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Intel, Whole Foods lead in green-power purchasing

Chip giant Intel procured over 1,493 gigawatt-hours of renewable energy in 2010.

That's according to a survey of over 1,000 companies that was conducted by Bloomberg New Energy Finance in conjunction with wind turbine giant Vestas Wind Systems.

The index developed from this new survey is called the Corporate Renewable Energy Index (CREX). (For a PDF of the white paper on the survey, click here.) For its inaugural release the CREX released rankings of companies based on the amount of renewable energy they procured both in 2009 and 2010.

For 2010, the top five companies with the largest renewable electricity procurement were: Intel, clothing retailer Kohl's, Hong Kong electric company CLP Holdings, supermarket chain Whole Foods Market, and the Dutch telecom Koninklijke KPN.

For 2009, the ranking was Deutsche Telekom, Intel, PepsiCo, BT Group, and clothing retailer Kohl's.

Keep in mind that no one is suggesting these companies are gleaning electricity directly from local solar or wind farms. While some companies do directly support renewable-energy projects, over 80 percent of the renewable electricity procured by the companies surveyed was purchased in the form of renewable electricity credits (RECs).

And while Intel procured the most renewable electricity in 2010 at over 1,493 gigawatt-hours, on a percentage basis it's actually Kohl's that wins. In 2010 the retailer purchased so many RECs, it statistically can say it garnered 100.4 percent of its energy from renewable sources.

In conjunction with the CREX, Vestas also had TNS/Gallup conduct a survey on wind energy procurement in particular.

When it comes to wind, Whole Foods tops the list. The supermarket chain gets 100 percent of its electricity from wind energy, followed by North American bank Toronto-Dominion Bank at 78 percent, and software giant Adobe Systems at 65 percent, according to the Global Consumer Wind Study 2011.

More statistics and rankings of companies by industry can be found in Appendix D (page 30) of the CREX white paper (PDF) released by Bloomberg New Energy Finance and Vestas.… Read more

New York adds 70 electric vehicles to city fleets

Some of New York City's finest will soon be driving some of New York City's cleanest vehicles.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced Tuesday from a press conference in Queens that the city is adding 70 electric vehicles to its municipal fleets.

New York City departments participating include: Citywide Administrative Services, Correction, Environmental Protection, Parks and Recreation, Sanitation, Transportation, Fire, Police, and the Taxi and Limousine Commission.

The addition of the 70 electric vehicles--50 of them Chevy Volts--will bring the city's EV total up to 430 vehicles.

This latest move is part of New York's push to curb … Read more

Report: Apple launching new iPhone in September

Apple will unveil its next model iPhone in September with a faster chip and a more advanced camera, Bloomberg said today, citing information from "people familiar with the plans."

Adding fuel to the latest fires about the next-generation iPhone, Bloomberg said the new phone will come equipped with an A5 processor, which Apple already added to the iPad 2 earlier in the year. Other reports have also pointed to the speedy, dual-core A5 as the chip that would power the new iPhone.

The next iPhone would also include an 8-megapixel camera, according to Bloomberg, a healthy leap from … Read more

New York hails Nissan for its new cabs

Correction: This story originally reported that New York City would get 100 Nissan Leafs as a demonstration fleet. The correct number is 6.

The New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission has chosen Nissan's NV200 minivan to be its next taxicab, Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced yesterday.

The Nissan van will join New York City's taxi fleet beginning in 2013, and be the official taxi of New York for the following 10 years. All taxis currently on the road, including the city's newer hybrid cabs, will be phased out by 2018.

As part of the deal, Nissan is … Read more

New York to curb dirty heat, use landfills for solar

New York City plans to restrict the use of dirty heating fuels, use its capped landfills for solar farms, and issue loans for green and energy efficiency upgrades to home owners.

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced the latest initiatives for PlaNYC, the city's sustainability plan, on Thursday at a press conference in Harlem.

It's part of the lead up to Earth Day, which is Friday, April 22, and also happens to be the anniversary of when PlaNYC was first announced, in 2007.

Over 132 initiatives grew out of "48 public meetings with 220 groups, yielding almost … Read more

New York's quest to become 'the digital city'

Even the basic driving directions from New York City to IBM Research's headquarters in Yorktown Heights, N.Y., make the whole thing sound like an arm-twisting inconvenience worthy of the difficulty that the city's metro region has had in fostering Silicon Valley-style innovation: "Take the Sprain."

That'd be the Sprain Brook Parkway, a squiggle of highway that reaches up from the northern end of the Bronx into the small towns of Westchester County, which turns into the Taconic Parkway a few minutes before the exit onto Kitchawan Road that leads to IBM's Thomas J. … Read more

New York hires a 'chief digital officer'

After a high-profile search that began over six months ago, New York City has hired new media entrepreneur Rachel Sterne as its first "chief digital officer."

It's the latest major move made by the administration of Mayor Michael Bloomberg, himself a billionaire entrepreneur, to shove the establishment-heavy Gotham into the 21st century.

Sterne's job won't involve wrangling the scores of small tech start-ups that have popped up like mushrooms in the city over the past few years. Rather, her focus will be to help the city government use digital technology to better communicate with residents, … Read more

Apple sued over privacy in iPhone, iPad apps

Apple is being sued for allegedly letting mobile apps on the iPhone and iPad send personal information to ad networks without the consent of users.

Jonathan Lalo, who filed the lawsuit on Thursday in U.S. District Court in San Jose, Calif., alleges that Apple's iPhones and iPads let ad networks track which applications people download, how often they're used, and for how long, according to a Bloomberg article published today.

Specifically, the suit alleges that the ad networks are able to trace an iPhone or iPad using the unique device identifier, or UDID, which is a number … Read more

New York City to citizens: Web piracy kills jobs

New York City, the nation's largest city and its true media capital, is telling citizens that "piracy doesn't work" as part of a new publicly funded antipiracy ad campaign.

The message to New Yorkers is that downloading music and movies without paying for them "kills jobs" in the city. The ads will appear at bus shelters, movie theaters, on the Web and on the video screens found in taxicabs, according to Katherine Oliver, commissioner of media and entertainment for the city of New York.

The costs of running the campaign are minimal because the … Read more

G-20 determines world's energy fate, says report

The G-20 nations have the most power and the largest impact on the future of clean energy because together they account for 90 percent of the world's investment in clean energy. In addition, China leads the G-20 and the world in investment and almost every other category when it comes to clean-energy development, and it may do so for the next 10 years.

That's according to a report released today by The Pew Charitable Trusts, in conjunction with Bloomberg New Energy Finance. The report, called "Global clean power: A $2.3 trillion opportunity," offers predictions for … Read more