Green Your Network Blog

Whether a paragon of the overexuberant eco-chic or a bright ray of hope in a failing economy, Amyris stands out from the pack for the sheer ambition and scale of its plan for biofuel production.

Located in the heart of silicon valley, this Green Tech start up is expanding while traditional businesses trim operating costs and payroll and it promises to produce plant-based diesel fuel at $2 per gallon in the foreseeable future. Exciting stuff, even as the price of oil in world markets drops. Also excited are investors and advocates for aggressive US environmental initiative, former Vice President Al Gore and President Elect Barack Obama notable among them.

And yet, almost Cassandra like we must again note that Amyris’ accomplishments, while innovative and certainly promising fall far short of the mass production facilities that would be required to put any sort of dent in American oil dependence, let alone the environmental impact of burning fossil fuels. Indeed, the technology is still “a long way from a profitable process.” Moreover, adding 200 jobs in a recession is no small accomplishment, but falls widely short of the mark set by President Elect Obama of creating 5 million jobs (!) in a burgeoning Green Technology industry, or even the 500,000 people that sought unemployment benefits last week- the most in recent memory. On the whole, and at first glance this would appear to be little more than a drop in the proverbial bucket.

Projects such as the biofuel production (experimental) facilities of Amyris tend to draw opposition, surprisingly, from environmental groups who fear that the production of biofuel will have a longer and harsher deleterious impact on the environment then the production and consumption of fossil fuels already has. Such critics, however, seem to be missing an extremely important point in all of this which is that all other things being equal, our vast consumption of petroleum byproducts is rapidly depleting the resource while at the same time enriching and empowering our enemies. America is an also-ran in oil extraction, but it is a world leader in agriculture. If it were to be possible to shift global dependence on fossil fuels to a global dependence on vast tracts of corn and legume crops then America would quickly find itself placed in the enviable position of being a principal supplier of the goods that drive industry. For this reason, if for no other, it strongly behooves American industry and government to promote such enterprises. At the same time, the growing scarcity of economic resources should serve as a painful reminder of the dangers inherent in irrationally inflated expectations and the heedless squandering of resources that often accompanies them.

See article in WIRED here

By Steven Adams
Product Content Manager for UsedCisco.com

It is true that we have covered the epidemic of e-waste here before, on more than one occasion. But lacking the resources of a major television network we never gave it the depth of treatment that it received on CBS’ 60 Minutes this week. Brace yourself for some very disturbing coverage of the direct impact your old, discarded computer equipment is having on hapless Chinese laborers and their families.

60 Minutes’ crew visited an “E-Waste Recycler” in Denver following a large collection drive where well intended people brought old electronic equipment to be recycled. Their reporters made a note of containers on site that were filled with old CRT monitors (several pounds of lead in every one), photographed the container and its numerical markings. They then followed these containers across the ocean to a dock in Hong Kong and on to a town in China where the E-Waste is processed.

In the town of Guiyu agriculture has failed and the only industry developed is the breaking down of old electronic equipment from the West. Circuit boards are heated over coal fires until the toxic chemicals holding them together begin to liquefy and run off into the ground or vaporize into the atmosphere. The lead from CRTs is extracted by hand with no safety equipment or controls of any kind. The conditions are unimaginable to Wester sensibilities, and the consequences predictable. “Scientists have studied the area and discovered that Guiyu has the highest levels of cancer-causing dioxins in the world. They found pregnancies are six times more likely to end in miscarriage, and that seven out of ten kids have too much lead in their blood. “

It’s one thing to fret and fume about the shady and irresponsible business of repackaging discarded electronics and shipping them to the third world. To see graphic footage along the lines of the material gathered by 60 minutes, to learn of the raw facts surrounding the living conditions for the men, women and innocent children exposed to this refuse is startling. If ever an abuse of human dignity was preventable and all the more distressing for the total disregard for suffering that allows it to persist then this is it. Certainly, the Market should not allow this outrage to continue for one moment longer, but it seems clear that governments should be stepping in in a more meaningful way as well. And consumers ought to think twice before sending off their used electronic equipment to be “recycled” or rushing out to purchase the shiny new hardware in the fancy packaging. If conscientious animal lovers rescue pets from the pound, shouldn’t people lovers buy their hardware after-market?

Link to CBS 60 Minutes site with an informative article and graphic footage here

By Steven Adams
Product Content Manager for UsedCisco.com

The recent election of Barack Obama and the sweeping if ill-defined change that he is expected to usher into American affairs has had a highly invigorating effect on the apostles of “green” or “renewable” energy.

