Earth Day is April 22nd. It is the 51st Earth Day. Earth Day is “celebrated around the world when people take time to appreciate humankind’s connection to the Earth and to raise awareness of our environmental challenges,” according to the Earth Day Initiative.
More than 1 billion people now participate in Earth Day activities each year. Earth day is the largest civic observance in the world. At the first Earth Day in 1970, concerned citizens gathered across the country to learn about environmental degradation. The activism that followed led to the passing of the Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act. These are still landmark legislation in environmental protection.
How to commemorate Earth Day
To commemorate Earth Day 2021, here are some ways to make your tech greener.
- Reuse Old PC’s – Retired hardware can be used for tasks with lower resource requirements. They can also be re-sold – after wiping your data, of course.
Responsibly Recycle – The toxic materials in electronic devices can contain dangerous materials like Cadmium, Mercury Hexavalent chromium and Flame retardants. Be sure to recycle your electronic waste responsibly to avoid leakage of harmful substances into the environment.- User more efficient hardware – Solid State Disk Drives (SSDs) – use less energy than traditional HDDs. An SSD can extend your laptop battery life by 30-45 minutes on average. And they are quitier too.
- Skip the printer – Use online communications. By skipping the printer you can save a tree and save the money you waste on printer ink. According to PricewaterhouseCoopers, the average person makes 10,000 copies or prints annually at the office plus printing at home.
- Skip the daily commute – Thanks to COVID, most of use are telecommuting now but – skipping the commuting to the job can reduce green house gas CO2 that causes climate change. And you can save some cash paying for gas.
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Ralph Bach has been in IT long enough to know better and has blogged from his Bach Seat about IT, careers and anything else that catches his attention since 2005. You can follow him at LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter. Email the Bach Seat here.