Mass-produced detergent and the IBM green data center

Blog on the following topic: Identify and describe one example of "one size fits all design" and one example of eco-effectiveness design. (Something not covered in the book.)

As stated in the book, major soap manufacterers design one detergent for all parts of the United States and Europse, even though different communities throughout the world need different needs of water and soap quality. Customers in the Northwest, with their accumilation of soft water, need only a small amount of detergent. Hard water locations in the Southwest need much more detergent than the average town. It is designed the same with the same amount of antibiotics to do away with germs the same way anywhere in the world. In the book, they refer to the "one size fits all design" as the "worst-case scenerio", where the product is designed for the largest possible audience, where it will work with the same efficancy across the board.

One example of eco-effectiveness design is the newly developed IBM Project Big Green, a re-direction of a billion USD a year to increase energy efficiency in its data centers. Early estimates come out to over 40% of energy savings for an average 25,000 square foot data center. Based on the energy mix in the United States, this will come out to a reduction of over 7000 tons of carbon emissions. This is eco-effective because they are are investing in systems that deliver a better performance per watt, thus reducing their carbon footprint on our world. The project invests in running the same workload as before, just at lower cost and with reduced environmental impact.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Big_Green