Consumers are increasingly demanding better environmental attributes in their digital gadgets, but the consumer electronics industry can go a lot further to make gadgets "green."
Environmental watchdog Greenpeace held a press conference at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas on Friday to announce results of its second annual survey called "Green Electronics: the Search Continues."
(Credit:
Greenpeace)
The good news is that manufacturers are using fewer hazardous chemicals, such as PVC plastic, and are running more electronic take-back programs. Another positive trend is the use of LED screens for notebooks, which are relatively energy efficient and use less mercury than other technologies.
But many manufacturers are slow in adopting EnergyStar energy-efficiency standards or using recycled materials. Consumer electronics companies should also take more responsibility for recycling, according to Greenpeace. (Click here for a PDF of the study.)
The assessment, which follows Greenpeace's ratings of individual vendors issued in November, comes at perhaps the most environmentally themed CES so far.
The show organizer, the Consumer Electronics Association, earlier this week issued results of a survey that found that consumers are increasingly looking for green attributes, as are manufacturers looking to differentiate products.
"Green is becoming a purchasing factor," Steve Koening, director of industry analysts at the CEA, told the BBC.
More than half of consumers are willing to pay a little more for products designed with the environment in mind, while 22 percent said that they are willing to pay 15 percent more.
Also telling were consumers' responses to what is considered "green." Over half of those surveyed said they didn't know what the environmental attributes of high-tech products were and 38 percent said they were confused by the "green" label.
That's not surprising given the explosion in green claims in the past few years. And when you consider the diversity of what's considered green tech at CES alone--from power strips that eliminate vampire loads to cell phones made from recycled material--it hints at the many aspects of "going green."
The CES show also hosted a Greener Gadgets Tech Zone and had a "Technology and Environment" session track with panels on electronics recycling and energy use.
Before the conference began, the organizers used a carbon emissions-management software application in an effort to lower the environmental impact of the event.
After Christmas gifts were exchanged this season, I set out to get what I really wanted from Santa: a solar panel kit that could power up my household electronics.
Options for buying these things are growing fast (see photo gallery below). Solar chargers can be had from several suppliers that juice up cameras, digital music players, phones, or game machines. And at the Consumer Electronics Show, a few companies showed off solar chargers, in tune with the "green theme" of the conference.
I originally set out for a single charger for gadgets and batteries. As I surfed from one alternative energy site to the other, my imagination wandered: would it be possible to use a solar charger for my laptop? Would a solar charger noticeably cut down on my electricity costs, or would it just be a cool science experiment?
Well, my Christmas gift quest has ended, short of a solar-powered laptop. Instead, I found a suitable toy for my phone, batteries, and maybe a few other devices.
Charging up a laptop with a small solar panel is trickier than just picking a product from a catalog, it turns out. And you'll have to pay quite a bit more than you would for an iPod charger.
But there's change afoot. At the Consumer Electronics Show this week, a company called NRG Dock showed off a solar charger for electronics, including laptops.
The company plans to make a product available, which will benefit from federal and state renewable energy rebates, in the second or third quarter this year, according to Chief Operating Officer Allan Wattenmaker.
You may be able to save money if you use a solar charger for many devices and batteries over the long term. But the primary reasons people make and buy solar chargers are portability or back-up power (unless you live off-grid).
Of course, solar power has the virtue of being green. So, short of buying expensive solar panels for the roof of your house, here are some options for "greening" up your electronic life.
Solar-charged gadgets: You can keep using your phone, iPod, or many other small electronics but ditch your existing power supply. Instead, you lay out your portable solar charger on the window sill or porch and plug it into your device.
Solio has one of the best-looking phone and device chargers out there, which costs $99.95. Three oval-shaped leaves with solar panels pull out to take in the sun. The company also has the Solio Hybrid 100, a general-purpose charger that also has storage integrated into it for when the sun isn't shining but you still need a charge.
Solar Style, Soldius, and others also have a range of solar chargers, some of which have an integrated battery to provide charge when there's no sun. You'll want to ensure that you have the right connectors for your devices.
Green tech is coming to gaming, too. I found a solar battery charger for PSP 1000/2000 machines that costs $28.76.
These chargers are small enough to slip into your backpack if you want to take your music player, phone, or GPS device on a hike--or just recharge during a long day away from a power outlet.
There are backpacks with solar cells integrated in them as well. Voltaic Systems at CES introduced a 14-watt laptop bag with integrated battery, much more powerful than its current 4-watt version. It will cost $599 and be available in the spring.
