Cordless tools rock—be they drills, hand-held vacuums, or my kid’s electric toothbrush. Unfortunately, they aren’t so nice to the planet. In fact, charging one of these gadgets can require up to 20x more energy than is actually stored in the battery. Now, take that excess and multiply it by 230 million—the number of chargers currently used in the U.S. See where I’m going? The EPA does and will soon be certifying new earth-friendly chargers via their ENERGY STAR program. These units will be 35% more energy efficient than conventional chargers, saving us about 1 billion kilowatt hours of energy per year—the equivalent emissions of 150,000 cars! Now go hug a tree.
Going Green
