Posts tagged as:

environment

Going Green With A Universal Phone Charger

by Jason Wilk on February 17, 2009

micro-usb-charger

  • The mobile phone industry is close to introducing a universal charger as part of an effort to save the environment.  The GSM Association (GSMA) is the organization behind it, who announced the plans this week at the Mobile World Conference in Barcelona.
  • Mobile users will no longer have to hunt for the right charger, and they will be helping the environment at the same time. The new chargers will include a 50% reduction in standby energy consumption. All five of the UK’s mobile phone companies have signed up for the universal charger, and US carriers are expected to follow suit.

[polldaddy poll="1378253"]

  • Don’t get too excited about what the charger actually is. I thought it was finally going to be a wireless charger, however the GSM Association have chosen the micro-USB connection found on most Motorola’s and Blackberry’s. Carriers and OEM’s that sign on will have to include a micro-USB slot on  all new phones so the GSM approved charger will work.
  • We’ll see if Apple jumps on board for this. Considering their plan is for everyone to have an iPhone, I think they’ll stay on their quest to make the iPhone charger as ubiquitious as the GSM one.

[Post to Twitter] 

{ 1 comment }

Project Better Place Stacking Its Global Chips, Aids Japan

by David Heyerman on December 9, 2008

picture-44

  • Project Better Place is making new country partnerships look like taking candy from a baby, with their latest announcement to include the country of Japan as it’s next place to develop electric car infrastructure.  Technically, they didn’t sign the country of Japan on as they did in Denmark, Israel, Australia, San Francisco, and most recently Hawaii, they’ve simply joined a government pilot program with Fuji Heavy Industries, maker of Suburu vehicles called “Ministry of the Environment.”
  • The difference between this program and Better Place’s program in Israel, Denmark and Australia is that they won’t be developing charging stations, they’ll be focusing exclusively on battery-swapping locations.  The program will begin in January 2009 and will last 3-6 months, opening the first battery swapping location in Kanagawa.
  • One thing I find curious is that Nissan-Renault isn’t mentioned once in the new Japan based program.  Better Place established awhile ago that they’d be partnering with the car giant to provide electric cars, which is odd that they’d put themselves in cahoots with a competing Japanese manufacturer like Suburu.
  • More to come, I’m sure.

E2T

[Post to Twitter] 

{ 1 comment }

Wikipedia Founder Rolls Out Wikia Green

by John Jorgensen on September 9, 2008

  • Wikia Green is just like Wikipedia except with a focus on green/environment info.
  • Aims to stay away from political spin and instead to provide a general consensus on green topics.
  • More than just research: Wikia Gren focuses on actions that can be taken by readers to lend a hand in helping the environment.
  • CNET interview with Jimmy Wales, Wikipedia founder here.

Made tiny from: Mashable.com original post

[Post to Twitter] 

{ 0 comments }

Greenseng, Another Green Search Engine

by Jason Wilk on September 2, 2008

greenseng-logo

  • CO2Stats launches their green search engine today with a different approach from it’s competitors.
  • Greenseng will make money from offering renewable energy certificates to companies who want a badge that labels them ‘Green Certified’
  • CO2Stats will use the revenue to offset their environmental footprint put off by their company.
  • Using the Custom BOSS search API, search results will display how damaging a company is to the environment, which may determine whether or not you click on them.
  • Greenseng hopes companies will purchase the badges in order to help their organic click throughs.

Will this green search engine go down with the rest?

[Post to Twitter] 

{ 0 comments }