Because I haven't received my charger yet, I can't say for sure how quickly they charge devices. But small gadgets like a music player take a few hours in the sun to charge, according to people who have used them.
Battery chargers: Anybody who has been in a toy store lately knows AA and AAA batteries are a regular feature in toys these days.
If you're sick of buying those alkaline batteries and tossing them every couple months, you can get rechargeables and juice them up in a green way.
The low-end solar chargers do the job but take several hours in the sun to charge up a few batteries. That's OK, if you have plenty of spare batteries and time.
But I was eager to get something a little more powerful, so I could get rechargeables filled up within a few hours. And, I figured that a larger panel could also power up my phone, and maybe portable DVD player.
I wasn't able to find a whole lot of products that fit this requirement. But if you're willing to pay somewhere between $100 and $300, you have options. You can either buy a single charger for batteries and gadgets, or you could buy a small panel with the right cables to do the job.
Choices among the panels themselves are growing as well. Most panels are made from silicon and often have that cobalt blue look.
But the emergence of flexible thin-film solar cells are a great option for portable applications, although you'll pay more per watt for the convenience.
There are rollable or foldable panels sold under the PowerFilm or Sunlinq brand names that let you pack up a panel into a small package. They range from 5 watts, which would be good for batteries and gadgets, up to 25 watts, which could even be used to power a laptop.
Laptops: Wondering whether I could find a simple way to power my laptop took a sizable chunk of my holiday vacation time and, in the end, I didn't get what I wanted.
The problem with laptops is that, unlike music players, newer models consume more and more energy, according to Ed Bender, the president of Sundance Solar, which sells solar goods for portable applications or educational purposes.
"Laptops are tricky," he said. "In general, electronics power usage is going down. That's not true of laptops. People are getting bigger monitors, like with the new Macs, especially if they use them to play DVDs."
Sundance used to recommend that people buy a 10- or 20-watt panel and a cord (in the style of a car adapter) to plug into their laptop. But for many applications, that approach simply doesn't produce enough electricity, Bender said.
Instead, you need a panel and a back-up battery that your laptop plugs into.
Global Solar, which makes the Sunlinq foldable solar panels for military and mobile applications, lays out different options (click here for PDF), which includes an $89 Xantrex small back-up battery or a smaller lithium polymer battery from Tekkeon.
I priced out a setup with a relatively small 12-watt foldable panel, the Tekkeon MyPower All battery. Add a necessary cable, and it was about $350. A larger 25-watt foldable panel adds about $200 more to the setup.
If you were serious about having a solar-powered laptop, a larger panel makes sense, says Sundance Solar's Bender who said his company equipped a team of people who went to Antarctica using a 40-watt rigid panel, which costs about $300, to power their computers.
And now I'm eagerly awaiting NRG Dock's laptop charger. Wattenmaker said it can charge in an hour and provide several hours of laptop time. The price will be about $800 before rebates, he says.
So, in short, solar-powered laptops are doable but you're going to pay for the portability (or the fun of your science experiment).
For gadgets and batteries, though, affordable pocket-size solar power is already here.
LAS VEGAS--One of the big complaints from consumers who buy General Motors cars that run on E85 ethanol is the lack of places to fill up.
General Motors CEO Rick Wagoner
(Credit: General Motors)GM CEO Rick Wagoner, in a meeting with reporters at the Consumer Electronics Show taking place in Las Vegas this week, says he has received hundreds of e-mails from customers who have bought such cars and are frustrated they can't find ethanol stations.
When GM started selling its flex-fuel cars, there were about 600 stations that sold ethanol in the U.S. Now there are about 1,400 stations.
But there are 170,000 filling stations in the country. The U.S. probably needs around 15,000 to 20,000 ethanol stations, he added.
To this end, GM has been working with big box retailers like Wal-Mart and Target to put ethanol pumps in.
"It has been remarkably difficult" to get pumps installed, he said. "We've been doing more work than I thought we would need to."
Corn ethanol also won't cut it for the long haul, if ethanol demand grows significantly. "To get beyond a certain level, it is going to have to go beyond grain-based in the U.S.," he said. The alternative could well be cellulosic ethanol.
Wagoner is making a rare appearance at CES to promote car electronics as well as GM's more fuel-efficient car. He'll be giving a keynote in less than an hour. During the speech, he will discuss a new prototype, the Cadillac Provoq, which comes with a solar panel on the roof to power the car's electronics, a hydrogen fuel cell, and a lithium-ion battery.
