAXing onto disk (using a FAX board installed in your computer) rather than paper printouts of FAXES. This produces an electronic FAX file which is saved on disk rather than printing on paper. Do you program or sell software? Why not recycle disks? Simply slap your new label over that old disk no longer needed and add a line that "this is a recycled disk" on the bottom of your disk label or jacket. Most folks approve of greeting cards printed on recycled paper. Do you really need to use a fresh new disk to impress your client when a recycled one with a new label will do? Keep your keyboard, computer and printer clean. Once in a while vacuum or dust out the power supply which collects loads of dust. Reason: you prevent breakdowns which require repairs or scrapping of the computer. End result: more earth resources used which could have been prevented in the first place with a little preventative maintenance. Look at your software and documentation shelf. Stacks of old computer magazines and documentation pile up! Have a once a month PC recycling party where you rip out pages from documentation and magazines you really need and recycle the remains. Same goes for old disks, binders, the works. Donations. If computers help you make money, and they do, set aside a small contribution to the non-profit group of your choice which is involved in conservation and recycling. Submit suggestions for this little part of the PC-LEARN tutorial on "how your office saves the earth using computers WISELY." I'll try to insert it if valuable and of course, it will float all over the world on BBS systems and shareware distribution points so your small or large suggestion WILL possibly make a difference to somebody in Brazil or China. PC-LEARN is a shareware package which lives electronically on the Compuserve network which is accessed by people all over the world! If possible, send your suggestion on disk in ASCII using your word processor so I can electronically merge it. Then I will put the LATEST copy of PC-LEARN on the disk you sent and return it in your own recycled disk mailer if you also enclose a couple of stamps! Don't compute when you don't need to! Sometimes it is too easy to turn on the machine and bang out a spreadsheet or draft a memo. Can you solve the problem with your BRAIN or grab your rolodex to find that phone number? Our brains our much more capable than the most modern computer. What can you do better by leaving the machine OFF and not using electricity, paper, plastic, ink and toner? Finally, turning off the computer means we spend a few minutes with each other, rather than our (let's face it) addictive computers. You just may come up with a solution to that budget problem by visiting with a colleague at the next desk rather than recalculating that monster spreadsheet for the millionth time trying to find an optimum budget solution for the office. The vast majority of business problems are solved by CREATIVITY which organic brains do best! Print (on paper, unfortunately) this little section of the PC-LEARN computer tutorial and place it on the company bulletin board. This is a win/win situation: your co-workers will start to think about earth conscious computing and if more beginners will use PC-LEARN they will learn how to use a computer more efficiently SOONER and thus WASTE LESS paper, electricity and natural resources, does that make sense? Computer beginners can waste a lot of paper, money, time and electricity learning how to use a computer. If PC-LEARN helps them learn faster, then they should waste less and become proficient more quickly! Consider renting computer equipment for short term and special projects. Obviously you can save money in most cases, but the larger issue is that you don't impact the environment by using resources for something you can share that computer equipment with many other people via a rental arrangement. When you print lengthy documents from a disk to paper, investigate clever software products (many of them shareware) which allow you to print FOUR pages in tiny but readable typeface and on BOTH SIDES of the paper. Add your suggestion here or mail it to me. You do not need to be a registered user of PC-LEARN to submit a suggestion to this chapter. Suggestion from Mr. Bo Stiff, Charmichael, California. His letter has been edited and shortened: "A company I used to work for had a mainframe computer in Connecticut with office hubs in Houston and LA. Approximately 40 reports were printed from a spooler set up to do this routine in over 200 offices in the U.S. EVERY NIGHT! The company had a guilty feeling about the environment so asked each office to submit ideas." "I suggested that they take the reports off line. Make them available on demand only, put them on a screen with a 48 hour hold on daily reports. 10 day hold on weekly reports and 40 day hold on monthly reports. I also suggested that when reports were printed, that operator NOT send a blank page to set line space or formfeed. This could be performed by the local office if needed. Obviously the computers in the company were turned over to the Controllers who decided who got to see which reports and screens." "Our initial calculations were staggering, then we found out that we were one of the frugal offices! By our accountant's calculations we cut back over 4000 cases of paper nationwide per MONTH! Latest calculation is closer to 5000 cases." Tutorial finished. Have you registered PC-Learn to receive your bonus disks? Registration is encouraged. Shareware works on the honor system! Send $25 to Seattle Scientific Photography, Department PCL6, PO Box 1506, Mercer Island, WA 98040. Latest version of PC-Learn and two bonus disks shipped promptly!