save money

Cut Emissions 88% by Downloading Software

jplatt — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 08:00:00 -0400

I had to buy some new software recently, and when I did I found that I had two options: have the program shipped to me or download it directly to my computer. I chose to have it shipped. Boy, did that turn out to be the wrong decision.

According to a recent survey by Microsoft, in cooperation with Accenture and WSP Environment and Energy, downloading a single program saves the equivalent of a gallon of gas.

The savings comes not just from shipping costs, but also from the manufacture of software disks and packaging.

Microsoft initiated the study so it could visualize the impact of its Office 2007 suite. They found that 80% of their sales came from traditional retail outlets. If they could convince those 80% of buyers to download the program instead, it would be the same as taking 13,008 passenger cars off the road for one year.

The ultimate message: "Through electronic software distribution, technology companies, like Microsoft, are supporting the transition to a low-carbon economy."

So think about that the next time you need to order a program. Do you really need that CD-ROM to sit to on your shelf for the next five years, or will a simple download do the job? I'm guessing "Download Now" is going to be your best option.

Save Paper, Save Money by Downloading Coupons to your iPhone or iPod

jplatt — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 08:00:00 -0400

Looking for a way to save money but trying to avoid using all of those annoying paper coupons?

Try CouponSherpa, a new app for the iPhone or iPod Touch that downloads coupons to your device. Once you have the coupons, you can either just show the image on your screen to the cashier or let them scan the accompanying bar code on the screen. Either way, you save money, and you avoid using any paper.

(Of course, you're still using electricity, so you have to weigh that out, but you're not generating waste around you, so that's more efficient than paper coupons.)

CouponSherpa gets your location from your iPhone or iPod, then comes up with a list of coupons for stores in your area. In my test, that "area" seemed to be pretty broad. Some of the retailers that came up don't have stores within 50 miles of me. But others will work just fine.

And tragically, there are no grocery coupons quite yet, since the coupons are from merchants, not from manufacturers. This would be a great tool for grocery shopping, but for now, that will have to wait.

“We know that paper coupons will not be completely replaced, but providing consumers and retailers with an outlet for mobile coupons is a positive start towards reducing the waste created by the mountains of mail we all receive,” said Luke Knowles, who created Coupon Sherpa with his brother Jesse Knowles. “In the future, an increasing amount of coupons will be presented on mobile devices, and that will be great for the environment.”

CouponSherpha is free until Earth Day -- just one more day! -- so download it now and see how much money and paper it can help you to save.

Do you have other favorite "green" apps for your iPhone? Share them with us here!

HP Offering Free 'Green IT for Dummies' Guide

jplatt — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 08:00:00 -0400

Studies have shown that companies can decrease their IT costs by embracing "green IT" techniques, all while increasing their IT power.

Do you think your company might benefit from green IT? If so, then HP has something for you: a free, limited edition "Green IT for Dummies" pocket book.

Created as an introduction to help organizations go green, the guide offers "simple and straight-forward ideas on how to reduce the environmental impact of IT systems and harness the power of IT to reduce the wider environmental impacts of climate change in society"

If order to get your free book, you need to answer two brief questions on HP's website:

a) Does your company have a specific Green IT plan?
b) Which function is responsible for achieving that?

Okay, so this is basically a sales tool to get you to buy HP's services, but hey, free is free. So if your company would benefit from going greener, answer those questions and get your free book. You never know, you might learn something.

Get Ready for Spring with an Electric Lawn Mower

jplatt — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 09:00:00 -0400

Well folks, Spring is in the air, and so is the pollen. The grass is getting greeners, and starting to get tall. Any day now, it will be time to start mowing the lawn -- if you haven't started already!

But did you know that lawn mowers contribute to an amazing five percent of pollution and climate-change emissions in the United States? Yikes! That's a lot of dirty air for the pleasure of a green lawn.

Now, gas-powered mowers will need to be much more efficient and less polluting in a few years, starting in 2011, when the EPA will require new mowers to have 35% fewer emissions than today's models. But you don't need to wait until 2011 to lower your own impact on the air, and on the planet.

Electric mowers -- there are quite a few models on the market -- use less energy, produce fewer emissions, make less noise, and provide an excellent cut to your finely manicured lawn. Hand-powered push mowers are even better, offering zero emissions while you get lots of good exercise!

Want to see a wide selection of electric and push mowers? Check out Clean Air Gardening for dozens of models, plus tons of other great gardening supplies. Or try your local hardware store -- you might be surprised at what is available right around the corner.

Letting Your Computer Idle Costs You Money

jplatt — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 08:00:00 -0400

Do you shut your computer down when you walk away from it, or when you go home for the night? According to a new study, only half of American workers turn their computers off a night. In addition to burning electricity and adding more greenhouse gases to the atmosphere, it's estimated that this costs businesses $2.8 billion a year to power the 108 million unused machines left on every night.

Ouch.

So what are the lessons from this? First of all, turn your computer off at night or if you're going to be away from it for more than a few minutes. Anything else is wasteful.

Second, make sure your comptuer's sleep mode is activated. Most modern PCs use a lot less energy while they're "hibernating," but only if you don't turn these energy-saving features off first.

Third, if your company has a lot of computers, look into automated power-down software -- such as PC Power Down -- that will shut off all of your idle computers after the end of your business day.

Fourth, go commando! If you're leaving for the day, and you notice someone else left their computer off, turn it off for them! It could be the easiest act of environmental activism your have ever done.

Now, go turn off your PC and take a walk!

