Green Your Network Blog

Whoever you were rooting for in last weekend’s game of the Green Bay Packers versus the New York Giants, it was the City of Green Bay that covered the spread. Spreading the salt, that is.

Green Bay’s Public Works Department has two new state-of-the-art salt spreaders that waste less salt than conventional spreaders. The new technology pre-wets the salt before it is applied to the roads, which helps the salt better stick to the roads.

Water jets spraying the salt upon release

The new method cuts salt waste down from 30% to 4%. Green Bay plans to retrofit its entire truck fleet with the new system, saving the city an expected $100,000 annually.

Click on the image below to go to YouTube and view WLUK’s news report on the new salt spreaders.

Fans headed to the game and traveling through Detroit might want to check a new online application from Wayne County, Michigan, that lets users better plan for travel through snowy areas. The interactive website is called Compass and it allows users to see where the county’s salt trucks are located as well as which roads have already been plowed. Its most impressive feature allows users to view road conditions from the perspective of a driver.

Zayd Allebban, director of enterprise applications for Wayne County, noted another benefit of Compass – transparency and accountability for taxpayers’ money. “It is taxpayer money that is funding all this, so they certainly have a right to see exactly what we are doing with it.”

A mobile app version for both Apple and Android is currently in development. Projections for 2012-2013 include an even more interactive version that allows users to report roads that need plowing or salting. For more information, see http://www.govtech.com/e-government/Detroit-Snowplow-App.html.

By Consuela Conceptionne

Social Media Manager for UsedCisco.com

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Ever want to take public transportation, but decide against it because it would leave you too far away from your final destination? Enter New Zealand developer Grant Ryan’s “YikeBike,” a lightweight, foldable electric bicycle that is small enough to easily carry onto a bus or train. Ryan designed the bike in order to make public transportation an option for more people tackling urban commutes. So far, the YikeBikes have been a smashing success in Singapore, where they were first introduced in the Clean Energy Expo Asia (CEEA) last month.

The YikeBikes, which have an approximate range of 6.5 miles and a top speed of 14 miles per hour, come in two versions: a 23lb carbon-fibre version that sells for just under S$5,000 and a slightly heavier (31lb) version made from a combination of aluminum and other materials that sells for just under S$3,000.

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Also introduced at the CEEA was a portable solar charger developed by Third Wave Power. The device charges in six hours using solar power or one hour using an electric outlet. It can charge any personal electronic device including mobile phones, laptops, and cameras, and it also doubles as a light, radio, or ultrasonic insect repellent. Third Wave Power envisions the charger to gain 50 to 60 million potential users in India, especially among medical professionals who work in areas without adequate electricity. It is expected to hit store in Southeast Asia early next year.

For more information, see here

By Joshua Levitt
Managing Director for UsedCisco.com

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Companies making claims of being environmentally-friendly often face greater scrutiny from government regulators, environmental watchdogs, and consumers. Such companies are increasingly turning to auditors to produce “green audits” to back up their environmental claims. According to a survey by KPMG, these companies are willing to pay for green audits mainly to preserve their brand name.

Green auditing has been slower to take off in the United States than in the European Union, where companies need accurate counts of carbon discharges to comply with an emissions trading scheme.
Office Depot and Kimberly Clark have both begun using green audits. In 2003, Office Depot was forced to change its environmental practices after being picketed. Among other changes, it cut off a vendor of paper supplies and began tracking its carbon emissions. The company also began publicly releasing the results of its annual green audits. Today Office Depot is has won the praise of environmental groups.

Kimberly Clark, maker of Kleenex and Cottonelle, has long been vilified by Greenpeace and other environmental activists for its use of forest fiber and for misleading sustainability reports. The company came to an agreement with Greenpeace that incrementally reduced its consumption of non- recycled forest fiber. Its reports are now reviewed by a sustainability consultant and an outside advisory board.

