Coveting the latest gadget doesn’t mean that you have to throw away your green credibility

To most tech-heads, being eco- friendly comes way down the features list. It’s all about having a bigger screen, larger hard drive and faster processor than the next guy. Much of this is down to the gadget makers who seem to be playing their own perverse kind of arms race, their gadget munitions factories spewing out all kinds of items, along with nasty, rabbit-killing chemicals and planet-melting CO².

Just in the nick of time things are beginning to change. Caught between public perception and tightening legislation, electronics companies are beginning to include features that go at least some way to salving yours – and their – consciences.

The eighth edition of Greenpeace’s Green Guide To Consumer Electronics, published in June, puts Nintendo, Microsoft, LG, Philips and Fujitsu Siemens at the bottom of its eco- friendly league table, with Sony Ericsson, Sony, Samsung, Nokia and Dell at the top, while Apple hovers around the middle. The Green Guide rates companies on everything from e-waste to the energy efficiency of their products and its report makes for uncomfortable reading.

Unfortunately the Green Guide doesn’t tell the whole story. It’s based on publicly available information and we don’t necessarily know what evils lurk beneath, or how much effort is being made to improve matters – Apple broke its usual vow of silence to point out it was actually doing a lot more than Greenpeace claimed. The Green Guide rankings also seem to vary wildly between editions, so it’s hard to say how reliable they are.

More consistent results can be found at the Energy Saving Trust (EST), which publishes a list of energy-efficient products on its website (energysavingtrust.org.uk). Approved products should be clearly labelled in-store with an Energy Saving Recommended label. Look out for products with an Energy Star label, too. This shows that the product complies with US energy conservation efforts, usually by powering off or going into low- power standby mode.

Since the introduction of the EU’s WEEE (Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment) directive last July, all consumer electronics manufacturers and retailers are supposed to take responsibility for recycling items, either by taking in old goods or by pointing you at the nearest council-run recycling centre. The problem is, no one really knows how well it’s working, with industry watchers complaining that some schemes have already fallen into disarray. And we’ve all seen the pictures and TV footage of toxic dumps in countries such as India and the Philippines... so we can guess where some of it will end up.

So what’s the solution? The obvious first step is to buy fewer gadgets and to upgrade the ones you already have (easily done in the case of computers). You can also donate them to charities such as Computer Aid International, offer them to others (uk.freecycle.org), or sell them (greenhomeelectronics.co.uk).

If you do buy new, here are some key points to consider:

1 How energy efficient is it? Obviously you can take some credence from products approved by the Energy Saving Trust, but there are other factors. Inch for inch modern LCD and plasma TVs consume about the same amount of energy as the old CRT sets did, but their overall power consumption has leapt because we’re buying bigger TVs than before. The EST estimates that TVs will account for around a quarter of all household energy consumption by 2020.

2 Can you switch it off ? Having a gadget on standby can sometimes be a good thing – it’s ready when you need it. And manufacturers are getting better when it comes to the power used in standby mode – 1W or less is rapidly becoming the norm, although leaving thousands of gadgets on standby, even at this low level, obviously adds up. The EST estimates that the amount of electricity wasted by gadgets on standby each year is more than the combined power output of two 700MW power stations.

3 What’s it made of ? Metal, glass and wood are obviously preferable to acres of plastic. As materials they’re easier to recycle and don’t give off volatile organic compounds that can ruin the environment in and outside your home. See below.

4 Is it chemical free? Brominated flame retardants (BFRs) are among the most common – and deadliest – offenders in a gadget maker’s armoury. BFRs are used to stop gadgets catching fire when they get hot, but they can also prove deadly to fish and other aquatic life. PVC and phthalates are also commonly found in electronics and pose various threats to health as well as the environment. Greenpeace is calling for all these chemicals to be phased out as quickly as possible. You should at least ensure that anything you buy is compliant with the Restriction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS) directive, which came into force in July 2006.

5 Does it come with a charger? While we’d recommend using rechargeable batteries whenever possible, that still leaves another problem: what to do with the charger. Mobile phone companies have been the worst offenders here, offering a bewildering array of proprietary chargers that are not only incompatible with other makes of phone, but often with other phones in the same range. The next big problem is ‘no load’ energy consumption where a charger continues to draw power from the mains even when its gadget is no longer connected. The first problem should be solved by the Open Mobile Terminal Platform alliance to use mini-USB as the universal connector of choice. The second is more troublesome. While European legislators are talking about action, your only option right now is to unplug the charger or plump for a smart plug that cuts the power automatically.