In a press release earlier this year, Gartner, Inc. highlighted 10 key predictions of events and developments that will affect IT and business decisions in the coming years.
"Selected from across our research areas as the most compelling and critical predictions, the trends and topics they address this year indicate a strong focus on individuals, the environment, and alternative ways of buying and selling IT services and technologies," said Daryl Plummer, managing vice president and Gartner Fellow.
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The Consumer Electronics Association, set a new precedent when they vowed to make the “Consumer Electronics Show” in Las Vegas last week, the largest carbon-neutral event in the world.
The tradeshow typically draws 140,000 attendees from around the world and produces an estimated, twenty thousand metric tons of CO2 in just one week. Most of that is the hotel space: 63 percent is from hotels, 24 percent from freight, 12 percent from the convention center and then the [show space at the] Sands, the Hilton and the Venetian hotels.
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Cutting edge runway fashion is often criticized for being too abstract and unrealistic. Most of the styles showcased in these forums are never adopted by mainstream public consumption channels. So why then do fashion designers continue to invest in such theoretical ideals?
The best answer I have encountered is one where the fashions are never intended to be adopted by the general population, but rather an artistic medium used to highlight or exaggerate specific emerging trends.
So What does this have to do with formula 1 racing and more importantly the environment?
Former Vice President Al Gore and the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change won the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize in OSLO on Friday for their extraordinary efforts in the war against global warming.
"I am deeply honored to receive the Nobel Peace Prize," Gore said. "We face a true planetary emergency. The climate crisis is not a political issue, it is a moral and spiritual challenge to all of humanity."
Last week, “British Airways” announced their largest investment in new planes since 1998. The $8 billion jet order included, 12 twin-deck Airbus A380s and 24 midsize 787 Dreamliners as part of its plan to reduce carbon emissions and upgrade its fleet.
The British Airways chief executive, Willie Walsh, said in an interview that environmental concerns had been a prime factor in the choice of new jets.
“These aircraft set the gold standard when it comes to environmental performance,” Mr. Walsh said. “They will contribute significantly to our target of improving fuel efficiency by 25 percent between 2005 and 2025.”
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Several articles have come out recently advertising the fact that we are "getting green, but not green enough. Some of you; like myself, may have found that puzzling. Particularly because it seems like almost daily that we see or read about another organization going green with some new initiative or another.
So why then all the cynicism?
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Earlier this week hundreds of delegates convened at the Tyndall Centre's inaugural conference to discuss, “financing green technology.”
Countless examples of failed carbon pricing initiatives from all over the world were outlined before a general consensus was reached stating that, “carbon pricing alone would not stimulate the innovation needed to deliver green technologies.”
When most of us think about the Chinese impact on the environment, we consider their major manufacturing facilities spewing out carbon dioxide at an alarming rate with no sign of slowing anytime soon. China threatens to become the world's biggest emitter of greenhouse gases by November this year, partly because it manufactures products to satiate the bulbous American appetite and consumption demands.
A chimney spouts a column of smoke in residential and commercial district of Beijing, China. (AP / Elizabeth Dalziel)
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The National Recycling Coalition in February awarded Dell the organization's annual Recycling Works Award for the company's efforts. NRC Executive Director Kate Krebs said at the time that Dell's environmental initiatives "put them head and shoulders above any other electronics company."
Dell recovered an impressive 78 million pounds, or nearly 40,000 tons, of IT equipment from their customers last year.
The new GreenPower drives from Western Digital are dropping power consumption by up to 38 percent. This power savings equates to reducing CO2 emission by up to 13.8 kilograms per drive per year - the equivalent of taking a car off the road for 3 days each year. For large organizations with hundreds of employees, this translates to big bucks in energy cost savings. This is yet another example of a product which can not only save the environment but save your pocket book as well.
Sean Daily, Green Living Ideas' Editor-In-Chief, talks technology recycling and reuse with Green Living Ideas Technology Green Guru, Joshua Levitt of UsedCisco.com.
Play Podcast Now!
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The latest high profile debate concerning New York City legislation has surrounded Mayor Bloomberg’s efforts to pass the “congestion pricing plan” for reducing automobile congestion and carbon emissions. The plan involves charging motorists an additional fee to enter the city’s most congested areas during peak times.
