Savvy Duck and the Environment

I strive to make Savvy Duck Computers as environmentally-friendly as possible. Every time I make a decision about a purchase, a new procedure, or a recommendation, I ask myself how it will impact the environment and how I might lessen the impact. Here are several examples of those considerations:

Paperless

Savvy Duck Compurers is nearly a 100% paper-free business. I do not even keep a filing cabinet in the office. Nearly all of the paper I do handle is incoming mail, receipts, and invoices from packages that I order. The invoices that I send are electronic unless someone makes a special request, Savvy Duck's taxes are filed over the internet, and the vast majority of my communications are handled through e-mail, phone calls, and other paperless means.

80 Plus

Power supplies tend to be among the first parts that fail in an older computer, and every new computer needs one to run. As a result, power supplies are among the parts that I most frequently sell. When selecting a power supply, I always pick one that is 80 Plus Bronze certified or better. 80 Plus is a certification program that provides a reliable representation of the energy-efficiency of highly efficient power supplies; each part certified under the program is 80% efficient or better at all levels of load. Here is the breakdown:

80 PLUS Test Type		115V Internal Non-Redundant				230V Internal Redundant
Fraction of Rated Load		10%	20%	50%	100%	10%	20%	50%	100%
80 PLUS			80%	80%	80%
80 PLUS Bronze			82%	85%	82%		81%	85%	81%
80 PLUS Silver			85%	88%	85%		85%	89%	85%
80 PLUS Gold			87%	90%	87%		88%	92%	88%
80 PLUS Platinum			90%	92%	89%		90%	94%	91%
80 PLUS Titanium						90%	94%	96%	91%

All power supplies sold by Savvy Duck Computers for repair work and new builds are 80 Plus Bronze certified or better unless there is a special request.

Energy Star

Energy Star is a program developed by the United States government program to certify certain products as being particularly energy effient. Products that are Energy Star certified generally use 20%-30% less energy than required by federal standards, and energy star ratings are applied to a wide variety of items from entire buildings to small electronics. When purchasing parts for building or repairing computers, I look for certifications like Energy star, but in particular I always ensure that the monitors I purchase are Energy Star certified.

Netbooks

Among the tools I cary with me for diagnostics and repairs is a mobile computer. I have used a couple of different models during the history of the business, but I always ensure that they are as environmentally-friendly as possible. I have selected netbooks to use for diagnostics because of their extremely low energy use. For example, the netbooks that I have used have contained Intel Atom processors. These processors are designed to operate under extremely low voltage in the first place, but have the capability of reducing their clock speed during low usage to further conserve power. But don't worry; I have ensured that these netbooks are still more than powerful enough to handle diagnostics and recovery tasks quickly and efficiently.

And in case you were curious, these netbooks are also Energy Star certified.


Some of the above 80 Plus and Energy Star information is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, and was gathered from 80 PLUS - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia and Energy Star - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.