Cheap Green Computer runs on 2 Watts

As far as green gadgets go, this little desktop computer will give Dell and (to a lesser extent) Apple a run for their money.

The CherryPal promises to be affordable, efficient, and powerful enough for the average PC user. At first glance, that stats on the system look modest, and for good reason. This design actually cuts out 20% of PC components to reduce energy usage. But fear not, despite being small (the size of a paperback), the CherryPal claims it can start up in 20 seconds, and cloud computing provides more power/storage when you need it. A Linux operating system (now more user friendly than ever), and cloud computing means you won’t need to worry about viruses or install protective programs that can slow down your PC.

On a more green note, the CherryPal is supposed to sell for under $400 (monitor, keyboard, etc. not included). It should hit the market on August 4th, 2008. For that price and low energy use, it will appeal to wallets as well as the environmentally conscious. Though there is some understandable skepticism, I’ll praise any manufacturer that lowers the bar on PC environmental impact.

I recently took a blow to all of my electronics in the same week (Murphey’s Law at work), so it’s nice to see alternatives on the market. I’ll definitely have my eye on this cute little computer that thinks it can.

Source:cleantechnica.com
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HP Pitches Green printers, Samsung Green Hard Drives

Samsung promises that its EcoGreen F1 hard drive will consume about 50% less power than traditional hard drives and about 15% less than “other low-power” 1 TB hard drives. The company did not provide the exact specifications, but assumed that Samsung considered the 13.4 watt maximum power consumption of its own 1 TB hard drive as well as Western Digital’s Greenpower hard drives, which claim to consume at least 4 watts less than other 1 TB hard drives, our math would put the Samsung drive into the 7 – 8 watt maximum power range.

The reduction in power consumption is mainly a result of a slower platter rotation speed (down from 7200 to 5400 rpm). Samsung also has an advantage in this field as the company is able to reach 1 TB capacity with only three platters (334 GB) each, its rivals Seagate and WD use four (250 GB) platters. Interestingly, within this group Samsung’s mainstream 1 TB hard drive is the most power hungry drive: Samsung claims the drive consumes somewhere between 5.4 (idle) and 13.4 watts (seek), while Seagate for example rates its 1 TB hard drive at 8 to 11.6 watts.

Samsung said the EcoGreen hard drive will become available during the current quarter with a suggested retail price of $199.

In unrelated news, Hewlett-Packard (HP) announced a far-reaching eco-initiative mainly targeting its printer business. Besides a carbon footprint calculator (which is also offered by Xerox) and a printer power calculator, HP said it has implemented a “global paper policy”, which is governing the sustainable manufacture and use of paper HP sells to customers.

HP said that it will aim to improve the energy efficiency of its ink and laser printing products by 40% by 2011 and will begin bringing power saving technologies such as its auto-on and auto-off feature to its LaserJet series in 2009. Additionally, the company will advance its program to use recycled materials to build new printers: 83% of the total plastic weight of the new Deskjet D2545, which sells for about $45, are made from recycled materials, according to the company. Later this summer, HP green printer are really good and energy efficeient, HP plans to introduce this summer a printer that will feature recycled plastic derived from the company’s "closed loop” plastic recycling system, which incorporates a variety of post-consumer recycled plastics, from HP ink jet cartridges to water bottles.

Over time, the company will put “Eco Highlights” stickers on its printers, which HP says will help customers identify environmental attributes of a product.

Source:tgdaily.com
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Dell Gets Green Gold Star from 80 Plus

DELL was blowing its own green trumpet today, as the firm announced its server power supplies had met an industry target of 92 per cent efficiency at 50 percent load.

The company is apparently the first in the industry to get gold certification from 80 Plus, an outfit which promotes more electrical energy efficient computer power supply units.

80 Plus certification lets manufacturers and customers compare various power supplies using criteria laid down by international standards outfit, Energy Star and Climate Savers Computing Initiative.

According to Dell, not only do its power supplies get a ‘gold star’ from 80 Plus, they also met July 2009 Climate Savers targets for servers, over a year ahead of schedule. Earlier in June, Dell also became the first major computer manufacturer to receive an 80 plus silver certified power supply for the company’s desktops. This latest achievement, the company says, is another brick in the yellow brick road to ultimate green-ness amongst its tech rivals.

Dell has apparently taken on a quest to become the first firm in the tech industry to totally cancel out its global carbon impact by the end of this year. The company reckons it is already saving over $3 million a year and cutting down on almost 20,000 tons of CO2 through power-management programmes and greener facilities.

The firm has also pledged to make laptops and desktops up to 25 percent less power guzzling by 2010, compared to its current offerings.

