Today is Blog Action Day. It is a day where a universal topic has been thrown to the blogger masses and we are all supposed to write about it, as a way to universally discuss our thoughts on a topic.
The topic is the Environment.
If we use technology in education then we must measure our environmental impact, develop a strategy to minimize it, and choose environmental offsets as the current method of helping the environment.
Many times human beings choose whether they will purchase, invest, or otherwise take into possession some object based on the cost or financial burden it will place on our business. Let's assume these objects are technology based and are used in an educational setting. Making this decision solely on financing is a fundamental error, which occurs everyday, and is part of the environmental crisis we face today.
I met a person a year ago who read me a quote that went "I fire you when I hire you." One of the main themes of this quote is that all future interactions whether good or bad that will happen between you and this potential employee occurs right now in the decision whether I should hire you. Do not underestimate the importance of that first interaction. In general, we have all the pieces and information we will ever have right now in front of us to make an informed and correct decision.
This same theory can be applied to acquiring objects. It should be our concern at the point of acquirement how we will recycle or redistribute this object when it has no value to us anymore. Our analysis of recycling fees must be added onto the TCO (Total Cost of Ownership). We should then also choose to add in environmental offset prices to help cover our environmental impact tracks. Other values that need to be considered are ease of upgrades, so the object itself can be added onto or improved without replacing it and the cost of man hours for upgrades.
Adding these costs and taking extra care to consider ease of upgrades will allow us to make an informed decision of the objects true value and TCO. At the same time we are participating with the rest of the responsible companies to help better our planet, pay our dues, and find future methods for reducing environmental destruction.
To learn more about environmental offsets visit:
- Can you be traveling green by buying offsets?, USA Today article.
- Environmental Offset Policies, Principles, and Methods by Bruce McKenney (PDF)
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