Corporations finding green in going green

A select few have already discovered just how lucrative going green can be, but for mega-corps around the globe, this year's Earth Day was just as much about earning green as it was recycling. While throngs of companies have already instituted programs to recollect and recycle customer's obsolete gear, outfits are now looking for easy money in selling scrap material, used plastics, hardware components, and "refurbished PCs," all while tooting their own horn and eliciting a good bit of positive PR love along the way. According to IDC analysts, the global demand for such junk unusual treasures is on the rise, making it easier for companies such as Dell, Apple, and Sony to flip the returned hardware for extra cash. Furthermore, some say that these in-your-face recycling programs could even entice users to scrap their current PCs faster than they otherwise would, which could also lead to more business with said companies as they plunk down for yet another computer that they honestly didn't need. Sure, the motives behind going green in the tech industry could be swaying, but as long as hardware retirement and disposal is being handled in an environmentally-friendly way, we suppose there's not much room to repine.

[KitKat @ Apr 24th 2007 8:18AM]

Moronic US companies act like they've uncovered some secret, while the rest of the world has know the Green path for some time. Wake up, and get on board.

[James @ Apr 24th 2007 11:03AM]

People are always pleasantly surprised whenever a corporation stands up to support some draconian environmentalist legislation -- here's the reason. If you know how to play the game, green laws can make you a lot of money.


Mr. Dell: "People are throwing away old computers. If we could get them send 'em to us, we could make a ton of money!"


Mr. Dell: "Hello, Mr. Senator? We're very concerned that our customers are throwing away their old computers, because they, uh... pollute the environment? Yeah, that's it! This is a tragedy. It should be illegal. We need a law requiring that old computers be sent for recycling."


Mr. Dell: "I'm gonna git me another yacht."

[tekdroid @ Apr 24th 2007 5:20PM]

money rules the world, as the posts above me have alluded to. And it also is indicative of the fact that computers now do more than the bulk of the population expect/want of them, meaning that even old stuff is *useful*, and has been for some time. It's only a minority who use the cutting-edge features of modern computers to full, or even occasional, use.

There are some words about software/operating system bloat and how it relates to speed to be said somewhere here, but that's a story for another day.

[Sporkinum @ Apr 24th 2007 10:23PM]

You hit the nail on the head. My 4 year old AMD XP2400 has enough power to play pretty much any newer game, albeit at not the best gfx settings. Everything else it handles great. My Wife's computer is an old Compaq with an 800 mhz processor running linux. It does everything she wants it to. Even plays DVD's and Divxes in full screen.
It kind of makes me twitch when the average user buys a new computer because their computer is so loaded with dreck and spyware.

[Asmodeus @ Apr 25th 2007 2:42AM]

Going green is trendy hypocritical hype... Welcome to the new PR campaign...

[Josh @ May 21st 2007 3:51PM]

A year ago, Jonathan Schwartz, COO of Sun outlined plans to build the first public, multi-tenant grid (just like the power companies run), and make it available for $1/cpu-hr. The “Sun Grid“, is essentially a collection of low cost network, storage, computing and software elements, lashed together to do work that historically required very expensive dedicated proprietary technologies.
Now we can all experience for ourselves what it’s like to use one of the world’s largest supercomputers, without having to house it, manage it, power it, administer it, provision it… or buy it. Clearly shared resources like these and the old Colocation Centres are far more efficient and not to mention less expensive. However, one benefit we hadn’t considered was the fortuitous environmental implications they fascilitate. By pooling all these resources, we can seriously cut back on harmful greenhouse gas emissions caused by the millions of organizations independent inefficient networks.
The big question is, will organizations commit to shared resources like these, or will they limit their flexibility and compromise their security. I guess time will tell. Jonathan Schwartz clearly feels they are the new way to go, and I for one agree!

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