simple + green

The Consumer Electronics Show (CES) is where companies come to tout The Next Thing of The Year. The bigger players tend to launch products or clarify direction. Last year’s show was dominted by Apple’s iPhone announcement. This year’s show in Las Vegas was dominated by talk about green technology.

But was there anything but that? According to an article in this week’s San Francisco Chronicle, Huge Televisions, Green Talk Among The Highlights At CES, not quite.

There was a lot of talk about green technology and adopting green practices, but it was mostly just that - talk. A tiny, hidden corner was carved out on the show floor to showcase sustainable technology, but it amounted to not much more than a few booths.

On a bright note, CES highlighted how being green could become a strategy for consumer electronics companies to stand out from the crowd.

Here is how some of the large companies worked the Green angle:

Dell said it is evaluating how to cut back on waste and be more Earth-friendly during the entire life of a product, from its conception to disposal by the customer.

Intel showed off its latest chip, Silverthorne, which will require a tenth of the power of existing chips. Marvell also demonstrated a power factor correction controller that will decrease energy use in laptop power adapters and desktop power supplies by up to 50 percent.

Hewlett-Packard, which announced it would reduce the energy consumption
of desktop and notebook PCs by 25 percent by 2010.

Panasonic, Sharp and Toshiba said they are forming the Electronic Manufacturers Recycling Management Co., which will manage the companies’ recycling efforts. The company also will handle future collection and recycling for Hitachi, JVC, Mitsubishi, Philips, Pioneer, Sanyo and Olevia.

What does all of this change to consumer-based technology mean? On one hand,

We live in a technology-dominated culture, which is great for all of the positives, but also includes detriments:
1. The Culture of More means “more waste”. Think about this:
* Every year, an estimated 400 million units of obsolete electronics are scrapped.
* By 2010, this figure will rise to three billion units.

2. What’s in the box? Most computers and peripherals have shorter life spans: every day, more and more consumer electronics are being upgraded or completely scrapped in favor of technological advancements. In the process, old TVs and VCRs, Walkman cassette decks and bulky video cameras become what is known as “e-waste” or electronic waste.

3. Where does this all take us? Back to where we started: sneak previews into the “greening” of Consumer Electronics.

* We vote with our spending. Supporting corporations whose values align with our own isn’t always easy. In the world of consumer electronics, especially computers and their peripherals, news on changes in direction (such as at the CES) keep us informed and aware.
* Tell these companies what you think. Be direct: email them, call them, write them, tell them what they could do, should do, have to do to address problems that the consumption of their products create. E-waste, energy savings and recycling are issues that are not going away. Smart companies are addressing these now. The smartest companies will be those that pull way ahead of the pack and make themselves the example.

Now, who will that be?

Simple+Green is an Apple-powered entity.