The new TCO Certified Edge award for Outdoor Readability in Notebooks will highlight leading edge Notebooks that offer high luminance as well as superior eco-design and image performance.

Two times higher luminance for outdoor readability
A display’s performance in daylight depends primarily on the differences between the screen luminance and the reflected luminance from daylight, sunlight or similar illumination falling on the screen. To counteract the negative effect strong ambient light has on the readability of the display, notebook manufacturers have typically used anti-reflective and anti-glare treatments, but readability improves mainly by increasing the display luminance. Most Notebook displays today achieve a maximum luminance of around 200-250 cd/m² (candela per m²), which is adequate for use with indoor lighting. For outdoor use, it is recommended that a display used during overcast conditions should achieve a luminance of 500-800 cd/m², and in full sunlight 800-1000 cd/m². These higher measurements are considered bright enough for the varying illumination conditions of the outdoor environment, and may help users eliminate the need to shield or tilt the display from the reflectance in order to view the image.

High luminance – without compromises
A top performing Notebook display should also retain other critical image properties even at these high luminance settings.  Features such as contrast, greyscale and colour levels should remain constant regardless of the luminance level.  The TCO Certified Edge award for Outdoor Readability ensures this level of performance at the highest luminance setting. This award makes no compromises in our demands for high visual quality & low environmental impact whilst achieving outstanding outdoor readability performance.

We assessed the new Lenovo ThinkVision L2321x wide at our TCO Development office. The display not only operates as a normal wide screen monitor, but is also equipped with a dual display function that lets users initiate a split screen mode. E.g, with the monitor in 2:1 mode, users can view full screen PowerPoint slide shows on one part of the screen (typical software solutions are not able to compute this) whilst running video applications on the other. It is even possible to connect 2 different computers and work with them simultaneously on the split screen segments.

The added benefit with being a duo screen based on a hardware solution means that it helps minimize compatibility issues often experienced with old software-based solutions of low resolution. This means that you can avoid those annoying lines of bad contrast appearing on your screen when a low resolution is stretched across a wide screen display. To find out more about this problem & read the complete assessment, please press the following link to our User advice page. Link: 2 in 1 Montor – Assessment of Lenovo ThinkVision L2321x wide

The connections used for the duo display are VGA & DisplayPort Video. The Sub screen resolution covers 1280×1024 (5:4 format) and flexible screen split patterns. The product also comes with a height adjustable pivot stand. This display is certified with the TCO Certified Edge certification because of its “Cutting Edge” high content of recycled plastic.

We assessed the Lenovo L2230x USB port replicator at our office and agree with Lenovo that this display allows the user to connect all peripherals such as mouse, keyboard, speakers, microphone, LAN access, whilst it extends the notebook display to a full HD format with only one USB connection between the notebook and the monitor.

This functionality really fits into the concept of “you and the planet” as it feels extremely handy to come to the office and with only one USB contact replicate a Notebook on a desktop monitor without the need for a docking  Lstation. We also value innovative displays such as the L2230x from an environmental perspective since it eliminates the need for additional office equipment (docking station) such that causes E-waste.

 I know in my last blog I said that ‘not everyone is able to measure the power consumption of their TV’. Well I take it back…I’ve since heard of a product that allows everyone to do just that.
There are three ways to measure how much electricity something uses:
1. Buy a cheap, simple watt-hour meter to measure specific products
2. Buy & install a wired-in watt-hour meter to measure the whole home (15min job for an electrician)
3. Look at the complicated existing electric meter on the side of your house and use a simple calculation.

I recommend the first example, since it’s the least hassle…and these advices are all about saving you energy. The 3rd option may not be an option at all if you don’t have an updated digital readout device, but just one with a spinning disc.

Buy a cheap, simple watt-hour meter
A watt-hour meter is a little device that tells you how much electricity something uses, either at a given moment or over an extended period of time. Just plug the device into the meter, plug the meter into the wall, and read the display.

What do you think of when you hear the term Energy Vampire?
A. Dracula trying to jump start his heart?
B. Negative people sapping your energy?
C. Electrical products in our homes and offices still sucking up energy after we put them to sleep for the night?

I immediately thought of example C the day I heard the term for the first time, although I dreamt of A later that night. Anyway, it made me think of the products in our homes and offices; the computers, displays, TVs & printers that remain active energy & money leaches, whilst farting Co2 through electricity production and also being a fire risk to homes. Their sleep mode should be as energy saving as ours, but unfortunately I’ve found a shocking truth:
It isn’t so long ago that European guidelines were made to put pressure on manufacturers to provide energy levels in user manuals to consumers, which then got them competitively producing products that have very low power consumptions during sleep mode. Unfortunately though there are still many slightly older products in use today consuming only slightly less power in their Sleep-mode as they do in normal On-mode. I know for instance that my 4 year old 32” LCD TV falls into this major Energy Vamp category.

But not everyone is able to measure the power consumption of their TV. It’s hard to be sure you haven’t got an E-Vamp in your home if you don’t have the product’s bible to guide you or specifications that have neglected the passage on Standby levels.
So what’s a person supposed to do when the ‘Hard Off’* button on products is becoming as hard to find as a blood donor these days.

