Going 'green', the Intel way

MUMBAI, INDIA: Today, 'green' is the buzz word in every industry, and how can IT be an exception! As the concern over climate change looming large, the 'green' sensibility assumes greater significance too.

After all, the green concept in IT sector, like any other industry, is aimed at protecting the nature and reducing the environmental impacts by developing and using latest technologies and processes at various levels.

When it comes to IT industry, lower power consumption and heat emission, products free from hazardous chemical materials, decomposition or recycling of IT components and hardware are some of the key challenges and concerns.

The steps initiated by silicon innovator Intel Corporation is highly relevant from the 'green' point of view.

Right from product designing, its packaging and power needs to chemical free component manufacturing and finally its recycling – at all levels Intel has made strong efforts to become a socially responsible and environment friendly tech company.

According to R Ravichandran, Intel's director – Sales, South Asia, the company applies technology innovation to reduce any adverse environmental impact of its products, while maintaining highest processor performance levels.

“We continue to dramatically increase the energy efficiency of our products, incorporate more environmentally sensitive materials into our design processes, and address e-waste/end of life product concerns,” says Ravichandran.

He points to the five pillars of foundation that are core part in the company's product design process, which includes product packaging, energy efficient performance, lead and halogen (the halogen group comprises fluorine, chlorine, bromine, iodine and astatine), free products, restriction of hazardous substances (RoHS) compliance and data center efficiency.

Intel launched in 2007 the protective packaging for multiple product lines, which intends to shrink the paper size and plastic materials with new designs. The new designs with lesser packaging materials will improve shipping density with low fuel consumption, which results in controlling emissions per unit shipped.

The company moved from 65nm to 45nm transistor size that raised the performance and efficiency of the processors. Intel's 45nm processors are produced using a lead-free process and use Hi-k silicon technology for reduced transistor leakage, enabling more energy-efficient, high-performance processors.

It results in sleeker, smaller and more energy-efficient desktops, notebook PCs, mobile devices and server designs.

For environment sustainability, Ravichandran says, “Intel has worked with suppliers and other companies in the semiconductor and electronics industry to develop lead-free materials and processes. In the past decade, Intel has reduced the lead usage by 95 per cent across all product lines and 100 per cent in selected and regulated products.”

To replace the remaining five percent lead solder in processor packages, Intel is using a tin (Sn)/silver (Ag)/copper (Cu) alloy and new assembly manufacturing processes developed by its engineers, he adds.

Though there's no stress on removal of the hazardous, halogenated flame retardants (HFR) from products, Intel is proactive over the past few years to eliminate these material's use. In fact, the company in 2008 began converting to halogen-free packaging technology for central processing unit (CPU) and chipset products.

In 2008, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recognized Intel as the largest green power purchaser in the US. With all these environment friendly initiatives, Intel succeeded in lowering operational energy consumption by 20 per cent per product unit in the last three years, recycled or reused 87 per cent of its chemical waste and 80 per cent of its solid waste in 2007.

With all efforts and investments in the past 10 years, Intel saved about three billion gallons of water and reduced total water usage by 2 percent in 2007, says Ravichandran.