Green Computing

What I know about the topic. Absolutely nothing.

Two Questions About Topic.

1. What ate the basics of Green Technology?
2. How is it important for today's world?

Useful Links

Harnessing Green IT: Principles and Practices

Green PC

What I learned

• Computers have added a great amount of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere.
• They use a lot of energy and the energy plants are suffering.
• Also, the disposal of computers are harmful for the environment. 
• Many companies such as Green PC sell refurbished and recycled computers.
• There are a list of things you can do in order to help Green Computing (turning off the system when not in use, using energy saving methods.etc.)

How it relates to my life

I use computers all the time, and the computer in my house is almost always turned on. Since I use it so often, I may have a low amount of green computing. After seeing all the effects of green computing, I will try to reduce the amount of energy I use with my computer. This involves many different techniques such as the ones I told in the last point of the "what I learned" part.

Remaining Question

In our search for the sustainable world, wouldn't it be better to create less energy consuming computers or any other methods of green computing?

Google Day 1

3 goals

Learn the basics of SketchUp.
http://www.sketchup.com/intl/es/training/videos/new_to_gsu.html

This link is extremely helpful for SketchUp users. It has tutorials in all the levels of difficulty. It starts up explaining how to make basic structures, and then continues on making more elaborate shapes and buildings.

Design a basic building in SketchUp.
Since I couldn't download SketchUp in the computer, I decided to use Minecraft today to make a basic structure.

Research "green" buildings.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_building
Here I learned that a self sustainable building must have various things:

Water Efficiency: Having clean water can be a key factor in sustainable buildings. Collecting rain water and using low amounts of water in toilets and showers are all signs of a water efficient building.
Material Efficiency: Usually, material efficient buildings are made of low consuming materials. Some examples are lumber from third party forests (that are especially made to be cut down).
Energy Efficiency:  Sustainable energy such as solar, hydro and wind is used  as energy sources for the building. I am planning to do a building that will be able to create enough energy for itself and its neighboring structures.

Next class, I want to use SketchUp and start to design my building.

Google 20%

I am really interested in architecture. Many people from my family are architects, and I find the different types of architecture cool. Also, I would like to know how to use architecture programs that would symulate every single feature of a building. That is how I will mix technology and architecture.I will design a building.

Since I am very eco friendly, I am willing to design a 100% sustainable building that would generate more clean energy than it consumes. It might use many different types of energy and be earthquake proof. At the beginning I will use Google Sketch Up. Afterwards, I will try to use more advanced programs.

To demonstrate my knowledge, I am planning to make a video with my friend Mateo that will show all the features of the building.

LINK

C/C website