The consumerism of nations today is the driving force behind the slaughter of the environment. Resources die away and industrial smog pours into our atmosphere so that by the end of the day, we get what we want – and what a lot of people want are computers. The average desktop PC uses ten times its weight in materials, fossil fuels and chemicals to manufacture. What if you could make a difference by buying something a little less destructive? The following innovations aren’t 100% perfect, but they’re leading the way to a greener future for sure.

(i) Asus U6 Bamboo Laptop
320 GB • 4GB • Intel Core 2 Duo • GeForce 9300M GS

Asus hasn’t just laid strips of wood over a plastic cover. Its new Ecobook is an honest attempt to become better friends with the environment. They’ve fashioned bamboo into an attractive casing. Any plastic used comes from recyclable raw materials and the components of this laptop have not been sprayed, painted or electroplated. Stiffened card (recycled paper) forms the Ecobook’s protective cover. Tree-huggers: eat your hearts out. Don’t worry about acres of destroyed forest because bamboo is as renewable as it gets: it grows a couple of feet each day.
The ExpressGate application allows this laptop to start up in seconds and save battery life. There is also a LED indicator which switches between green and red to alert as to what energy consumption mode you are in.
The bamboo Ecobook was announced in 2007 but today it still stands as a top contender in green computing. Asus is still exploiting reusable resources so maybe it will outdo itself in the future.


(ii) Dell Bamboo Eco-computer
Intel® Pentium™ Dual Core T4200 (2.0GHz/800Mhz FSB/1MB cache)

As the first computer company to join the Climate Group we anticipated Dell to coming up with something like this. Its Ecomputer is 81% smaller than your average CPU and it requires 70% less power. Its bamboo shell is filled mostly with recycled garbage and together they’re priced at around $500. Like Asus, Dell sees more bamboo in its future. Its studio hybrid might even evolve metaphorically to become the first computer you grow a plant inside.

There are manufactures that provide matching computer accessories but if buying bamboo is your effort to reduce your carbon footprint, do a little research first. A lot of companies just place strips of wood over a perfectly normal, environment-hating computer to make it look nicer. We need green substitutes to make a real difference, and not superficial coatings.

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 3rd, 2009 at 11:53 am and is filed under Computers. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.