Gigabyte does its Bit for the environment

The Go Green event held last week was an opportunity for Gigabyte to announce the launch of Dynamic Energy Saver (DES) motherboards, and together with partners Kingston and Western Digital, convey its stance on Green issues affecting the IT industry.

A member of Climate Savers Smart Computing Initiative, the motherboard and graphics card vendor claimed it has a renewed focus on environmental practices, setting a target of 20 percent improved power efficiency for 2008.

“The writing is on the wall and we all know that we have to help slow down global warming in order to ensure our future business,” said Henry Kao, senior vice president International Sales and Marketing, Gigabyte. “Green computing is the way of the future and hardware vendors who want to succeed in tomorrow’s markets need to plan accordingly.”

DES motherboards including the X48, X38 and P35-based models provide power savings of up to 70 percent and up to 20 percent improved power efficiency without sacrificing PC performance. The principle behind the DES model is to offer efficient switching of power phases depending on CPU workload.

In his presentation, Tim Handley, marketing manager for Gigabyte said: “The aim is to reduce CO2 emissions by using less electricity. DES technology revolves around decreasing the amount of heat generated, which addresses energy efficiency and environmental impact, so it makes perfect business sense.”

Vaughan Nankivell, regional manager A/NZ for Kingston also spoke at the event, echoing Gigabyte’s sentiments on the importance of Green IT.

“Traditionally, innovations in technology diverge from Green objectives because to make things go faster, for example, it takes more power. We’re stuck between this desire to go faster and also understand how it will affect the environment,” he said.

Nankivell claimed the European Union lead in enforcing environmental compliance standards has left IT companies little option but to meet these terms if they are to effectively compete in this market.

“If you wanted to do business in Europe you had to start taking steps to be compliant,” he said. “When these standards were introduced around 2002 we started implementing changes and by 2006 we had it all sorted.”

In Australia, Kingston is working with E-waste to ensure the organisation complies with government standards and achieves its own recycling objectives. According to Nankivell, an upcoming Kingston Green initiative will benefit consumers, regulators and the environment.

“Technology quickly becomes obsolete and that’s why recycling is so important,” he said. “This year we will be launching a recycling program where Kingston modules will recycle components via a new-for-old scheme.”

Handley of Gigabyte added that producing eco-friendly technology should form part of an overall Green strategy that encompasses an organisation’s internal practices.

He related how at Gigabyte headquarters in Taiwan, office lights are switched off during lunch breaks, employees are encouraged to use resource efficient forms of communication such as MSN messenger or Skype, and individual departments are rewarded for shutting down lights and air conditioning in meeting rooms when they are not in use.

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