The Factors Influencing Green Computing Information Technology Essay

“Green computing or green IT, refers to environmentally sustainable computing or IT (Chhatarpal and Hitesh Sharma, n. d.)”. In the article Harnessing Green IT: Principles and Practices, San Murugesan (2008) defines “the field of green computing as to enable a minimal or no impact on the environment to be effective and efficient, the study and practices of designing, manufacturing, using, and disposing of computers, servers, and associated subsystems, and also the networking and communications system. Therefore, to study and practice of using computing resources efficiently, green IT includes the dimensions of environmental sustainability, the economics of energy efficiency, and the total cost of ownership, which includes the cost of disposal and recycling. (San Murugesan, 2008)”.

According to Sanghita Roy and Manigrib Bag(n. d), “the goals of green computing are to reduce the use of hazardous materials, maximize energy efficiency during the product’s lifespan, and promote the recyclability or biodegradability of defunct products and factory waste (Sanghita Roy and Manigrib Bag, n. d.)”. Moreover, Richard McNeal (2010) stated that “by practicing green computing, when the energy usage has been reduced, it can be translated into reducing carbon dioxide emission, a reduction in the fossil fuel used in power plants which is the stemmed and transportation. Less energy is required to produce, use, and dispose of products which can mean conserving resources. (Richard McNeal, 2010).”

San Murugesan (2008) stated that “there are four complementary paths that can make the environment greener and more sustainability. One of the paths is green use which it reduces the energy consumption of computers and other information systems as well as using them in an environmentally sound manner. Green disposal is also one of the paths which it refurbishing and reusing old computers and properly recycling unwanted computers and other electronic equipment. Furthermore, the other path is green design which design energy-efficient and environmentally sound components, computers, servers, cooling equipment and data centers. Lastly, green manufacturing is also one of the paths. Manufacturers must manufacture electronic components, computers, and other associated subsystems with minimal impact on the environment (Murugesan, 2008).”

Caitlina Fuller (2007) stated that “green computing is all about the efficient use of computers and computing. When it comes to anything that is green, the triple bottom line is important. This considers economic viability, social responsibility and the impact on the environment which this idea is to make the whole process surrounding computers friendlier to the environment, economy, and society. By creating computers, this is a way that reflects the triple bottom line positively. Businesses or people can use the computers which have been sold in a green way by reducing power usage and disposing of them properly or they can recycle them. The idea is to make computers from beginning to end a green product (EzineArticles, 2011).”

There are a few ways to practice green computing (John Lamb, 2009). For example, if you are going away for a short period, turn off the monitor or you can power down the computer if the inactive time period is extending so that it can help to save the energy consumption. Moreover, we can also adjust the power management so that when we are away for a certain period, it will automatically turn off the hard drive and stand by the system. However, do not turn on the screen saver and choose a darker background as it will consume less electricity and make a friendlier environment. People are advised to unplug all the unnecessary equipment from the computer like additional fans, extra CD-Rom, and also drivers.

In conclusion, if every one of us practices green computing, it can help to preserve our beautiful environment and the main problem of the world which is Global Warming. The temperature of the Earth is becoming higher and it is causing many problems to living organisms. At the same time, the ozone layer of our Earth is also thinning which then will cause many disasters and drastic changes to the World’s weather. Therefore, computers also play a major role in polluting the world. As a conclusion, practicing green computing is a very important role that should be practiced by everybody to lead the World to a better and healthier place to live. In addition, green computing can also allow the flora and fauna to live better due to the reducing of green house effect.

1.2 Research background

This research focuses on the green practices among Malaysian youth. The reasons why I’m conducting this research is because it is important to save our Mother Earth as our Earth is sick. According to the past literature, world’s citizen must practice greener computing in order to save our flora and fauna so that our next generation will have the chance to enjoy what we had enjoyed before. Not only the world’s citizen must play an important role, but also the youths must also do so.

