Posted by Kelly Smith on Thu, Jul 29, 2010
Demand for sustainable products and services worldwide continues to expand. Green businesses are thinking in new ways about how to protect the planet and satisfy their customers at the same time. UPS began a carbon neutral shipping program last fall to serve customers who wish to pay a little extra to offset the carbon dioxide emissions from shipping their packages. UPS was the first package delivery service to offer this kind of green shipping option.
This popular program has now expanded to UPS locations across the United States, online, and around the world. For only 75 cents, a customer can ship a package carbon free from the United States to any international location. Domestically, the optional surcharge is as low as five cents for customers to ship their packages without pollution or guilt. In 2010, customer purchases of offsets will go twice as far, since UPS will match their investments.
UPS currently purchases carbon offets from the Garcia River Forest Climate Action Project. This organization is overseen by The Nature Conservancy and The Conservation Fund to ensure its validity as a provider of reliable carbon offsets. It is important for businesses and consumers to purchase offsets or renewable energy credits that are certified or verified. UPS also plans to support other offset projects worldwide.
Offering a simple and inexpensive way for customers to feel better about the sustainability of their purchases is an excellent idea for any business to increase business and improve customer satisfaction.
Photo via Justinls
Posted by Kelly Smith on Tue, Jul 27, 2010
Purchase and production of green power are on the rise around the world. Government representatives from 170 countries came to December 2009’s Climate Conference in Copenhagen to discuss solutions to climate change. There are many new ideas and innovative technologies on the horizon, but energy efficiency and renewable energy remain an extremely important part of the solution. Different countries are taking different approaches to environmental responsibility. Some, like the UK, are making countrywide carbon dioxide emissions goals. Others, such as the United States, seem to be largely leaving the green power initiatives to individual communities, states, and businesses for now, while providing some government financial incentives to go green.
In the United States, about one-fourth of all utility companies offer individual consumers the option of purchasing green energy. Some states are much further along than others in terms of the opportunities for businesses and individuals to choose green power. In Wisconsin, a program called Focus on Energy has helped individuals and businesses to save $319 million dollars in energy costs in 2009 alone. Researchers in Ohio, North Carolina, and California have just recently been awarded big grants from the US Department of Energy to pursue innovative green electricity projects. Many northeastern US states such as Vermont are also working towards developing more sustainable energy sources. Voluntary programs such as the US Environmental Protection Agency’s Green Power Partnership have also been successful in encouraging businesses and organizations to invest in renewable energy.
Canada is also working on voluntary carbon reductions. The province of British Columbia has decided to go carbon neutral. In addition to overhauling government waste, they will purchase renewable energy credits to offset their conventional electricity usage. Businesses in Canada are also taking the plunge. In the last few months, 184 green energy projects have been launched in Ontario, and 23 have taken off in British Columbia.
In Europe, many countries have more specific goals and regulations regarding carbon dioxide emissions. In the UK, a certain percentage of the power mix at each utility company must come from renewable sources. In Finland, 25.7% of their total power mix came from renewable sources in 2009. Portugal is striving to lead Europe in renewable energy production within the next few years.
France is an interesting case. Although almost none of its energy comes from renewable sources, it has the cleanest air in Europe since it uses 75 percent nuclear power. Nuclear power does not produce greenhouse gases, but it does have other environmental concerns such as the disposal of nuclear waste.
Around the world in Japan, sustainability efforts were lacking for a long time. Now part of the Japanese economic stimulus plan is to start investing in efforts to reduce climate change, such as investing in solar power installations and the production of electric cars. One problem is that emission reduction targets for businesses in Japan are only voluntary, and Japanese factories are big polluters.
Photo via Maggi_94
Posted by Kelly Smith on Wed, Jul 14, 2010
Seven months ago, the Climategate email scandal broke. Emails that described some statistical methods used with the climate data were made public. To many climate change skeptics, these emails seemed to bring the validity of some climate change research into question and suggest fraudulent or unscientific research methods.
Now an independent review panel has released their findings in this matter to the general public. This 160-page report does not find any problem with the scientists or the data that should cause anyone to question the validity of the climate change research conducted at the Climatic Research Unit of the University of East Anglia, or the data they contributed to reports made by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
The panel did find that researchers should be more open with the public when they receive requests for information, and they should make it more clear to the general public how they used the data to create various graphic organizers and climate predictions.
