Being green, says Vicky Agorrilla, country general manager of Lenovo Philippines (LP), allows the company to demonstrate that it cares for the environment, “which is increasingly important in terms of public perception. With the many environmental problems facing the world today, being green is, indeed,important to our many customers and stakeholders, (just as it’s) it’s important to us, too.”

But more than a business move to please customers, “as a socially responsible company, LP is committed to investing in global and local communities for meaningful impact. This is not only good for our business. It’s the right thing to do,” Agorrilla says. “Global climate change is profoundly influencing social and economic sustainable development. Other information technology (IT) companies, particularly personal computer (PC) manufacturers should also take this issue seriously. LP sees coping with climate change as an important part of its global responsibility, and attaches great importance to the energy efficiency of products.”

In recognition of the “need for control of the greenhouse gases for which the industry is responsible,” LP has actually set a voluntary target of improving its operational carbon efficiency by 10% by 2012 (based upon 2007 emissions), since the company is “committed to exhibit leadership in environmental affairs in all of its business activities.”

Primarily, though, greening for LP is focused in “exceptionally engineered personal computers,” and “in terms of environment friendly products, we are proud to inform you that LP today offers numerous products registered to the Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool (EPEAT), with the majority of them being silver-rated – and important (indication of how green) our products are, since the EPEAT addresses environmental aspects, such as material selection, design for end of life, energy usage, packaging, and others,” says Agorrilla.

“We also continue to raise the bar in delivering energy-efficient and environmentally-responsible PC products, with most of our desktops and notebooks meeting the US EPA’s and US Department of Energy’s Energy Star labeling program, at ES3 level, meaning (our computers use less electricity than computers without enabling power management features.”

Among others, the company only recently introduced the EPEAT Goldrated ThinkPad X300, which features energy-efficient technologies like solid state drives, LED backlighting, and lowvoltage processors; and the ThinkCentre M57/57p that is the first PC in the industry to be Greenguard certified (aside from using recycled materials from consumer plastics).

The company is also “leading the way,” as Agorrilla puts it, in the current wave of environmental display improvements, being the first company to win an EPEAT Gold certification for a computer monitor with L175 and L197 wide monitors, which reduce power consumption by 25% to 35%, an improvement still unmatched by any other manufacturer. In the same vein, its ThinkCentre A61e desktop runs on a 45-watt desktop processor, meaning the processor uses less energy than the typical 65W or 95W desktop processors, which makes ThinkCentre A61e significantly energy efficient.

“As energy prices rise, we see a growing concern and preference for environment friendly products. Many organizations consider performance, reliability, as well as energy efficiency to help make purchasing decisions. We are glad to provide organizations and users an extensive menu of environmentallyresponsible, energy-efficient technology choices,” Agorrilla says, adding the company’s environmentally responsible packaging solutions (100% of their packaging materials are recyclable), as yet another notable green effort.

Even with corporate social responsibility (CSR) efforts, many companies expect to get something back in return, but “we do not expect to recover a return of investments per se in our efforts to green our operations, manufacturing, and products,” Agorrilla says. “The customer should not have to pay extra for technology that does not harm the environment. We are doing this because it is the right thing to do.”

Agorrilla adds: “We will always be committed to environmental leadership in all of our business activities, from our operations to the design of our products and use of our technology. We are proud of Lenovo commitment to employing development and manufacturing processes that do not adversely affect the environment; that minimize waste, prevent air, water and other pollution; and minimize health and safety risks, including the safe and responsible disposal of waste. Our green policy highlights an internal operational commitment to conserve energy, use energy efficiently, and give preference to renewable over nonrenewable energy sources when feasible.”

For more information, visit www.lenovo.com.