Monday, October 19, 2009

This is an urgent appeal for your help.

From WWF

One of Australia's biggest environmental disasters is unfolding off Western Australia's pristine Kimberley cost and WWF needs your help urgently.

Since August 21, over 400 barrels of oil a day have been spewing into the ocean from the leaking Montara oil rig 250 kilometres off Broome.

The spill threatens countless marine species, including the Fraser's dolphin, up to 16,000 green and black turtles, 30,000 sea snakes, and numerous seabirds like the red-footed booby. There are serious concerns that the slick will hamper the feeding and breeding of marine animals and that many will die from ingesting the oil. Vital fisheries and coral spawning are also likely to be affected

Clieck here to donate.

Monday, October 12, 2009

Maldives first to be lost in rising sea levels




NZ Herald.

The President of the Maldives is desperate for the world to know how seriously his Government takes the threat of climate change and rising sea levels to the survival of his country.

He wants his ministers to know as well.

To this end, Mohamed Nasheed has organised an underwater Cabinet meeting on October 17 and told all his ministers to get in training for the sub-aqua session.

At 6m below the surface, the ministers will ratify a treaty calling on other countries to cut greenhouse emissions.

Nasheed, the leader of a nation made up of 1200 atolls, 80 per cent of which are no more than a metre above sea level, has made the issue of climate change one of his most pressing priorities.

He has also established a fund to seek an alternative home for the 330,000 Maldivians.

Friday, October 9, 2009

The climate giant awakes. Have we turned a corner?

By Paul Gilding | October 8th, 2009 | Category: Cockatoo Chronicles |www.paulgilding.com

Regular readers may be a little surprised by this column. I am regularly arguing that the science shows we are inevitably approaching, or may have past, a tipping point where widespread, rolling ecological and economic crises take hold.

But there’s another critical tipping point, of a very different character – where the world’s political and business leaders turn firmly towards action. Here’s the surprise – I think we may be at this tipping point already.

Scientists have become increasingly alarmed in recent years, as climate change reality has raced ahead of the political response. They point to countless examples of accelerating feedbacks, such as the reduction in the ocean’s ability to absorb CO2 and rapid Arctic melting.

While they regularly point these out to our political masters, many of them express despair at the slow response.

So on what basis do I think the global political system has started to turn?

I think we have recently seen a number of developments that, taken together, indicate a profound shift is under way. When such a shift takes hold, it will rapidly accelerate – with significant implications for campaign and business strategy in this area over the years ahead.

The most significant and encouraging shift is what Tom Friedman in his recent NYT column called the shift from Red China to Green China. The Chinese leadership has for many years been talking about the need to act on climate but has in recent months shown serious potential to lead on this issue.

The rationale for them to do so is certainly there. As they have reeled under the negative economic and social impacts of pollution, China has accepted that the growth model followed by Western capitalism cannot work for them. Will they now pursue clean energy so vigorously they will dominate this new global market? Could climate even provide the issue on which China can manifest its global leadership ambitions?

I increasingly think the answer to both questions is likely to be yes, with far reaching economic and geopolitical implications. There is a good summary of recent developments and this potential for leadership, including China’s potential to see its emissions peak by 2030 in the article “Peaking Duck” by the Centre for American Progress’ Julian L. Wong.

Another important indicator is the recognition in the US political debate that the strength of the Chinese response is an economic threat to the US. The fear is growing that the resistance to change in the US may leave that economy floundering in what will be the largest economic transformation in history. As argued by Tom Friedman in the column referred to earlier, while America is currently strong on innovation, research ultimately follows the market. Friedman pointed out that “America’s premier solar equipment maker, Applied Materials, is about to open the world’s largest privately funded solar research facility — in Xian, China.”

The goal posts are also shifting in the science. An increasing number of scientists are coming to the view that the global CO2 target should be closer to 350ppm rather than 450ppm. In recent months we’ve seen this get global credence in response to the 350.org campaign, with eminent figures like the climate economist Nicholas Stern and the IPCC Chair Pachauri coming out in personal support of the 350 target. They would both be well aware that such a target would require cuts far more dramatic than anything on the table now. With such a goal, the task becomes the elimination of net CO2 emissions from the economy rather than their reduction.

