Computer Recycling – A New “Green Apple” Recipe

March 25th, 2010

Apple CEO Steve Jobs is serious about environmental leadership. He is also serious about being seen to be serious, as this makes for good public relations. However, having a business motive for making “green” upgrades does not negate all the good that they will do. Even before his latest announcement, Apple had already eliminated, by the end of 2008, such toxic chemicals as lead and arsenic (in displays), polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and brominated flame retardants.

With the introduction of LED technology in its displays, like the 30-inch Apple Cinema HD Display rentals from CRE, the Cupertino firm also took the lead in eliminating mercury from its products. The latest iMac rentals also have mercury-free components, and arsenic-free glass, and represent the future of “non-toxic tech.” CRE also checks the manufacturing processes of the other companies whose products it rents, as CRE is committed to its own sustainability strategy, as outlined in its corporate “green statement.”

A little history

Recycling Computers Apple began a serious recycling program in 1994 and by 2007 it operated recycling centers in the countries where upwards of 80% of all iPods and Macintosh computers were sold. By the end of 2009, that figure had increased to over 90%. Hewlett-Packard, whose powerful HP8600 is one of CRE’s top computer rentals, is similarly committed to recycling and non-toxic manufacturing, and a critical mass of industry leaders has coalesced around a number of excellent standards and practices that are having great success.

Presently, there is no industry-standard way to assess the effectiveness of these recycling programs. Dell Computer has proposed a simple measure that projects a seven-year product lifetime, and measures the percentage of total weight recycled each year against the total weight of what was sold seven years earlier. This is a sensible proposal, with the added benefits of simplicity and transparency.

The way forward

For its part, Apple recycled 13 million pounds of e-waste in 2006, almost 10% of the weight of all products the company sold seven years prior. Apple executives expect this percentage to grow and, by 2010, project that the company will recycle 19 million pounds of e-waste, or nearly 30% of product weight sold in 2003 (seven years earlier). Apple’s high-end models, like CRE’s MacPro rentals and the iMac line, are not part of the Apple trade-in program yet, but the company offers 10% off a new iPod when a customer brings in an old one to recycle.

Whatever you need in the way of Apple products, potent PCs, plasma rentals or conference capabilities, it takes just a quick phone call or e-mail to get a CRE Account Executive working on a solution for you. If you know what you need, our Quick Rental Quote form is the way to go. CRE is proud to partner with Apple and other industry leaders in the “greening of technology,” and we will keep you updated on the progress!

“Greening” of Events & Convention Centers

January 28th, 2010

In 2003, the Green Meetings Task Force of the Convention Industry Council (CIC) was asked to create minimum best sustainability practices for event organizers, vendors and participants. The task force included representatives of industry, government and think thanks, from the EPA, the Ocean’s Blue Foundation and the World Travel Organization to convention and visitor’s bureaus, hotel firms, convention centers, meeting planners and other organizations. The Task Force’s work resulted in a set of guidelines for event organizers and suppliers for producing “eco-friendly” events.

What is a green event?

The CIC Task Force defines a green meeting or event as one that “incorporates environmental considerations to minimize its negative impact on the environment.” Once the principles were established, it was thought, the continuing march of technology would provide ever faster, cleaner and more sustainable methods for reducing the negative impact. This has, in fact, occurred. Since 2003, wireless networking has found its way into every laptop line, like MacBook Pro rentals, and with inexpensive wireless access readily available, event organizers can reduce their use of paper for programs, maps and schedules by emailing or using Twitter to keep attendees informed.

Digital recording has progressed leaps and bounds. A Digital Recorder rental, like the M-Audio MicroTrack 24/96, offers a professional, 2-channel, mobile digital recorder that records WAV and MP3 files to Compact Flash (CF) cards and fits in the palm of your hand. Event organizers can record sessions and upload them, making it easy for attendees to listen to sessions missed; add PDF files of session handouts and notes, and you’ve created a greener event.

High-Tech Convention Centers

Advances in green meetings are being paralleled by advances in convention technology, which we will cover in an upcoming blog. There is another trend, however, that is most exciting, and that is the new generation of high-tech convention centers.

When the Massachusetts Convention Center Authority (MCCA) built its new Boston convention facility, the goal was to create a high-tech convention center that would serve as the centerpiece of the city’s waterfront revitalization program. Designed as a totally wired facility, it provides visitors with site-wide Internet access and exhibitors with under-the-floor boxes for easy access to all utilities and communication. Setting up a networked PC to run presentations on an LCD monitor rental is a snap with this kind of pre-planning.

Convention center management used the facility’s Ethernet backbone network to design the Building Automation System (BAS). The BAS allows third-party systems to inter-operate with its single front-end system,which has over 5,000 control points. Convention center staff can manage and monitor the entire center’s operations and systems both centrally and remotely — everything from HVAC equipment, fire alarm interfaces, A/V systems and more. When a problem occurs with any of the systems, the BAS alerts convention center staff via cell phone or e-mail.

Looking for a partner that is committed to “green” and is a leader in convention planning and rentals? CRE Rentals is ready to help you plan, implement and equip your next event. Give our expert Account Executives a call, send an e-mail or fill out the Quick Rental Quote right now to start “greening” your next event.

