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Drawing The Green Line With Netbooks

Where do you draw the green line when it comes to buying a notebook? I may have crossed it with my purchase yesterday of an Acer Aspire One netbook -- ironically, to cover an environmental summit in Istanbul in two weeks. Between the jet fuel and Acer's poor environmental record, I may be doing more harm than good.

Acer's Aspire One is a step in the right direction. It uses the Intel Atom processor, which is manufactured in a lead-free process, per the EU RoHS Directive. And being a netbook, it uses less electricity and is housed in fewer pounds of plastic and metal than larger notebook computers.

But Acer lags other vendors in computer recycling and "take-back" efforts. And while Acer appears to be improving its environmental record with commitments to phase out all phthalates, beryllium and compounds, and antimony and compounds in all new products by 2012, it continues to be vilified by Taiwanese environmental groups, which accuse the manufacturer of gross violations. The comments became particularly pointed following Acer's December 2008 corporate social responsibility gathering. Among the manufacturers presenting was AU Optronics Corp., Taiwan's largest producer of flat-panel displays, which they accuse of improperly discharging "wastewater into Shiao-Li River in Hsin-Chu County over the past eight years." AUO at the conference promised to reduce its domestic water and electricity consumption by 10% between 2007 and 2010.

Separately, Greenpeace's Guide to Greener Electronics most recently placed Acer in seventh place, tied with Panasonic with 4.3 points:

"It owes this position to its efforts on toxic chemicals with a commitment to phase out all phthalates, beryllium and compounds, and antimony and compounds in all new products by 2012. Acer scores poorly on e-waste even though it is reporting a recycling rate of 31.7%, based on past sales, for desktops and notebooks sold and recycled in Taiwan. On energy, Acer only scores on energy efficiency. Since 20 July 2007, 75% of Acer's notebook PCs, 10% of desktop PCs, and 100% of LCD monitors have been verified as Energy Star compliant."

In its own defense, Acer in September outlined five areas of environmental efforts:

1. Acer will persist in the ISO PDCA spirit and continually maintain operation of the system, including holding regular meetings, training and education for members of the ISO Promotion Committee, implementation of internal and external audits.
2. 
The HSF (Hazardous Substance Free) program was launched in 2006 and Acer is committed to eliminating PVC, BFRs, and Phthalates from all products by 2009. In addition, Acer will cooperate with suppliers to find alternative technologies and materials.
3. 
In addition to taking measures as specified in the EU WEEE directive, Acer will assess the feasibility of the spontaneous recycling program in the USA, India, and Taiwan. The EPA Plug-in to eCycling program, a spontaneous recycling program initialized by the Environmental Protection Agency of the USA, will be carried out in the USA as a trial to understand the effectiveness and results of the implementation.
4.
Acer will integrate the requirements of the eco products and management system to make the management of the green supply chain more complete.
 (1) Eco products: Review the products again and integrate currently applicable international environment-related regulations and incorporate them in the latest requirements of eco products. 
(2) Management system: In addition to the current quality and environmental management systems, suppliers will be requested to comply with the requirements of OHSAS18000 and SA8000. 
(3) Environmental information: Suppliers will be requested to provide relevant information to ensure conformance to the EuP directive and the requirements for reduction of greenhouse gases.

5. 
To maintain uninterrupted outwards environmental communication Acer is committed to:
(1) Collect information about the trend of international environmental protection;
(2) Keep good relationships with environmental protection organizations such as Greenpeace and [Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition]; 
(3) Disclose related information on Acer's "sustainability" webpage."

We can only hope that it sets its goals higher than in 1992 when it was awarded the Republic of China’s first Enterprise Environmentalism Award, which, looking back, can't have been worth the recycled paper it wasn't printed on.

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