At a deeper level, Stern also lent his considerable intellectual weight to the debate on economic growth, stating what was previously heresy – that economic growth itself must now be questioned. He recently put the case that there were probably only 20 years left for further economic growth before the earth was full.

Equally important as these scientific and political developments are shifts in the business community. While debates are raging in Western economies including in the US, Japan and Australia on climate policy, there are signs of a profound underlying shift emerging in corporate attitudes. Symbolising this in the United States is the rapid withdrawal of major companies from the US Chamber of Commerce over their lobbying against action to regulate greenhouse gases. In recent weeks, major corporates such as PG&E and Apple have resigned, Nike has quit the Board of the organisation and GE and Johnson & Johnson have both publicly distanced themselves from the Chamber’s anti-climate action lobbying efforts.

Another example was a recent initiative by Cambridge Program for Sustainability Leadership’s Corporate Leaders Group, with 500 companies signing on to the Copenhagen Communiqué which endorsed strong action on climate by the world’s governments including keeping warning below 2 degrees and urging early action. “There is nothing to be gained by delay”, the communiqué states.

Many other countries previously in the background on the global climate debate like Indonesia (which is the world’s 3rd largest net emitter due to its extensive deforestation) recently announced its intention to cut emissions by 26% by 2020 compared to Business As Usual and by 41% if they get international financial support to go further. They also believe they can turn their forests into a net carbon sink by 2030.

And of course there is a storm of grassroots campaigning erupting around the world in the lead up to Copenhagen with campaigns like 350.org and many others.

Many of you will have the correct response that these are all only words – that we are yet to see action of real substance. That’s certainly true. Words are early signs, not conclusive evidence. But I think I can smell it now, and when these things do turn, they do so remarkably quickly – as we saw when governments responded to the recent financial crisis.

Of course this does not mean we can relax and it will all be OK! The climate system is now rapidly descending into crisis and the consequences will be felt for decades even with strong action now. What it does indicate however is that we will not be the proverbial boiling frogs who just sit here passively as the system collapses around us. It is only early signs of the turn, but it gives us an indication of what’s coming.

So we mustn’t back off, not even a little bit, with the pressure being applied to the system to encourage change. But we should perhaps reconsider tactics.

I think some of our energy should be focused for example on developing an emergency plan to fix the climate. The science clearly lays out what a stable climate looks like and it requires the elimination of net CO2 emissions from the economy within decades. Any rational analysis says this is going to require the equivalent of a war plan to achieve it. In future columns I’ll be saying a great deal more on that topic.

But for now, take a look around. The world is turning our way and while the crisis is still coming, the crisis response may not be as far behind it as we thought.

Sunday, September 27, 2009

A Great Way to Reduce Emissions & Save Money


I was picking up a toner cartridge on the weekend and spotted this little device in the "impulse buy" section. What a great invention! It's called "eco button".

How does it work?

The ecobutton™ acts as a strong visual reminder and prompt for you to save electricity each time your computer is going to be left idle. The ecobutton™ is illuminated and sits on your table/desk top next to your keyboard. It connects to your computer via a USB cable.

Each time you take a short or long break, a phone call, go for a meeting etc. you simply press the ecobutton™ and your computer is put into the most efficient energy saving mode available - they call this 'ecomode'.

People generally do not like turning off their computers due to the time it often takes to restart (particularly when hibernate is used). However, with ecobutton™ by simply pressing any key on your keyboard (some computers require a momentary press of the power button) your computer instantly returns to where you left off.

There's also an additional bonus as each time your computer is put into 'ecomode' the clever ecobutton™ software records how many carbon units and how much power and money you have saved by using the ecobutton™. Over time this can add up to quite a lot (especially if you have many computers running in an office) and you can use this data to help reduce your carbon footprint as well as your energy bills.

Using the eco-button together with Little Green Genie to offset what you can't reduce is a great way to green your computer!

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Monday, September 21, 2009

The wisdom of children...



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Sunday, September 20, 2009

Reduce and Save Money

Want to save money and the environment. Here is a simple way to do both.

By changing your computers power settings to,

Turn off display after -20 minutes
Power down hard after - 20 minutes
Suspend your computer after- 1 hour

You can save about $45 of your yearly power bill and 269kg of co2 from the atmosphere.

