How EPIM Can Contribute to a Green Footprint

Recently I read an article about how to make one’s footprint more green and it described ways to reduce energy consumption when using the internet. One example it reported is a provider who set up servers in the tower of a wind turbine to get electricity at the source, saving its transfer over great distances with lots of lost energy.

When reading this, I thought that everybody can do something. As always, many small consumers can make huge changes when we work together.

So I experimented with an idea.

I compared energy consumption when using EPIM on a Windows notebook (WinEPIM) to EPIM on an Android tablet (AEPIM).

To make it simple, I charged the battery of each device, used each for one hour, then recharged the batteries again to measure their energy consumption.

If you think this gives only a rough impression, you’re right, but it does give an estimation.

In my experiment, AEPIM used less than 20% of the energy of my notebook. (My meter put the Android tablet at about 0,005 KWh and the notebook at 0,03 KWh). A desktop would be even more dramatic as one consumes very much more energy than a notebook. When I still had a desktop, it used about four times more energy than a notebook.

This means a desktop would consume about 25 times as much energy as a mobile device!

I conclude that using a mobile device whenever possible reduces energy consumption considerably. Imagine if people around the globe took advantage of this.

There are factors to consider, of course. Some do not want to use a notebook or tablet, but there are desktops that have a green footprint. Also, some prefer WinEPIM because it has more features, but AEPIM can serve the basic needs for contacts, events, notes, tasks and passwords.

It comes down to the different philosophy of a mobile app’s slim performance versus the usually heavier duty software. Each of us can decide which software/device to use but the overall impression from my experiment remains: Android EPIM is more efficient. And, the most green energy is the one we do not consume!

The thoughts I had can be extended even more.

Consider two desktops running 24/7 or 20/7, one as a server for WinEPIM and another as the client for data input such as appointments, tasks, and contacts. Now, imagine you could schedule a sync with the server once a day and leave the server down the rest of the day. The energy savings could be remarkable and the equipment would last longer when it runs occasionally and not 24/7.

Another use case, given cloud technology and increasing remote work, could be to run AEPIM on a tablet with a bluetooth keyboard. The office desktop would be down until staff comes into the office once a week to do their job and sync with the server.

Eventually, there may be tablets only and no desktops because maybe everything is synced to EPIM-Cloud. If AEPIM features aren’t sufficient, then a small desktop would do. The solutions to get a really green footprint seem to be endless. And imagine the resources that could be saved.

As I said, it’s everyone’s own decision but if we do not act, there won’t be much left to act upon in the future because each resource, once used, cannot be regained.

Well, before I drift to philosophy too much, let’s just say: we can do something, no matter how small. A very small act done by millions around the world is a huge step.

Maybe you have an idea how EPIM can contribute to a greener environment, either in your personal environment or in your business. Leave a comment a let us know. We may use it for a future post.

Axel has worked in information technology and lives in Bavaria, Germany.