IBM has done a wonderful thing in finding a way to turn waste into the raw materials needed in the solar cell industry. One’s person’s junk apparently really is another person’s solar gold. TMCnet’s Tim Gray has the details in an article titled IBM's New Process to Turn Waste into Solar Energy.

UK-based businesses have a new tool to help them be more “green.” BusinessLink.gov.uk, a resource Web site for businesses, part of the UK government’s Business.Gov agency, this week added a new section devoted to green business practices.

 

The “Environmental & efficiency” section of the Business Link Web site is broken up into three main areas: “Environment and your business,” “Sustainability and your business,” and “Waste and pollution.” Tools on the site include a self-assessment of environmental compliance, free e-mail alerts about regulatory updates, information about training and grants, and a variety of publications to help companies get their hands around “being green.”

 

Also featured on the site are phones numbers for several “green” related hotlines.

 

The new site looks like it will be a valuable resource for UK companies seeking to be more green. If you run a company in the UK, let us know if the site proved useful for you, or if there are better sources of information available.

Often on this blog you read about green technology programs and initiatives in the U.S. and Europe. But those aren’t the only parts of the world where people are concerned about the environmental impact of doing business. A recent report on the Web site of The Age, a newspaper covering happenings in Australia and New Zealand, highlighted an Ernst & Young report about efforts to reduce carbon footprints by companies “down under.”

 

According to The Age reporter Peter Hannam, the Ernst & Young report indicated that most Australian companies, while they’re making an effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, are nowhere near being ready to report on carbon emissions or participate in emissions trading programs. New Zealanders are doing better, apparently; The Age blogger Leon Gettler said “New Zealand businesses are almost five times greener than their Australian counterparts.”

 

Regardless of what technologies or techniques they’re using to have a lighter environmental impact, the lack of readiness by Australian businesses is a problem. Starting next July 1, Hannam wrote, Australian businesses emitting more than 125,000 tons of carbon dioxide-equivalent annually will be required to report those figures to the government. But, according to the report, most companies do not yet have processes in place for reporting those numbers.

 

Companies will have the opportunity to reduce the carbon emissions they must report by engaging in carbon emissions trading—a program the Australian government plans to roll out no later than 2012, The Age said. Companies that don’t register or that report inaccurate number will be fined as much as $220,000.

 

It will be interesting to see how Australia’s environmental regulatory efforts pan out. What do you think—will companies make the necessary changes and utilize the best technologies available to make reporting accurate and to achieve reduced emissions? Or is a government-run system too bureaucratic?

Lots gets written about these days regarding new types of technology that can help companies be more ‘green.’ These include everything from vehicle engines designed to run on corn-based fuel, computer chips that require less power to run, and revamped cooling systems for data centers. But, in terms of reducing impact on the environment, there is a lot companies can do with existing technology.

 

That, according to ComputerWeekly.com reporter Rebecca Thomson, was the message from Carbon Trust chief policy officer Michael Rea at a recent meeting. Carbon Trust is a London-based, government-funded company tasked with helping UK businesses and public sector organizations reduce their carbon emissions.

 

At the meeting, Thomson said in an Oct. 4 report, Rea stressed that the most important thing now is to reduce carbon emissions, whether that means using old or new technologies—and often what’s in place already suffices if used creatively.

 

To achieve this goal, Rea said, the IT departments of businesses and public sector organizations need to adopt green practices, which should include the use of thin-client technology and mobile workforces.

 

Rea has a good point. While new technologies may offer greater efficiencies in terms of ‘greenness’ than older ones, businesses needn’t be so eager to throw out all the old in favor of the new—especially if their budgets, at least for now, can’t support such changes.

 

When the term ‘carbon footprint’ is used to reference all potential impacts on the environment, it becomes pretty easy to go back basics when figuring out ways to be more Earth-friendly. If companies do not already have recycling programs or telecommuting policies in place, for example, they can start there to begin having a positive impact right away. After all, simple things like making sure all employees shut their computers off at the end of the day can make a significant difference without having to install all new infrastructure.

In its ongoing effort to get consumers to recycle their old cell phones -- as opposed to just tossing them in the trash -- Nokia has called in the big guns. Today the company announced that New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg is backing its campaign to get New Yorkers to bring their used cell phones to recycling locations or mail them in for recycling.

In a statement issued today, a representative of Mayor Bloomberg’s office commended Nokia’s recycling program and urged all New Yorkers to get involved.

"We applaud Nokia's effort to encourage the proper recycling of unwanted electronics," said Rohit Aggarwala, director of the Mayor's Office of Long Term Planning and Sustainability. "We hope that every New Yorker will join in and be a part of this effort."

The publicity campaign is to promote the recycling of consumer electronics in advance of America Recycles Day, to be held Nov. 15. New Yorkers, and in fact all consumers, are urged to turn in their old cell phones and cell phone batteries at any Nokia Flagship Store. Also, consumers can mail in their old mobile devices for recycling simply by picking up a postage-paid green mailer at any Nokia Flagship Store. In addition the company has launched a new nation-wide toll free number, 1-87 RECYCLES (877-329-2537), which offers information on how to go about recycling mobile devices.

Nokia has reportedly launched this campaign with a goal of collecting 100,000 unwanted mobile devices between now and America Recycles Day. The campaign will kick off tonight at an International House (I-House) event at the Nokia Flagship Store in Manhattan, where Nokia and global conservation organization WWF will highlight contributions that businesses can make to address environmental issues and promote environmental awareness.

According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Environmental Benefits Calculator, taking back and recycling just 10,000 cell phones conserves enough resources to power 19 US homes for one year, and reduces "greenhouse gas" equaling the same as if we removed 14 passenger cars from the road for one year.

"Environmental responsibility is an obligation for all -- corporations, public institutions and citizens alike," said Rick Simonson, I-house board of trustee's member and chief financial officer for Nokia, in the press release. "If we all play our part, the seemingly small individual efforts can collectively make a significant impact on our community and our future environment."

The need for greater awareness is still very much apparent. A recent Nokia-commissioned survey among 400 New Yorkers showed that about 60 percent had an old device stored away somewhere -- and the same percentage said they had no knowledge of where to take their electronic devices for recycling.

For more information, visit www.nokia.com/environment.

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Patrick Barnard is Associate Editor for Customer Interaction Solutions magazine and Assignment Editor for TMCnet. To see more of his articles, please visit Patrick Barnard’s columnist page.

Consumers and businesses these days are paying more and more attention to the impact their actions have on the environment. The “green technology” segment of the “green” movement—and the topic of this blog—includes everything from fuel-efficient cars to software the helps people telecommute.

 

On today’s menu: the efforts data center companies are now making to create “greener” operations by reducing power consumption. Last month, Rackspace Managed Hosting got curious to see how much businesses really care about the “greenness” of the service providers they choose.

 

Specifically, Rackspace wanted to know if businesses would be willing to pay more for hosting and other data center-based services designed to have minimal impact on the environment. The company sent a survey asking this question to 3,800 of its customers, of which about 10 percent responded.

 

Fifty-two percent of respondents to the survey indicated that they’d be willing to pay 5-10 percent more to work with a ‘green’ vendor. Also, fifty-one percent of respondents said they were willing to sacrifice 5-10 of server performance in order to reduce carbon emissions.

 

Although the sampling was pretty small (about 380 customers), the survey does indicate the willingness of businesses to consider ‘greenness’ when choosing which service providers and vendors to work with.

 

As Rackspace put it: “Green IT vendors are an important element of customers’ green strategies.” How important? Thirty percent of respondents said they expect picking such green vendors will be a central part of their business strategy within five years. Does this describe your business?