S.T.E.P. (Sustainable Technology Environments Program) an EcoFriendly Audio Visual Standard

Posted on October 28, 2011 by admin

S.T.E.P. (Sustainable Technology Environments Program)

While exploring and contributing to the blogosphere of all that is green with audio-visual we discovered an extremely interesting ecofriendly A/V program that’s been put together by InfoComm called S.T.E.P. – Sustainable Technology Environments Program.

The Sustainable Technology Environments Program (STEP) was put into place by the InfoComm Board of Directors in 2009 in an attempt to create a “Green AV Task Force.” Like Ecopresence, STEP is dedicated to creating and adding to the informational database of “green” audio video technologies and practices. Much like Ecopresence, STEP is dedicated to creating a “AV sustainability rating system.” This STEP eco-label is currently in the drafting phase, which can be checked out here http://community.infocomm.org/resources/viewdocument/?DocumentKey=30d4081e-8a4c-4c75-b47c-06341b4a395f. Their blog http://community.infocomm.org/ is very well administered, and their environmentally focused group “The Green AV SIG” currently has over 250 subscribers.

The Greenest Environmentally Friendly Poster for the Eco-Sustainability Fight for our Planet.

STEP’s Green AV Poster is one of the most significant contributions to the fight for our planets environment that they have made. This poster encourages people and organizations to, “Take Steps to Reduce Our Carbon Footprint,” and suggests specific ways for our people, our workplace, and our products and services to do so.

InfoComm’s suggested steps for Our People to decrease their carbon footprint

Engage a green team of volunteers; Appoint a company green leader; Use mass transportation; Educate others to raise environmental awareness; Join the InfoComm Green AV SIG; Promote green in our industry; Join our local Green Building Council; Become a LEED Accredited Professional; Use AV to reduce paper consumption and travel; Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.

STEPs for Our Workplace to Reduce their Carbon footprint

Create an environmental policy; Acknowledge and reward sustainable behavior; start an e-waste recycle or donation program; Get out office LEED certified; Sponsor an environmental workday; Become a carbon-neutral company; Deploy energy-efficient lighting solutions; Become ISO 14001 certified; Audit energy usage and sources.

Ways to limit your environmental impact with Products and Services

Focus on sustainability in our products and services; Reduce waste in manufacturing and delivery, conserve energy in all that we do; favor suppliers who support sustainability; support industry standards; earn a LEED innovation credit; Quality for US EPA or BS8901 green AV standards for meetings and events.

S.T.E.P. towards Conclusion

STEP is truly a very committed program that has the future of our planet on its mind first and foremost. The most impressive part about InfoComm, their Green AV forum, and STEP is the members of their AV Sustainability Task Force. This team is made up of professors, AV company executives, and LEED AP certified institutions. Certainly with these great minds and founding principles, the STEP program will be able to help make our people, AV technology, companies, nations, and world a greener and more sustainable place for generations to come.

Ecopresence will continue to follow the Green AV forum on InfoComm’s blog, and is excited to see the future of its Sustainable Technology Environments Program. We encourage you to do the same, and to share your thoughts about this article with your comments below, or @ecopresence1 on twitter.

See you all soon, and remember that Ecopresence is here to help you all SAVE MONEY, SAVE TIME, and SAVE THE PLANET.

Green AV Poster – Sustainable Technology Environments Program

environmental carbon footprint reduction poster

What constitutes Ecopresence

Posted on August 29, 2011 by admin

What constitutes Ecopresence – and who should care

As I talked about in our introduction, ecopresence is a combination. The analysis to be put forward must talk about the resources consumed as well as the resources not consumed. Resources consumed should be kept to a minimum, for example, a device when in operation may be more ecologically friendly than the same device by another manufacturer that while in operation consumes less power. Clearly in terms of consumption the second device is more efficient and could be considered more ecologically friendly. However, this may not be the entire story. Let’s say the second products while it consumes less power, lasts for twice as long. This puts less items in the landfill and fewer items are consumed in manufacturing. So now is the second more ecopresence friendly? Say the first item was biodegradable, while the second was not?