Furthermore, this research will be useful to these world’s citizens so that they will practice green computing. Moreover, when they practice green computing, they can save the world and also save the cost that they need to pay for the utilities every month. During this research, I will be discussing five determinants that can help those youths to practice green computing which are campaign awareness, energy efficiency, materials recycling, attitude, and social influence. These determinants may be the perception of green practices among Malaysian youths. However, by doing this research, it will contribute not only to the youth but also the whole world to know that practice green computing can help to save our environment which they should have practiced it more.

1.3 Research problem

This research is to study the practice of green computing in this society in particular the youth group. The positive outcome of green computing has not been realized by many people. Green computing brings a lot of benefit to everybody as well as Mother Nature. By practicing green computing, not only us human being have the opportunity to enjoy the natural resources of the earth but flora and fauna too can live happily. Moreover, if we do not practice green computing, we will be wasting the energy and if it gets too serious, it may even harm the Earth and eventually the Earth will come to an end. If this issue can be overcome, the earth will then be a better place to live because less energy is wasted and by carrying out green computing, the Mother Nature can be saved. At the same time, the temperature of the earth will maintain at a stable level.

Furthermore, this research is done because of we would like to know why green computing is still not being practiced in our society today. This problem is to be blamed to everybody by not taking into consideration of any age, culture, or ethnic. This problem can happen at any time of the day and this problem must be fixed before it is too late. We must save our Mother Nature from being ruined and start using green computing in order for us to save the flora and fauna so that our younger generation will have the chance to enjoy the beauty of Mother Nature. In addition, there is no specific place where this issue is occurring. This is because now with the upcoming technologies almost everyone around the world is using the computer.

Lastly, this research is done because its aim is to know about the important of practicing green computing. With this, it can help to save our mother nature from being destroyed by human being.

1.4 Research Question

This research is conducted based on:

What are the factors that influence green computing?

What are the perceptions of Malaysian youth towards green computing practices?

1.5 Research Objective

To determine the factors influencing green computing

To examine the perception of Malaysian youth towards green computing practices?

1.6 Significant of study

Value to industry

This study intends to view the green computing practices among Malaysian youth and what factors that will affect them to practice it. From this study, we can know that why green computing is not being practiced and what factors that will influence them to practice green computing. As we all know, green computing practices is important. It may not only help the flora and fauna, but it will also reduce your headaches on paying high utilities bill every month. By practicing this, it can help to save our Earth as well because we tend to use up less energy. Besides, industry should also embrace responsibilities for their ways of doing it and encourage a positive impact through it activities on the environment, consumers, employees, and communities. While business are geared towards making profit, in green computing companies also take into consideration the social responsibility they have. So company success is not only measured merely by company income but by how successful the company is in energy conservation and in the use of environmental friendly resources. As there are many industries which are producing the same products but there are some products which their energy consumption is higher than others. With this research, it can help those producers to modify or change their products to eco friendly products which it consumed less energy and cost savings. However, mainly one of the company’s goals is for a better efficiency and more productivity.

Value to academic

The finding of this paper will be beneficial to the academic. This is because; Malaysian youths can understand why they need to practice green computing. First of all, they will need to practice green computing so that they can help to save the world and also pay lesser for the monthly electricity bill. Therefore, they should start practicing this habit now. Furthermore, this research will also be an eye opener to the youths, where green computing must be practiced. This is because if every one of the youths practices green computing, it can help to reduce green house effect which will be harmful to all of us. By practicing green computing, we as university students will then live a healthier life due to the improvement of the environment that is lead by green computing. Youth should take the first initiative to practice green computing and this will help to save our mother nature as the Earth is sick and also make it a better place for living. Therefore, understanding the importance of green computing practices among youth will result in a better and positive way as the youth will understand what the benefits of practicing green computing are.

