August 30, 2016

Technology can offer so much more than Pokémon GO and similar trivial fun. When technological innovations are put in skillful hands, they can bring outstanding benefits. Given that today, we listen about a variety of environmental problems on a daily basis, it’s incredible that technological advancements aren’t used more to yield better ecological results. The good thing is, that cutting-edge technological achievements promise to speed up the pace of ecological development. Let’s have a deeper look at them.

Wood as the computer core

Although everybody who finished elementary school would say that wood is an insulator, recent research has shown that scientists could turn wood into a conductor. What’s more, this wood (sic!) also change the way we make computer chips. Engineers believe that nanocellulose from wood pulp could be used as a conductor in chips. The ecological benefit from this innovation in the chip industry would be enormous, since it would reduce the use of plastic, resulting in a gigantic leap towards a cleaner future. You can read more about those findings on Smithsonianmag.com.

Plastic from organic sources

Since plastic has a destructive effect on the environment, mostly due to the fact it’s non-biodegradable, smart people are exploring how to get plastic from organic sources. And the best thing is that they’re allegedly on the brink of a ground-breaking innovation. Namely, it seems that plastic from biomass will soon be produced in much larger quantities, since today its share in the overall production of plastic is too little. It will make plastic biodegradable, which could bring plastic bottles by the road to an end. What’s more, it will also reduce the use of fossil fuels, minimizing the carbon footprint of every industry that manufactures plastic.

Renewable energy in the IT-field

Since the IT-field pushes the entire civilization forward, it would be great if this field and ecology join forces to pave the way for future green IT-features. While some of those features are already becoming an inseparable part of every office kit (dig those solar-powered notebook bags), there’s still a long and winding road to the top. We can only hope that some new Daedalus will find more ways to conduct the Sun and its divine warmth to our devices and make energy from renewable sources the driving force behind the IT-field.

Tree-saving, no printing approach

If you’ve ever seen any documentary on Discovery Channel or National Geographic, you must know that our planet is at its deathbed. The greenhouse effect is one of the main reasons that have led to such a condition. Furthermore, the main cause of the greenhouse effect is deforestation. There’s too much CO 2 in the atmosphere, which keeps the sun’s heat reflected from the ground in the atmosphere. What does this have to do with technology? Well, we print too much, which degrades our environment. Therefore, you should aim at making your office a paperless area. You’ll need external hard drives and sufficient cloud storage space to achieve this goal. Moreover, install several cheap gaming laptops in your office, to ensure that you have enough backup space for your data and completely abandon printing. You should definitely try it, setting up a gaming configuration has never been easier.

Smart homes

The Internet of Things should completely change our lives, due to a large number of home-supporting innovations. What developers of this system want to achieve is an energy-saving, user-friendly system of interconnected household appliances and devices. As for the ecological side of this project, smart homes are expected to save electric energy, while providing maximum comfort for people living in them. What’s more, smart devices are already used in well-equipped households, which you can read more about here.

The bond between technology and ecology should become stronger in the decades before us. In addition, every citizen can contribute to this connection by applying eco-friendly, energy-efficient devices in their homes. This ecological guide of ours should help you find a balance in that effort.