If you ask me, that plan is more about generating revenue than helping the city achieve a long-term solution towards congestion and pollution problems. It’s no surprise that the London-style plan fore mentioned appears to be a dead one in Albany.
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General Electric Co. on Wednesday launched the nation's first credit card with rewards dedicated to reducing cardholders' carbon emissions.
The new credit card is part of GE's "ecomagination" initiative, which includes growing research in cleaner technologies to $1.5 billion in 2010 and reducing the company's greenhouse gas emissions.
Users of the MasterCard credit card, known as GE Money Earth Rewards, will be able to automatically contribute up to 1 percent of their purchases to buy greenhouse gas emissions offsets.
Credit card "rewards" will accrue over the course of the year and can be redeemed for emissions credit each Earth Day, April 22. Customers will have the choice to donate all of their rewards or receive a portion in cash.
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Intelligent monitoring software has beautifully synchronized itself with the new push for waste reducing more efficient products. The Verdiem’s surveyor’ software monitors your basic usage patterns and reduces energy flow to your PC when it is not in use. The SmartStrip power strip intelligently cuts off power to peripheral electronics like your monitor and printer when they aren’t being utilized.
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The technology industry is brimming with new green initiatives. Dell (DELL) in June announced a plan to become "the greenest technology company," by beefing up its recycling program and building more Earth-friendly PCs. Weeks before, rival Apple (AAPL) made a similar pledge to become "greener." Panasonic has taken the lead out of its plasma TVs. Motorola (MOT) made its cell phone chargers energy-efficient. Sun Microsystems (SUNW) has even begun posting the amount of electricity it uses in each of its office parks, by month, on the Internet.
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In late 2000, Union Bank of California concluded that it was time to refresh its desktop PCs every four years and some IT equipment as often as every 2. This meant that 200 PCs as well as countless network hardware appliances would have to be retired every month. Unfortunately, there was no strategy in place for the task, or even a designated person or department to manage the systems.
"Until then, there was no process for disposing of PCs," says Julie LeDuc, IT group purchasing manager at Union Bank. "Each department would do its own thing, either storing them in warehouses, saving them for contingency purposes or simply disposing of them."
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Hewlett-Packard has pledged to reduce energy usage by 20 per cent before 2010. They announced Tuesday that they would be setting a "carbon footprint challenge" for their 4,000 employees in Ireland to help make the company greener.
"Energy efficiency is a key priority for HP and we know that encouraging a culture of environmental awareness amongst employees is critical to the success of our worldwide environmental initiatives," said HP Ireland managing director Martin Murphy in a statement.
Here are some of the ways HP hopes to meet this challenge:
• Online tools and local reference points will be used to provide the company's Irish employees with access to the latest environmental information and advice needed to reduce emissions and save money.
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Paul Hawken, an author and longtime environmental activist, said the current boom in earth-friendly products offers a false promise. “Green consumerism is an oxymoronic phrase,” he said. He blamed the news media and marketers for turning environmentalism into fashion and distracting from serious issues.
A recent study showed that 35 million Americans regularly buy products that claim to be earth-friendly. So what is the problem you ask?
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When most of us think about Boston, we conjure up images of a historic America, the original 13 colonies and a place with early colonial influence. But; all that is about to change! Thanks to the recent efforts of Boston’s current administration, Boston is now on the cutting edge, setting a national example for early adoption of bold new environmental trends.
The city of Boston has recently made a commitment to reducing energy use and harmful greenhouse gas emissions while saving taxpayer money. Thomas M. Menino, mayor of Boston, said: "From our green building requirements to our clean vehicle policies, sustainability is a critical component of the City of Boston's future.
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IBM announced plans last week to construct the largest data center in the world by the year 2010. This massive new 300,000 facility will cost Big Blue a whopping $86 million. and double its data-center capacity without increasing it’s energy usage or carbon emissions. The data center will be located in Boulder, Colorado, a fitting location for the likes of such an environmentally focused community, where so many of its residents are known to enjoy the great outdoors. The city offered $100,000 in tax and fee rebates from as well as a $632,000 grant from the Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade to train the data center’s new workforce and other IBM employees.
