Researchers and businesses are advancing innovative ideas with potential for mainstream Green ICT. These range from products and services available today to futuristic concepts for tomorrow. The latest is Dell's gold recycling program, including the creation of jewelry from motherboard gold.

We have counted ~25 billion devices attached to our global ICT infrastructure. Many of these are Internet-of-Things (IoT) devices. IoT has all the Green ICT issues of any tech segment. How many IoT devices will we see deployed in the next coming years? It is instructive to see how forecasts have been becoming more conservative.

There is increasing interest about Internet of Things and its relationship to Green ICT. Click on the new tag 'IoT, above, to access all our information about this topic.

How much gear is attached our global ICT infrastructure? Our 2017 inventory counts almost over 24 billion 'edge' items, The latest update to these counts is consumer Internet of Things (IoT).

Most Green ICT efforts focus on hardware. That make sense, because hardware lifecycles encompass everything from environmentally responsible sourcing of its raw materials through energy efficiency of its use to sustainable disposal at its end-of-life. Special utility software such as desktop power-saving plays a significant role in Green ICT, but less attention has been given to the application and system software within the gear. The most recent update is a tool anyone can use to evaluate a website's environmental performance.

We've been tracking the potential of "energy harvesting" to power devices without conventional batteries or grid connections since 2011. The latest market entrants demonstrate this segment continues to expand to meet the need son the Internet of Things (Iot).

Sol Chip's "Everlasting Solar Battery" "...integrates all the components required — in a single battery unit — to harvest and supply sustainable solar/light energy to low-power applications." Sol Chip was recognized as a 2016 Sustainia 100 solution. The Sustainia citation noted the potential impact on IoT e-waste "...by limiting the need to continuously replace batteries and reducing the associated costs and waste."

We've counted over 24 billion pieces of e-gear attached to the global ICT infrastructure. The 'Internet of Things' (IoT) will dramatically increase this number by the end of the decade. Can technology keep up with the energy and resource demands?