Missy over at the Keetsa blog has some great insights on how to make your laptop greener with simple questions you can ask yourself before buying a laptop and adjusting some settings for existing laptops:
How-to green a new laptop (questions to ask)
1. Manufacturer ethics? – Check the Greenpeace rating of the brand or manufacturer you plan on purchasing from. See how the company fares on the list of sustainability, as this may make or break your decision to go and support them.
2. What type of display? – Look into the type of display the proposed laptop has, currently LCD is good, LED is better and the planned OLED is most energy efficient.
3. What type of casing? (and components) – Laptop casings now come in a variety of formats, including bamboo, recycled materials, and planned for the future are corn-based cases. Look at the inside components also and see how they are assembled? New models have it set up so that the laptop is easily upgradeable. Instead of throwing out a laptop because it has exceeded memory capacity, you can upgrade with a simple click or module change. This will extend its life and keep it out of the landfill.
How-to green an existing laptop
1. Adjust settings – There are two important settings you can adjust to save energy on your laptop. The power setting and the screensaver setting. Go to control panel and set these to the lowest setting you can reasonably afford to go with. This will also help out with saving some battery power.
2. Go off grid – I found a fantastic article that covers 10 easy ways to run your laptop without electricity.
3. Have End of Life Plan – When your laptop finally reaches its end of life, have a disposal plan of action ready. If you own a Dell, Compaq, Mac (or any other brand) of laptop you’re in luck, because you can send your busted laptop to any of these manufacturers and they will responsibly dispose of it for you. Just call the 800 # or visit the website of your brand.
4. Accessories – You can also green up your accessories. Visit our archives as we have covered everything from recycled laptop cases, solar chargers, energy saving devices, power monitoring apps, to power strips.
