Green IT

Greenpeace electronics guide now rates lobbying

Greenpeace is using its latest green-ratings guide to press consumer electronics companies to do more than just clean up their own act.

The 14th quarterly "Guide to Greener Electronics," (PDF) which rates hardware makers on chemical waste, e-waste, and recycling efforts, now assesses each company's public efforts on environmental issues.

The report, issued Thursday, considers whether a company actively lobbies for industrywide laws that would prevent other companies from using environmentally damaging materials, as part of their corporate sustainability obligations.

Specifically, Greenpeace said companies should support a new version of the European Union's RoHS (Restriction of Hazardous Substances in electronics). The update would ban brominated flame retardants (BFRs), chlorinated flame retardants (CFRs), and PVC vinyl plastic from being used in the manufacturing of electronics. (The regulation already restricts how much lead, cadmium, mercury, hexavalent chromium, polybrominated biphenyl (PBB), and polybrominated diphenyl ether (PBDE) flame retardants can be used.)

As far as who's the greenest, Nokia still ranks at No. 1, but Greenpeace reduced the company's overall score by one point for "failing to do proactive lobbying" for the RoHS revisions.

The strategy brings an interesting idea to the forefront. With the new criteria, Greenpeace is essentially attempting to harness consumer buying-power to press private industry to pressure politicians.

But does this strategy really work? When picking out a new cell phone or computer, does the average consumer's thought process include a rundown of whether a company has stopped using BFRs in their products and has lobbied to prevent other companies from using them too.

Still, if no one can use a cheap-but-polluting manufacturing material, the playing field is leveled. Lobbying for a revised RoHS could be a win-win for companies that would like to eliminate the use of certain substances but fear creating an advantage for their competition.

Greenpeace asserts there's good reason for the change.

"The use of harmful chemicals in electronic products prevents their safe recycling once the products are discarded. Given the increasing evidence of climate change and the urgency of addressing this issue, Greenpeace has added new energy criteria to encourage electronics companies to improve their corporate policies and practices," Greenpeace said in a statement.… Read more

Santa's green sleigh of the future

Author Gregory Mone is not the only one touting would-be Santa technology this year.

General Electric has released its own theory of how the legendary Santa Claus could make his yearly trip while communicating with Mrs. Claus and the elves back at HQ. This version, however, showcases real-world technology with a green bent under development at GE labs. While the Santa hook is child's play, the technology presented has useful applications in the adult world.

For example, the company is developing "icephobic" coatings that prevent ice and water from sticking to a vehicle even when driving through … Read more

Google.org unveils deforestation monitor

Google.org demonstrated a new platform on Thursday that, if implemented in conjunction with a proposed United Nations program, could provide a significant tool to combat climate change.

Its new "high-performance satellite imagery-processing engine" can process terabytes of information on thousands of Google servers while giving access to the results online.

The platform, which was demonstrated on Thursday at the International Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, would allow anyone using the tool to monitor whether or not trees were being chopped down in a given forest. It analyzes satellite images to show forest changes over a given time … Read more

SmartSynch offers universal router for smart grids

SmartSynch announced Wednesday night that it has a plan for allowing universal communications between appliances, smart grids, and utilities, regardless of which communication protocol is used.

In May 2008, the Jackson, Miss.-company garnered $20 million in a funding round led by Credit Suisse to develop its communications devices and software for smart meters.

What has emerged is the GridRouter, an Internet Protocol-based universal router with an open platform that can communicate with public and private networks whether they be using WiMax, municipal Wi-Fi, or a proprietary network system.

The GridRouter device could become a darling of utilities by enabling … Read more

Wi-Fi certification might be tweaked for smart grids

Correction at 2:33 a.m. PDT November 12: This story incorrectly stated the name of the wireless communications technology used by AlertMe. The system uses ZigBee.

The Wi-Fi Alliance has formed a task group to determine what standards need to be modified to ensure Wi-Fi is the tool of choice for smart-grid applications.

The nonprofit industry association that approves devices for the Wi-Fi Certified seal released a report Wednesday called "Wi-Fi for the Smart Grid: Mature, Interoperable, Security-Protected Technology for Advanced Utility Management Communications." The report expounds on all the possibilities for Wi-Fi as a communication tool … Read more

Microsoft's Mundie: IT needed to solve global woes

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--Scientists need the same sort of computer breakthrough that the spreadsheet brought to business users decades ago, says Craig Mundie, Microsoft's chief research and strategy officer.

Mundie gave a speech at Harvard University here on Tuesday to discuss coming "disruptions" in computing and to argue that computer science is fundamental to solving daunting global problems, including energy, environment, health care, and education.

Without taking advantage of advances in computing, adjacent fields of nanotechnology and biotechnology will not move as fast as they could, he said. At the same time, he lamented how computer science is … Read more

IBM sees overhaul coming for trucking industry

Fuel efficiency is the No. 1 factor in equipment purchases within the trucking industry, a new report from IBM says.

At the same time, brand name has fallen to the bottom of the criteria list and "faces the risk of slow death," according to the report.

The combination of those two factors means that new players in the trucking industry will give established brands a run for their money.

"The truck ecosystem will thrive because of--rather than in spite of--a chaotic introduction of new players," the report said.

"Truck 2020: Transcending Turbulence," which came … Read more

Google PowerMeter available to U.K. residents

U.K. residents will now be able to monitor and regulate their home energy usage from any Web-enabled phone or computer regardless of whether their energy provider uses smart meters.

Google announced two U.K. partnerships this week concerning its PowerMeter software, one of which completely bypasses the need for cooperation from an energy provider.

Since the U.K. electricity and gas supplier First Utility began offering customers free smart meters in September 2008, it has had 30,000 customers take them up on the offer. Now, as a result of a Google partnership announced Tuesday, First Utility smart meter … Read more

CA jumps into eco-software market

CA next week will unveil an integrated sustainability suite designed to track carbon emissions, environmental assessments, metering, and compliance to policies in one dashboard.

CA calls the suite EcoSoftware and will launch it Monday, according to Christopher Thomas, vice president of energy and sustainability. I ran into Thomas at the Gartner IT Symposium, where the carbon-monitoring software caught my eye.

There are other efforts designed to track carbon emissions. For instance, Hara and SAP have various applications and others use metering to measure sustainability efforts.

Google SketchUp 'plug-in' offers energy analysis

An updated software tool combines energy-use evaluation with Google's 3D-modeling program to help improve building design in its early stages.

OpenStudio, a free, open-source tool introduced last year, now integrates EnergyPlus building analysis with Google SketchUp, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory announced this week.

"OpenStudio is lauded around our office as one of the most complicated plug-ins ever written for SketchUp," Christopher Cronin, Google's strategist for SketchUp, said in a statement.

While Google may see OpenStudio as a plug-in for SketchUp, OpenStudio's creators may instead see SketchUp as an add-on to its simulation program.

The … Read more