Speaking of lithium-ion batteries, Wagoner says reports that GM has delayed the Chevy Volt, a gas-electric car, are incorrect. The company still aims to come out with the car around 2010.
"Going for 2010 is a stretch, and it still is a stretch," he said, but the test results are coming up reasonably well.
The challenge largely lies in improving the batteries so that these cars will have a range consumers will find acceptable. The Volt is supposed to get around 300 miles before running out of gas and electricity. (The Volt drives on electricity and the gas engine recharges it while driving.)
GM, he added, continues to look at all-electric cars, but that's a tougher challenge and may come, at least from GM, only after electric-assist vehicles like the Volt are out. Automakers may also begin to push the "city car" concept. These cars only go about 120 miles on a charge, but are made for city driving.
The chief problem with the EV1, GM's canceled electric car from a few years back, was the range.
"If you want to drive around and not worry about it (running out of power), that hasn't worked yet," he said.
The EV1, however, didn't completely die. The nickel-metal-hybrid battery from the EV1 will be used in a Chevy Malibu hybrid.
And on the hybrid note, automakers will likely come out with a variety of hybrid drives, depending on the size of the car and its expected power.
"If hybrids take off, you will see a proliferation of different types of hybrid systems," he said.
Cars will continue to run on fossil fuels for a while, he added, but alternatives seem unavoidable. Emerging nations like China are buying more cars, which means greater fuel consumption, and environmental awareness is far higher.
"My sense is that there is a fundamental change," he stated.
View complete CES 2008 coverage from CNET.
Voltaic Systems on Tuesday is set to announce a bag with a 14-watt solar panel for charging laptops at the Consumer Electronics Show, a company representative said.
(Credit:
Voltaic Systems)
It's expected to be released this spring and will cost $599.
A wide variety of solar chargers are available to power up cell phones, iPods, or other gadgets.
As it turns out, I spent many hours during my Christmas vacation researching solar-powered laptops. (News.com will be running a column and photo gallery later this week.)
According to retailers, a 14-watt panel will be good for charging up the laptop when not in use. But running it directly from the sun would require larger, and more expensive, panels.
Still, it looks like Voltaic Systems has done a good job of putting together the charger and bag in a neat package. And it ties into the green theme at the Consumer Electronics Show this week.
View complete CES 2008 coverage from CNET.
Three of the biggest makers of TVs have formed a company to help manage the wave of electronics waste set to swell with the onset of digital television. Panasonic, Sharp, and Toshiba have launched the Manufacturers Recycling Management Co. in Minnesota.
That state last year enacted a law making vendors responsible for their brands' discarded electronics. MRM contracts with third-party recyclers including CRT Processing and Materials Processing Corporation, which specialize in handling tired monitors and televisions.
Old televisions and monitors are laced with lead, cadmium, and toxic flame retardants, but careful recycling can recover valuable and reusable metals and plastics.
Since September, MRM has collected some 750 tons of TVs, PCs, audio equipment, fax machines, and other gear through events such as Plug-In to eCycling programs managed by the EPA and more than 20 tech vendors and stores.
MRM has recycling agreements with vendors including Hitachi, JVC, Mitsubishi, Philips, and Pioneer. The company, which currently has just one employee, plans to make money through fees from manufacturers seeking help to cope legally with cast-off electronics.
MRM is set to expand within the next year in Connecticut, North Carolina, Oregon, Texas, and Washington states, and possibly in other states in coming years.
Some 35 states are mulling individual e-waste recycling laws, to the dismay of much of the electronics industry. The Consumer Electronics Association has campaigned for national laws to replace the state-by-state patchwork of regulations. That group runs the Consumer Electronics Show being held this week in Las Vegas, where news of MRM's launch was announced.
"We do desire a federal program and will continue to work toward that," said Christopher Loncto, a spokesman for Sharp.
New rules in Minnesota, for one, appear to be driving up recycling rates there. At the Mall of America in November, for instance, organizers concerned about the danger of traffic jams canceled an e-waste recycling drive that drew overwhelming crowds.
As big brand names try to manage the growing tide of e-waste, small-time entrepreneurs also hope to profit by giving new life to old gadgets. New Web-based companies such as BuyMyTronics and Second Rotation offer to buy people's old iPods and mobile phones.
