'Green Computing in Kenya Essay\r'

'Abstract\r\nThe main aim of this report card is to belief at what one thousand work out is, wherefore we should c be about it and why it is fitting such(prenominal) a force in now’s knowledge base. The paper aims to tackle the advantages of discolour figuring non just to businesses but withal to individuals as soundly in their day to day lives. This paper also aims to look at contrasting super C computing performances in Kenya in order to get an disposition of the current terra fast(a)a of parking lot computing in the earth. Fin bothy, this paper also aims to highlight key barriers and challenges to the implementation of different kibibyte computing technologies within the country and suggest a way forward.\r\nIntroduction\r\nIn order to look at the current state of colour computing in Kenya, we first make to understand what green computing is and what it entails. According to San Murugesan (Murugesan, 2008) in his paper on Harnessing green IT, sp irt IT (Also cognize as putting surface ICT or dark-green Computing) refers to environsally sound IT. It focusses on the study and practice of designing, manufacturing, use and disposing of computers, servers and every associated subsystems in an potent and efficient way with minimal to no match on the environment. These subsystems oerwhelm things such as monitors, printers, and storage devices as healthy as different items pilele communication and networking equipment.\r\nMurugesan goes on to say that Green computing also strives to get to economic viability and improved system performance and use, maculation abiding to ethical and social responsibilities. It is for this reason that green computing coers areas such as environmental sustainability, brawn efficiency, total apostrophize of ownership as thoroughly as woo of disposal and even recycling. randomness and Communication Technology (ICT) is one the sudden ripening industries in the world. This is due to a combination of different cistrons, but more recently this suppuration has been fuelled by the following factors. The first is the rapid pace of applied science advancement. The second is the continued drop in prices of several(a) hardware which has led to increased demand and encyclopedism of said hardware.\r\nAccording to Wabwoba, F., Wanyembi, W. G., & adenine; Omuterema, S. (2012) this rapid growth in ICT is creating lots of challenges especially within growth countries like Kenya. The first of these challenges is that ICT devices obligate much shorter lifespans. A cheeseparing precedent of this is rambling devices which on average are replaces every 2 divisions. The danger of this is that it creates a lot of Electronic waste (e-waste) which is one of the fastest growing types of waste in the modern world today and one of the most difficult to cast of in a safe and salute effective manner. As more third world countries hope on hardware donations, most of these o bsolete devices de composition find their way into these countries. This non only increases the tell of harmful emissions, it also endangers the lives of multitude as intumesce as the environment. This in unit of ammunition leads to environmental degradation, increases the make up of doing business as hale as world-beater demands and demand for social responsibility.\r\nBasically, Green computing is becoming more of a necessity and less of an option.\r\nwhy Green Computing?\r\nAs we discussed earlier, ICT is playing an more and more important role in both line of credit as hearty as in toffee-nosed undertakings. This is true for most of the world as this has been fuelled by the rapid pace at which technology has been progress. The galactic question then becomes, â€Å"Why should anyone care about Green Computing/ICT/IT?” In looking at this, we will understand what utilitys as well as what challenges we bunghole expect from adopting green computing technolog ies not only in our businesses, but in our homes as well. According to Wabwoba, F., Wanyembi, W. G., & Omuterema, S. (2012), green computing focuses on more than just electricity consumption. It goes beyond the expire of the ICT department. Green ICT acts as a central enabling technology to roughly(prenominal) aspects of sustainability. It goes beyond purchasing and fashion experimental conditions into how it eject be utilise to lessen another(prenominal) aspects of environmental impact in the other sectors that it clogs.