Electronics giants have various options to produce devices that are less damaging for the environment. Among the easier options is to design products that are less energy consuming. But the companies are increasingly devoting their talent and know how to the creation of proprietary power generating systems for their own manufacturing plants to run on wind or solar energy.
Electronics giants have various options to produce devices that are less damaging for the environment. Among the easier options is to design products that are less energy consuming. But the companies are increasingly devoting their talent and know how to the creation of proprietary power generating systems for their own manufacturing plants to run on wind or solar energy.
Many of the larger electronics companies have announced intentions to this end. The latest manufacturer to reveal details to the public of plans to 'green' their internal energy consumption is Hewlett Packard. The computer producer which recently concluded its conversion to solar energy for its San Diego research center, said it will now get into wind energy for its Austin operations.
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To give consumers a taste of what the changes are all about, HP is releasing two desktops that are the most environment friendly of all the machinery the company has ever produced.
The two desktops will be released November 9 and are running on new energy-efficient AMD chips, packaged in recyclable materials and are equipped with the latest and greatest in energy management software, which users are free to use or switch off.
HP said in a public statement recently that it will double the amount of renewable energy used in its operations. By 2012 the company will use a total of 8 percent of green energy, as part of a plan to lower carbon emissions of all its outfits globally with 16 percent under 2005 levels in two years time.
In order to get to this target, the company is speeding up its investment in solar plans. When HP finalized the solar installations at its San Diego research center in collaboration with SunPower and General Electric (GE) it said it would be participating with Austin Energy’s GreenChoice program. That means that it will take wind energy generated by west Texas windmills for its data center operations near Austin.
As we mentioned, HP is not the only one to make drastic changes to the way in which it conducts business. Google has even more ambitious energy planswhilst Intel already classifies as one of the US’ largest purchasers of green energy. IBM is very busy applying their computer-chip cooling technology into solar concentrator units. The compnay is concentrating the equivalent of 2000 suns into energy which it can cool from a temperature of over 1600 degrees Celsius to just 85 degrees Celsius. Dell says it's going carbon neutral andcommented on the HP goals that they're rather modest. That's exactly the kind of dynamics that are going to drive efforts that are really going to be green and make a difference.
The green press thus far is a bit ambivalent on whether to brand the HP desktops as a greenwashing attempt, but we here at Triple Pundit want to give credit where credit is due and hope for plenty more improvements. These are the specs of the new desktops;
The HP Pavilion Verde Special Edition a6645f is powered by AMD's energy-efficient processors - a dual core AMD Athlon X2 4850e processor- and a 500GB hard drive. The machine, which is packaged in recyclable packaging, starts at $579 without monitor. The Verde edition is an exclusive in the Circuit City range and comes with a "nature-inspired" design on its front panel.
The HP Pavilion Phoenix Special Edition a6655f desktop PC is priced at $659 without monitor, is powered by a quad core AMD Phenum X4 9250e processor, has a 640-Gbyte hard drive and a DVD burner. The Phoenix Edition has been exclusively placed in the to Best Buy category. Its front panel is livened up with a depiction of a mythical phoenix.
Both desktops can be combined with HPs third new ecologically friendly product; a new color display designer which HP claims significantly lowers a user's carbon footprint. What's named the Vivid Color Display w2558hc is a 25.5-inch monitor that's comes with a built-in webcam.
The monitor also has built-in speakers, a 15-in-1 digital media card reader, USB ports and HDMI connections. It is priced at $599. The monitor and the two desktops are Energy Star qualified. HP is selling them through HP Direct and select retailers. The desktops also meet the criteria for EPEAT's Silver rating.Â
