“EPEAT approved hardware means that its maintenance is reduced, the hardware’s life is extended and the recycling of the computer is easier,” says Choudhary, whose HP Compaq dc5750 won the FOSE award for energy efficiency and has been given a Gold EPEAT listing (the highest among three, gold, silver and bronze).

The other feature that one could consider for advanced power management is the use of mercury-free panels. HP commercial LCD flat panel monitors and HP notebooks with illumi-lite display—their ambient backlight eliminates the amount of hazardous materials used—are examples.

But the process of Green Computing isn’t complete without the efficient disposal and recycling of the electronic waste—which includes all the internal and external parts of a computer. While disposal means discarding the various elements of a computer—plastic, metal, magnets—in a prescribed manner, recycling is sorting out the components of the PC that can be re-used. HP Workstations claim to be 90 per cent recyclable by weight since they are made from materials that can be recycled. These include metals and alloys as opposed to non-recyclable materials such as plastics. The company’s desktops are similarly designed with bromine-free external plastics and tool-less chassis for easy disassembly and recycling at end of life.

And more is being done. The globally active ‘Disposal Program’ will be initiated in India soon. This, says Choudhary, “will have us going back to consumers and taking the bulk of their PCs to be disposed of in the most eco-friendly manner in collaboration with another agency”. And while HP doesn’t incorporate any recycled components in its new products, the agencies they tie up with, as part of the ‘Responsible Take-Back’, will use any of the re-usable elements of the PC.

... contd.