Investors have also become a source of pressure for companies to use green audits. The California Public Employees Retirement System, one of the largest institutional investors in the country, is a key proponent of green audits.

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By Joshua Levitt
Managing Director for UsedCisco.com

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Argentina may be a first- rate tourist destination, but it could use some help with its e-waste disposal. The country has no program in place to recycle old cell phones. Consumers there replace their cellphones on average every two years, and the old ones are simply thrown away. With 34.4 million mobile phone subscribers, that’s a lot of cellphones in the trash.

Workers at Gestion Ambiental, a company devoted to the collection, treatment and final disposal of electric and electronic waste in Buenos Aires.
Credit:Juan Moseinco/IPS
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Mobile phones are a big source of toxic pollution. When they break down, they release highly toxic substances and heavy metals that contaminate the air, soil and water tables. According to Gustavo Fernández, owner of Escrap, a company that handles e-waste from large companies, mobile phones are the most dangerous of all e-waste products. “They are like an atomic bomb,” he explained, because they release carcinogenic substances and highly persistent pollutants.

Fernandez joined with the organization Greenpeace Argentina in support of legislation currently being studied by the Argentinian Congress which would make manufacturers of electronic devices responsible for their recycling or otherwise safe disposal. The bill also provides incentives for manufactures to design non-toxic, easily recyclable devices that are free of toxic substances, as well as proposing a national system for the safe disposal of e-waste. Cities with populations over 10,000 would be required to establish

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By Joshua Levitt
Managing Director for UsedCisco.com

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“Think” is one of several ways IBM is celebrating its centennial anniversary this year. It is a free exhibit on display at Lincoln Center through October 23, 2011.

Think, focuses on what technology is doing behind the scenes to address various public concerns, like sustainability, health care, conservation, food production and others…

IBM collected and analyzed data from more than 100 sensors strategically located around the city. Powerful conclusions from the data are being transmitted at the exhibit through various visual mediums.

The exhibit teaches visitors about urban problems and potential solutions; like, the city’s untapped potential to collect solar energy, wasted drinking water, and patterns in credit card fraud, traffic and air quality that change hourly.

“We wanted to do the same thing, [telling] stories about what it is possible to achieve today through science and technology.” says IBM’s Lee Green, vice president of brand experience and strategic design.

View a slide show of IBM’s Think exhibit.

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By Joshua Levitt
Managing Director for UsedCisco.com

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Most of us know by now that e-waste is a growing problem around the world. I’m not writing this blog post to be redundant, but rather, to illustrate the magnitude of the problem and drive home the necessity to respect the issue and start contributing towards the reversal of the current trend.

E-waste is Growing by 40 Million Tons a Year Globally

I know how popular it is to be “green,” but this problem goes way beyond being fashionable. Going “Green” is nowhere near enough to combat the seriousness of what’s become of our consumption culture.

Contributing towards a MORE environmentally friendly product over another option is nowhere enough. Sustainability is a holistic approach to your lifestyle and culture that considers the Entire life-cycle of a purchasing decision, from where the part originates, how it is transported, what by-products it produces, and most importantly what becomes of that part when it is discarded (those are just to name a few of the considerations). I want to highlight the last example here; that of the destiny of your discarded technology products.

Let’s focus now on one consumer product that most of use daily, the cell phone.

Here are a few poignant statistics about cell phones that came out of a recent study conducted by the UN’s Environmental Program:

• Consumers bought almost 900 million mobile phones in 2006 and over a billion in 2007
• The United States is the biggest produces at 3 million tons a year.
• China is producing 2.3 million, and by 2020, the amount of e-waste from dumped phones in China will be seven times larger than it was in 2007, and in India 18 times higher.

Due to lower environmental standards and working conditions in China, India, Kenya, and elsewhere, electronic waste like discarded cell phones are being sent to these countries for processing – in most cases illegally. The majority of defunct and junked e-waste ends up being broken down by ill-equipped laborers in hazardous conditions and in environmentally hazardous ways.

