单选题
The computer industry must overcome a variety of economic, technical, and organizational challenges before green design can become commonplace. For example, Compaq"s Rosenberg said, his company has learned that green engineering is a management issue, as well as a technical issue, and that environmental goals must be supported by a company"s entire culture to be effective. Often, he said, that isn"t the case, but market conditions may force many companies to change. Meanwhile, manufacturers will have to spend time and money to retrain designers, engineers, and assembly workers to perform environmentally friendly computer design and manufacturing. However, the impact might be mitigated somewhat because computer companies generally provide employees with regular retraining anyway to keep up with other new design and manufacturing practices. Since some production processes would have to change to accommodate environmentally friendly computer design, manufacturers who are not already building new plants would have to spend time and money retooling their existing facilities. However, companies could recover their expenses in a few years from reduced expenditures on materials, energy and waste disposal, said Amory Lovins, founder and director of the Rocky Mountain Institute, an environmental think tank. One of the most promising "green" techniques, demanufacturing, currently faces a variety of problems that make it impractical on a large scale in many cases. For example, the cost of labor required to disassemble, sort, and transport recovered components can exceed the price of simple purchasing new components. Researchers are looking for ways to overcome this problem. Finally, to address environmental concerns effectively, manufacturers will need new design processes. Several companies have begun unveiling the type of software tools that could meet this need. For example, EcoBoard—jointly developed by Mentor Graphics and Science Applications International—lets designers of printed circuit boards address cost, performance, and environmental requirements when deciding which materials, parts, and processes to use. In addition, Apple Computer is developing a database management tool, the Apple Product Environmental Specification, which helps its staff design, buy, and manage products based on the company"s environmental policies. Dataquest"s Reynolds doesn"t see strong demand for environmentally friendly computers from individual or business consumers yet. He said the biggest demand at first will be from manufacturers who decide that green design will provide them with economic, marketing, or regulatory advantages. He expected that green design will gradually and quietly become common over the next five years. The Giga Information Group"s Enderle said, " As the customers who specify green PCs become a larger market segment, companies that don"t make them will find themselves at a growing strategic disadvantage. " Therefore, he predicted, environmentally friendly computer design will "permeate the industry over the next two years. "
单选题
It can be inferred in the text that "demanufacturing" includes______.
单选题
The word " them" in the sentence " As the customers who specify green PCs become a larger market segment, companies that don"t make them will find themselves at a growing strategic disadvantage" refers to______.