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Online Retailers: Help Your Customers Offset Their Carbon Emissions

jplatt — Fri, 01 May 2009 08:00:00 -0400

Studies have shown that shopping online is, on average, greener than driving around and shopping at a bunch of retail stores. But even shopping online creates carbon emissions, and many people feel guitly about buying anything that needs to be shipped.

GreenWorld's ShopGreen can help alleviate that buyer's remorse.

ShopGree is a free program that online retailers can download and install. It integrates with your shopping experience, and gives your customers the opportunity to make a voluntary additional contribution -- up to 1% of their total purchase -- to offset the carbon emissions created by the shopping exerpience.

In addition to paying a little bit extra, ShopGreen gives your online customers a very powerful user experience, allowing them to see how much carbon their shopping creates, and what is being done to offset it:

Customers receive tracking ID numbers that can be used to view records of their carbon offset investments at any time
They can also see statistics that show the cumulative ShopGreen™ impact for your site therefore and increase the likelihood of future transactions

How does it work? GreenWorld is working with EcoSecurities, "a company in the business of sourcing, developing and trading carbon offsets from greenhouse gas emission reduction projects throughout the world, to offer both Certified Emission Reductions (CERs) and Verified Emission Reductions (VERs) from a range of domestic and international projects that reduce greenhouse gas emissions, including renewable energy, energy efficiency, forestry and methane capture."

So if you've got an online business, and want to do a little bit of good for the environment every time you sell something, give GreenShop a try. It might add a lot to your customer experience, and earn you some customer loyalty in return.

Are You Willing to Pay More for Greener Electronics?

jplatt — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 08:00:00 -0400

If you had the choice between two products, and one was greener but cost 10% more, which would you buy?

According to a new survey conducted by Retrevo, a service that matches people with electronics, 35% of people who think that buying energy-efficient appliances is important would not be willing to pay a premium price to buy those devices.

Now, according to Retrevo's survey of 632 people, 75% of those surveyed felt that buying energy-efficient devices was important. That's the good news. But few are willing to pay much extra for that energy efficiency. In addition to the 35% I just mentioned, 50 percent would only be willing to pay up to a 5% premium.

Of course, if you really think about it, paying more for an energy-efficient device will probably save you more money in the long run, but sticker shock is a tough barrier to break through, especially in these tough economic times.

So what about you? Do you pay more for greener devices? Let us know by posting your feelings below. It won't be scientific, but we'd love to hear your feelings on the subject.

P.S. -- Retrevo offers a free 30-page PDF -- Retrevo's Survival Guide to Greener Living -- which offers tips on buying the greenest electronics and lists some of the worst energy offenders. Worth a download.

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!

Another Way to Recycle Electronics: Radio Shack

jplatt — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 08:00:00 -0400

Great news -- yet another retailer is jumping into the "we'll recycle your old electronics for you" bandwagon.

This time it's RadioShack, one of the most ubiquitous electronics chains in the country. Through The Shack's new trade-in program, you can bring products or accessories to their stores or mail them in, and you'll get a gift card with a small dollar value in return.

The program accepts MP3 players, cell phones, cameras, gaming consoles, and even laptops. (Laptops, HDTVs and a few other items can only be traded in through their website.)

Here's what happens: you present your item for trade-in, Radio Shack makes you an offer, and you accept the offer to get your gift card.

If you do the trade online, you'll get to print out a pre-paid postage label, so the whole program is free to you.

There's no word on the website about how your old electronics will be recycled or re-used, but since the one major requirement for your trade is that the products are in working order and can turn on, it appears the old devices will be refurbished and resold.

Give it a try. I'm sure there's a Radio Shack right around the corner from you.

What is a Smart Grid?

jplatt — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 08:00:00 -0400

President Barack Obama's economic stimulus plan includes US$4.5 billion to create a "smart grid" electrical transmission system. But many people still ask, what exactly is a smart grid?

Basically, a "smart grid" really is just that -- it's a smarter version of our national energy grid that uses advanced communication tools and a whole new range of computing technologies to make the transmission and distribution of energy more efficient.

The first step would involve deploying an infrastructure that will automate electricity metering. This is more than just putting the guy who comes to your house to read your meter out of a job. It creates a two-way communication system between customers and utilities, allowing everyone to see how much their energy use is costing them on a second-by-second basis. For instance, you'll be able to decide if you want to run your dishwasher in the afternoon, when rates are higher, or at night, when you can see that rates are lower.

The smart grid will also improve the adoption of renewable energy sources. Let's say you install solar panels on your roof, and they actually generate more electricity than you need. With a smart grid, you'll be able to sell your excess energy back to the utility and upload it into the national electrical grid.

It will also make it easier to generate electricity from wind and solar in one part of the country, and then transmit it thousands of miles to a completely different part of the country. That's not possible with today's antiquated grid, which is not set up to transmit energy long-distance.

Theoretically, a smart grid would create enough efficiences that it would actually reduce carbon emissions by 25%.

We're not going to see a smart grid tomorrow, but this technology isn't too far off, if we allow it to come to being. All it takes is willpower, and a lot of money. But think of what we'll save when it comes to pass.

Assess the Benefits of Green IT with Free Online Tool from Redemtech

jplatt — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 09:00:00 -0500

Would your company benefit from greener IT practices? A free online tool from Redemtech can help you find the answer.

