16 High-Tech Green Giants

• AMD
A pioneer in reducing data center energy use. From a corporate standpoint, although AMD has reset initiatives related to reducing perfluorocompound (PFC) and energy use, it has been recognized by the Environmental Protection Agency's Green Power initiative for meeting and surpassing its own corporate goal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 40 percent between 2002 and 2007.

• Apple
Was first computer manufacturer to completely switch to LCDs from CRTs; all manufacturing sites have been ISO 14001-certified since 2000. Holds Silver certification for notebooks under the Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool (EPEAT). Offers free recycling of old computers to anyone buying a new Macintosh and has focused on reducing wasteful product packaging.

• Cisco Systems
Implemented programs to save energy, reducing its consumption by 49,000,000 kilowatt hours, or enough power to handle 5,000 homes. Boasts ISO 14001 certification as well as an extensive recycling program for its corporate headquarter sites; offers product take-back and recycling as well.

• EMC
One of the EPA's Climate Leaders, EMC has an on-site wastewater treatment plant that saves its town 3 million gallons of water annually; in December, it introduced the EMC Power Calculator to help partners more accurately gauge data center energy and cooling requirements.

• Hewlett-Packard
Company is on target to recycle 1 billion pounds of hardware and print cartridges by the end of this year; in terms of channel programs, resellers can use HP Financial Services' asset-recovery service, which last year handled disposal and redeployment for 600,000 units of systems and printers in the Americas. The company also is fine-tuning a Dynamic Smart Cooling Solution set for enterprise customers.

• IBM
One of the EPA's Top 25 Green Power partners for the period ended Sept. 22, 2006. From a product standpoint, IBM is especially focused on reverse-engineering products for better future disposal or reuse and on improving energy efficiency for data centers. IBM Asset Recovery Services offers 3 percent fee to referring resellers.

• Intel
Emphasized energy-efficiency improvements for its microprocessor architectures; developed the Ecomark benchmark with Bapco. Also focused on reduction of environmentally problematic materials and improved package design, which has reduced raw materials requirements and shipping densities and cut shipping costs.

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