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Green bits and bytes for April 28th 2011

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Green bits & bytes

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I haven’t done a Green bits and bytes posting in a while so here are some of the Green announcements which passed by my desk this last few weeks:

  1. Siemens has started a Smart Grid Innovation Contest, basically you submit new ideas that could be implemented in the near future, add supporting material (images, business plan, etc.), tag it and submit. You can submit more than one idea and all ideas can be viewed, commented on and rated. And there are lots of prizes to be won too.
  2. Switch Lighting have announced a new LED technology “that produces the brightest warm light LED replacement bulb available. The switch bulbs are dimmable and were designed with Cradle-to-Cradle principles in mind, according to Switch. ?The unique design of Switch bulbs signals the company?s intention to offer brilliant lighting as a service for humanity,? says William McDonough, who developed the Cradle to Cradle protocol with German chemist Michael Braungart. What’d be great is if they had a way to buy the bulbs on the site!
  3. Sandbag issued a report [PDF] outlining how the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) is building up a mountain of surplus pollution permits, instead of reducing the growth of emissions. These banked permits will allow pollution to grow unchecked for years.

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Green bits and bytes for Feb 24th 2011

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Green bits & bytes

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Some of the Green announcements which passed by my desk this week:

  1. Digital Lumens, maker of Intelligent LED Lighting Systems, today announced that its Midbay fixture is the only ?Recognized Winner? in the Industrial Category of the Next Generation Luminaires competition. The competition is jointly organized by the Illuminating Engineering Society of North America (IESNA), the International Association of Lighting Designers (IALD) and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), as part of a broad initiative to advance solid-state lighting technology and adoption.
  2. Symphony Environmental Technologies, a maker of degradeable plastics has announced [PDF] the signing of a 25 year distribution agreement for its products throughout the US. According to their announcement, “The core of Symphony?s business is a suite of chemical formulations called d2w, which turn plastic at the end of its service-life into a material with a completely different molecular structure. At that stage it is no longer a plastic and can be safely bioassimilated in the open environment in the same way as a leaf”
  3. The Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) released a new report detailing the full range of subsidies that have benefited the commercial nuclear power industry in the United States over the last 50 years. The report found that subsidies for the entire nuclear fuel cycle — from uranium mining to long-term waste storage — have often exceeded the average market price of the power produced. In other words, if the government had purchased power on the open market and given it away for free, it would have been less costly than subsidizing nuclear power plant construction and operation.
  4. The International Aluminium Institute has launched a new Website, Aluminium for Future Generations to highlight the recycling advantages of aluminium products. The site provides data on recycling rates and energy and emissions savings; measures that are central to the aluminium industry’s sustainability strategy of reducing the environmental impact of its facilities, increasing the use of aluminium in energy saving applications and maximising the recycling of products at the end of their useful life.
  5. Environmental Business Journal, a business research publication that provides strategic business intelligence for the environmental industry, announced the winners of its 2010 Business Achievement awards. One of those awarded was Locus Technologies, who were awarded an IT Companies Business Achievement award for ” for growth in revenue, client base, and product introductions”

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Green bits and bytes for Feb 17th 2011

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Green bits & bytes

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Some of the Green announcements which passed by my desk this week:

  1. Greenstone Carbon Management, a UK based carbon solutions company, has announced that it will be exhibiting at the GreenPort Logistics and Energy for Green Ports conferences, held in Venice during the 23rd and 24th February 2011. Greenstone will be showcasing their Acco2unt carbon management software can help organisations in the marine sector.
  2. Martifer Solar has been chosen by The Hertz Corporation to install 2.48MW of solar PV at 14 locations across the US. The 2.48 MW system will supply enough energy to power approximately 300 homes per year and will offset the CO2 emissions of 271,009 gallons of consumed gasoline annually.
  3. The Global Biofuels Center recently ranked the top 25 countries in terms of capacity for both biodiesel and ethanol. The US and Brazil account for the majority of biofuels operating capacity in the world.
  4. In what must be ironic timing given Vodafone’s shutting down of the mobile phone network during the uprising in Egypt, the Vodafone Foundation has announced that it is deepening its partnership with disaster relief agency T?l?coms sans Fronti?res (TSF) to help bring emergency mobile communications to disaster zones.

    Under the three-year partnership, the Vodafone Foundation will give the agency financial support of ?1 million towards its core costs. Vodafone will also be on-hand to provide TSF with innovative mobile equipment for use in emergency situations alongside technical expertise from its employees.

