UPS Smart Pickup - Saves Fuel and Reduces Co2 Emissions

I noticed that UPS has added to its Decision Green shipping options something called UPS Smart Pickups. This service allows UPS drivers to skip a stop at locations that do not have a package to be picked up.

"... simple change ... will save an estimated 800,000 gallons of fuel per year and reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 7,800 metric tons. ..."
me insight from UPS CIO David Barnes:

This is a great way for UPS to leverage its technology and a way for customers to be green.

Via: greenautoblog LINK

Novacem - Carbon Negative Cement Reduces CO2 Emissions

Cement manufacturing is an energy intensive process and typically generates LOTS of CO2.  It is estimated that cement manufacture produces 5% of global CO2 !

Novacem Carbon Negative Cement

The challenge for the developing world (and the developed world) is how to make cement and not make so much CO2.

 "... carbon negative cement ... based on a non-carbonate raw material, magnesium silicate, and uses a relatively low temperature production process. ... more CO₂ is absorbed during production than ... emitted"'

Substituting a ton of Novacem in place of standard cement would avoid 852 kg of CO2 emissions.
Novacem is based in the UK.


Via:  Novacem  LINK

Braxton's Animal Works (Devon, PA) Goes Green with LED Lighting

Braxton's in Devon, PA (western suburbs of Philadelphia) is a 3rd generation family business.  We buy a lot of our dog stuff there ... one day I noticed a sign outside touting their "green-ness" by installing LED lighting.

Their lighting solution came from LED Saving Solutions of Devon, PA..
After installing LED lighting their electric  bill went from over $750 / month to around $100 / month.  Projected lifetime savings are over $260,000 as well as eliminating 100,00 lbs of carbon emissions.


Via: LED Saving Solutions LINK

RechargeIT.org Aims to Cut CO2 Emissions

"RechargeIT is an effort within Google.org ... to reduce CO2 emissions, cut oil use, and stabilize the electrical grid by accelerating the adoption of plug-in electric vehicles ... a demonstration fleet of plug-ins at our headquarters in Mountain View and make publicly available the statistics on the performance of those cars ... Google plug-ins achieved 93+ MPG... most every large automaker is putting out a plug-in in the next 2 - 4 years ..."

"We've had our RechargeIT plug-ins on the road for over two years, collecting data when driven by Google employees in our free car-share program ... wanted to see how they would perform in a controlled test ... the plug-ins did great, getting as much as 93 MPG average across all trips, and 115 MPG for city trips!... "

CLICK to explore detailed data from the experiment."


Via: RechargeIT.org LINK

Dedham Mass Whole Foods Powered by Fuel Cell and Solar Cells

 
Fuel cells are making there way to a food store near you - if you live in Dedham, Mass.

" ... newest and largest Whole Foods Market in New England ... in Dedham, MA. ... the first store in Massachusetts to generate on-site power with fuel cell technology (one of the cleanest forms of energy)! 90% of our power will be generated by this fuel cell - this is sometUnited Technologies logohing that we are very proud of."

" ... powered by a 400-kilowatt UTC Power fuel cell and a rooftop solar installation that will generate most of the store’s power and all of its hot water needs ..."

Via: WholeFoods LINK  and Via: Technologies Corp. LINK

Google - Leads in Energy Efficient Data Centers

Google has been at the forefront of energy efficiency quite some time.  They recently were written up for their large rooftop solar array.  Google has lots of data and metrics to determine the average energy "impact" per search.

Read on to learn more about Google current initiatives.

" ... Data centers ... account for most of Google’s energy needs ... take our energy use seriously and, from the very beginning, Google has focused on designing systems that use as little energy as possible ... operating what we believe to be the world's most efficient data centers."

" ... Google-designed data centers use about half the energy of a typical data center ... energy used per Google search is very small ... currently use about 1kJ (0.0003 kWh) of energy to answer the average query ... roughly .2g of CO2 ... often take the place of more carbon- and time-intensive activities, such as driving a car to a library or spending hours navigating shopping malls."

" ... commitment to sustainability goes beyond just electricity and carbon ... two Google

facilities currently run on 100% recycled water, and by 2010 we expect recycled water to provide 80% of our total data center water consumption ... share our own data center best practices and are encouraging our industry peers to do the same ..."

" ... if all data centers operated at the same efficiency as ours, the U.S. alone would save enough electricity to power every household within the city limits of Atlanta, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Washington, D.C."



Via: Google LINK

Home Fuel Cells Coming to Japan

" ... Matsushita ... will claim first place in the race to put commercial home fuel cells on the market ... "

" ... can optimally provide 70 percent of the energy needs for a 1,280 square foot house with four people ... can reduce energy consumption by 22 percent and CO2 emissions by 12 percent as compared to all other power sources ... ".

" ... in this case, the cogeneration home fuel cell hooks up to the city’s natural gas lines, extracting hydrogen from the gas in a fuel-processing device ... hydrogen is combined with oxygen through a series of polyelectrolyte membranes, a process that creates electricity, heat, and water ... home fuel cell produces between 500 watts and a 1 kilowatt of electricity and captures the heat to warm a tank of water, used for showers, dishes etc."

" ... a contribution to Japan’s goals of reducing global CO2 emissions 50 percent by 2050."

" ... fuel cells require a great deal of energy; for example, this unit contains more than 2,000 components. Whether the production of the units negates the energy and CO2 savings gained by customers is unclear."

Check out this video ...

Via: Mother Nature Network LINK