Build Your Own Green PC
Thursday Mar 08, 2007
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Aaron Cohen
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New Green Energy Directory
Monday Mar 05, 2007
Saw this on Hugg today. A new green directory for renewables.
Unfortunately no category for computers and electronics yet - just a catch-all for technology.
There are other sites like this out there. I'm into these kinds of sites, particularly if there are a lot of ratings and reviews. I have also seen several green wiki sites that are even more interesting. Unfortunately I can't find them right now.
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How Many Earths Are There? Answer: One.
Friday Mar 02, 2007
Earth Day I and Earth Day II are coming up sooner than you may think, and with the topic of global warming on everybody's plates these days, you should expect a lot more awareness around these events than in year's past. I encourage everyone to plan to do something that has some positive impact on the environment outside of your everyday routine. For instance, volunteer somewhere, bike to work, install solar panels, insulate your house, etc. More ideas to come.
I want to make sure everyone on the planet is starting to be aware of these two days.
Global Earth Day is March 21st
U.S. Earth Day is April 22nd.
Now to the point of my post:
Curious why there are two Earth Days when there is only one earth?
Time to start a One Earth, One Earth Day campaign?:)
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Going Green - Economist Story
Thursday Mar 01, 2007
The Economist reports today:
THE people, places and things inside Second Life, a thriving online world with millions of residents, may be imaginary—but the power consumption of the computers that maintain the illusion is all too real. Nicholas Carr, a business writer and blogger, recently worked out that each of the 15,000 or so residents logged in at any one time consumes electricity as a result of their activities in the virtual world almost as fast as the average inhabitant of Brazil does in real life. Second Life's residents, Mr Carr concluded, “don't have bodies, but they do leave footprints.”
(Sun is also mentioned in this story.)
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JavaOne's Eco Corner
Thursday Mar 01, 2007
Kudos to Sun and the JavaOne team...
<snip>
The JavaOne Conference is concentrating on being more environmentally friendly. As a conference we have evaluated where we can make a difference in our efforts and have opted to create a significant virtual campaign and while printing we have chosen to use recycled paper and soy-based inks. Onsite at the Moscone Center there is a significant recycling program and attention on the use of electricity. Below is an outline of what is being "saved" as a result of these changes.
Continue to check this page to see other ways we are conserving and our partners are conserving as well.
Not registered yet? Register today.
Innovators: Efficiency Matters (Sierra Club Magazine)
Thursday Mar 01, 2007
This appeared in the March/April issue of Sierra Club Magazine highlighting Sun's role as an eco responsible company. The story is packed with facts and figures, which resulted in a very informative piece.
<SNIP>
IF IT CONSUMES ENERGY, Dave Douglas wants to know about it. Vice president of eco-responsibility for Sun Microsystems, a Silicon Valley company with $13 billion in annual revenue, Douglas oversees all of Sun's environmental efforts. That includes managing the environmental impacts of a 38,000-employee corporation and every one of the products it sells--including computer servers, which run the Web sites, networks, and databases of virtually any corporation or large organization you can imagine. No issue is too small: One of Douglas's recent blog entries fretted over the volume of greenhouse gases emitted in the manufacture and transport of the freebie briefcases he receives at environmental conferences, as well as the planetary effect of traveling to those confabs. "Are sustainability conferences sustainable?" he asked.
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BBC Report: Electronic waste report (6:30) - Featuring Sun Microsystems
Wednesday Feb 28, 2007
Sun was featured a couple of days ago on BBC The World on how the EU Product Takeback mandate (known as WEEE) is being handled by American companies. The program, reported by The World technology correspondent Jason Margolis features how Sun Microsystems is handling it, including soundbytes from a couple of Sun employees including Dave Douglas, Sun's vice president of eco responsibility, and also the manager from a recycling facility that handles the actual recycling of Sun's servers.
According to the program's introduction, Europe's average consumer produces 44 pounds of electronic waste each year the total of which could cover the City of Brussels with up to 3 feet of electronic junk each year. The report is worth the listen. As a sidenote, The World Podcast in general is worth subscribing to.
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February 26, 2007 The World's Technology Correspondent Jason Margolis reports on how
some American electronics companies are responding to the European
Union's tough new standards on electronic waste. The EU rules are
forcing many US companies to design recyclable products.
Electronic waste report (6:30)
How Green is Silicon Valley?
Wednesday Feb 28, 2007
Today there is a "trend story" on Silicon Valley's efforts of being green and responsible, highlighting Sun Microsystems in the story lead -- with Sun's thought leadership with our servers, Open Work program, our approval by Ceres as a "Ceres company", and the naming of Sun's vice president of eco responsibility, David Douglas. (see his informative blog as well).
VALLEY VIEW: Less is more in power struggle
By Chris Nuttall
Published: February 28 2007 10:22 | Last updated: February 28 2007 10:22
How green is Silicon Valley? Well, with some heavy February downpours following one of the driest Januarys on record, positively verdant is the answer right now.