Climate change skeptics can no longer legitimately hold onto this scandal as a means to deny climate change.
Record heat waves on the East Coast of the US add to the list of recent extreme weather events that will become more common as carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere increase.
Meanwhile, oil is still spilling and cleanup and containment efforts are still going on in the Gulf of Mexico months after an explosion caused oil to start spewing into the water at a rate of 60,000 barrels each day.
Now is not the time to make petty arguments about statistics. Now is the time to find alternatives to the dirty fossil fuels of the past. Investing in energy efficiency, purchasing renewable green power, and conserving conventional energy use are a good way to start turning to clean energy.
Photo via .Martin.
Posted by Kelly Smith on Tue, Jul 13, 2010
From gourmet cooking and artisan baking to making simple homecooked favorites, the recession and concerns about global environmental issues have conspired to raise interest in do-it-yourself cooking projects at home. Rather than driving a car to spend a lot of money at an expensive restaurant, people are learning the ropes in their own kitchens. Even the purchase of premium ingredients is cheaper than paying for someone else’s expertise.
Premium choices include organic ingredients. Choosing organic ingredients is better for the environment as well as for families. Children are especially susceptible to pesticides, which makes organics the obvious choice for many people.
Organic milk and organic produce may be closer to the forefront of people’s minds when they are shopping, but organic dry goods are also widely available at many groceries. Choosing a company that grows and processes organic foods is often making a choice to patronize a company that is concerned about environmental sustainability beyond just the issue of pesticide usage.
One such sustainable business is Great River Organic Milling, a company that has been working towards environmental sustainability for 25 years as they provide consumers with premium flours, hot cereals, and baking mixes. A US EPA Green Power Partner based in Wisconsin, Great River Organic Milling purchases Renewable Energy Credits to equal 100 percent of their conventional power usage while also working to minimize their carbon emissions.
Great River Organic Milling produces stoneground organic flours, which are better for people and the environment as well as being more flavorful than conventional white flours. Best of all, Great River Organic Milling products can now be found at some Sam’s Club locations, mainly in Wisconsin, Illinois, and Minnesota. Interested shoppers outside of the upper Midwest can also purchase Great River Organic Milling flours from Amazon.com.
Posted by Rahul Chitrapu on Sun, Jul 11, 2010
"We don't have a long-term plan for humanity," Ted Turner said during the 2010 Summit Series in DC. "Global warming is by far the most complex problem facing us today and we need to phase out fossil fuels...," Ted said. Check out the video.
Posted by Kelly Smith on Thu, Jul 08, 2010
In today’s economy, many of us are looking for ways to save money or get a better deal, both at home and in our businesses. Unfortunately, the cheapest choices are not always the best options for our planet. Doing business cheaply can neglect steep environmental costs. Fortunately, this is also a time when consumers are looking for both sustainability and value. Customers are more satisfied with green businesses. For many people, it is worth spending a little extra money to help protect the planet.
For this reason, it is important for sustainable businesses to manage their operations with the planet in mind each step of the way. This means more than just reducing, reusing, and recycling. Companies also need to consider where their physical resources are coming from. Wal-Mart operations are a good example of the need to consider the sources of both products and raw materials. Wal-Mart’s big sustainability push has made Wal-Mart consider the sources of their low-cost products to hold up under the scrutiny of environmentally conscious consumers. Wal-Mart now insists on high standards in labor and environmental practices in the factories they do business with. Chemical dumping and using rainforest wood are not acceptable, for example.
Another question green companies should ask themselves is where their services are coming from. Sustainable businesses should look for services such as green real estate companies, green printing presses, green catering, green IT, and green banking / investing firms whenever possible. Green utilities are even more important. Traditional electricity sources may be relatively cheap, but they have a much higher environmental cost. Purchasing green energy is a choice to purchase a premium product that is better for the environment and helps expand a green customer base.
Some even choose to take the search for green utilities even further by producing their own green power. The University of New Hampshire, for example, is now largely powered by a system that utilizes waste methane from a nearby landfill. This technology is now well enough established that many businesses and organizations could easily tap into this energy source considered to be renewable by the U.S. EPA’s Green Power Partnership, provided they are located near a landfill.
