A Practical Guide to Green Computing for Manufacturers, Businesses, and Individuals

Abstract—Concerns related to the environmental harmcaused by the production, use, and testing of hardware as well assoftware, are widespread throughout the world. Additionally,there is a problem that the associated subtasks use more powerthan they ought to. Into this direction, there is a constant drivetowards Green Computing since many businesses andorganizations are extremely concerned about their carbonfootprint and its associated environmental negative effects. Thelatter is a novel idea that has gained a lot of attention recentlyand is promoted as a fresh approach towards making computingmore environmentally friendly by reducing the impact ofcomputers on the environment. Given that manufacturers,businesses, and individuals have the opportunity to usetechnology to help the environment through programs andsystems aimed at reducing power consumption and savingenergy, a practical guide to Green Computing is proposed in thismanuscript. This guide offers an overview of Green Computing, adescription of its development, as well as a list of its services,depicting the obstacles to its goal. A list of related GreenComputing efforts aimed at both large enterprises and individualusers, is presented, whereas specific manufacturers and largebusinesses already performing Green Computing actions arediscussed. The aim of this research is to give up-to-date practicalguidelines towards a greener and more sustainable environmentwith reduced carbon emissions that are caused by energy-hungrycomputing actions and environmentally unaware decisions.