There is a lot of buzz about “green” products invading CES this week. Several have identified green products as a key theme of the conference. I must ask, what makes an electronic product “green”? Is it grown on a farm without pesticides?
I previously worked for a brand consulting firm and had an organic bread company as a client. I literally broke bread with consumers in their homes to explore what “natural, made with organic and certified organic” meant to bread lovers. It turns out USDA seals add credibility but consumers view all bread as natural and a little organic goes a long way.
If the USDA requires 95% of a product’s ingredients to be organic to proudly display the USDA badge, should electronics have to be made with 95% recycled materials to be classified as “green products”?
I’m all about taking the steps necessary to produce greener electronics; however I feel the tech community should set some standards to alleviate confusing or misleading consumers. I like to think TrackVia is a green online database but I don’t feel confident saying we are 100% green. The technology community has a chance to prevent the confusion confronted by consumers in the grocery aisle over organic and natural. We should not muddle the waters with various shades of green. Either a product is green or its not.
To learn more about “green” electronics, Greenpeace has done some of the work for us in its recently released report titled “Green Electronics: the search continues”.
What do you think the standards should be for an electronic product to call itself green? Bonus points – what should the seal look like?
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