Lenovo reportedly announced that more than 25 of its Think and Idea lineage Laptops and some desktop PCs have been ahead of the July 1 commencement date for Energy Star Version 5.0 Specification for Computers by more than 180 days.
Officials at the company claim that the main models that have had this important energy efficiency rating are the X301, T400s, and W700ds laptops in the ThinkPad series, the U330 and Y430 laptops in the IdeaPad series, and M58, M58p and M58e Eco desktops in the ThinkCentre series.
ENERGY STAR is a joint undertaking of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S. Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) that provides a system to rate the energy efficiency of various products and systems including buildings, and is now a well respected international seal of approval and acceptance in almost every country on this planet.
Since the founding, interlinked principles of the ENREGY STAR (News - Alert) approval program have been to reduce electricity consumption, greenhouse gas emissions by power plants, and the global carbon footprint, the same principles can, by default, be applied to the Lenovo (News - Alert) mobile and fixed computers under discussion.
The company says most of its ENERGY STAR 5.0 certified PCs also are compliant with other power management and on mode power consumption requirements. As an example, they say that the combination of ThinkCentre M58 small form factor desktop and a ThinkVision L1940p Wide monitor together use only 377 kilo Watt Hours (kWH) per year, whereas a marginally older model PC and Cathode Ray Tube (CRT) monitor consume 635 kWH and a refrigerator consumes an estimated 529 kWH.
Here are some more illustrative examples of the usefulness of ENERGY STAR approved appliances, devices and products.
Compact Fluorescent Light (CFL) bulbs use 75 percent less energy than a conventional bulb and last 10 times longer, and an ENERGY STAR certified CFL saves nearly $ 30 during its usage time frame and ends up paying for itself in about 6 months.
Incidentally, CFL’s also help saving the environment by emitting less mercury than traditional incandescent light bulbs because coal based electricity generation is the single largest source of anthropogenic mercury emissions and CFLs use at least 70 percent less electricity. Discarding the bulbs, too, is safe because the internal mercury lining stays superficially bonded to the glass even after breakage.
It is strongly recommended to purchase ENERGY STAR compliant appliances when the time comes to change an old computer, fridge or washing machine, and though these new technologies cost more while initially purchasing, they save up to $ 75 per annum in electricity bills and also help save the environment.
“Green design factors into each step in engineering our PCs, starting with recycled materials to delivering higher levels of energy efficiency to giving customers options for recycling at the end of life,” said Fran O’Sullivan, Senior Vice President of the Think Product Group for Lenovo. “Improving the energy efficiency of Lenovo PCs helps customers not only reduce their carbon footprint but also save money throughout the life of their PC.”
Lenovo has taken their green design initiative very seriously and has integrated solid state drives, LED backlit displays and low power processors that together contribute towards driving down their PCs’ power requirements, and the computers have an in-built power management software that intelligently knows when to power down and knows when to run. These factors also help to conserve the battery consumption and life.
Lenovo claims it has used 2.2 million pounds of post-consumer recycled plastics in its PCs in 2008, and this is the foremost reason why more than 60 Lenovo products are rated Gold by the Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool (EPEAT).
The company lays a heavy emphasis on bulk packaging. For example, a deployment of 5,000 ThinkCentre desktops saves nearly 22,000 pounds in materials and uses 100 percent recycled cushioning materials. The company is also in the process of redesigning the packing cases to smaller sizes for most of its products.
Official sources say that the Lenovo Eco Take Back Program allows consumers to recycle any Lenovo or IBM product for free and receive money back on any brand of PC that has residual value, and for business customers it offers Asset Recovery Services to provide computer take-back, data destruction, refurbishment and recycling.
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Vivek Naik is a contributing editor for TMCnet. To read more of Vivek's articles, please visit his columnist page.Edited by Michael Dinan
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