User:Kcandrsn/sandbox3

Environmental Record

E-waste is something that negatively affects the environment due to improper discard of items such as computers, DVD players, and cell phones. Most e-waste is hazardous to the environment because of its tendency to release toxic materials, such as lead and mercury, into soil and water, which later affects human, animal, and vegetation health. Toshiba, however, has been making efforts to lessen their impact on the environment. They tied for first place in Greenpeace’s seventh edition of its Guide to Greener Electronics. Greenpeace is an environmental protection organization that seeks to rank electronic companies based on their chemical use and recycling programs. Toshiba received 7.7 points out of ten points possible, showing its improvement in recycling and chemical use since the last edition when it was only ranked number six. Toshiba focused on improving their score in Individual Producer Responsibility (IPR), which measures how efficiently a company deals with e-waste that is created from their own products that are thrown away. Toshiba also partnered with China’s Tsinghua University in 2008 in order to form a research facility to focus on energy conservation and the environment. The new Toshiba Energy and Environment Research Center is located in Beijing where forty students from the university will work to research electric power equipment and new technologies that will help stop the global warming process. Through this partnership, Toshiba hopes to develop products that will better protect the environment and save energy in China. This contract between Tsinghua University and Toshiba originally began in October 2007 when they signed an agreement on joint energy and environment research. The projects that they conduct work to reduce car pollution and to create power systems that don’t negatively affect the environment.