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I found that the Kindle 2's power brick is very efficient compared to other device's. Someone cared to use a better power brick at Amazon.
The Kindle 2 case uses less plastic and more metal than the original device.
It doesn't have that environmentally complex synthetic rubber pad on the back making it more earth friendly.
Changing the device to not have a user replaceable battery means users won't change out the very environmentally unfriendly battery casually and ensures proper recycling of the battery when it is changed.
Removal of the expansion card reduced the use of plastic and metals including less use of rare metals such as gold. Plus many causal users never needed expansion so this expenditure of precious metals and plastic was a waste.
Reduction in size and weight of packaging materials saves on packaging materials and carbon foot print in transportation to the consumer. The Kindle 2 is about 1 pound lighter to ship.
Not including a bundled cover means less waste since a cover is very personal and not a "one size fits everyone" kind of item. Many of these covers were discarded.
They cleverly used the e-ink display to display the unpacking instructions so the screen protector used during shipping doesn't have ink on it, making it environmentally cleaner to recycle the plastic sheet.
Instead of using a proprietary power connector/brick the Kindle 2 uses a standard connector for charging allowing travelers to carry common components to be shared with several devices (Verizon Blackberry Storm uses same charger.) And possibly leave the brick behind and charge from computing device (Sony Vaio P).
But I have to say that the Kindle 2, like all ebook readers, carries one large environmental negative: reduction in use of paper.
Paper is actually a good thing for our carbon footprint. Much carbon is sequestered in each sheet of paper and the use of less paper means more carbon must be sequestered by other means. Books are an excellent carbon sequestration device since their value to the owner generally means the owner will safely store them thus keeping the carbon sequestered for long periods of time.
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