| Helping environmentally-conscientious business leaders choose environmentally-friendly solutions.
10 Lessons from Volleyball, Part 2
Part 1 of the 10 Business Lessons from Volleyball can be found here. In volleyball, the only play you control yourself is...
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CloudTC and N-Able Acquired
"Australian-owned IP PBX systems company, Vixtel, has completed the acquisition of Silicon Valley based glass phone developer, CloudTC, for an undisclosed figure,"...
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ProfitBricks: Where InfiniBand Meets Cloud 2.0
In a recent meeting with William Toll and Pete Johnson of ProfitBricks, the pair were ecstatic to explain how their company has...
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Proactive Care Puts Operators One Step Ahead
By Thomas Fuerst, Senior Director, Multimedia Solutions MarketingAlcatel-Lucent
Monitoring and analyzing network data proactively saves operators time, money, and customers.
When a network service fails, it makes headlines, ticks off customers, and costs that network operator money. When a failure is headed off in advance, on the other hand, there might not be praise-laden headlines, but it's newsworthy nonetheless.
The traditional approach to customer care has typically been: a disgruntled customer calls customer service and complains of a service interruption or problem; the rep, learning of it for the first time, sends out a technician the next day, and eventually finds a resolution. Often, customers are left feeling put out, and the operator has spent significant time and money resolving the problem. Even worse is the customer who doesn’t call and just feels this is ‘typical’ of their network experience. That is a customer at risk of leaving.
Proactive care flips this dynamic on its head by using predictive analytics to identify potential outages or errors in the network and stop them before they occur. It consists of three main parts: one, constantly monitoring and measuring data on the network; two, real-time analysis of the data; and three, the most important, acting on that analysis to fix the problem.
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10 Lessons from Volleyball
I've played volleyball for over 25 years. I have traveled around the US to watch the pros live - both indoor...
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Emerging Threats Combats a Million Plus Pieces of New Malware a Week
There are 250,000 plus new pieces of malware being produced each day equating to one piece per person in the US in...
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NFV-Based Software Telcos Need OSS/BSS Interoperability
One of the goals of ETSI NFV is to allow new entrants to provide solutions to carriers based on software instead of...
Full Story »Encouraging Green Tech Development
February 6, 2008
This summer a group of outstanding doctoral students, post-docs and research faculty from University of California, Davis, will be taking part in a five-day “boot camp” sponsored by the Kauffman Foundation (and other organizations) designed to help move sustainable technologies ideas from the lap to the marketplace.
Applications are now being accepted for the second annual Green Technology Entrepreneurship Academy, July 7-11 at the Tahoe Center for Environmental Sciences in Incline Village, Nevada.
GreenBiz.com reports that the five-day event will cover “technology validation, market and financial strategies and communication skills.”
American Business Worlds Worst Addiction- Paper
January 31, 2008
Today, it’s entirely possible to keep a business document electronic throughout its entire life cycle. But if this is true, why then, are the average U.S workers printing more than a tree's worth per year?
The answer, as Renee Thomas, Director of Field Marketing, Esker, states in this TMCnet article, is an addiction to paper.
Just like a smoker who's addicted to cigarettes, Thomas explains, office workers seem to be addicted to hitting the print button.
And just as smoking has harmful effects on the smoker and those around them, this paper addiction is harming the environment for all. Damages extend from deforestation concerns, to green house emissions, waste, energy and water concerns.
Check out, "Four Steps (and 20+ Tips!) to Beating Paper Addiction" for steps to overcoming the addiction and help with putting your organization on the road to recovery.
Intel Pledges Green For Green's Sake
January 30, 2008
TMCnet’s Stefania Viscusi has the latest on Intel’s purchase of over 1.3 billion kilowatt hours a year of renewable energy certificates as part of a multi-faceted approach to reduce its impact on the environment.
This commitment makes Intel the single-largest corporate purchaser of green power in the United States, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
The plan calls for Intel to purchase renewable energy certificates, which will comprise a variety of sources including wind, solar, small hydro-electric and biomass.
Intel has also successfully implemented energy saving strategies at their own facilities, and over the last 7 years, the company has invested in more than 250 energy conservation projects with resulting savings in excess of 500 million kilowatt hours.
