Going green is becoming an increasingly important initiative to many companies these days, but some are going above and beyond to please Mother Nature.
In July, the Green Electronics Council recognized more than 60 desktop computers, laptops and monitors from Dell , HP, and other manufacturers for meeting new green standards and registering their equipment with the Electronic Products Environmental Assessment Tool database.
Compared to traditional computer equipment, all EPEAT-registered computer devices have reduced levels of lead, mercury and cadmium to better protect the health of individuals as well as the environment. They are also more energy-efficient -- which reduces their emissions of climate-changing greenhouse gases -- and are easier to upgrade and recycle.
"Making products more energy-efficient doesn"t necessarily require more effort or more resources, it really is just a change in the design methodology," Jim McGregor, principal analyst at In-Stat, told TechNewsWorld. "For a computing standpoint, [reducing power] is the key topic driving future designs of everything from microprocessors to LCDs. We are no longer in the performance age of computing, we are now in the efficiency age."
Getting companies to manufacture more environmentally preferableproducts is much easier with EPEAT, Jeff Omelchuck, executive directorof the Green Electronics Council, told TechNewsWorld. Already more thanUS$32 billion worth of computer-related purchasing references EPEAT."When you pile $32 billion on a table and announce that you want to buymore environmentally preferable products meeting the EPEAT standard,manufacturers tend to respond," he said.
Apple, CTL, Dell and HP have demonstrated their environmentalleadership by designing and building better products and registeringthem with EPEAT, according to Omelchuck. "Other companies appear to bedoing wonderful things, but they have not yet publicly demonstratedthose commitments by registering products on the EPEAT database," hesaid. "That is the real value of EPEAT -- it is the ultimate antidoteto greenwashing. By creating a searchable database of products andenvironmental attributes, it makes it very easy to compare products andidentify the true leaders."
Dell, for one, has led the industryin several areas of environmental responsibility, including focusing onenergy efficiency, end-of-life product recovery and the reduction andelimination of environmentally sensitive materials.
As of thelaunch of the EPEAT tool on July 21, Dell has registered 28EPEAT-compliant products, including select OptiPlex desktops, Precisionworkstations -- both desktop and mobile versions -- Latitude notebooksand flat panel monitors.