Use versus manufacture life cycle energy and environmental impacts for tape drives

Abstract

Many companies have focused on pollution prevention initiatives including reducing the amount of energy required in production. However, many products consume orders of magnitude more energy and cause greater environmental emissions over the entire life span. With this in mind, Quantum Corporation's Environmental Stewardship Group recently initiated an evaluation of the differential energy and environmental impacts of its tape drive products shipped worldwide. An interim conclusion is that operating energy levels should be managed to lower the amount of energy consumed over the life of the product. This would serve to reduce the total cost of ownership for Quantum's customers, while at the same time, reducing the global environmental impact of the product.