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We here at Sustainable Hosting are keenly tracking the latest Green IT trends in technology and news. We aim to provide a point of referece for making sustainable decisions and becoming more aware of green practices. Follow us on Twitter @SustainableHost

The State of Green Business

Written by Ryan Hollitz | 09 February 2010
Posted in Blog - Sustainable Business

I love statistics that can help the revolution! :)

via [huffingtonpost.com] by Holly Kaufman

Thank goodness for the "State of Green Business Forum," the annual roll-out of Greenbiz.com's State of Green Business Report. Unlike the plethora of studies and conferences on how well green business is faring, the "SOGB" is one of the only report cards on how green business practices collectively are actually affecting the environment. Unfortunately, the air, water and soil upon which all commerce (and human beings) depend, are not doing so well, even if the green economy is. As Joel Makower, the Forum's host and one of the report's lead author's put it, "If we're not moving the needle, then does all this work matter?"

Indeed, it does, and Makower walked the audience through some of the key findings. Thanks to the report's "Greenbiz Index," twenty indicators that include carbon intensity, water intensity, green power use, and toxic releases per unit of GDP, the report's conclusion is: It is a mixed bag.

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HUD promotes Obama's pitch for sustainable communities

Written by Ryan Hollitz | 09 February 2010
Posted in Blog - Sustainable Living

The push is starting to have the future we need. Viva Obama! :)

via [usatoday.com]

Every federal agency seems to have a role in helping President Obama create a clean energy economy. For its part, the Department of Housing and Urban Development is ramping up efforts to promote sustainable communities where people live close to jobs, stores and public transportation.

Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan annoucned that HUD is creating a new office to spur development of sustainable communities where people live close to jobs, stores and public transportation.

HUD will fund local projects, offer financing for energy- efficient homes and unveil a new "affordability index" based on a home's proximity to jobs and other necessities, HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan said in a recent announcement.

"We will begin to tie the quality and location of housing to broader opportunities such as access to good jobs, quality schools and safe streets," Donovan said.

To do this, HUD is launching the Office of Sustainable Housing and Communities to be led by Deputy Secretary Ron Sims, who won national recognition for turning Seattle and King County, Wash., into a model for sustainable communities.

So people can see how their tax dollars are being spent, Donovan said HUD is also launching a new website: www.hud.gov/sustainability.

HUD's efforts are part of a broader push to promote smart growth by making it easier for people to live close to where they work and shop, so they won't need to drive as much. In June, it joined the Department of Transportation and the Environmental Protection Agency to create the first interagency Partnership for Sustainable Communities.

The private sector is also promoting such communities. The U.S. Green Building Council has worked with the Natural Resources Defense Council and the Congress for the New Urbanism on the LEED for Neighborhood Development rating system, set to be launched nationwide this year.

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Olympic Village to be sustainable comunity after Vancouver Winter Games

Written by Ryan Hollitz | 09 February 2010
Posted in Blog - Sustainable Living

Of bit of insight and dedication, and we might have the future we are looking for! :)

via [xinhuanet.com]

VANCOUVER, Feb. 8 (Xinhua) -- The Olympic Village is going to welcome more than 3,000 athletes and team officials during the Vancouver Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games, and the green project will then become a sustainable community with diversified neighbourhoods.

Standing next to the model of Millennium Water, the 2010 Vancouver Games Olympic Village's design manager Roger Bayley said that the project was not really developed for the Olympics but long-term residence.

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Business sketches path to sustainable living

Written by Ryan Hollitz | 08 February 2010
Posted in Blog - Sustainable Business

This should be on all our minds. Certainly we, here at Sustainble Hosting, believe this is the wave of the future.

via [euractiv.com]

Major multinational corporations want to lead the way towards sustainability, arguing that global challenges present vast business opportunities.

Sustainable living by 2050 will require "fundamental changes in governance structures, economic frameworks, business and human behaviour," notes a report presented last week at the World CEO Forum in New Delhi.

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State of Green Business Forum 2010: Can IT Solve the World's Problems?

Written by Ryan Hollitz | 08 February 2010
Posted in Blog - Green IT

We can make a difference. This is exactly the movement we need.

via [greenbiz.com]

It's a widely repeated statistic that the IT industry is responsible for about 2 percent of the world's carbon footprint, largely due to the energy used to power electronics.

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Car Bodies Could Store Energy Like Batteries

Written by Ryan Hollitz | 08 February 2010
Posted in Blog - Green Technology

This is some great news. These types of inventions will help bring us to the cradle to cradle future we all desire! :)

via [inhabitat.com]

by Sarah Parsons, 02/08/10

sustainable design, green design, car body battery, energy storing car body material, electric vehicles, sustainable transportation, new materials

As battery manufacturers race to produce more efficient lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles, some scientists are looking to make the cars themselves a power source. Researchers are currently developing a new material that can store and release electrical energy like a battery. Once perfected, scientists hope the substance will replace standard car bodies, making vehicles up to 15 percent lighter and significantly extending the range of electric vehicles.

