New guidebook helps tech users develop more environmentally friendly practices

[Paul Mobbs]

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The book is available online for free download by unit or as a whole from
https://www.apc.org/en/pubs/practical-guide-sustainable-it


P.




http://www.apc.org/en/node/15036/

New guidebook helps tech users develop more environmentally friendly 
practices

Association for Progressive Communications
Montevideo, Uruguay, Aug 27th 2012


APC has recently published a new guide for the everyday computer user on 
how to make more ecological choices when using technology. The Practical 
guide to sustainable IT offers a detailed, hands-on introduction to thinking 
about sustainable computing holistically; starting with the choices you 
make when buying technology, and the software and peripherals you use, 
through to how you store and work with information, manage your security, 
save power, and maintain and dispose of your old hardware. Suggestions and 
advice for policy makers are also included, along with some practical tips 
for internet service providers.

Written by IT expert and environmentalist Paul Mobbs, the purpose of the 
guide is to encourage ICT-for-development (ICTD) practitioners to begin 
using technology in an environmentally sound way. But its usefulness 
extends beyond this to everyday consumers of technology, whether in the 
home or office environment.

The guide was developed on behalf of the Association for Progressive 
Communication (APC), with funding support from the International 
Development Research Centre. It forms part of APC’s work on ICTs 
environmental sustainability.

“The importance of this book is it’s not just a practical guide — yes, the 
‘how to’ details are there —- but what makes this book remarkable is that 
Paul has integrated these practical considerations with a broader world-
view on sustainability. It suggests a way of looking at the world beyond 
technology, at how we live in it, and what we need to do to lessen the 
catastrophic impact we’re having on it,” says APC’s ICTs and environmental 
sustainability programme coordinator Alan Finlay:

The guide is divided into 11 units which build thematically on the ones 
that have come before. They can be read consecutively, or separately. The 
“unit” approach allows the sections to be updated over time, extracted for 
use as resource guides in workshops, or shared easily with colleagues and 
friends.

“If we’re going to have access to these technologies in the future, without 
harming the planet or depleting the resources from which they are 
manufactured, we must learn to plan our use of information systems… 
minimising their environmental impact,” Mobbs writes in his book. “We can 
all play our part, and the practice of sustainable computing will go a long 
way in helping to tackle the environmental crisis facing our planet,” he 
says.


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"We are not for names, nor men, nor titles of Government,
nor are we for this party nor against the other but we are
for justice and mercy and truth and peace and true freedom,
that these may be exalted in our nation, and that goodness,
righteousness, meekness, temperance, peace and unity with
God, and with one another, that these things may abound."
(Edward Burrough, 1659 - from 'Quaker Faith and Practice')

Paul's book, "Energy Beyond Oil", is out now!
For details see http://www.fraw.org.uk/mei/ebo/

Read my 'essay' weblog, "Ecolonomics", at:
http://www.fraw.org.uk/mei/ecolonomics/

Paul Mobbs, Mobbs' Environmental Investigations
3 Grosvenor Road, Banbury OX16 5HN, England
tel./fax (+44/0)1295 261864
email - mobbsey at gn.apc.org
website - http://www.fraw.org.uk/mei/index.shtml
public key - http://www.fraw.org.uk/mei/mobbsey-2011.asc

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