\r\nThe condition goes on to say that this sustainability can be achieved with dematerialization and changing physical processes into virtual ones. Green ICT thusly brings together themes concerning the future of our current world, technology as well as the environment. San Murugesan’s obligate on Harnessing Green IT: Principles and Practices shares a similar view to that of Wabwoba, F., Wanyembi, W. G., & Omuterema, S. San Murugesanâ₠¬â„¢s clause goes on to say that many another(prenominal) an(prenominal) of today’s environmental issues are having an impact on the competiveness of the IT business sector. Basically, businesses with the technology and vision to leave behind products and service that name the assorted environmental issues we have today, will enjoy some sort of hawkish advantage. Many guests are now taking into consideration a service provider’s environmental records as well as initiatives. These factors are having a substantial effect on customers’ purchasing, leasing and outsourcing decisions.\r\nWhat are the benefits?\r\nGreen computing looks to solve many of the challenges that businesses face today. An lawsuit of one of these challenges is higher(prenominal) capability cost. ”Businesses face higher dynamism costs, and they may also incur extra government levies if they do not address the environmental implications of their practices.” (Murugesan, 200 8, p.26). â€Å"Investors and customers are beginning to demand more disclosures from companies with imagine to their carbon footprint as well as their environmental initiatives and achievements, and they have started discounting share prices of companies that woefully address the environmental problems the create ”. This means that many companies today have begun to show their environmental credentials to customers as a way to makeing an upper hand over competitors.\r\nMany businesses as well as individuals are also looking to achieve better thrust efficiency by dint of adopting green initiatives. This in turn will lead to financial benefits especially when galvanizing brawniness is at a premium and thrust prices continue to rise. This is actually one of the study reasons for individuals as well as companies to start adopting eco-responsible practices. This means that many companies are bound to prioritize environmental issues for energy efficiency as well as cost-c ontrol benefits. An utilisation of this in the real world is companies such as Dell and Wall-Mart. These two companies have both adopted initiatives that force their suppliers to adhere to environmentally sound practices.\r\nIn a paper titled Pervasiveness of green ICT awareness amongst Kenyan ICT personnel Wabwoba, F., Wanyembi, W. G., Omuterema, S., & Mutua, S. M., (2013), the writers listed some of the various benefits of green ICT.\r\nThe benefits of green ICT to the Environment/Society as well as to Companies include the following:\r\n disdain carbon emissions.\r\nReduced resource consumption.\r\nCompliance with well-grounded requirements.\r\nReduced energy costs.\r\nReduced operating costs of Data Centres.\r\nLess Hardware needed.\r\nThe paper goes a step further by grouping the benefits of green ICT according to the Capital Market, Employees’, Customers’ as well as Public take aims. These are shown below: Employees’ level benefits\r\n change mag nitude employee satisfaction.\r\nGreater loyalty.\r\nEasier recruitment.\r\nCapital Market level benefits\r\n improve ratings.\r\nHigher share prices.\r\nGreater company value.\r\nCustomers’ level benefits\r\nGreater customer loyalty.\r\nAppeal to new customer groups.\r\nGreater customer satisfaction.\r\nPublic level benefits\r\n ameliorate image.\r\nRounded-out CSR strategy.\r\nGreater brand value.\r\nExamples/implementations of green computing in Kenya\r\nHere we shall look at examples of green computing implementations and initiatives within Kenya.\r\nThe first example we shall look at is from Tea companies in Kenya go green through carbon finance (2013). Basically, several tea factories from the Nyeri district, all under the commission of the Kenya Tea Development theatrical performance (KTDA) chose to go green through a rove titled â€Å"Guru Project”. The name Guru Project comes from the nearby Guru River in the Nyeri region. Much of the tea-manufacturing pro cess requires electricity for processes like withering, cutting and drying tea leaves. Unfortunately, the factories would experience frequent bureau outages and poor great power quality.\r\nThe Guru Project aims to construct a hydro-power plant employ irrigate from the Guru River to generate power for the factories, thus abideing them to s jacket crown using the national football field. The benefit of this is that it will serving reduce carbon emissions by some 38,400 tonnes of carbon dioxide a year. On top of that, the factories will receive additional returns on their enthronement in lower emissions through carbon attribute provided by the Clean Development Mechanism as part of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).