Posted by Dan on June 27th, 2007
Some people call journalists a cynical bunch. But when you consider some of the stuff that’s sent our way, it’s easy to see why.
This week it was an invite from computer firm HP (well a PR agency actually). They asked if I’d like to fly to their ‘Power & Cooling’ event that takes place in Sophia Antipolis (Nice) on 10 July.
The email said: “Paul Perez, Vice President, Storage, Networks and Infrastructure, will be coming over from the US to discuss what HP is doing in the battle to help businesses become more energy efficient. The HP PR team will take care of booking your travel, transfer and accommodation to and from Sophia Antipolis.”
Now pardon me – I’m not a beardy eco warrior, but I am trying to cull the number of air miles I clock up and I thought HP was taking a ‘green’ stand.
Surely flying people in from all over the world goes a little against the nature of cutting carbon emissions …not least of all to attend an energy-efficiency event.
A further note - HP boasts a very swish video conferencing technology called Halo Collaboration Studio that it could use very easily here. It would have been great opportunity to big up green credentials and the product but HP seems to have snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.
It’s all very well to bang on about how green you are as a company, but unless the technology industry (which blows out 2% of world’s CO2) really walks the walk, it’s going to be a long time before anything changes.
Update: HP has just contacted me to say it is offsetting the CO2 from all the flights by making a donation. So that’s alright then…?
Posted by Greenbang on June 27th, 2007
In China, more than 1800 newly-produced electronic information products have to be marked with pollution control symbols before entering the market.
This comes under China’s new regulation Administrative Measure on the Control of Pollution Caused by Electronic Information Products, which has been brought into effect since this March.“Electronic Information Products” includes telephones, fax machines, microwave ovens, cell phones and other 1800 types of electronic products, the regulation states.
Orange stands for hazardous substances, and the number inside the circle represents the environment-friendly use period.
Green means this is an environment-friendly electronic-information product.
Pictures from Ministry of Information Industry in China.
This regulation is called “the restriction of the use of certain hazardous substances in electrical and electronic equipment”, or RoH’s. It aims to prevent pollution from wasted electronic products, and also reduce the impact the European Union RoHS Directive has on the China’s domestic electronic industry.
The EU’s RoHS Directive came into force on 1 July 2006. This Directive bans selling on the EU market new electrical equipment containing more than agreed levels of lead, cadmium, mercury, hexavalent chromium, polybrominated biphenyl (PBB) and polybrominated diphenyl ether (PBDE) flame retardants, according toRoHS’s official website.
Posted by Dan on June 26th, 2007
Could you power your office with your own wind turbines? It might sound daft but IF wind technology becomes easier to install (planning permission is relaxed etc) and more efficient, you could start to see more set ups like this.
Next time you take a walk around Kensington, try and look at seventh storey of Tollard House, 377 Kensington High Street, London. You’ll see four wind turbines powering someone’s house appliances - well contributing anyway.
Kassem Shakarchi did this to his flat in a bid to become carbon negative.
The Green Company led the installation. Ben Cosh, MD of the company, says:
“Mr Shakarchi’s electricity bill was so large that the maximum possible generation capacity was installed. We are at the maximum height allowed by planning permission and if you look to the SW – the prevailing wind direction - there is a great fetch and an acceptable fetch from the other directions.
“This means that the turbines receive reasonably smooth air flow. One of the great frustrations is balancing the need to get the turbines as high as possible to catch the clearer wind with the requirements of planning regulations.
“In London we get disrupted air flow due to the buildings which does cause some wind turbulence but with four turbines we have increased opportunity to make the best of the wind flow.
“Due to this disrupted air flow there is no point placing wind turbines on low level buildings in cities so we recommend alternative technologies such as solar panels and heat pumps.”
Not bad lads - not bad.
Posted by Dan on June 26th, 2007
There’s a lot of these green surveys flying around at the moment – partly because I suspect they’ve no news but people want put a point across and get their name out.
My bet is that this situation will be very different in six months.
Here’s the cut down version of the press release from the Green Technology Initiative.
Nearly 70% of UK businesses have no target to reduce their carbon footprint research by the Green Technology Initiative reveals today, yet over 90% of respondents to the Green IT Awareness Survey think that tackling the carbon footprint of IT systems is core to an overall green strategy.
Seventy nine percent do not link power costs to hardware spend or IT budgets.
“What we are doing in IT today is not sustainable,” says Dan Sutherland, founder and acting chair of the Green Technology Initiative. “Systems efficiency is the cheapest and easiest way of reducing the carbon footprint of the work you do and delivered properly it has the benefit of bringing down costs across the board.” …
Posted by willster on June 25th, 2007
Some 16 percent of small-business owners in the south west of England say their companies are adopting solar heating, and 11 percent said the same for wind turbines.
