Green tech: Tech companies work on sustainable solutions

A great deal has been stated about how technological know-how increases lives by producing it less difficult for men and women to accomplish various responsibilities like search up details, function remotely and remain in contact with one yet another. Even so, there are also problems about the electricity consumption of our tech behaviors and how it may possibly impression the setting.

An posting by the BBC titled “Why your Online patterns are not as clear as you think” unveiled that each form of on-line activity – from replying e-mails to streaming movies – contributes a few grammes of carbon dioxide due to the power required to electric power the products and wireless networks accessed by users.

As there are now billions of Web consumers globally, professionals say there is an urgent have to have to cut down carbon emissions to stop a increase in world-wide temperatures that could guide to excessive weather modifications.

Currently, some companies are introducing some ways to lessen the load of our tech intake on the natural environment.

Into the cloud

Alibaba Group mentioned in a assertion that it had absolutely migrated all of the company’s units and functions on to the cloud in advance of its 11.11 World-wide Browsing Festival on Nov 11, 2021. The firm claimed that applying cloud-native systems diminished computing assets by 50{18fa003f91e59da06650ea58ab756635467abbb80a253ef708fe12b10efb8add} for every 10,000 transactions as opposed to the former yr.

Alibaba claimed that applying cloud-indigenous technologies minimized computing means by 50{18fa003f91e59da06650ea58ab756635467abbb80a253ef708fe12b10efb8add} for just about every 10,000 transactions as opposed to very last year. — Alibaba Cloud

It extra that inexperienced systems these kinds of as liquid cooling and wind electrical power were being made use of at its hyper-scale knowledge centres ensuing in lowered carbon emissions by more than 26,000 tonnes, equivalent to the amount of money of carbon dioxide (CO2) absorbed by one million trees per year.

The corporation also claimed that its Hanguang 800 AI inference chip was equipped to boost the lookup algorithm effectiveness aspect on the Taobao marketplace by 200{18fa003f91e59da06650ea58ab756635467abbb80a253ef708fe12b10efb8add}, reducing strength costs by 58{18fa003f91e59da06650ea58ab756635467abbb80a253ef708fe12b10efb8add}.

Solar energy

In April, Intel Malaysia issued a press release announcing that extra solar panels had been set up at its chip and assembly testing production facility in Kulim, Kedah as effectively as at its campus in Bayan Lepas, Penang.

The 3.2 megawatt (MW) solar installation offers Intel Malaysia a overall set up capacity of 4.1MW, building this venture Intel’s most significant solar farm exterior of the United States. The company believed that the solar farm panels go over an space equivalent to 900 car or truck parking areas and 50,208 sq. toes on building rooftops, which is predicted to produce about 6,000 megawatt several hours of electrical power every year and to partially replace the campus’ electrical power desire for the duration of peak hrs.

The photo voltaic set up at the Intel chip and assembly test production facility at Kulim Hello Tech Park is Intel’s most significant solar farm outdoors of the US. — Intel Corporation

It added that power source from photo voltaic sources is serving to to introduce renewable vitality at the campus, which was primarily reliant on purely natural gas and coal sources.

The photo voltaic job in Malaysia, which commenced in 2020, contributes about 15{18fa003f91e59da06650ea58ab756635467abbb80a253ef708fe12b10efb8add} of Intel’s international, on-web-site photo voltaic photovoltaic electric powered ability capacity and is slated to lower carbon dioxide emissions by about 3,800 tonnes.

Chipping in

Samsung has shared a amount of initiatives as component of its dedication to sustainability. The South Korean enterprise claimed that its Exynos cellular processors, which are built to assist the CPU, graphics and digital camera capabilities as effectively as 5G and AI-run functions on a smartphone, are made for decrease ability usage.

The company claimed that its Exynos cell processor are established for lower electric power use. — Samsung

The tech large on its website discussed that consolidating extra capabilities on to a smaller chip on a smartphone consumes much less vitality, as a result lowering the number of moments the device’s battery demands to be recharged – a essential stage in the direction of decreasing carbon emissions.

In November, the organization also introduced that 5 of its memory solutions had been given ‘Reducing CO2’ labels by the Carbon Belief, an impartial and skilled husband or wife of organisations that advises firms on sustainability and lower-carbon emission initiatives.

It explained that the label certifies that a product’s carbon emission has been minimized and that the company was in a position to do so by utilizing much less electricity as properly as significantly less uncooked elements for every chip in the course of generation. For illustration, its Transportable SSD T7’s packaging utilised paper instead of plastic.

Samsung approximated that the volume of carbon emissions diminished from the five merchandise, as of July 2021, quantities to 680,000 metric tonnes of CO2, equal to 11.3 million urban tree seedlings grown for ten many years or the greenhouse gas emitted from 149,000 cars driven for a single 12 months.

Conscious conclusion

Microsoft has announced a pledge to develop into ‘carbon negative’ – specifically to clear away additional carbon than it emits – by 2030.

To that conclude, the organization in its 2020 Environmental Sustainability Report mentioned that it aims to eliminate dependency on diesel gasoline at its facts centres by 2030, introducing it would shift to lower-carbon standby electric power devices which include battery storage and minimal-carbon gasoline like hydrogen. It also ideas to swap to 100{18fa003f91e59da06650ea58ab756635467abbb80a253ef708fe12b10efb8add} renewable energy at its data centres, structures and campuses around the world by 2025.

The firm has also introduced digital applications these types of as its Sustainability Calculator for its shoppers to get much better insights on their carbon emissions from cloud utilization. The software utilizes AI and analytics to demonstrate reduction developments over time.