Yikes: Peabody uses Super Bowl blackouts to push coal agenda
Coal giant Peabody turns to a tactic that has long been used to cling to old school technology: the manipulative press release. Read more »
Greenpeace targets Amazon in clean cloud stunt
A website that claims to be from Amazon about launching a clean-powered pilot project for its AWS services, alas, isn’t true. It’s a stunt by the environmentalist at Greenpeace to get Amazon to add more clean power to its cloud. Read more »
Indian giant Wipro beats outs HP, Apple as it tops Greenpeace’s gadget guide
Indian tech firm Wipro takes the lead for the first time — beating out U.S. companies like Apple, HP and Dell — to become the highest ranking gadget maker in Greenpeace’s latest green guide to electronics. Read more »
iFixit joins Greenpeace in bashing EPEAT’s recyclability standards
photo: iFixit
The gadget dissector says the green electronics group’s recently released independent test of the recyclability of Apple’s MacBook Pro, along with ultrathin notebooks from Lenovo, Samsung and Toshiba, amounts to “greenwashing” the group’s stated standards for promoting sustainable, recyclable computers. Read more »
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The economics of clean-data-center innovation
photo: Facebook
Data centers consume around 1.5 percent of total electricity demand, a figure that’s expected to increase significantly. To cut power and costs tech titans like Google, Apple, and Facebook are cutting electricity use by greening their data centers. But do energy-efficiency gains justify huge capital outlays? Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Facebook unveils energy use, carbon emissions data
Facebook on Wednesday unveiled detailed numbers about the energy consumption, and carbon emissions, of its data center and operations in 2011. The move represents a greater push for transparency and an effort to help manage energy-related costs, not to mention some solid marketing. Read more »
Greenpeace barely applauds Apple’s clean power data center plans
In an update to a controversial report, environmental activist group Greenpeace partly applauded Apple for taking more steps to add clean power to its data center, yet also said Apple should both be more transparent about its plans and should also be doing more. Read more »
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Locating data centers in an energy-constrained world
Changes in the power market are rippling through the Internet industry, altering both the location of data centers and their sources of power. There are many factors in picking a data center location beyond the geographic location, such as how to procure energy and green-energy models. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Steve Jobs to get the Sorkin treatment, plus 4 other Apple stories to read today
Here’s our daily pick of stories about Apple from around the web that you shouldn’t miss. Today’s installment: The other Steve Jobs movie (without Ashton Kutcher), China Mobile and Apple keep talking, Sprint looks longterm with the iPhone, and Tim Cook goes to Washington. Read more »
Apple is (finally) confirmed as Bloom Energy’s customer
Last month I exclusively reported that Apple was buying fuel cells from Bloom Energy for its data center in Maiden, North Carolina. Well, on Monday morning Bloom Energy has finally confirmed that yes, it is supplying fuel cells for Apple’s data center, reports CNET. Read more »
Apple’s NC data center: transparency and the pressure to go green
Buried in last week’s catfight between Apple and Greenpeace over the energy sourcing for Apple’s new North Carolina data center and how clean it would be, was a surprising fact — that the conversation between Apple and Greenpeace was happening at all. Read more »
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Apple’s NC data center: transparency and the pressure to go green
Buried in last week’s catfight between Apple and Greenpeace over the energy sourcing for Apple’s new North Carolina data center and how clean it would be, was a surprising fact—that the conversation between Apple and Greenpeace was happening at all.
Apple almost never reveals early details of ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Using big data to make an MPG for everything
A young startup called Energy Points is looking to use data streams to calculate the miles per gallon — MPG — for companies’ resource use, from energy, to water, to waste, to transportation. Read more »
Google, Cisco top the list of the greenest IT companies
How do the heavy weights of the Internet and telecom stack up in terms of how green their technology, energy footprint and political advocacy are? On Tuesday night Greenpeace released its latest Cool IT leaderboard report, which ranks the world’s largest IT giants. Read more »
The era of the 100 MW data center
The era of the 100 MW data center is coming, as Internet companies build more and more server-packed data centers to support the growing number of web users and the increasing amount of time spent online. Read more »
Apple going greener thanks to change in cable production
Apple’s drive to put out greener products will cost suppliers cash in the short term but will result in big long-term environmental advantages. Volex, which makes power and USB cables for the Mac maker’s mobile devices, will switch to halogen-free designs during the coming year. Read more »
Apple makes plans to address supplier environmental concerns
Apple has come under fire in recent months for the environmental impact of its key component suppliers in China. Now, reports say it will look into its supplier operations, in order to see if accusations they are in violation of environmental regulations are accurate. Read more »
HP, Dell and Apple move ahead in Greenpeace’s gadget guide
Greenpeace has used competition and public shaming to nudge consumer electronics makers to be greener and on Wednesday is releasing its latest version of its green gadget list. Nokia yields the top spot to HP, while Dell and Apple gain ground. Read more »
Facebook’s Swedish data center mostly powered by clean energy
Facebook officially announced the data center that it’s building in the chilly climate of Lulea, Sweden, and it’s going to be powered “primarily from renewables.” No, not solar or wind but hydropower (water and dams), which is still the cheapest kind of clean power. Read more »
Apple building solar farm for data center
Apple has been laying plans for a solar farm next to its massive data center in Maiden, N.C., according to The Charlotte Observer. The solar project will reportedly be built across the street from its $1 billion data center that will partly serve Apple’s iCloud. Read more »
Google reveals electricity use, aims for a third clean power by 2012
Google has just revealed its total electricity use for the first time and says it plans to have about a third of the electricity it consumes be sourced directly from clean power by 2012. Read more »
