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Computers and Gadgets

@ CES 2008 - Kristina Taylor of the CEA

Kristina Taylor works for the Consumer Electronics Association, the organization which puts on CES every year. She helped organize the first carbon-neutral Consumer Electronics Show, accomplished by offsetting the 20,300 tons of carbon dioxide generated by attendees at this year's show (not including travel to and from Las Vegas). Many other green strategies were employed, such as soy-based inks, eco-friendly toilet cleaners and recycled paper... You can't see it in the video, but this year's badge holders have metal grommets, which make them difficult to process for recycling, something they plan to change next year.

 

@CES 2008 - Dell's Director of Sustainability: Tod Arbogast

Earlier in the show I sat in on a panel with Tod Arbogast and his counterparts at HP, Sony, and several other companies. It's been invigorating and humbling to see these multinational corporations cooperate on recycling and lifecycle design, even while they're at each other's throats in the marketplace. Tod is personally passionate about making the earth a better place to live, and he's offered to help us guys at EcoGeek set up a roundtable discussion with some of his colleagues.

I caught up with him at the Dell ReGeneration booth and he gave us a short interview... I especially liked his tips for employees who want to help their bosses go green.

 

An EcoGeek at CES 2008 – Day 1

When Dell asked me to guest blog for them at the Consumer Electronics Show 2008 in Las Vegas, I knew I was in for something interesting... a show for an industry renowned for planned obsolescence, held in a city that leaves the lights on every night and shoots off fountains in the desert...seems like a weird place to unveil a new thrust in their green campaign. Then again, there's no sense in preaching to the choir... Given the size of the audience (over 140,000 in attendance) and the green thrust CES is making this year, maybe it's the perfect place to move the Green Technology dialogue forward!

Similar to their booth at OpenWorld 2007, the Dell booth at CES has large, clear Plexiglas walls upon which attendees can write out their answers to the question "What Does Green Mean to You? We're listening." Though bigger than last time, they're beginning to fill up on the first day. It's a real kick to be here in person and see some of the additions to the display, including the Dell logo on a background of live grass, hanging on a wall made of Kirei Board – a green building material manufactured from discarded agricultural fiber. Everything here is Earth friendly, from the floor to the incredibly comfortable Eames Chairs. But the question remains...what about the computers?

Dell spokesman Sean Donahue has been hinting at something big to be released here during the show, and we'll be keeping you updated on that front, as well as providing video from both big-ticket presentations and attendees on the conference floor. If you're at the show, stop by booth #21854 located in the Sustainable Technologies TechZone of South Hall 1 in the Las Vegas Convention Center and say "Hi!"

I'll be reporting on some of the other things at CES of interest to the sustainability crowd, so be sure to check back in the coming days.

 

LifeHacker: Breathing Life into Your Old Gadgets

I love LifeHacker...that shouldn't come as a surprise. I mean...my life needs hacking. But today they have an excellent guide to breaking the status quo and making Christmas the time of year when, instead of replacing your old toys, you revive them!

Turn your XBox into a media player, beef up the firmware on your router, revive your old PC with Linux, or upgrade your current PC with simple instructions for RAM, hard drives, or even a new motherboard and CPU.

Suddenly what looks like an old Dell, an aged iPod, or a broken-down laptop becomes useful, powerful and Christmas-worthy!

 

500 Green Gigs from Western Digital

Earlier this year we got you thinking about the 1TB green-friendly hard drives Western Digital (WD) was introducing. The company is now back in the EcoGeek newsroom with word of a 500GB hard drive which should satisfy both your storage and lower power consumption needs.

WD's Caviar GreenPower 500GB hard drive is a 3.5-inch SATA drive which its maker says eats up only 3.3 watts while idling and 6 watts while seeking data. This amounts to a described power usage 30 percent lower than other 500GB drives on the market, for an average power savings of 4-5 watts. Environmentally speaking, WD says this equals a reduction of CO2 emissions by up to 13.8 kilograms per drive per year.

Specifics of this lower power consumption technology include a balance of "spin speed, transfer rate and caching algorithms" for power savings, "optimum seek speeds" for less power usage and "unloading recording heads during idle time" to further cut power draw. Each drive is estimated to cost you around $150.

 
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