How do you rate the general awareness of eco-friendly and energy-saving products and technologies in the region?
I feel the awareness among the consumers is constantly increasing – both in the region and globally. Continuous efforts by governments, municipalities and non-government organisations, users that are more concerned about energy-saving technologies and vendors who respond to these needs are contributing to this development.
As the global leader for the networking industry, we are doing business in many countries across the world, consequently we feel obliged to take a lead in recognising our corporate social responsibility as an international entity.
Clearly, not only are we developing technologies that help save power, reduce heat dissipation and thus lead to fewer emissions and a smaller carbon footprint, but we are also committed to the protection of the environment way earlier in the manufacturing process of our products.
At D-Link, we aspire to keep the impact on global warming to a definite minimum. We consider this more than just a responsibility, we believe, it’s a necessity. Our numerous memberships and certifications with several eco-conscious organisations and programs demonstrate this fact and are all part of D-Link’s green design.
Could you give us more details of D-Link’s green design?
We have been pursuing a ‘green agenda’ since 1999. To name a few components of the agenda, D-Link has been the first networking manufacturer to gain the ISO 14001 standard certificate. All our products comply with RoHS (Restriction of Hazardous Substances) and the WEEE (Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment) directives, which cater to the proper disposal and recycling of products. D-Link is also an ENERGY STAR partner, and works to create energy-efficient products and practices. This summer, 127 of our networking products have earned the Energy star label and we are constantly working on improving our products in order to have gradually most of our products certified. D-Link is moreover the first company in the networking industry to earn a full 5-star TÜV Rheinland STAR certification, whose spirit is Sustainability, Trustworthiness, Accountability, and Responsibility (STAR). This certification testifies that D-Link meets requirements to satisfy public concerns regarding the internal and external environments. Internally, we are planning to further increase the percentage of recyclable material in our product packaging.
Saving energy has become crucial in all areas of life – globally, and every sector can play a vital role in combating climate change. Often, it's the little innovations that make the biggest differences. Most people don't think about the power consumption of their modems and routers. But for those who do, we have been working on providing our customers with solutions that comply with their needs for energy-efficient equipment.
What’s the range of ‘Green products’ you have in the market?
We launched our D-Link Green products since December 2007. The implemented power-saving features work in two ways. Firstly, by monitoring the activity of the Ethernet interface, our D-Link Green switches and routers automatically detect if the ports are active and put those in a “sleep mode”, where there is no data transmission obvious – thus saving energy on these particular ports.
D-Link Green products are furthermore able to detect the actual cable length and adjust the power usage accordingly. For example, if the cable length is 20 m, the switch interface requires less power for the data transfer as opposed to the amount of power required for a cable length of 100 m – which is the default length applied by the majority of networking vendors.
As a result, D-Link Green products help saving up to 44 per cent power, some of them even up to 80 per cent depending on the networking scenario.
Most of our products have been certified with the Energy Star label designed to promote and recognise energy-efficiency in our products. The majority of D-Link products are equipped with the latest nano-chips and use ecologically intelligent chip sets, too.
Our Green products don’t sacrifice in performance and functionality, since these smart technologies incorporated into D-Link Green operate on levels that are not connected to the speed or amount of the data being transmitted as such.
We are constantly working on improving our products in order to serve our increasingly eco-conscious customers and support the preservation of a healthy planet better.
We are proud of the fact, that D-Link has led the “green computing” initiative since our company’s founding in 1986, and is on the forefront of developing environmentally and socially responsible products. You’ll find more details at the D-Link Green microsite, http://green.dlink.com.tw
