Go Green Stay Green» How to Take Control of Your Energy Use, One Minute at a Time | Go Green Stay Green

How to Take Control of Your Energy Use, One Minute at a Time

admin — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 15:30:36 +0000

With the recent announcement of Obama’s green team things are looking encouraging for massive change happening in terms of how our government interacts with and takes action on the pressing environmental issues. You might be wondering, how can I too make a difference? Or more immediately, how can I save money in these turbulent economic times?

The answer is all around you: Your computer you’re reading this on, the light above you, and out in the kitchen, the refrigerator, your oven, and a host of other things. Each using electricity, many whether you have them switched on or not.

But how can you tell how much? How can you tell how much difference switching one thing out for another has? What keeping your lights off when you’re not in the room does? Typically, it’s been mostly a hindsight sort of thing, looking at your energy bill. And even then, you have no way of telling what’s happening on an individual appliance basis.

Until now.

Greenbox is a system that allows you to know, per component, per minute, how much electricity is being used, at what cost, and in getting to know your usage patterns, it gives specific recommendations.

What sort of difference can this make? Greenbox puts it well when they say:

If 30% of us reduced our electricity usage by 20%, we would save over $8 billion per year on our energy bills, reduce emissions by 105 billion tons of carbon dioxide per year and avoid $10 billion in construction of new power plants. This is the equivalent of 35 coal fired power plants operating 24 hours per day.

No small impact. And from the sound of it, not terribly difficult to achieve. Really, most of it is just having greater awareness of what you use, and how you use it. They’re not proposing people radically change the way they live. Though some would say this is the only way to make enough of an impact. And Greenbox could be used for that end as well.

How does GreenBox work? It’s a web based interface that works on several different levels, from high level and broad to extremely fine grained. A wise move on their part, because not everybody assimilates and makes use of information the same way.

It ranges from pie charts showing what percentage of your use takes place during peak and non peak times, to what your carbon footprint is, complete with comparisons to, for example, the number of miles driven in a car to get those same emissions. And, giving useful context, it lets you compare your usage to a similar house, anonymously.

GreenBox is currently being tested both on the utility level and in home. If you’re interested in knowing about when it becomes publicly available, go here.

Readers: What other tools do you know of to help achieve greater personal energy efficiency? What practices beyond the usual do you do you do in your life that have proven effective? Any competitions you’ve had with friends/family/coworkers on being green?

Paul Smith is a sustainable business innovator, the founder of GreenSmith Consulting, and has an MBA in Sustainable Management from Presidio School of Management in San Francisco. His overarching talent is “bottom lining” complex ideas, in a way that is understandable and accessible to a variety of audiences, internal and external to a company.

Image credit: getgreenbox.com

Source: triplepundit

Sustainable IT: How To Fight The Power (Bills)

admin — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 15:33:31 +0000

This week’s Sustainable IT newsletter by Ted Samson of InfoWorld departs from the regular format because Ted is home sick and his editors are “filling in.” Although Ted’s regular newsletter is a great read, this week’s “collection of links centered around one topic: how to cut energy usage” are terrific in their own right. Here they are:

There’s lots of good advice here. Thanks InfoWorld editors and, Ted, get well soon.

Photo: Dan Shirley

Source: ecopreneurist

5 Simple Ways Your Business Can Go Green

admin — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 15:35:27 +0000

Having an environmentally friendly business not only clearly helps the environment, but can also make your business more efficient and reduce its costs. So how easy is it for your business to go green?

1. Reduce waste and save money

Business waste, at least in the UK, carries a high premium. Latest research suggests it can cost as much as 4% of annual turnover. Using recycled and recyclable materials and biodegradable packaging can reduce waste costs dramatically, whilst not costing much more to purchase.

A very small proportion of high-quality white printer paper is recycled, yet as this is much sought after so will cost you nothing or very little to recycle – see our how to recycle business paper article. Specialist recyclers can be found for hazardous waste, such as batteries and chemicals, and again certain types are sought after. Printing on both sides of paper obviously helps to save paper, and saves 1.2p (black and white) or 13p (colour) on ink costs.Moving to “digital documents”, i.e. having the agenda and notes on your computer rather than paper, not only reduces waste but also provides an easily found record of the event.

Check for leaking taps and that all kitchen basins have plugs to use when washing up.

2. Reduce energy and save money

Switching off your computers, printers, other equipment and lights at night are easy ways not only to save energy but obviously save money. Even during the day, encouraging employees to turn off lights when they leave a room, switch off computers and unplug mobile phone chargers when not in use will save you money. Also, running cleaner vehicles and running them less often will reduce your bills. Rather than use a screensaver, set your monitor to power off after the same amount of time – it’s easy!

Checking heating and air conditioning are not on at the same time can help, and keeping doors closed when either of these are on will help their effectiveness. If rooms are empty, why not turn the heating or air con off (as well as turning off the lights)?

3. Change your products and make money

Introducing features that promote the reusability or recycled nature of your product(s) not only helps the environment but also helps sell your product. Can your business offer refills? Can they print on recycled paper? Can they send material out via email rather than print?

4. Buy plants and improve your environment

Plants not only make your office look nicer but as they absorb airborne pollutants and negative ions from computers, whilst emitting oxygen. Plant waste like bark and leaves can also be recycled and used as garden mulch.

5. Carpool

Encourage your employees to carpool and/or take public transport when possible.

Not all green initiatives will save you money or cost you nothing, but having a green business is not always about money. As much or as little as your business can afford will help, and you and your business can always check out our 100 easy ways to go green for a lot more ideas.

For easy help on your business going green, Envirowise, a government funded organisation, has a free advice line and offers one free site visit. Good luck!

Source: LifeGoggles by Joel October 8, 2007