Cradle to Cradle: Eco-efficient Green Base Station Design
There is an interesting emerging angle to the green movement known as the cradle to cradle concept. The concept is that all products exist in a never ending cycle — “birth to rebirth” not “birth to death” — and waste is minimized or eliminated at every step. Our own Debbie Greenstreet, marketing manager for TI’s wireless infrastructure business, recently learned how TI is participating in this cycle. On the “birth,” or front end, of the product creation process, TI is doing things like recycling hundreds of thousands of gallons of water used each day as part of the silicon wafer manufacturing process, treating and recycling toxic solvents, and offering lead free parts. And, probably even more interesting, on the back end or “rebirth” side, TI is providing scrap silicon wafers to alternative energy manufacturers who actually use them to make solar cells!
In the wireless networking space, there are some interesting green telecom initiatives and base station design strategies that can be implemented today to save costs. For example, there is a fascinating chain reaction of initial power reduction that occurs in the base station architecture.
If you would like to read more about this concept, Debbie just published a post on TI’s TMCnet “IP Communications Design” blog that goes into more detail about the steps in this process. Also, we hope to see you at the Green Basestations Summit next week in San Diego. Dr. Arnon Friedmann of TI’s wireless infrastructure business will be speaking on Wednesday, November 18th, from 12:25-12:50 pm on this very topic: “From Cradle to Cradle: Eco-efficient Green Base Station Design.”
-TInergy team
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- “Wireless technology is getting a lot of attention, check out the buzz on Fast Company.”
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