TV & Internet

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.

HP's New LCD Monitor Earns PC Mag's 'GreenTech Seal of Approval'

jplatt — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 08:00:00 -0400

PC Magazine has given its coveted "GreenTech Approved" seal to its first LCD monitor: the HP LP2275w.

The LP2275w is, of course, ENERGY STAR rated, which you should consider first when buying any new electronics. It also has an EPEAT Silver ranking, which means that it has a low environmental impact.

The monitor uses 52 watts of power when it's operating, and just 3 watts of power during sleep mode -- a very important energy-saving feature.

PC Mag's GreenTech seal ranks devices on energy usage, recyclability, and green certifications.

You can read a full review of this new monitor (which lists at $349) here.

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.

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.

How to Recycle Those Old VHS Tapes

jplatt — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 08:00:00 -0400

My wife and I are finally getting rid of most of our old VHS tapes. It's about time. I mean, we haven't plugged our VCR in for more than a year. Those old tapes were just sitting around gathering dust, and some of them can be re-used, while others can be recycled.

Our first trip was to the local library. Many of the older patrons in this town still use their VCRs quite heavily, as do the vacationers who have cabins here and haven't upgraded to DVD yet. Our library stocks a supply of video tapes for patrons, and also runs a very nice used book store which sells tapes for a few bucks each. So a few boxes of tapes went there.

Next stop was another nearby used bookstore, which also sells used VHS tapes. They took another box. (Did I mention that we had a lot of video tapes?)

Thrift stores could have also been an option. There are three within a few miles of our home, but the library and the used book store took so many, we didn't need to make another stop.

A few rarities (old horror movies and the like) went up on eBay or Amazon's Marketplace. There wasn't a huge market for these flicks, but collectors did pick up a few that weren't available on DVD.

That got rid of 99% of our pre-recorded tapes. But we also had several boxes of movies and TV shows that we had taped off the airwaves. You can't sell or give those things away, but we didn't want to chuck them in the trash, so it was time to look into recycling.

GreenDisk served our purposes pretty well. They'll take a 20 pound box for $6.95, and every additional pound costs just 30 cents. The price goes toward a shipping label, and you send them your video tapes (or anything from a whole list of products) for recycling.

There, problem solved! Give it a shot yourself. Free up some space, put old tapes to good re-use, and keep that trash out of the landfill in the process!

Greenpeace Grades Electronics Makers on e-Waste

jplatt — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 08:00:00 -0400

Greenpeace has once again released its Guide to Greener Electronics, this time focusing on e-waste. Nokia and Samsung took the top slots, while HP, Lenovo and Dell were all penalized for failing to follow through on promises to phase out vinyl plastic (PVC) and brominated flame retardants (BFRs) from their products by the end of the year.

Greenpeace did praise the company for the products they sell that don't have those chemicals, or use less of them, but took them to task for delaying their promise to stop using them altogether.

Apple also got praise for minimizing its use of PVCs and BFRs, a move Greenpeace says every company should be able to emulate, and Philips, which made huge strides in its battle against e-waste:

The Guide to Greener Electronics star this time goes to Philips -- and the 47,000 people who sent emails to the company!

The Dutch electronics giant reacted to our e-waste campaign with a dramatic about-turn on recycling and take-back. They've jumped from 15th to 4th place in one go. Following public pressure, the company has significantly improved its position on taking financial responsibility for the recycling of its products when they become e-waste.

You can download the entire report here.

The previous verison of the Greenpeace report, published in December 2008, focused on companies' climate leadership.

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!