In "businessy" circles, the "Google caveat" often comes into play. Basic business strategy suggests that you do what you love, do what you love well, and stick to what you love doing and don't try and do too many other things---except of course if you're Google, maybe because they seem to do EVERYTHING well. Like if you're a band, you play and record songs that resonate with your audience and evoke emotions that positively impact their lives--you wouldn't start manufacturing micro-processors and selling them at your gigs--it would take away from the time you should be spending writing killer jams. Although the Jack White USB drive is topping my coveted items list right now.....

Being a Google user (like most of the free world), I enjoy a lovely user experience. I can email, share documents, pictures, blog posts, maps, and on and on and on. I have some gripes about their privacy policies and their entrance into the Chinese market several years ago, but for the most part, I'm OK with the free service I use, I'm pretty good at tuning out advertising.

So, it was with some delight and confusion that I read the announcement last year that Google was broadening their core products to solve not only the problem of organizing the world's information, but also solving another pressing problem in our society: energy resources. Unless the Google homepage could turn any computer screen to become a solar panel, I must admit, I was a bit confused at their new endeavor being consistent with the other products they offer.

Grist posted a great interview with Google's new "Green Energy Czar" that explains how the company is working to make renewable energy less expensive than coal. I have a feeling if anyone has the smarts and the dough to make that happen, it might just be them.

Check out the stories about Google we've posted in the past here:

• Computing just got more efficient
• Blackle.com

Labels: Google, renewable energy, sarah

Hot Chip!, or should I say "Cool Chip!"?

Intel made history today by making the largest renewable energy certificate purchase ever--representing 1.3 Million MWh of the electricity used to power its facilities throughout the U.S. That's a lot of megawatt hours, given an average U.S. home uses 10,656 kilowatt-hours (or 10.656 megawatt hours) of electricity per year.

Find out more on the Green-e website.

Labels: computers, Green-e, Intel, renewable energy, sarah

Well, that explains the slew of green announcements! In all seriousness, that figure really surprised me as I reside in San Francisco and have to check myself from time to time when I think that the whole country is as green-minded as my neighbors and I. I guess I don't have to check myself as much as I thought.

In an article from Brandweek.com, Aveda's VP of Global Marketing " cited research showing eight of 10 Americans now believe that it is important to buy products from green companies. 'We’ve always talked about our environmental work to the trade, but now it’s time to start shouting it to a larger audience.'"

Aveda announced today a new initiative to green their already pretty green product lines. They will embark on a new campaign "Beauty is as Beauty Does" that will promote a different kind of greening practice the company has employed on a six week rotation.

The first order of greening is promoting Aveda's use of windpower-- a practice that has elevated then to become one of EPA's Green Power Partner Partnership Leadership Circle members (a mouthful--but an honor). Next up is packaging. Stay tuned--you'll see evidence of these initiatives through print media and in-store displays.

Labels: Aveda, consumer behavior, renewable energy, sarah

repost from Environmental Leader:

Solar panels have found a promising new place in the sun on canopies above parking lots that surround commercial and industrial buildings, Donald Shoup, a professor of urban planning at the University of California, Los Angeles, writes in a San Francisco Chronicle Open Forum piece.

To increase the use of solar on parking garages, cities can incorporate solar panels into the parking requirements for commercial developments. The legal basis for requiring solar panels atop a parking lot, according to Shoup, is similar to the basis for requiring the parking lot itself - to mitigate an impact. If a development increases the demand for scarce energy during peak hours, the solar requirement for the parking lot will help to meet this peak-hour demand.

Shoup says that California’s Million Solar Roofs program provides generous subsidies for solar panels, and the federal government offers additional tax credits, so developers won’t have to pay the full cost of a city’s solar requirement.

In addition Shoup says solar arrays are highly visible evidence of a company’s commitment to the environment.

Google has installed solar canopies on its parking lots to satisfy 30 percent of its headquarters’ power demand.

Envision Solar is just one of the companies providing such services. See their site for more info on “solar groves” over parking lots.

Labels: Environmental Leader, renewable energy, solar

by Lloyd Alter, Toronto repost from Treehugger.com

When we last looked at pee powered batteries, they were still experimental; now they are on the shelves in AA and AAA sizes in Japan. It can be recharged with a variety of liquids including urine and other precious bodily fluids, is supposed to last 10 years, and pumps out 500 milliamp-hours (mAh), which is equivalent to zinc-carbon batteries but a third of what an alkaline does.

Commenter Nick had a good idea in the last post: Imagine a Tesla filled with these. "Pile the family in, hook everyone up, and go. Oh, and cancel the old mantra of every parent, "Go before you go." Now, you'll load the kids up with as much kool aid as possible so that you'll be able to go." ::Splurch

Labels: batteries, Japan, renewable energy, treehugger