What you need to know
- Today is Earth Day, and several tech giants are celebrating.
- Several tech companies have sustainability efforts and other campaigns to help the environment.
- Razer, Logitech, and Microsoft all have environmentally-friendly efforts in place.
Today is Earth Day, and several tech companies celebrated by announcing initiatives to help the planet. Sustainability is a trend among tech giants these days, and that's clearly shown by the moves of several large companies. From investing in environmentally-friendly toilet paper to helping your PC uses less energy, these are the ways tech companies are helping the planet on Earth Day 2021.
Razer keeps going green
Last night, Razer announced the launch of a new $50 million Razer Green Fund as well as a seed investment to The Nurturing Co. An award-winning sustainable startup, The Nurturing Co. is known for creating BAMBOOLOO, a toilet paper made with bamboo.
Since bamboo grows quickly and uses 90% less water and 70% less carbon to produce compared to wood pulp, it's a popular material for environmentally-friendly products.
Razer's partnership will help scale up The Nurturing Co.'s business. Additionally, Razer will use BAMBOOLOO in some of its offices around the world.
The Sneki Snek campaign to help save trees and the Kanagawa Wave Apparel collection made from recovered marine plastics are also part of the "#GoGreenWithRazer" initiative.
Logitech adds transparency to labels
Logitech's latest efforts help people know how much products affect the environment. The Logitech G Pro Wireless Gaming Mouse and six other gaming products will now have carbon impact labels on their packaging. The labels show the products' total carbon footprint in terms of kilograms of carbon dioxide. The G213 Gaming Keyboard, G903 Lightspeed Gaming Mouse, G502 Hero Gaming Mouse, G102 LightSync Gaming Mouse, G304 Lightspeed Gaming Mouse, and G502 Lightspeed Gaming Mouse are the other six products that will feature the labels.
Since December 2019, all gaming products from Logitech have been carbon neutral. In cases where Logitech could not offset the carbon used for a product, it worked with Natural Capital Partners to offset the environmental impact.
Microsoft helps model climate change
Microsoft is involved in several efforts to help the environment, but we'll highlight the most recent ones here.
The Meteorological Office in the UK will use a £1.2 billion supercomputer built by Microsoft to predict weather and climate change. In addition to helping identify areas at risk of natural disasters, the supercomputer will also be used for climate change modeling. The supercomputer's modeling will help the UK hit its target to reach net zero emissions by 2050.
On a related note, a new Eco mode is in testing on Windows 10 that will help you throttle system resources. This mode can limit demanding apps and improve the efficiency of your PC.
Xbox
Microsoft is also hosting Earth Day festivities through Xbox and associated brands. There will be a special Xbox-hosted stream of Minecraft today on Twitch from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. PT that'll inform viewers about Microsoft's and Xbox's sustainability efforts.
In honor of Earth Day, Minecraft: Education Edition is putting a spotlight on its new Radical Recycling lesson. Minecraft and its developer Mojang Studios have donated money to The Nature Conservancy and partnered with the World Wildlife Fund in the past.
U.S.-based Microsoft Rewards members can donate to the two aforementioned organizations, which are both featured on Microsoft Rewards on Xbox. All Rewards donations made to these organizations through the end of April will be matched by Microsoft.
You can learn more about Xbox's Earth Day efforts via the Xbox website.
Not just a single day
While Earth Day is a great time to focus on environmental efforts, companies haven't limited themselves to this specific day. HP's President spoke with our managing editor about HP's sustainability goals last summer. Razer's chief of staff spoke with me earlier this year on how the pandemic inspired the company to go green.
Last year we took a deep dive at several environmental aspects of Earth Day, including which companies are environmentally friendly, how to reduce your carbon footprint, and the best eco-friendly accessories around.
