Three cheers for Lenovo and Fujitsu, two forward-thinking computer companies whose products already meet future energy efficiency regulations.
Lenovo's latest ThinkVision monitors all meet or exceed the US Environmental Protection Agency's proposed Energy Star 5.0 criteria, which go into effect in July 2009.
The company also expects many of its ThinkCentre desktops and ThinkStation workstations to meet the criteria by the spring. Many ThinkPad laptops also use energy efficient technologies like LED backlit displays, low-power processors, and solid state drives.
Most of Fujitsu Siemens Computers' PCs are also ahead of the curve and meet the EU's new directive for low standby power consumption. The regulation, which went into effect on January 5, 2009, has a one year transition period and requires PCs to use less than one watt of standby power.
Nearly 90 percent of Fujitsu's professional PCs in the ESPRIMO C/E/P5730, ESPRIMO E/P7935, and CELSIUS W370 series less than .05 watts of standby power—a rate not required until 2013.
Fujitsu also manufactures a 0 watt monitor, though most of the company's monitors still consume some power during standby.