For a good analysis we have to put forward quite a few factors

Production or the amount resources consumed in the creation of the product
Consumption – the amount of resources consumed when the product is performing its function
Lifespan, the amount of time the product is in service
The retirement would be the amount of waste when the product is retired from service.
The benefit of using a product to the environment

The resources consumed in production can take many forms; among them could include, packaging or the way the product is wrapped for delivery, the amount of recycled good used in the item itself, the power and other factors used in the manufacturer of the product.

Similarly the consumption of resources during the operation can take many forms. Some products consume energy, some have consumables such as filters, which might have to be serviced regularly and some need regular service which may require manpower and other consumables.

Lifespan has several factors which affect the price. One is the resource cost of is the item itself in that regard, the if two items consume similar resources to manufacture but one lasted twice as long, the other would consume twice the resources in the operation, however this does not tell the entire story. There are also costs associated with replacing the shorter lived component. These costs may be in labor, material, or consumables. Costs may also be incurred by the loss of productivity while the resource is being serviced.

The retirement of the product or the consumables within the product would be taken into account when the product is taken out of operation. the recyclable nature of the product itself should be taken into account when analyzing this feature. The classic case of this would be the florescent light bulb. While the florescent light bulb consumes less power than the incandescent bulb, there is mercury within the bulb making disposal both expensive and environmentally dangerous.

While it is difficult to quantify the first and fourth items economically, there are some reasonable expectations that cost factors can be used as a guide for the analysis of the second and third factors. That is, the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) of a device has implications within the amount of consumables used during the life of the product, the amount of resources consumed servicing the product as well as the frequency of replacement.

The first four factors, clearly address the life cycle costs of any product, the last looks at the problem in a different way; it discusses the ecological benefits of using a technology of other technologies. A fax machine, for example while increasing paper and printing costs, reduces the amount of resources that would be consumed delivering the paper in another way; The cost of an envelope, labor costs, travel costs. Email transmission improves on the fax machine by reducing the disposable items. Videoconferencing may reduce the travel associated with a meeting. Similar to way the TCO can help analyze the use of consumables, the Return on Investment (ROI) can help analyze the resources not consumed when using this product over another technology. If videoconferencing can reduce the amount of travel, that in turn reduces the cost to the pocketbook as well as the environment.

Energy Star Creates New Logo for “Most Efficient” Electronics

Posted on August 18, 2011 by admin

Energy Star recently took another great leap towards informing the public of green electronics and appliances by unveiling a new label that intends to identify the “most” energy efficient devices. The EPA has named this program the “ENERGY STAR Most Efficient” and intends for it to label the most highly efficient products available.

While naming the more efficient products is something that ENERGY STAR is already supposed to be doing, taking this extra step just shows you how far the green movement has come.

Some of you might have noticed that the ENERGY STAR logo seems to be seen on nearly everything electronic lately. Is this because the standard for being energy efficient has been lowered? No, the fact of the matter is, the market is pushing companies products towards being more efficient, and towards being more green. The customers (you and your companies) understand the benefits of energy efficient products, and as a result the market is raising its green standards. That means nobody wants to buy the monitor that isn’t ENERGY STAR qualified in a store, especially when there is a more efficient and certified monitor right next to it for the same price.

So, in response to this simple economic situation, companies are designing products that meet the ENERGY STAR qualifications, and ridding their hands of their less popular endeavors. The fact that you see the Energy Star logo around so much does not mean that its significance has somehow lessened; it means there has been progress in the market.

Because of this progress, some companies have decided to push the envelope even further. As a result, Energy Star has decided to celebrate these efforts through their new certification standard, and in doing so has help to facilitate the markets further efforts towards becoming greener and more energy efficient.

Energy Star says, “This effort will identify the most efficient products among those that qualify for the ENERGY STAR in particular product categories…”when speaking about their new Most Efficient Label.

We are extremely happy to see that there is actually a need for a new logo that can identify the companies that are being even “greener” than required, and excited to watch the rest of the audio visual market take a similar step.

This is a step towards a better planet for us all by companies, and a progressive leap of consumers showing their wiliness to accept this movement.

