Category Archives: Technology

The Greenest University Building ever – The Student Services Building at the University of Texas at Dallas

by CGR Staff Writer
Posted on December 13, 2011 by CGR Staff Writer

Recent Awards Bring Total to 5 Won by LEED Platinum Student Services Facility

Dec. 13, 2011 – Press Release – Source: University of Texas Dallas News Center

The Student Services Building, the University’s “one-stop shop” for help on enrollment matters, financial aid, career services and more, has won a new sustainability award.

The building, which opened last fall, has now won five awards for its eco-friendly design.

The Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE), in conjunction with the Center for Green Schools at the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), honored the structure’s design with its 2011 Innovation in Green Building award.

The inaugural award recognizes a college or university that is revisiting the way it develops its physical campus and examines how the school is using Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) as a tool for campus greening. Continue reading →

Posted in Air Quality, Alternative Energy, Business, Furnishings, Green Business, Green Facilities, Green IT, Green Living, Heating & Cooling, Home Improvement & Decor, Information Systems, Janitorial, Kitchen, Food & Catering, Landscaping, Lighting, Recycling & Waste, Renovations & Construction, Sustainability News, Technology, Water Usage | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

How to Green your Computer

by CGR Staff Writer
Posted on December 13, 2011 by CGR Staff Writer

 

The production of computers is energy and material intensive, it creates significant amounts of waste, and uses many toxic materials. Therefore it is critical to purchase, use and dispose of computers in the most sustainable manner possible.

The following in an excerpt from the book “The Ultimate Guide to Greening your Home”.

Below are some tips to help you green your computer usage.

✔ Turn on your energy management features - All computers, regardless of the operating system, come with energy management features. Be sure these setting put your computer in ‘hibernate’ or ‘deep sleep’ mode after a certain period of inactivity.

✔ Turn off your screen saver - While helping save your screen, screen savers do not save electricity.  Depending on the complexity of the screen saver, the screen saver may be using as much processing power as when you are using your computer to run programs. Opt to have your computer go into ‘hibernation’ or ‘deep sleep’ after a period of inactivity as opposed to using screen savers to protect your screen. Continue reading →

Posted in Business, Carbon Management, CSR, Data Centers, Electronics, Energy, Energy Management, Environment, Goods, Services & Product Design, Green Business, Green IT, Green Living, Home Energy, Information Systems, IT Asset Management, IT Policies, Procedures & Strategy, Office Management, Print Management, Storage Solutions, Sustainability News, Sustainability Practices, Technology, Tips to Green Your Business, Virtualization | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Industrial Control Systems, Security and the Smart Grid

by tgilbrea69
Posted on December 12, 2011 by tgilbrea69

The discovery of the Stuxnet worm in 2010 shone a harsh light on the fragility of industrial control systems (ICS), such as supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) systems, and has created a new urgency among security vendors and utility managers alike.  Nearly overnight, ICS security went from being a non-issue to being critical.  Because of that rapid change, ramp-up time has been non-existent, with no time for an industry to consider what is needed and how to develop a manageable approach to security.  At nearly the same time, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 created a gold rush mentality, with utilities and vendors submitting requests quickly in order to obtain some of the funding.  Many of those requests simply stated a list of infrastructure components, without adequate consideration of cyber security requirements.  As a result of these two developments, the utility industry now has a large installed base of smart grid components, but little idea how to secure them. No clear or shared vision exists of what to build.

According to a recent report from Pike Research, such risks to the electrical grid will require utilities to make major new investments in cyber security for ICS in the coming years.  The cleantech market intelligence firm forecasts these investments will total $4.1 billion during the years between 2011 and 2018. Continue reading →

Posted in Alternative Energy, Business, Energy, Energy Management, Green Business, Green Facilities, Green IT, Information Systems, Smart Grid, Sustainability News, Technology | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Hybrid and Plug-In Electric Vehicles to Surpass 5% of Total U.S. Vehicle Sales by 2017

by CGR Staff Writer
Posted on December 9, 2011 by CGR Staff Writer

The early market for electric vehicles is proving that demand for the vehicles exists across the globe.  The combination of consumer purchase incentives, rising fossil fuel costs, and exciting new vehicle models is fueling a strong early adopter market.  Production of electrified vehicles is gearing up all over the world, and automakers are planning to launch an increasing variety of new models over the next few years.  In recent weeks new electric models have been officially launched, after months of advance publicity, by both Chevrolet (Spark EV) and Honda (Fit EV).  Automakers around the world will introduce dozens of new models over the next few years, fueling consumer interest and increasing sales of electric vehicles as a percentage of total auto sales.

According to a recent report from Pike Research, hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) and plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs) combined will represent 3.1% of worldwide auto sales by 2017. Thanks to higher penetration rates in the United States, HEVs and PEVs will account for 5.1% of total U.S. vehicle sales in 2017. Continue reading →

Posted in Business, Business Transportation, Carbon Management, CSR, Emissions Trading, Energy, Energy Management, Environment, Goods, Services & Product Design, Green Business, Green Marketing, Pollution, Sustainability News, Technology | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Should we employ Carbon Capture or go for the source?

by CGR Staff Writer
Posted on December 8, 2011 by CGR Staff Writer

New analysis shows pulling CO2 from the air would not be cost-effective in the foreseeable future.

