How Many Trees Did Your Computer Cost?

Via technologies, the company who made my little firewall machine is in steep compettition with chip giants Intel and AMD for market share and it hasn't done very well.

However, one area they've always been very good at has been the low-wattage boards like the hardware in my firewall. While a standard desktop computer drinks down about 60-80W just sitting there doing nothing, my Via box uses ¼ of that.

Via has since come out with a new benchmark for those of us interested in the amounts of carbon we spew into the air as a result of our computer purchases. They call it Tree Mark™:

To underscore the importance of the environmental impact of computing, VIA is introducing a new benchmark, TreeMark™, intended as a useful tool for organisations looking to balance environmental impact in their computing purchase decisions. The methodology behind the calculations, validated by independent consulting firm Best Foot Forward Ltd, take into account average use of a PC and derive the amount of carbon dioxide created as a by-product of the electricity generated to power the processor over its operational lifetime – and, thus, the number of trees required to offset that amount in the environment.

The math works out like this. If you're using an Intel or AMD based machine, the chip in the computer you're reading this site with will put about 26 trees worth of carbon into the air over the course of its lifetime. A Via chip on the other hand needs only 4 trees to make up for the CO2.

I guess I know from where I'm getting my next computer.