Wipro goes green with PCs, laptops

IT major Wipro will become the first domestic company to introduce a range of restriction of hazardous substances-compliant (RoHS) laptops and desktops tomorrow.

It will also be the first time that Greenpeace, an international non-profit organisation, will share a common dais with the company's senior executives at the launch.

Greenpeace had thrown an open challenge to Wipro to end its 'environment-unfriendliness' a couple of years ago and now appears satisfied with the results.

"We had asked them to implement two things "� to manufacture clean products and to take these back once a customer wants to dispose them. They have so far followed their commitments. However, they need to phase out the polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and brominated flame retardants (BFRs) by 2009 and we are sure that they are taking steps in this regard," said Ramapati Kumar of Greenpeace India.

"They do support us and have recognised the environment-friendly initiatives being taken by Wipro," a company spokesperson said.

The range of desktops and laptops that Wipro's personal computing division will be launching adhere to the European Union's RoHS rules that prohibit the use of substances such as lead, mercury, cadmium and hexavalent chromium.

"Although in India, there is no such legislation to phase out RoHS substances in electronic and electrical equipment, we are delighted that Wipro is the first Indian company to follow the practice. We certainly appreciate the leadership taken by Wipro and expect that other industries will follow this," said Vinuta Gopal of Greenpeace India.

The step is an important one in the context of the amount of e-waste that India generates. An IRG Systems (South Asia) survey reveals the total e-waste generated by obsolete or broken-down electronic and electrical equipment in India is around 1,46,180 tonnes a year. This figure does not include waste from electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) imports.

A preliminary investigation by the WEEE Taskforce estimates that total WEEE generation in India is approximately 1,46,000 tonnes a year.

As a part of its Tox Tech campaign, Greenpeace in 2005 issued a list of demands on Wipro, including introduction of a take-back policy, recycling and a policy for phaseout of hazardous materials.

Following this, in September last year, Wipro Infotech, which handles the company's personal computing business, had announced an e-waste disposal service. Customers of Wipro's range of desktops and laptops could dispose of their obsolete PCs, laptops and servers with Wipro across 15 locations in India.

However, unlike many Western countries where the vendors bear the cost of collecting the obsolete products, Wipro's customers were required to pay towards logistics costs.