Green Blog
| Helping environmentally-conscientious business leaders choose environmentally-friendly solutions.

green technology

Encouraging Green Tech Development

February 6, 2008

Investments in Green Tech Exceed $5 Billion for 2007

January 23, 2008

The business world took “being green” seriously during 2007, not only by espousing environmentally friendly practices, but also by putting their money where there mouths are. Reuters reported that investments in green technology by businesses increased 44 percent (the same percentage increase as in 2006), to more than $5 billion, last year.   That number comes from Cleantech Group LLC, an organization whose members include venture capital firms, investment banks and other investors, Reuters said. The group also noted that venture investments in alternative energy during 2007 (for both North America and Europe) was $5.18 billion, up from $3.6 billion the year before.   Reuters listed – green market segments in order according to how much investment each received: energy generation, energy storage, energy efficiency, recycling & waste.

Electric Car Offers Savings to Londoners

January 3, 2008

Forrester: In Search of Green Tech Consumers

December 19, 2007

As the environmental movement has gained momentum, one of the key questions facing companies that felt pressure to “green up” was “would consumers pay more for green tech and related products?”   Well, according to a recent Forrester Research poll, fully twelve percent of U.S. adults, or what amounts to nearly 25 million people — are willing to pay extra for consumer electronics that use less energy or come from a company that is environmentally friendly.   Forrester has termed these consumers “bright greens” and believes they are at the forefront of an emerging class of consumers that will be an attractive target for marketers at technology companies.   The report, based on a survey of 5,000 U.S.

TSA, Continental Airlines Go 'Green' and Secure with Encrypted Boarding Pass Info On Mobile Devices

December 5, 2007

Passengers flying out of the George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston, Texas airport during the next three months will have an opportunity to make their travels a little bit more ‘green.’ Continental Airlines and the U.S. Transportation Security Administration are piloting a program that lets travelers use their cell phones or PDAs in lieu of a paper boarding pass.   Houston Chronicle reported Tuesday that the system involves displaying encrypted bar codes on mobile device screens. The information displayed onscreen is then scanned by airport officials at boarding checkpoints.   If everything goes well with the pilot program, mobile device-based boarding passes could eventually do away with the need for paper documents entirely—with the exception of photo ID.

Survey: Contact Centers Seeing Green

November 12, 2007

An “on the conference floor” survey of executives attending the CCA Annual Convention, conducted on behalf of Softlab, finds that contact centers are seeing green, much like their IT counterparts.   According to the survey authors:   Businesses across all sectors are beginning to understand the benefits of adopting green strategies within the contact centre and, as a result, plan to put in place strategies to improve their environmental performance.   However these companies are not going green simply for the sake of being environmentally conscious, rather they need to see the business benefit.   According to Softlab senior consultant, Lisa Olafsdottir:   “…going green for green’s sake is not a current business goal. With productivity and revenue gains seen as the most important drivers for implementing a green policy — by 26% and 24% of respondents respectively — companies do want to be seen to be taking steps to reduce their impact on the environment, but only if it makes commercial and financial business sense.”   Some other interesting findings from the survey:  
  • 53% of respondents already have a green policy in place, though many, unprompted, expressed concerns regarding the quality of the current policy. Perhaps surprisingly, nearly one quarter (22%) don’t know.
 
  • Similarly, only 41% have a specific employee in place responsible for ‘green’ issues, with no such champion in 26% of respondent organizations. Again, 33% were uncertain as to the existence of such a role within the business.
 
  • The most commonly used contact center applications include workforce optimization tools (adopted by 72% of respondents), followed by Voice over IP (VoIP) (71%) and multi-channel solutions (62%).

Singapore Organization Creating 'Green' Building for Zero Net Energy Usage

November 7, 2007

The concept of “zero emissions”—or a system in which there is no net waste, because everything is reused or recycled—is challenging organizations and companies to come up with new green technologies, or uses for existing technologies, to cut down on carbon footprints.   One such project, underway in Singapore, was highlighted in a ChannelAsiaNews.com report Wednesday. It seems that a “zero energy” building is being created there by the Building and Construction Authority (BCA), the organization’s flagship “green” R&D project. The building is part of BCA’s Green Building Masterplan.

IBM Goes Greener

October 31, 2007

Companies Can be 'Green' With the Technology They Already Have

October 5, 2007

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.

Rackspace Survey: Businesses Willing to Pay More for Services from 'Green' Vendors

October 2, 2007

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.
Featured Events