The Sustainable Computing Assessment allows you to discover how your IT lifecycle management and disposal policies stack up against industry best practices. By plugging in information about your company policies and processes, the Assessment tool:

Explores the policy, practice and governance issues essential for establishing a truly sustainable IT asset management program
Scores against industry averages for productivity, reuse, accountability, energy and environmental social responsibility
Findings and recommendations point to areas for improvements

You need to register with Redemtech and receive their news updates to take the assessment, but that sounds like a pretty small price!

While you're on their site, register to receive the white paper they sponsored, Beyond Power: IT’s Roadmap to Sustainable Computing. It will give you all kinds of additional information and tools to help you green your IT department so it doesn't cost you quite so much green.

Share Your Ideas on the Environmental Defense Fund's Innovation Exchange

jplatt — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 08:00:00 -0500

Does your company have a unique method of saving energy or acting in an eco-friendly manner? If you answered yes, then share your idea!

The Environmental Defense Fund has created a forum where you can do just that. The Innovation Exchange hosts a growing community where members can share their money- and climate-saving ideas, either by posting what has worked for them or asking questions from others who might have already solved the same problems.

The Innovation Exchange also hosts a treasure trove of information culled from the EDF's archives, including case studies, recommendations and online utilities, all sorted by environmental aspect (climate change, paper & packaging, etc.) or industry (such as healthcare or manufacturing).

Give the site a try. You may be surprised at what you find!

Cell Phone Industry Hangs Up On Vampire Power

jplatt — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 09:00:00 -0500

As we've written here before, cellphone chargers are not the most efficient devices in the world. Even when they are done charging your phone, they continue to suck energy out of the wall. That energy does no one any good, and it's power (and money) that goes to waste.

Cell phone manufacturers are finally ready to recognize this problem. Last week, the top five handset makers -- Nokia, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, Motorola and LG Electronics -- rolled out a new five-star ranking system for their chargers which will identify the most energy efficient models.

In a statement, Nokia said "If the more than three billion people owning mobile devices today switched to a four- or five-star charger, this could save the same amount of energy each year as produced by two medium sized power plants."

This is great news, and well overdue, but one part of this story worries me. Here's a statement that Markku Hangasjarvi, CEO of charger-maker Salcomp, gave to Reuters: "This should be positive for us. Such chargers are more difficult to produce, their average selling price is higher and they demand special know-how."

Really? The better-rated chargers are going to be marked up? Hopefully this isn't just another way to rip off the consumer while appearing greener.

Well, until these newly ranked chargers hit the market, let's assume this is a good idea and applaud it. But until then, keep an eye on your phones while they're charging, and unplug them when they're done.

Here are links to the five companies' sites and the data on their chargers:

Greenpeace Grades the Electronics Makers on Climate Leadership

jplatt — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 08:00:00 -0500

For the tenth time in the last two years, Greenpeace has ranked electronics manufactuers according to their policies and manufacturing procedures to come up with a list of the "greenest" electronics makers, but also to point out that few manufacturers are "showing true climate leadership."

Says Greenpeace, "Despite many green claims, major companies like Dell, Microsoft, Lenovo, LG, Samsung and Apple are failing to support the necessary levels of global cuts in emissions and make the absolute cuts in their own emissions that are required to tackle climate change."

Of the 18 companies listed in this edition of the Guide to Greener Electronics, "only Sharp, Fujitsu Siemens and Philips show full support for the necessary cuts of 30 percent for industrial nations by 2020."

Previous editions of the Guide looked at e-waste and related criteria. This time around, they focused solely on climate leadership:

Taking into account all criteria in the Guide, Nokia remains top, Toshiba makes a big improvement to 3rd place and Sharp and Motorola make big jumps up the ranking. The big PC companies such as Dell, HP, Apple and Acer drop down. Dell continues to be overtaken by other companies, with an unchanged score of 4.7. Although Apple drops a place, it improves its overall score slightly to 4.3, with much better reporting on the carbon footprint of its products. Apple has also recently show leadership on removing the worst toxics substances with new iPods free of toxics brominated flame retardants and PVC. All Apple products should be free of these substances by the end of 2008, which will challenge other PC makers to follow their lead.

A Real TV Star: New ENERGY STAR Rules for TV Efficiency

jplatt — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 06:00:00 -0500

How many hours a day do you use your TV? One? Two? Five? More?

Okay, let's ask a more important question: is your TV energy efficent?

Don't know the answer? That's okay, because until now it was hard to know if your television was a power hog or not. But now new rules from the EPA's ENERGY STAR will make it easier to buy an energy-efficient model -- just in time for the holidays!

Old ENERGY STAR rules only rated TVs according to how much power they used while off or in "standby" mode. The new rules go several steps further, requiring energy efficiency when TVs are on, and also guiding the use of external power supplies when necessary. "This new specification is important," says the EPA, "since televisions being sold now are larger, in use more hours a day, and offer more vibrant pictures, which can impact the amount of electricity they use. In fact, some of the largest, high resolution televisions can use as much as 500 kWh per year."

TVs with an ENERGY STAR rating will use an estimated 30% less juice than other TVs, so this will really make a difference as people replace their old models with new, higher-tech screens.

So far, 229 TVs conform to the new rules. They include 19 plasma models, 199 LCD models, and 11 "others".

Check 'em out!