Posted by Yan Yan on September 30th, 2007
PC giant Dell says it’s gonna go carbon neutral by 2008. It will be the first major computer firm to do so, it reckons.
In preparation for this, it’s making a complete carbon emissions audit this year and will offset all of its 2007 operations next year. And rather than costing the business millions, it reckons it will actually save money in the long run.
If it sparks off a race between tech giants, this is clearly a good thing. But there’s a few uncertainties in all this: offsetting is a far from certain solution, although the firm does call this a last resort. And, of course, this is only one side of the environmental picture: earlier this year, Dell was humbled by HP when the scale of the two firms’ recycling schemes were compared, showing that much work remains to be done. Still, it’s a fine step and we’re ready to applaud that.
More details on Dell’s efforts here:
Dell issued a challenge to its peer companies during Mr. Dell’s speech to join in “a long-term, carbon-neutral commitment to our shared Earth.” The company also announced a new programme called “Plant a Forest for Me” that enables organisations worldwide to join together with Dell and share best practices, partner and facilitate the planting of millions of trees in sustainably managed partner and facilitate the planting of millions of trees in sustainably managed reforestation projects. This programme is a continuation of the “Plant a Tree for Me” programme for consumers.
Posted by Yan Yan on September 29th, 2007
ERM, a provider of environmental consulting services, is looking for a ventures director for its foundation–which supports environmental projects around the world by handing out grants and loans, volunteer support and pro bono work.
The director will be involved in screening new ventures, securing investment, doing due diligence and promoting the Foundation’s efforts. Good stuff, if you can get it:
We are seeking an experienced ventures director to oversee a new programme that will provide finance in the form of equity and loans to environmental entrepreneurs in developing economies. You will be reporting to the ERM Foundation Steering Committee and will work collaboratively with Foundation staff/volunteers and senior leadership around the world.
Posted by Yan Yan on September 29th, 2007
This week’s edition of The Economist does an interesting hatchet job on ethanol–debunking it as a “green” fuel, and outlining the current rush to discover a real home-grown petroleum alternative.
The issue with ethanol is primarily chemical. It produces just one-third of the energy that petrol does, and also absorbs water from the atmosphere. This in turn causes corrosion in the engine, unless mixed with petrol.
The reason that it’s been so popular of late is that local farmers can grow the raw ingredients in their backyards, meaning countries can take a step towards energy independence. But right now, the step is tiny–and may be in the wrong direction. Fortunately though, a bunch of firms are working on butanol, octanol and other better biofuels. Here’s hoping for that breakthrough.
Posted by Greenbang on September 28th, 2007
Greenbang’s advice would be, don’t. The government is slow - it’s known about climate change for decades - and believes enough is already being done.
Cutting carbon and all things green, right down to eating properly, is your own responsibility and Greenbang is afraid you’re going to be waiting in a very long Post Office queue for your hand out on advice.
But here’s the research anyway. Greenbang just thought he’d give his opinion before you had even read it.
More than 85 per cent of UK SMEs claim going green will be a part of their business strategy over the next five years, according to research from fast-growing UK ISP Eclipse Internet.
But the research also shows SMEs don’t believe government is doing enough to support their carbon-cutting efforts, resulting in them not being able to take advantage of new working practices which provide significant environmental savings.
The research sends a strong message to the government, whilst most SMEs are making efforts to reduce their environmental impact there is a significant knowledge gap that needs to be addressed. Almost 82% of UK businesses surveyed believe they need to be given more guidelines from government on how to cut their carbon footprint. Only 10% of those surveyed think they know what they are doing when it comes to going green, leaving a staggering 90% of businesses with a lack of understanding.
Posted by Greenbang on September 27th, 2007
No? Greenbang hates stupid questions too.
But IBM has gone to town on this one. As well as releasing some interesting stats about how IT folk are ignoring energy concerns, they’ve only gone and taken a step into the feel-good world of comparing companies to animals.
Greenbang wonders what kind of creative inspiration was going around the IBM offices the day they decided to that.
But here we go - the four types of companies and their attitudes towards green things (to be read in the voice of Sir David Attenborough, if you would):
1 - The gorilla: Typically the big emitting businesses that act to avoid financial problems
2 - The peacock - Typically brand aware organisations, often low emitters, but risk accusation of green washing.
3 - The Ostrich - medium to high on the scale of carbon emissions. Often companies whose growth and future profits are intrinsically linked to carbon usage. Tendency to stick head in sand.
4 - The mule - Typically low to medium carbon emitters. The mule accepts climate change is important but fails to act with any sense of urgency.
