Does “going green” from a technological perspective imply additional costs and possibly a negative operational benefit? Not according to a recent Enterprise Management Associates (EMA) white paper. In fact, going green can lead to significant cost savings while streamlining business operations. Adoption of the right technology has been found to typically result in three significant winning propositions for your company — cost savings, improved operational efficiencies and environmental benefits.

EMA defines green IT as “products, services and practices designed to improve the efficiency of computing resources in such a way as to reduce the environmental impact of their utilization”. So, greening a company’s operations involves changing processes in order to reduce their impact on the environment.

The Effect of E-Waste on the Environment in China

It is no secret that many businesses around the world are a source of environmental degradation and greenhouse gas emissions — and that an equal number of corporations are working to change that. Historically speaking, the US has been the largest greenhouse gas emitter, but today China’s environmental problems seem to be increasing at pace with the country’s economic growth. Currently, 16 out of the 20 most polluted cities the world are located in China according to the United Nations Development Program.

The city of Guiyu, China is a prime example of this environmental degradation. This small city’s economy centers on electronic waste (e-waste), which is trash that contains electrically powered products with both valuable and hazardous components. Despite the fact that e-waste imports have been illegal in China since 1996 and the Basel Agreement banned the shipment of electronic waste from the developed to the developing world, over 5,500 businesses in Guiyu are devoted to dismantling e-waste, 80% of which arrives from overseas.

What does the term "greenwashing" mean?

As the trend of corporate responsibility steers companies to jump on the "green bandwagon," some remain involved only at surface level. "Greenwashing" refers to companies who unjustifiably portray themselves to the public as environmentally conscious. These companies make more efforts to appear to reduce their environmental impact than efforts to invest in the business practices that would actually do so.