Are These 14 Gadgets Green, or “Green?”

I couldn't afford it but I'd like to have the Ferrari 599 GTB Fiorano.

To call something "green" (i.e. eco-friendly) because it uses recycled / biodegradable parts, while neglecting the waste of the manufacturing/distribution process (especially given the fact that the item itself is simply unnecessary) is short-sighted at best.

Actually, Looptworks utilized pre-consumer (never before used) materials that were bound for the dumpster, or even incinerator (gasp!).Looptworks ends up utilizing that neglected waste (an estimated 60,000lbs per week) to make its products and tries wholeheartedly not to create anything new in any of its company's endeavors (which cuts down manufacturing pollution). Check out how they make business cards and their shipping methods @ http://looptworks.com/blog/2010/01 [...] ess-cards/

Well, there is a reason it is in quotation marks. By highlighting these products, Tom's Guide does not endorse the manufacturing process. However, if we have a a choice between two products--all other things being equal, including quality and manufacturing process--we'll choose the one made with recycled/biodegradable parts.

Do you have a favorite go-to source for information on manufacturing/distribution sources for gadgets and other products? Please share it with us.

Thanks,
Rachel Rosmarin
Editor, Tom's Guide

I am a lucky man, to have an extremely frugal wife, who recycles EVERYTHING, or at least tries. As much as I enjoy technology, I'm also old enough to remember when things were a lot simpler. It just seems that we (Americans in particular {don't get me wrong, I'm very happy to be one}) can extremely wasteful in so many things we do. It is refreshing to go through life with Sonia, without any desire to "keep up with the Joneses," or whatever it is that drives so many people to buy things they aren't going to use and will end up cycling through garage sales until they end up in a landfill.

The shower pebble is a perfect example of a complete waste of natural resources and energy. If you want to have a quicker shower, you don't need a light to tell you when to get out.

Also the 25MPG Ferrari is a complete work of hypocrosy. Lots of old cars will do 30-40 MPG without the toxic battery. My motorbike does 70-80mpg and doesn't boast about it's "green" credentials and VW has the Blue Motion which averaged 79MPG on a road test (topgear)....

calling something "green" just because it's made out of wood is ridiculous. Is cutting down forests for an iPad hoder eco-friendly? Not to mention production processes.

I appreciate it when people voice their concerns about production processes. But I wonder: In what ways could the production process on a wooden case be more harmful than one on a plastic case?

Thanks for your comment.

^^ One example would be if the wood for the case was hardwood from a rainforest vs a less harmful plastic, such as the plastic that can be made from plaint oil

That would be very cool. I bet any company that used that type of plastic would tout it in marketing. The iPhone case from BioSerie in this article does just that, right?

The Vers iPad Case materials, from the Vers site: "The Eucalyptus and Pine wood stock chosen for MDF core of Vers comes from locally sourced and managed plantations near our factory; any trees that are harvested are replanted. Since it’s the wood fiber we’re after, the entire tree is used: trunk, roots, bark, branches and twigs – nothing goes to waste. The wood fiber production system is geared to handle smaller diameter stock typically less than 5 years old; no old growth, threatened or endangered wood materials are used anywhere in our process. Even our furniture-grade veneers are selected from among the most commonly available agricultural wood species on the planet. In the end, the wood used in a Vers system replaces 80% of what could have been plastic. When selected with care, wood is the most renewable material available."

I take 4 of the Ferrari's. One for each direction so I never have to back up.