Now that's a simple way to help your pocket and the environment.

Tuesday, September 1, 2009

Green Computing Computing

This is a really good video posted by ExplainingComputers.com It makes some very interesting arguments about the overall contribution computers have made to reducing GHG emissions. Well worth watching.


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Monday, August 31, 2009

It's All About Leverage









One of the best ideas I have seen in a while in respect to industries doing their bit for the environment would have to be the carbon offsetting programs now being created by airlines. Unlike most industries where the 'green companies' are voluntarily undergoing carbon audits, reducing, reusing and so forth, the airline industry is going a step further and actually asking its customers to offset as well. Aside from the obvious environmental benefits, there are many more reasons why this is a great idea.

Like all good projects, it's a sustainable idea. It does not create a financial strain on the company itself, it works by them simply asking their customers one more question as they book their ticket - "Would you like your kids to have a planet in the future?". It's the environmental equivalent of being asked - "Would you like fries with that."

The second reason I love this idea is that they are actually offering something that their customers want. Virgin Blue, Australia's first airline to offer its customers a carbon offset program now claim that around 12% of its passengers are voluntarily offsetting their flights. Considering that there is no human involvement in a vast majority of their bookings, it becomes patently obvious that these passengers are doing it solely because they care about the planet. Carbon neutral makes sense and is important to them. They are not given big green seats, gold stars or any form of recognition that identifies them as 'the environmentally conscious passengers', it is totally without endorsement. On some routes, the percentage of passengers who offset is markedly higher. Jetstar claim that one in three passengers flying into or out of Ballina airport are offsetting. That's a staggering amount! For those of you not familiar with Australia, Ballina is a beautiful part of the world and the nearest airport to Byron Bay which is one of the most eco-conscious communities in the country.

The last reason I love these programs is that they raise awareness as well as money for renewable energy projects. Virgin Blue is a relatively small airline but even their program which launched in March 2007 has already raised over $1M for renewable energy projects. Around one million environmentally passengers made that possible and all it took from Virgin was one question or more specifically, one line of code in their website on the bookings page.

For the longest time marketers have been teaching us, "It's five times more expensive to find a new customer than to make another sale to an existing one", and this is truer now than ever before. These days, one of the greatest assets a company has is the attention of its customers. When it comes to saving the planet the role you can play, especially as a business, goes well beyond just reducing your own carbon footprint. As demonstrated by companies like Virgin, by leveraging the attention of your customers you can have a massive impact without spending a cent. It's a sustainable strategy and makes good commercial sense.

If you would like to do something like Virgin and start your own offset program then check out our Zero Carbon Computer Challenge. It's all about people and businesses challenging their customers to offset the emissions caused by their computers. Have fun!
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Sunday, August 16, 2009

The 100th Monkey


In 1952, a group of scientists were conducting a study of macaques monkeys on the Japanese island of Koshima. For years, these monkeys had been eating sweet potatoes without washing them until one day the scientists observed a single monkey that began to wash his sweet potatoes before eating it. Day-by-day this monkey began teaching other monkeys until something very strange happened. When the total number of monkeys on that island that were washing their sweet potatoes before eating them reached about 100, thousands of monkeys on nearby islands began to do the same. Somehow the new-found idea of washing the vegetable before eating it had migrated instantaneously into the minds of monkeys that were miles away, separated by vast stretches of sea. Today this phenomena is referred to as "The 100th Monkey Phenomena".

Little Green Genie is a 100th Monkey idea. Already users of the software are telling us that because they use their computers everyday, that zero carbon email signature on their outbound emails is a constant reminder of their power to impact the environment. Since using the software they have replaced light bulbs, or turn things off where previously they didn't. More than that though, they are raising their general awareness about climate change - which can't help but raise the awareness of those they interact with.

I wonder - will we see a mass and sudden migration to green in the coming years purely by more of us raising our awareness about the issues? Let's hope so!

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Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Go ahead - lose your mind



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Friday, August 7, 2009

Pollution in plain sight


The image above could easily be used to promote an environmental campaign. The green grass, the beautiful animals and fine weather. Like me, you will no doubt be surprised to learn that this photo, taken by by National Geographic, is actually Chernobyl.