The same could be said for the environmental record of the Valley’s high-tech companies.
Sun Microsystems this month became the first Californian technology company to be approved by Ceres, a national coalition of investors, environmental groups and other organisations, who work with companies to address sustainability issues and global climate change.
Sun has a vice-president of eco responsibility and announced “the industry’s first eco-responsible servers” in December 2005, drawing only as much power as a household light bulb, according to the citation. It also kept nearly 7,000 cars off the road last year by allowing employees to work from home whenever possible, and 95 per cent of its products are being recycled.
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Is Mail Order Eco Friendly?
Monday Feb 26, 2007
An interesting GHG emissions analysis on the current Netflix model of acquiring a movie versus driving to your local movie rental yourself. There are so many different analyses like these that should all be tracked somewhere.
640 tons of CO2 emissions versus 354,000,000?
If accurate, or even slightly accurate, that's a huge difference.
What is more eco-friendly that that? My hunch: Movie downloads services, maybe the "newly legit" BitTorrent service, or stuff like HBO on demand.
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This Time, Gore's Campaign A Winning One
Monday Feb 26, 2007
<snip>
Feb. 26, 2007 — Martin Scorsese may have won Best Director, but Al Gore wore the crown in Hollywood last night.
Former Vice President Al Gore (L) applauds Davis Guggenheim after
winning an Oscar for his documentary feature 'An Inconvenient Truth' at
the 79th Annual Academy Awards in Hollywood, California, February 25,
2007. (Gary Hershorn/Reuters)
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Turn GHG into Limestone?
Thursday Feb 22, 2007
At least one company claims they've found a way to convert greenhouse gas (GHG) into useful materials within a "bioreactor". How? Simple: Make genetically engineered E. coli bacteria which will then produce an enzyme (carbon anhydrase) that will convert carbon dioxide (CO2) into bicarbonate. Otherwise known as baking soda. Or limestone.
I stumbled upon the article in Technology Review titled "Capturing Carbon with Enzymes, A New Process Turns Greenhouse Gas Into Useful Materials" tonight while doing my standard before-shuteye hunt for blogworthy green nerd news. (Thanks for sharing this, JiltedCitizen on Hugg.)
<snip>
A new way to capture carbon dioxide from smokestacks produces a raw material that can be sequestered underground or turned into substances such as baking soda, chalk, or limestone. CO2 Solution, of Quebec City, Canada, has already tested its process on a small municipal incinerator and an Alcoa aluminum smelter. Its scientists are now working with power-plant equipment giant Babcock and Wilcox on ways to adapt the technology to a coal-fired generating station.
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Lights On for New LED Bulbs?
Thursday Feb 22, 2007
Thanks Andrew for sharing these LED lights spotted on Thinkgeek, to continue the conversation on my "Lights Out for Old Bulbs" post.
<snip>
LED Light Bulbs also have these great features.
- Long life - up to 10 years
- Low power consumption (about 1/30th of a standard bulb)
- Output: Vivid (31 Lumens), Vivid Plus (60 Lumens), Spotlight (120 Lumens)
- Great in a directional lamp for reading, mood or porch light
- These bulbs are generally not intended as a complete replacement for incandescents - these bulbs are lower output but more focused
- 120V bulbs
- Two-year warranty
BBC On Offsetting
Wednesday Feb 21, 2007
Here's a very informative article on offsetting courtesy of the BBC. Oh, and while you're hanging out online at the BBC, here's their interactive guide to climate change.
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Estimating Total Power Consumption in Servers in the U.S. and the World
Tuesday Feb 20, 2007
I had been having a lot of trouble finding the original AMD/Jonathan Koomey report that caused the flurry of press/blog coverage (including my own entry from last week as well as other Sun bloggers).
For those with the same trouble, here it is.
Thanks to Nick Carr for linking to the actual source and for Isabel Wang for linkpointing to Nick's article.
Another interesting and very related link (thanks to Lori) is here now that we're all linkhappy this Tuesday late afternoon.
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Lights Out For Old Bulbs?
Tuesday Feb 20, 2007
Could standard light bulbs be banned and people forced to buy eco bulbs?
I saw this article on Google News without even being logged in to give me personal news stories, so this is obviously a "glowing" topic getting lots of press. Here are a few snips from this New Zealand article.
Australia: Making eco bulbs a standard by 2010
California: also moved to phase out incandescent bulbs by 2012 under
a proposed "How Many Legislators Does it Take to Change a Lightbulb
Act".
The "Eco bulb" claims to use one-fifth of the energy, last up to nine years and save $100 in electricity costs.
New bulbs in homes were already saving 60,000 to 70,000 tonnes of
carbon dioxide a year and "you could add a zero to that if the whole
country switched over".
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