Are We “Green” Yet?
Mar 13
Posted: under Going Green.
Tags: carbon footprint
There has been a lot of talk about “going green” and reducing one’s “carbon footprint”. That’s all well and good, but there is much debate about how much good or harm we are actually doing. The fact of the matter is that everyone needs to be responsible stewards of all they’ve been given. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom can be no variation, neither shadow that is cast by turning. (James 1:17) All is His and He is able to take care of it. But He does expect us to be responsible and not wasteful.
In periods of tough economic times, businesses naturally want to find ways to cut costs, reduce overhead, optimize raw material inventories, maximize efficiencies, etc. Some of the things companies do to save money automatically reduce their “carbon footprint”, while some try to bypass government regulations such as proper waste disposal, thus harming the environment and offsetting the efforts of the responsible.
Some of the things we have done in recent years at Clinton Displays that has reduce our carbon footprint include consolidating the number of servers in our computer room and installing motion-sensing lights in the cafeteria. We also try to be responsible in our use and reuse of raw materials, sustain equipment as much as possible to keep from cluttering our landfills, etc. We used to have 3 Novell file servers, a Linux file server, a web server, an e-mail server, as well as all the routers and switches and UPSs and firewalls in our server room, all consuming electricity, generating heat, causing us to use more energy just to keep the room temperature under control. We have outsourced our web and e-mail services and consolidated the 3 Novell and one Linux servers into one small-footprint, high-capacity Linux server, thus cutting our electricity usage in that room significantly.
But the question comes regarding what happened to the hardware that was taken out of service. Did it get thrown out only to clutter a landfill and leach harmful elements into the environment? No, we reutilize the components as much as possible. Anything salvageable or reuseable either gets used to enhance existing equipment or stored for replacement of failed components, or recycled when possible. It’s just a matter of being responsible and not wasteful.
Not everything that is done in the name of all things “green” is truly environmentally friendly, economically effective, or even successful. But interesting technological strides are being made, and we should applaud those efforts. It is said that “necessity is the mother of invention.” And as long as we keep being told that we must do more to save the planet there will be an increase in innovation, some good, some not. Be it far from me to discourage good innovations.
Christians, for the most part, don’t worry about trying to save the planet from the future destruction resulting from everyday life activities. We know that scriptures tell us in several places that this world will pass away, that there will be destructive forces, both in the spiritual and natural realms. Jesus tell us that these things must be (Luke 21:8-11). Peter tells us the earth will be destroyed by fire and melt away with fervent heat (2 Peter 3:10-13). John also tells us there will be a new heaven and a new earth, for the old will have passed away (Revelation 21:1).
We are not out to bring about the destruction of earth, we simply know our efforts to save it will not hinder God’s ultimate and wonderful plan. It’s not a waste of time to act responsibly, but it is a waste of time to worry about the condition of earth tens of thousands of years into the future.
Tracy Henness
