Acer has been pushing and refining its environmentally focused Vero laptop line for more than a few years now, and its latest Vero 16 ups the eco-friendly ante, at least on paper, with a chassis that the company claims is constructed of 70% post-consumer plastic and a “bio-based oyster shell material.”
Acer aims to make the laptop carbon-neutral throughout its lifecycle and disposal by using as many recycled and eco-friendly materials as possible in the Vero 16, calculating its carbon footprint, and using “high-quality carbon credits to achieve carbon neutrality.”
Obviously, the actual carbon footprint of a laptop will vary greatly depending on how much you use it and what tasks you undertake while using it. Someone who mostly deals in email and basic documents a few hours a day and replaces the laptop in two years will have a vastly different profile than someone who edits video and games several hours every day and keeps the laptop for five or six years.
Plus, the entire concept of carbon offsets for consumer products is debatable. But it’s still nice to see a company offer a product using more recycled and innovative eco-friendly materials. The Vero’s keycaps and power adapter casing are also made of 50% post-consumer recycled plastic. Acer’s press materials further stipulate that at least 3% of the palm rest and bottom cover of the laptop are made up of oyster shell material. Unlike previous Vero laptops, the surface texture this time is noticeably smoother, closer to what you'd expect from a typical laptop.
