RoHS is European thing that covers several metals and chemicals that have been addressed by other regulations in the US. Aside from advertising Green Washing, I don't really see any need to single out this regulation for bragging purposes. CONEG metals rules, for example, why applying to packaging, pretty much cover exposure to the major heavy metals and include a couple that aren't RoHS. Why not brag on this? There are lots of European, Canadian, US, Japanese, Australian, Chinese, etc. environmental/health regulations--why single out this one?
I can't imagine why a reputable manufacturer would be using any of those phthalate plasticizers in a consumer product now days. Bad actors there.
Dell has published its latest corporate responsibility report today. While I know you may be interested in what the company is doing from an operations standpoint to improve its stance toward the environment, what you really care about from a green-tech perspective is how the company is redesigning its products. So here are some of its latest achievements, as well as what you can expect in the months/years to come.
So far …
- All current laptop displays now use LEDs, which eliminates mercury.
- More than 7.2 million pounds of the plastics in Dell’s OptiPlex systems and monitors came from post-consumer recycled plastics. (That translates into roughly 263 million water bottles.
- In fiscal year 2010, Dell has more than 135 products listed in the Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool (EPEAT) database.
What you can expect …
- An effort to make laptop and desktop products up to 25 percent more energy-efficient by the end of 2010, compared with 2008
- A focus on the ability of server-managed power management to cut up to 40,000 in carbon dioxide emissions for Dell customers between fiscal year 2009 and fiscal year 2012
- A re-energized initiative to cut brominated flame retardants (BFRs), polyvinyl chloride (PVC) plastics and chlorinated flame retardants from all new Dell personal computing products by 2011. That’s a reset goal, and the company is leaving itself room for error. The report states: “Achieving this goal is contingent on when the industry identifies acceptable alternatives that will lower product health and environmental impacts without compromising product performance.”
- The proactive phaseout of materials that will be targeted in the next update of the restriction on hazardous substances (RoHS): hexabromocyclododecane, bis(2-ethylhexyl)phthalate, butyl benzyl phthalate and dibutyl phthalate.