Unfortunately we humans tend to only deal with issues we can see, however when it comes to climate change, it isn't always obvious and by the time we see the problem it could be too late. It is our hope that through Little Green Genie which enables carbon neutral computing, we can at the very least get people thinking about the less obvious impacts of their everyday actions.

Already Genie users from around the world are telling us how their new "zero carbon computer user" email tag is a consistent reminder to to them about how small things, unseen things, do matter. If that's all we achieve then we are winning.
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Thursday, July 30, 2009

Greening your computer - Courier Mail by Graham Readfearn

http://blogs.news.com.au/couriermail/greenblog/index.php/couriermail/comments/aussies_trying_to_green_your_computer/

ALL in all, your computer (and mine) is one big environmental and unsustainable dog’s breakfast (and I’ve not even got a dog).

Like most electronic products, understanding all the environmental aspects of having and using a computer is a tough job because there’s energy and resources being used up all over the place.

You’ve got to dig up stuff like silica, copper, lead, cobalt, cadmium, gold and oil. You need energy and water to transport and manufacture the parts and manage all the waste materials - some of them toxic - that come from these processes.

You’ve got to put the thing together, get the resources and materials to package them up and then distribute them. Once it’s out of the box and doing its stuff, it’s using electricity which in most parts of the world means burning more fossil fuels, emitting more greenhouse gases as well as other nasty by-products like mercury. According to a detailed study of the impact of computers on the environment, the total fossil fuels used to make one of them is about 240 kilograms.

But then you can play games on it.

After you’ve used your computer, you’ve then got to dispose of it which takes more energy and in most circumstances ends up in landfill, which means wearing the risk of burying toxic substances and wasting all the energy it took to make the various parts in the first place.

So what can you do? Two new solutions have hit my inbox this week.

The first comes in the guise of a desktop widget called The Little Green Genie that sits on your screen and monitors the emissions from your computer, using as a base research figures from a United Nations Environment Programme centre. To get the widget (available for individuals and businesses) you need to add credit to an online account (minimum $10) which is used to buy carbon credits for investment in renewable energy and energy efficiency from Climate Friendly. These are a good quality credit, as because they’re offshore they are not counted as part of Australia’s national greenhouse accounts, which means under Kyoto, you’re not simply giving high-polluting industries more room to pollute up to the national cap.

image

A second solution that can lower the impact of your computer is stunningly simple. Every time you want to do a safe search on the internet (one that doesn’t bring up stuff you wouldn’t want your grandma or kids to see), then just do it at Grevox. For each search, carbon offset company Climate Feet will offset for free the equivalent of 50 grams of greenhouse gases by purchasing credits through the Voluntary Carbon Standard accreditation scheme. The Grevox site is even being hosted on servers powered by renewable energy.

So there you go. Now you can use your computer to play games, surf the web, read your emails, network and even… yes even.. do work on it… with your conscience a little clearer and greener.

First climate refugees start move to new island home.






IMAGINE that your home, water and a fair whack of your food are under threat. Imagine it is only going to get worse.

Imagine that you live on the Carteret Islands, seven tiny coral atolls in the Pacific that have been described as the home of the world’s first climate change refugees.

Six months ago, the 2700 islanders began what will eventually become a big evacuation to Bougainville, about 80 kilometres to the south.

The decision to relocate followed years of worsening storm surges and king tides that infected the fresh water supply and ruined the islanders’ staple banana and taro crops.

Fearing worse is to come — more frequent floods are expected to be the most visible signs of rising sea levels due to global warming — the islanders secured three blocks of coastal land. Five men moved earlier this year to build houses and plant crops, the first step in the relocation of 1700 people in the next five years.

The relocation is being headed by Ursula Rakova, an islander who quit a job with Oxfam in Bougainville three years ago to set up Tulele Peisa, an organisation that raises money and campaigns for social justice on behalf of her people. ‘‘We have a feeling of anxiety, a feeling of uncertainty because we know that we will be losing our homes. It is our identity. It is our whole culture at stake,’’ she said in Melbourne yesterday.

The move has been helped by the Catholic Church, which provided the land for relocation, but not the Bougainville Government.