Notable commentator and energy policy non-expert Thomas Friedman recently published a book putting forth the claim (oversimplified here, but not overstated) that the US can restore its lost honor and save the world by adopting eco-friendly energy production. It is conventional wisdom that so-called “clean” or “green” energy sources will lead to the profound reduction of the harmful impact of human expansion by reducing the release of toxins into the atmosphere, the ground and water. The legions of believers who are clamoring behind this world view seem little troubled by the reality that many of the underlying claims are unverified, and altogether untroubled by the fact that just about none of this stuff actually works (yet). As a blog dedicated to the dissemination of information about the preservation of our delicate ecosystem it seems altogether appropriate that we set about debunking some of these myths, particularly in this moment of unbridled and uncritical euphoria.

Thomas Friedman on FOX news discussing the role of the environment in the Obama administration. Friedman claims America can regain its international stature by taking the lead in alternative energy and environmentalism.
Video can be found here

In recent months readers of these pages have encountered nifty inventions (or concepts) that were meant to pull computers off of the grid by powering them through keystrokes and miniature solar panels. On each occasion, in our discussion we noted how the amount of power actually generated by these inventions was substantially less than the power required under normal working conditions. At the same time we were prepared to cut them a lot of slack because they were prototypes or concepts, because they were so cool and original and because any kind of savings seems better than wanton consumption. But would you believe that in 2000 the state of California could no longer produce enough power to support its infrastructure, largely due to the fact that its political echelon has mandated an ever increasing proportion of power be generated by unproven and inefficient technologies?! Nuclear Power expert and proponent William Tucker swears it’s true . According to Tucker, none of the so-called renewable energy sources expected to be fast-tracked by an Obama administration- solar, wind- are capable of consistently delivering power to meet the needs of an industrialized civilization, no matter how much we wish they were. While the sources of the power are certainly renewable and sustainable, the supply of power so generated is anything but. For example, a wind generation facility that is expected (in California) to generate 100 MW of electricity (comparable to an average coal facility), given fluctuations in wind speed and problems with storage and transmission will (at best) consistently operate at a 30% peak efficiency to produce (on earth) 30 MW. Now your a/c is dead and your street lights don’t work.

But poor arithmetic is not the worst problem with ill conceived alternative energy sources. The intuitively appealing notion that solar energy (from the sun!) and wind turbine energy (the wind!) are cleaner does not take into account the environmental costs involved in producing the necessary equipment which has still not been engineered to grow organically from seeds in the earth. In a blog entry suggestively titled “Global Warming Caused by Solar Panels ,” Luboš Motl translates into English the rather disturbing findings of one Alexander Ač to the effect that byproducts of the production of solar panels are 17,000 times (!) more potent a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. Similarly, we all remember how only last year it suddenly became apparent that the rush to mandate biofuel additives for gasoline caused a global food shortage and threatened to hasten global warming through concomitant deforestation and the pollutants generated by corn farming. If we, as a civilization- as a species really wish to solve our planet’s problems, we will need to do so by taking a long, cold hard look at facts and not by indulging our utopian fantasies. Most important of all, we must not allow mass media, politicians and the nexus between them to influence our decisions on matters so grave as energy policy for our own and future generations.

By Steven Adams
Product Content Manager for UsedCisco.com

Given the frequent press releases and dramatic declarations by leading technology corporations, it might come as some surprise to learn that a recent study by Gartner and the World Wildlife Fund for Nature (WWF) found that most could be doing a good deal more in the way of lowering their carbon footprint. According to the study, “the ICT industry overall has been slow to embrace the low carbon economy despite the tremendous opportunities that will be presented to the industry, such as smart buildings and grid applications and travel substitution.” This sort of corporate inertia is hardly surprising in our prevailing corporate climate, but it does cast a rather cynical light on the repeated assertions by technology companies that they are implementing various green initiatives driven by concern for the environment. While certain individuals within the corporate hierarchy no doubt have legitimate concern, overall one is forced to wonder if the grandstanding and green posturing is nothing more than a shrewd marketing scheme for the 21st century.

Gartner Executive being interviewed about the collaborative WWF Assessment for Low Carbon Leadership in ICT Industry

But first some good news. First of all, participation in the study was purely voluntary, and consent to be included represents good faith on the part of the subject companies who wished to be judged on their environmental consciousness. Of twenty-four leading corporations contacted, fifteen consented and each of these organizations deserves to be commended regardless of what the findings revealed. Moreover, Fujitsu, BT, HP and IBM all did well according to virtually all indicators including Environmental basics, supply chain basics, carbon basics, carbon delivery and carbon champions.