    Vodafone has sealed the partnership by designing and trialling a portable mobile network that could help relief workers to reach victims more quickly.

  5. RSB Funds and Martifer Solar have come together to offer public entities such as municipalities and special districts in the US the opportunity to obtain solar through a third party ownership model. This has been made possible by the Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization, and Job Creation Act of 2010 and in this case the benefits provided by the Act will be shared with the Host in the form of lower power costs.
  6. Social impact gaming indie developer Red Redemption announces that the global English language edition of their PC game Fate of the World is now scheduled for release on Monday February 28, 2011. Fate of the World is a global strategy game covering the next two centuries, from 2020 to 2200, in which the player must find a way to protect Earth’s ever-depleting resources and climate whilst reconciling the needs of a growing world population who demand more food, power, and living space.

    There will be a special US presentation with the NOAA in Ashville North Carolina, February 24 before a panel of distinguished Climate Change scientists including Dr. Otis Brown – Director of NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center who states “The use of real data and models provides an excellent introduction to the complexities of balancing global energy needs with available resources.”

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Green bits and bytes for Feb 10th 2011

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Green bits & bytes

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Some of the Green announcements which passed by my desk this week:

  1. Digital Lumens announced that its Intelligent Light Engines have received NOM (Normas Oficiales Mexicanas) and UL (Underwriters Laboratories Canada) marks, which are respectively Mexican and Canadian certification equivalents of UL Listing in the United States and allow the products to be sold in Mexico and Canada.
  2. CA Technologies and Capgemini announced a partnership to establish a global Energy, Carbon and Sustainability Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) service. The idea of the partnership, is to help customers better manage complex sustainability data collection and increasingly challenging reporting demands, enabling them to focus on sustainability strategy and carbon reduction activities.
  3. Sandbag.org.uk has reported that the EU Commission has voted to ban industrial gas offset credits from HFC and N20 destruction projects from the next phase of the EU Emissions Trading Scheme, beginning in 2013. This, they say, is important because it shows a willingness to fix the problem on the part of the politicians and because it shows that campaigning works!
  4. CA Technologies have announced that Cynthia Curtis has been promoted to vice president and chief sustainability officer
  5. Career Intelligence (i.e. recruitment) site Vault.com has launched a new section of their site dedicated entirely to Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). The new CSR area of the site helps jobseekers discover the types of careers in this burgeoning field, and commentary on how CSR is changing traditional career fields.
  6. Boston-Power, maker of high-end lithium-ion batteries, recently announced the installation of Keith Schmid as CEO. Schmid takes over from company founder Christina Lampe-?nnerud will become executive chairman. Schmid joins Boston-Power from Power Distribution, Inc., a provider of power distribution equipment and services, where he served as president and chief executive.

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Green bits and bytes for Feb 3rd 2011

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Green bits & bytes

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Some of the Green announcements which passed by my desk this week:

  1. Capgemini just announced that it can offer its utility customers deployment services, project management, technical and customer support related to Intel’s new Home Energy Dashboard. The Dashboard is a device, based on Intel architecture, that enables utilities to interact directly with consumers in the home.
  2. IDA Ireland – the country’s inward investment promotion agency reported recently that Intel and SAP are establishing a ?1.7m research and development centre in Belfast with the support of Invest NI. This is the first time that Intel and SAP have established a shared physical location with pooled resources.
  3. Both of data centre owner Telehouse’s London data centre’s have been awarded the Carbon Trust Standard. The Standard certifies that organisations have measured, managed and reduced their carbon emissions across their own operations, and are committed to reducing them year-on-year.
  4. Sentilla – a provider of software to track energy performance management for data centres announced version 3.3 of their Energy Manager application. The new version automatically records how much work is performed, how much energy is consumed, the cost of running each service, and the efficiency of each service. This enables enterprises to make informed, strategic decisions about where to run applications, how and when to virtualize, and how to get the most out of their equipment and power capacity.
  5. A new report by management consulting firm A.T. Kearney which looks at climate change actions and performance of 57 global companies and 1,000 of their suppliers across a broad cross-section of industries concludes that businesses are now seeing a return on investment from embedding sustainable practices into the procurement function. It goes on to assert that this indicates an emerging trend in supply chain engagement and collaboration.