Ms Rakova said the $1 million provided by the Papua New Guinea Government in Port Moresby had been swallowed by provincial bureaucrats.

The purpose of her trip to Australia this week is two-fold — to secure a market for the organic cocoa the islanders plan to grow at their new home and to call on the Australian Government, through its AusAID program, to pressure the Bougainville Government to deliver the promised money.

Just as urgently, she wants to see Western leaders take on much deeper cuts in greenhouse gas emissions.

The Australian Government’s most ambitious emissions proposal of stabilising atmospheric carbon dioxide at 450 parts per million was not enough to give the Pacific a safe future, she said.

‘‘We are angry. Some people do not understand the science, but they know they are losing their homes and they are angry they are having to pay for what other people [in industrialised nations] have done,’’ she said.

While climate scientists warn that the future for atolls like the Carterets is bleak, the extent to which climate change is responsible for their current predicament is unclear.

Campaigners believe the impact of rising sea levels may have been amplified by the gradual sinking of an extinct volcano that supports the atolls.

One of the world’s leading sea level experts yesterday called for caution. John Hunter, from the University of Tasmania, said sea level rises would eventually cause ‘‘huge problems’’, and called for the building of sea walls to protect the islands’ culture and ‘‘buy a few more decades’’.

Monday, July 27, 2009

The hill that powers 120,000 homes




One of the things people most often ask is - "Where does the money go when I buy carbon credits?" - so I thought I would show you. Last week I returned from a short trip to the United States. As I was driving to San Francisco from Las Vegas I came across this incredible piece of road that was littered with hundreds of Wind Turbines pumping out clean energy. I did this same drive about 10 years ago and none of these turbines were there back then.

When you consider that each of these turbines will generate enough energy every year to power about 1,000 homes you really start to see the significance of clean energy solutions such as this. The photo above is only half of this picture and there's about 120 turbines just in this half of this shot. That's 120,000 homes being powered without a single piece of coal being burned. This hill was only one of dozens like it that I drove past in just that 20 mile stretch of road in the US.

These are what we call 'renewable energy projects' because they rely upon clean and abundant natural resources like wind - not dirty and damaging fuels such as coal. It is projects like this that are often funded by carbon credit purchases.

If you are a US citizen you may be particularly interested in a wonderful movement called "The Picken's Plan" - founded by billionaier oil man T.Boone.Pickens. Mr Pickens has developed a powerfula and effective plan for eliminating America's reliance on foreign oil by harnessing the abundance of wind through the central interior of the United States.

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Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Airline industry proves that consumers want to be green...especially if they are from Byron.

For those of you who don’t know, the Little Green Genie mascot is named Byron after the beautiful Australian town of Byron Bay which has long been considered one of the most environmentally friendly towns in Australia. You can imagine my delight when I discovered that Byron and the airline industry recently proved a very interesting point about consumers willingness to pay to be green, even when their is zero kudos or status attached.

I was recently flying on a Virgin Blue aircraft from the Gold Coast to Sydney. Like most people, I started to read the inflight magazine when I came across a very interesting letter from Virgin Blue’s CEO Brett Godfrey. In this letter, Brett was talking about Virgin Blue’s carbon offsetting scheme which when launched in 2007 made them the first Australian airline to offer such a program. As someone who always offsets their flights whenever possible, I was very interested to learn how these programs work and whether or not other consumers actually care enough (or believe enough in the idea of offsetting) to voluntarily and anonymously offset their airline travel emissions.

To my delight I learned that just over 10% of travelers who book online do offset their flights through Virgin Blue. In total, over 1 million flights have been offset since 2007 raising more than $1.3M for Government certified carbon abatement projects. In total these guys have caused the offset of 102,000 tonnes of Co2 so far which is about the same as taking 25,000 cars off the road for a full year.

This is very cool (pardon the pun). When I got home I did a bit more searching and discovered that since Virgin Blue, others have followed. Jetstar for example have also been very successful in getting their customers to offset their flights through the online booking process. At a recent media conference Bruce Buchanan, general manager of Jetstar’s commercial operations revealed that around 12% of their passengers voluntarily offset their flights but this figure jumps to a whopping 28% on flights in or out of Byron Bay or the nearby town of Ballina. That’s more than double their national average.

