environment

The New York Times today kicked of an investigative series on how the cloud's physical structures are affecting the environment with a first installment that offers some scary stats about energy waste. But some say the story unfairly depicts an Internet industry that has been making major strides in this area.

Taking into account a year's worth of reporting and research, the Times' James Glanz concludes that most data centers are wasting huge amounts of energy, which, puts the information industry "at odds with its image of sleek efficiency and environmental friendliness."

"Online companies typically … Read more

More than a billion people around the world lack access to safe drinking water, and some 300 million of them are in Africa. Industrial design students Ryan Lynch and Marcus Triest have an interesting approach to tackling the problem in sub-Saharan African with his Solar Bag.

This design concept is both a shoulder bag-style container to transport water from a distant source, as well as a tool to purify it.

The container is made of polyethylene, which allows UV rays to pass through the clear outer layer and kill most of the bacteria in the water. It's similar to … Read more

Every innovator is thinking about what's next. But it's the ones who are thinking about what's after what's next that are the true visionaries and disrupters.

Bill Ford is one those.

In the 1980s and '90s, when most of the auto companies were building bigger and bigger vehicles and the public was gobbling up huge SUVs, Bill Ford was trying to convince Ford Motor Company to build more fuel-efficient, environmentally friendly cars and trucks. He was almost completely stonewalled by the executives at Ford.

However, he's now the executive chairman of the company that his … Read more

Apple responded to criticism today for pulling its products from a green-electronics certification registry -- just as the city of San Francisco vowed to stop buying the company's desktops and laptops for that very reason.

According to The Loop, Apple said it uses rigorous environmental standards to measure its devices, many of which are not used by the certification registry. This registry is called EPEAT and was created by the U.S. government's Environmental Protection Agency and several device manufacturers (including Apple). EPEAT lists products certified to be recyclable and energy efficient.

Here's what Apple's spokesperson … Read more

The City of San Francisco won't be buying Apple computers anymore because the company pulled its products from a green-electronics certification registry, the Wall Street Journal reported today.

City officials told the Journal that employees of the city's 50 agencies won't be able to use city funds to buy Apple laptops or desktops because Apple removed those products from a voluntary registry of green electronics called EPEAT.

San Francisco's chief information officer, Jon Walton, told CNET that the change is due to an established policy requires the city purchase only EPEAT-certified desktops, laptops, and monitors. While … Read more

Apple has decided to stop participating in a major program devoted to the production of environmentally friendly products, reportedly saying that its design direction is no longer in line with the program's requirements.

Late last month, Apple told the nonprofit EPEAT group that the company would no longer submit its products for green certification from EPEAT and that it was pulling its currently certified products from the group's registry.

According to The Wall Street Journal's CIO Journal site, 39 of Apple's products had received EPEAT's green stamp of approval, including laptops such as the MacBook … Read more

Weeks after coming under fire from Greenpeace advocates for using excessive energy for cloud computing, Microsoft announced it will become carbon neutral across all of its operations starting July 1.

"It's the right thing to do. And it's also an opportunity to promote positive change, as the world transitions to new ways of using energy and managing natural resources," Microsoft's chief operating officer Kevin Turner said in a blog post yesterday. "That's why today, Microsoft is taking a significant step to further reduce our environmental footprint."

July marks the beginning of the … Read more

Can wind energy really power modern cargo ships? We've seen the idea of hybrid freighters before, but this concept from the University of Tokyo has a remarkable sail system.

A model of the UT Wind Challenger was recently shown off at the Sea Japan trade show in Tokyo. It would have giant telescoping sails that rise above the deck when wind conditions are good.

As seen in the vid below, University of Tokyo professor Kiyoshi Uzawa and collaborators believe this hybrid system could cut fuel consumption by cargo ships by about 30 percent. … Read more

Today is Earth Day, and to celebrate it filmmakers Kyle Ruddick and Brandon Litman have released "One Day on Earth," a remarkable snapshot of our planet that was shot in every country of the world on October 10, 2010.

More than 19,000 filmmakers, professional and novice, contributed more than 3,000 hours of footage to the project, which has the support of the United Nations and 60 nonprofit organizations. The archive is being hosted by Vimeo, with Ning hosting the related social network.

The project is said to have been the inspiration for Ridley Scott's "… Read more