Well thanks for that IBM. You’ve made Greenbang’s day 
Posted by Greenbang on September 27th, 2007
Remember D-Link? Well they’ve been around for yonks and now are selling something called green ethernet desktop switches.
“Aimed at home users and small businesses, the switches can deliver significant energy savings of up to 44% of the power typically used by a 5-port Gigabit switch*, helping to reduce costs and optimize energy efficiency.
By working with carefully selected chipset manufacturers to develop innovative power-saving technology, D-Link is first to market with Green Ethernet solutions that don’t sacrifice operational performance or functionality.
The switches tap the current zeitgeist for improvements in energy efficiency, which is seeing demand for green products rocketing throughout Europe. The introduction of its Green Ethernet solutions further underscores D-Link’s strategy of developing solutions that position it ahead of competitor offerings, while meeting the performance and functionality demands of the market. “
Posted by Greenbang on September 27th, 2007
More data centre news… but this time there’s help on the way.
HP (not the sauce company pictured as a clever-clogs Greenbanger joked) has launched new services to help customers design a next-generation data centre.
HP sauce is rather wonderful with a big fat bacon sandwich. Sorry, it must be data centre news overloading. Cannot compute.
Power features of the futuristic havens for IT come forthwith:
Energy and space efficient – addresses energy efficiency and facilities utilization requirements for power and space usage leading to a reduction in operational costs from real estate, power and cooling;
But the company is also offering HP Data Center [that should be ‘centre’ but we know you guys over the pond have trouble with that one] Services - short term service engagements to support efficiency challenges.
Bundled into that package, you get:
· Optimization services – HP provides data center optimization services and assessments that focus on either availability levels or the entire data center environment. These optimization services address a range of areas including IT security risk, ITSM readiness, energy efficiency, cluster consistency, availability and health-checks. An example is HP Thermal Assessment Services with the new, first of its kind 3D Thermal Zone Mapping: This service helps customers identify ways to reduce cost while increasing energy efficiency, capacity, and availability.
Posted by Greenbang on September 27th, 2007
Data centres are a bit like Paris Hilton - they’re getting all the headlines these days.
But check out this - a data centre that runs on solar power. Our pal Jason, over at Ethical Jobs (see job section), reckons they’re a good bet.
Ecological Hosting says it’s an ethically run, reliable and responsible internet hosting company.
Paris Hilton doesn’t do that, Greenbang’s pretty sure.
“We are a small, friendly, family-run business providing services with a personal touch. All our servers, offices and the data centre we use operate on renewable energy.
Our main hosting environment operates from a data centre running on solar power with a solar panel array capable of generating upto sixty kilowatt-hours of electricity each day.
We are the only UK company (to our knowledge) offering hosting based in a data centre facility powered entirely by solar energy.
With prices starting at just £23.50 per year, there really is no reason to ignore your conscience. Make the switch today and help protect our environment.”
Will others follow suit? You tell le Greenbang…
Posted by Greenbang on September 27th, 2007
An Economist Intelligence Unit report shows IT heads are ignoring energy efficiency problems.
Maybe it’s because Halo 3 has just come out.
The key points to note are:
· Over a third of IT executives (42 per cent) say their firm does not monitor its IT-related energy spending and a further 9percent don’t know if their firm monitors this. 64 per cent agree that an industry standard on energy efficiency on IT equipment would cause them to change their procurement policies
· Although there is high visibility of environmental issues in organisations, few have anything approaching a cohesive strategy for dealing with it from an IT perspective
· Although two-thirds of executives polled say that their organisation has a board-level executive responsible for energy and the environment, only 45 per cent of firms have a programme in place to reduce their carbon footprint.
The report was sponsored by IBM.
Posted by Greenbang on September 26th, 2007
Woooh - someone’s got a brand new index, and they’re not afraid to show it off.
But what are they gonna do with it, Batman?
The HSBC Global Climate Change Benchmark Index has been designed to reflect and track the stock market performance of key companies that are best placed to profit from the challenges presented by climate change.
So get your skates on, if you’re trying to get in on the big green bang/boom - you know what we mean.
There are four investable climate change indices that can be used to create portfolios for a diverse range of investment needs such as long only funds, hedge funds, exchange traded funds, discretionary funds and structured products. The indices are:
· HSBC Climate Change Index
· HSBC Low Carbon Energy Production Index (including: solar, wind,
biofuels, geothermal)
· HSBC Energy Efficiency & Energy Management Index (including: Fuel
Efficiency Autos, Energy Efficient Solutions, fuelcells)
· HSBC Water, Waste & Pollution Control Index (including: water
recycling, waste technologies, environmental pollution control)