What I found particularly exciting about these numbers is the idea that a corporation or influential organization does not have to necessarily spend a lot of money themselves to do a lot of good for the planet. They merely have to leverage their influence. Further, it proved to me that even without any public recognition of their actions, people are willing to actually pay to give back to the planet. It's not just airlines that can do this though. My favorite band, the Dave Matthews Band, recently launched the Bama Project which (among many other things) enables fans to arrange to share cars to get to their concerts through their website. Simply by influencing their network and providing a mechanism the band has not only established its green credentials but they have deepened their connection to their fan base and caused the offset of nearly a million pounds (their not on the metric system :-) of Co2 so far.

If we look at computers which are now estimated to account for 5% of the world's carbon emissions or about the same as the airline industry, how many of your friends or customers would ‘want’ to offset their bit if they were given the opportunity and mechanism?

Shortly, we will be launching the Zero Carbon Computer Challenge which will enable you or your business to follow the lead of Virgin Blue, Jetstar or the Dave Matthews Band by setting up your own carbon offsetting program whereby you can compete with others from the around the world to see how much Co2 you can cause to be offset through people offsetting their computers through Little Green Genie. We will provide you with your own unique webpage within our website that you can promote this page to your network. Every person who offsets will count toward your tonne total which will appear along with and your country and worldwide ranking. Unlike flying where offsetting is anonymous, you can add your zero carbon status to your website as well as all emails you send for as long as you remain a carbon neutral computer user through the Genie. It’s going to be a lot of fun and a great chance to flex the power of the people. Stay tuned!

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Little Green Genie Goes Live

We are very happy to announce the worldwide launch of www.littlegreengenie.com. The team at Little Green Genie has been working around the clock and we are very excited with the first version. The application works for both PC and Mac.

To make a positive impact on the environment it cost on average 1 cent per day to offset your PCs power usage and a once off cost of USD $11 if you choose to offset the manufacturing of the equipment. This is a small price to pay considering the IT industry emits around the same amount of Co2 into the atmosphere as the airline industry and the manufacture of a PC has about the same environmental impact as making a small car.

Our carbon credits are the Rolls Royce of carbon credits. Gold Standard, Audited, renewable energy carbon credits that have the greatest impact on the reduction of global Co2 emissions. For businesses 53% of consumers prefer to buy from a green company, so once you have offset your emissions you can download the Little Green Genie email signatures to communicate your commitment to the environment.

Our software is free and there are no licensing fees.

Go to www.littlegreengenie.com and hit the sign up tab.

We can be know as the smartest generation that saved the world or the generation that destroyed our planet. So it's over to you. Go make a difference and spread the word.

Monday, July 13, 2009

Little Green Genie Set to go live

Little Green Genie is going live at 6pm Wednesday the 15th New York time.www.littlegreengenie.com

Thursday, July 9, 2009

Here is a great story by Kevin Schueller from the Examiner in Philadelphia. I downloaded the software. Saving money and the environment.

Turning off your computer when you aren’t using it is the most effective way to reduce billions of extra kilowatt hours burned by computers every year. What about when you are using the computer?

According to Columbia University “A typical desktop PC with a 17" flat panel LCD monitor requires about 100 watts -- 65 for the computer and 35 for the monitor. Doesn't sound like much? Left on 24/7 for one year, the system will consume a whopping 874 kWh of electricity. That's enough to release 750 lbs. of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere -- the equivalent of driving 820 miles in an average car.

To reduce power usage by as much as 75 percent, turn off your computer when you won't be using it for an extended period of time and enable power management features during shorter periods of inactivity.”


While your computers power management features are a huge help to a major problem, there is a great free piece of software that can help even better. Verdiem’s Edison software quietly and lightly runs in the background and gives you even more options for keeping your computer’s power consumption down. More than saving the environment, it will also help your wallet.

Just install the free software, and set times for your work day. It will automatically turn off your display, power down the hard drive, and put your computer into hibernation at ideal times. It will even calculate how much money, energy, and CO2 you can save yearly while the software is in use.