The salient detail that emerges to characterize all those companies which did not score as highly is that while producing carbon-friendly products for the market and touting their high-efficiency mainframes (where applicable) they think little or not at all about the overall environmental impact of their more extensive supply and manufacturing chain and executive travel practices. Most of these corporation inhabit hugely expensive state of the art headquarters facilities which, despite vast capital investments in structural and architectural elements do not implement state of the art energy conservation features on any meaningful level. When one considers that these are companies at the leading edge of technological innovation it is disappointing to learn that they are not more attentive to emerging trends in environmental awareness that have been adopted by many more “old fashioned” corporations.

Singled out for corrective attention was Google which, despite its trumpeting of a Green Data Center and concomitant “Commitment to Sustainable Computing” was found by the study to “not have an environmental policy.” As for the true villains, for the record, the following companies refused to be included in the Climate Change assessment: Accenture, Acer, AT&T, Deutsche Telekom, EDS, Microsoft, Oracle, Sun and TCS. Feel free to go ahead and let them know how you feel about their indifference to your home planet.

Gartner’s press release is here

Stop the presses! Literally. Global shipping company DHL has announced its plans to offer paperless billing to customers across Europe. By eliminating monthly paper invoices for millions of customers every year, DHL hopes to save 2400 tree and 600 tonnes of C02 each year. (source) Of course it is reasonable to assume that DHL will reap some benefits from this initiative in cost savings and customer satisfaction. E-billing is not exactly a revolutionary practice anymore, and a lot of people are probably wondering why it’s taken DHL so long to get on board. This also begs the question of why DHL isn’t trying a similar initiative in North America, where it is the third largest carrier. It is also somewhat embarrassing for DHL to attempt to put a purely cosmetic environmental spin on an efficiency initiative while competitor UPS is rolling out a truly groundbreaking innovation in energy efficiency upgrades for their US fleet.

To its existing “green fleet” of 2129 (!) low carbon vehicles UPS has announced plans to add 7 Hybrid Hydraulic Vehicles. What’s a Hybrid Hydraulic Vehicle? Unlike traditional Hybrid drivetrains, the Hybrid Hydraulic Vehicle (HHV) gets its power from tanks of pressurized liquid mounted to the chassis. This configuration has and advantage over battery powered electric vehicles inasmuch as it eliminates the need for bulky storage cells which are not part of the drivetrain assembly, reduces the number of essential components subject to failure and, best of all, recaptures heretofore lost energy from braking. When a HHV brakes the resistance is captured and stored in the hydraulic tanks. Because it operates on hydraulic pressure the vehicle can easily power off and on while not in use, it does not have to overcome the same kinds of inertia that combustion and electric engines do that obliges them to remain on in an idle state in order to conserve the energy that would be expended in restarting. They HHV engine is estimated to be 40-50% more efficient that traditional diesel engines and creates 30% less carbon emissions.

UPS developed the HHV in cooperation with the EPA and a few other private ventures as the product of a joint effort to produce a viable Hydraulic prototype for commercial use. Its imminent deployment testifies to the success of this effort and should be heartily commended. It should also raise the profile of this exciting technology so that it may be adopted in more applications by environmentally responsible manufacturers and corporations.

UPS Fleet Philosophy (fyi)
UPS is an active participant in advancing and developing future generations of delivery vehicles that significantly reduce fuel consumption and our dependence on fossil fuels – all while remaining an innovative, socially responsible and financially sound corporation.

their press release

Wired article

By Steven Adams
Product Content Manager for UsedCisco.com

Lest it be thought that the ethical burden upon those who labor to bring you the latest news in green computing is lightly borne, please note that deciding between meaty stories of ecological significance and sexy gadgets is always fraught with the utmost solemnity. Nevertheless, good people- the LawnPC is here. The LawnPC! Or not really quire here, exactly, despite whatever conclusion might be drawn from innumerable breathless reviews and reports which have already preceded ours to the world wide web. In fact, our careful investigative research (read: Google searches) have revealed that there does not actually appear to be a working prototype yet. Oh well. But the LawnPC!

LawnPC is a finalist in Dell’s Green Computing Design Competition, ReGeneration . It is the fruit of the imagination of Industrial Designer David Veldkamp , presumably about to become Apple’s newest design team leader. Veldkamp’s concept and design integrates energy saving features with biodegradability and sets the bar for just how eco-friendly a computer can be if we set our minds to it. The “blades of grass” generate electricity from the sun to charge three 20W storage cells. As they sway in the breeze they also cool the processor, which is a good thing because 60 watts is not an awful lot of power for processors and cooling fans. If, on the other hand, the computer could be plugged into the energy harvesting keyboard then we might really be on to something. It’s a wonderful prospect and it is encouraging to note that some people are moving past imagining its realization towards designing the implementation.