All that e-waste doesn’t just come from cell phones. By 2020, e-waste levels will have increased by more than 500%. So you can see, that buying “Green” may feel good, but it is not even close to where we need to be as a species to combat this growing giant of a problem.

The solution to this problem starts with spreading awareness. We need a commitment from the global community. This commitment needs to come from individuals as well as governments (with stricter legislation for manufacturers and consumers).We need to change our culture and habits with regards to being consumers. We should become more aware of the ENTIRE environmental impact of the products we consume. We should get used to the idea of extending the useful life-cycle of our products through buying and selling of pre-owned equipment. Most importantly, we should all make efforts to make sure we are disposing of our used electronics in sanctioned environmentally friendly ways.

There is one retailer who already understands this problem and is leading the charge towards reversing it. That retailer is Best Buy. They deserve an honorable mention here because they recently announced an ambitious plan to collect one billion pounds of e-waste over the next five years. The chain has collected over 140 million pounds of e-waste in the past year alone. Best Buy’s strategy to increase that number includes, in-store kiosks (now available in every location), online trade-in programs, and even home electronics pickup.

They have even gone so far as to erect a giant billboard in Times Square advertising this ambitious program. Plus, they already have the largest retail recycling program in the country. Now that’s what I call putting your money where your mouth is. Bravo best Buy!

I hope Best Buy recognizes huge dividends for their efforts, and let them be a great example to everyone of what is possible, and necessary in the coming decade.

See related articles here:
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2010/02/united-nations-add-mobile-phones-to-the-world-e-waste-crisis.ars

http://www.fastcompany.com/1668383/best-buy-wants-to-collect-one-billion-pounds-of-e-waste-over-the-next-5-years

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By Joshua Levitt
Managing Director for UsedCisco.com

Last week at the Copenhagen Conference on Climate Change, MIT researchers unveiled the Copenhagen Wheel. The initial prototypes of the Copenhagen Wheel were developed along with company Ducati Energia and the Italian Ministry of the Environment.

As an avid cycler, this product is for me, one of the most exciting and practical ideas I have ever discussed in this blog.
This state of the art wheel technology actually boosts power! The Wheel can store energy every time the rider puts on the brakes, and then give that power back to provide a boost when riding uphill or to add a burst of speed in traffic.
In addition to giving you a push, this wheel can do so much more. By using a series of sensors and a Bluetooth connection to the user’s iPhone, the wheel can monitor the bicycle’s speed, direction and distance travelled. It can also keep track of friends, fitness, smog and traffic.

Ideally this revolutionary product will promote cycling by extending the range of distance people can cover and by making the whole riding experience smoother and more fun. Now those steep inclines will no longer be a barrier to comfortable cycling.

Bicycling is already gaining popularity in many cities around the world, and rightfully so. It is good for the environment (as an alternative to driving), good for you, and most importantly, it’s fun!
New York City officials say it’s the fastest-growing mode of transportation and the number of cyclists in NYC has jumped by 80 percent in the past decade.

It is expected that the wheel will go into production next year, with a price tag competitive with that of a standard electric bike. Additionally; it’s easy, the bike wheel contains all you need so that no sensors or additional electronics need to be added to the frame and an existing bike can be retrofitted with the blink of an eye.

Pretty Cool, Right?!?!?

Check it out on YouTube:

See related article here:
http://web.mit.edu/press/2009/copenhagen-wheel.html

By Joshua Levitt
Managing Director for UsedCisco.com

Microsoft is trying to keep up with the demand for an additional 10,000 servers a month. The majority of the servers are needed for “search” (approximately 80,000 or so) and the rest are mostly allotted for things like Hotmail, messenger, consumer video, photo services as well as its collection of hosted enterprise services.