Download: Edison

Sunday, July 5, 2009

Zero Carbon Computing

Let us know what you think! We are trying to give a very simple explanation of the software. We would also like to acknowledge the folks at Common Craft who really pioneered these types of videos. We borrowed the way we explain coal fired emissions from them in this video. We hope you enjoy it.



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Thursday, July 2, 2009

The Zero Carbon Computer Challenge

We are working on something really cool here at Little Green Genie that we hope you will participate in. It's a challenge that will enable you to reach out to your family, friends, fans, customers or community group and ask them to join you as a "Zero Carbon Computer User". To participate, all you will have to do is offset your own computer's emissions through the software and then you will be able to set up your own page on our competition site that you use to promote your entry into the challenge. As more of your network joins the challenge, your combined carbon reduction will be calculated and then you can compete with other families, businesses and so forth from around the world.

While your own carbon footprint from computing may be minimal, when taken with the carbon footprint of those you have the power to influence through your computer, it can be significant. Think about this. According to Radicati Group, the world sends about 63 Billion emails every day - not counting spam. That's just email. Then there's Tweets, Facebook posts, Blogs and all the other ways that we communicate that are not via email.

I think about some of my favorite bloggers and content creators in the business development space, people like Seth Godin, Tim Ferris, Fred Wilson or Andrew Warner, guys that harness technology brilliantly to leverage their businesses. Every month, millions of people of similar of even greater reach through their own communities, tribes and businesses read their blog posts, get their Tweets or receive their emails - all through their computers. By joining this challenge, these and the millions of other influencers (all of us) can make a massive difference to the carbon footprint of the global computer industry. We can also raise much needed awareness for climate change by simply adding the "Zero Carbon Computer User" email signature (available through the software) to every email we send.

Stay tuned for more details!

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Fun Animation

When we first started developing the Little Green Genie concept our very clever creative team came up with this short animation. The star of the show is affectionately known as "Byron". He is named after a beautiful part of Australia called Byron Bay. Let us know what you think.



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Thursday, June 25, 2009

Small steps can add up to major changes

Every day we scour the internet looking for innovators in the green space. Fortunately, the only real problem is the sheer volume of great people doing great things. Just today I have found phenomenal initiatives like the Bama Green Project being driven by the amazing Dave Matthews Band, which has reduced over 8 million pounds of carbon by doing simple things like getting the band's fans to share cars to get to their concerts. Then there's sites like Carbon Rally that have mobilized a small army of everyday people who commit to making small changes by joining 'challenges' that earn the participants Green Points. These Green Points are accrued and members are ranked based on the amount of carbon they have reduced - all in the spirit of fun and collaboration. The sharing of cars suggested at Bama Green or slowing down by 5 km/hour for a couple of days at Carbon Rally are small and simple ideas, just like Little Green Genie, but by harnessing the power of the internet and the passion of people who care, phenomenal things are being done. 

If we try to take on the whole environmental problem on our own it is overwhelming. The answer it seems is in making small changes in our own lives and sharing those changes with those we share the planet with in the hope that they too might participate. We do make a difference - if we take the action.

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

350.org

These guys are doing some really good things for the planet with over 1000 events planned this year. Check out the video below and go to www.350.org

Saturday, June 20, 2009

Help us spread the word about Little Green Genie & you could win a carbon neutral MacBook!

We are giving away a brand new, carbon neutral, Apple MacBook! All you have to do is visit our Facebook page, put in your details and share the promotion with at least 10 of your Facebook friends and you will go in the draw to win. We are doing this to raise awareness of how damaging the manufacture and ongoing use of computers is. So give us a hand and share the love! Enter here.

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Friday, June 19, 2009

46% of consumers say they would shop at a retailer more if it was environmentally friendly

The benefits of implementing green initiatives have a widespread effect, including improved brand image with customers and employees, wrote Dan Kubala, vice president of marketing for Austin, Tex.-based Site Controls, in an article for Retail Customer Experience Magazine. Retailers who add energy management technology can boost their bottom line almost immediately, unlike with many other green initiatives today, he added.

For nearly all retailers, of which there are nearly 900,000 locations in the U.S., the most significant “low hanging fruit” for reducing energy costs is the implementation of an enterprise-wide energy management system (EMS), writes Kubala. He adds that the level of capital investment is relatively low, and payback for the best systems occurs in 18 to 24 months.

