Say hello to the BytePac. It’s a hard disk caddy made entirely out of 100% recyclable material (yes, cardboard), but before you jump to any rash, mocking conclusions – as half the office did when it arrived – let me explain how it works.

Pull off the outer sleeve and open the box, and inside there’s room for a 3.5in hard disk (or 2.5in with the included card “adapter”) to sit snugly. At the connection end the box has a flap through which you plug the combined power-and-SATA connector, the other end of which goes to both the mains and to either an eSATA or USB port on your PC. That’s all you need to get the drive running, then simply fold back a ventilation flap on the rear of the box, which doubles up as a stand to prop the drive up off the desk.

This video shows it off neatly. For a cardboard box, it’s actually rather elegant.

The question you might be asking is: why? The BytePac is billed as an alternative to external hard disks, but it’s not as robust as proper external drives, nor is it particularly thin and light. Few people will buy a disk specifically to use in a BytePac when far sleeker solutions are so common.

However, it’s best viewed as an attractive and simple archiving system. Once you’ve bought your first kit with its power box and set of cables (three empty boxes, one cable set, £34), you can simply buy more empty boxes (around £4 each) as and when you need them. Put an old disk in each, sensibly label the side of the box and stack them on a shelf as you would a collection of books. When you need some old data, just pull out the relevant BytePac and plug the cable in – the disk itself need never see the light of day.

You may already have your own archiving setup, and you may be wary of entrusting your valuable data to a cardboard box. But the BytePac is a cheap way to archive a large number of disks, it’s environmentally friendly, and it won’t look like it’s worth nicking if the burglars come round.

I’ve got one here that I’ll be playing with this week, and several people in the office have already made their minds up one way or the other, but I’m interested to hear what you think. Is the BytePac a neat archiving innovation or a piece of cheap tat?

Quite right, Joe, and apologies for the lack of fanfare. This series of questions and answers should cover most areas, but if not then feel free to comment.

Is the EcoDisc really eco friendly? And why is it so much lighter?

The main reason for the lightness is that it’s a single layer of polycarbonate plastic, instead of the two bonded layers found in a conventional DVD5 disc (DVD5 denotes a single-sided, single-layer DVD with a 4.7GB capacity, and is the most common type).

According to EcoDisc, that means manufacturing one disc produces 52% less carbon dioxide than normal, and it also means the discs are fully recyclable as they don’t contain the non-biodegradable resin needed to bond the two halves of a normal DVD5 disc together.

As you can see from the “EcoDisc Carbon Calculator” above, the total amount of carbon dioxide “saved” per year, by PC Pro alone, equates to over 30,000kg.

Aha! If it’s half the size of a DVD, does that mean it only holds half the data?

Nope. Just like a normal DVD5 disc, its capacity is 4.7GB. To quote EcoDisc, the “second half of a conventional DVD5 is only a dummy, which does not contain any data”.

Will it work with my PC?

As much as we can guarantee anything in this world, yes. You can download a PDF with the full testing results of over 400 DVD players and drives, but I’ll save you some time: the only drive to fail was the Sony DVP-S315, and that’s a domestic DVD player.

So why is PC Pro doing this? To save the planet or save money?

Arguably, we should have done it some time ago, but we were still cautious about the EcoDisc’s compatibility. Those concerns have now been fully answered.

Does it save us money? Yes: while I can’t reveal exactly how much we pay per DVD5 or EcoDisc, the latter works out at 0.5p per disc cheaper, which isn’t to be sneezed at over the course of a year.

What about CDs? And going without a disc altogether?

EcoDisc does produce a CD version, but right now it’s only suitable for audio. A CD-ROM is in the works and when it’s released we’ll evaluate just how reliable it is.

Regarding removing the disc altogether – it’s something we do look at on a regular basis, but the simple and unavoidable fact is that people do like to own media containing the software.

From my point of view, then, it still makes sense to supply the magazine with a cover disc. That may yet change; as I say, it’s a question we tackle every single year.

