Blogs & Ecology

Photo credit: Viewoftheworld @ Flickr

A full 90 percent of the energy used in washing clothes goes toward heating the water, so it stands to reason that using less energy by washing in cold, unheated water would create significant environmental savings. But just how much difference are we really talking about?

Photo via NNECAPA

The Consumer Electronics Association has conducted a survey that shows a rising consumer demand for green gadgets. A full one third of those surveyed said they plan to buy green versions of their gadgets in the next year.

Read on for more of the interesting results from the survey. ...

Logo images via Fujitsu Siemens

Tired of waiting around for those objective third party green labels to analyze electronics and dub them green or not? Fujitsu Siemens seems to be tired too, so they’re launching their own Green IT label.

Photo via Sebrenner

Whirlpool is reveling in delight. The company is a leader in Energy Star appliances, and seeing a competitor stripped of the designation must be pretty exciting.

Here’s the story: The Department of Energy did an investigation and found that a certain manufacturer underreported the energy consumption of their French-door Bottom Mount refrigerators. And so – Off with their labels!

Read on to find out who the guilty culprit is. ...

Photo via Elsie esq

The EPA will be helping holiday shoppers out with new Energy Star labels on TVs. Earlier this month we talked about Energy Star requirements toughening up on TVs, and new requirements going in place by November 1.

Well, also beginning November 1, TVs that meet EPA’s newer, more comprehensive specifications will be in stores and ready for green-minded consumers.

So, which TVs are getting new labels?...

Image source: Energy Star @ Work

Two years ago US EPA's Energy Star Program released their Energy Star @ Home tool that allows users to go room by room, clicking on objects and learning about how to save energy left and right. Now the 2.0 version is now available - Energy Star @ Work - allowing users to take their energy savings to work. ...

HP fans have a greener option for computing, as this week the company announced a couple PCs and a display that have supposedly a lower environmental footprint. Yet these “special edition” products could be easily written off as just another in the long line of more efficient computers.

HP has come up with some pretty cool innovations in the past, including zero-packaging laptops. So how do these new products hold up against past innovations and the new wave of greener computers?...

A nice little touch in the EPEAT Gold certified Apple Macbook and Macbook Pros: The Energy Saver icon has changed.

Photo via blakespot

Gaming consoles are finally getting some attention from Energy Star, whose new 5.0 specifications will take a look at the power consumption of these devices and set more stringent standards.

Photo via eheçatzin

TVs suck up a lot of power. While LCD and OLED TVs are progressing, Energy Star is getting tougher on energy use standards for high powered displays.

Navy Marine Corps Intranet is Second Only to the Internet
The Navy Marine Corps Intranet (NMCI) has more than 660,000 active users, only the Internet is larger. It has around 50 classified and unclassified server farms, for a total of thousands of servers.

The U.S. Department of Defense, to comply with federal "green" computing mandates, has been trying to reduce the footprint of this intranet, and so far the results are promising. Read on for more details....

Ahh, getting a gold star feels warm and fuzzy. ASUS finally knows that feeling. While we've been somewhat underwhelmed in the past with the company's attempt at greener laptops, this incarnation looks promising.

Lenovo, Dell, HP and Toshiba have known it for awhile, scoring gold with their notebooks well before ASUS. But finally the bamboo-lovin’ computer company has broken into the club with an excellent score of 21 out of 27 optional points.

Read on for the score breakdown and a summary of this cool notebook. ...

If you’re looking for a green way to back up your computer, you have a pretty cool option with the [re]drive external hard drive from SimpleTech.

Via NEC

Using an energy efficient monitor is a great way to cut down on energy use. There are a growing number of options out there, including new LED monitors, and monitors that are energy sippers.

The upcoming specifications document for Energy Star 5.0 lists language that just might spell out an easier time for purchasers of PCs. A note on page 10 of the doc makes it sound like consumers could soon get those handy little tags that spell out a device’s power use and its relative efficiency. These tags have become invaluable to shoppers of appliances, and would also be a welcome tool for PC shoppers.

But, just what does the wording imply?...