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Green bits and bytes for Jan 27th 2011

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Green bits & bytes

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Some of the Green announcements which passed by my desk this week:

  1. This year’s annual Transmission & Distribution Europe and Smart Grids Europe conference will be held in Copenhagen from 12-14 April. More than 30 utilities, as well as utility experts, regulators and technology giants from all over Europe, as well as the USA, South Africa, Japan and Australia, will be attending. I hope to be there too!
  2. Synapse Energy Economics released a report this week which outlines in detail the enormous hidden health and water impacts of coal and nuclear power in the US.

    Some of the costs mentioned in the report include 200 billion gallons of water withdrawn from America?s water supply each day ? annual costs to society from premature deaths due to power plant pollution so high that they are up to four times the price of all electricity produced in the U.S. ? and four metric tons of high-level radioactive wastes for every terawatt of electricity produced by nuclear reactors, even though there is no long-term storage solution in place.

  3. Optimum Energy, maker of heating, ventilating and air conditioning software solutions, has rolled out a new partner program with enhanced project development tools and training resources. Optimum Energy’s software maximizes the energy reduction potential of high-efficiency, variable speed heating and cooling systems, leading to energy savings for customers and the ability to improve overall project return on investment.
  4. Tropos Networks, maker of wireless IP networks for Smart Grids, has added two new products to its portfolio – the Tropos 1310 Distribution Automation (DA) Mesh Router and their Directional Radio Systems to deliver economical long range, high capacity wireless communications for sparse suburban and rural areas or as backhaul for Tropos Mesh networks.
  5. New York’s Mayor Bloomberg launched an Urban Technology Innovation Center at Columbia university. The center brings together academia, the public sector and companies like IBM to design and deploy new technology that will help the city’s buildings save energy, water and other resources. The challenge is to use advanced IT systems – analytics software and powerful new hardware – to create facilities that reduce energy, streamline operations and optimise real estate use.

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Green Bits and Bytes for January 20th 2011

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Green bits & bytes

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Here are a few of the Green announcements which crossed my desk this week:

  1. A new scheme called SunShare launched in the UK this week. The scheme allows home-owners to invest in solar panels for their home for only a part of the upfront installation costs. This means that qualifying UK homes can now get a fully installed solar PV system for as little as ?3,999, they will benefit from free electricity and they will also be able to earn more than ?1000 a year from the government backed Feed-in Tariff scheme.

    The UK Feed-In Tariff scheme is one of the most generous in Europe, paying 41.3p per kWh of electricity produced, regardless of whether it is used by the home-owner or not. The tariff is guaranteed for 25 years and it is index linked for Solar PV Systems.

    ?The government will review the scheme in 2012, which is likely to see The Feed-in Tariff rates changed from April 2013 for any new homes applying for it. There is therefore a window of opportunity now for consumers to take advantage of the current rates on offer? according to Mark Wynn, Managing Director Avoline PLC, the company which launched SunShare.

  2. Semitech Semiconductor, a Power Line Communications (PLC) chip maker with chips designed to enable communications for the Smart Grid announced yesterday that they had completed its Series A financing raising AU$3.4 million.
  3. The Institute for Transport and Development Policy released a report on Wednesday entitled Europe?s Parking U-Turn: From Accommodation to Regulation [PDF]. The report examines European parking policies over the last fifty years and found that European cities are reaping the rewards of innovative parking policies, including revitalized town centres; reductions in car use; drops in air pollution and rising quality of urban life.
  4. SAP’s rollout of e-mobility infrastructure which I wrote up just before Christmas has now been extended to their German HQ in Walldorf. SAP, in conjunction with local utility MVV Energie, have taken delivery of 30 electric cars and will be testing use of them by their employees as part of their Future Fleet project.

    The cars will be powered exclusively with electricity from renewable sources and this will be important given that over 80% of SAP’s direct CO2 emissions in EMEA come from company cars.

  5. On-demand environmental software maker Locus Technologies, announced this week that they have been certified as compliant with SAS 70 (Statement on Auditing Standards No. 70). Given that Locus are a SaaS company (i.e. they host their clients environmental information) this is a vrucial certification to have achieved – it gives confidence to Locus customers and potential customers that their data is safe with Locus.

