Toshiba pledges CO2 target

IFA 2009: "We want to produce more devices, but consume less energy as a result"

3 September 2009 17:59 GMT / By Duncan Geere

Toshiba, in its IFA2009 press conference, has pledged to cut its CO2 emissions by 120 million tonnes before 2025. The company says that it wants environmental measures to "take a very very strong role" in the company's future.

Consumer electronics plays a larger role in global CO2 emissions than many people realise, because much of the manufacturing process is based in the Far East. Even though your television might have a hard-off power button, saving electricity in your home, it's still been flown or boated across the world from a factory belching pollution into the sky.

Toshiba has partially addressed that problem - saying that it wants to reduce the physical quantity of raw materials in its products - making televisions 30% lighter - and making those materials easy to dispose of.

It's also got the usual bevy of energy saving options on its products - local dimming and the aforementioned hard-off power switches on televisions and eco settings for laptops.

Greenpeace currently ranks Toshiba midrange in its rankings of tech companies - seventh in its list behind competitors like LG, Sony, Philips and Samsung. Perhaps this new announcement will help it move slowly up the list.

Full tags

Eco, Toshiba, Laptops, Televisions, Mobile phones, Hardware, IFA2009