environment

Water-cooled IBM supercomputer to heat buildings

IBM and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology at Zurich plan to build a water-cooled supercomputer whose surplus heat will be re-used to heat the university's buildings.

The Aquasar supercomputer will be located at the ETH Zurich facility, and it will start operations next year, the partners said in an announcement on Tuesday.

The supercomputer will combine two rack-mounted IBM BladeCenter servers, each containing multiple blades with a mixed population of IBM PowerXCell 8i and Intel Nehalem processors. It is expected to deliver a peak performance of about 10 teraflops.

The installation will re-use heat directly for in-building heating. … Read more

Social networks that support a green lifestyle

Going "green" is quickly becoming an important part of our lives, and Web entrepreneurs have taken notice. A variety of green social networks have cropped up that help us live more sustainably. From reducing your carbon footprint to raising money for environmental causes, these social networks will back up your efforts.

Green social networks

BigCarrot BigCarrot is based on the premise of rewarding people for the good deeds they do. After signing up, you can start creating prizes for people to receive if they achieve a goal that helps the environment. So if you want to donate $20 to the first person to plant 20 trees in your area, you can do it. Users who prove that they have completed such tasks will be rewarded in more ways than one.

Unfortunately, BigCarrot is designed poorly. It's difficult to make your way around the site, and creating a new prize is far more difficult than it should be. But its community is relatively active. Finding friends is easy and winning prizes isn't as difficult as you might think. It's not the best social network in this roundup, but it's worth trying out.

Carbonrally Carbonrally tries to get its users to reduce carbon emissions by working together to achieve that goal. After you sign up for the site, you can create your own challenge. To complete that challenge, you'll need to find team members to help you out. You can also sign up for challenges created by other users.

In either case, you'll communicate with your other team members, discuss what you've done to help achieve that goal, and comment on how to tweak the challenge to make it more meaningful. Luckily, the tasks generally aren't hard to complete--one of the more popular challenges is to alter your air-conditioning level by two degrees for a week.… Read more

Butt seriously, copier paper turns into toilet rolls

Never thought I'd see the day when I would be wiping my rear with used copier paper straight from an office machine. Butt seriously, thanks to Japanese ingenuity, this could soon be smart waste management, employed in corporate buildings to recycle all that paper we're guilty of overusing into toilet paper.

There's just one wee catch. Nakabayashi's pricey $95,000 office machine requires a whopping 72kg of discarded paper (159 pounds, or about 1,800 A4 sheets) to churn into just two rolls of (hopefully pliable) loo paper. At least you can now say you've … Read more

Greenland ice melt may cause dramatic change of northeast coasts

A new study from the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) has found that Greenland's melting ice may have a greater effect on sea level rise on the northeastern coasts of the U.S. and Canada than previously hypothesized.

"If Greenland's ice melts at moderate to high rates, ocean circulation by 2100 may shift and cause sea levels off the northeast coast of North America to rise by about 12 to 20 inches (about 30 to 50 centimeters) more than in other coastal areas. The research builds on recent reports that have found that sea level rise … Read more

Dell bans export of e-waste to developing countries

Each time you buy a computer monitor from Dell's Web site, you have to pay between $8 and $25 for a "State Environmental Fee."

I always wondered how that fee would be spent. After all, last time I was in Vietnam, I spotted many used and dated computers and monitors from Dell and HP in Internet cafes and online gaming centers. There are also shops in Hanoi specializing in gathering broken computers from these brands to sell parts.

But that's going to change, slightly. On Tuesday, Dell, with its new Electronics Disposition Policy (PDF), officially banned … Read more

BreezeDry: Air-dry your laundry, indoors

When young we learn at an astonishing rate. Soon after we learn about Mother's Day, we learn about Father's Day. The next logical thought in the process is to ask when "Kid's Day" is. The answer I always got was short, simple, and true: "Every day is Kid's Day." The recent Earth Day makes me think of this answer, and the realization that truly every day is Earth Day.

Here's a concept I really like: a self-enclosed drying cabinet for clothes right out of the wash. The BreezeDry ambient drying cabinet … Read more

Q&A: What really goes into that carbon footprint?

Sustainability may be all the rage but, as the song says, it's not easy being green.

Without widespread standards, companies are struggling with how to properly calculate and disclose their carbon footprint to the public. And many don't have the financial resources to address environmental resource concerns.

Kevin Wilhelm is the chair of the Greater Seattle Chamber of Commerce Sustainability Committee and CEO of Sustainable Business Consulting. His new book, "Return on Sustainability," which got endorsements from environmentalists Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Laurie David, takes a shot at deciphering the ins and outs of corporate … Read more

How to reduce your impact on the planet

Earth Day happens one day a year. But it should spur us to do our best to reduce our impact on the environment for the other 364.

I've picked five sites that provide a framework for how to live your life in a way that's better for the environment. Whether it's car-pooling or simply eating the right foods, you'll find ways to be a more responsible Earthling.

The tools of the trade

Carbon Diet

Though there are countless "carbon calculators" on the Web that try to measure your carbon footprint, the Carbon Diet does it better.

When you start using Carbon Diet, you'll be required to input your usage of electricity, natural gas, and vehicle fuel. Simply input your monthly bill amounts and Carbon Diet will do the rest. It then calculates your impact on the environment. You can go back each month to update your usage. As you input more information about your activities, it continuously modifies your impact, displaying graphs and charts to give you a visual outline of what you're doing to the planet.

The best tool on Carbon Diet is its "analysis" feature, which examines your activities and gives you tips toward becoming a more responsible environmentalist. It told me that I need to stop driving so much. I also need to turn the TV off instead of leaving it on for most of the day.

You'll learn a lot from Carbon Diet. It's the best carbon calculator I've seen. Try it out.

The Daily Green

The Daily Green is the best resource for green living on the Web. It delves into healthy recipes, better living, low-impact gardening, and more.

When you first go to The Daily Green, you'll probably have trouble finding what you're looking for simply because there's so much content to consult. If you start with the news, you'll find a host of interesting articles and discussions on topics that relate to the green lifestyle. The section is also filled with articles on political news surrounding environmental concerns.

But the most value you'll get from The Daily Green can be found in the site's "Tips and Advice" tab, which shows you ways to save money with green products. The site also provides advice on how to turn your home green so you become a more responsible environmentalist.

If you want to change the way you eat, The Daily Green also has green recipes. All of the dishes contain organic products, like soy milk and basmati rice. The site claims green food is just as delicious as dishes that don't use organic ingredients. I can't corroborate that claim--the recipes didn't sound all that appetizing to me.

The Daily Green is the perfect destination to immerse yourself in the green lifestyle. It makes you a better inhabitant of Earth.… Read more

Earth Day a good time to rethink power use

Earth Day, which will be celebrated on Wednesday, is a good time to look at the way electronics are using and wasting energy.

Among the culprits are devices that suck power while not in use. I'm not sure how they arrived at this figure, but the U.S. Department of Energy estimates that "in the average home, 75 percent of the electricity used to power home electronics is consumed while the products are turned off." The government advises unplugging devices or using a power strip to turn them off, but this is sometimes inconvenient as it will … Read more