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GreenPoints is NOT…

greenpoints-raster-1210Since announcing that we’d be launching the AV industry’s Green Products Rating System, dubbed GreenPoints, later this year, we’ve fielded hundreds of emails asking all sorts of questions about it. And, I wish I had the time to write all of you back individually so, in an attempt to reach out to you and address some of the most frequently asked questions about GreenPoints, I’ve added this column this month.

Although I can’t tell you exactly what GreenPoints will be (the specific industry groups involved have not had a chance to weigh in on all that they’d like to see us add to GreenPoints), I can tell you a few things what GreenPoints will NOT be:

Green-Washing: There are a lot of marketing claims being made by manufacturers out there to make their products seem like green-worthy technology. And, some are and some aren’t. One thing I can tell you for sure, we won’t allow so-called “green-washing” where some claim of green value is made by a product that, well, simply isn’t true.

Stand-by-Power-Hogs: Although only a few consumer stand-by power-draw standards exist to qualify a product as truly energy-efficient and green, we’ll use what’s out there and apply it to our market. For example, a less than 1-watt power draw in stand-by seems reasonable to us for most AV products out there, but there are cases where you simply need a little more juice to run the product via the network. But, you’ll have a tough time convincing us a projector needs to draw 10 watts in stand-by.

Eco-Mode: If your projector doesn’t have one, how can it be considered “green”? This is a must-have feature and we’ll be unlikely to give a high points-rating any projection display using a light source other than LED that doesn’t have some sort of eco-mode. Don’t agree? Make a good case — we’ll listen.

Can it Really be Recycled?: Some manufacturers are making recycling claims out there that simply aren’t true. We’ll verify each and every one of them since recyclability is a must-have component of nearly any “green” AV product – these things simply don’t last forever.

This is just a beginning, and, let’s face it, not all products need to be “green.” But, there’s a marketing-war revving up out there over in the GreenAV battlefield and we hope to help prevent a repeat of the ridiculously over-spec’d and over-hyped ANSI lumens debacle.

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