coolbrisbane.org

Author: Greg Foyster
Source: G magazine
Date: 4 October, 2011

The tech rivalry between Mac and PC is often framed as a fight between form and function. Apple products feature sleek design and slick branding, but critics say they’re all style over substance. Macs might have a certain minimalist chic, but can they really compete with the value – and sheer variety – of their PC counterparts?

But we’d like to know if there’s more to the debate than comparing processing speed and the elusive coolness factor. Perhaps we should base our decision to buy a personal computer on a different set of stats altogether? Information and communication technology is responsible for 2.7 per cent of total carbon emissions in Australia, and that’s not including transport or the energy used to manufacture the devices in the first place.

Australians have an average of almost two PCs, monitors or games consoles per household, and with eight million households in the country, the result of all these digital distractions is a colossal e-waste problem. So, if you’re looking for a green computer, is a Mac or PC the better choice?
Powering up

“Computers are extremely dirty devices because they are so complex,” says Graeme Philipson, research director at Connection Research, an analysis company with a focus on sustainable and digital technologies. A single laptop or desktop computer may require many different types of raw materials, including potentially toxic metals such as cadmium, mercury and lead, as well as brominated flame retardants (BFRs), which can affect learning and memory function.

Unlike many household appliances, computers can suck up more energy in the manufacturing phase than over their entire lifetime of use. A desktop computer consumes more than 80 per cent of its total energy in production, according to a 2004 study from the United Nations University, based in Tokyo. Even a relatively lightweight laptop, such as Dell’s Latitude E6400, creates almost as much greenhouse gas in manufacture as it does in use. The 15-inch Macbook Pro, which has an aluminium casing, creates 63 per cent of its greenhouse gas emissions during production. The biggest impact seems to be obtaining the raw parts – Toshiba estimates over 70 per cent of the carbon emissions for its mobile notebook PCs come from procuring materials. According to Dell, the motherboard, display, chassis and battery are the most carbon-intensive parts to produce in a standard business laptop.

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