The Sony Vaio series is a breed of notebook computers created by Sony, which has been running since their return to making computer products, since 1996. There are many models of the VAIO since it's release, but we are going to be concentrating mostly on the TZ series, which has been greatly praised by greenpeace since it's entry to their survey in March 2008.

Sony is currently laying in fifth place on greenpeace's large company's rankings with a score of 5.5, rising up 2 places since november 2008. They have been around the same mark since the start of greenpeace's surveys and have recently increased in the rankings due to their energy efficiency plans and eWaste plans for recycling old sony products and industry waste. Greenpeace still feel that sony have a lot of work to do to reach the 10/10 mark, although they are definitely improving with the targets they set themselves every five year interval.

The Sony Vaio TZ11 has been voted by greenpeace as the 'most green notebook on the market'. This is a guide to the environmental impact of the product, although not a definite truth as there were a number of large companies that failed to enter a product or missed the deadline date, such as Asus, Apple and microsoft etc. The Vaio TZ won in the ranking with a result of 5.29 compared to the HP2710p with 4.82 out of 10. The TZ was noticed for being the only notebook surveyed to have completely avoided the use of beryllium in its creation. There were also three other sections where Sony managed to reduce toxic products which were in its cabling , where the use of PVC was removed, in its circuitry, where the use of brominated flame retardants were no longer found and through its display. The display used a new white LED backlight, which did not depend of the use of mercury.

Sony appear to be leading the battle on the toxic product reduction and this seems to be where they have based most of their green targets. If we look at the other catagories in the greenpeace survey, we can note that the top of the PDA and mobile phone lists were Sony Ericsson products which had won due to the chemical criteria. They all were PVC, BFR and beryllium free in creation. Other companies had made efforts towards these fields although they had not completely the full criteria. For example Toshiba's notebook (which came 3rd in the survey) had BFR-free ciruit boards.

Recently Sony seems to have concentrated on gaining more points in the energy catagory for the VAIO. The VAIO TZ already has made steps towards energy efficiency and the reduction of CO2 emissions through product use with various changes in it's product creation. It currently features a low power LED backlight, along with an implementation of numerous power saving design techniques (eg. A function where unused functions are shut down) and a low voltage LCD display. Each of these design aspects have led to the battery life of the product maxing out at roughly 18 hours, which is likely to please buyers of the notebook. The average usage battery life is around 13/14 hours compared to many notebooks which only have around 5 hours. Consumers will recognise that this product is not only making a change to their environment, but also very efficient for their usage. Sony have released this statement showing their desire to stick by this design principle,

"we have committed to “reducing CO2 emissions from product use by lowering the annual energy consumption of major Sony products.”"

They have noted that there are three areas in which the company can reduce energy in the production of their products. These are during; manufacturing, transportation and product usage. The largest of this is during product usage, which is the only area which sony cannot physically control. The only action that they could take to reduce this is in the product design, which is what they have looked at a lot in the creation of the VAIO products.

Sony are currently in the process of meeting the requirements of CO2 emissions in the three stages of the supply chain mentioned above. Already having mentioned the usage details from the VAIO example, the SCSS (Sony's supply chain solutions) group have switched the transport methods and optimised loading to use a reduced environmentally unfriendly method. They have set targets to also reduce fuel consumption during transportation. Solar energy has been investigated by Sony, and they had looked at a dye-sensitized solar cell, with which the manufacturing process will have a low environmental impact. This will dramatically boost Sony's bid for lower CO2 emissions and better energy efficiency in future products.

Overall, we can see that the Sony VAIO is not just a wanted product due to it's image and features, it is also a heavy competitor for the future products which display an environmentally friendly nature. Sony is striving to meet expectations that the company and SCSS set, and with the technology that they hold, they should be able to meet them. People will be able to see that with the VAIO TZ, they are not only getting a notebook that runs smoothly and will remain active for hours of use, they are also contributing to a global reduction of CO2 emissions and lower energy costs.

Works Cited:

Greenpeace. (2009, March). How The Companies Line Up. Retrieved May 21, 2009, from Greenpeace: http://www.greenpeace.org/international/campaigns/toxics/electronics/how-the-companies-line-up

Greenpeace International. (2008, March). Searching... For Green Electronics. Retrieved May 21, 2009, from Greenpeace: http://www.greenpeace.org/raw/content/international/press/reports/searching-for-green-electronics.pdf

Greenpeace. (2009, March). Sony - Guide to Greener Electronics. Retrieved May 21, 2009, from Greenpeace: http://www.greenpeace.org/raw/content/international/press/reports/sony-guide-to-greener-electronics-11.pdf

Larson, E. (2008, March 05). Sony Vaio tops Greenpeace survey. Retrieved May 21, 2009, from Personal Computer World: http://www.pcw.co.uk/personal-computer-world/news/2211179/sony-wins-green-accolades

Material Handling Management. (2009). Sony Supply Chain Solution, Inc. Retrieved May 21, 2009, from Material Handling Management: http://www.totalsupplychain.com/nID/6835/MHM/pNum=1&CaH=1/viewStory.asp

Sony Corporation. (2008, March 31). CSR Report 2008. Retrieved May 21, 2009, from Sony: http://www.sony.net/SonyInfo/Environment/issues/report/2008/pdf/CSR2008E_all.pdf

Sony. (2008, September 5). For The Sustainable Environment. Retrieved May 21, 2009, from Sony: http://www.sony.net/SonyInfo/Environment/activities/theme/index.html