Climate Savers Launches Green Computer Catalog

Having trouble finding a new server or desktop PC that takes it easy on the juice and minimizes the impact on global warming? Then you might want to check out a new online product catalog launched this week by Climate Savers Computing Initiative that provides a list of IT equipment that meets the group's efficiency guidelines.

Climate Savers was created this summer by a consortium of vendors, including Microsoft and Hewlett-Packard, with the goal of reducing computers' electricity consumption by 50 percent by 2010. It also hopes to encourage computer and component manufacturers to build products that meet new Energy Star energy efficiency guidelines.

Publishing the online catalog is a way to help IT equipment buyers become more aware of the green computing options on the market, according to Climate Savers. Currently, the catalog contains more than 300 compliant products, including servers, PCs, laptops, motherboards, power supplies, power supply components, and power management software.

The catalog includes Primergy servers from Fujitsu-Siemens, ProLiant servers from HP, a server from Quanta, the Taiwanese computer maker, and about 70 server configurations from Super Micro Computer, a computer maker based in San Jose, California.

"This new catalog showcases some of the energy efficient products available today so that individuals and IT departments can make smarter computing choices," says Matthew Guyer, director of corporate relations for the World Wildlife Fund, which is closely affiliated with Climate Savers.
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Toshiba plants trees for greener PCs

There are a limited number of ways a computer firm can go green, and by far the most popular option is signing up to tree-planting schemes. And now, Toshiba has followed the likes of Dell and PC World, and given anyone buying a new laptop the chance to pay a sum of £1.18 to make their purchase a 'carbon zero' one. The trees planted to achieve this, they say, will be native broad-leafed trees, in a new developing woodland called Sand Martin Wood in Cumbria. To find out how to get your hands on a carbon zero computer, there's more info here.


Other computer firms have done to reduce their carbon footprints:

1) RM is focusing on electricity consumption to make its gadgets greener, and has developed a lower-energy PC called the EcoQuiet.

2) HP is tackling the green challenge from an employee perspective. In other words, your PC may consume a lot of energy when you get it home, but at least you'll know that workers in HP plants and offices are being encouraged to recycle and save energy as part of a 'carbon footprint challenge.'

3) IBM is taking quite a holistic approach to reducing its carbon emissions. It launched a billion dollar programme earlier in the year aimed at increasing energy efficiency at its data centres, as well as a separate green programme that looked at making improvements off-site.

4) Apple crawled back into Greenpeace's good books in the summer, when it was ranked as the 'most imrpoved' tech company this year in the organisation's guide to greener electronics. This reflects a lot of hard work by Steve Jobs et al in the Greener Apple pledge.

5) Dell remains the highest-ranked computer firm in the Greenpeace list.

Src: http://www.hippyshopper.com/2007/11/toshiba_plants.html
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CallWave Virtual Fax Helps Corporate America Go Green

CallWave, Inc. today announced the availability of CallWave Virtual Fax. Designed so users can conveniently send and receive faxes right from their computer, CallWave Virtual Fax provides corporations, mobile professionals and entrepreneurs with a new user-friendly, affordably-priced, environmentally-conscious communications solution. With CallWave’s Eco-Friendly Virtual Fax, Businesses Save Money, Time and the Environment

“Faxing is an essential part of office activities, but the traditional faxing process has surprisingly negative impacts on our environment – wasting paper, killing trees and emitting toxic particles and gases into the atmosphere,” said Jeff Cavins, Chief Executive Officer of CallWave. “With CallWave Virtual Fax, professionals can quickly and easily communicate – while saving paper, toner and energy. Easy-to-use, cost-effective and green, CallWave Virtual Fax is a powerful fax solution for today’s executive.”

Fax – The Silent Eco-Killer
Fax machines are one of the most energy intensive office tools. Even when idle, they consume energy – and energy production is one of the biggest sources of carbon emissions. However, the damage done by faxing goes beyond the machine itself as U.S. companies use 210 billion sheets of paper each year for faxing alone. 17 million trees are lost annually to supply this paper, contributing to global warming and soil erosion, among several other environmental problems.

CallWave Virtual Fax – The Green Solution
CallWave Virtual Fax offers a simple and effective way to protect the environment – eliminating paper from the faxing process and making the energy-inefficient fax machine obsolete. Additionally, CallWave Virtual Fax removes the need for ink and toner cartridges, two forms of non-biodegradable waste that fill landfills and result in methane and other greenhouse gases.

CallWave Virtual Fax, is available now at prices up to 35% less than the competition. For a limited time, interested subscribers can enjoy a seven-day free trial – saving paper and energy with no obligation. For additional details please visit www.callwave.com.
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Great green gadgets - Terrapass

Over the last few weeks, TerraPass has started selling a handful of products that help to save money and energy around the home and office. Two of my particular favorites are the Smart Strip and the Kill A Watt.