This is an excerpt from an article at http://web.mit.edu by David L. Chandler. 

Since most of the world’s governments have not yet enacted regulations to curb emissions of greenhouse gases, some experts have advocated the development of technologies to remove carbon dioxide directly from the air. But a new MIT study shows that, at least for the foreseeable future, such proposals are not realistic because their costs would vastly exceed those of blocking emissions right at the source, such as at the powerplants that burn fossil fuels.

Some purveyors of various new technologies for scrubbing carbon dioxide out of the air are reminiscent of  “snake-oil salesmen,” says Howard Herzog, a senior research engineer at the MIT Energy Initiative and co-author of the new analysis published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The study was co-authored by MIT civil and environmental engineering postdoc Kurt Zenz House, along with researchers at C12 Energy in Berkeley, Calif., and at Stanford University.  Continue reading →

Posted in Business, Climate Change, Energy, Environment, Health, Politics, Pollution, Sustainability News, Technology | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Using VDI (Virtual Desktop Infrastructure) to Support Sustainability

by CGR Staff Writer
Posted on December 7, 2011 by CGR Staff Writer

Morehead Memorial Hospital Selects Unidesk to Expand Desktop Virtualization Program and Realize VDI’s Full Potential

Unidesk will be integrated with VMware View™ to help healthcare IT staff spend more time focusing on optimizing processes and use of health system applications to benefit staff, customers and patients, and less time worrying about patching and updating desktops, delivering applications, and securing patient information.

Marlborough, MA (PRWEB) December 06, 2011

Morehead Memorial Hospital of Eden, N.C., has selected Unidesk® as the desktop provisioning and application delivery platform for its VMware®-based Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) with the aim of making VDI better suited for the wide range of workers across the main hospital, nursing home, physician practices, and cancer and diagnostic centers. Unidesk will be integrated with VMware View™, forming an increasingly popular combination that helps healthcare IT staff spend more time focusing on optimizing processes and use of health system applications to benefit staff, customers and patients, and less time worrying about patching and updating desktops, delivering applications, and securing patient information. Continue reading →

Posted in Business, Data Centers, Green IT, Information Systems, IT Policies, Procedures & Strategy, Sustainability News, Technology, Virtualization | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

UL Environment Launches Sustainability Quotient (SQ) Program

by tgilbrea69
Posted on December 6, 2011 by tgilbrea69

Early SQ adopters include S&P 500, Russell 3,000, and private companies in Asia, North America, and Europe

NORTHBROOK, Ill., Dec. 6, 2011 /PRNewswire/ – UL Environment, a business unit of UL (Underwriters Laboratories), announced today the launch of its Sustainability Quotient (SQ) Program, a comprehensive system of assessing, rating, and certifying the sustainability initiatives of corporations at an enterprise level. The SQ Program is based on a series of auditable standards, including UL 880: Sustainability for Manufacturing Organizations, with the first edition being released today, and UL 881: Sustainability for Service Sector Organizations, which is in development.

“Similar to the promise of electricity in the late 1800s that helped launch UL’s science-based approach to standards development and testing, sustainability is on the cusp of widespread public adoption and the spur for innovation. Nonetheless, there remains confusion over what ‘sustainability’ means,” says Stephen Wenc, president of UL Environment. “We established the SQ Program to foster adoption of a standardized language and rating platform for corporate sustainability that may also be used in risk mitigation, streamlining operations, and early action in anticipation of future regulation.” Continue reading →

Posted in Business, Business Transportation, Carbon Management, CSR, Emissions Trading, Energy, Energy Management, Goods, Services & Product Design, Green Business, Green Facilities, Green IT, Green Marketing, Green Supply Chain, Office Management, Sustainability News, Sustainability Practices, Technology, Tips to Green Your Business | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Innovative New Ways to Preserve and Share Data on Sustainability

by CGR Staff Writer
Posted on December 2, 2011 by CGR Staff Writer
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Researchers Partner on NSF Program To Create New Technologies for Sharing, Storing, and Preserving Data

Newswise — Troy, N.Y. – Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute is a key partner in a new project to create better technologies for scientists and engineers to store, share, and preserve important scientific data related to sustainability research.

Funded by an initial two-year, $2 million award from the National Science Foundation (NSF), the multi-university Sustainable Environment-Actionable Data (SEAD) effort is expected to receive a total of $8 million over five years. By pairing social networking technologies similar to Facebook, YouTube, and Flickr with leading-edge web science and network science, the project aims to hasten scientific discovery and innovation. It will enable researchers who study sustainability to share their data in a way that is much easier and faster than current methods. Continue reading →

Posted in Business, Environment, Green Business, Health, Sustainability News, Technology | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment
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