What do you guys think though? Is this a good sign of things to come, or is ENERGY STAR just watering down their certification’s significance?

Be sure to follow us on twitter @ecopresence,

Check ecopresence.org for our biweekly updates, any and every comment or question will be answered by me personally!

How to know if your electronics are GREEN

Posted on August 17, 2011 by admin

Going green is the “next big thing” for seemingly every company out there. From dishwashing soaps, to shoelace companies, every marketer has been placing some sort of a “green” spin on their products lately. The truth of the matter is, there are no federal regulations for what can and cannot be called “green,” so it’s no wonder that everyone is jumping on board the green bandwagon. Furthermore, it should surprise no one that many of the companies who often repackage their old products as “green” do so more as a marketing scheme than a legitimate effort towards bettering our environment. Maybe they’re focusing more so on the “green” in their pockets than the green outside.

In an attempt to help some of you audio visual and videoconferencing enthusiast out there, I’ve put together a little list of certifications that qualify the green efforts of companies and their technologies.

This means your product is ENERGY STAR® qualified.

“ENERGY STAR® is a joint program of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S. Department of Energy helping us all save money and protect the environment through energy efficient products and practices. Energy efficient choices can save families about a third on their energy bill with similar savings of greenhouse gas emissions, without sacrificing features, style or comfort. ENERGY STAR helps you make the energy efficient choice.” – EnergyStar.gov

This means your product’s power supply is 80 PLUS™ certified

80 PLUS is an initiative to promote energy efficiency in computer power supply units (PSU). It certifies products that have more than 80% energy efficiency at 20%, 50% and 100% of rated load, and a power factor of 0.9 or greater at 100% load. That is, PSUs that waste 20% or less electric energy as heat at the specified load levels, thus reducing electricity use and bills compared to less efficient PSUs. Sometimes rebates are given for manufacturers who use 80 PLUS-certified PSUs.

This means your product is operating with alternative / renewable energy sources

Alternative Energy is energy that is made in a way that does not harm the environment, and completely avoids and fossil fuel or nuclear power. Renewable Energy is energy made with renewable resources such as the sun’s light, wind, water, etc.

This means your Electronics are RoHS compliant (Restricted use of Hazardous Substances)

RoHS is a European program that began restricting the use of 6 hazardous substances for electronics in 2006. These hazardous materials are considered harmful and bad for the wellbeing of the environment and people. RoHS products are not supposed to contain any Lead, Cadmium, Mercury, Hexavalent Chromium, Polybrominated Biphenyl or Polybrominated Biphenyl Ethers.

This means your Electronics are designed with sustainability and long term customer value in mind

To have this certification your product must be advanced with its multi-functionality, smaller in size/ weight/ materials in general, and must limit its packaging or incorporate recycled packaging for its shipping means. On top of this the expected life of the product must be greater than its predecessor.

This means your Product is WEEE compliant (Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment)

Manufacturer offers or sponsors end of life, trade-in, take-back, recovery or recycling programs ensuring hazardous electronics waste doesn’t end up in landfills. Products, components, materials and packaging are either refurbished for resale or recycled or reclaimed for reuse in new or additional products.

This means your product’s Manufacturer has an environmental charter

Electronics manufacturer has an environmental charter with goals and objectives that embrace environmental policies, practices and incentives for employees and suppliers to achieve a more sustainable business model. Company typically publishes an annual environmental report card or audit of its progress.

A little about Us

Posted on August 16, 2011 by admin

Welcome to Ecopresence.org, where our goal is to help people “save money, save time, save the planet!” Ecopresence.org is a blog that examines audio visual technologies with an ecological focus Audio visual technologies enhance communication. They include sound and display technologies that enable communication in venues such as auditoriums, classrooms, and conference rooms as well as related communication technologies such as videoconferencing streaming, and desktop collaboration.

The ecological focus of ecopresence.org examines the decision factors that may affect the environment when making product selections. Architects and engineers need to understand the environmental effects of the audio and visual devices within a space. Light, heating and power distribution are affected by the audio visual technology in the building. Better management of these factors can reduce the overall cost of construction as well as the recurring operational costs of a building. Ecopresence.org will help with the analysis by recommending and providing tools to aid in planning.