Where can I find an issue with an EcoDisc?

Every DVD edition of PC Pro includes the EcoDisc now, whether you’re a subscriber or you buy the magazine on the newsstand.

We switched to the EcoDisc as of issue 190, pictured here.

Amid all of the targets, awards and earnest promises, though, I detected plenty of of cynicism. Not from the journalists, but from the employees giving the presentation. Apparently, Kyocera launched its “environmental messaging” back in 1992 but, apparently, back then “no-one gave a crap” – so the scheme was left to fade away.

We were then told that it was revived in 2001 as environmental issues became more important – or, as a Kyocera representative told us, “before green crap was fashionable”. It’s an odd attitude to take, especially since the firm’s executives would surely say that green policies are central to its success.

Then again, maybe the representative was right: the green credentials are only good when it comes to selling products to hemp-wearing hippies who just happen to need printers and, in a sense, the promises and certificates are just another strand of Kyocera’s marketing strategy.

Printer firms aren’t alone in this. Every big company now has a green strategy and, most of the time, they’re keen to show them off: the HP Eco Solutions page touts the firm’s 50-year history of green initiatives, and Sony’s Corporate Social Responsibility page is currently emblazoned with special projects and its “Road to Zero” global environmental plan.

It’s not just IT companies, either: BMW brought one of its F1 cars to last year’s PGA Championship golf, but this year its gas-guzzler was replaced with an exhibition detailing its various green successes.

So, are these genuine attempts to make the world a better place or a cynical strand of marketing from the same executives who, fifteen years ago, simply wouldn’t have bothered with this “green crap”?

And, more importantly, is it working – and would you make a buying decision based on a manufacturer’s green policies? Let me know in the comments.

Kyocera’s Helen Hopper has responded to this blog in our comment section below.

The Dexim P-Flip is a superbly designed extra battery cum desktop dock for the iPhone. When you’re at your desk, you plonk your iPhone into the P-Flip cradle and connect it to your computer via USB cable. This both synchronises your iPhone with the PC, and charges the P-Flip’s battery.

Then when you’re ready to head out into the big wide world, you flip the battery pack flat against the surface of the phone and benefit from up to eight hours of extra talktime or 15 more hours of video playback (Dexim’s figures, not mine).

What’s more, the device doubles as a stand for the iPhone (both upright and landscape), allowing you to watch video without having to awkwardly cradle the handset in your palm – although the screen might be a little too perpendicular to the surface to make for comfortable long-term viewing.  It’s reasonably good value too, costing £40 from Play.com.

The Regen ReNu might cost more up front, but it could help save on those iPhone power bills. It’s a  solar panel charger –admittedly about as much use a cat flap on a submarine in Britain’s current climate.

This elegant-looking panel needs about six hours of direct sunlight to fully replenish its charge, according to the company spokesman I chatted to in Las Vegas. It then takes another hour-and-a-half to charge up the iPhone – around about the same time it takes to top up the iPhone’s battery from an ordinary plug socket.

It might not be the most practical option in a British winter, but left on a windowsill all day during the spring and summer months, it could well provide enough juice for the daily charge, and its striking looks make it a conversation starter in more ways than one. The solar panel costs $199 from Regenliving.com, with the optional iPod Dock costing an extra $89.

I can say “like everyone else” because this year my local council has gone for the recycling thing, in a big way – separate bins for different materials, carefully labelled in exactly the place that you can’t read if you arrive with armfuls of junk. I can see people wandering up to the recycling pen, and hear the discussions about which bin should receive which piece of trash.

Lately the council have responded to pressure and delivered a little dumpster, fractionally less smelly than the others, labelled “small electricals”, since this category evidently produced the highest levels of recycling confusion: “well, it’s plastic on the case, but there’s some metal on the inside…”

It has taken four pick-ups before this latest innovation contained anything other than “home user” inkjet printers. I think this is one of the great hidden crimes of our industry – I strongly doubt there’s one printer in those four dumpster-loads which is more than five years old. I’m not entirely sure how many households this dumpster is serving – it could be as high as 3,000 flats -  but four dumpster-loads of printers is (at a guess) maybe 80 units.