Kubala thinks retailers shouldn’t be hesitant to make green investments because today’s consumers are rewarding sustainability with their pocketbooks. In addition, studies show that employees prefer to work for companies that are environmentally conscious.

Forty-six percent of consumers say they would shop at a retailer more if it was environmentally friendly, while 47 percent say they would pay more for environmentally friendly services, products or brands, according to Kubala.

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Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Dr M.A Sanjayan Interview Part 1

This is a great interview with Dr M.A Sanjayan on how we are the first generation who can really make a difference

Dr M.A Sanjayan Interview Part 2

This is a great inspirational interview with Dr Sanjayan showing we can all do something.

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Help Little Green Genie go out of business!

Earlier today, someone asked me - "What am I actually buying, and who gets the money?" if I sign up for Little Green Genie and offset my computer's carbon emissions. Here was my answer. I thought you might enjoy it.

Burning of fossil fuels is a major source of industrial Green House Gas (GHG) emissions, especially for power, cement, steel, textile, fertilizer and many other industries which rely on fossil fuels (coal, electricity derived from coal, natural gas and oil). The major greenhouse gases emitted by these industries are carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), etc, all of which increase the atmosphere's ability to trap infrared energy and thus affect the climate.

As a computer user there's two ways you contribute to carbon emissions. The first is through the manufacture of your actual machine. To make the average desktop computer 1727 KW of energy, 20 KG of chemicals and 1035 liters of water were used. In all, an average of 1,214 KG of carbon dioxide was emitted just to make your machine!

The second way you contribute to carbon emissions is through the energy you use to operate the machine. From country to country the amount of GHG emissions created through the power you consume to run your computer (or any other device) varies greatly depending on that particular country's use of coal, gas, hydro or nuclear energy. In Australia for example, 1 KW hour of electricity creates 1.08 KG of GHG while in the US it creates 0.7 KGs and in Europe (Green friendly folk) it creates 0.5 KGs.

By becoming a Little Green Genie customer and buying carbon credit through our software, you are basically saying - "Hey, I can't do anything about the emissions created to manufacture my computer and I can't do anything about the emissions that will be created by the power I consumer to run the machine, but I can offer to pay someone to find a way to stop carbon emissions elsewhere".

Your money, together with all the other Little Green Genie users worldwide goes to buying carbon credits from operators of independently audited renewable energy projects that are reducing Green House Gas emissions. In other words, we are creating a group of environmentally conscious computer users who are paying to create cleaner solutions for the future. In theory, if we invest enough money we could find cleaner ways to make computers and create cleaner energy sources to run them. It would be great if Little Green Genie went out of business on this basis!

Sunday, June 14, 2009

Paperless office ideas...great video!

This short film made by Planet Ark cofounder Jon Dee is simply brilliant! Take a look.

Green Data Centers: Strategies and Tactics for Going Green

Rising energy costs now mean that many US corporations are spending more on energy to run their IT than they are spending to buy it. This fascinating interview will really open your eyes to the scale of the environmental impact computers are having on our planet.

Green Data Centers: Strategies and Tactics for Going Green

Friday, June 12, 2009

The glamour of a start-up...



To most, the idea of a web-based start-up is glamorous and exciting. I had to smile when I was sent this photo taken by the wife of Little Green Genie's creator James Skinner. Here, James is hard at work executing the detailed launch plan which is hoisted onto his office wall above the workstation. This is what building a start-up looks like.

Thursday, June 11, 2009

CFL Lightbulbs in plain English

We love these guys! In the last few years, Common Craft, founded by Le and Sachi LeFever, have made over 30 videos using paper cut outs that explain complex stuff in plain English. So far more 10,00,000 people have watched their videos and now they are hired by companies like Google to help explain their products. Check out this cool video on CFL light bulbs.


What is a carbon credit?

Do you know what a carbon credit is? This short video gives you a brief explanation. I would love for the guys at Common Craft to explain it.

Little Green Genie prepares for launch!

The team at Little Green Genie are gearing up for the worldwide launch of its world-first carbon offsetting software that accurately measures and then automatically offsets the carbon emissions created directly as a result of the manufacture and ongoing use of the user's computer.

Stay tuned via this blog!