I am in Red Sox land (Boston) today. While turning the pages of skymall catalog on my long coast to coast flight, I found that the green products are slowing penetrating the product catalogs. But here is the reality, every single product charges a much higher premium for using alternative energy. Many products are over half more expensive than their traditional energy counterparts. Moreover, the energy savings from these products is a hogwash. Most replacement products use such a low amount of energy that the effective savings are perhaps negative. Many of these products last less than 2 years increasing the cost of overall ownership for the buyers. A typical solar powered device has a battery in it making it very hard to decompose. The manufacturers are cashing in the mad rush for green at the expense of your want for eco-friendly products.
In my opinion, a three point standard should evolve for measuring the eco-friendliness of a product and the entire company. The standard should define the three key measurements -
1. Power used to manufacture the device
2. Power consumed by the device operationally if it was not powered by Alternative technology
3. Eco-friendliness of the device's by-products when sent for disposal
This will help consumers to decide the merit of the green products and services.This will also raise the stakes for manufacturers so they would not just rush for manufacturing products which are not actually eco-friendly.
Ciao!
