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By Avril Bries, Special to the Manila Times
The world as we know it today is powered by
science and technology; we operate in a global system that is
governed by innovation, with information at our very fingertips.
This continuous application and expansion of our body of knowledge
has led to the shaping of advanced civilization. However, we cannot
ignore the fact that while there is an indisputable wealth of
benefits that we reap from technology, there are also prices that we
must pay for these advantages—and one area of our culture that has
suffered from our application of science and technology is the
environment.
Yet today, the environment and the field of
research and development do not necessarily have to be at odds, and
civilization need not sacrifice one for the sake of the other;
rather, science is working on a compromise that has resulted in
green technology, or, as defined by the Green Technology group, a
field which “encompasses a continuously evolving group of methods
and materials, from techniques for generating energy to non-toxic
cleaning products”. Green technology is the middle ground between
our sustainable development priorities and the progress of our
global community and is already being implemented worldwide (albeit
slowly and gradually in most countries, which lack the financial
capacity to enforce green technology on large scales) in many areas
of our technology sector, including information technology.
The public’s focus on reducing the negative
environmental impact of the science and research industry has
greatly affected the domain of information technology (IT), which is
defined by the Information Technology Association of America as the
“study, design, development, implementation, support or management
of computer-based information systems, particularly software
applications and computer hardware” and according to Wikipedia:
“deals with the use of electronic computers and computer software
to convert, store, protect, process, transmit and securely retrieve
information.”
Already, certain environmental standards have
evolved for the use and development of the information technology
industry, with countries such as the United States proposing to
publish new contract provisions to standardize green IT, and more
and more IT companies such as Apple Inc., Panasonic and
Hewlett-Packard adopting the policies of the Environmental
Protection Agency’s Electronic Product Environmental Assessment
Tool (EPEAT) program, which evaluates the environmental performance
characteristics of specific products, to note just a few markers in
the growing green IT trend.
Although consumers in the past did not express
much concern for eco-friendly electronics, buyers today are more
environmentally-savvy about their purchasing preferences, especially
considering that our technology today makes it possible for the
electronics industry to produce ecologically sound products that are
just as efficient—if not better—than their environmentally
damaging counterparts, and for the same prices or with relatively
small cost increases.
Information technology companies today know
this; whereas some green technology advocates reminisce about how
they had to fight with manufacturers to get them to gear towards
eco-friendly products back in the beginning of the green technology
movement in 1999, today, the electronics industry recognizes that
consumers now prefer computer products that conform to a certain set
of standard environmental attributes. More and more market
incentives are being offered to IT corporations who choose to go
green, and being slow to adapt to the field of green technology is
fast-becoming an economic liability to even the biggest IT
companies.
In the past, science and technology were often
at loggerheads with the environment. Not anymore; with the growth of
green IT, our research and development industry today is clearing
the hurdle of having to pay the massive costs of fixing the results
of their environmentally harmful products and appealing to consumers
who are increasingly becoming aware of the global focus on
sustainable technology. It may not be the answer to all the
conflicts between technology and our environment, but it’s a giant
leap towards the right direction. With green IT being a win-win
solution, IT industries will either have to jump on the bandwagon or
be prepared to lose out, big-time.
Editor’s note: This essay by Avril Bries of
Quezon City Science High School took the top prize in the recently
concluded CyberPress-EMC IT Writing Contest. She won a laptop for
herself and a desktop for her school. STI, a co-sponsor of the
contest, also gave short-program scholarships to the top 10
finalists.
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