With a little creative thinking, businesses and organizations can extend the sustainability of their operations to encompass both products and services from their source.
Posted by Kelly Smith on Wed, Jul 07, 2010
Codero offers web hosting services that are powered by 100 percent green power for small and medium-sized businesses. Anyone looking to fill their green IT needs should consider Codero, a sustainable business which is based in Kansas City and powered by wind farms in Iowa. An EPA Green Power Partner that purchases Green-e certified green electricity through EcoElectrons, Codero estimates that it offsets the annual conventional electricity usage of 1,255 homes.
Businesses that use Codero’s services get to use the Codero logo to show their customers that they are a sustainable business seeking to shrink their carbon footprint. Research shows that environmentally friendly companies increase customer satisfaction. There are many ways to become more environmentally sound in your business practices.
Becoming a member of the U.S. EPA’s Green Power Partnership is a good way to network with other businesses and organizations that are concerned about reducing their carbon footprint and fighting global climate change. It is also an excellent way to broaden your customer base. Choosing to patronize other Green Power Partners for your company’s needs, such as green IT services, boosts your eco-credibility.
Over 70 new organizations have decided to join the Green Power Partnership recently. Amherst College; the Indianapolis Zoo; the City of New Haven, Connecticut; the Baltimore Airport Hilton; Madison Computer Works; Biomass Thermal Energy Council; Dutch Mill Catering; and Ogden Publications are just a few of the new members spanning industries from green information technology to sustainable real estate to environmentally friendly health care.
Posted by Rahul Chitrapu on Wed, Jun 30, 2010
This is a guest post by Kyle Mentz. Kyle is a content writer for Alluminare where you can find a large assortment of lighting fixtures to decorate your home.
A famous deity once said, “Let there be light”, and there was, and it was good. And frankly, it’s still good. The sun remains the most eco-friendly way to light your home, whether you choose to install windows and skylights throughout in order to illuminate your space, or if you decide to harness the sun’s energy for clean power to run an entire household. It doesn’t get any greener than using the one and only completely efficient, emission-free, natural form of lighting. However, there are some drawbacks. You may not have the funds to knock out walls or outfit your home with solar panels. Beyond that, a reliance on natural lighting could be difficult for people who live in cooler climates and don’t want to eat dinner in the dark in January. Luckily, there are a number of environmentally friendly lighting products on the market to give your home the luminescence you need to get you through the dark times.
The electric light bulb has been more or less the same since the birth of electricity, which is to say, incandescent. The problem with these bulbs is that they depend on a filament that heats up to produce a glow. Unfortunately, the process requires a lot of energy to begin and sustain. Enter the energy-efficient revolution. For a short period of time, it looked like halogen lights were going to be the wave of the future, using 20% less electricity, but certain drawbacks (fixture replacement, rampant heat production) quickly made them obsolete. Today, newer bulbs like compact fluorescent lights (CFLs) and light-emitting-diodes (LEDs) are literally changing the way we see lighting. CFLs have become very popular in recent years due to the fact that they not only work in standard fixtures and produce a ton of light, but also use 60% less energy and last ten times as long as incandescent bulbs. Many also promise to repay their cost (several times over) throughout the life of the product.
LEDs (you may have heard of them…they’ve been telling digital time for awhile) are an even more recent development in home lighting. Some claim to use up to 90% less energy (than incandescents) and last as much as 60 times longer. That’s pretty amazing! Naysayers grumble that LED bulbs are too dim to illuminate a house, but new products continue to come out (in up to 100-watt varieties) in steadfast refute of this argument. The only real drawback with current LEDs is that you will probably have to get new fixtures to use them.
Or, you can always go back to the sun. If solar panels are a bit out of your price range, or you don’t dig the look, you may want to consider a sunlight-transport-device. They bring actual sunlight into your home by gathering the sun’s rays outside your structure, transferring them through fiber optic cables, and sending them to lamps throughout your home. Pretty ingenious, right? Well, during the day, anyway. They only transfer natural light, so when the sky goes dark, so does your luminary. But they are an interesting alternative to cutting a hole in your roof. There are also solar lights, and although they are generally considered outdoor lighting (often used to illuminate driveways, garden paths, etc.), there are portable models that can be charged during the day and then used in place of lamps for soft mood lighting in the evening. Floating models make them a safer bet than, say, floating candles (open flame may be eco-friendly, but it’s always a fire hazard).
