The future's bright, the future's...green

As if there were no end to the Great Green Revolution, gadgets are now no longer safe from an environmental reform.

Surely the most obvious way to minimise your carbon footprint would be to dispense with the sort of gadgets people didn't need five years ago, like hair straighteners and satellite navigation systems? No? OK, probably too obvious.

The latest news of change in the way we pick our latest tech is that retailers are going to begin advertising hardware by its 'Green Index', essentially displaying on the shelf whether the company that makes it has done so in a 'green' way.

According to the BBC, the CEA (Consumer Electronics Association) has uncovered research suggesting this would be favourably adopted by consumers:

"Green is becoming a purchasing factor," said Steve Koening, director of industry analysts at the CEA, "More than half are willing to pay a little more for 'green' and 22% said they were willing to pay up to 15% more for it." BBC Online

But what does this mean for prices and sales figures? Needless to say people are already tightening their belts and all those other terrible clichés, but if the 'staying in is the new going out' mantra catches on, people will increasingly be investing in Blu-Ray and HDTV to get high definition entertainment in their own home.

22% is not even close to a majority, and generally people who are technologically focused aren't necessarily 'green', but that trend is changing as recycling becomes the norm, so much so that it's almost a social faux pas to throw something in the normal bin which could be recycled.

It's only a matter of time before we start to see the long term effects of the eco-concious lifestyle, not on the environment itself (that ship sailed decades ago), but on our high streets.