In my last post, I covered two major brands of laptop – Apple and ASUS. I probably got a little overheated when discussing Apple and deviated from my normal detached scientific voice 😉 So I figured that it would be good idea to ask for your input by having a quick survey on laptop brands. Like the previous survey on Starbucks, I want to know how you feel about these brands purely from a social and environmental point of view. In other words, how many Green Stars do you think they deserve?

First up, it would be nice to get ratings for Apple and ASUS since they were featured in the last post (but feel free to skip if you have no opinion on these brands). By the way, if you’re reading this on the WordPress Reader, the polls don’t load properly (no radio buttons) so please click here to see the post in your web browser.



Lastly, which brand would you rate most highly? I haven’t attempted to include every brand here so please comment below this post if you’d like to nominate a company that’s not listed.

As I mentioned in the last post, this is not an easy topic – it’s probably one of the most complicated decisions from an ethical consumerism perspective. So don’t get too overwhelmed – your choice can be based on just one or two criteria. Anything, for example, from packaging, product longevity, and repairability, to the company’s reputation on labor conditions, conflict minerals, effort to remove hazardous chemicals, use of renewable energy, charitable or social contributions, tax avoidance, etc. (More here on how to rate companies.)



Also, please feel free to share any opinions, insights, or news items that you think are relevant in the comments section. For example, here’s an article from Vice on how Apple, in spite of their highly-publicized robots that can disassemble iPhones, are actually undermining the electronics recycling industry by insisting that their phones and laptops are shredded (rather than allowing parts to be reused).



Also, if you would like to write a Green Stars review of anything, let me know; I have a recurring competition to highlight reviews that others have written (and I’m happy to help too). You can always review your laptop since we’re on that topic! Or, after tackling the quagmire of electronics, you may want to take a break and review something a bit more straightforward 🙂