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Jon Beyer, cofounder and CIO of plant food manufacturer TerraCycle, says his company's entire mission is to be green. The company harvests worm waste to create plant food and then sells it in recycled soda bottles. That corporate mission extends to his IT organization.
"We just try to reuse older equipment as much as possible," Beyer said. "Rather than purchase new workstations and laptops, we pay for refurbished equipment. We're fairly small now, so we are able to do that. As we continue to grow, I like to think we can continue to do that."
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Have you ever wondered what goes on inside of those earth saving electronic recycling plants, where tons of e-waste gets broken down and processed daily. Well, Erica Ogg of ZDNet News was recently granted exclusive access inside HP’s “Grindhouse”, a 200,000-square-foot recycling facility just north of Sacramento, which processes 4 million pounds, or 24,000 tons, of electronic hardware per month. Here is Ogg’s account of what he saw:
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Environmental concerns are undoubtedly on the forefront of the latest trends to gain corporate mind share for most forward thinking CEO’s in today’s competitive landscape. However, there continues to be a disparity between Europe and the US when it comes to ‘green’ awareness. Green action is less obvious in the US where, “just 22 per cent of organizations look at green factors when choosing suppliers compared to almost half (48 per cent) of the European respondents”- Forrester research.
The European Union set a world wide example when they implemented, WEEE the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment directive, setting collection, recycling and recovery targets for all types of electrical goods.
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A new bill has been proposed in Texas where manufacturers would have to place a sticker on any computer or monitor they wanted to sell in the state, informing consumers that they may return the equipment to the vendor for recycling or reuse without paying an additional fee. House Bill 2714 passed votes in the state Senate and House of Representatives in May and awaits a signature from Texas Governor Rick Perry
In this format the environmental responsibility lies on the PC manufacturer instead of the consumer. Other states have been exploring the "market-driven" approach to recycling which impose taxes on consumers or fees on vendors in order to fund government programs that administer the recycling programs.
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Google and Intel have joined forces to form the newest heavy weight tag team duo on the scene.
The pair kicked off a new initiative today aimed at reducing their combined carbon output by 54 million tons a year. The energy-saving push was appropriately dubbed, “the Climate Savers Computing Initiative”.
These two wasted no time! To reduce energy loss, 'Climate Savers' has set their sites on the 2 biggest culprits in energy waste, inefficient power converters and voltage regulators.
“About half the energy in a personal computer and about the third of the energy in a server is wasted in the form of heat”, said Urs Holzle, a senior vice president at Google.
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The latest survey results from the Wells Fargo/Gallup Small Business Index reveal that two-thirds of small business owners surveyed say they would be willing to pay more for goods and services to run their businesses if they knew they were environmentally-friendly.
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WEEE, the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment directive became European Law in February 2003, setting collection, recycling and recovery targets for all types of electrical goods.
“Many businesses simply view it as too complicated to deal with and resist compliancy until the last moment or until they are hit with a fine”. In fact, a poll on the issue of environmentally-friendly IT has discovered that fewer than four in 10 IT managers are currently aware of the WEEE directive’s implications and its requirements.
There are a wealth of opportunities to be made from the directive, such as through recycling services, training and hardware replacements or upgrades.
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This month, in their June meeting the NYSIA gives an overview of the current status of climate change technology, with a special emphasis on how those of us in the digital industries can play a positive role while realizing new business opportunities.
The development of low-emission engines and renewable, clean sources of energy must be accelerated. Computer modeling and measuring and networking coordination are just some of the areas where the IT community can play an important role in one of the most important issues facing us for the next 50 years.
The movement to alleviate climate change presents both responsibilities and possibilities for software and computing entrepreneurs. Computer modeling and measuring, resulting in gains in energy efficiency, is just one example.
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“There is a new breed of consumers interested in refurbished and refreshed goods. This trend is not purely driven by value, but by a desire to protect the environment.” Marketing Week - Lucy Richardson.
In July, the electrical and electronic industry will become responsible for the cost of collection, treatment and recycling of their equipment. We are likely to see this spread to other sectors where future legislation will likely include recycling and sustainable design within its jurisdiction.
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