WSJ: US Seeks to Lower Green Trade Barriers
January 30, 2008
The Wall Street Journal is reporting that diplomats representing several of the world's biggest economies will gather in Hawaii for discussions regarding a new international agreement to succeed the Kyoto Protocol.
According to the story, “The meeting isn't expected to produce any major breakthrough.”
However, the meeting is set against a backdrop where the U.S. and other industrialized nations are trying to convince up and comers, such as China and India to lower trade barriers and eliminate tarrifs.
According to the Journal:
Deploying existing clean-energy technologies more broadly throughout the developing world is widely seen as important to slowing the growth in emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. But getting developing countries to drop the tariffs won't be easy. China and India have their own fast-growing companies selling clean technologies such as wind turbines and solar panels around the world.
Space Junk: The Green Problem No One Ever Talks About
January 27, 2008
Space debris is a green issue that few people ever discuss -- or even think about. There is a ring around our Earth of space junk – more than 9,000 man-made items, total, ranging from nuts and bolts to large, now-defunct communications satellites weighing thousands of pounds. Most of these objects will just orbit peacefully for decades and then begin to fall and disintegrate completely before touchdown. But sometimes when the larger satellites lose power prematurely and descend from their orbits, pieces of them can touchdown in populated areas.
California Rakes in the Green Tech Dough
January 23, 2008
It’s no secret in the business world that the climate is now ripe for investments in products or services deemed “green”—that is, environmentally friendly—to bear significant fruit. As noted in this previous post, Greentech Group reported significant business investments in green technology during 2007.
According to a San Francisco Chronicle report, the group also noted that, in the U.S., California received the largest amount of investment for a single state: $1.79 billion. That represents 45 percent of all green investments in North America.
“Silicon Valley has moved much more rapidly than any other place on the planet,” John Balbach, managing partner of the Cleantech Group, was quoted as saying in the San Francisco Chronicle report, explaining why the state got so much green tech dough.
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.
Land Rover Unveils Green Concept
January 14, 2008
Green is a major theme of this year’s North American International Auto Show and Land Rover is bringing something to the party. The automaker unveiled the LRX hybrid concept, a three-door Rover, showcasing compact size, lighter weight and sustainability-focused technologies.
“The LRX concept delivers the powerful message that we are as serious about sustainability as we are confident about the continuing relevance and desirability of our vehicles,” says Phil Popham, Land Rover’s managing director. “LRX is in every respect a Land Rover, but it’s a very different Land Rover.
LRX is designed to be a highly fuel-efficient, turbodiesel hybrid, capable of running on bio-diesel. In combination with other Land Rover technologies, this powertrain could reduce fuel consumption by as much as 30 percent compared with other SUVs of comparable size, and reduce emissions as well.
Click for more details.
Honda Stays on Green Message in Detroit
January 14, 2008
Yesterday, at the North American International Auto Show, Honda announced the debut of the company’s CR-Z, a lightweight hybrid concept car, and the FCX Clarity, a hydrogen fuel cell vehicle set to begin marketing by summer.
The FCX Clarity is classified as a ‘zero-emissions’ hydrogen-powered fuel cell vehicle based on the Honda V Flow fuel cell platform, and powered by the highly compact, efficient and powerful Honda V Flow fuel cell stack.
Honda plans to lease the FCX Clarity to a limited number of retail consumers in Southern California by this summer. Early estimates call for a three-year lease term with a price of $600 per month.
GM, Coskata in Ethanol Deal
January 14, 2008
General Motors has entered into a partnership with Coskata in a bid to promote a unique process for turning biomass into ethanol.
The Coskata partnership also builds on GM’s longstanding leadership in automotive fuels development and testing that included research and development of unleaded fuels in conjunction with the development of the catalytic converter, and early formulations of ethanol.
According to Beth Lowery, GM vice president, Environment, Energy and Safety Policy, “We believe ethanol used as a fuel, not just as a gasoline additive, is the best near-term alternative to the surging global demand for oil because ethanol is renewable and it significantly reduces CO2 emissions compared to gasoline.”
GM has already enabled its U.S. fleet to operate on E10, a blend of 90 percent gasoline and 10 percent ethanol.
According to General Motors, the company has about 3.5 million flex-fuel vehicles on the road in the U.S., Canada, Europe and Brazil. About 2.5 million are capable of operating on any percentage of gasoline and ethanol, up to 85 percent ethanol (E85).