Source:theinquirer.net
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Dell Launches Energy Efficient Green PC

Dell has come up with its latest Vostro green PC for small businesses called the Vostro Energy Smart 410 Desktop. The latest in a series of energy efficient computer products and initiatives designed to drive customer savings, the Vostro 410 saves customers up to 47 percent in annual energy costs, claimed the company.

The Vostro 410’s features Intel Core 2 Quad, 512MB Nvidia GeForce, 800MHz sys memory, space for four hard drives + 3TB of local storage/memory, six expansion slots, four bays, gigabit Ethernet, 30 day return policy, and no bloatware at all.

"Small businesses are increasingly concerned about rising energy costs," said Frank Muehleman, vice president and general manager, Dell Small and Medium Business. "With the Energy Smart Vostro desktop, we're able to save our customers money and collectively cut down on CO2 emissions, while delivering the features and functionality they require - especially high-performance processing power, graphics technology, fast networking and maximum expandability."

In addition, Vostro customers can also take advantage of Dell’s new services portfolio, ProSupport, which gives them the ability to customize and tailor services to fit their technical expertise and business needs. With growing demand for mobile technology among small businesses, Dell also recently announced its refreshed line of Vostro laptops.

The Vostro 410 carries a price tag of USD 599 and is available worldwide.

Source:sda-india.com/sda_india/psecom,id,22,site_layout,sdaindia,news,23547,p,0.html
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Sony Launches Green TV

Sony's new flat-panel TV Bravia KDL-32JE1 consumes less energy than comparable regular models without compromising image quality -- the latest in Japanese manufacturers' efforts to woo buyers with green products.

The 150,000 yen (US$1,400; euro900) Bravia KDL-32JE1 goes on sale in Japan on July 30 and is planned later for overseas markets although dates and other details aren't decided, Sony Corp's Emi Nagahara said on Tuesday.

In a demonstration at Tokyo headquarters, a watt-counter attached to the new 32-inch Bravia consumed 82 watts of energy to show a Blu-ray disc image of a Spanish city on its liquid crystal display.

Sony achieved the energy savings by developing a brighter back light and better filtering that delivers light more efficiently, officials said.

Compared to an old-style TV with a cathode-ray tube monitor, the new TV consumes about 70 per cent less energy a year.

By consuming less energy, the new "green" TV reduces carbon dioxide emissions totaling 79 kilograms (174 pounds) a year, equivalent to the amount consumed by about six cedar trees, it said.

Consumers also save on their utility bill. In Japan, the green TV delivers about 4,300 yen (US$40; euro25) savings in electricity payments a year compared to an old-style CRT TV, Sony said.

"We think ecology is going to become an important standard that consumers use in choosing products," Nagahara said.

Source:infotech.indiatimes.com/Personal_Tech/Sonys_green_TV_/articleshow/3136428.cms
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Wipro Eco Energy to offer consultancy services

Following the launch of Eco Eye initiative, which is related to green PC revolution with eco-friendly activities, IT major Wipro Ltd is all set to provide consultancy services through its newly-floated arm, Wipro Eco Energy. A team has been constituted which is set to offer its full services by this year end.

According to SA Sudarshan, vice-president, Wipro Eco Energy, (division of Wipro Ltd), the company would be offering consultancy services which would be bundled with the existing services. ''We are looking at offering consultancy services to corporates by becoming their partners and leverage our experiences to reduce carbon footprint,'' he said. For this initiative, the company is looking at customers which are energy-intensive industries, off-grid locations and institutes which consume more power.

Wipro Eco Energy is looking to build a core team of talented professionals with experience in renewable energy technology like solar, wind turbines, biogas and biofuel, geothermal space.

As part of its Eco Eye initiative, Wipro has developed a framework for ecological sustainability. It aims to become carbon neutral, build green data centres, launch greenware PCs, eco-friendly product engineering designs, e-waste disposal service and water treatment solutions.

Incidentally, Wipro Technologies has announced its membership in 'The Green Grid', a global consortium dedicated to advancing energy efficiency in data centers and business computing ecosystems. The initiatives extend from energy efficient data centers to eco-friendly product engineering designs and PC ranges.

These data centers provide Wipro's customers end-to-end services for better utilization of their capacity, thereby helping enterprises to minimize their use of power, cooling and housing equipment, which cause greenhouse gases. The data centers apply practices such as server virtualization to minimize the amount of equipment required for operations.

