In a nutshell: MSI is the latest company to go green by removing something that’s long come with its products: paper materials. The change only applies to its motherboards right now, and covers manuals, fliers, catalogs, and reward programs.
As most people are aware, PC hardware usually comes packaged with a ton of papers, from competitions and membership programs to product registration cards and leaflets for related items. The majority of it ends up being thrown away, so MSI has decided to remove all this material from its motherboard boxes to save energy, reduce carbon, and “protect trees.”
“MSI is committed to mitigating the environmental impacts of its business activities through green production and supply chain management,” MSI writes on its site. “We have invested actively into improving energy consumption, waste reduction and chemical substance control in response to climate change risk.”
The most noticeable absence will no doubt be the manuals—but will they really be that much of a miss, especially when the majority of these booklets is made up of the same instructions in various languages?
For those times when consulting the manual is necessary, MSI is directing customers to its website where they can search for the documents. The company is also including a QR code on the motherboard box that will direct to a digital version of the manual.
As was the case with Apple and Samsung when they removed the included chargers from their phones for environmental reasons, some are pointing out that the savings MSI will make from dropping the paper materials are unlikely to be passed onto the consumer.
Don’t be surprised if MSI’s long list of other products, including graphics cards, also start shipping sans manuals. We can expect other hardware companies to eventually follow suit and go paperless, too.