Monthly Archives: May 2008

Green Technology and Branding

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Anna Clark in GreenerComputing:

Greening technology brands is a delicate balancing act. In charting a green course, it is important to understand where a company’s brand is internationally, what market a company wants to target, and how much of a premium that market expects to pay as a “green tax” for adoption.

Having a great green product offering that nobody knows about or believes in can end up creating waste rather than reducing it. Yet, having a proposition with no weight behind it, especially a brand that is expected to deliver green but does not, can compromise brands in the long run.

The greening of technology brands requires skillful mapping and foresight, but judging from the success of brands like HP and Dell, it is a road that can be successfully navigated by strategic thinking.


 Photo Credit : Jonathan Gayman

Should Solar Panels rebate be means tested

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The Rudd government in Australia ordered a new way of providing solar pv rebates to families. As reported before on Worldisgreen.com, “The Clean Energy Council told The Sunday Age that one company had 98% of orders abandoned. The biggest impact has been in cities, where 50-70% of orders were being ditched, leaving companies with millions of dollars of lost business.”

The government has clearly not understood the scenario here. The concept of means tesing makes sense if the subsidy is for the welfare of the people directly. However, in this scenario that is simply not the case. The subsidy for the solar pv is to be seen as a subsidy for the solar industry and provided through the consumers rather than directly to the industry.

The Messenger local news in Adelaide asked their readers about the means testing, and the answer was:

Oil price, incentive for renewables

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The futures price of oil has reached $133.17 per barrel. From barely $20 at the start of 2002 it has increased almost 7 times as chart below suggests.

The increase in oil price is playing a big role in the rising cost of food among other products and much anguish. However, it is providing the biggest incentive for renewables to start being viable.  With predictions of $200 a barrel, there is no better time to test high cost renewables, create a market and increase economies of scale and cut the cost of production in order to be viable again when the price of oil eventually comes down (or will it?).

The Normalization of Mediocrity

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The Art of Nonconformity » The Normalization of Mediocrity

To reverse the acceptance of mediocrity as the new standard, the only escape route is nonconformity through setting your own example of being the anti-mediocre.

Here’s a few ways to do that, and you can probably think of more.

1. Stop rewarding bad behavior. How many restaurants do you know that stay in business for years despite bad food and poor service? Yes, some of them will fail, but others manage to carry on in their carelessness, relaxed in the knowledge that they can continue the hit-or-miss record without any consequences.

2. Refuse to settle. This is hard, because the pressure to conform to mediocrity is all around us. But the more we settle, the more we accept the triumph of the good enough instead of the excellent.

3. Challenge yourself and others away from mediocrity. Stop asking, is it good enough? and start looking to a higher goal. Encourage others in the same fashion.

4. Model excellence. People will be amazed when you do this, in large part because it’s so unusual.

Beyond Carbon 2008

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John O’Brien, who runs Australian Clean Tech is organising the Beyond Carbon 2008 conference on June 3, 2008 in Adelaide, South Australia. It is a 3 days event managed by CEDA. John previously launched the Australian Clean Tech index.

Update: If you are interested, check out the Live Blogging that I have done of the entire conference.

From the blurb that I have got with me:

The conference will explore the challenges and opportunities presented by the transition to a carbon constrained economy, from multiple perspectives and for multiple audiences.

The focus of Beyond Carbon 2008 will not be backward looking at the reasons for the current position, or focus too much on the threats and dangers, but rather will highlight how different groups within the community can work towards building the greatest benefits for themselve and society as a whole, through the transition process.

Beyond Carbon 2008 will be about a direction forward for business, government and the community in assessing the opportunities and risk associated with climate change.

Hon Mike Rann MP Premier and Minister of Sustainability & Climate Change for South Australia will officially open Beyond Carbon 2008.

The conference on the 4th and 5th of June will be managed by LGA SA focussing on the governance of climate change.

Some distinguished speakers are present for the morning and afternoon sessions including; Ray Garrand, Chief Executive of DTED, Professor Dexter Dunphy, Terry Kallis from Petratherm, Christina Jensen from Macquarie Climate Group, Dave Sag from Carbon Planet, Andrew Peterson from PWC and more.

I am attending the event, courtesy of John O’Brien and exploring the option of live blogging the event.

Standby Saturday

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Standby saturday is a campaign in Australia to inform, educate and motivate people to action at home and work to switch off all their appliances at the plug point and save almost 10% of energy wasted in standby.

The campaign is scheduled for June 7th, 2008.

Standby Saturday highlights a simple but important step to reduce unnecessary energy wastage – switch off appliances and equipment all the time – every time when not in use, instead of leaving them on standby.

Figures from the International Energy Agency show that, based on 10% energy wastage for domestic residencies, electrical devices left on standby waste an estimated 4.8 Terawatt hours of energy per year and account for nearly 7.7 Megatonnes of carbon emissions each year. This doesn’t include commercial equipment and is equivalent to the total output of Australia’s biggest power station for over 10 days.

50+ Ways to Greenify Your Classroom and Campus

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Alisa Miller writing at College at Home

With environmental awareness on the rise, so many resources are now available to help transition your school to a greener place. Below are over 50 ways to make your school a more earth-friendly campus. Recruit helpers and get creative to make the job fun.

Educate

The most important way to move your school towards positive changes for the environment is by educating. Once students and teachers alike become more informed and aware, the necessary changes will be easier to implement and will hold more promise for staying in place.

Become Aware

Look around you every day and notice what might be out of place. Becoming aware of potential changes on a small scale can result in huge changes for the environment.

Reduce

Reducing the amount of material the students and teachers use on campus will help eliminate the need for recycling or disposal. Smart selection of products used at school keeps waste to a minimum.

Reuse

Many items end up in the trash or recycle bin long before their life is gone. Get creative with ways to reuse materials at school.

Recycle

The activity that comes to mind most quickly when thinking of going green is often recycling. Recycling bins are showing up more and more in public places and along city streets on trash day. Recycling is easy to do—it’s just a matter of remembering to do it.

Put Ideas into Action

Actions speak loudest. When others see what your school can accomplish, they become inspired to do the same themselves. Get out there and do something to make your school green.

You can find the actual details in the article. Go, check it out.

The Energy value chain business model of Mitsubishi

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Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd details its new business model (PDF) tackling the energy and environments in its latest webcast.

Next page shows how we plan to promote the business by fusing the energy and the environment. Due to the global warming and the high energy prices, we believe that this market of energy and environmental will expand and diversify. This graph shows the value chain of energies. The vertical axis shows the flow of energy. From the top you see fuel conversion of energy and the use of energy. Horizontal axis shows the energy conversion and the load on the environment.

On the right hand side we are showing you the measures to deal with the pollutant, which would be generated through the energy conversion. For example in this value chain, using the natural gas, as you follow the red line you see the gas turbine combined cycle is used to generate, convert the energy, and blue line shows the electricity. And brown line shows the de-nitration and CO2 recovery and storage from the flue gas. And you see the gas to liquid, or GTL. And this can be used as a new alternative energy for the automobile.

In this energy value chain, in the parentheses, you see our business headquarters and we have various products and technologies. We would enhance those products and technologies, and combine them so that we can expand the new solution businesses. In order to do this, in April this year, we established the sustainability, energy and environment strategic planning department so that we can make further growth in the energy and environmental businesses.

I do not understand everything that is detailed here however, I am impressed with the direction that they are taking, the strategic planning and the establishment of a new department to deal with this. They have detailed their CSR strategy which revolves around producing products beneficial to society and the environment and spreading the culture within the organization.

Mitsubishi CSR Strategy