This week, Benjamin brought us some tips on “going green” and saving the planet. For instance, unplugging your phone’s charger when it is not in use can save a lot of power. It’s also good to get items from recyclable materials, like laptop bags. Of course, you can also encourage your friends to go green by sharing your products with them, through services like Amazon’s “Green 3” feature.

Benjamin also talked about the DocuPen X series, which is a portable scanner the size of a pen. As part of the “Office in a Pocket” series, the DocuPen helps you have the full functionality of your office with you anywhere you go! It is available at http://planon.com/v2/home.

Additionally, Benjamin brought gave us GreenPeace’s new “Guide to Greener Electronics,” with Nokia at the top, and Nintendo (as always) at the bottom. While every business seems to be gaining points, very few of the leading positions seem to be changing. Fortunately though, in the big picture, technology does seem to be steadily becoming more eco-friendly. See the list at http://www.greenpeace.org/usa/news/toxic-technology-report-card.

Along a similar vein, it seems that GreenPeace is worried about the iPad. With the availability of the Internet, servers are working harder than ever, and GP seems to think that this will cause an increase in climate change.

Benjamin also spoke with Alison from iGo (http://www.igo.com),  a company that makes “smart” and “green” technology. For instance, they have multiple products which reduce how much power things use when they don’t really need to be, like phone chargers which are not in use. For the interview, listen to the audio below.

However, many people remain skeptical of “eco-electronics.” After all, there really are no standards for eco-friendliness. It’s quite easy to slap a label that says such on a product, no matter how bad it may be for the environment. Until this standardization, unfortunately, we don’t have too much of an option. Still, GreenPeace’s list is a good source of information.

With more eco-friendly information, Benjamin interviewed Bill from IOGEAR, a company which has a Road to a Million Trees eco-project. This home theater company offers many green services like recycling electronics, and also encourages people to make ecologically conscious decisions. Check out their site at http://www.iogear.com/.

Many other companies also offer electronic recycling. For instance, Staples, Office Depot, and HP have had recycling programs for years, as has Apple. Others not only collect electronics for recycling, but refurbish and resell them themselves.

In another interview, Benjamin interviewed Alan from Cyber Clean. This small non-toxic Flubber-like cleaning device is great and easy to use, as well as being small and portable.  You can get it here: http://www.cyberclean.tv!

This week Sylvia asked about an Eco-friendly scanner, and Benjamin mentioned the DocuPen which he talked about earlier in the show.