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The tech
industry
has been on the cutting edge of green initiatives lately, with Dell,
HP, Google and others
all claiming different environmental achievements. Now, they’re banding
together to make a bigger impact: the
aforementioned companies, along with a laundry list of other top tech
firms including Intel, IBM, Microsoft, AMD, Sun Microsystems, Lenovo,
and others – are partnering with The World Wildlife Fund and
the Environmental Protection Agency to encourage efficient computer
energy use.

The Climate Savers Computing Initiative
is nothing if not ambitious in its goals. Pat Gelsinger, a senior VP at
Intel, says that they are aiming to reduce annual computer power
consumption 50% by 2010, the equivalent of taking 11 million cars off
the
road. Their website asks consumers and
businesses to participate, and informs them about steps they can take to reduce
their computer energy use. The group currently endorses Energy Star and the 80 Plus Program as labels to look for when
buying computer parts, and they are also planning to roll out their own Climate
Savers standards in the future.

It is great that
these companies are coming together, though I am not sure how much of an impact they
will have by only promoting going green. There are not a lot of new ideas being brought to the table
here,
but perhaps the brand exposure will encourage consumers and businesses
to think about the environment when purchasing their next PC.

via ars
technica

See Also
–HP Gets Gold for Going Green–
–Google Registers ClimateSaverPC.com–

Google has just switched on it’s gigantic solar project and, in traditional Google fashion, has an excellent web-based application tracking its progress. Anyone familiar with Google’s stats package will recognize the software used here, but it’s really cool to see the actual amount of power being generated by the panels at any given time.

And, of course, we have the obligatory "this would power 41,000 alarm clocks for one year" math going on at the bottom of the page.

Category notably not included? "This would power X number of Googleplexes for 24 hours", as that number is unfortunately still less than one.

Nevertheless…props to Google…keep up the good work.

See Also
–Google Follows Yahoo Into Carbon Neutrality–
–Solar Powered Google–
–Our Newsletter–

Turns out you’ve got another reason to go Office Space on your InkJet. It’s something that geeks have suspected for quite some time, printers are set to report that cartridges are out of ink far before they actually are.

EPSON (who turned out to be least evil) commissioned the study to determine how full cartridges were when they reported they were "out of ink." The results…some printers report they are "out of ink" when they’re only half empty. Worse, the firmware will continue to nag you about it and occasionally will not even allow you to print until you replace the cartridge. Kodak came in last place, wasting up to 60% of ink, while Epson faired best, wasting about 20%.

I guess I shouldn’t be surprised, since one can literally by a new printer for the same cost as new ink cartridges. This kind of hyper-disposable attitude is completely the opposite of what EcoGeek stands for, and I’ve got a mind to take my printer out into an empty field right now and introduce it to Mr. Louisville.

But for those of you who really do need printers, here are a few tips:

• Avoid single cartridge printers, as the cartridges need to be replaced every time a single color runs out
• Always recycle ink cartridges, all big stores will take them as printer companies will actually pay to get them back
• Print in black and white as often as possible. No reason to waste expensive color ink 95% of the time
• Never listen when your printer says it’s out of ink. It’s lying.

Via TreeHugger and Ars Technica

See also
–Reusable Plastic Paper–
–Electronic Paper–
–EcoGeek Newsletter–

MapQuest is great and all, but what if I want to get to the burning calories instead of gasoline. Well, that’s where WalkIt.com comes in. WalkIt is mapping out cities for bicycle and pedestrian commuters so that they can find the fastest, safest and simplest routes walking routes through their city.

For every trip you map, WalkIt will tell you around how many calories you’ll burn, how long the trip will take at different walking speeds, and how many kg of carbon you’ll avoid. The interface is just as simple as mapquest, though their front page could use a bit of cleaning up.

The biggest problem though, is that only three cities have been mapped out so far, all in the UK. But if you’re a citizen of London, Birmingham or Edinburgh, consider yourself served. A representative from WalkIt has assured me that more cities are on the way, but they aren’t likely to start on the Americas any time soon.

See Also
–Google Public Transit–
–Google Hiking Trails–

Just a couple of months after Yahoo! announced it’s plans to go carbon neutral, Google is laying down it’s cards as well. Google has a bit of a head start, though, as they’ve just switched on their multi-megawatt solar installation and so automatically have less carbon to offset.

On their own, carbon offsets are not capable of creating the kinds
of fundamental changes to our energy infrastructure that will be
necessary to stabilize global greenhouse gas emissions to safe levels, but we believe that offsets can offer real, measurable, and
additional emissions reductions that allow us to take full
responsibility for our footprint today.

Strikingly similar to the language from Yahoo’s announcement really. Google will obviously focus on decreasing emissions through efficiency and renewable energy first. And then they will fund projects that decrease greenhouse gas emissions.

One project Google will fund, for example, is a methane capture facility at Mexican and Brazilian farms. As Methane is a much more powerful greenhouse gas than CO2, it’s an easy target for global warming offsets. Google has set it’s neutrality date for early 2008.

Via Reuters

Since the publication of "The End of Nature" in 1987, Bill McKibben
has been a premier mind in environmentalism. Bill’s most recent book, Deep Economy,
helped me re-think the world in powerful ways, by asking one simple question,
"What is the relationship between ‘more’ and ‘better.’" Bill came
up with some pretty exciting answers, and they form the basis of what he calls
the Deep Economy.

EcoGeek: What is the
Deep Economy, and why do we need it?

Bill Mckibben: We need an economy
that asks questions other than "how can I make it bigger?" the two
key additional questions: "how can the economy make us more satisfied with
our lives?" and, in an age of ecological peril, "how can the economy
assure some durability for our communities?"

EG: What scares your
pants off?

BM: Well, I wrote the first book
about global warming, way back in 1989, and it was called The End of Nature.
That was scary enough for one lifetime — now i’m hard to rattle.

EG: What roll does the
internet play in the Deep Economy?

BM: Crucial. It allows people
to live in tight, close, more economically self-sufficient communities without
being stifled–there’s always a window open to the wider world. Earlier this
year I helped organize the largest grassroots environmental protest since Earth
Day 1970. But isntead of a march on Washington, we had 1,400 marches across
the country. (see stepitup07.org). there’s no way we could have organized it
without the net, nor linked it together afterwards to be more than the sum of
its parts.

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What’s a heklucht? The designers at Studio HiMom have combined a bike stand with
an air pump, so that bicycle commuters can be assured of having fully
inflated tires for their commute.

"The stainless steel construction lends to its durability while the
polished steel exterior shines brightly against the dull, grey of city
sidewalks. The Heklucht is a perfect combination of design and
functionality, and although originally conceived only as an art project,
it most certainly has a place in our urban lives!"

This isn’t flashy high-tech; it is something that just makes sense. And
making it easier and more convenient for people to use their bikes is good
design for us all.

via: StumbleUpon