Golden Grid Gadgets Going Green

Electronics are trending “green” with California leading the way by proposing a mandatory energy restriction on TVs to be sold in the Golden State.

The green aspects of consumer electronics have entered a new paradigm and could be enacted as early as this year, according to the California Energy Commission.

The law would affect TVs manufactured after 2011. And, as of Jan. 1, 2013, California power consumption must be reduced by over 30 percent.

The mandates basically follow the Energy Star guidelines, described at Wikipedia as international standards for energy efficient consumer products. Energy Star began as a U.S. government program under the Clinton administration in 1992.

California wants to change the guidelines from goals to mandatory requirements, but the effort has some TV makers nervous because they’re not sure how it will affect their bottom line.

For state-of-the art technologies such as OLED, AM OLED, 3D TV, and Internet TV, these requirements probably are satisfied. For other technologies, any additional electronics can be engineered to be disabled and the measurements performed in 2D mode.

Looking forward, the 2010 Greener Gadgets Conference will be held next month in New York City. The conference, now in its third year according to greenergadget.com, demonstrates companies’ leadership and commitment to sustainability, green practices and innovation.

The gathering connects leaders in the consumer electronics industry with thought leaders from the design and green business worlds, engineers, students, press and investors in a setting in the media center of New York City. Major corporations throughout the world attend the conference, born out of the Consumer Electronics Association.

The 2010 event will benchmark plans for an entire green lifestyle beginning in the place you start every day. A panel session entitled “Green Living Begins at Home” will outline how a green home also can be a smart home, whether it’s in an urban or rural location, on or off the power grid.

Keynoters will include Yves Behar, founder of the San Francisco design studio, fuseproject, and Robert Fabricant, vice president of creative for frog design inc.

Behar’s studio was responsible for the design of the world’s first $100 “XO” laptop for “One Laptop Per Child,” a project aimed at bringing education and technology to the world’s poorest children. Fabricant leads frog’s Design for Impact initiatives that focus on using mobile technologies to increase access to information and accelerate positive behavior change.

The conference closes with the incredibly popular Greener Gadgets Design Competition, highlighting a new class of sustainable product concepts, from those that create their own energy to those that minimize the need for any electricity.

We believe this conference and others like it will continue to prosper throughout the world as the search intensifies for “cleaner electrons” with the aim of transforming them from black to green.

Note: This post came to We Mean Business from TechMan who monitors industry trends.