Product 1: Smart Strip
The Smart Strip aims to solve a problem that has become a particular bugbear of mine: electronics sitting on standby and chargers plugged in, keeping warm on your electricity bill. The average home consumes 5-10% of its total energy bill in wasted standby electricity. The International Energy Agency says (pdf) that roughly 1% of global carbon dioxide emissions are caused by standby power alone.

You can attach all the computer peripherals like External monitor, Printer, Modem, Speakers and subwoofer, USB hub

Each one of these accessories has its own power supply, and every one of them has a standby mode. And none of them is necessary unless I’m using the computer.

This is where the Smart Strip helps. The basic idea is that when my laptop is off, everything else is turned off. Completely off. Plug your main appliance into the Smart Strip’s blue control socket. When your main appliance is on, everything else is on. When it’s off, everything else is off. If you have something (a desk lamp?) that needs to stay on independent of the others, you can plug it into a red socket to receive constant power.

The Smart Strip is also a surge protector, and the model we’re currently stocking includes fax and modem protection.

Last night (strictly in the name of science) I left all the peripherals mentioned above on standby instead of turning them completely off. Over 14 hours I wasted 0.82 kWh of electricity. Average this out over the year (with a heady 1.4 kWh per weekend day) and you end up with 361 kWh for the year. At California energy prices that will set you back $54 — and 300lbs CO2. Which means you can buy a Smart Strip and still have $20 left over. Aren’t we nice to you?


Product 2: Kill A Watt
You may be wondering how I measured my energy savings from the Smart Strip. Enter the Kill A Watt. The Kill A Watt is a great gadget for any eco-geek. It doesn’t save you any electricity directly, but it shows you where you can save.

Our office Kill A Watt is in high demand as people try to figure out, for example, whether the coffee machine is more economically left on, keeping warm, or whether it is better to heat it up from cold every time it’s needed (turns out keeping it on during peak coffee demand is most efficient).

The Kill A Watt embodies a theme we talk about a lot at TerraPass: understand your carbon footprint and then take steps to reduce it. The device is a real-life carbon calculator. Use it around the home and office; challenge yourself and your colleagues to reduce your energy costs; figure out which appliance is sucking the most power (it’s the second fridge, I’ll bet).

As well as standard metering functions, the Kill A Watt calculates cumulative energy use, which you can use to quickly work out how much any individual appliance is costing you.
src: http://www.terrapass.com/blog/
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Cutting energy use in data centres - Case Study

A QUICK flick through the annual reports of the largest corporations here and overseas shows that many captains of industry have been bitten by the climate change bug and most will finger technology for a share of the blame.

For those companies' suppliers the pressure is mounting to ensure that products meet the green-friendly prerogatives of Fortune 1000 and ASX200 members, or contracts may be on the line.

At Macquarie Telecom the pressure is acute, with the Department of Environment and Water Resources and the National Water Commission among its customers.

"Multinationals, large corporations and government agencies are very mindful of it and spend time with you to understand your green credentials," Macquarie Telecom hosting managing director Aidan Tudehope says.

"We are more at the stage today where it's a contributing factor to the decision, so I don't think it's a veto criterion, but it absolutely will become one."

Fortunately for Macquarie, the sustainability push coincides with the company's own efforts to pare back its impact on the environment, which Tudehope says started purely as a green concern but is emerging as a cost-saver for the business.

Macquarie, like most big corporate and government IT users only kicked off its eco-friendly campaign in the past year, but Tudehope says it has been able to score some early wins, including a 6 per cent reduction in power consumption at its hosting centre in just two months.

"Last financial year was the start of the program and this financial year it hits very strongly in our operating plan," Tudehope says.

Macquarie is exploring a range of information technologies, such as virtualisation and new server hardware to drive down energy consumption, but there are a few basic first steps organisations can take, Tudehope says.

Those steps include metering individual server racks to measure electricity use, and finessing the design of the Macquarie Intellicentre hosting facility's cooling systems, which both contributed to the 6 per cent energy saving.

"The IT space is a heavy consumer of energy and therefore has a significant carbon footprint," Tudehope says.

"If you can't measure and monitor something, the chances are you're not going to change whatever it is you want to change."

The metering has confirmed generally held views that the biggest consumers of energy are data centre cooling, and the computer power unites and storage systems inside servers.

Cooling and server operations are tightly linked and companies such as Macquarie typically consume 1kW of power in cooling for every kilowatt used to run computer equipment.

According to Tudehope, Macquarie has taken a number of steps to make its cooling systems more efficient, including plugging gaps between floor tiles so chilled air running beneath the facility is only pumped directly into server racks.

The company has also set aside commonly held assumptions about the best temperature at which to operate gear.

