Dell is now rolling out a new waste disposal services for SMBs, including free curbside pickup.
I have a feeling the service is only available in the US for now, which is a shame. But well done Dell.
Programmable Web writes up the open source, open data AMEE carbon calculator.
I recently covered freecycle… a service to help people offload useful stuff to each other when they don’t want it anymore. Now comes news that Islington Council is recycling the freecycle approach, with its own SwapXhange, which appears to be going really well.
So far over 17,000 people have visited the Islington Swapxchange website and you have swapped over 16 tonnes of items . This is the equivalent of 354 fridge freezers, 785 televisions, 1040 lawnmowers or 114 pianos!
Well done posh Islingtonites! 😉
photocredit – EVERYDAYLIFEMODERN
In other good local news, a case-study driven report from the Society of IT Management (Socitm) urges local authority IT departments to take action to make their operations more environmentally friendly. See the Computerworld story here.
Another cool Computerworld story is this story on employee-owned retailer John Lewis, a cool interview with Gary Hird, technical infrastructure manager. Two points to note.
One: employee ownership means that “gimmicks” to make people, say, turn off the lights, are more effective. Signs don’t say “turn off the lights, its green”…. they say “Switch off – it’s eating my bonus”.
Two: maybe mainframes aren’t so bad after all. I loved this throwaway line:
An audit of server usage revealed a low 8% utilisation. “Our mainframe has nearly 100% utilisation,” points outs Hird. “Clearly, the Intel servers could do better.”
The solution- implement VMware.