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Infrastructure Q2: Big data and PaaS gain more momentum
Big data and Platform-as-a-Service offerings highlighted the second quarter, suggesting that we can expect to see a shift in enterprise IT practices around application development and analytics very soon. On the PaaS front, we saw new projects like DotCloud and Cloud Foundry gain incredible momentum in just a few short months. The big-data activity ranged from major new Hadoop vendors to heavy investment in flash storage that will speed the serving of data to processing engines. In other areas, we saw an uptick in cloud-computing plans from large vendors, OpenStack continued to mature and pick up both contributors and users, and Facebook caught our eye by launching an open-source project around the designs for its specialized servers and data centers. Additional companies mentioned in this report include VMware, Salesforce.com, IBM, Heroku and Calxeda. For a full list of companies, and to read the full report, sign up for a free trial. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Facebook Turns to Smart Lighting for Data Center
Facebook’s new data center in Oregon has gotten its fair share of attention for Facebook’s decision to open up the energy efficient design. But here’s another reason to recognize the data center: Facebook has installed a smart lighting system courtesy of startup Redwood Systems. Read more »
Facebook to Greenpeace: We’ll Do More
Facebook didn’t exactly meet Greenpeace’s Earth Day challenge, which called for the social network giant to pledge to cut out coal as an energy source for its data centers. But Facebook did respond in a letter, in which the company said it would do more. Read more »
Facts and Figures Behind Greenpeace’s Green Data Center Report
Greenpeace’s got a lot of press last week for its A-to-F grades for the green data center efforts of Facebook, Google, IBM and other IT giants of the world. But what’s behind the grades? Read more »
10 Ways Tech is Celebrating Earth Day
Tech giants are noting Earth Day this year in different ways, from Facebook’s “Billion Acts of Green” app and Microsoft’s green data center progress to e-cycling and energy efficiency efforts underway by telcos and gadget makers. Read more »
Apple Burned in Greenpeace Rankings Thanks to New Data Center
Apple came in at the bottom of a new report from Greenpeace detailing the energy choices made by major IT companies like Amazon, Google Facebook and more. Apple fared so poorly mostly because of its brand new data center in North Carolina. Read more »
Greenpeace Unveils Who’s Behind the Internet’s Dirty Power
A group of the Internet’s most recognized brands — from Facebook to Apple to Twitter to Amazon — have received failing grades when it comes to using clean power for their web services, according to a new report unveiled by Greenpeace on Thursday at our Green:Net event. Read more »
Facebook Turns to a Little Solar for Its Data Center
Turns out Facebook has been eying clean power after all for its new data center. Well, a very small amount of solar compared to the sizable power needs of its data center. According to Data Center Knowledge, Facebook has built a 100 kW solar panel array. Read more »
Greenpeace Ramps Up Pressure on Facebook’s Coal Use
Greenpeace has hit a new record with its Facebook “unfriend coal” campaign: a Guinness World Record for how many comments a single Facebook post has received in a 24-hour period. Greenpeace will also unveil a report on clean power and the cloud at Green:Net 2011. Read more »
Greenpeace: An Eye on the Carbon Footprint of the Cloud
Will Facebook rise to Green Peace’s challenge to pledge to cut coal from its data centers by Earth Day on April 22? On the day before Earth Day, on April 21 at Green:Net 2011, Green Peace will discuss its challenge, and unveil some new data. Read more »
Asus Tops Greenpeace’s Green Gadget List
Which gadgets on store shelves are the greenest right now? From the show floor of the annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES), Greenpeace says that would be gadgets from Asus, as well as HP, Acer, Sharp, Sony Ericsson, and Samsung. Read more »
Greenpeace: Progress on Greener Gadgets at CES
Greenpeace says its seeing gains in electronics energy efficiency, companies taking financial responsibility for the life cycle of their products, and companies also offering more opportunities for convenient and free take-back of their electronics in most regions of the world. Read more »
Cisco Still Tops Greenpeace Greenest IT Company List
Cisco is once again the winner of Greenpeace’s list of the greenest IT companies out there. The environmental group released its 4th Cool IT Leaderboard, which ranks gadget makers and Internet companies by a variety of green criteria, at the U.N.’s climate negotiations in Cancun. Read more »
Facebook Kicks Off a Weak Green Offensive
Facebook has been called out by Greenpeace for not doing enough to promote renewable energy, so what is the company going to do with this public relations dilemma? Launching its own Facebook page and joining groups to demonstrate its green cred, of course. Read more »
Apple Slips, HP Climbs in Green Gadget Ranking
Greenpeace has been a thorn in the side of the consumer electronics industry with its Guide to Greener Electronics for years. The latest edition shows shuffling in the ranks of top companies as they launch new products and sail past deadlines for eliminating hazardous substances. Read more »
Porn Industry Eyes iTunes-like Pricing to Fight Piracy
The adult industry’s Free Speech Coalition has been using technology from Vobile to track porn piracy for a few months now while also trying to educate consumers. The results of these efforts have the coalitions executive director thinking about embracing iTunes-like pricing for adult content. Read more »
Facebook Responds to Greenpeace’s Coal Criticism
Facebook defends itself against the criticism from Greenpeace that its new data center, under construction in Oregon, won’t be green by defending the choice to build the data center in Oregon and explaining that the location is particularly good for energy efficiency. Read more »
Greenpeace to Facebook CEO: No More Coal
Greenpeace is not clicking the “like” button for Facebook’s new data center. This morning Greenpeace stepped up its campaign against Facebook’s decision to build its latest data center in Oregon in the footprint of utility Pacific Power that largely derives its energy from coal. Read more »
OPINION: IT Leaders Need to Speak Out Against Prop 16
Proposition 16, championed by PG&E, would kill the ability of local jurisdictions in California to take charge of where they get their electricity and how fast a clean tech revolution can occur. IT companies should be speaking out against Prop 16 — but they are not. Read more »
