ReGeneration Roundup: 2008-08-01
This past Saturday was Community Green Day in the Piedmont Triad area of North Carolina, and by all accounts, the event was a tremendous success. Community residents were invited to bring in their old computers to be recycled free of cost, compliments of the Dell/Goodwill Reconnect Program, which has been offering free computer recycling drop-offs in select cities in the United States, and continues to spread across the country. The event was well publicized, with several local news outlets providing lead-ups and background information on a variety of green topics, including the importance of having your electronic waste properly recycled. Other businesses were eager to get in on the action, including Whole Foods, SciWorks, Duke Energy, Sunbelt Rentals, CEVA and Wackenhut. The result? Well, the official numbers aren’t in yet, but Goodwill estimates that 100,000 pounds of e-waste was gathered. Sounds like a success!
The folks at Inhabitat never fail to deliver on the cool factor, and their recent post on concrete that actually suck CO2 out of the air is no exception. The process is called concrete carbonation, and while it occurs naturally, it hasn’t been deemed economical until the Canadian environmental consulting firm, Carbon Sense Solutions, developed a way to make it happen cheaper and faster. The firm also claims that the concrete is more durable and less likely to shrink or crack as a result. Considering that concrete is used more than any other man-made material on Earth and accounts for 5 percent of global CO2 emissions, this should go a long way towards reducing greenhouse gases.
Over the past few days, we’ve seen a lot of real and virtual ink on Dell’s latest foray into the tiny PC market. It’s called the Studio Hybrid, and its green credentials have many taking notice. It’s 80 percent smaller and uses about 70 percent less power than your standard desktop PC. It also meets Energy Star 4 requirements with an extremely efficient power supply. The packaging materials have been reduced and are made up mostly of recyclable materials. All this and a very stylish look. It even comes with an optional bamboo sleeve. Hopefully this is a sign that we will be seeing more cool green designs coming from the IT industry.
I look at the Studio Hybrid picture and get no sense of size here. I have seen the Hybrid and know it is substantially smaller than a desktop. I think you should have a desktop setting next to it show the size difference. Also having the color option chart on the photo would be helpful.
by Bob Black / August 6, 2008