System integrators - some aspects of the relationship to the protection of the environment and sustainable development

Companies that are primarily focused on system integration business is faced with environmental issues and sustainable development. Since most systems integrator operates globally can be noted that the business faced with a series of global and local problems, of which one of the most significant problem the impact of business activities on the environment. This problem exists on many different levels so the answers and solutions related to it should look at multiple levels. Therefore, first things first.

Viewed from the perspective of the average member of a community that was concerned local community or the state system integrators are not seen as an ecological threat. This attitude is especially beneficial for the fact that system integrators as part of the ICT industry are not the primary pollutants, and that the whole industry as such is considered a high-tech and progressive, and so are not associated with possible environmental pollution. The truth is actually quite different. Indeed, precisely because of the rapid technical and technological growth and the short lifespan of most products and services or ICT industry, this represents one of the largest manufacturers of industrial garbage.

In fact, any product ICT industry after three years practically obsolete after this time, ie, mandatory changes, with a new generation of advanced features similar devices, is rubbish, that is, electronic waste, which is one of the most serious environmental pollutants, as in terms of quantity and in terms of chemical composition, ie, the material of which the hardware is normally drawn.

The problem of electronic waste is solved to some extent by introducing the same duties of care by authorized companies, and in some countries and a ban on imports and trade with second-hand ICT equipment and hardware. Furthermore, as a solution for financing the disposal of individual countries introduced tax to be paid on import, ie the purchase of the device, which covered the costs of disposal and destruction, ie,  recyclable waste.

One of the best features of e-waste is that it is almost completely recyclable residue-free, so it is not necessary to have a special permanent disposal site for this type of waste - in a relatively reasonable time all the collected waste will be recycled and returned to the market as new more efficient product. The advantages of recycling are: energy saving, environmental impact and economic impact in the rational utilization of mineral resources.

The problem is that there are parts of products whose recycling is not easy nor cheap and where recycling cost several times more than the cost of production of new devices created from semi products. Although these components is relatively small and they generally represent the legacy products, their number is not negligible. This especially applies to batteries and accumulators of all types whose numbers due to the global trend of increase required for mobility also increase exponentially. Not gathered, thrown and inadequately disposed batteries are a constant source of harmful radiation, and pollute the soil, land and water courses. Each battery which has passed the service life becomes hazardous waste that must be disposed of in a safe way. If you discard the used battery, battery or electronic waste in the environment risk that toxic substances get into the food chain. To avoid this it is necessary that system integrators or perform their own electronic waste management with which in their projects and operations meet or outsource this job mandated companies that will completely adequately implemented.

How is the management of electronic waste complex area is best seen in the case of the management of spent batteries and accumulators. The management of this e-waste includes:
• collecting,
• transport,
• storage,
• sorting,
• treatment,
• recycling and
• disposal of leftovers after treatment and recycling of waste batteries and accumulators.

Another way to protect the natural environment selected for the individual national markets refers to the permissible level of specific toxic substances in electronic waste. Thus, on the territory of Europe normally prohibited sales of electronic components in your weight contain from 0.0005% mercury or more than 0.002% of cadmium.

It should also be noted that in terms of environmental pollutants system integrators and service providers, as well as all other holders or users of ICT systems occur in terms of electricity consumers. In fact, all cloud technology based on the existence Data centers that are significant consumers of electricity. Until recently, "electricity eaters", data centers are now an example of an unusual trend - the increase in productivity reduces energy consumption. This is the result of new solutions, which had to be found since the data centers more pollutants than the airline industry, explains the Urlic Ham, an expert on these issues at Cisco.

Specifically, Data centers consume up to now energy consumed fairly rich irrational in the sense that it is used for the operation and cooling, that the energy was always on stand by and that active and passive redundancy of the system still had to be done. An additional problem consisted in the fact that due to demands for increased resistance and durability to supply all the requirements should be provided to and from secondary sources where they are as producers of electricity used diesel generators which on the one hand have a very small degree of efficiency and on the other side of combustion fuel directly increase carbon emissions. Worldwide digital storage use about 30 billion watts of electricity, which is equivalent to the energy generated by 30 nuclear power plants. Another fact little known to the general public clearly illustrates the magnitude of the problem of data center power. In Germany data centers emit more carbon - dioxide into the atmosphere than the entire airline industry. Aircraft Carriers in pollution accounted for 3.5%, and data centers with 4.4%. Extensive research "McKinsey" shows that data centers consume an average of only 6 to 12% of energy on its primary function, while the rest is spent on maintaining the server in the event of termination of the work or because of the traffic congestion that could cause a server crash.

To save energy, Cisco uses a new technology called "Power usage effectiveness", which is achieved by optimizing energy consumption, and is based on the active measurement of consumption or computer and its software. So technically operational management Data center knows how much energy data centers, and how much other equipment. Since rapidly heated, data centers consume a large part of the energy consumption for cooling. For example, if the average data center consumes 100 kilowatts, of which approximately 30kV goes to cooling. With smart ways of cooling and the optimal temperatures of the rooms in which they can save a lot of energy.

This direction of development of technology proved to be not only necessary in terms of environmental protection, but also quite profitable for providers of data center. In fact, all investments in new technological solutions that guarantee reduction of power consumption are returning to a period of 12-18 months and only rarely for a period of 3 years, which is still less than the period of alternation of generations of technological equipment in the data center benefits.

On the other hand, Internet providers and system integrators, especially the latter, contribute to environmental protection and the development and implementation by providing electronic services related to environmental protection.

This may be general services in the form of a cloud software solution for monitoring and control of electronic waste as well as other waste - particularly hazardous types of waste such as medical waste, nuclear waste, various types of radiation whereby represent public or state register of prescribed information on the movement and disposal of waste from which all stakeholders can find out relevant information.

Also, ICT technologies, especially IoT allow the implementation of vertical solutions that can be integrated into many sensor systems that can track information of interest to environmental protection in the wider area almost in real time. So we already have IoT verticals monitor the quality of water, air, represent systems for alerting and an early warning of a number of natural and industrial accidents by providing mobile users targeted information relevant to the avoidance and mitigation of risks, as well as reducing damage to the unforeseen circumstances.

Special portals are the solution for pollution monitoring with monitoring of pollutants and online control of pollution that increasingly dominate the national Internet by alerting the public to the possible consequences of pollution or directly targeted by and making visible the biggest polluters and their share of pollution.

It is this feature of IoT solutions and web portal provides the greatest benefit in terms of protection of the environment and facilitate conditions for sustainable development amounts to - a clear identification records and visibility, and measurable contribution to those who pollute the environment now makes it possible to expose the culprits and then the commitment and action of the broad masses of consent the rules should be for all of us to provide a healthier environment and stop uncontrolled pollution of the same, which is a basic condition for sustainable development of the society in the future.