By contrast, I’ve been getting a client sorted out with some bigger printers. Not because they print a lot, but more because it’s too much hassle to set up four different types of printer driver across 12 machines and then battle with the irritating tricks that bottom-end printers can pull on you when you try to share them. So I ordered these guys four Xerox Phaser 8400 printers – monster corporate full-colour machines that print by melting solid wax blocks for a very classy middle-resolution finish, which is ideal so long as your printed output isn’t on shiny labels or subject to lots of flexing (the wax “ink” can crack off the paper).

These are, on first sight, the antithesis of a “green” printer. They have to be left powered on, in a background heater mode, or else they consume about 20% of a wax stick in an arcane nozzle-cleaning mode. On the other hand, all that heavy metal and wax-handling technology is refurbishable. Parts are swappable between the four machines, so users can print to a working unit while the refurbishment is under way.

I realise that having four ex-corporate networked paper mills is hardly a usable solution if you only want 10 pages a week (or even a month), but perhaps the Lesson of the Dumpster is that it’s easier to be green the larger scale you get. In a move which I am hoping to see many more companies follow this year, my client has said that any member of staff can print personal documents on their pool of big refurbished printers, with “honesty boxes” left by the printers for them to drop some change into: a much better “green” approach, than investing in a personal printer with a short life-cycle.

He certainly gave the most impressive demonstration of video conferencing I’ve yet seen. We were in a small meeting room with room for around eight people, and sitting at one end was a 40in LCD TV.

By dialling a colleague from the on-screen interface – note that no computer was needed – the display was filled with a 720p high-definition video stream of their Tweed-suited sales director. He was based in Brighton, we in a central London office.

Using the array microphone built into the camera at either end of the connection, we were able to speak at normal meeting volume and hear clearly what he had to say.

In other words, he was part of the meeting. Interjecting, arguing, making bad jokes. For people who work remotely this could be what gives them a lifeline back into the main office.

Although I began the meeting quite cynical about the need for a high-definition image, it does seem to make a difference. Certainly, when I compare it to the attempted long-range discussion I recently had with a web designer over a webcam, there’s no comparison (we gave up in frustration after a couple of minutes).

It also compares well to MegaMeeting, a company that recently attempted to demonstrate to me its software-based web conferencing software. This is a dial-in service, and all you need to do is connect to the internet while wearing a headset and with a webcam active.

It didn’t go well. Turns out that my travel headset wasn’t up to the job (despite the fact it works well with Skype), and in the end we had to resort to me watching the demonstrator talk while speaking to him directly on the phone.

There is some potential here – mainly for talking to hundreds of people simultaneously – but it was far from an enjoyable experience. And though I asked for login details to the service to test it properly, so far none have been forthcoming.

LifeSize comes at a greater cost, of course. While Craig Malloy was keen to point out that this works over a standard broadband connection (a claim we hope to put to the test soon), you still need to buy the hardware.

The key product is called LifeSize Passport, which goes on sale next month, and Malloy boldly hopes the Passport will one day replace the voice-conferencing devices to be found in most boardrooms. And it’s possible.

For £1,829 exc VAT, you get all the hardware pictured above: the Passport device itself; a fixed-zoom camera with built-in microphone; and a remote control. The Passport is a simple, compact device designed to be carried around, and includes an HDMI output, Ethernet port, power connector, a USB port, and the connector for the camera to hook into (you can upgrade to a pan, tilt, zoom camera for an extra £730 exc VAT).

The drawback is that you need two; or at least a product of similar quality at the other end.

While LifeSize makes a big play out of Passport’s support for Skype, the fact remains that at launch Skype support only extends to audio calls – so you’ll be able to hear anyone who’s connecting via Skype, and they’ll be able to see you, but there won’t be the full interaction a meeting really needs.

