The CE industry and the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) have taken leadership roles in the business’ impact on the environment.
In discussing CE environmental impact and how the issue affects the industry Gary Shapiro, president/CEO of CEA, said the issue “works to our advantage as an industry because if you are home using an electronics product or driving and using a nav product, you are using less fuel, less energy in a variety of ways. I think that companies want to be green, they want to do the right thing, they have employees that want to go green, but more important it is a good business decision. “
He said that today’s products, like current flat-screen TVs, “use a fraction of the energy TVs, CRTs from 20 or 30 years ago. The same is true with computers.”
As for the issue of recycling, Shapiro reiterated the industry’s view is that it would like “one, national recycling standard” vs. attempts by various states and cities to come up with their own different recycling programs “would be difficult to deal with.”
On the issue of energy efficiency consumers need to know, “We have an obligation as an industry to tell consumers how much energy each product uses. Our products typically do not use a lot of energy,” Shapiro said, but an effort should be made to give consumers that type of information.
