TECHNOLOGY

The Greening of CES

Is this year's Consumer Electronics Show going to be the largest carbon-neutral event in the world?

By Brian Braiker | Newsweek Web Exclusive

Jan 5, 2008

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Think of the Consumer Electronics Show, the annual high-tech bacchanal in Las Vegas, and what may come to mind are the blinking lights, the hordes of attendees and exhibitors who have traveled millions of miles, a forest's worth of brochures and promotional flyers--waste and more waste. In the past, there wasn't much green awareness at the world's largest gadget fest. Not anymore. This year, expect to see plenty of HDTVs equipped with efficient light-emitting diodes as their primary light source, more products powered by solar panels and even hand cranks. But even more impressive is that CES 2008 will be carbon neutral, making it the largest such event in the world.

The Consumer Electronics Association, which organizes CES, has teamed up with the nonprofit Carbonfund.org to estimate how much carbon is emitted at a tradeshow that typically draws 140,000 attendees from around the world. Then the association ponied up more than $110,000 to purchase carbon offsets that will invest in renewable energy, reforestation and energy efficiency endeavors.

NEWSWEEK's Brian Braiker caught up with Eric Carlson, Carbonfund.org's executive director, about turning the gadget fest green. Excerpts:

NEWSWEEK: When you think of CES you certainly don't picture a particularly Earth friendly event.
Eric Carlson: What CES is doing is they've asked us to inventory the carbon emissions from the show--emissions from the guest rooms, freight, a number of the hotels, the site of the exhibits and the shuttle buses.

And what number did you come up with?
Twenty thousand metric tons of CO2. Most of that is the hotel space: 63 percent is from hotels, 24 percent from freight, 12 percent from the convention center and then the [show space at the] Sands, the Hilton and the Venetian hotels.

So this doesn't include all the air travel of attendees and exhibitors?
CES has provided a link on their Web site and they're encouraging people to offset their travel coming to and from the event. Once you're in Vegas it's basically carbon neutral. [CES organizers are] offsetting their employee travel and all that as well.

How is all this carbon being offset?
One third is through renewable energy, which means things like wind energy and methane. Another third is through reforestation and the other third is through energy efficiency, which is general industrial energy improvements. CES is offsetting 6,500 tons per type.

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Posted By: Larryow @ 01/10/2008 2:33:16 PM

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Posted By: levee4u @ 01/06/2008 11:18:54 PM

Carbon offsets are a great way to reduce your climate impact and help us make clean energy cost less than dirty energy. If you are going to get in a plane, for whatever reason, you have a carbon footprint. If you turn on the lights in your home, heat your home or commute to work on a subway, you have a climate impact. If you eat food or wear clothes or use a computer for work that were made with energy, you have a carbon footprint.
And that gives you choices: do something or do nothing. Carbon offsets empower people to do have a positive impact against global warming.
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Posted By: levee4u @ 01/06/2008 11:09:00 PM

I am glad to see CES showing such leadership on global warming, which threatens all of us. We need to reduce our emissions as much as possible but we also need to work, travel and live, so doing so in as green a way as possible is vital and CES is showing how we can do both. It just makes sense that if you are going to cause emissions from something you need to do, you would reduce emissions somewhere else, like with wind energy or energy efficiency.

I was pumped to read about all the new green products using recycled materials and less energy. We need to attack this from multiple angles.