Meanwhile, the company has about 2.5 million sq.ft constructed space currently. This is likely to be increased to 4 million sq. ft and 10-12 buildings of the company are expected to go green. Further, as part of its financial accounting norms, a report on Carbon Disclosure Programme (CDB) is expected to be ready by the end of December.

Source:http://www.financialexpress.com/news/Wipro-Eco-Energy-to-offer-consultancy-services/325186/
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IBM Toes the Green Line With Energy-Efficient Modular Data Centers

Big Blue announced today that it was introducing a suite of new energy efficient technologies and services to help businesses struggling with surging costs and tougher sustainability requirements. The big push is for “modular”: IBM will sell miniature versions of its data centers that come pre-assembled and cut energy consumption in half.

Its offerings will include:

* An enterprise-class data center, standardized to between 5,000 square feet and 20,000 square feet to help managers bring new installations online faster

* A portable data center, which comes equipped with all the standard features and can be packaged inside a shipping container

* A “high density zone,” a system that can easily be swapped into an existing data center to supplement its cooling and power capabilities.

It’s all part of Project Big Green, a $1 billion plan the company launched last year to develop technologies that improve the energy efficiency of data centers. In an interview with VentureBeat writer Chris Morrison, Cisco’s VP of green engineering, Paul Marcoux, said data center managers were worried about rising costs, risks and their growing energy needs. The cost of electricity has increased 30 percent over the last five years, he said, and is expected to grow another 30 percent within the next 2 - 3 years. By 2020, it could be 2.5 - 5 times what it is now, placing the imperative on IT-heavy firms to look for new technologies.

Virtualization software is one of the most promising technologies for energy-conscious data centers, as it allows a small number of computers to handle multiple jobs or functions, significantly reducing energy use. To support such technology, IBM has also unveiled several new server optimization and integration services that can be used with VMware’s popular virtualization software to enable higher use rates, up to 60 percent, and reduce the number of servers needed.

With this announcement, IBM is joining a fast-growing sector — with startups like Altor Networks, ScaleMP and VirtualLogix and established players like Microsoft locked in fierce competition. In recent months, Microsoft has acquired Kidaro, a desktop virtualization firm, and Sun Microsystems has purchased VirtualBox, a German PC virtualization firm. Red Hat recently claimed that its Linux software reduced energy use by up to 12 percent over Microsoft’s Windows Server 2008 software on identical hardware.

IBM also unveiled two other new offerings:

* Cool Chips, a system designed to boost computer chip performance and reduce chip energy use by cooling them with tiny rivers of water

* Green financing software for its Global Financing division to facilitate the management of businesses’ green data center projects.

With these products, IBM hopes to tap into the emerging energy efficiency sector, which has yet to see large gains despite its potential. A report by the American Council for an Energy-Efficient America recently estimated that energy use could be cut another 25 - 30 percent over the next 20 - 25 years.

Source:venturebeat.com
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Climate Savers add to green push

The Climate Savers Computing Initiative has arrived, with Intel, Dell, Lenovo and EDS holding a local launch at the Going Green Expo in Melbourne last week.

Founded a year ago, the non-profit, industry-wide initiative aims to achieve a 50 per cent improvement in global computer energy efficiency by 2010.

The program's goal of 90 per cent performance for PC power supplies, for both business and home users, would cut greenhouse gas emissions by 54 million tonnes a year, and save more than $US5.5 billion ($5.7 billion) in energy costs.

Google, Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard and the World Wildlife Fund also support the local program, launched by Climate Savers global leader Lorie Wigle.

"Australia's contribution to achieving our goals is vital to our success," she said.

"Improving the energy efficiency of computers is one of the most cost-effective ways of reducing electricity consumption and GHG emissions."

The initiative, which sets aggressive targets for introducing power management systems and buying more efficient technology, is open to any business, government agency or individual.

Google Australia engineering head Alan Noble said the initiative would make a significant contribution to CO2 reduction.

Participating computer manufacturers are committed to building products that meet or surpass the Environmental Protection Agency's Energy Star ratings.

Dell last week became the first major computer maker to offer Silver 80 Plus-certified power supplies for desktops in line with the EPA's Energy Star standard requiring 80 per cent or more efficiency.

Dell also marked its year-old commitment to being "the greenest technology company on the planet" by reporting the recycling of more than 45 million kilograms of IT equipment recovered from customers last year, up 20 per cent from 2006.

HP social and environmental responsibility vice-president Pat Tiernan said the company took its environmental responsibilities very seriously, "but while we have significant industry influence, we realise we cannot do it alone".

"Through our work with Climate Savers, we are aiming at increasing energy efficiency across the IT industry," he said.

EDS Australia green practice leader Sundeep Khisty said the company had developed an "eco-friendly way" of managing desktops and data centres.