The report, launched as part of Cornwall’s 2007 Business Week, found lesser-know technologies, such as photo voltaic cells or ground source heat pumps are also being investigated by tens of thousands of UK SMEs.
Lucy Thom, Inward Investment Manager for Cornwall Pure Business, said: “The renewable energy sector is already worth approximately £34 million to the regional economy. In the South West, it is estimated the sector will support between 14,000 and 17,000 full time employees by 2020.”
While 73 percent of managers surveyed agreed that it is important for businesses to be more environmentally sustainable, 72 percent perceived cost as a barrier to adopting green technologies. Some 45 percent also cited planning as an obstacle.
Source - press release.
Posted by Dan on June 25th, 2007
Some people wonder why so many IT companies are making such a noise about being green. Well, if you didn’t know this already, here’s a shock for you:
The global CO2 emissions from IT are thought to be around two per cent of that put out by humans and their technology, according to a report by analyst Gartner.
That is roughly the same amount as the aviation industry.
I’ll say that again - computers pump out the same CO2 as aeroplanes.
Now in response to this companies all over the world are going to have to adapt. Legislation will force change in companies. And think about it - if you have two suppliers offering the same product, if one of them can prove green credentials, then you’re going to pick that one.
The analyst (using crystal ball or not, we don’t know) predicts :
Gartner predicts that by the end of 2008, 50 percent of mid and large sized Western European IT organisations will declare a green imperative as a result of financial, environmental, legislative and risk-related pressures.
Now, this big green thing isn’t going to go away as quickly as some would like. True, there is a lot of PR and fluff, but in a way there has to be to get things moving. It’s the way the business world works.
The reason why this computer and IT part is important is because most people have considered cars, planes and coal burning to be the culprits of climate change. But now people have to start looking at the engines of their own businesses - the server room.
The problem is, cars and planes are taxed and regulated quite strictly. Would you say the same about computers? And if you tax one industry for its part in hurting the world, why not another? Silicon Valley, I bet, is really racking its brains on this one at the moment.
Posted by Dan on June 25th, 2007
Taiwan’s renewable energy industry is expected to reach $4.65bn by 2009.
Economists of the country say the green energy sector grew by 40 per cent last year.
The China Post reports:
“In the green trend over the past few years, the world’s investment in the green energy industry has risen from the level of US$28 billion in 2004 to US$71 billion in 2006, representing a 1.5-fold increase, the CEPD said, touting the sector as a rising star in global investment.”
Posted by Greenbang on June 25th, 2007
Went to a green activity in Beijing this weekend. In the Chinese lunar calendar, June 22nd is “Xia Zhi”, which means the arrival of summer. And as summer comes, the electricity consumption will reach its peak.
Like last year, this summer could be a big challenge for the power grid - Beijing’s maximum electricity load will reach 13million kw, a 20 percent increase year on year. And 38 percent of the electricity load (4.9million kw) will be consumed by air conditioners, according to the Beijing Morning Post.
So the non-govermental organisation, Friends of Nature, organised an event called “Turn off the light, and go outside” in the southeast of Beijing. Volunteers put on plays and organised game s for children to attract families.
Posted by jumperhead on June 23rd, 2007
A fairly lengthy article in today’s Independent newspaper extols the virtues of putting your pounds into climate change investment portfolios. The author suggests “For each eco-friendly pound spent, there’s usually a company whose bottom line benefits” and adds “With political momentum continuing to build behind the environmental agenda, there are plenty of opportunities for investors to make money.”
Large investment houses like Schroders and Jupiter are excited about the effects of climate change on certain companies. They are launching new funds to invest solely in such firms. The funds will be based in Luxembourg at first, so only be available to sophisticated (read: rich)
UK investors, but Schroders plans to launch a British version of its fund in the autumn.
The funds will include companies dealing in clean energy, green transport, waste management, water management, environmental services and sustainable living, for example.
Not to be confused with ethical investments, the portfolios can include nuclear power generation, too.
Read the full article here: http://tinyurl.com/32cy4k
Posted by Dan on June 22nd, 2007
Google has pledged it will be carbon neutral by the end of the year.
The company’s press release said:
Its data centres will “use less than half the energy of standard industry data centres”
It will create an additional 50 MWs of renewable energy generating capacity by 2012
And it will offset some carbon as well:
“Google recognises that offsets are an imperfect solution but believes they help finance environmental improvements that would not otherwise happen. In addition Google would rather invest in projects which reduce global carbon emissions now, rather than waiting until the company can eliminate its own entirely in the future.”