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Obama Awards $2.3B for Cleantech Manufacturing

Written by Ryan Hollitz | 12 January 2010
Posted in Blog - Clean Technology

I love this guy! Bring on the green funding! :)

via [matternetwork.com]

President Barack Obama on Friday announced the award of $2.3 billion in Recovery Act Advanced Energy Manufacturing Tax Credits for clean energy manufacturing projects across the United States.

The White House said in a release that one hundred eighty three projects in 43 states will create tens of thousands of high quality clean energy jobs and the domestic manufacturing of advanced clean energy technologies including solar, wind and efficiency and energy management technologies.

“Building a robust clean energy sector is how we will create the jobs of the future,” said President Obama. “The Recovery Act awards I am announcing today will help close the clean energy gap that has grown between America and other nations while creating good jobs, reducing our carbon emissions and increasing our energy security.”

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Warming Up To Iceland

Written by Ryan Hollitz | 12 January 2010
Posted in Blog - Green IT

Now some good news, folks are looking at the naturally cooling places to put data centers. So SMART, right!

via [forbes.com]

Server hosting company sees potential for free cooling and cheap power.

Verne Global CTO Tate Cantrell

Moving data centers out of the big cities to places where power and cooling is cheaper has been under way for the better part of a decade.

Companies like Google ( GOOG- news - people ) and Microsoft (MSFT - news - people ) are locating data centers in the cool and windy Columbia River Gorge in Oregon. Others have moved to Arizona, where nuclear power is plentiful and cheap. Still others have buried data centers beneath the ground in old mines, where the temperature is always cool.

Data centers are expected to move to even more extreme locations over the next decade. Forbes caught up with Tate Cantrell, chief technology officer at Verne Global--a data center developer based in Iceland and Washington, D.C., to talk about the shifts and what's driving them.

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Green IT Era : Year 2010

Written by Ryan Hollitz | 12 January 2010
Posted in Blog - Green IT

This is going to be a good year for the planet. If we can just get mojor corporations on board, then BOOM! :)

via [amidstthesea.blogspot.com]

Green IT: Colour for 2010

Green IT, until now preached more than practised, will be a keen area of focus. Springboard Research in a recent survey pointed out that fewer than 10 percent of enterprises in Asia have formally implemented a Green IT strategy.

However, a majority of enterprises including IT majors — TCS, Infosys, Wipro — have taken steps to implement Green IT at their end. Wipro, for instance, is planning to reduce its carbon footprint from the present 3.96 tonnes per employee to 2.5 tonnes in the next five to seven years. Global firms like IBM, Cisco and HP have already initiated steps to reduce their carbon footprint.

Analysts also say that the initial uptake for Green IT would be from a cost efficiency point. The study’s findings also indicate that the market also needs aggressive education as nearly 15 percent of respondents claimed that they did not know how or where to begin with regard to Green IT.

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Will Google Energy Power Its Data Centers?

Written by Ryan Hollitz | 12 January 2010
Posted in Blog - Green IT

I love this company. They ar so innovative and really change the game when they get involved. :)

via [datacenterknowledge.com]

A look at a working solar thermal power generation facility.

Google (GOOG) has formed a new subsidiary to buy and sell power on the wholesale market, and hopes the move will help provide more renewable energy to meet its corporate carbon reduction goals. The company formed Google Energy last month and has asked the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to allow it to participate in the energy markets.

“Right now, we can’t buy affordable, utility-scale, renewable energy in our markets,” Google representative Niki Fenwick told CNet. “We want to buy the highest quality, most affordable renewable energy wherever we can and use the green credits.”

Target: Data Centers?
Google isn’t saying how it will use any green energy it generates or purchases, but the company’s vast, power-hungry data center network could be the primary beneficiary. Google has shown an intense focus on energy efficiency in the design and operation of its data centers, and has also invested in renewable energy, primarily through its Google.org non-profit arm.

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New Energy “Bomb” Disinfects Water without Chemicals

Written by Ryan Hollitz | 12 January 2010
Posted in Blog - Clean Technology

Finally, some new technology that gets us away from the use of chemicals.

via [cleantechnica.com]

Chemical treatment is becoming a less desirable way to provide safe drinking water, and water professionals have been searching for a less expensive, more reliable and more sustainable method of killing pathogens. Cavitation Technologies, Inc. has come up with one solution. The company’s new process uses mechanical and electrical systems to blow the little bugs to smithereens.

The company’s CaviGulation reactor sounds like a piece of equipment that would be at home in Frankenstein’s lab. It delivers up a complex set of reactions based on kinetic energy, chemical, electro-chemical, and hydrodynamic principles. The result: a water disinfection process that’s 1,000 times more effective than conventional systems.

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The State of Green Business

HUD promotes Obama's pitch for sustainable communities

Olympic Village to be sustainable comunity after Vancouver Winter Games

Business sketches path to sustainable living

State of Green Business Forum 2010: Can IT Solve the World's Problems?

Car Bodies Could Store Energy Like Batteries

Obama Awards $2.3B for Cleantech Manufacturing

Warming Up To Iceland

Server hosting company sees potential for free cooling and cheap power.

Verne Global CTO Tate Cantrell

Green IT Era : Year 2010

Will Google Energy Power Its Data Centers?

New Energy “Bomb” Disinfects Water without Chemicals

More Articles...