"There's often a view that you need to have a computer room running at 16 degrees Celsius," Tudehope says.

"IT equipment doesn't need to run at 16 degrees, it is very happy running certainly into the low 20s and for some items even into the mid-20s. For every degree you increase the temperature, there's an immediate impact on your carbon footprint."

Macquarie has also begun to turn the screws on its suppliers as it moves to consolidate early gains and increase energy savings resulting from green IT strategy.

The telco expects to decide a major server contract in the next few weeks that will account for a big lump of the Intellicentre's $6 million a year capital budget, and Tudehope says environmental concerns are important in the tender process.

The company is also deploying VMware virtualisation technology that will deliver benefits, including reduced power consumption.

"There's a lot of vendor hype in the marketplace and numerous vendors are very clearly articulating their green credentials. We've had to understand those credentials and how we can benefit from them because there is no standard matrix through which you can easily compare one server manufacturer against another."

THE PROBLEM
Environmental concerns weighed heavily on Macquarie Telecom as shareholders and customers looked to the company to establish its green credentials.

THE PROCESS
In the first phase of the eco-friendly IT strategy Macquarie installed electricity metres on server racks, raised operating temperatures and tweaked cooling designs.

THE RESULT
Over two months the company reduced its facility's power consumption by 6 per cent.
SRC: http://www.australianit.news.com.au/story/0,24897,22822626-24169,00.html

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UK green electronics drive must keep going

More UK businesses must invest in eco-friendly office equipment, it has been claimed.
Research by Siemens Financial Services highlighted a lack of green products available as well as the initial cost of implementing a green strategy.

In its report, entitled Our Green and Pleasant Land, the firm encouraged electronics manufacturers to expand their environmentally-friendly product ranges.
It was revealed that one in four UK firms polled now measure their carbon footprint, while two-fifths have set up carbon-reduction initiatives. UK Green PC

“This independently conducted research amongst British businesses provides a really encouraging picture, but also reveals some serious barriers to a significant increase in low-emission equipment investment,” confirmed Rod Tonna-Barthet, director of Siemens Financial Services.

Manchester-based Tranquil PC have claimed that the vast numbers of computers in use today makes them key to tackling emissions and energy use across the globe.
According to the eco-IT specialists, some businesses have already started to switch to “greener machines”, with various government organisations and firms changing ten or 20 computers every month.
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How to green your electronics

These days, the news is full of stories about the environment. What is the government doing to help? What lengths are factories engaging in to improve the air? Can one person really make that much of a difference? The answer to the last question is yes, particularly when it comes to certain key home purchases.

In the developed world, we have grown used to electronics in our daily lives. From the alarm clock and hairdryer, to light fixtures and appliances; from sunrise to sunset, our electronics enhance our lives. But many concerns have been raised about the effect all these products may have on our planet, in how they’re made and the way they work. The good news is: you don’t have to give up your creature comforts to do your part for the environment. You just have to know enough to make smart choices and change some small habits. Here are some things you can do to reduce your personal burden on the environment.

Getting rid of energy-draining items such as your old-fashioned television and that half-empty extra fridge in the basement will go a long way towards reducing energy use in your home. The technology behind today’s LCD televisions, such as the Sharp AQUOS range, means they use a lot less energy than a conventional TV. Over the years, that can equate to a ton of money saved in hydro bills and a lot less carbon being pumped into the atmosphere.

When you’re thinking about replacing major appliances and household electronics, give some extra thought to how these products are made - and what will become of them at the end of their life. With a little online research, or by talking to a knowledgeable in-store expert, you should be able to determine whether that latest gadget you’ve been craving is actually riddled with heavy metals and other toxic materials. Look for products manufactured in a sustainable way, using recycled and renewable materials, and with a long life cycle.

Another way to green your electronics is simply to turn them off when they’re not in use. This doesn’t only apply to obvious products like stereos and DVD players, but when your laptop computer’s power adapter is plugged in, it’s still drawing a charge - even if your computer is off. The same goes for your cell phone and all mobile device chargers. Most battery chargers just aren’t smart enough to know to stop doing their job just because the device isn’t attached. To save constantly plugging and unplugging your chargers, a simple power bar allows you to switch everything off at the same time.

Stringing up holiday lights is a lot of work so it’s natural to want to enjoy them as much as possible. However, turning the lights off when you go to bed and during the day will help to cut your hydro bill this winter. A cheap timer switch or, even better, a light-activated one, will save you money and reduce your carbon emissions.

Preserving our environment is a challenging task and everyone needs to do their part. Turning off lights, choosing eco-friendly products, and unplugging electronics seems simple enough, but simple steps can go a long way, and you’ll notice the savings in your pocket too.

Credit: www.newscanada.com
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