Our digital data has a growing carbon footprint

While most climate change activists are focused on limiting emissions from the automotive, aviation and energy industries, the processing of digital data is already comparable to these sectors and is still growing. In 2020, digitisation was purported to generate 4% of global GHG emissions. Tom Jackson, Professor of Information and Knowledge Management at Loughborough University … Continue reading Our digital data has a growing carbon footprint →

Swedish and Japanese universities make advancement in the development of computers that can work as energy efficiently as a brain

development of computers that can work as energy efficiently as human brains. The “breakthrough” moment for UoG and partner Tohoko University transpired after a sustained period of research and significant funding by state agencies in Sweden and Japan over the period 2019 to 2021. Gothenburg University makes breakthrough in energy efficient computers The University … Continue reading Swedish and Japanese universities make advancement in the development of computers that can work as energy efficiently as a brain →

Our laptops and smart phones have a terrible ecological footprint

Charli Shield discusses the environmental impact of our electronic equipment in an article on the Deutsche Welle website. Currently only 17.4 % of our electronic equipment is formally collected and recycled. Any good suggestions how we change this? The invisible waste behind our laptops and smartphones We tend to focus on household garbage as … Continue reading Our laptops and smart phones have a terrible ecological footprint →

Could this be the moment for refurbishing and reusing existing equipment?

As the pandemic has impacted supply chains, some electronics manufacturers have struggled to produce new equipment. Chetna Krishna writes on the Deutsche Welle website about the issues related to reusing existing equipment. Can the pandemic help us to embrace refurbished electronics As the pandemic has impacted supply chains, some electronics manufacturers have struggled to … Continue reading Could this be the moment for refurbishing and reusing existing equipment? →

New EEA briefing on importance of extending lifetime of electronics

Extending the lifetime and delaying obsolescence of electronics can significantly reduce their environmental and climate impacts and contribute to meeting the European Union’s (EU) environment, climate and circular economy objectives. According to a European Environment Agency (EEA) briefing, published this week, smartphones, televisions, washing machines and vacuum cleaners all are used on average for shorter … Continue reading New EEA briefing on importance of extending lifetime of electronics →

Global information network requires more energy than the whole of the UK – low carbon solution is needed

The carbon footprint of the Internet already exceeds that of air travel. Oscar Céspedes, Associate Professor of Physics at the University of Leeds provides an informative article on unsustainability of the computing world and the need to find low-carbon solutions. He shows that there are options to continue our progress and minimise the ecological impact. … Continue reading Global information network requires more energy than the whole of the UK – low carbon solution is needed →

Energy efficiency is one of the key challenges of modern computing

How do you get the right balance between power-efficient computers and performance? Mirren White writes on the scientific computing world website about some of the issues and a project underway to make it easier for software developers and hardware designers to create more efficient systems. Exploring energy efficiency Energy efficiency is one of the … Continue reading Energy efficiency is one of the key challenges of modern computing →

Let our computers dream on . . . efficiently

We certainly cannot work 24/7 and we are finding out that we cannot let our computers keep up that pace either. Emanuel Maiberg writes on the Motherboard website about energy-related complications even when our computers are on sleep mode. Why Computers Must Sleep Do computers dream of electric sheep? Not unless we program them … Continue reading Let our computers dream on . . . efficiently →