RFID's Greener Side
Tracking tagged goods—and recycling their packaging—will reduce our energy needs.
By Kevin Ashton
Jan. 28, 2008—There was a minor and unmarked passing in the world of RFID last year. The blogger known only as "Green RFID Guy" announced that he had "essentially abandoned" his site about the environmental benefits of radio frequency identification. "What happened?" he asked. "Life, I guess. Sad but true."
But there's good news—he didn't stop blogging because there was no story to tell. RFID is, and always has been, a technology with great potential in the battle against global warming and—if you choose not to believe that—the war on waste and damage to the landscape.
Most environmentalists focus on energy production and consumption, with good reason. Producing and consuming energy typically creates carbon, and carbon is the biggest driver of climate change. RFID has little to do with energy (although forward-thinking oil companies such as BP are among the pioneers of RFID-based sensor networks), so its role as an environmentally friendly "clean technology" is often overlooked.
Jan. 28, 2008—There was a minor and unmarked passing in the world of RFID last year. The blogger known only as "Green RFID Guy" announced that he had "essentially abandoned" his site about the environmental benefits of radio frequency identification. "What happened?" he asked. "Life, I guess. Sad but true."
But there's good news—he didn't stop blogging because there was no story to tell. RFID is, and always has been, a technology with great potential in the battle against global warming and—if you choose not to believe that—the war on waste and damage to the landscape.
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