One of the growing concerns in the tech industry is the problems we face with e-waste. You know all those used up and old computers and other technological wonders we are constantly upgrading from and are full of all kinds of toxic wonders. Everything from arsenic to lead and mercury being leached into the ground and table water from improper disposal.So many computer companies who don’t want to appear to be contributing to this growing mess are starting to paint themselves green. Well not literally painting themselves green but rather trying to produce products that are more ecologically responsible. Emilia Johansson; in a guest post at EcoGeek, took some time to put together a list of the top 5 green laptops on the market
Lenovo Thinkpad X301 The Lenovo Thinkpad X300 was one of only 15 notebooks to receive the EPEAT Gold certification, a sophisticated standard by which a device’s components pass evaluation in terms of eco-friendliness. Its successor, the X301 follows the same standards, but comes with faster and even more efficient components – all in a professional-looking and highly portable package.
For starters, this laptop features mercury-free LEDs in the display. Its low-voltage processor can stretch battery life with the aid of special efficiency software, and the package that the notebook comes in is now 90 percent recyclable. Additionally, the packaging doesn’t include any cadmium, lead or arsenic. Toshiba Portégé A600 The Toshiba A600 is Gold EPEAT certified and Energy Star 4.0 compliant; it boasts a few green attributes that set it apart from other eco-friendly notebooks. For instance, the laptop uses a processor that runs on extremely low voltage, but processes at 1.4GHz.
With an LED backlit screen, the Toshiba Portégé A600 is thin (less than an inch) and weighs only 3.2 pounds. Toshiba also earned praise from environmental groups with a promise to cut down dramatically on the use of harmful chemicals in their PCs over the next several years. HP 2730p Tablet HP stepped into the green laptop market with the HP 2710p Tablet. This eco-friendly notebook’s claim to green fame is a longer battery life, estimated at around six hours. The laptop is Energy Star compliant and comes with low voltage Intel processors at speeds ranging from 1.2GHz to 1.6GHz. ASUS Eee PC 1000HE This revolutionary laptop is one of the quaintest, greenest and most aesthetically pleasing notebooks on the market. The 1000HE model has a 10-inch screen and weighs just two pounds. The super-efficient Atom processor uses no more than three watts and the intelligent “Super Hybrid Engine” can automatically sense changes in the power needs of the CPU and components, adjusting voltage and LCD brightness to maximize energy efficiency. Apple MacBook Air This gorgeous laptop is also one of the greenest available. The display on the MacBook Air is without arsenic or mercury and the case is made from recyclable aluminum. While it does have a very powerful processor, which runs on approximately 14 watts, the laptop does qualify for the EnergyStar 4.0 certification. Apple also paid attention to the MacBook Air’s packaging, reducing the amount of potential waste by roughly half.
