BEAVERTON, Ore. — According to the U.S. Department of Energy, televisions in 2005 consumed more than 4,000 gigawatt-hours of electricity -- costing more than $424 billion in energy bills and untold thousands of tons of greenhouse gas emissions. Although flat-screen units made up only a small portion of this total, flatscreen units can use significant amounts of energy, and with next year's switch to digital television signals, many consumers will upgrade to a flat-screen digital-capable television.

For energy-use reasons as well as human health reasons -- like all electronic products, LCD TVs are often made with highly toxic and non-recyclable materials -- the LCD TV Association last week announced its GreenTV logo program, designed to encourage manufacturers to create the most environmentally friendly televisions possible, and for retailers to promote these screens with a prominent GreenTV logo.

The Association, which is made up of television manufacturing companies including Corning, Dolby, HP, LG, Olevia and others, wants to achieve the dual goals of improving environmental performance among manufacturers and raise awareness among consumers about buying the greenest products.

The first part of the program involves working with major TV vendors to install and promote ambient light sensors, which automatically lower the set's brightness in a dark room by decreasing power to the backlight, saving as much as 30 percent of energy used by the TV, as well as reducing potential eyestrain.

The move comes in advance of the U.S. EPA's planned Energy Star rating for flat-screen TVs, which is expected to launch by the end of 2008. But GreenTV plans to go beyond just energy consumption to include requirements around the use of less-toxic materials in manufacturing and creating TVs with components that are easily reused and recycled.