Earth Day 2012
Every Earth Day, as part of our Energy Saving category here at 404 Tech Support, we compile some of the green tech-related news (2009, 2010, 2011). In 2012, it seems like a lot of companies are pushing their green news in this week leading up to Earth Day. In no particular order, here’s a selection of green news from the past year.
EarthDay.org
Visit www.earthday.org/2012 to learn about the history of Earth Day and activities for the 42 anniversary of Earth Day.
eBay
eBay has launched green.ebay.com, a portion of its website dedicated to finding greener alternatives like hybrid cars and CFLs.
McDonald’s
National Restaurant News took a look at two McDonald’s that were built to green specifications. From using solar panels and low-flow water fixtures, these McDonald’s are changing the golden arches green.
Philips
Philips is set to unveil an energy-efficient light bulb that only uses 10 watts of power with comparable brightness to a 60 watt incandescent. Even better for mother earth, the bulb is supposed to last about 20 years. The bulb will cost around $60 but look for rebates from your utility company to bring the price down.
Sprint
Sprint became number 3 in the country of 500 greenest companies in America. To encourage cell phone recycling, the company has a sweepstakes going on this Earth Day in addition to their buyback program for those that recycle their old phones. Sprint and LG are also launching the LG Optimus Elite with eco-friendly features today.
Verizon
Not to be outdone by Sprint, Verizon has sustainability on their corporate responsibility site and boasts energy efficient network equipment and 100 EnergyStar certified stores.
3M
3M is announcing an advancement to adhesive, making electronics more recyclable. They have produced a glue that allows electronic components to be held together but also released with the application of heat. This should make recyclable components easier to get to or able to be repaired instead just thrown away.
Microsoft
Microsoft gave a progress report for this Earth Day, noting that it has achieved its 2012 goals, and will receive recognition from the EPA for its commitment to renewable energy. A wide variety of topics are discussed like mass transit, recycling, reducing energy use in the buildings on their campus, and including new energy efficiency techniques in Windows 8. To monitor their future progress, visit www.microsoft.com/environment.
Google is quite the champion of renewable energy and are just as ready to share it through their Google Green blog, in hopes to encourage others to also participate. Topic points have included:
- Building sustainability
- Reporting using Gmail is almost 80 times more energy efficient than running in-house email
- Google’s “cloud” is green-powered
- Investing to fund homeowners incorporating solar panels
- $94 million investment in four solar power projects
- Google pushes for building materials, furniture, and other things with the lowest levels of volatile organic compounds.
Others
There are also plenty of other companies and organizations taking action this Earth Day to help us be more sustainable.
Greenpeace
With all of these companies taking action to protect our environment, things must be pretty well off. Greenpeace says otherwise. Greenpeace wants the Internet off of coal. They say the “clouds” from Apple, Amazon, and Microsoft are dirty. To promote their campaign, they have launched www.cleanourcloud.com. Their latest report shows “a growing split within the tech industry between companies that are taking steps to power their clouds with clean energy, like Google, Yahoo and Facebook, and companies like Apple, Amazon and Microsoft who lag behind by choosing to build their growing fleets of data centres to be powered by coal and nuclear energy.”
In typical Greenpeace in-your-face fashion, they also had to take the report right to the companies with protests outside their offices.
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