Computers and the Environment: Understanding and Managing their Impacts

Personal computers have made life convenient in many ways, but what about their impacts on the environment due to production, use and disposal? Manufacturing computers requires prodigious quantities of fossil fuels, toxic chemicals and water. Rapid improvements in performance mean we often buy a new machine every 1-3 years, which adds up to mountains of waste computers. How should societies respond to manage these environmental impacts?
This volume addresses the environmental impacts and management of computers through a set of analyses on issues ranging from environmental assessment, technologies for recycling, consumer behaviour, strategies of computer manufacturing firms, and government policies. One conclusion is that extending the lifespan of computers (e.g. through reselling) is an environmentally and economically effective strategy that deserves more attention from governments, firms and the general public.

1. Computers and the Environment—An Introduction To Understanding and Managing their Impacts.- 2. Information Technology Products and the Environment.- 3. Environmental Impacts in the Production of Personal Computers.- 4. How the European Union’s WEEE Directive Will Change the Market for Electronic Equipment—Two Scenarios.- 5. IBM’s Environmental Management of Product Aspects.- 6. Environmental Management at Fujitsu Siemens Computers.- 7. Energy Consumption and Personal Computers.- 8. PCs and Consumers—A Look at Green Demand, Use, and Disposal.- 9. Strategizing the End-of-life Handling of Personal Computers: Resell, Upgrade, Recycle.- 10. Today’s Markets for Used PCs—And Ways to Enhance Them.- 11. Recycling Personal Computers.- 12. Operations of a Computer Equipment Resource Recovery Facility.- 13. Managing PCs through Policy: Review and Ways to Extend Lifespan.- Contributors.