At Last, a CFL That Will Work in Any Lamp

jplatt — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 08:00:00 -0400

One of the major complaints I hear about CFL bulbs is that you can't attach a lamp shade directly to them, like you can with old-style incandescents. Well, GE has finally gotten around that little problem, so it's time to switch those last of your lamps over to CFLs!

Yes, the GE Energy Smart® compact fluorescent light (CFL) bulb is billed as the "world's first truly incandescent-shaped" Energy Smart® CFL bulb. The 15-watt bulb produces the same amount of light as an old 60-watt incandescent, and lasts for 8,000 hours. It's guaranteed for five years based on four hours of daily use.

The bulb went on sale at Target stores in December and will be available worldwide this Earth Day (April 22).

Don't forget, incandescents are being phased out starting in 2012, and some retailers (like Wal-Mart) are already dropping them from their shelves, so it looks like innovations like this are coming around just in time.

A bright idea, indeed!

Business Meeting? Think Green by Meeting Online

jplatt — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 08:00:00 -0400

Every time you drive or fly to a meeting, or ask someone else to drive or fly to meet you, you're contributing to global warming.

One way you can reduce your impact on the environment (and save some of your company's rapidly disappearing monetary resources) is by meeting online. There are plenty of services offering teleconferencing or web conferencing, but ThinkGreenMeeting.com will not only save you some green, it will show you how much you are going green by meeting online.

TGM (as I call it) has a neat little online calculator where you can figure out how much carbon will be generated by the people driving or flying to an in-person meeting, and who much you will save by meating online instead. For example, according to their calculator, if five people were flying to a meeting, it would take 25 trees to offset that meeting's carbon footprint.

(Obviously, that's a generalization. The calculator doesn't take distance or other factors into account, but still, it's a nice illustration of a meeting's impact.)

The service offers flat, monthly fees based on how many people will be attending your meatings. If you need three "seats," the service starts at just $9.95 a month for unlimited meetings. And to get you started, the first month is free!

Give it a try. You may never fly again! (Now if I could just get my next family reunion to meet this way...)

Which Is Greener: Shopping Local or Shopping Online?

jplatt — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 09:00:00 -0400

Shopping locally uses less energy, right?

Not necessarily, according to a study by Carnegie Mellon's Green Design Institute. The study looked specifically at Buy.com's e-commerce model, and found that shopping online through that site "reduces environmental impact with 35 percent less energy consumption and carbon dioxide emissions than what is produced in the traditional retail shopping model."

Obviously, this isn't going to work for every online retailer, or compare to every brick-and-morter store in your area, but still, these results are surprising.

The study found that "approximately 65 percent of total emissions generated by the traditional retail model stemmed from customer transport to and from retail stores." This could change if you drive a hybrid or ride a bike (or god forbid, walk to the store!), but it does illustrate the effect of short drives on our environment.

Buy.com also has a unique element that reduces its carbon footprint. If you order something from their site, it doesn't ship from Buy.com, but from the company that made the product in the first place. By comparison, Amazon.com maintains huge warehouses; products must first ship there, after which they get shipped to customers. Buy.com's model cuts out a step, and saves emissions.

So, while this study shouldn't necessarily cause you to change your buying habits, it does give us some ideas to think about when shopping. Every time a product moves from one place to another, it inspires the release of greenhouse gases. The fewer times it moves, the better. So if you can buy a product that hasn't moved very far or very often, you'll be doing yourself -- and the environment -- a favor.

Upgrading Your Cell Phone? Go Green with Refurbished Phones

jplatt — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 09:00:00 -0500

How often do you replace your cell phone? Every two years? Every year? More often than that? How many cell phones have you gone through in your life so far?

Think about all of those old phones you used to own. What happened to them? Did they end up being recycled, or did they become electronic waste that is poisoning our land and water?

Or... did they get refurbished and resold to a new owner, someone who got an extra six months or two years of life out of a device you didn't want any more?

Buying refurbished phones is a great idea. Not only is it green -- it's better to keep a device in use than to make and sell a brand new one -- but you can often save a lot of money by purchasing a pre-used cell phone. For example, AT&T is selling refurbished 8G iPhones for just $99 -- that's half price!

Okay, that AT&T deal is only if you get a two-year contract, but they're far from the only source for refurbished phones. Credo Mobile offers several models (some of which are free with two-year contracts), as do other cell phone companies.

So think about this next time you decide to replace your phone. Do you really need the newest, hottest device with all the bells and whistles, or will last month's model do just as well? Check with your cell phone provider to see if they have refurbs for sale, or Google "refurbished cell phones" to find dozens of sites selling refurbished phones online. (You might need to check with your carrier to make sure they can activate your new phone.)

Check Out the Latest Solio Solar Chargers

jplatt — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 09:00:00 -0500

Every once in a while, a new device comes along that instantly grabs peoples' attention. That's the case with the Solio line of solar-powered device chargers. These great little tools allow you to use the power of the sun to charge just about any cell phone, MP3 player, game player, GPS unit, or other small electronic device.

Solio's line of chargers are actually "hybrids" -- you can use their built-in solar panels, or plug them into a wall socket to fully charge them. Then, plug the Solio into any device to charge it on the go.

According to Solio, one hour of sunlight translates to 20 minutes of talk time or 50 minutes of music (depending on the device, or the quality of the sunlight).

There are three main Solio chargers: the Magnesium ($169.95), the H1000 ($79.95), and the Solio Classic ($99.95). They also sell a few types of LED lights that you can attach to your Solio for flashlight capability.

So, if you're looking for a way to cut your energy use, get off the grid, and make your small electronics more efficient, give the Solio a try.