David Veldkamp’s portfolio is here
The ReGeneration entry page

By Steven Adams
Product Content Manager for UsedCisco.com

This article is a follow up to the piece we ran last month, and it beat out some other very interesting topics because it seems we owe it to some government agencies to let people know when they try to live up to their mandate. Along with a number of other online publications, we responded with concern and consternation to a Government Accountability Office (GAO) probe indicating that certain companies are wantonly disregarding federal regulations and international treaties regarding the export of toxic chemicals in old computer displays and television sets. Particularly distressing in this report was the suggestion that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was doing little or nothing of consequence to enforce the law and thereby emboldening those who stood to profit by breaking it.

On October 15 the publication Business Week ran a detailed expose, prompted in large part by this same GAO report. Their investigative reporters identified some of the worst offenders only hinted at in the article and followed the trail of discarded electronics components leading to and from their offices. The day after the article appeared Business Week reported that investigators from the EPA, accompanied by State Troopers raided the headquarters of the company most conspicuous in the Business Week article. The point being, of course, that somebody is doing something about it after all. Whether the EPA was goaded into action by the GAO report and subsequent media fallout, or whether one accepts at face value its assertion that it has focused on educating e-waste recyclers … and now is stepping up enforcement, it is noteworthy that the government regulators appear to be getting down to the business of regulating.

The company in question, whom we have not named here, naturally denies any wrongdoing. On the record their largest institutional clients are also insisting that there is no reason to believe the goods are not being processed properly and in their entirety at the home office of the company in question. Whatever the facts are determined to be, it is truly shocking that until the EPA raid representatives of this company thought nothing of openly and publicly proclaiming to potential overseas buyers that they had shipping containers full of controlled goods available for immediate cash purchase. As one individual commented on the October 16 article describing the raid “I’ve had EPA audits too, they’ve never shown up with state police and a caravan of dark vans following!”

Business Week article detailing the raid is here

By Steven Adams
Product Content Manager for UsedCisco.com

Have you ever stuffed a stack of paper into a n “interoffice mail” envelope that had passed through many hands before? In doing so you are saving your office money on envelopes and reducing the number of trees being cut down to produce the envelopes- but just imagine if you could do the same thing with the paper that fits inside. Now this isn’t exactly new information- the first press release came out in 2006 here- but the technology is still under development and made its debut at WIRED NextFest this week so it is new to us- and very cool.

Different sites are reporting different statistics about just how much paper is discarded on the same day it is printed, generally after only one use, but anybody who has ever worked in an office knows that it is an awful lot. Xerox’ Palo Alto Research Center (PARC), the same people who brought you laser printing, developed the breakthrough by printing membranes with waves of light (kind of like a CD) instead of inks. The exact processes involved are, of course, top secret, but the resulting paper bears its imprint for around 24 hours as it gradually returns to a blank state when exposed to natural light, or faster when heated. Returning the paper to the printer will erase it immediately. And as if the paper savings were not sufficiently important in helping to green the workplace, Xerox claims that the energy required to produce each individual sheet of erasable paper is substantially less than that required to produce traditional copy paper.

Xerox is responding to a real need in the workplace, a significant oversight that has taken many people by surprise as they envisioned the utopian future that new technology was to have heralded. “Think of the Google map you printed to get here,” PARC Area Manager Eric Shrader said at a product demonstration. “Thirty years ago, we said the future was paperless.” Xerox deserves to be commended for responding to legitimate needs engendered by developments in the way people use their tools in the real world. It is to be assumed, indeed hoped that Xerox stands to be rewarded for such innovation in the marketplace but it is worthy to note that their researchers can step beyond conceiving of the next widget to command the attention of a voracious consumer market and bring life to products that are accountable to environmental and economic concerns that we may have not even considered before.

More coverage here

By Steven Adams
Product Content Manager for UsedCisco.com

This link was sent to us by an alert co-worker. Hopefully also a co-worker schooled in Physics, because most of the article linked below is all but unintelligible to the layman. Nevertheless, the idea is so cool and so original that we have rolled up our sleeves and dove in to bring this news to you, here, possibly for the first time in the blogosphere. Also, there is a decent Abstract and Introduction which spells it out for anybody who doesn’t have a PhD in Physics.