Well, let me give you a simple way to drive a wooden stake into the heart of these suckers:
I’ve connected most of my appliances at both work and home (computer, display, printer, especially the TV, stereo and all number of players for this that and the other) to a Power Strip, which is a multi-socket extension lead with an integrated power switch. This way you can easily disconnect all the power to all the products with one easy flick of a switch. You can also get remote switches that you can switch off & on via a remote control.
Very easy, very effective & a safer home with No more Vampires, which means a better sleep mode for all!

Oh yeah!  If your answer was either B or C…don’t let them drain you! Instead try your best to turn them with your positivity or drive a stake through their heart! ;)
 
*Hard Off is a switch on a product that completely prevents the electricity from entering the product. As effective as pulling out the plug…a vampire’s teeth!

So, as I promised you in my new years resolution a couple of weeks ago, let me give you a simple first aid guide on how to cut back your energy consumption, your energy cost & green house gas emissions in one easy move at the office….and please try this at home also.
Just use this link:
http://www.tcodevelopment.com/pls/nvp/Document.Show?CID=4146&MID=255
It will direct you to our web site and an easy step by step guide on how to set up the energy saving function on your computer.
This set up will place your computer and screen automatically in a standby/sleep mode when you are not using it and it automatically starts it up again when you touch the mouse or keyboard.

Savings: For example: for a 19” TCO certified monitor this will mean a drop in energy consumption from approx 20 Watts to less than 1 watt during an estimated 3 hours of a working day (these power levels are not guaranteed if you do not have a TCO marked product). A computer & screen that is always on may cause 7kg of CO2/week from electricity production. If an energy saving function is active on your computer however, that level will sink to as little as 0.8kg CO2/week.

A low hanging fruit like this is something we can all reach from the comfort of our chairs…so enjoy this double energy saving, since my next tempting apple in a couple of weeks may take a bit more effort to reach

Do you like me wish for companies to manufacturer their products to meet more than just the minimum of what is environmentally legislated?
And like me do you also wish for manufacturers to go that extra mile and produce something special within environment & usability with a so called Cutting Edge technology?
Once in a while we get what we wish for when a company comes with an innovation that goes beyond international legislation and our own already tough TCO criteria and challenges other companies to follow-suit.
To highlight products that do this, we created an innovative award scheme called TCO Edge.

The first on our TCO Edge podium was: Lenovo with a computer display named ThinkVision L2251x Wide.
Why did this display get the award?
Well, as consumers many of us take our plastic to the recycle stations in the hope that it will actually be used to make new products and not be burnt or end up in land fills. This display is all about exploiting those efforts, by taking our old plastic to make new.
It’s carousel recycling at its best, since this display amazingly is held together using 65% Post Consumer Plastic. It’s not like creating a fleece jumper from a cocktail of plastic bottles, if it was it wouldn’t be cutting edge. A display’s plastic needs to be of a better quality, therefore it’s a more complicated process to obtain. Companies so far have only managed approx 25% PCP content.

We’ve now been shown what is possible and by putting our TCO Edge mark on this display we want to show you the easy choice if you want to put a top notch eco display on your Christmas wish list.

Together with a company like this we’re gradually breaking the chain of our usage of raw materials. Let’s hope other companies take up the challenge so that 65% will not be thought cutting edge but the norm when Christmas comes around again.

Here’s a few similarities between two subjects close to my heart:
The Environment & Football (Soccer).
Sim1: The Planet is ball shaped!
Sim2: A football gets kicked around! The Planet is taking a kicking too!
Sim3: Supporters go through a faith crisis!

Here’s why I think Sim3 fits in:
Being an Englishman I know all about a faith crisis when England play a match. There are two groups of Englishmen: those that actively give their support and in return expect England to win every game and every tournament (anything else is a disaster) and the majority that are actively critical & pessimistic whilst still expecting England to win everything.
It‘s obvious even to a Millwall supporter that a team’s winning chances are greatly improved with the public’s cheers not jeers. It’s where they tip the scale by becoming match participants (1966 Wembley: home team won the World cup).

Compare that soccer feeling of hope & despair with how we view our planet’s prospects. We all know the challenge we face but we’re still not one team yet, we’re three: The Despairers, The Hopers and The Heroes (I hope there are heroes in Copenhagen today).
Unfortunately the Hero players remain in the minority whilst The Hopers cheer when things go well, but not too loud since it draws attention to there own inactions & The Depairers: critical of the whole business but inwardly as expectant as The Hopers.

To me we must realise that we need to become one team with one strategy to win the environmental challange. That we need to take every save as a warning to attack harder; every goal against us as a sign to defend harder and every goal we score as a motivation to score more. This way we can lift the teams that are doing their best and inspire teams that time waste into action.

This sums up what TCO Development has been achieving with ICT manufacturers since 1992. We are dedicated to helping the environment and I hope that our efforts inspire you to be a hero. If not so far, then I hope you make some changes in your green tactics by the time England beat Germany in the final of the 2010 world cup.

A final similarity between football and saving the environment is that spectator participation is encouraged, as long as you don’t kick the ball!

Stephen Fuller

Feel free to send in your own football & environment sims.