Their new solution is pretty cool. They have begun loading up servers in sealed shipping containers. These containers are already networked together and ready to go. Each individual container is then hooked up to power, networking, and air conditioning. It’s almost like the container itself is a memory appliance and the servers inside are the hard drives. After a certain number of servers in the container have failed, the whole container will be removed by truck and a new one loaded in its place.

San Antonio, Texas, data center under construction.

So what does all this have to with “greening your network?

Here is what Microsoft’s general manager of infrastructure Arne Josefsberg had to say about it, “You contain your infrastructure but you also contain the heat that’s generated from the servers. We are working incredibly hard to improve the energy efficiency of our data centers. Even a 1 percent or 2 percent reduction in power consumption makes a big difference.”

It’s pretty cool how they have spun this new efficient way of managing server volume into an environmentally friendly platform.
Although I am not aware of any published figures by Microsoft, the fact is, server racks at web hosting facilities may have power densities of 70 watts to 100 watts per square foot. When you consider the density in the Microsoft containers, they should now be consuming considerably fewer watts of power per square foot. Therefore, I think they are fully justified in spinning their new “container” solution as an environmentally friendly one (although I’d love to see the actual figures). Undoubtedly they are most likely saving money here as well. I love it when money saving solutions prove to be environmentally friendly at the same time.

See related article here:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13860_3-10020902-56.html

By Joshua Levitt
Managing Director for UsedCisco.com

Here’s a new one…Check out the latest design by Cheolyeon Jo & Youngsun Lee.  It’s a manhole cover that harvests rainwater and gives pedestrians directions. What will they think of next?

See related articles here: http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/11/futuristic-manhold-cover-harvests-rainwater-power-and-tells-you-where-to-catch-the-bus.php

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By Joshua Levitt
Managing Director for UsedCisco.com

Today’s blog entry is less informative and more speculative than most of my previous contributions. Throughout this entire week, I have noticed the same story appearing over and over again in most “green” related news channels as well as many mainstream media distributions as well. The story is about HP and their failure to keep promises regarding their environmental policies.

Apparently HP has been promising to phase out many toxic chemicals from their production process for years and now, and activists have had enough! This week, members of Greenpeace painted the message “Hazardous Products” on the rooftop of HP’s Palo Alto, Calif., global headquarters and sent many of the company’s key employees harassing automated phone calls on the subject.

Greenpeace has publicly been after HP, DELL and others to clean up their acts for months now. This is because these companies manufacture products with the chemicals PVC and BFRs which give off toxic fumes that when they are broken down are considered extremely dangerous carcinogens.

The lifecycle of these hardware parts almost always find themselves spending their final days being shipped off to some underdeveloped country for breakdown. The toxins released from these chemicals, spew off chlorodioxin, and bromodioxin into the environment causing serious impact on the health of local inhabitants. This type of chemical breakdown would never be tolerated in the U.S. where these companies like HP and Dell reside.

I can’t help but think about the parallel between this type of corporate sabotage and that of the more popular whale wars. Activists have been physically attacking illegal whaling vessels on the high sea’s for almost two decades now, ever since specific whale species have been classified as endangered. These activists are trying to protect the whale species much like the activists who vandalized the HP headquarters was trying to protect local citizens in India and China where most of these dangerous chemicals are being released from the breakdown of e-waste.

I wonder how, or if these acts of aggression will intimidate or motivate companies like HP or Dell? I wonder if all this publicity hasn’t somehow backhandedly helped them gain free exposure. For better or worse, we are all familiar with the age old adage, “say whatever you like about me, just spell my name right,” which implies that any news is good news. I wonder if this is the beginning of a new trend in our corporate world like that of the whaling industry.

Please let me know your thoughts on any or all of these questions posed above. I’m curious how the legacy of this bold act by Greenpeace will ultimately be remembered or possibly replicated.

See related articles here:
http://www.technewsworld.com/story/Greenpeace-Tags-HP-for-Lagging-in-Eco-Commitments-67724.html

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By Joshua Levitt
Managing Director for UsedCisco.com