So have you ever sat at your computer, listening to the little fan burn off irreplaceable fossil fuels at a slow but steady rate, and wondered- isn’t there some way that I can make a difference and return energy to the grid just by sitting here doing what I was going to do anyway? If you are anything like millions of other people in cyberspace the answer is probably no, but you’ve often wondered how you can make tens of thousands of dollars surfing the web from the comfort of your own home. For this, however, there are other dedicated blogs- here at the Green Your Network Blog we are concerned with making a difference in Corporate America to impact positively on the environment. We are frankly very excited about this new innovation that we are just about to describe.

The current edition of the Journal of Micromechanics and Microengineering (http://www.iop.org/EJ/journal/JMM) includes a paper with the following evocative title: A micromachined energy harvester from a keyboard using combined electromagnetic and piezoelectric conversion. Fascinating and, despite what a quick first reading might suggest, wholly unrelated to small toy cars. Rather, two researchers from the University of Missouri- Columbia have developed a working prototype for a computer keyboard that generates energy from keystrokes. The combination of electromagnetic and piezoelectric conversion means, in simple English, that both velocity and frequency of keystrokes can be used to generate electricity and the working prototype suggests that it ought to be possible to recharge laptop batteries while typing, simply by typing.

Obviously, at this early stage of the game it is premature to start imagining laptop computers without batteries, desktop computers with no wall plugs or cubicle arrays taking the place of generators. Nevertheless the practical implementation of a technology that harvests biomechanical energy in a non-invasive, non-disruptive manner is a very encouraging sign. As fanciful as it may seem today, perhaps, just such a scenario of an office full or workers providing the additional power consumed during working hours by- working- may not be so far off. As we as a species consider ways to preserve fossil fuels and reduce energy consumption, we would do well to support and encourage technologies such as this one that make use of the energy we are already expending with little to show for it than the production of another blog.

Abstract and a link to download the paper here: http://www.iop.org/EJ/abstract/0960-1317/18/10/104016

Reuse…Save up to 90% off list price and save the environment too when you shop at UsedCisco.com

By Steven Adams
Product Content Manager for UsedCisco.com

Given the attention paid to disposable diapers plastic soda bottles as contributors to the creeping inundation of our planet under landfill overflow, it may surprise some to learn that well over half of the refuse generated in America is construction debris. And while the junked remains of some 250,000 homes are cast off to create new habitats for seabirds in Staten Island, new construction consumes 60 percent of all materials used in the nation’s economy every year, excluding food and fuel. But the exhaustion of non-renewable resources and destruction of old-growth forest is only the tip of the iceberg in calculating the environmental impact of construction in America, because all of those materials require fossil fuels to process and bring to market, as well as labor in production, transportation and administration. Just imagine if we could stop, for just one year, depleting our natural resources and squandering our manpower to throw up new skyscrapers and housing developments. With rising costs of raw materials and depleted sources of those materials should we demand a moratorium on construction? Obviously that idea is a nonstarter- but some ingenious and enterprising individuals are looking at the big picture as they devise new ways of approaching the utilization of the building materials already harvested.

The art of disassembling a structure by hand with an eye towards preserving the materials for reuse is commonly called deconstruction, and it has always been practiced to some degree or another. Historically, however, as demolition became the province of heavy machinery and transportation was revolutionized by air travel and interstate highways the time and labor needed to dismantle a building without ruining its components was disproportionate to the potential gain. But today this calculus has been revised due, in large part, to the dramatic increase in costs associated with dumping construction debris. Add that to the rising cost of raw materials and transportation and, for local reuse at least, the final cost savings associated with deconstruction even after accounting for additional labor and time can total thousands of dollars for every structure- and that is without considering the inherent benefit for the planet and our limited natural resources.

What is needed, then, is a paradigm shift where consumption no longer entails the exhaustion of consumables and where we as a species extract the maximum usefulness from the resources we harvest. No doubt it is fortuitous that economic circumstances are driving such a reassessment of our practices, but perhaps the time has come to be more conscientious about what becomes of our goods long after we rip them out of the earth, package them and ship them to warehouses. The issue of reusing rather than discarding materials transcends the construction industry, even if construction debris makes up the lions share of our refuse. It is incumbent upon us as a society to reject the ethos of the disposable lifestyle which has prevailed since the height of the industrial revolution and to embrace a new value set which will place a premium on efficiency and sophisticated frugality.

Full article can be found here: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/28/magazine/28house-t.html

Reuse…Save up to 90% off list price and save the environment too when you shop at UsedCisco.com

By Steven Adams
Product Content Manager for UsedCisco.com