Here is a summary of some web hosting providers that are taking an active approach in being green. It is taken from VirtualHosting.com and written by Christina Laun and shows the involvement that each company is taking to reduce their carbon emissions.

1. Rackspace:
   Rackspace is one of the UK’s leading web hosting providers. Because of their leadership, they are taking the initiative to become carbon neutral. Rackspace has opted to offset its energy usage by partnering with The International Tree Foundation, a charity that plants and preserves trees all over the world. For every server that Rackspace uses, a tree will be planted. At the current rate, this amounts to 200-300 new servers and trees a month. Rackspace has also vowed to help limit the amount of paperwork and direct mail they print and send.
2. WebHostingBuzz:
   WebHostingBuzz has, like Rackspace, formed a partnership with the International Tree Foundation to help offset the carbon dioxide emissions of the electricity they use. They are providing funds to a number of tree plantation projects worldwide.
3. Sustainable Hosting:
   Sustainable Hosting takes pride in being an environmentally responsible hosting company. Sustainable Hosting is powered in part by wind generated electricity, a renewable and more preferable source of energy than those that rely on fossil fuels. Presently, Sustainable Hosting purchases 23,364 kilowatt hours of wind energy each year. According to their calculations, this adds up to 32,521 pounds of CO₂ that have been prevented from entering the atmosphere, an amount that would take over 12 acres of trees to offset.
4. Coreix:
   Coreix is a UK-based hosting center that has taken steps to offset their carbon footprint. Coreix has partnered with the World Land Trust, a conservation charity, to help carry out the plans for their offset. On their behalf, the World Land Trust will work to repair degraded forests in Ecuador. This allows Coreix to not only take CO₂ out of the atmosphere, but also provide more habitat for wildlife.
5. DreamHost:
   DreamHost has not only taken into consideration the energy they use running their servers, but also the gas they use driving to work and the paper they use in their office to calculate how to offset their carbon emissions. While DreamHost doesn’t have the option to be directly powered by the wind or sun, they have opted to purchase what are called “Renewable Energy Credits.” The proceeds from thesecredits go towards funding renewable energy projects. Additionally, DreamHost is purchasing more energy efficient servers and processors.
6. HostPapa:
   HostPapa offsets their carbon emissions by purchasing green, renewable wind and sun energy to power their data center, servers, office and computers. This doesn’t mean they are powered directly by these sources, but that their total energy usage is offset by power from these sources being pumped back into the larger power grid when it otherwise would have had to have come from a less green source. They estimate that they have prevented over 10,000 pounds of CO ₂ from entering the environment by making this simple investment in cleaner technology.
7. TigerTech:
   TigerTech is a Northern California hosting company that has chosen to offset its carbon output in a variety of ways. TigerTech only purchases products with the EnergyStar rating, uses fluorescent lights, and encourages its employees to conserve energy by turning off anything not in use. Additionally, TigerTech makes a donation each year to the CarbonFund, a renewable energy program, to offset the electricity that they use. This money is used to fund zero-emission energy programs.
8. Iron Mountain:
   Iron Mountain is one of few solar powered web hosts. They have teamed up with solar energy company Value Solar to make their data center entirely powered by the sun. You can be sure that any energy they use will be coming from a clean and renewable source.
9. AISO:
   AISO.Net was the first 100% solar powered hosting company and have been since 2001. They are also currently the only 100% solar powered web host using solar panels to power both the data center, servers and offices. They’ve also designed their offices with solar tubes to use outside light during the day and have invested in servers that use less than half of the energy required by a normal server.
10. Ilisys:
    Ilisys is based in Australia, the largest producer of greenhouse gases among developed nations. They’ve taken steps to start reducing their contribution. Ilisys gets its energy from renewable wind and solar power sources in Australia. They also donate to the CarbonNeutral program. Carbon Neutral plants trees on their behalf to help offset any additional CO₂ emissions produced by car and air travel.
11. AcornHost:
    AcornHost is another web hosting company that helps offset the emissions by purchasing green certificates. These allow renewable energy to make up a larger part of the total energy used by the larger power grid, and help invest in new innovations in renewable energy technology.

News.com displayed a gallery of the Proton Exchange Membrane (PEM) hydrogen fuel cell that was unveiled last week. The 200 kilowatt hydrogen fuel cell in Sunnyvale, CA will provide electricity, cooling and heat to the buildings and is 50 percent efficient. The unit heats methane with steam to create hydrogen and the hydrogen is then passed through a proton exchange membrane (PEM) which ceates a reaction that produces electricity. The hot water from the reaction is also piped through the building to create heat. Fujitsu hopes to reduce carbon dioxide emissions to below 1990 levels by 2010.

via News.com

As the 2008 Summer Olympics is counting down, China is continually preparing the country to give the best possible image. With so much negative media attention given to toys, lead, fake stuff and manufacturing recently in the headlines, it is going to take a lot of work to recover. I am sure the manufacturing plants are going to take a small hit due to all the negative media but it probably will not make any significant factors and will most likely be for the better as the plants and laws will get stricter in making sure that it improves.

This saturday, China is going to have a “no-car day” in 108 cities to try to clean up the smog. They are promoting everyone to not drive and get back on the bicycles that once filled up the city streets. Beijing has already been closing down the worst polluting factories as well as switching thousands of homes from using coal to gas in attempts to improve the air quality. The good news is that the country is doing a lot to help improve the air quality and paying attention to the environmental concerns. My only concern is that only time will tell whether the country is really giving a damn about the country or all of this is just to make some media mentions to hype up to the 2008 Summer Olympics in making sure that the weather will be great during the Olympics. The Olympics is a very big deal since it is an international extravaganza and China is spending billions of dollars in making sure that the event will be the best that it can be. Once the Olympics is over, a lot of the effects that have been done to improve the environment will be around but will the country continue to improve? I am not trying to bash my native country but I just hope that this is not just all a temporary concern but that everything they are doing is making them realize that changes do need to happen and that this is just the beginning.

via Reuters

The first large scale wave farm has been approved to be built off the coast of Southwest England. The initial cost is over $56 million but the project will create 1,800 jobs and save over $1.1 billion for the UK over the next 25 years. The electricity generated will be able to power more than 7,500 homes and save 300,000 tons of carbon dioxide. The Wave Hub is a seafloor “socket” that will connect wave energy machines back to the land that involves 20 sets of machines and should be completed by 2009. This will be an exciting project that once successful could lead to many other projects following in its lead. It is another way to take advantage of a natural form of energy that is easily provided by the Oceans and there are plenty of coasts that can take advantage of this technology.

via Gizmodo and BBC

I finally went through all of the 1300 photos that I took at Burning Man and here are some of the highlights. There are some very impressive displays of artwork that took months to build such as the BigRigJig, NeverwasHaul, and SteamTreeHouse, which are all pictured below. It wasn’t until I looked at the websites did I find out more about all the work and materials that went into building these things. I also discovered that a lot of environmental thought was put into making sure a lot of the materials were recycled, recyclable and reuseable.

See more pictures here