Archive for November, 2010

Scandium. Yttrium. Lanthanum. Cerium. Praseodymium. Neodymium. Promethium. Samarium. Europium. Gadolinium. Terbium. Dysprosium. Holmium. Erbium. Thulium. Ytterbium. Lutetium.

Though they may sound like Mecha-Monsters in a vintage Japanese creature-that-wrecks-Toyko movie, they are actually elements. Rare-earth elements, to be precise, and if any elements (other than the traditional gold, silver and platinum, of course) can ever be said to be politically explosive, these 17 are the ones. Read the rest of this entry »

In continuing the goal of corporate sustainability, General Mills has updated their goals for 2015.  The company’s four new environmental sustainability goals include reducing water use, energy use and greenhouse gas emissions by 20% and cutting solid waste by 50%. Read the rest of this entry »

Wireless keyboards, the ultimate in convenience, have now been made even more hassle-free with the launch of the new Logitech® Wireless Solar Keyboard K750 — the company’s first light-powered keyboard.  The keyboard is powered by light but can stay charged in total darkness for up to three months. In addition, it features PVC-free construction and fully recyclable packaging. Read the rest of this entry »

ENXSUITE has developed a comprehensive Energy Performance Management platform that enables companies to continuously plan, analyze, and manage their entire energy and sustainability footprint. The solution not only meets the needs of facilities managers by providing them with comprehensive data management and reporting capabilities, but also meets the needs of sustainability executives by providing business intelligence dashboards that visualize an organization’s energy performance and its impact on the bottom line. Read the rest of this entry »

With the amount of water, electricity (and beer) consumed at the nation’s stadiums and convention centers on any given day, logic would dictate that this public arena isn’t one that’s particularly hip to deploying sustainable best practices. But faster than you can say “Let’s get ready to rumble”, it turns out iconic structures like Infineon Raceway, Anaheim Convention Center and Lincoln Financial Field are all bringing some form of sustainability out of the nosebleed section and into the front row in order to run more efficiently. Read the rest of this entry »

Here’s a way to find out: Precision Paragon (P²), a manufacturer of energy efficient lighting for commercial and industrial buildings, offers the Lighting Retrofit Calculator so that customers can see the effects retrofit lighting has on their energy usage.  According to P², 40% of the electricity used in a typical commercial building is from lighting. Read the rest of this entry »

With the heightened interest in biofuels for clean energy, bioethanol tends to take a lot of the spotlight, though another biofuel – biogas – is making strong inroads to sustainability as well, with installations all over the world. Biogas may not be as sexy: it’s what’s produced when organic matter breaks down – rots and ferments, basically – in the absence of oxygen (the fancy word is “anaerobic”). When bacteria “consume” biodegradable materials such as biomass (things like crop wastes, grass and sawdust), kitchen scraps, manure or sewage, it results in biogas, primarily in the form of methane and carbon dioxide. Once created, this biogas becomes biofuel that can be used to run things: for starters, any type of heat engine, or generators to create either mechanical or electrical power. Read the rest of this entry »

Climate Savers Computing Initiative, a global consortium dedicated to reducing the energy consumption of end-to-end computing, has launched an industry workgroup tasked with developing energy efficiency targets and best practices for networking technologies, with the goal of improving the energy efficiency of networking equipment such as routers, switches and connected devices that power everything from the Internet to mobile technologies. They estimate that the global IT industry could avoid up to $5 billion in energy costs by 2015 through the use of more energy efficient networking equipment. Read the rest of this entry »

Have you heard of vampire appliances, those that suck up electricity by just being plugged in all the time when not in use? Like the tv, the dvr, or the coffee maker. These appliances, which go into ‘standby mode’ when switched off, draw electricity 24 hours a day. The modlet is designed to eliminate this wasteful use of power by intelligently scheduling outlets to automatically shut off power to plugged-in appliances when they are not needed. Read the rest of this entry »

In the world of fashion, beauty comes before, well, almost everything. Eco-friendly isn’t heard much around designer showrooms or department stores. That is about to change with the introduction of the Water<Less jeans collection from Levi’s. Levi’s has been working on sustainability issues and this is their latest accomplishment. They have sponsored air-dry competitions and objected to sandblasted jeans but this change signals a major innovation in the way the company produces their jeans. Read the rest of this entry »