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Our Green agenda goes out the window
The number of Britons preferring to unwrap a green gadget this Christmas is down by 21 per cent compared with two years ago, according to new research.
Fujitsu Siemens says 1 in 4 Britons, of the 1000 questioned, wanted to give or receive an environmentally friendly gift.
I would suggest fewer people care about buying environmentally-friendly electronics because it's almost impossible to gauge just how green a gadget is.
Fujitsu Siemens itself claims to be one of the greenest manufacturers in the world, but even it won't say how much carbon dioxide is produced for each computer it makes.
Likewise it's difficult to find out how ethical a product is. United Pepper, who's fair trade webcam we reviewed, doesn't give a scale of how much better its wages and working hours are compared to other Vietnam workshops.
The Fair Trade association doesn't even recognise United Pepper, so there are no checks and balances either.
The final nail in the coffin is that United Pepper's webcam produces very poor image quality compared with non-fair trade products.
All in all, if 1 in 4 respondents say they would prefer a green product, then only a fraction of those will actually make an effort to buy a green product.
A step forward would be the Fair Trade association starting to brand fair trade electronics, something not currently in its remit. Another big step forward would be a big PC manufacturer holding its hands up and saying just how much energy, and therefore CO2, it takes to put a PC together from start to finish.
Posted by Emil Larsen on December 6, 2007 | Permalink
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