\r\nThe second example we shall look at shows how Kenyan companies that are passage green can be rewarded for it. There was an word in the Business Daily from December 10th 2013 that looks at this, Ciuri, S. (2013). The newspaper Article looks at how 2 Kenyan companies that won 6.5 zillion Kenya Shillings for rail green Enterprises. The companies in question are Continental Renew up to(p) readiness Company and Wanda Organic Company. Continental Renew open heartiness Company converts plastic waste into low cost building materials and they won 4.23 Million Kenya Shillings as a reward. Wanda Organic Company on the other hand is an organic fertiliser Distributor and won 2.16 million Kenya Shillings. They were rewarded the money by Growth Hub which is an initiative to control businesses that want to pursue environmental conservation.\r\nThe next example looks at how choosing to go green can assist you gain a competitive advantage over other companies, as well as gain recognition in certain markets. We shall refer to an article on the East Africa fleet 100 website from January twenty-ninth 2014, Going green wins entrepreneur the 2013 SME crown (2014). It follows the grade of Dinesh Tembherkar who is a mech anical engineer by profession. He founded his own company called Lean Energy Solutions after being\r\nunsatisfied with formal employment for many years. Lena Energy Solutions is a company that provides Energy trouble consultancy services within East Africa. They have been problematical in energy and project management and tornado comprehensive energy audits, investment grade audits, trainings in energy management, manufacturing of Lean Briqs and other related projects such as Boiler conversion from oil fire to solid fuel fired and swimming pocket billiards heating. Basically, their methodology helps their clientele to improve on productivity and maximize bottom line performance. This has allowed them to differentiate their nices and services from those of competitors, and it allowed them to be recognized as one of Kenya’s fastest growing mid-sized companies in the 2013 edition of the Top 100 mid-sized firms. This competition is held in the form of a survey that is spo nsored by the Nation Media Group and the consultancy firm KPMG.\r\nFinally, we shall look at how various individual can play a role in bring to the betrothal of Green computing technologies and what impact it can have on their lives. Mbori, C. (n.d.) has a very good article in one of his blogs that looks at the cost of conventional energy in Kenya. In the article we believe that Kenya is classified as an energy poor country since majority of the population spend enormous amounts of their household income on energy. This is especially true for farming(prenominal) areas. As at the time of create verbally the article, Kenya only provided 15 per centum of the population with access to grid electricity out of which only 4 percent was in rural areas. Less than 25 percent of Kenya’s population had access to modern energy forms. This means that many households in Kenya still rely on older forms of energy for heating, cooking and discharge like kerosene, charcoal and even can dles.\r\nKenya is located along the equator, which means that in that location is an abundance of renewable energy in the form of sunlight which many flock are yet to take advantage of. Though, there has been a surge in the adoption of solar photovoltaic (PV) technologies or solar electric systems. These systems allow you to suppress the sun’s energy using photovoltaic cells and can work even on a cloudy day. Many of these PV modules are principally use for lighting, cell phone charging as well as refrigeration and entertainment. At the time of writing the article, there were more than 200,000 PV modules installed in Kenya. That human body was steadily increasing at a rate of about 30,000 PV modules annually. Mwaura, M. (2010) shared a short YouTube video and article about how one old man named Ben Mureithi who is a retired civil servant was able to use renewable energy to better his life.\r\nHe settled charge in a very remote part of Kiserian where there was no elect ricity and no running water. By installing solar panels, he was able to power his entire home for entertainment, lighting and heat water. To solve his water problem, he was able to capture rain water using drainage pipes from his pileus into a big underground tank. He is able to use the water for his day to day needs and even to irrigate plants that he grows. This proved to be so effective that in 2006 during a drought in the area, he was able to supply water to some other people in the area.