Several factors can contribute to the environmental resources consumed in the operation of a device. For example, besides the amount of power consumed and heat generated, the amount of waste in packaging can influence the environmental footprint. However the best savings of resources comes when a resource is never consumed in the first place. Our emphasis on the return on investment (ROI) and total cost of ownership (TCO) touch upon savings in the maintenance and overall operation of the product. For example, if there is less maintenance involved in servicing a product, less manpower is needed for the service. This not only affects the TCO but the reduction in manpower in turn effects the environment.

Expect regular articles from Ecopresence.org that will enable green-focused, informed business decisions for audio-visual and videoconferencing devices.

We are going to use our unbiased expertise to aid in this mission of ours, and hope to build a community of active and informed readers in the process.

Welcome!

Posted on August 1, 2011 by admin

Welcome to Ecopresence.org, where our goal is to help people “save money, save time, save the planet!” Ecopresence.org is a blog that is dedicated to using its expertise, in audio visual and videoconferencing technologies, in order to enable green-focused and informed business decisions, while taking into account these technologies environmental factors, as well as return on investment and total cost of ownership.

What are audio visual and videoconferencing technologies?

When this blog talks about audio visual and videoconferencing technologies, we are focusing on products involved with the latest technology that aid in enhanced communication in the digital age. We will be touching on the green side of videoconferencing infrastructure and endpoints, audio visual devices, and streaming/ recording/ replay devices, to give a few examples. In order to become recognized as experts, we will not often stray from this category of technology.

What are “green-focused” and informed business decisions?

Ecopresence.org takes several things into account with its definition of “green focused” when it comes to technology. We will be taking a look into exactly what makes for a “greener” technology, and what less obvious characteristics might be worth greater consideration than expected. We will then take these green considerations and tie them into business side of this industry, thus furthering what will become a practical and informed business decision.

For example, let’s say that we have 2 seemingly identical projectors as far as price and potentially hazardous materials are concerned, except for the fact that projector X consumes less power to operate. Does that mean that projector X is “greener” than projector Y? Ecopresence intends to take a deeper look into situations like this. Yes, projector X is helping to save the planet and your money by using less power. However, if projector X requires more maintenance or upkeep than its competition, then any cost savings with electricity are void by the new cost to keep the machine running, and any “green” effect on the environment that it might have caused can be ignored due to the greater carbon-footprint left behind as a result of shipping it around, bringing in parts, and using technicians.

Needless to say, “green-focused” and informed business decisions have quite a few factors to consider.

What environmental factors are taken into account with these technologies?

Ecopresence.org will take into account a multitude of environmental factors that should be taken into consideration when weighing the pros and cons of audio visual and videoconferencing technologies. We will touch on issues concerning these devices’ safety of materials, shipping/ assembly/ logistics factors, idle and active power consumptions, and maintenance/ upkeep’s toll on the environment, just to name a few.

By factoring in these environmental properties, Ecopresence.org hopes to provide a better and greener foundation on which to make your final decision.

How does return on investment and total cost of ownership factor into this?

Ecopresence.org understands that price is a huge thing to consider when researching this technology. That’s why the return on investment and total cost of ownership are going to be huge players in our recommendation or coverage of products. We want to make sure that the technology being invested in is going to benefit you, and isn’t going to constantly dig back into your pocket. We don’t want to recommend setups with a short life span, or vast maintenance costs because we understand and want to help explain the correlation between the green in your pocket and the green in our planet.

A number of other economic considerations will measured through our research as well, and in doing so we hope to continue to add to our mission of saving everything time, saving people money, and saving the planet.

What’s Next?

Expect weekly articles from Ecopresence.org that help enable green-focused and informed business decisions for audio-visual and videoconferencing devices, while taking into account these technologies environmental factors, as well as return on investment and total cost of ownership. We are going to use our unbiased expertise to aid in this mission of ours, and hope to build a community of active and informed readers in the process.

Ecopresence

save money, save time, save the planet…

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