Leading manufacturers play the green card at IFA

 

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By Reuters

Posted on 4 Sep 2007 at 09:42

Green is the buzzword at Europe's biggest consumer electronics show, with a host of leading manufacturers displaying their environmentally-friendly credentials.

Exhibitors at IFA including Philips, Sharp and Fujitsu-Siemens are trying to entice consumers with lower power use, more environmentally friendly production methods and recyclable goods.

Philips, Europe's biggest consumer electronics maker, uses a self-certified green logo on its more energy-efficient products. The company says it will be making new energy-management targets public in the next few weeks.

And Sharp, the world's biggest maker of solar cells, says its new LCD televisions will offer "unprecedented" environmental performance.

Fujitsu-Siemens has launched its first green personal computers for consumers, the Scaleo Green PC, which boasts energy efficiency, extremely quiet operation and a halogen-free motherboard, which will go on sale this autumn.

The company cites a Greenpeace study that puts environmental concerns third on buyers' lists of priorities after value for money and brand.

Whether the environmentally-friendly features will be enough to tempt customers to part with their cash is the big question.