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I am looking to replace my laptop. Being in a conscious path of my own, I want to choose a laptop which is a product of good and sustainable procedures. I am saying good because most popular brands like Lenovo have factories in China where the labor conditions are inhumane I have read and I am not sure if they follow proper environmental protocol there.

So my question is, are there any brands of laptop which are in the niche genre of enhancing sustainability and eco-friendliness of their products? For example, one brand I came across is iameco (www.iameco.com).

Look forward to your inputs!

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    I would just like to point out that the greenest laptop you'll ever use is the one you already own. Service your computer well, replace or upgrade components as needed, and install up-to-date software, and you'll save the earth from the chemical and energy wastes and pollution involved in creating your hardware. Obviously, complete upgrades are occasionally required, but I wanted to point out that buying a new "green" computer that you don't actually need isn't the "green" thing to do.
    – pheidlauf
    Commented Aug 6, 2014 at 18:55
  • Hey, I need a new loptop as my current one is near its expiry i feel.
    – user1297
    Commented Aug 7, 2014 at 6:52
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    That's perfectly valid. I just wanted to post that bit of information. Sometimes people get a little over eager at the idea of going green and do more damage in the conversion than they would have if they just used what they already had.
    – pheidlauf
    Commented Aug 7, 2014 at 11:10
  • Hmm.. I guess, installing up-to-date software and using an old laptop are not exactly great bedfellows. Typing this from a 11 year old Compaq Presario V2000 that runs Windows XP, whose display card takes CPU to 100% to crash if I play 1080p videos, LoL. Moreover, nowadays, good antivirus software seem to need their own computer inside a computer, LoL.
    – Whirl Mind
    Commented Oct 24, 2017 at 16:26
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    Best option after just keeping the old one is to buy secondhand. Linux will keep old hardware running quite happily long after Windows has stopped supporting drivers and become to bloated to run.
    – aucuparia
    Commented Dec 2, 2020 at 19:19

8 Answers 8

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There are 3 websites I recommend visiting:

  1. Ethical Consumer

This article scores 15 laptops brands on use of conflict minerals and toxic chemicals, worker rights, carbon reporting and tax avoidance. The manufacturer of Iameco is listed as a bad choice when it comes to use of conflict minerals and worker rights, but they do score well on use of toxic chemicals and tax avoidance.

  1. Greenpeace Guide to Greener Electronics

This report is a bit older (2017) and rates 17 major consumer electronics companies. Greenpeace primarily looked at:

three critical impact areas tied to product design and responsible supply chain management across the electronics sector:

  • Energy: Reduction of greenhouse gases through efficiency and renewable energy
  • Resource Consumption: sustainable design and use of recycled materials
  • Chemicals: Elimination of hazardous chemicals from both the product itself and manufacturing

Labour conditions and other social responsibilities are not included.

  1. Conflict minerals company rankings

This report is also from 2017 and rates the largest electronics companies on their usage of what they call "conflict-free" minerals in their products.

Companies were ranked based on four core categories of criteria:

  1. Conducting Conflict Minerals Sourcing Due Diligence and Reporting
  2. Developing a Conflict-Free Minerals Trade and Sourcing Conflict-Free Minerals from Congo, Particularly Gold
  3. Supporting and Improving Livelihoods for Artisanal Mining Communities in Eastern Congo
  4. Conflict-Free Minerals Advocacy

There is no clear winner in the Ethical Consumer report; companies that score well in 1 category score badly in another so it depends on what you think is most important. In the Greenpeace report the clear winner is Fairphone, but they sell smartphones and not laptops. Best laptop seller is Apple, followed by HP. Apple and HP also score well in the conflict minerals report.

As mentioned by Pheidlauf in their comment above the greenest choice is to continue using your current laptop if you have one. Repairing or upgrading it is a better choice than buying a new one. Older laptops can become very slow if you run Windows, but you could install Linux instead.

Disclaimer: I have no affiliation with any of the sites or brands mentioned in this post (other than owning a Fairphone and making a small donation to Greenpeace every month).

