- 3 -
iameco
™
overview
Modern computer devices are made up of hundreds of different
components, incorporating a host of toxic chemicals. The dominant toxic
components contain brominated flame retardants, PCBs, and heavy
metals like lead, cadmium and mercury, etc. These are extremely toxic
even in the smallest quantities. These chemicals can accumulate in the
environment and damage our health and the health of our children.
MicroPro
™
are committed through the
iameco
™
range of environmentally
friendly computers to phasing out these contaminants. We believe that
computer manufacturers must take responsibility for the full
environmental impact of their products to bring the e-waste crisis under
control by designing clean electronics with longer life spans that are safe
and eas to recycle and will not expose workers and the environment to hazardous chemicals.
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We believe our
iameco
™
range of computers will be the third brand of the future. Standard PCs, Apple Mac
and
iameco
™
for the environmentally friendly computers. We have designed
iameco
™
using techniques from
environmental science, and its entire lifecycle has been examined to minimise ecological burdens. We
have minimised the use of hazardous materials such as lead, mercury, chromium, brominated flame
retardants and plastics.
iameco
™
takes a holistic view of recycling and waste minimization. We apply this
philosophy from the outset, beginning in the design stage by creating compact, ultra-efficient products
that use high recycling-value materials wherever possible.
Fashion and greed for new computers with higher performance demanding more speed is fuelling a
growing consumption of computers. The waste mountain of electronic goods is growing rapidly. In 1997 a
standard computer had a lifespan of 7 years now it is as little as 2 years.
iameco
™
computers believe in a
cleaner greener approach to the whole eco design of computers resulting in a much longer lifespan
averaging between 5 and 7 years. We achieve this through the usage of futuristic updateable,
upgradeable, reusable, recyclable modular design components.
To date we have concentrated on the futuristic design approach to computers. We have pioneered and
integrated the following approaches to waste and energy reduction, e.g.
Reduction of the multitude of plastics used for case parts. The current use of aluminium, wood and
renewable wood casings as reusable materials
Reduction of noise emissions (DB)
Reduction of energy consumption
Reduction in the size of PCs to use less material
Minimisation of hazardous materials
U
se of recyclable packaging
In 1999 the company received support from Enterprise Ireland under the Environmentally Superior
Products (ESP) Programme, which gave it access to external advise on the further greening of the
iameco
™
design. Since then we have been supported by the “EU LIFE programme” and “CGPP” IRL (Cleaner
Greener Production Program), which has enabled us to bring these products to the market.
The study concluded that the design had many technical and commercially feasible environmental
attributes and compared favourably with the European Eco-label specification for PCs. The
iameco
™
design
is based on extending the operational life of the hardware via an upgradeable chassis with modular
interface port design, using raw materials and assembly techniques to increase the recycling and reuse
options at end of life and increasing energy efficiency.
iameco
™
is unique in reflecting best practise and
state-of-the-art technology with respect to energy efficient and environmentally aware design.
To sum it up:
“i am eco”
Are you?
Paul
Maher
Anne
Galligan
Supported by:
