This afternoon I headed over to the launch of the ASUS Eco Book, “the first functional notebook made out of bamboo.” It’s not made entirely out of bamboo–rather, parts of it are: The lid and the part where you rest your palms are made out of pressed, recycled bamboo, while the keys are made of recycled plastic.

It’s a cute little notebook, and the wood lid looks nice; ASUS is embossed into it with a slightly firebranded look. Unfortunately, it’s not set to come out until sometime next year. As they explained to me at the preview, “Unlike metal or plastic, wood actually burns”–so, as you might imagine, they’re planning on testing the use of wood in a potentially hot laptop pretty carefully. Similarly, wood can warp and break–making bamboo a good choice, as it’s exceptionally fibrous. Still, time spent in pre-production for the Eco Book seems like time well spent.

ASUS is also planning on meeting “at least 50%” of environmentally-friendly standards, so expect the Eco Book to be Energy-Star certified.

ASUS both designs and manufactures its own laptops; as a result, they can really do what they want with the look. (This is the same company that released a Lamborghini-designed laptop). So why don’t they make all of their laptops from recycled plastics? Apparently, certain models–especially for gaming–are prone to get very hot. Recycled plastics can’t be altered to deal with heat as well as fresh, made-to-order plastics.

Do a few wooden lids on laptops make a difference? It’s a start, and recycled bamboo seems like a responsible choice of wood.

ASUS features this “ASUS Green” page on its website–with news items dating all the way back to 2005. Impressive.

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