Lenovo Australia business manager Otto Ruettinger said it was "constantly evaluating its environmental performance, and raising the bar in delivering energy-efficient PCs".

"Our policy takes a long-term, comprehensive approach, considering everything from site operations to product design to recycling at the end of product life," Mr Ruettinger said.

The big manufacturers will be held to their green promises amid growing pressure from consumers and environmental groups.

Greenpeace, for example, regularly rates the 18 top makers of PCs, mobile phones, televisions and games consoles according to their policies on toxic chemicals and recycling.

Source:australianit.news.com.au/story/0,24897,23836755-15306,00.html
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Consumers Need Educating on Green PCs

Fujitsu Siemens Computers is warning that more needs to be done to promote ‘green' PCs to consumers

The company reports that while 75% of the PCs it sells to professionals organizations are now classified as green, the same move towards environmentally friendly has yet to be seen in the consumer sector.

Stephane Rejasse, managing director for Fujitsu Siemens Computers, Middle East said: "While the regions IT industry is fast changing its attitude towards the environment and adopting ways to reduce toxicity, users should be ready to change their behaviour towards the environment by making green choices. However, recent sales figures show that environmental awareness and knowledge about environmental protection on the part of the public still leave room for improvement."

Fujitsu Siemens recently launched a green PC, aimed at consumers, the Scaleo Green PC. The PC has been certified as compliant with the Energy Star, Nordic Swan and Blue Angel certificates, which assess energy efficiency and general environmental factors such as use of toxic materials, recycle-ability, noise, ergonomics and magnetic fields. The Scaleo is also produced to ISO 14001 standards, meaning more environment friendly production methods.

Rejasse said that it is important for companies to invest in R&D to develop truly green products like the Scaleo, and not just to sell on hype around environmental issues.

"With our green PC concept we want to offer a genuine green alternative to the buying patterns of private customers, whose collective environmental awareness is slowly on the rise. Our aim is for private customers to buy in the same environmentally conscious way as our business customers," he said.

Source:itp.net/news/521419-consumers-need-educating-on-green-pcs-says-fsc#continueArticle
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Environmental awareness – are private consumers buying green PCs?

Environmental awareness – are private consumers buying green PCs?
Fujitsu Siemens Computers sees a pressing need to increase awareness for green IT in the region

Today, environmental awareness is considered to be good form, and since Al Gore committed himself to saving planet Earth the "green" debate has become a thoroughly acceptable topic. However, many see this as enormous media hype that only confuses the consumer. Fujitsu Siemens Computers launched the first SCALEO Green PC for consumers, offering more than hype to substantiate its efforts in promoting green IT. With this, the company is first IT provider with a complete range of environmentally friendly solutions for data centers, offices and private households.

The green PC was developed to satisfy customer requirements for both private and commercial use. Green products account for about 75% of Professional PCs sold by Fujitsu Siemens Computers.

“While the regions IT industry is fast changing its attitude towards the environment and adopting ways to reduce toxicity, users should be ready to change their behavior towards the environment by making green choices. However, recent sales figures show that environmental awareness and knowledge about environmental protection on the part of the public still leave room for improvement,” explains Stephane Rejasse, Managing Director for Fujitsu Siemens Computers, Middle East. "With our green PC concept we want to offer a genuine green alternative to the buying patterns of private customers, whose collective environmental awareness is slowly on the rise. Our aim is for private customers to buy in the same environmentally conscious way as our business customers.

In order to manage that, private consumers need clarity. "We as a company see it as the duty of the IT branch of industry, the economy, and the media to increase awareness," continues Rejasse. "As an industry that makes a significant contribution towards worldwide energy consumption, we are obliged to explain in detail that there is more to environmental protection than just media hype. Consumers can reduce their effect on the environment and at the same time save energy, which considering the increase in energy prices is ultimately a real cost benefit for our customers."

Consequently, the pressure on companies not to launch misleading environmental protection measures is also on the increase, and they are compelled to sell only genuine "green" products as such and to thus invest in the research and development of environmentally friendly products.

Fujitsu Siemens Computers believes the regions media is playing a significant role in spreading eco-awareness. Rejasse adds: "The public needs to revise its thinking and we are helping the private and individual consumers to make the right decision by providing detailed information through the media and direct interaction. Behaving in an environmentally friendly way does not mean doing without the comfort and technology of the modern world. The customer's purchase decisions can also highlight this issue and force business to align technical innovation and design with the environment. Turning the lights out for a few minutes once a year does very little for the environment itself; Energy-efficient light bulbs, low-consumption cars and the like are a good start, but no more than just that - a start."

