mfioretti’s Recent Comments

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  Watch out the supported FILE FORMATS first!

  I haven't read the LCA references yet, but I doubt they took file formats into account. Saying that an e-book reader which can hold 10000 books has a lower environmental impact than buying physical copies of those same 10000 books means very, very little.

  Buying certain e-book readers on the market now may make just as much sense as buying a brand new Betamax camera, no matter what their CO2 footprint is.

  Before buying an e-book reader, check if:

  1. it can load and display works in non-proprietary file formats (HTML, plain text...)

  2. if the e-books available for that reader are in a format which is non-proprietary, or can be LEGALLY converted, WITHOUT losses to such formats.

  If these conditions aren't satisfied, think at
  least twice before buying that reader. Otherwise, if the maker goes out of business next year, you'll be left with a wonderful paperweight.

  And if maker goes out of business OR the reader breaks tomorrow, you'll be left with all the files you bought for that reader, but nothing with which you could read them.

  In both cases, you'll have created much more pollution than you had calculated, by buying something full of planned obsolescence.

  Marco

  (see why file formats are important to reduce e-waste at http://digifreedom.net/node/81)On Umbra on e-books posted 11 months ago 9 Responses

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  Use non proprietary software and formats

  The Powers That Be at my job have decided to start a Green Initiative... I'm wondering what may be unique to work environments that I'm not thinking of already

  switch as soon as possible to OpenOffice and the Opendocument file format for all your office documents. Do the same for email and all the other electronic documents needed in your office.

  This will not only save you the license costs of proprietary office software. Above all, you will be finally free from forced periodical software upgrades, which are bad because software pollutes!

  Yes, software pollutes. This is explained in detail in a chapter published online of my own book, but the base concept is very short and simple: computer components pollute a lot both when made and when dumped or recycled.

  If you use software like Windows or Microsoft Office, which requires a computer upgrade every 2/3 years because it cannot be customized, nor read the latest file format, you will send much more ewaste than necessary to landfills.

  If, instead, you switch to file formats which can be read by many different programs, even those which WILL run on older computers; and/or you switch to Linux, which can be tailored to minimize its RAM and hard disk needs, then you will greatly reduce over time the amount of electronics that you need to have manufactured (=pollution and energy waste) or trashed (=more pollution).

  Feel free to contact me privately in any moment if you need more explanation on these matters.

  Best Regards,

  M. FiorettiOn Umbra on greening the office posted 11 months, 2 weeks ago 3 Responses