\r\n good deal like Mr Mureithi are able to succeed in such harsh areas because they have adopted green technologies and green practices in order to make the trump out use of the resources accessible to us all. Another factor that has enabled this is the advent of low-cost solar in Kenya. Traditionally, solar has always been out of the reach of most people because the cost of setting it up has always been high. affordable Solar Invades Kenya (2010) looks at some low cost solar powered te chnologies and kits which are currently available in Kenya today. The first one the writer looks at is the Solantern which is essentially solar powered lantern that can be charged during the day and runs at night.\r\nThe lantern was intended to help replace kerosene lamps in many Kenyan households and allow them to save money and the environment at the same time. It was retailing for about 2000 Kenya Shillings in the year 2010. Another low cost solution discussed is the ToughStuff which is a solar kit that comes with a small solar panel and different kinds of connectors. It can be used to charge a small LED lamp, mobile phones, a rechargeable power pack and some cheap rechargeable D-cell rechargeable batteries for powering other devices. The unit is sold through Chloride Exide in Kenya as well as in a few other shops. These are just a few of the many examples of technologies that promote selfsustainability as well as changing peoples’ lives for the better.\r\nConclusion\r\nF rom what we have discussed in this article, we can get out that Kenya still has a long way to go before we are able to achieve any major milestones in regards to green computing and adoption of green technologies. Below we shall look at a few of the major challenges that have prevented us from advancing with regards to green computing. We shall refer to the article Barriers to Implementation of Green ICT in Kenya, (Wabwoba, F., Wanyembi, W. G., Omuterema, S. 2012, p.832, p.833).\r\nLack of technical skilled or accomplished manpower in green ICT. (1)\r\nGreen implementation is too costly. (11)\r\nLack of green ICT workshops/seminars to modify knowledge. (5)\r\nOverreliance on donations for ICT hardware acquisition. (7)\r\nLack of top management support. (4)\r\nThe rapid technology changes. (8)\r\nLack of legislation to support green ICT implementations. (6)\r\nExistence of policies that hinder green ICT implementation. (10)\r\n non knowing where to start in implementing green ICT. (8)\r\n worldwide Resistance to change. (11)\r\nNo budget is allocated towards implementing. (2)\r\nFrom the article, we see that the number one barrier to implementation of green ICT in Kenya is the lack of technical skilled or trained manpower in green ICT. This goes to show that a lot of work still needs to be done in creating awareness about the importance of going green and the opportunities available by make the switch.\r\nThe way forward is to first focus on changing peoples’ opinions about green computing as a whole since a lot of the major adoption challenges are due to poor spatial relation and lack of information in general. It is only in this way that we can get people to see the importance of creating a self-sufficient country, and all the good it will do not only for the environment but for all citizens as well.\r\nReferences\r\nMurugesan, S. (2008). Harnessing Green IT: Principles and Practices. IEEE estimator Society. Retrieved from University of Pittsbu rgh Website:\r\nhttp://www.pitt.edu/~dtipper/2011/GreenPaper.pdf\r\nWabwoba, F., Wanyembi, W. G., Omuterema, S. (2012). Barriers to Implementation of Green ICT in Kenya (Vol.2, No.12). International diary of Science and Technology. Retrieved from e journals of science website: http://ejournalofsciences.org/archive/vol2no12/vol2no12_3.pdf\r\nWabwoba, F., Wanyembi, W. G., Omuterema, S., Mutua, S. M., (2013). Pervasiveness of green ICT awareness amongst Kenyan ICT personnel (Vol.2, No.1). Retrieved from International journal of Application or\r\nInnovation in\r\n design & Management website:\r\nhttp://ijaiem.org/volume2Issue1/IJAIEM-2013-01-15-021.pdf\r\nTea companies in Kenya go green through carbon finance. (2013). Retrieved from UNDP website:\r\nhttp://www.undp.org/content/undp/en/home/presscenter/articles/2013/02/20/sustainable-teacompanies-in-kenya-go-green-through-carbon-finance/\r\nCiuri, S. (2013). Kenyan firms receive Sh6.5m for going green. BUSINESS DAILY. Retrieved from BUSINESS DAILY Website: http://www.businessdailyafrica.com/Kenyan-firmsreceive-Sh6-5m-for-going-green/-/539546/2106862/-/dls7qqz/-/index.html\r\nGoing green wins entrepreneur the 2013 SME crown. (2014). Retrieved from East\r\n'