Today Greenpeace released its latest version of their Guide to Greener Electronics. In this version they added TV and game console makers. Before we check out the changes from last version lets see how some of the newly added companies rank in the Guide.

Nintendo, one of the new companies, has become the first company to score zero points out of max ten, not a good start for a company that mainly has children as their target group. Microsoft does a little better than Nintendo, about 2.7 points better. Another low-scorer is Philips, the TV maker, who only scores two points.

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Dell is the first PC manufacturer to achieve Energy Star 4.0 requirements with its new Inspiron 531. Some of its features are a 80% efficient power supply and a paperless owners manual. The computer is also pre-programmed to switch to a low-power sleet state after 15 minutes of inactivity.

Dell Inspiron 531 comes with an AMD Athlon-64 X2 dual-core processor, 1GB of DDR2 memory, 160GB hard drive, CD-RW/DVD-ROM combo drive, nVidia integrated graphics and Windows Vista Home Basic as operating system.

EPA, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, estimates that with the latest update of Energy Star requirements only the top 25% of energy-efficient computers will qualify Energy Star 4.0.

Post A Phone is a 4mm thick phone made out of recyclable card or plastic. It is designed by Priestman Goode and I love it.

The Post A Phone is intended to be a backup phone when all your other more high tech solutions have failed. The phone fits inside an A5 envelope and can be sent via regular post (yes, the snail mail).

I am not so sure how it is in your country but here in Sweden most people uses IP telephones and/or mobile phones. It’s rare that people only use a ordinary (and old) landline. I personally use Skype and my mobile phone when I am outside or not next to a computer. The Post A Phone would be perfect for those times when the Internet breaks down and when you don’t want to waste money on expensive mobile calls.

So when will the phone, sorry, the Post A Phone come to Sweden?

Here is a neat little green computer called DecTop. The computer runs on only 8 watts. Yes, you heard right and yes, 8 watts is nothing! You can compare that with my CPU processor who needs around 45 watts to work.

But of course this low power drain has some downsides. DecTop comes with 128MB memory, a 10GB harddrive and a 366 MHz processor. Not much to brag about. But if you are only browsing, checking your emails or RSS feeds and doing some small amount of writing this computer is enough for you.

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Lenovo recently released the ThinkCentre A61e, a brand new green computer. The ThinkCentre A61e uses few hazardous materials, consumes little power and is easy to recycle. Because of that it has received the desirable EPEAT Gold status.

Peter Schrady with the really long title of vice president and general manager, Emerging Products Business Unit says that “the importance of maximizing energy efficiency and being environmentally conscious is touching all aspects of our daily lives, from the light bulbs we use to light our homes to the hybrid cars we drive to the green technology we rely on to run our businesses.”

Un-customized it uses an AMD Sempron LE 1150 processor, 512MB ATI Radeon X1200, 512MB Memory, 80GB hard drive and costs $399. Not too shabby. Sure the computer is ugly (or shall we say retro?) but it’s still one of the more high performing green computers out there.

According to Lenovo using the energy-efficient AMD Athlon X2 dual core and AMD Sempron single core processors can help save up to 50 percent in energy costs annually.

Another good thing is that Lenovo ranks high in the Green Electronics Guide from Greenpeace. They are currently on the 4th place being beaten only by Dell (on third place).

Press Release: Lenovo Raises Energy-Efficiency Bar with Its Smallest, Quietest Desktop PC

Yesterday I talked about how you can fight global warming by buying a laptop due to the fact that they generally use less energy than an ordinary desktop computer.

But it doesn’t really matter if you use a laptop or a desktop computer if you don’t activate the computers power saving settings. And don’t think for a second that your computers screen saver saves energy. Unless the screen or backlight on a laptop or desktop screen actually turns off, a screen saver uses as much power as word processing.

So the best way to save energy is to activate your computers power saving features. Activate your computers sleep mode so that your computer goes to “sleep” while you are (afk) away from keyboard. But don’t worry! Activating the sleep mode doesn’t mean that the computer shuts itself off while you’re not around. All the work and things you were doing before will still be there when you return.

You can also choose to switch off your monitor or spin down the hard drives after a certain amount of time away from your computer. Your power settings also allow you to completely shutdown your computer if you haven’t used it for a while.

But doing all this can be tricky if you aren’t an experienced computer user. So the easiest way is to use a program called LocalCooling. It’s a neat program where it’s only downsides are that it only works on Windows computers.

LocalCooling let’s you easily decide what kind of power saving mode you want to use on your computer and it shows you how much energy your computer uses. The best part is that it shows how many trees, gallons of oil or electricity you have saved when having these power saving settings on. It’s really neat!

If you want you are welcome to join Green-Blogs very own LocalCooling group. This is how you do:

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Laptops are generally more environmental friendly than their “big brothers”. So if you are planning on getting a new computer you should consider a laptop instead of a stationary (desktop) computer.

A stationary or desktop computer usually uses around 130 watts while a laptop only uses around 15 watts, and sometimes that is with the same tech specs. Other good things are that laptops are smaller and use less packaging, meaning less transport and storage space needed.

When looking for a new computer you should look for an Energy Star-rated laptop and you might also want to check out the Green Electronics Guide from Greenpeace.

Another good option besides a laptop is Zonbu, the first zero-emissions personal computer.

Image credit: Simon Law. Image licensed under a
Creative-Commons Attribution-ShareAlike license.

Boblbee, the iPod solar charger from Dododi in Japan is not only green and cool. It is also shock proof and water proof which is great when you are “out in the field” doing some dirty work or just hiking in the mountains. Heck, you can even just use it in your window at home.

Another good design aspect is that this solar charger has rounded panels. That means you can charge your iPod out in the sun the whole day long without moving it around.

Sounds great? Yes it really does. There is just one problem. The solar charger is only sold in Japan and I have no idea what kind of shipping and price it has. The translated version is kind of funny to read. Anyone from Japan that can help!?

Ask.com is a search engine company just like Google is but not that popular outside the USA. Now when that has been explained lets get to the point shall we?

Ask.com recently started to work with Dell, the computer company, to transform their current servers to more energy-efficient severs with the use of Dell’s Data center Solutions Division. Ask.com has said that these new servers will use 30 percent less energy than the old ones and still be able to perform the same tasks.

But the story doesn’t end at more energy-efficient severs. Ask.com has also, as the first corporate customer, joined Dells “Plant a Tree for Me” program. It is said that thanks to Ask.com thousands of trees will be planted.

This “Plant a Tree for Me” program is a partnership with the Conservation Fund and Carbonfund.org and non-profit organizations.

Zonbu is a small, small like the mac mini, personal computer. But what’s special about the Zonbu is not that it’s so small, it’s that it’s the first zero-emission personal computer.

Zonbu runs on a linux platform with a 1.2 gigahertz processor, 512 meg of RAM and a 4 gigabyte flash card. That’s plenty to satisfy the majority of ordinary computer users.

This small environmental friendly computer consumes six times less power than a standard (energy wasting) light bulb. Did I mention the price tag for this beauty? Zonbu only costs $250 dollars.

But nothing is perfect in the real world. In order to get more storage space you need to subscribe to the Zonbox service. Zonbox will provide you with software and firmware updates and up to 100 gigs of storage space. It will even offset your Zonbu usage. Zonbox costs $12.95. Keep in mind that if you are currently using an older computer you can actually save those money off your utility bill when you have purchased Zonbu (older computers uses more energy).

Related articles about the Zonbu:
- Some Zonbu PCs Shipping with Double Flash Capacity
- My first two weeks with the Zonbu
- 22 Things to Know About the $99 Zonbu Linux PC