News

Green ICT was a focus of this year’s CeBIT, the world’s largest ICT fair that took place in Hanover, Germany on 4-9 March.

The IT industry had so far not been identified as a polluter, however, in terms of energy consumption, CO₂ emissions and toxically waste the industry has a critical record.

A special publication, the “Green IT Guide”, lists all the “green” exhibitors, which displayed their products and services in a special theme hall. Green hardware, green data centres and green services are set to arrive on the markets shortly.

An industry consortium of some 150 companies present at CeBIT has set as a target for 2010 to cut down energy consumption and CO₂ emissions by 50%.

Environmentalists, as the “PC Global”, remain skeptical and believe that industry is not really ready to shoulder the responsibility and the general public and consumers areot putting enough pressure on producers.

Users of laptops and PCs can also do something themselves to reduce energy use by activating power saving options and switching off devices when they stop working.



Greenpeace, presenting a study on "Searching for Green Electronics", said power saving is not enough. In their guide to green laptops, notebooks, PCs, screen, mobile phones, PDAs, etc., they have also looked at the use of hazardous substances, energy efficiency, product life cycle and innovation.