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Make sure your laptop is failing physically before deciding to buy new. It might just be that it's too old and worn to run Windows, but installing Linux might work. The easiest version to use is Linux Mint. See here for a guide: http://moderngreenlife.com/save-an-old-pc-from-landfill-with-linux-mint-xfce/

If you really have to buy one new, then spend a bit of cash and go for something easily upgradeable and relatively future-proof - http://moderngreenlife.com/greenest-computers-in-2015/

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Always try to buy hardware, that is easy to repair and upgrade. This will save you from throwing it away to buy another one, when it breaks, starts to overheat due to dust in the fan or needs more memory, new hard drive etc. IFixit has a ranking of "repairability", that is really useful.

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I thought a new development would be worth mentioning: CrowdSupply hosts a successful crowd-funding campaign for the EOMA68 line of computing devices. EOMA68 is a standard, and the computing devices have the benefit of using easily-replaceable parts to fix or upgrade them, 3D-printable casings, and components that can move from one casing to another (for example, desktop to laptop). The modularity allows for recycling and re-purposing. It uses Free Software, which allows you to modify and adapt it to your needs and does not make it rely on one single company for support (which adds to a device's longevity); it also is a benefit for privacy concerns. The Micro Desktop casing is made of wood, which is a renewable resource.

Related to Free Software: GNU/Linux distributions exist in the thousands, and some of them are specialised to install on older hardware and/or on low-spec computers, which is good for both longevity and power consumption. I have often found that a computer that was struggling with Windows and seemed to be ready to retire got a second life after a fresh install of a GNU/Linux operating system.

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There are plenty of sites selling reconditioned laptops or second hand laptops. Some companies upgrade regularly and this releases perfectly serviceable computers to the public. These surely have better credentials for sustainability than a new eco laptop.

I won't link to sites to avoid providing advertising but I must have purchased three laptops in this fashion.

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It may cost a lot of green, but Macs and Apple are particularly green. Apple has many protocols and material regulations they use in their products. That's one of the reasons they cost so much, is the good materials they source.

I will agree with the labor problem, but they have good materials. See the model you might want, they have PDFs discussing the carbon footprint. This is the report for the model I own.

Also they offer recycling programs in most countries. Regardless of the brand, they will recycle your old computer. And if you recycle your Mac while it has value, they give you store credit- a nice perk. Some apple stores do it, or it's free online.

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    Do you have any references or links for that? On SO sites we prefer answers to be more than just unsupported opinion. For example, Foxconn who assemble a lot of Apple products clearly fall into the "terrible labour practices" category.
    – Móż
    Commented Jul 29, 2014 at 22:08
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    If you look at Apple on the Rankabrand website it does have the highest score of all large manufacturers. However, Apple still only gets 15 points out of 37. The main criticism is that there still is a lot of improvement possible when it comes to "transparency about recycling in its production and clearly increasing the life-cycle of products." On the plus side "Apple is the electronics brand with the highest use of renewable energy (75%)"
    – THelper
    Commented Oct 29, 2014 at 11:19
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I am somewhat biased. The Chromebook lines are extremely low battery usage and typically built from low-end hardware which is cheaper to manufacture and has less environmental impact.

As far as labor practices, the Samsung Chromebooks are assembled in Japan. The Acer Chromebooks are assembled in Taiwan. Both countries have relatively good records for labor practices and fair pay.

Google has extensive initiatives to reduce their GHG impact and has invested something like a billion dollars in solar.

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    Welcome to Sustainable Living! Can you provide more information on your claim that low-end hardware has less environmental impact? Any references for this?
    – THelper
    Commented Aug 6, 2014 at 7:20
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As i read about eco friendly laptop Dell is very eco friendly from their manufacturing to products to their packaging (they fit everything in to minimal boxing and use very little non-recycleable materials) And you get to fully customize the computer ,processor, ram,hard drive and video card very easily

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    Can you please add some references to backup these claims?
    – THelper
    Commented Oct 29, 2014 at 7:55

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