Probably your best bet to illuminate your home in an eco-friendly manner is through a combination of some (or all) of the options listed above. Try to use natural light as much as you can (since it certainly carries the smallest price tag at a cost of free), install solar panels if you can afford the initial expenditure (over time, they can actually bring you an income if you have enough sunlight throughout the year to build up a surplus to sell back to the power company), and switch to energy-efficient lighting to cover any additional need. Could you use one last eco-friendly lighting tip? Here’s one your parents told you a million times: turn off the light when you leave a room. You’ll be surprised how much energy you’ll save through a simple flip of the switch.
Posted by Hudson DeWeese on Tue, Jun 29, 2010
Originally the BloomBox, invented by K.R. Sridhar, was designed for NASA to take fuel and electricity to create oxygen by means of a fuel cell to be used on a mission to Mars. Once NASA canceled the mission Sridhar reversed the operation of his invention to use fuel and oxygen out of the atmosphere to create electricity. Sridhar aggressively predicts that the BloomBox will be implemented in every house in America in less the ten years and will effectively replace power plants.
BloomEnergy has reportedly raised $400 million to develop the BloomBox which has been implemented in companies like Google and EBay for over nine months. The companies that have been testing the BloomBox have had little and inexpensive maintenance costs. The effectiveness of the BloomBox has attracted investors like Kleiner Perkins who also funded Google when it was starting out. The BloomBox is getting much attention because of its small size, low noise output and efficiency. It is expected to cost an average U.S. home less than $3,000. It can run on various gasses including natural gas, methane from landfills, and biomass. Mass manufacturing does present a problem as BloomEnergy is only able to produce one BloomBox a day.
Bloombox also saves electricity that is being lost through transmission lines and the power grid. Transmission lines are the large electrical lines that carry electricity from the power plants to our homes. 6.5% of the total power in the U.S. is lost due to the transportation of electricity. If BloomBoxes are implemented in every house, this alone will save the 6.5% of electricity that is wasted annually.
The BloomBox is a revolutionary green energy development. If K.R. Sridhar can mass manufacture the product and drive the price down, the implementation of this device could be the next big thing. Click here to watch a 60 Minutes interview with K.R. Sridhar explaining the function of the BloomBox in more detail.
Posted by Kelly Smith on Mon, Jun 28, 2010
Experts from the U.S. Geological Survey, the Pentagon, the U.S. State Department, and the Afghanistan Ministry of Mines have discovered a huge wealth of mineral deposits beneath the war-torn soils of Afghanistan. Minerals such as copper, iron, gold, aluminum, silver, and lithium have the potential to have an amazing impact on Afghanistan’s economy and infrastructure if they can be mined without corruption.
This is a big discovery on the worldwide renewable energy front as well, since lithium is used to make rechargeable batteries. Lithium ion batteries are the most popular rechargeable batteries on the market today since they are lightweight, don’t lose charge easily, don’t degrade in performance over time, and don’t cost a great deal more than standard batteries.
Rechargeable battery technology is an important aspect of green power because batteries are places where energy can be stored after it has been collected from a green energy source such as solar panels. Both fuel cells and rechargeable batteries are also important to the further development of electric car technology.
Electric cars need to plug into an electric power source to charge. Electric cars like the Chevrolet Volt can run for 40 miles on electricity alone without dipping into their gasoline reserves. If the Volt can’t be recharged after 40 miles of driving, it can still travel hundreds of miles on just one tank of gas. Using a car such as the Volt can seriously decrease the carbon footprint of individuals and businesses concerned about sustainability.
Electric cars are preferable to standard cars because electricity burned in a power plant, although it still creates emissions, is much cleaner than the internal combustion engine in a gasoline car. An even more planet-friendly solution would be electric cars powered exclusively by green electricity from renewable energy sources. That is the green transportation of the future, and rechargeable batteries are a step in the right direction.