Eco-friendly displays for digital signage

Eco-friendly displays for digital signage? They exist! And just as well, because the electronic waste dump is bigger than ever.

We tell you below how environmentally friendly displays enable you to limit the ecological footprint of your digital signage. But first let’s zoom in on the extent and impact of e-waste.

Read on!

The impact of electronic waste

In Europe, some 5 million tonnes of electronic waste or e-waste is generated each year. 5… million… tonnes. Much of this waste is not recycled.

The rest of the world produces a great deal of e-waste as well. Indeed, a study by the United Nations University think tank revealed that the volume of electronic waste rose by 63% from 2010 to 2015.

The environmental risks are very high. Firstly, many electronic devices contain harmful substances such as lead, mercury and indium.

But the non-toxic components, for example plastic housings, also pollute our environment. By now we are all familiar with the plastic soup in the Pacific Ocean.

The ecological footprint of digital signage

Most scientific studies and reports focus on equipment for personal use, such as smartphones and household appliances. But of course, screens for professional use also contribute to the electronic waste dump.

And although good procedures have been developed by now for recycling LCD screens, a significant number of these screens are not or incorrectly recycled.

And we haven’t even mentioned energy consumption yet. After all, displays use a lot of energy, especially if they run day and night.

Fortunately, digital signage also has its good side. For example, displays let you adapt advertisements and other messages as often as you want. Consequently, you produce less waste in the form of printed matter.

But it takes more than that to significantly reduce the ecological footprint of digital signage. Fortunately, a number of manufacturers now produce environmentally friendly displays for digital signage.

We explain below how such displays can help you keep your ecological footprint small.

Eco-friendly displays for digital signage

Eco-friendly displays are displays of high quality

A high-quality display lasts longer. This may sound logical, but it is important to bear it in mind. The longer displays last, the less often you have to replace them.

The most fragile part of the display is, for example, the power supply. High-quality, eco-friendly displays have a power supply designed to last at least 50,000 hours or more than 5 years. In the case of displays for consumers, the lifetime of the power supply is only 20,000 hours.

Furthermore, over the years every display is subject to a decrease in brightness, but thanks to smart technology high-quality displays are much less affected by this. This is another reason why such displays have a longer service life.

Thus eco-friendly displays do not end up in an electronic waste dump as quickly. Which means the harmful substances and plastic from your displays are not released into the environment as quickly.

The fact that high-quality displays do not need to be replaced as often also makes them economically attractive. Eco-friendly displays are more expensive, but the difference in purchase price is offset by the longer lifetime.

So eco-friendly displays are good not only for the ecological footprint of your digital signage, but also for your wallet.

Eco-friendly displays use less harmful materials

Of course, we should not be under any illusions: even eco-friendly displays with a longer service life contain a considerable quantity of harmful materials and a lot of plastic. Nevertheless, some manufacturers have already made some progress here.

For instance, many producers no longer use mercury in their displays. Mercury is very toxic and hazardous to the environment. This also makes it easier to recycle displays correctly.

Eco-friendly displays use less energy

Firstly, eco-friendly displays for digital signage use less energy during normal operation.

This is partly due to their backlight, i.e. the light sources that ensure your display is illuminated. Eco-friendly displays normally have an LED backlight, which consumes less energy than other backlight types.

Eco-friendly displays are also designed to dissipate the heat generated during operation as efficiently as possible. A lower temperature ensures not only that the display lasts longer, but also that it uses less energy.

But some displays also have a number of other features that allow even more energy to be saved. For example, they sometimes have sensors that measure the ambient light and reduce the brightness of the screen when circumstances permit.

Another example is a sensor that detects physical activity near the display. If the movement of people is not detected near the display for a certain period, the display switches off automatically until it detects movement again.

Eco-friendly displays allow you to adjust energy consumption and monitor CO₂ emissions

Eco-friendly displays for digital signage often have an ecological or eco mode. In this mode, the displays use less energy than normal, though the downside is that the images are displayed somewhat less brightly.

Some displays also allow you to plan in advance at what times they produce more or less brightness.

Thus you can choose to run your displays at full power at busy times and allow them to switch automatically to eco mode when it is quieter.

Finally, some displays also have an inbuilt meter that measures their energy consumption. This allows you to monitor your CO₂ emissions and adjust the energy consumption of your displays accordingly.

Kimeru opts resolutely for eco-friendly displays for digital signage

Kimeru is doing everything it can to reduce the ecological footprint of digital signage. For this reason, we always use eco-friendly, high-quality displays. And we always program your displays so that they are only switched on at times when you need them.

A nice bonus is that this also helps customers achieve long-term savings through a longer service life and a lower energy bill.

Are you already sold on our digital signage solutions with eco-friendly displays? Then contact us now. We are happy to make time for you and for the environment!