"We have taken the most important steps in our continuing efforts to help become a more green company: changing packaging and reducing the energy used by our products," said, Marna Bullard, vice president of world wide marketing. "Linksys is conscious of the environment, actively participating in waste take-back programs and reducing hazardous wastes in our products. We are now redoubling our efforts with the new packaging and have received ENERGY STAR ratings on select routers, modems, gateways and adapters."

What is so "green" about the packaging?

1. Linksys has removed the "sleeve" (outer packaging that contains all the printing and information about the product). Instead of having a "sleeve," Linksys plans to print all the information on the box itself, eliminating the extra "sleeve" material.
2. Linksys also reduced the size of the box its products come in.
3. All packaging and internal documents are printed on paper that is made from 80% recycled content and we now use vegetable and soy inks.
4. Internal packaging is transitioning to more recyclable material.
5. The use of plastic bags is being eliminated where possible.

The new eco-friendlier packaging and materials provides more than 40% reduction in waste materials compared to the previously offered packaging. Linksys believes this is estimated to be equal to the following based on the sources we quote:

• Saving 790 acres of pine or fir forest trees (per year)
• 1.3 million trees planted in a 5 ft by 5 ft space configuration
• Taking 3,000 cars off the road (per year)

The eco-friendlier packaging will be available this month throughout select retailers such as Best Buy, Circuit City and Wal-Mart and online retailers on the Wireless-N Routers (skus: WRT310N, WRT160N, WRT610N, WRT110, WRT54GS).

Bullard said, "This change is driven by our responsibility to better how we manage the environmental impact of our products and operations. Our overall use of paper is significantly less than what we were using but the cost of using recyclable products and bio-degradable inks is about the same costs as what we were using. We hope our efforts will encourage other companies to take a look at their packaging and do what they can to reduce resource usage and waste."

How does Linksys comply with Energy Saving Standards?

Linksys received ENERGY STAR certification on more than thirty of its consumer networking products including wired and wireless routers, gateways, game adapters and modems. This means these products meet strict energy efficiency guidelines set by the Environmental Protection Agency and the US Department of Energy.

The energy consumed by the power adapters has been cut almost in half. For example, a router used 4.6 watts of power and a new router with one of the ENERGY STAR certified power adapters can use as little as 2.6 watts of power. This equates to a power reduction estimation between 14MW and 17MW (based on Linksys' top 10 shipping product volume, which is approximately 11,000,000 units). That is enough power to light 14,000 houses for one full day.

The ENERGY STAR certified products will be rolling out this month. Customers should look for the ENERGY STAR logo on the packaging of the products.

Linksys will continue to evaluate its product lines to implement better practices for our environment through design, materials and logistics.

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