With its power-hungry gadgets and thousands of delegates flying in from across the world, an enormous technology conference hardly seems an appropriate venue for championing green issues. But the group behind the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas last week is trying to demonstrate that technology may be about saving the environment rather than damaging it. Ecological concerns With ecological concerns playing an increasing part in the decisions made by shoppers, plenty of the 2,700 companies showing off their latest technologies seemed desperate to claim any sort of green credentials. However, some companies at CES really were attempting to produce innovative technologies to reduce damage to the environment. Later this year the Japanese manufacturer Fujitsu will launch a laptop in its home market which is moving away from plastic: instead, the Biblo PC has a case made partially from corn oil. According to the company this means it is biodegradable, although scientists have questioned whether it will make any difference since the corn-based plastic is mixed with a petroleum-based material. Consumer demand Using corn reduces the amount of carbon dioxide emitted during its creation by 15 per cent, but it does nothing to minimise the toxicity of the computer's internal workings. Fujitsu says the development is a response to consumer demand. Seen by many inside the technology industry as the green successor to flat-screen televisions, the Organic LED screen uses less power than normal TVs and delivers a better picture. Full production The tiny pockets of material inside the screen produce their own light. Although OLED screens are small due to the difficulty of making them, Korean manufacturer Samsung showed off a 32-inch model at CES and says it will go into full production by 2010. Japanese rival Sony has an 11-inch model on the market