Tags: earth hour, energy saving, environment, ICT products, IT products, laptop, TCO Certified
On Saturday March 26th hundreds of millions of people around the world are expected to participate in the world’s largest climate manifestation Earth Hour, and show our support by turning off the lights for one hour. Earth Hour is a great symbolic gesture to highlight the problems with climate change we are facing.
Why not show your support for the earth and “celebrate” Earth Hour every hour 7 days a week by switching off electronically gadgets when not using and change to ICT-products with minimal impact on the environment.
Pledge your support for more laptops designed for the planet
One simple action for more “green” notebooks is to show the IT industry that there are many of us who want to see more notebooks designed with the environment in mind. On TCO Development’s website you can show your support and take part together with companies, national authorities and individual people all over the world to influence the major computer manufacturers to offer the market more TCO certified notebooks. Pledge your support for laptops designed for the planet.
Posted by Birgitta Halvarsson
Tags: environment, Green IT, sustainability
So we’re all reading about companies, communities and households becoming “greener” – which is a good thing of course, right ? But after attending last weeks State of Green Business Forum hosted by GreenBiz, it seems like more companies and governments are now taking a step further to incorporate “green” into every element of their core business and bottom line results. The idea of “green” or “environment” as a stand-alone entity is fading while each aspect of the business works to implement more sustainable practices in their everyday operations.
We heard from Nike’s Lorrie Vogel on how a design initiative based on PET bottles resulted in Nike’s best ever soccer jersey. Bob Langert of McDonalds discussed how minor reductions in materials use in napkins and straws led to huge savings on transport and distribution costs. City of Chicago’s Commissioner for Environment, Suzanne Malec-McKenna was also a passionate advocate for how “green” is now one aspect contributing to the overall success of every city-wide initiative: housing, office energy consumption and education for example. It seems like the concept of “Green Business” is evolving to where sustainable practices are determining bottom line results.
Tags: e-waste, environment, hazardous substances
For years now many of us have worked to alleviate the problem of E-Waste – the growing piles of electronic junk that either lands in our wastestream or is exported to developing countries, where improper disposal frequently exposes the local population to health and environmental risks.
But consider this – the developing world also represents a large growth market for PCs and other consumer electronics. What happens to all those products at the end of their use ? In a new study published this week in the American Chemical Society’s semi-monthly journal Environmental Science & Technology, the authors claim that developing countries will produce at least twice as much electronic waste, or e-waste, as developed countries by 2030.
Go to the study here
Tags: carbon footprint, CO2 emissions, energy saving, environment, Green IT, IT products, save energy, sustainability, sustainable IT
While major electronics brands compete to develop more eco-friendly PC products, some areas of Green IT are actually shifting towards greater industry collaboration. A couple of recent stories caught my attention. Firstly, at CES I attended an Electronics Takeback roundtable, hosted by the US EPA and featuring senior environmental managers from Panasonic, Best Buy and L.G. When discussing the challenges of implementing a cohesive takeback infrastructure, industry reps agreed there is a need to work together to create a common eco-system and create efficiencies in how takeback is handled across multiple product categories.
Second, the Green Touch project was announced this week in a cross-industry effort to reduce PC processory energy use 1000-fold. In real terms, this would mean being able to run the world’s communications networks, including the internet, for nearly three years using the same amount of energy it currently uses in one day. The Green Touch project kicks off in February. More details here
Tags: cutting edge technology, eco display, environment, Innovation, international legislation, Post consumer plastic, Recycle carousel, recycling, TCO Edge, ThinkVision L2251x Wide
“An Optimist sees a possibility in every problem”
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.
Tags: combine usability and environmental aspects, design, environment, Green IT, sustainable IT, usability, World Usability Day
I think this heading captures the purpose of truly sustainable design and the theme for World Usability Day 2009.
Each year, World Usability Day is an opportunity to highlight achievements in user-centric design. On November 12 usability thought leaders, consumers , industry and researchers gathered at events in over 43 countries to discuss the latest innovations in usability design. Basically, the mission of the event is to “Make Life Easier”.
This year’s theme was “Designing for a Sustainable World”, and reflected the growing demand for “green” design in combination with highly functional products. In the United States, TCO Certified showcased a selection of TCO Certified notebook PCs at the event hosted by Sabre Holdings in Southlake, Texas. The event featured product exhibits, usability testing demos and a keynote presentation by renown design professor and author, Nathan Shedroff. You can view a copy of Nathan’s presentation below -a useful source for why usability and sustainability in design must go together.
Nathan’s message in short: “Don’t design things today that make tomorrow worse”
http://www.worldusabilityday.org/sites/worldusabilityday.org/themes/wud/resources/nathanshedroff.pdf
Tags: 2010 world cup, environment, Environment similarities, football, Green ICT, soccer, united nations climate challange 2009
“Wouldn’t it be nice if the hardest part was not taking part!”
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.
Tags: display, environment, Green IT, TCO Certified Edge
OK Green IT enthusiasts, here’s a product worth noticing.
Lenovo ThinkVision L2251x Wide - World First TCO Certified Edge display
Today we’re proud to announce, together with PC maker Lenovo, the launch of the first computer monitor to achieve the groundbreaking TCO Certified Edge award for achievement in environmental and high performance design. The Lenovo ThinkVision L2251x Wide desktop computer display achieved this world first in recognition of its 65 % post consumer recycled plastic content. Including such a high percentage of post consumer plastics has long been a challenge among industry and we at TCO are thrilled to reward this cutting edge achievement. Other eco-friendly features include recycled packaging materials as well as a proximity sensor to save energy when you’re away from the computer.
TCO Certified Edge is a supplemental award open to those products that already meet the worldwide TCO Certified criteria for environment and usability in IT design. The purpose of the award is to identify leading edge products and technologies that go beyond the requirements in existing eco-labeling programs.
Check out full details and product specs in our multimedia press room or login to TCO Development’s website
Tags: Asus, e-waste, environment, Green IT, lap top, laptop, TCO Certified
A dear friend of my wife’s – her Asus notebook PC- is ill. It’s only three years old and the battery is dead, the RAM is too small and she would need a bigger hard drive to fit all her photos. The symptoms don’t sound too serious but listen to this. Asus does not sell the battery type for this relic any longer, the RAM type can not be expanded (at least not by Asus) and the only hard drive that can fit is only 80GB (20GB larger than the present one). This PC is three years old and already facing its death! The only economically sound option, from the user’s perspective, is to buy a new one and add some e-waste to the world.
Posted by Martin Soderberg
Tags: Automatic brightness control, display, environment, quality, usability
Automatic brightness control
Lately we have started to see displays with automatic brightness control on the market. What is this feature and what is the benefit of it for the user and the environment?
A sensor on the display measures the ambient light in the room and adjusts the brightness of the display to a comfortable level. While working in a normal office room during the day the ambient light in the room may be very high. To maintain readability and visual quality the display automatically increase the brightness under these conditions. As the sun get less strong at the end of the day the display gradually reduce the brightness to be readable even in a dark room without dazzling the user.
Another huge benefit of this technology is the reduction in energy it creates. By reducing brightness when it is not needed a lot of energy can be saved and the lifetime of the display will also be longer.
This is a good example of introducing a feature to both improve the experience for the user as well as reducing the impact on the environment.
One company that have introduced this feature is Eizo:
