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A Drop of 4 Degrees Made a Big Difference for a Garment Maker's Bottom Line

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Re: A Drop of 4 Degrees Made a Big Difference for a Garment Maker's Bottom Line

#41

Post by jws »

rayiner wrote: post #38

> The company, Shahi Exports, has more than 50 factories, employs about 100,000 workers and supplies brands that include Gap, Uniqlo, Zara and H&M. Some of these brands had encouraged the company to be more environmentally responsible by switching out the fluorescent tube lights in its factories for LEDs that would consume about one-seventh the amount of energy. Maybe Americans and European yuppies can pay a couple o…

…switching out the fluorescent tube lights in its factories for LEDs that would consume about one-seventh the amount of energy.

Something is wrong here. Fluorescent tubes to LEDs is more like a ½ savings. I suppose if you reduce overall lighting and provide task lighting you could get to 1/7, but the technologies aren’t that far off in efficiency.

Check luminous efficiency in Wikipedia for a nice table. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luminous_efficacy

Re: A Drop of 4 Degrees Made a Big Difference for a Garment Maker's Bottom Line

#42

Post by zucan »

messe wrote: post #5
cosmojg wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Doesn't it? By default, you're opted out of loading the page altogether. You may then opt in for the full version or remain opted out and continue onto the plaintext version. Personally, I love this implementation.

If opt out were truly the default, it would, in turn here, imply that default behaviour of the site is to serve the plaintext version. This is obviously not the case and has never been the case.

"opt-out as default" in the context of GDPR means that all EU citizens have to be considered as not having given consent to usage of their personal data until they explicitly do so. See Recital 32, Sentence 3: "Silence, pre-ticked boxes or inactivity should not therefore constitute consent." [0] in the context of consent of the data subject to make processing of personal data lawful (Article 6 [1])

I'd be glad if you could point out a regulation on the content website owners must offer to people who do not wish their personal data to be processed.

[0] https://gdpr-info.eu/recitals/no-32/

[1] https://gdpr-info.eu/art-6-gdpr/

Re: A Drop of 4 Degrees Made a Big Difference for a Garment Maker's Bottom Line

#43

Post by icantdrive55 »

nimbius wrote: post #34
crazygringo wrote: post #28

Sometimes it's useful to remember just how privileged we are to be working in tech... ...many of us get microkitchens with as many La Croix and "delightful" snacks as we can consume. While for others, just a switch to lamps that produce less heat is a major life improvement.

speak for yourself, I work as a full time engine mechanic for a regional chain of repair shops. - its a full time battle just to convince some management that OSHA is real. earplugs and gloves were a luxury item under my last boss. - one of our managers stole tools all the time and fired a technician just to cover his ass. That technician burned his car to the ground with a road flare in a mcdonalds parking lot. -our…

You are a good writer my friend.

So many people can go to fancy school, and get this, or that degree, but gave nothing interesting to write about.

You have some interesting stories.

(Working as a Mechanic is a tough gig. I did it for awhile. It made construction look easy. The only thing I liked about it was the job site was stationary. I'm curious about the woman who elected to go to prison instead of paying the fine. How much was the fine?)

Re: A Drop of 4 Degrees Made a Big Difference for a Garment Maker's Bottom Line

#44

Post by st26 »

keeler wrote: post #37

While I'm glad that this experiment was done, because it resulted in better conditions for the factory workers, it bothers me that experiments like this are necessary in the first place. I get that managers and owners, qua managers and owners , are concerned with maximizing productivity, but it should be obvious to anyone with a modicum of humanity and common sense that productivity will increase when labourers are t…

Putting it in terms of cost & productivity is very clinical, very inhuman, but it's also virtually unassailable. Nobody will argue "We should continue to treat people badly and make less money". So to me it seems like the gold standard result. You don't have to argue ethics, morals, or worry about people cheating. Because you've just made humane treatment of workers economically rational.

Re: A Drop of 4 Degrees Made a Big Difference for a Garment Maker's Bottom Line

#45

Post by fencepost »

jws wrote: post #41
rayiner wrote: post #38

> The company, Shahi Exports, has more than 50 factories, employs about 100,000 workers and supplies brands that include Gap, Uniqlo, Zara and H&M. Some of these brands had encouraged the company to be more environmentally responsible by switching out the fluorescent tube lights in its factories for LEDs that would consume about one-seventh the amount of energy. Maybe Americans and European yuppies can pay a couple o…

…switching out the fluorescent tube lights in its factories for LEDs that would consume about one-seventh the amount of energy. Something is wrong here. Fluorescent tubes to LEDs is more like a ½ savings. I suppose if you reduce overall lighting and provide task lighting you could get to 1/7, but the technologies aren’t that far off in efficiency. Check luminous efficiency in Wikipedia for a nice table. https://en.wi…

The fluorescent systems in there are likely older and less efficient, so at the lower end of the range. For this kind of industrial setup you can probably do more efficient DC directly to the lights with fewer and more efficient conversions from AC, and there may be other improvements available (solar tubes, dimmable LEDs, task lighting, etc.). 7x seems high but likely achievable.