Malloy pointed out that “there’s more and more probability that people will have video conferencing systems. It’s not this quality [the HD stream we were enjoying] but it’s not uncommon for people to have a video communication system.”

Even Malloy is realistic about the fact video conferencing is no substitute for the physical world, noting the fact he was in the room at that very moment. “We’re not saying get rid of your mobile phone and the airplane, but it can supplement them.”

We’re trying to convince LifeSize to lend us two Passport systems so we can perform a month-long test: we’ll put one unit in our central London boardroom, and another down in the PC Pro Enterprise Labs (coincidentally also in Brighton).

In the meantime, I’d like to know what use businesses – and in particular the small-to-medium sized businesses LifeSize is targeting – would put the Passport to. I can see a strong need for branch offices to keep in touch with head office, but would you replace the audio-conferencing kit that’s probably already in place in your boardroom?

And is this really a money-saving, “green” device that will help you do business more efficiently? Or is video conferencing just a niche for big corporates with more money than sense? Answers on a postcard. Or failing that, via the comments below.

Sharp, I’m told, declared themselves “world eco champions”, and Toshiba dedicated a number of slides in their press conference about the fact they were aiming to “improve our eco-efficiency by ten times” by 2050.

And there’s another thing all these companies have in common too. They not only want you to replace existing products, they want you to actually own more electronic products. Can these two competing demands ever live with each other?

Naturally, all of them would say yes. “We want to sell more devices but we also want to achieve less energy consumed as a result,” declared Thomas Teckentrup, the general manager of Toshiba Europe at yesterday’s press briefing.

If it is to happen, it will almost certainly follow the blueprint set out by Sony Ericsson. Its representative on the eco round table had the most to say, citing the example of its “green phone” (the C901 GreenHeart) that is also a mainstream model.

He explained they’d cut the extra weight from excess packaging and manuals from 550g in the previous equivalent phone to only 42g, due to factors such as putting the manual on the phone rather than on paper.

And the key is that the green phone in question is a mainstream model that sells in huge volume. As the Sony Ericsson rep pointed out, there’s no point in a company claiming they’re green just because they have one niche model with amazing green credentials.

Sony Ericsson also intends to roll out the lessons it’s learned to the rest of its line, so whichever new phone you buy from the company in the future you can be pretty darn sure it’s eco-friendly.

Not for nothing is Sony Ericsson one of the leaders in Greenpeace’s Greener Electronics chart.

But then where is Sony? A distinctly mid-table position right now, despite the fact it was keen to point out that it minimises the waste produced from its products, and that it has some incredibly low-power TVs on sale.

And, as I pointed out to the panel, how can Sony claim to be encouraging the long-term use of its products – and in particular its laptops – when it charges so much for the one consumable, the battery?

The answer was the verbal equivalent to shrugged shoulders, and perhaps I’m wrong/naïve/foolish to suggest it (feel free to abuse me in the comments below), but to me it summarises in one tiny detail the battle between greater profit and sales and the need for companies to be green.

(If I was a more cynical man, I’d rephrase that last point to “the need for companies to be seen to be green”.)

To be fair to Sony, it’s published a corporate social responsibility report since 1994, so it can’t be accused of bandwagon jumping. It also faces big financial pressure, with the company making an operating loss of 228 billion Yen in the 2008/09 financial year.

Bearing all this in mind, it’s surely too optimistic to expect companies to cut their environmental waste unless there is governmental pressure. Much as I hate to suggest we hand over yet more power to the EU, without that sort of backing all this green talk is likely to remain hot air for some time to come.

It’s through this that I happen to know about an excellent site called walkit.com, which describes itself as an urban route planner. The key difference, as it ever-so-subtly hints with its name, is that all its routes are for people who want to walk rather than drive or take public transport.

Back in 2007 when we were all sitting in a room judging who should win the various awards, walkit.com only covered a couple of major cities, but it’s now expanded to include Aberdeen, Birmingham, Bristol, Cambridge, Derby, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Leeds, London, Manchester, Newcastle & Gateshead, Norwich, Sheffield and Wigan Borough.