1.7 Operation Definition

Green Computing Practices

“Green computing can be known as the term that is used to denote efficient use of resources in computing. In order to minimize environmental impact, maximize the economic viability and ensure the social duties, the term green computing is related to the latter and the citizens must practice green computing so that we are able to save our Earth. Benefit that can bring to the Earth which are related to other similar activities are like reducing the use of environmentally hazardous materials like CFCs, promoting the use of recyclable materials, minimizing use of non-biodegradable components, and encouraging use of sustainable resources (Tech-Faq, n. d.)”

Campaign Awareness

“Awareness campaign will be focusing on groups that will look at awareness of energy use and conservation in computing and potential barriers to green computing. The campaign will offer ideas to students, faculty and staff on basic computing practices, from reminders about turning off monitors to use of power-saving features and settings (Andrew Vowles, 2009)”.

Materials recycling

“The computer equipments which are recyclable are gathered through recycling driver, are transported to develop countries whereby the environmental standards are less stringent compared to North America and the European Continents. These recyclable equipments are harmful materials but can be kept such as leads, mercury and hexavalent chromium out of landfills. Countries such as China, India and Pakistan received at least 80% of this post-consumer e-waste, an estimate by the Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition. Computing supplies, such as printer cartridges, paper, and batteries may be recycled as well (Scribd Inc, 2011)”.

Attitude

“Personal attitudes toward to the commitment of green computing are significant to determine a positive attitude towards an act (Wing S. Chow and Yang Chen, 2009)”.

Social influence

“An individual’s continuum of perspective influence attributions toward computing technology and moderate the influence of the social character of computing technology on individual’s attributions toward green computing practices (Natalia G. Falaleeva and Richard D. Johnson, 2002)”.

1.8 Scope of study

In this research, the researcher will be investigating the factors and perceptions of green computing practices among Malaysian youth. This research will be conducted in one of the private university in Malacca where this research will be conducted by me. The reasons why I conduct this research is to find out why students in the university do not practice green computing. As what I have decided, I will narrow down the scope and I will be focusing on the Malaysian students from one of the private university.

I am focusing on this private university because as what I have found out, there are not many studies that have been done within this area in Malaysia and the people are not practicing green computing. In addition, Malaysia is in the transformation stage and has recently seen an increase in establishments of information technology as well as increase in the number of computers or notebooks purchases by the students in the university. It is almost compulsory for the students to have either notebook or computer because they need it to do their assignments, view their notes, search for more information and communicating with their friends by using those social networking.

As there are 20 public universities, 25 private universities, and 19 university colleges, so I will only be focusing on one of the private university in Malacca. With the help of the total number of students in the university, I can know that why perception of green computing has not been practiced by them. After I have finished with this research, by viewing this report, the students in the private university will understand why perception of green computing among Malaysian youth must be practiced all the time.

1.9 Organization of the study

Chapter 1

-discuss about the introduction of the overall of this research. The objective and problem statements is defined here. This part also talks about the background of the research, which will then mainly focus on the green computing practices among Malaysian youth. The target in this research will be in one of the private university in Malacca and the target sample will be the students in that university.

Chapter 2

– focusing on the past literature review that are related to this field, tourism behavior, which has been described by very few researchers. This part will also explain about the green computing practices among Malaysian youth, and the 5 main independent variables (campus and mass media awareness, social influence, materials recycling, attitude, and social influence), which are the core of this research.

Chapter 3

-will figure out the research methodology that will be employed in this research in order to find out the tendencies of students in the private university respond to the independent variable. Furthermore, the theoretical framework and hypothesis will also be shown in this part. Moreover, the sampling design and data analysis method will be discussed in detail in this part.

1.10 Summary of chapter

First of all, this chapter is about the brief introduction and background of green computing practices among Malaysian youths. The researcher also explains the purpose of conducting this research. Moreover, the researcher identifies the factors which cause green computing practices has been discussed in the research problem. After identifying the problem, the researcher will come out with the research questions and research objectives. Furthermore, the definition of the key words will be briefly explained in operation definition. Lastly, this chapter will end at the scope of study by explaining where this research will be done.