Re: A Drop of 4 Degrees Made a Big Difference for a Garment Maker's Bottom Line

#46

Post by fencepost »

keeler wrote: post #37

While I'm glad that this experiment was done, because it resulted in better conditions for the factory workers, it bothers me that experiments like this are necessary in the first place. I get that managers and owners, qua managers and owners , are concerned with maximizing productivity, but it should be obvious to anyone with a modicum of humanity and common sense that productivity will increase when labourers are t…

Financial self interest works as a motivator for a lot of things related to energy efficiency. There are idiots who will buy the least efficient thing just to spite the "hippie snowflakes," but anyone who answers to business owners or shareholders will be happy to have a way to improve the bottom line through efficiency savings and if it improves productivity at the same time then it's a double win.

Re: A Drop of 4 Degrees Made a Big Difference for a Garment Maker's Bottom Line

#47

Post by keeler »

st26 wrote: post #44
keeler wrote: post #37

While I'm glad that this experiment was done, because it resulted in better conditions for the factory workers, it bothers me that experiments like this are necessary in the first place. I get that managers and owners, qua managers and owners , are concerned with maximizing productivity, but it should be obvious to anyone with a modicum of humanity and common sense that productivity will increase when labourers are t…

Putting it in terms of cost & productivity is very clinical, very inhuman, but it's also virtually unassailable. Nobody will argue "We should continue to treat people badly and make less money". So to me it seems like the gold standard result. You don't have to argue ethics, morals, or worry about people cheating. Because you've just made humane treatment of workers economically rational.

You've missed my point. I'm not saying that putting it in terms of cost and productivity isn't virtually unassailable. I'm saying that it's ridiculous that this experiment was necessary to convince management that ensuring the basic welfare of its workforce would improve that productivity.

Just as it's obvious that productivity isn't maximized if workers aren't permitted to sleep or eat lunch (and we don't really need studies to know that), so it should be obvious that productivity isn't maximized when working conditions include stifling heat with no air circulation while you're at risk of maiming yourself at a sewing machine. This is a sweat shop we are talking about.

I've explicitly couched my comments in terms of worker productivity, so I'm not exactly talking about ethics. But ethics is certainly the subtext here, because I think it's obvious that humans perform and live better when they're treated the way they ought to be treated, with their basic needs being met.

Commonsense ethical rules aren't arbitrary; it isn't a coincidence that people fare badly, and perform poorly, when they are treated badly and are made to work and live in squalor.

Re: A Drop of 4 Degrees Made a Big Difference for a Garment Maker's Bottom Line

#48

Post by beamatronic »

nimbius wrote: post #34
crazygringo wrote: post #28

Sometimes it's useful to remember just how privileged we are to be working in tech... ...many of us get microkitchens with as many La Croix and "delightful" snacks as we can consume. While for others, just a switch to lamps that produce less heat is a major life improvement.

speak for yourself, I work as a full time engine mechanic for a regional chain of repair shops. - its a full time battle just to convince some management that OSHA is real. earplugs and gloves were a luxury item under my last boss. - one of our managers stole tools all the time and fired a technician just to cover his ass. That technician burned his car to the ground with a road flare in a mcdonalds parking lot. -our…

Curious, if you have Kubernetes skills, could you not make more $ doing that full time? You may also find an environment where you are more appreciated.

Re: A Drop of 4 Degrees Made a Big Difference for a Garment Maker's Bottom Line

#49

Post by fredsanford »

jws wrote: post #41
rayiner wrote: post #38

> The company, Shahi Exports, has more than 50 factories, employs about 100,000 workers and supplies brands that include Gap, Uniqlo, Zara and H&M. Some of these brands had encouraged the company to be more environmentally responsible by switching out the fluorescent tube lights in its factories for LEDs that would consume about one-seventh the amount of energy. Maybe Americans and European yuppies can pay a couple o…

…switching out the fluorescent tube lights in its factories for LEDs that would consume about one-seventh the amount of energy. Something is wrong here. Fluorescent tubes to LEDs is more like a ½ savings. I suppose if you reduce overall lighting and provide task lighting you could get to 1/7, but the technologies aren’t that far off in efficiency. Check luminous efficiency in Wikipedia for a nice table. https://en.wi…

Don't forget about the power used by the ballast and the heat generated there..

Re: A Drop of 4 Degrees Made a Big Difference for a Garment Maker's Bottom Line

#50

Post by y4mi »

nimbius wrote: post #34
crazygringo wrote: post #28

Sometimes it's useful to remember just how privileged we are to be working in tech... ...many of us get microkitchens with as many La Croix and "delightful" snacks as we can consume. While for others, just a switch to lamps that produce less heat is a major life improvement.

speak for yourself, I work as a full time engine mechanic for a regional chain of repair shops. - its a full time battle just to convince some management that OSHA is real. earplugs and gloves were a luxury item under my last boss. - one of our managers stole tools all the time and fired a technician just to cover his ass. That technician burned his car to the ground with a road flare in a mcdonalds parking lot. -our…

> I build my own Linux containers and run my own Kubernetes cluster.

you build you own images...

for the uninitiated:

image = visible through `ls /var/lib/docker/$storage-driver`;

container = visible through `ps aux | grep -P "(docker|containerd)"`

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