And if you live or work in any of those cities, I strongly recommend you take a look. Rather than jump in a cab or suffer the trauma that is public transport, walkit.com will offer you either direct or less busy routes to take you to your destination.

For instance, the picture above shows a suggested route from the PC Pro offices to a press conference I’m going to in a couple of weeks. I could travel by some convoluted route via tube or bus, but I’ll probably get there quicker if I walk – walkit.com estimates 38 minutes, but I reckon that by barging fellow pedestrians out of the way in my usual polite manner I can get that down to half an hour.

And, more importantly for my 36-year-old waistline, following the advice will help me burn a few calories while doing some exercise (handily, walkit.com estimates how many calories you’ll use). Yet another benefit is that a little less CO2 will be generated as a result; walkit.com again estimates how much.

Naturally, you can also print out the turn-by-turn directions, if your conscience will allow you to put up with the carbon footprint this entails.

I’d be interested to hear what other people think about this site. Have you even heard about it before? Would you ever use it? Have you used it? And if so, has it changed the way you travel around the city?

The BBC report quotes the DWP as suggesting that the Second Life setup could help with carbon emissions reduction, presumably by allowing people to “meet” virtually and share sundry 3D structures. This was something I spotted when I first looked at it in 2006, though I must say I now regret the email I wrote saying it was clearly a step-change in technology and a strategic platform, a bit like the Global Positioning System, and it was a serious issue that Europe didn’t have one of these to ourselves.

Of course, the reality has proved rather different, with early promising uses such as streaming video and audio, and the curious world of “machinima” (using virtual systems to re-enact or originate cinema-on-machines, kind of like live storyboarding) being largely kyboshed by agonising growing pains.

By which I mean: spend any time on this thing and you see – it runs like a dog. I know, all together now: “that’s because you only use nasty old PCs, Steve”. Ah, but for this, I have decently fast machinery – I can tell what’s fast and what’s not. And SL is painful. Either it’s the simulators themselves, or it’s an ISP traffic-shaping a consumer connection, or it’s the disaster known as being popular – get more than 100 people in one place in SL and things start to crawl along.

All of which should make the DWP’s multi-thousand-pound project an expensive and pointless white elephant. Add to that the thoroughly dubious morals of a vast segment of the places and people you will find on SL, and it starts to sound like a lose-lose proposition. Except! SL has genuinely fostered an open source community. Even if the most prominent early product of that is the special-purpose front-end for sadomasochists (see This * ), later efforts have included open-source servers for running your own virtual asteroid, if not a full-sized virtual world, on your own local server.

That changes the nature of the DWP investment rather considerably, and should have given the BBC article quite a different spin. Which is why I thought I’d counter it, here…

(* you didn’t really think I’d link to that here, did you?)

No, the green IT area is spartan, quiet, and there’s really not a lot going on. Fujitsu Siemens has the best-populated stand, showing off its zero-watt PCs and low-energy servers. IBM has an area devoted to energy optimisation (again in servers); Sun has something similar, backed up by a static display of a low-energy vehicle it sponsors but isn’t related to anything very much; and Hitachi has what you’d be hard pushed to describe as a stand since it didn’t seem to be showing anything at all when I was there.

And that’s pretty much it, really. It all seemed uncomfortably as if lip service is being paid to green IT, but very little else.

In other halls – especially the Future Parc dedicated to research – there were plenty of solar cells in evidence but it’s telling that few of these are currently in commercial products. One of the rare commercial uses of solar panels I did see was from a company called Sunload, which was showing off a really rather cool set of bags, luggage and foldaway devices using flexible solar panels. Bags with solar cells in the lid flaps are pretty much the best way I’ve seen so far to make use of solar energy in everyday life. The products aren’t distributed in the UK but I’ll be trying to coax some stuff out of them to look at anyway.

And, of course, there was the biodegradable flash drive, which while not likely to cause the world to stop turning on its axis – and also not really biodegradable – was at least innovative.

But it’s a bit of a poor show, all things considered.