It's easy to feel overwhelmed by the vast waste of materials at the gargantuan Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Mobile phones frozen into buffet ice sculptures just scratch the surface of the showcase of an industry that thrives on planned obsolescence.
Three years ago, I'd asked the planners of CES about its waste management, receiving befuddled looks in return. But then I stopped worrying and learned to love my free CES vinyl laptop bag, stuffed with plasticky swag that will outlast the bones of any great-grandchildren I may ever have.
Sure, there were e-waste recycling awards back then, the ceremony shunted into early Saturday hours. Yet amidst the construction project of CES sprawling over an area larger than five dozen football fields, no recycling was obvious in the old days.
Fast forward nearly three years, however, and times are changing. The Consumer Electronics Association, which runs CES, announced earlier this month that it will "green" the whole show--starting with a soy-based ink and recycled paper schedule in each attendee's hand, and ending with the donation of leftover food to a homeless shelter.
Carpeting, batteries, bottles, bulbs, cans, and gadgets will be recycled. Cleaning supplies will be nontoxic. Three quarters of the utensils and food containers will be biodegradable. A portion of one of the world's largest tech fairs will highlight sustainable tech, and hotels will broadcast a plug for the green efforts.
The greening of CES could mark a big shift for conventions, with potentially lucrative opportunities for companies that make bioplastic forks, recycled booth dividers, and such.
Whether wary of being accused of greenwashing, determined to do well by the planet, or both, the organizers of many confabs ramped up their event-greening attempts this year. Unsurprisingly, those with the highest hippie quotient seem to have made the most progress. Among the highlights of some green events I attended:
On the surface, the least green aspect of so many get-togethers (Society of Environmental Journalists, Greenbuild, and Burning Man included) is the amount of fossil fuel that powers all the tour buses, cars, and planes carting around so many far-flung people.
Nevertheless, any group can attempt to mitigate the damage by buying controversial carbon offsets. The U.S. Green Building Council that ran Greenbuild did just that (so will CES, and so did West Coast Green).
Despite a flap over lead-laced coffee cups, West Coast Green was meant to be green to the last drop, including handouts of recycled grocery tote bags similar to those at Green Festivals.
Greenbuild 2007's booth materials were recycled, and electricity was conserved during setup and disassembly. It was held in Chicago's McCormick West Center, newly certified by the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design benchmark. The Green Festival kept 96 percent of its garbage out of landfills, while West Coast Green's targeted 75 percent and AlwaysOn aimed for zero waste. SolFest was entirely solar-powered.
Among the many events that shunned the use of virgin paper, the Austin Clean Energy Venture Summit program came in a recyclable cardboard binder (CNET News.com's Martin LaMonica went, not I). Even the Office 2.0 conference took a green twist this year by forbidding paper, including business cards, and handing out iPhones. Still, this writer spotted forbidden swag including stinky plastic bouncing balls. In the end, after all, the responsibility for greening any event rests not only with the planners, but with those who show up.
| Programs, signs, and badges | Food | Waste | Event energy and materials |
CES 2008 goals | Recycled; soy inks | Biodegradable table settings | To be recycled; leftover food donated | Recycled booth materials; carbon offsets |
Office 2.0 | None; business cards even banned | Local, organic | Recycled | |
Discover Brilliant | Recycled linen program with bamboo binding; low-VOC inks | Reusable table settings | Recycled | |
AlwaysOn Going Green | Recycled paper | Local, organic; reusable table settings | Recycled and composted | |
West Coast Green | Recycled; vegetable inks | Local, organic; biodegradable table settings; no water bottles | Recycled and composted | Carbon offsets |
Society of Environmental Journalists |
| Local, organic; biodegradable table settings | Recycled and composted | |
Greenbuild | Recycled | Local, organic; no water bottles; biodegradable table settings | Recycled and composted; leftover food donated | Recycled carpet; green cleaning supplies; carbon offsets |
Green Festival | Recycled | Local, organic; biodegradable table settings | Recycled and composted | |
Solfest | Recycled; soy inks | Local, all organic; biodegradable table settings; no water bottles | Recycled and composted | Solar-powered |
Bioneers | Recycled; natural inks | Local, organic; biodegradable table settings; no water bottles | Recycled and composted | |
Burning Man | Recycled; natural inks | Fair trade coffee; no water bottles | Recycled and composted; leftover lumber donated | Off-grid; solar, wind power and biofuels used; carbon offsets |
| Paper, signs, and badges | Food | Waste | Event energy and materials |
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