5.1 Environmental Issues (B02)

Question 1

def: replacement cycle - what does it mean for businesses

Answer 1

the period of time between the purchase of assets (eg digital devices) and their replacement with equivalent assets

for businesses:
- have to replace equipment when they or their OS are no longer supported - same as personal users (this can be as short as 3-4 years)
- cost effectiveness = main concern
- replacement usually means an upgrade

for personal:
- main thing is new features, advertising affects this

Question 2

environmental issues - manufacture

Answer 2

raw material extraction:
- arsenic, cadmium, chromium are hazardous (circuit boards)
- uranium, thorium can contaminate air, soil and groundwater (computer products)
- also uses precious metals
+ excavation: damages local environment

use of water:
- manufacturing semiconductors is highly water intensive - water shortages in areas where these factories are located
- untreated waste water discharge - environmental pollution

production:
- raw materials shipped to factories - shipped to another location for assembly

use of energy:
- burning fossil fuels - Co2

Question 3

environmental issues - replacement cycle

Answer 3

shorter r.c. =
more disposal of equipment, increase in e waste
more devices manufactured

Question 4

environmental issues - disposal

Answer 4

large amounts of e-waste are shipped overseas to LIDCs where it is dumped in landfill sites / dismantled to extract the materials:
they are now refusing and ACs have to make new recycling arrangements

Question 5

environmental issues - energy consumption

Answer 5

every stage of a computer’s life needs energy (so does mining raw materials, manufacturing, packaging, transportation etc)

cloud computing (storage of vast amount of data on remote servers) has lead to building of data centres
- consume about 3% worldwide energy - needed to power and cool all the computing equipment

Question 6

how to make data centres more efficient

Answer 6

• using a hot/cold aisle configuration to increase cooling system efficiency
• using blanking panels to minimise recirculation of hot and sealing the floor to prevent cooling losses
• investing in research to develop new less energy-hungry alternative to silicon based data storage maybe graphene??
• ration internet usage (eg by imposing a tax on uploading data OR by changing images uploaded to social media to black and white)

Question 7

government solutions to environmental problems (manufacture and disposal)

Answer 7

manfaucture:
- EU Restriction of Hazards Substances (RoHS) directive brought into UK in 2013 - restricts use of certain materials (cadmium, lead, mercury etc)
- governments are imposing tough recycling targets to ensure that more reusable material is recovered and reused to protect reserves of scarce resources

disposal:
- WEEE (Waste Electrical and ELectronic Equipment) regulations set targets for collection, recycling and recovery of computing technology and other electronic items - APPLY TO BUSINESSES