Best Green Practices: A Checklist For Event Planners

July 21st, 2009

Conference Planning

Select venues that are centrally located with multiple hotels and restaurants within a reasonable walking distance (walking is healthy, too).
Encourage the use of public transportation through selection of well-situated venues.
Consider devising a Carbon Offset program to offset attendees’ travel.
Find local vendors for convention rental needs, and request that they also use local subcontractors and inventories.

Transportation and Logistics

If you must coordinate transportation for attendees, develop schedules with shuttle companies or contract with an event transportation specialist.
Give attendees directions to event via various routes using public transportation, pedestrian routes and bicycle paths.

Registration, Communication & Logistics

Codify your firm’s commitment to sustainability by posting your policies and procedures on the conference website. (Read CRE’s own “green statement”)
Use e-mail and web forms to register attendees, confirm attendance and communicate with vendors and support personnel.
Get reusable badge holders with lanyards to reduce ID to a single, small printed area, and ask attendees to return holders after the event. Provide multiple, convenient and accessible drop-off locations.
If you do not eliminate conference bags entirely, then ensure that they are made of post-consumer and/or sustainable materials.
Reduce or eliminate paper, ink and print processes for conference agendas and programs, offering them online, via conference WiFi, or on a disk or thumb drive.
If you must print materials, use double-sided design with post-consumer-content paper and vegetable or soy ink.

Presentations, Meetings & Meals

Print any required signs and banners on recycled paper and allow for reuse by leaving off dates. Consider using a small projector to project banner or signage.
Only use energy- and environmentally-efficient office equipment at the event, if any.
Develop and implement a recycling program inside the meeting venue starting the first day, and promote it unceasingly.
At meals, use no disposable items, not even paper napkins, and instruct servers to give water only on request, to speakers on the dais as well as attendees at the tables.
Encourage presenters, speakers and exhibitors to offer materials online, on a disk, on flash memory (custom thumb drives), or via conference WiFi.
Provide reusable mugs or water bottles for attendees’ use during the entire event, and set up “water stations” for refills.
Consider enlisting the help of a professional, reputable event production firm, such as CRE, to ensure the best possible results.

The Greening of LCD Displays

July 2nd, 2009

At the annual Display Week 2009, a significant number of exhibitors, speakers and participants discussed myriad efforts to encourage greener manufacturing of more energy-efficient display technologies. “Sustainability,” “energy-efficient” and “Earth-friendly” are not new terms, but they are getting a great deal more attention now.

As far as leading market research company DisplaySearch is concerned, this new interest is already driving the advancement of new technologies that will decrease environmental impact, increase sustainability and help firms go from “lean and mean” to “lean and green.” In 2008, some 20% of flat-panel display (FPD) units had “green” features, and this is expected to rise to as high as 70% by the end of 2012. It is also suggested that “green technology” will be standard issue for most LCD displays and monitors in 2014. CRE rents lower-power LCDs today, and when the new technologies start appearing in new models, we’ll have those available to rent, too.

From buzzwords to real specs

Among the R&D efforts currently underway are various approaches to developing new and better materials, light sources and system designs, as well as optimizing manufacturing. The broad aim is to reduce production waste, eliminate toxic processes and materials, lower energy consumption, conserve natural resources—and get the message out.

Here’s a quick wrap-up of “The Greening of LCD Displays”:

3M’s Vikuiti “reflective polarizers” have been shown to increase LCD panels’ energy efficiency an average of 30% by recycling light through the backlight.

The industry’s first glass substrates for LCD panels without added heavy metals or halides, Corning‘s Eagle XG units provide additional opportunities for an LCD display to be green its entire life—before, during and after use. Removing potentially harmful heavy metals makes a device recyclable at the end of its useful life.

LG Display showcased an eco-friendly line of products designed with fewer components to consume less power, from trendsetting plasma displays (CRE has plasmas for rent, too) Plasma Rental - ComputerRentals to its leading line of LCD panels. The company demonstrated a 32-inch LCD TV with the world’s lowest power consumption. By adding a white pixel to the RGB (Red, Green, Blue) array, and recalibrating the Optimal Power Control (OPC) system, the model cut its power requirement by 56 percent. In addition to this “White Plus” technology in several products, the company also showed “the greenest 47-inch LCD TV” ever—no arsenic or halogen in mechanical parts, no PCBs anywhere.

Microsemi has pioneered several energy-saving technologies for its line of backlighting, color management and sensor products. The products enable all kinds of LED backlight systems to offer top performance in eco-friendly, economical ways. Applications include LCD TVs, netbook and notebook computers, vehicle dashboard instruments and many other display applications. The backlit touchscreens, such as on the Motion Computing tablet PC that CRE rents, are reckoned to be a huge emerging market for Microsemi’s cost-cutting approach.

Qualcomm MEMS Technologies’ “mirasol” display technology is a nature-inspired, eco-positive design based on its IMOD (Interferometric MODulation) technology. It consumes dramatically less power than competing technologies, meaning devices will run longer on fewer, smaller, lighter, cheaper batteries—just as the laptop rentals from CRE run two to three times longer between charges than the average laptop of 2004. The energy-efficiency of the mirasol display derives from its use of reflective light, rather than backlighting, mimicking the way the human eye actually prefers to see. In a classic, well, display of “tech evangelism” numerous pundits are predicting that very soon, mobile devices will