Life cycle assessment; an approach to environmentally friendly PCs

Life cycle assessment (LCA) for personal computers (PCs) is examined as an approach towards developing environmentally friendly PCs. We conducted a life cycle impact analysis for a desktop PC and a notebook PC, and found several factors that contribute to high environmental loads. The environmental loads of PCs in the use and production stages were the largest among all the life cycle stages. Reducing the power consumption, adopting LCDs, using plastic materials in the housing, and improving the PWB manufacturing are all effective ways to reduce the environmental loads