I’ve always liked Dell - never had any problems with them. This post was written on a Dell. According to an article in GreenBiz, as of April 3^rd, Dell’s 2.1 million square foot headquarters in Austin, Texas are now powered completely from eco-friendly wind and landfill gas sources. The eco-friendly move is a big step in Dell’s goal of achieving carbon neutrality at its owned and leased facilities by the end of this year. Approximately 40% of the power will be supplied from the Waste Management Austin Community Landfill gas-to-energy facility while the remainder will be sourced from existing wind farms in the state through TXU Energy.

The eco-friendly energy contract is slated to provide the computer-maker with a little more than 80 million kilowatt hours per year for the company’s headquarters. In its effort to be more eco-friendly, Dell has already saved approx. $2 million a year retrofitting its facilities with power management systems and replacing inefficient lighting and air conditioners.

As far as Dells other locations - Here in beautiful Idaho, the Dell facility in Twin Falls is powered completely by wind and solar power while the company’s Austin Parmer Campus is increasing its green power from 8 to 17 percent.

This comes almost a year after Dell launched its “Plant a Tree for Me” campaign. The eco-friendly initiative essentially gives consumers the option of selecting “Plant A Tree for Me” when configuring their purchase to offset the carbon emission resulting from the production of electricity required to power their systems. Of the program Michael Dell said, “We’re the first global technology company to offset emissions with the purchase of their computers.” The program is done in partnership with The Conservation Fund and Carbonfund.org and 100% of the donated funds go to facilitate the planting of trees.

Eco-Friendly & Fair Labor Clothing
http://www.sattlerclothing.com 

A report by Sarah White & Jason Walsh and the Center of Wisconsin Strategy, The Workforce Alliance and The Apollo Alliance called “Greener Pathways” is a 64-page report about “Jobs and Workforce Development in the Clean Energy Economy”. The report delves into three key industries in the world of green – Energy Efficiency, Wind, and the BioIndustry. The report is designed to serve as an assessment of employment opportunities in the three eco-friendly industries and what kind of skills are necessary for individuals looking to transition into the green energy workforce.

An article in Greenbiz.com reports that “Greener Pathways profiles some of the best examples in the nation where work is underway to develop green jobs, including green construction career development in California, Iowa’s biofuels job-training bonds, wind technician training in Oregon; and Pennsylvania’s green re-industrialization.”

But for those even remotely interested in eco-friendly alternative energies this report contains a treasure trove of great information. One of my favorites is a diagram on page 36 that shows a comparison chart of fuels that generate more energy than they consume. The diagram compares different ethanol fuels as well as biodiesels and energy sources derived from crude oil. An amazing read –

Download the FREE Report here.

Visit the COWS (Center of Wisconsin Strategy) site for more info and the report

Who is the Apollo Alliance? According to their website -

“The Apollo Alliance is a coalition of business, labor, environmental, and community leaders working to catalyze a clean energy revolution in America to reduce our nation’s dependence on foreign oil, cut the carbon emissions that are destabilizing our climate, and expand opportunities for American businesses and workers.

Inspired by the vision and technological achievements of the Apollo space program, we promote policies and initiatives to speed investment in clean energy technology and energy efficiency, put millions of Americans to work in a new generation of well-paid, green collar jobs, and make America a global leader in clean energy products and services.”

Eco-Friendly & Fair Labor Clothing
http://www.sattlerclothing.com 

According to a recent article by Joel Makower, Executive Editor at GreenBuzz, the EPA launched The GreenChill Advanced Refrigeration Partnership with ten large supermarkets and suppliers in late November. Refrigeration consumes massive amounts of energy for retailers and brands and the writer of the article on Greenbiz.com wrote that “someone once told me that Wal-Mart’s second-biggest cost (after people) is energy, and that its biggest energy cost is refrigeration.

GreenChill aims to promote technologies, strategies, and practices that protect the ozone layer, reduce greenhouse gases, and reduce energy costs. EPA estimates that “Improved equipment design and service could reduce refrigerant emissions by one million metric tons of carbon equivalent per year, the equivalent of taking 800,000 automobiles off the road every year.”

The GreenChill Advanced Refrigeration Partnership is an EPA cooperative alliance with the supermarket industry and other stakeholders to promote the adoption of technologies, strategies, and practices that reduce emissions of ozone-depleting substances (ODS) and greenhouse gases (GHGs) and increase refrigeration system energy efficiency.

Working with EPA, GreenChill Partners:

- Transition to non-ozone-depleting refrigerants.

- Reduce emissions of both ozone-depleting and non-ozone-depleting refrigerants.

- Promote supermarkets’ adoption of advanced refrigeration technologies that offer:

- Reduced ODS/GHG emissions (e.g., reduced refrigerant charges and leak rates);

- Potential for improved energy efficiency;

- Reduced maintenance and refrigerant costs;

- Extended shelf life of perishable food products; and

- Improved system design, operations, and maintenance

and Reduce the total impact of supermarkets on ozone depletion and global warming.

Joel Makower writes further “A few years ago, Coca-Cola examined its carbon footprint and found that refrigeration — in vending machines and drink dispensers in restaurants — represented the biggest portion. It formed a partnership with Pepsi, McDonald’s, Unilever, and other big companies — not to mention Greenpeace — to form Refrigerants Naturally!. Coke, for its part, estimated that by replacing its 10 million vending machines with the most energy-efficient models would save nearly a half-biliion dollars in energy costs annually, the equivalent of taking 750,000 cars off the road. That’s almost as much as GreenChill’s anticipated overall annual benefit.”

Amory Lovins, is our person to watch of the week. For more than three decades Mr. Lovins has been working tirelessly to impact the way the world consumes energy. Mr. Lovins has published 29 books, hundreds of papers and has consulted U.S. Departments of Energy and Defense, briefed 19 heads of state, in 50+ countries. His work has earned him recognition from the “Alternative Nobel,” Onassis, Nissan, Shingo, and Mitchell Prizes, the Benjamin Franklin and Happold Medals, nine honorary doctorates, honorary membership of the American Institute of Architects, and the Heinz, Lindbergh, Jean Meyer, Time Hero for the Planet, and World Technology Awards.

Mr. Lovins cofounded and is Chairman and Chief Scientist of Rocky Mountain Institute (www.rmi.org), an independent, market-oriented, entrepreneurial, nonprofit, nonpartisan think-and-do tank that creates abundance by design. Much of its pathfinding work on advanced resource productivity (typically with expanding returns to investment) and innovative business strategies is synthesized in Natural Capitalism (www.natcap.org). This intellectual capital provides most of RMI’s revenue through private-sector consultancy that has served or been invited by more than 80 Fortune 500 firms, lately redesigning $30 billion worth of facilities spanning 29 sectors. RMI spun off E SOURCE ( www.esource.com) in 1992 and Fiberforge, Inc. (www.fiberforge.com), a composites engineering firm that Mr. Lovins chairs, in 1999; its technology permits cost-effective manufacturing of the ultralight-hybrid Hypercar® vehicles he invented in 1991. Mr. Lovins was also on the jury team for the first annual World Clean Energy Awards held in June this year in Basel, Switzerland. Look to see more of Mr. Lovins in the future.

His 28th book, Small Is Profitable www.smallisprofitable.org, an Economist book of the year, was published in 2002.

His most recent book was released in 2004 www.oilendgame.com

Get a free PDF copy of Armory Lovins book “Winning the Oil Endgame”