Big three drive green computing

Hewlett-Packard, Dell and Acer are rolling out energy-efficient computers made from recyclable materials as well as starting recycling programmes in India to reduce e-waste, says The Economic Times.

The vendors feel their latest initiatives will boost sales amidst the slowdown, since green computers consume much less energy and reduce the total cost of ownership.

The Indian government is also coming up with energy efficiency standards for computers. Bureau of Energy Efficiency secretary, Saurabh Kumar, says the organisation is already collecting data to come up with energy standards by March 2010.

Lenovo has revealed that is has used more than 2.2 million pounds of post-consumer recycled plastics in its PCs, reports Business Wire.

Epeat, the electronic product environmental assessment tool, analyses electronics on an extensive list of environmental attributes, including the amount of post-consumer recycled content used. Post-consumer materials are plastics obtained from previously used objects such as water bottles, PCs and TVs.

Based on Epeat data, Lenovo says its ThinkCentre desktops are 27% made from post-consumer recycled polymers. Lenovo's ThinkStation D20 workstation uses nearly 30% post consumer content, equivalent to 19 plastic drinking water bottles.

The UK is bringing cutting-edge environmental technologies to the Philippines, particularly in building designs, as part of the country's global commitment to address the alarming trends of climate change, reports Manila Bulletin.

British experts from building and design companies shared the "latest and most innovative" environmental technologies with local counterparts at the recent annual general membership meeting of the Philippine Green Building Council (PhilGBC) held in Makati City, the British embassy said.

John Chick, director of UK Trade and Investment, said technology sharing is timely since the PhilGBC is currently working on a set of standards for the Philippines called 'Building ecologically responsive design for excellence'.