Green Options

Clean tech has passed biotech and IT as the top venture capital (VC) investment category in the world. This is after investments in leading clean tech markets increased by 10% in the third quarter of this year.

Cleantech Group released findings on Wednesday showing that the cleantech sector “accumulated $1.59 billion across 134 companies” and this was 10% more than the $1.2 billion it had accumulated in the second quarter.

We need a new model for production and consumption. According to World Watch, “If the consumption aspiration of the wealthiest of nations cannot be satiated, the prospects for corralling consumption everywhere before it strips and degrades our planet beyond recognition would appear to be bleak”

Another post inspired by a HARO request.  This time it was an ask for low or no-cost tools used by small businesses.  I did a quick search for the word “free” in my book and realized there are dozens.  Here are my 19 favorites:

1. Free energy-efficiency information, resources, and technical advice—ENERGY STAR for Small Business provides free information, resources, and technical advice on hundreds of cost-savings practices. Includes a downloadable copy of the free ENERGY STAR for Small Business Guide, “Putting Energy into Profits” and information about ENERGY STAR–labeled products.
2. Free recycling and conservation signs—You can customize, download, and print free recycling and conservation signs at recyclereminders.com.
3. Free control of your IT—If you run a network, software from companies like LocalCooling.com allows the settings on computers to be controlled centrally so you can automatically turn those babies off when no one is using them.
4. Free Green IT for Dummies—HP sponsors a free, downloadable, condensed, limited edition of the Green IT for Dummies guide.
5. Free recycling bins—The Coca-Cola/NRC Recycling Bin Grant Program provides recycling bins to selected grant recipients for the collection of beverage container recyclables in public settings.
6. Free rideshare widget for websites— at GooseNetworks.com.

Earlier today, we wrote about The Green Grid, a consortium of tech companies aiming to create a “multi-year set of design guides proposed for use by data center operators and designers to build and operate energy efficient data centers.” There are a variety of products that can help operators green their data centers, and some of the best come from a Green Grid member called Avocent.

PC energy saving specialists Verdiem have today released free downloadable software designed to help users slash their energy use up to a massive 80 percent.

According to Allison Cornia, vice president of product management at Verdiem, “If we could get just 10 per cent of the world’s one billion PCs using [the product] properly we could save 32 billion kilograms of CO2 a year. That’s equivalent to taking half a million cars off the road.”

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:

• IT ignorant on pending power shortages
• Datacenters explore novel ways to cut

[...]

A major tidal power developer has confirmed it is in the early planning stages of developing an off-grid data center in Northern Scotland to be powered exclusively by tidal energy.

Atlantis Resources Corporation and Morgan Stanley said they are in the early stages of planning a tidal power project located in Scotland’s Pentland Firth, reports BBC Scotland. Pentland Firth separates the Orkney Islands from the Scottish mainland, and has huge potential tidal energy resources.

>>More on tidal power at CleanTechnica

Earlier this week, Avocent, an IT operations management company, launched three new products that will make it incredibly easy for IT managers to keep track of their energy usage. The product that I find most interesting is the intelligent power distribution unit (iPDU), a device that works with Avocent’s existing DSView 3 Power Manager software. The iPDU lets IT managers know the exact amount of power being consumed by a device plugged into any given outlet.