Posts filed under 'Environment'
Newsweek released their 2009 Green Environmental Ranking list of America’s 500 largest corporations. This could be a good list to keep in mind if you want to work for a company that is making a step in being environmental. A lot of companies may talk about it, but looking at this list may help to see how much the companies are actually doing.
It is an interesting list as 4 out of the top 5 are technology companies. Hewlett-Package is number 1 and Dell is number 2. It seems like computer makers are really making an effort to be green in their supply chain management. IBM, also a computer maker is number 5 and Intel, a CPU manufacturer is number 4. Sadly, Apple is number 133 which was sort of surprising because they like to say they are pretty green. For a company with such a well known brand recognition and with so many Apple products used, you would expect the company to do a little more.
The ranking is done with environmental researchers LDK Research and Analytics, Trucost, and CorporateRegister.com and is based on actual environmental performance, policies, and reputation.
http://greenrankings.newsweek.com/top500
September 24th, 2009
Alex
Back in April, President Obama announced that the Department of Energy will fund two UC Berkeley professors $30 million to research carbno capturing technology. The goal will be to find a way of storing underground the carbon dioxide released from fossil fuel and power plants. My friend is actually helping take part in the research to find the solution. The entire world emits about 6 million tons of carbon dioxide every year and the United States contributes 20% of that. Finding a way to capture that output and store it underground to prevent it from going into the atmosphere would be pretty cool. If we could find a way of reusing the carbon dioxide produced from power plants, that would be nice as well. There are a lot of ways that carbon dioxide gets used and reusing the stored carbon dioxide would be a huge resource. Here are some interesting facts about how carbon dioxide is used.
- It is used to produce carbonated soft drinks.
- Liquid carbon dioxide is a gold solvent for organic compounds and is used to remove caffeine from coffee.
- carbon dioxide extinguishes flames so fire extinguishers contain pressurized liquid carbon dioxide.
- Pop Rocks is pressurized with carbon dioxide.
- Plants require carbon dioxide to conduct photosynthesis and greenhouses may add additional CO2 into the atmosphere.
- Solid carbon dioxide is also known as dry ice and it is crucial as a refrigerant in the food industry for the transportation of frozen foods and ice cream.
- Dry ice is also used in wine making to cool down grapes after picking to prevent spontaneous fermenting.
references:
Daily Cal
Wikipedia
September 16th, 2009
Alex
I found this article on Yahoo Green about opening those clamshell packages. I always hate opening those packages because there seems to be no easy way to rip it open without cutting it. Some newer packages actually have perforated lines that you can rip in the middle but they still do not work that great. The packaging is great for manufacturers and companies because it is quite tamperproof and is great for display. They can also be dangerous as I am sure plenty of people get cuts but thousands of people every year actually end up in emergency rooms because of those things. The packaging is typically made from polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and that is environmentally damaging.
The packages can be opened relatively easy with scissors or even a can opener. What I found to be extremely useful is the Black and Decker Cordless Power Scissor. All you need to do is just put the scissor along the edge and push the button as it runs up each side. If you run it through all four sides, you end up with a easily opened package.
August 29th, 2009
Alex
Yahoo! has announced along with New York Governor David Patterson and Senator Chuck Schumer in Buffalo, New York plans to build a new data center in New York as one of the greenest and most energy-efficient in the world. It will be powered by renewable hydroelectric power from Niagara Falls and 90% of that energy will power the servers. The Bufalo data center will have a unique building design called the Yahoo! Computing Coop which resembles a chicken coop to take advantage of the climate in Buffalo and use 100% outside air to cool the servers.
Yahoo! built the first green data center in Washington two years ago and has saved energy consumption by 40-50%. Taking advantage of natural resources to power and cool the data centers can make a huge impact as it takes a tremendous amount of resources to keep the servers up and running 24/7 for 365 days a year.
June 30th, 2009
Alex
Theres only one week left for Yahoo!’s Make it Green campaign! If you havent heard, The campaign encourages people to submit a green idea that can improve lives and help our planet. Submit your idea before June 30th and if it gets chosen, your product could be sold in stores and you can get a share of the sales in addition to $2500!
http://green.yahoo.com/makeitgreen
June 22nd, 2009
Alex
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