Green machines
Home » Magazine » Good, issue 4 » Green machinesAs Apple finally cleans up its act, former PC World editor Chris Keall discovers the Mac. Meet the greenest laptop, desktop and printing solution around
The greenest laptop
Apple MacBook 13
Despite the presence of one Al Gore on its board, Apple has not always had a good rap from environmental groups. In July, Greenpeace New Zealand called for a boycott of the company’s 3G iPhone due to toxic chemicals used in its manufacture, and Greenpeace’s US wing was considering a lawsuit.
But with the October release of its new MacBooks, Apple has moved strongly in the other direction, creating what CEO Steve Jobs claims are the greenest notebooks on the planet.
Central to the MacBooks’ green-appeal is the radical new way they’re constructed. Previous models—like other brands—had plastic or hybrid cases, and were melded together from a number of parts. The new MacBooks are cast from a single block of aluminium. The simplicity of design makes for a greener manufacturing process, and much easier recycling. As I’m lucky enough to be typing this on the 13-inch version of the new MacBook ($2,399), I have to add that the all-in-one metal case—the so-called ‘unibody’—just 24mm thick, also makes it the best looking notebook on the planet (a 15-inch version is also available for $3,699).
More green goodness is found in the new MacBook’s glass display and, in a notebook first, the glass trackpad. Like aluminium, glass is easily recyclable. And unlike a lot of the glass used in notebooks, the display is arsenic-free. I’m happy to report the trackpad’s unique glass surface is not only environmentally friendly, it’s also frictionless. Your fingers just glide across it, and you’ll find it hard to go back to the plastic trackpads used by other machines.
(It’s also 50 percent bigger than most notebooks’ trackpads, which is great for all-round usability, and it supports iPhone-style multi-touch gestures, such as pinching a photo with your fingers to zoom in, or touching it with two fingers to easily rotate it. Sliding four fingers upward across the trackpad—yes, it’s that big—clears your display of windows. I know that’s not specifically green at all, but I’m having a lot of fun here.)
All the models in new MacBook line also feature an LED-backlit display, which both eliminates mercury from the production process, and uses 30 percent less energy than a standard fluorescent backlight. It looks more crisp, bright and glossy than more Earth-hostile alternatives, too. LED displays are increasingly common across all brands of laptop, so seek them out.
Under the bonnet, the story is also greener. Apple uses only PVC-free cables and components, and has abolished the brominated flame retardants that got it into trouble with its iPhone. Together with the case, display and screen—plus 41 percent less packaging than their predecessors—the new MacBooks have sprung to the top of the green class, earning an EPEAT Gold rating for clean manufacturing and recyclability. That’s the highest possible rating for the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) accreditation. The new MacBooks also comply with Energy Star 4, the EPA’s highest rating for energy efficient operation.
For the ultimate in green portability, take the option to forgo a traditional hard disk drive in favour of a solid-state (aka Flash memory) drive. A solid-state drive uses less power, runs silently and is lighter, too. Other brands have offered solid-state hard drives at a just-useable 8GB or 16GB capacity. Apple offers up to 128GB for its new MacBooks, which should prove practical for the biggest multimedia pigs.
A greener desktop
Lenovo’s ThinkCenter M57p
Laptops are inherently greener to make and more energy-efficient than desktop PCs. But if you must be tied to a desk, check out Lenovo’s ThinkCenter M57p Eco “ultra-small form factor” PC (Lenovo is the Chinese company that bought IBM’s PC division).
Along with EPEAT Gold and Energy Star 4 ratings, the ThinkCenter M57p boasts what Lenovo’s New Zealand country manager Dean Butchers says is the PC industry’s first GreenGuard certification. Issued by the GreenGuard Environmental Institute, a US-based, independent non-profit organisation dedicated to improving indoor air quality (greenguard.org), GGEI certification designates a product that has passed tests for 2000 emissions.
The ThinkCenter M57p, priced from $1,315, also has a very small form factor (99 x 317 x 355mm) and is extremely energy-efficient to run. Dean says that compared to an average desktop, you’ll save $40 on your power bill a year. As one US review put it, the ThinkCenter “sips electricity like an out-of-work yuppie sips a latte at Starbucks”.
Once your ThinkCenter has run the course of its useful life, Lenovo has a free recycling program. Disassembly and disposal is made easier by the fact that the ThinkCentre is made from 90 percent recyclable materials.
With its standard 1.8GHz processor, the M57p lacks the heavy grunt needed for some computing tasks, but for everything from basic office work to light photo and video editing, it’s got all the hardware horsepower you need.
Greener printing
With printers, going green is not so much about how your printer is made (though do watch for those Energy Star and EPEAT ratings) but how much you waste when you print.
For medium to large companies, Gen-i’s new Managed Print Service combines with HP printers to cull waste.
Gen-i works with businesses individually to customise a copying and printing plan. But there are a number of common elements, including Pull Me printing, which requires a person to enter a PIN or swipe a card before a document will print from its queue, and the ability to grab your printout from the nearest network printer. Both help avoid the mounds of unclaimed documents that weigh down office printers everywhere.
Gen-I’s Tony Davenport, who runs the programme, says while it’s designed to both lower your print consumables bill and make your documents more secure, it also has some serious environmental benefits, helping HP to be rated eighth on Newsweek’s ranking of the world’s 100 greenest companies.
