Recyclable Corn Cards
Move over PVC, eco-friendly Corn Cards are increasing in popularity. Millions of traditional petroleum-based Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC) cards are used every day in a multitude of applications and industries — cutting across nearly every social and business sector imaginable. These include photo IDs, membership cards, hotel room key-cards, and gift and loyalty cards. But since their production is dependent on oil, a non-renewable resource, PVC cards adversely affect the environment, both in their manufacture and eventual disposal.
In contrast, Corn Cards are made from corn starch, a readily available, renewable resource. Corn Cards have the same familiar look and feel of standard white PVC cards. They are identical in quality and durability to printed PVC cards. It should be noted that Corn Cards are made from a type of genetically modified corn — not the kind used for human consumption. Corn Cards are actually a polymer called Polylactic Acid (PLA).
Corn Cards have advantages and disadvantages. A lot of water is required to raise the corn used to make the cards and the land where the corn is grown won’t be available for food crops. But Corn Cards don’t emit toxic fumes when incinerated, and require 20-50 percent less fossil fuel to make as compared to regular plastics. Corn Cards are fully biodegradable within 47 days, but they only decompose at high temperatures. However, PLA is a safer and smarter choice from both a health and environmental perspective than PVC, which can release cancer-causing chemicals.
Stop Teens Texting While Driving
DWD — Driving While Distracted — is the cause of numerous car accidents. When driving, it’s essential to stay focused on the road and texting or talking on a cell phone create distractions that can lead to disaster. The US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has found that distracted drivers account for nearly four out of five crashes in America.
The problem is especially bad for young drivers. In a survey released this week by Nationwide Mutual Insurance of 1,500 drivers, nearly 40 percent of the teenagers and young adults surveyed admitted they send and receive text messages while driving — the same percentage of those questioned who said they have been hit or almost hit by another car whose driver was talking on a cell phone. Nationwide and the US National Safety Council have developed www.NationwideSmartRide.com, an online resource to provide parents and teens free tools and resources to help develop safe drivers and reinforce smart behavior. The online tools are available to anyone.
New Code of Conduct Needed
Following a survey of existing measures to protect minors from harmful video games across the 27 EU Member States, the European Commission has called for a retailers’ Code of Conduct to be drawn up within two years. Twenty EU Member States now apply Pan European Games Information (PEGI) to video games. However, in the Commission’s view PEGI must be strengthened, regularly updated and information about it must be made more available to the public. PEGI (www.pegi.info) labels provide an age rating and warnings such as violence or bad language, empowering parents to decide which game is appropriate for their children, as well as enabling adult gamers to better choose their games.
Viviane Reding, EU Commissioner for the Information Society and Media said that there is a greater responsibility for the industry to ensure that parents know what kind of games their children play. Also PEGI needs to be fully implemented online and the sale of video games in shops needs to be better regulated to protect minors. According to the Commission survey, fifteen member states have legislation concerning the sale of video games with harmful content to minors in shops, although the scope of laws varies. Until now, just four EU countries — Germany, Ireland, Italy and the UK, have banned certain violent video games.
Video games are increasingly accessible via the Internet and mobile phones, which are expected to make up 33 percent of total revenues for video games by 2010. The European video gaming sector is already worth half as much as the entire European music market and exceeds the cinema box office. For more information see http://ec.europa.eu/saferinternet.
Thin Clients Reduce Global Warming Potential
A study by the Fraunhofer Institute for Environmental, Safety and Energy Technology (UMSICHT), found that thin clients have half the negative impact on the environment and climate as desktop PCs, while still offering equivalent functionality. Conducted in early 2008, the study offers the most thorough examination of desktop PCs and thin clients in terms of their relative environmental impact during production and subsequent service life. In particular, the study evaluated their impact on greenhouse gas emissions in terms of their Global Warming Potential (GWP). The study found that during a five-year lifecycle (including production, operation and disposal), thin clients are both more environmentally friendly and more economical than PC workstations.
The report also identifies IT departments as an often-overlooked contributor to global warming and suggests ways companies can curb the CO2 emissions caused by their IT resources. Key metrics from the report include:
* In Europe, the quantity of old electrical equipment is growing at a rate almost three times faster than other types of waste. This has tremendous ecological consequences for the developing world — where IT waste is often dumped.
* Two percent of global CO2 emissions are caused by the manufacture, use and disposal of equipment in the information sector (Gartner 2007). In addition, 2 percent of US power consumption can be attributed to computers and their corresponding network components.
* Replacing a PC with a thin client reduces the emission of a workstation by more than 54 percent. For a company with 300 workstations, the use of thin clients can save more than 148 tons of C02 emissions over a five-year period.
The report’s overwhelming conclusion is that a widespread shift from PCs to thin clients would have enormous benefits for the environment. Evidence is mounting that CO2 is responsible for global warming, and yet CO2 emissions continue to rise globally. Any company concerned with the environment should consider replacing its PCs with thin clients, which are not only a greener but also a more secure alternative to traditional desktops. The complete study, “Comparison of PC and Thin Client Workstations 2008,” is available through http://it.umsicht.fraunhofer.de/TCecology/index_en.html.
