Apple, HP, Dell, Others: Every Day Is Earth Day

Red Rabbitt is a subsidiary of Redemtech and its refurbished computer brand. “I have a colleague who calls it ‘The eww factor,'” says CEO Robert Houghton, describing what Red Rabbit does away with. Each computer comes with Microsoft Windows XP installed, which customers register just like with a new computer.

Redemtech offers Technology Change Management, or TCM. It offers enterprises an outsourced solution for updating old hardware – whether by replacing it or updating it – while taking full accountability for such aspects of the process as logistics management, data security and assuring computer recycling and indemnification against regulatory liabilities.

“All the e-waste we collect in North America is processed there and nothing is shipped overseas for disposal,” states the Apple Web site. Like Redemtech, Apple meets the requirements of the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and Their Disposal. (Photo courtesy of Apple.)

The Lenovo ThinkStation S20 and D20, introduced March 24, feature Intel Xeon processors and 50 percent recycled content – which is “equivalent to the weight of approximately 19 plastic drinking water bottles,” Lenovo reports. The ThinkStations are also Greenguard certified, meaning they meet standards for more than 2,000 chemical tests.

In 2008, Lenovo used more than 2.2 million pounds of post-consumer recycled plastics in its PCs, the company reports. Among its other environmentally focused initiatives are LED backlit displays, which consume less power than traditional displays and use 30 percent post-consumer materials, and a reduction of its packing materials.

HP offers customers the options of trading in aging technology, return it for cash – HP buys what the enterprise doesn’t want and wipes all data and refurbishes and resells it – donating the hardware or recycling it.

The Dell Studio Hybrid is 80 percent smaller than the typical PC minitower. Dell says it uses up to 70 percent less energy than a typical minitower, is Energy Star 4.0 compliant, requires approximately 30 percent less packaging materials and the packing materials Dell does use for it are 95 percent recyclable. (Photo courtesy of Dell.)

In 2008, Dell announced it was implementing a plan to “simplify and revolutionize” computer packaging that will result in more than $8 million in savings and the elimination of approximately 20 million pounds of packaging material over the next four years. It plans to reduce PC packaging materials by approximately 10 percent worldwide and ensure that 75 percent of packaging components are curbside recyclable by 2012.

Nokia is reducing the amount of energy it uses in its facilities around the world; cutting its carbon footprint by encouraging more employee teleconferencing, rather than traveling; developing energy-efficient chargers that meet the EPA’s Energy Star v.1.1 requirements; and, through its we:energize program, helping customers to use its mobile devices as efficiently as possible.

There are nearly 5,000 Nokia Care points globally, where devices can be recycled. In some countries, prepaid postal labels can be printed online, to mail the phones to a recycling point. And in several countries, Nokia is part of “collective schemes for the take back of electronics waste products.”