New York – A variety of CE companies are
commemorating the 40th annual Earth Day celebration with an interesting mixture
of news, donations, and a variety of recycling and green initiatives
illustrating their concerns about the environment.
Today’s announcements
from companies include:
Best Buy:
The
chain is asking consumers nationwide to pledge online to “
,”
encouraging increased use of its comprehensive, convenient recycling and
trade-in programs. Starting today the more than 1 million Facebook fans of Best
Buy have been invited to take the Recycle It On pledge, an easy way to commit
to recycling their own old electronics, with features to pass along to friends
and encourage the same, Best Buy said.
The application
features a U.S.
map, tracking the various types of items pledged state by state, as well as
local store details to help users find their nearest Best Buy store to drop off
items pledged. For more information, visit
.
Canon USA:
The imaging company is working again with the Arbor Day Foundation to continue the
Canon Forest Program. With more than
50,000 trees planted in state parks around the United States since the program’s
inception in 2008, the goal for 2010 is to exceed last year’s total of
30,000.
Beginning on May 1
and running through Aug. 31, for every five Canon Generation Green products
registered on the Canon USA Web site, Canon will plant a tree in state parks
through the Arbor Day Foundation. In addition to the product registration
campaign, Canon will plant one tree for every hardware item purchased from Shop
Canon Direct (
),
from April 8 through the end of May.
Customers can
check on the progress of the program by visiting
. In addition, the Web site will feature a tree
counter showing where and how many trees have been planted, along with
information on how best to maximize the efficiency of Canon Generation Green
Products.
For more
information on all of Canon USA’s
environmental efforts, visit
.
OmniMount:
Today
it launched The BRAvo Event, a partnership with The Bra Recyclers, an
Arizona-based textile-recycling firm, to collect gently used bras for reuse at
local Phoenix women’s shelters. The
BRAvo Event will take place during May.
Elaine Birks-Mitchell
launched The Bra Recyclers in October 2008. Her team has already established
several drop-off locations in the Phoenix
area (as well as locations in Dallas
and Sacramento, Calif.)
where recyclers can donate bras, with the newest location at the OmniMount
corporate headquarters.
To date, they’ve
collected more than 40,000 bras from all over the world, including Hawaii,
Canada and Hong
Kong.
OmniMount’s BRAvo
Event kicks off on April 30, with the unveiling of the custom-built and
hand-painted Bra House, a donation center that will be stationed outside the
OmniMount headquarters. The company hopes to collect 1,000 bras during the
month-long event and will be offering prizes to lucky donors via random weekly
drawings. OmniMount will also extend the fun to Twitter by entering people who
“tweet” the news into a drawing of their own. For more information about OmniMount
and The BRAvo Event, visit
.
Sony:
The manufacturer
reported that the U.S. Green Building Council Institute has given its LEED Gold
certification for the design of its headquarters building in San
Diego. The LEED-certification system is the foremost
program for the design, construction and operation of high-performance green
buildings, Sony said.
The building’s
design integrated a number of green elements in accordance with the Green
Building Council’s LEED requirements, including: room for bicycle racks,
carpool parking and fuel-efficient vehicles parking; the use of open space lot with
vegetation, more than double the requirement; the use of local building materials;
low-flow water fixtures and general water conservation; improved energy
performance; and the use of solar panels.
Toshiba:
It is
celebrating the 40th anniversary of Earth Day this week at New
York’s Grand Central Station.
Toshiba is the
exclusive CE sponsor of EarthFair Indoors through Friday, April 23, at its
corporate Environmental Vision 2050 exhibit in Vanderbilt Hall at the iconic
train station.
And then from
Friday from 12:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m., and Saturday from 11:00 a.m. to 5:00
p.m., there is EarthFair Outdoors on Vanderbilt
Avenue right outside of Grand Central.
There will be demonstrations
of Toshiba’s HDTVs — including their
newest LED TV, the UX600 — laptops and other products. People will also
be able to learn more about Manufacturers Recycling Management Company (MRM),
founded by Toshiba, Panasonic and Sharp, and its approach to recycling
televisions. MRM’s recycling program
recently won Best Electronics Take-Back Program from TreeHugger, Toshiba said.
Vizio:
Details on
its Using Greener Methods environmental program have been released. All Vizio
HDTVs meet
Energy Star requirements for low energy consumption, both when the sets are
active and on standby. For example, Vizio said many of 2010’s HDTVs meet the
newer, more stringent Energy Star 4.0 specifications that go into effect on May
1.
In addition to low
power consumption, Vizio said its products use materials that reduce impact on
the environment. All of its products are compliant with the European Union RoHS
directive on materials used in electronic devices. Also, the panel glass used
in all LCDs is both halogen- and arsenic-free. All user manuals are printed
with vegetable-based inks and all HDTV
shipping cartons are made from recycled cardboard. Vizio’s TruLED and Razor LED
technologies reduce energy consumption, the company said, and all Vizio LED
products are more environmentally friendly because their LED backlights do not
utilize any mercury.
Vizio also has a
partnership with MRM where Vizio owners can
use drop-off collection locations throughout all 50 states, as well as recycle
through a mail-back program and periodic special local events.
Nationwide
Marketing Group (NMG):
As a four-year Energy
Star award winner, Nationwide has been long been pushing an environmental
message to its independent retailers and the customers and communities they
serve.
“We can
confidently say that our independent retailers are promoting and selling more
Energy Star-qualified appliances and consumer electronics than ever before,”
said Doug Schatz, electronics merchandising VP. “Nationwide is committed to
furthering green initiatives and other sustainability programs.”
Schatz said
Nationwide has taken a proactive marketing stance by ensuring that the
extensive marketing tools and materials provided to their retailers include a
strong sustainability and environmentally conscious message. In addition, the
buying group has also been an active voice in the current recycling discussion.
“As new technology
rapidly changes, old technology will need to be recycled,” he said. “Now
more than ever we need to provide ways for our member retailers to recycle old
products in an environmentally compliant fashion.”
Vonage: The VoIP provider will help its hometown of Holmdel, N.J., by accepting CE products at headquarters for recycling.