Photo credit .faramarz

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Green bits and bytes for Jan 13th 2011

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Green bits

Some of the Green announcements which passed by my desk this week:

  1. Invensys IMServ, a UK-based carbon and energy solution provider has launched a new programme to help UK schools increase their energy efficiency, reduce their carbon footprint and save money on their energy bills.
  2. SAP Americas was named 2010 Smart Grid Integrator of the Year 2010, North America by The New Economy.
  3. Enterprise energy management company JouleX has upgraded its network-based agentless product JEM to version 2.5. The new version supports a broader set of IT infrastructure devices, improves energy measurement and accuracy, JouleX Mobile allows employees to become more engaged in company’s sustainability initiatives, “load adaptive computing” allocates computing resources based upon system and application utilisation and has significantly upgraded its reporting capabilities.
  4. Tropos Networks, a company which sells wireless broadband network infrastructure, announced the other day that they were selected by more utilities as the company of choice for their smart grid communications infrastructure than any other vendor. Tropos’ CEO Tom Ayers, whom I video interviewed previously here, said

    I expect that 2011 will be a banner year of growth for our company and smart grid deployments globally.

    Good for them!

  5. UK based Greenstone Carbon Management made me aware recently that Asian-based investment bank Nomura have selected Greenstone’s Acco2unt carbon accounting software to help measure, manage and report its carbon emissions across the Bank?s operations in Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA).
  6. After a successful pilot, ARRA recipient Burbank Water and Power (BWP) has selected energy management company Trilliant to implement its smart metering communications infrastructure. Trilliant is partnering with GE for meters, eMeter for Meter Data Management, and Siemens for integration. BWP will utilise Trilliant?s solution to help manage service requests, customer inquiries, meter reading and service interruptions.

Photo credit lissalou66

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Green bits and bytes for Dec 16 2010

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Green bits & bytes

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Some of the Green announcements which passed by my desk this week:

  1. We have written previously about the savings made possible by rolling out Digital Lumens Intelligent Lighting System (ILS) in a high-bay environment – well they have done it again! Their latest sale is to United States Cold Storage Inc., who deployed the ILS in its Hazelton Pa facility.

    USCS installed the lighting system in their recently built, 88,000-square-foot addition, and they can now light their facility for 3.5? per square foot per year, compared to 46? per square foot with traditional alternatives. USCS expects a return on investment of 14.6 months.

  2. SAP and PlaNet Finance’s joint project to help improve the incomes and living conditions for rural Ghanian women engaged in the Shea nut harvesting and Shea nut butter business posted a nice piece of good news during the week. Stanford University published a case study [PDF] which uncovered significant improvements in nut and butter quality. It also mentions how the women involved have organised into a network so they have a stronger negotiating position and they are achieving higher prices for their produce.
  3. JouleX is a company which helps organisations to monitor, analyse and manage the energy use and waste of IT systems connected to its internal network. JouleX announced this week that its JouleX Energy Manager (JEM) software has been accepted into the Cisco EnergyWise partner program – this enables Cisco to offer JEM as an energy management solution to its customers.
  4. Viridity, a data centre energy resource management software solution provider announced the appointment of Arun Oberoi to the position of President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO), effective immediately.
  5. According to a news release from Tropos Networks, Silicon Valley Power (SVP), the City of Santa Clara?s municipal electric utility, has selected Tropos? GridCom as the distribution area communications network for its smart grid program, SVP Meter Connect. SVP serves over 50,000 customers and it expects the SVP Meter Connect project to increase reliability of the utility?s distribution system and finally
  6. ERP software company Epicor announced [PDF] the release of their on-demand carbon accounting solution, Carbon Connect. Carbon Connect is a SaaS delivered carbon accounting solution which allows companies to identify, analyze, audit, track, manage, benchmark and report on their carbon emissions /environmental impact and energy consumption.

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Green Bits and bytes!

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Green bits

Photo credit lissalou66

A few announcements crossed my desk in the last week so I thought I’d wrap them up in a Bits and Bytes post:

  1. AlertMe, a company providing online energy management software, was named the winners of the “Software in Design” category at the Institution of Engineering and Technology Innovation awards recently. The prize was conferred on AlertMe for its “use of advanced software techniques within an engineering design process?. Entries were judged on innovation in the context of social, economic and personal impact as well as its novelty (new to humanity) and process.
  2. Logica just published their 2009 Sustainability Report. It is written using the GRI index and achieves an A rating. The report is a 16.8mb PDF download (which unfortunately failed to download for me which downloaded fine today and is a well presented, 70 page document outlining Logica’s CSR initiatives in 2009) – it would certainly benefit Logica to publish it online next time (if only to get feedback on how people read it).

    3. and

  3. Tropos Networks was selected by Burbank Water and Power to be a supplier for their Smart Grid rollout. Tropos? GridCom architecture will be used as the high performance wireless distribution area network, providing secure connectivity for multiple utility Smart Grid applications.

    Not familiar with Tropos? See my interview with their CEO, Tom Ayers here