The company recently ran a series of ‘Green IT’ business events in UAE and Saudi Arabia, involving a number of its customers to discuss the merits and suitability of more sustainable, environmentally-friendly IT systems for the Middle East region.

The SCALEO Green PC makes it clear how environmentally friendly a computer can be and what can be achieved by a company with the appropriate research and development: the PC has acquired the Nordic Swan, Blue Angel and Energy Star certificates. All these certificates are based on very stringent guidelines so that the customer can be completely certain that he has not just bought a supposedly green product, but has actively done something for the environment.

Source:albawaba.com/en/countries/UAE/229009
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Vodafone to halve CO2 emissions by 2020

Vodafone has said it will halve its global carbon dioxide emissions by 2020, and will only use carbon offsetting as a last resort.

The reduction is to be measured against Vodafone's emissions in the 2006/07 period, which came to 1.23 million tonnes of CO2, the company said. According to Arun Sarin, the company's chief executive, the move is "the right decision for a responsible business to take".

"It is good for the environment but also makes sense for the business," said Sarin on Monday. "It resonates from a financial perspective, as improving energy efficiency helps us to control costs. We have reviewed the options, including carbon offsetting, and have concluded that the most effective strategy is to cut our CO2 emissions directly. There are no simple solutions to what is a complex challenge but, through operational changes and technological innovation, we will focus on improving energy efficiency in our networks, which account for 80 percent of our emissions."

Vodafone recently entered into a network sharing agreement with Orange but, according to a Vodafone spokesperson, this will not factor significantly into the CO2 reduction goals as the agreement covers the sharing of mast sites, rather than base station equipment.

The spokesperson also said that Vodafone would be using renewable energies to contribute towards its goals — with the type of renewable energy depending on the country in question — and would only use carbon offsetting as a "last resort". The CO2 reductions will be measured in absolute terms, rather than being measured as relative to network traffic, the spokesperson said.

"This is a significant commitment from one of the world's largest companies," said Jonathan Porritt, founder of the Forum for the Future and an adviser for Vodafone on sustainability issues.

"With a simultaneous focus on the products and services that they offer — and thus on helping their customers to reduce their emissions — Vodafone has the opportunity to show real leadership. 2020 may sound a long way away, but it is what Vodafone does over the next two or three years which will determine whether or not they hit that 50 percent target," said Porritt.

Tom Delay, the chief executive of the Carbon Trust, also welcomed Vodafone's move, saying it was "what consumers expect and want to see from leading businesses in the UK and abroad".

A spokeperson for Vodafone Australia said a local response to the carbon cuts will be issued today.

Vodafone Australia has a "strategy underway" to reduce greenhouse gases, said the spokeperson, which includes an annual corporate responsibility report, first published in September 2007, containing information on carbon emissions and renewable energy initiatives.

"Fifteen percent of Vodafone of Australia is powered by green, renewable energy. We're looking at how to continue to up the ante on that at a level that is commercially viable. We'll look to buy green energy — which obviously comes at a premium — and balance that with the cost of doing business," the spokesperson told ZDNet.com.au today.

Source:zdnet.com.au
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Don't just put old PCs out on the curb

An estimated 500,000 computers in the United States alone are considered obsolete, and the way you throw away those old computers could determine the future health of our environment.

It they are tossed out with other trash, chances are they'll eventually leak toxic chemicals such as lead, mercury and cadmium into our soil, water and even the air.

"It's really just trace amounts of these hazardous elements that are in each individual PC, but with the hundreds of millions of PCs that are being disposed of every year and with more of the them, the countless that are sitting on desktops and in homes, it's this aggregate problem of throwing all of those in a landfill that creates a real toxic hazard for us," said Jeremy Kaplan, of goodcleantech.com.

Besides the computers, add mp3 players, cell phones, televisions and the like and you can see the importance of disposing of the devices properly.

You could also recycle those electronics or donate the equipment to schools or community centers, which would be a tax credit. You might even want to ask how your recycler handles recycling.

"We try and process everything here domestically so that none of it goes out to these kind of strange processing plants that we've heard about with children in China or whatnot trying to break apart old electronics to earn $5," Jazmin Hupp, of Tekserve, said.

One important note to remember about throwing away computers, make sure to either remove the hard drive before recycling or download software that will permanently delete all of your data.

The United States Environmental Protection Agency has a Web site dedicated to answering questions about donating or recycling your old computer equipment.

Source:news14.com/content/headlines/596081/don-t-just-put-old-pcs-out-on-the-curb/Default.aspx
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