CRM News: Green Business

Greenpeace Lambastes Apple, Amazon, Microsoft for Creating Foul Clouds
April 17, 2012

Behind every cloud there supposedly is a silver lining, but a new report from Greenpeace, titled "How Clean Is Your Cloud?" may mean stormy weather for Apple, Amazon and Microsoft. The three tech giants use "dirty" energy to power their data centers, Greenpeace said. It looked at 14 of the largest tech companies' data centers and offered assessments of how much power they required, as well as what type of energy they used.

Venture Capital Today: Recycle Your Sock Puppet
April 06, 2012

If your friendly sock puppet is made of recyclable materials, use it now to write a check! The Internet boom is back, but in an interesting new-millennium twist, it is followed closely by the clean technology sector. Earlier this year, the National Venture Capital Association reported that Internet storage company Dropbox received the largest single private investment of the fourth quarter of 2011 with a $250 million funding round.

Apple Goes Sunny Side Up
February 22, 2012

Apple is hard at work building the "largest end-user-owned onsite solar array" in the U.S., according to a brief environmental report it released this week. Its Maiden, N.C., data center, the central nervous system for services like iCloud and Siri, will be a LEED-certified data center running completely on renewable energy.

Bringing Tasty E-Food Safely to Your Doorstep
December 07, 2011

Someone in the mood for a steak can always go down to the grocery store or head out to a restaurant to get one. However, some shoppers prefer to stay home, go online, place an order, and wait for a couple of days for a frozen steak to appear on their doorstep, packed tightly in a Styrofoam container with dry ice.

Ecology and Technology: Jobs in the Green IT Industry
November 02, 2011

Green IT is not one industry. Instead, it refers to a number of interrelated fields that focus on designing, manufacturing, installing, using and recycling computers, data centers, electronics and other parts and pieces of information systems. And because of its broad reach, it means the possibility of many different kinds of jobs.

Recycle, Reuse and Employ: Jobs in the Recycling Industry
October 26, 2011

It might not be as glamorous as some industries, but recycling is booming. The industry supports more than 450,000 jobs for Americans and generates $10.3 billion in revenue for federal, state and local governments -- making it larger than the forestry and fishing industries combined.

Heating Up: Jobs in the Geothermal Industry
October 19, 2011

Compared to solar and wind, geothermal energy is still a small fraction of the renewable energy market. It's holding its own, however, and it's likely to become a much bigger player in the not-so-distant future. "The resource is enormous," said Karl Gawell, executive director of the Geothermal Energy Association. "We're looking for how to solve our energy problems, and this is a huge resource we're only starting to tap."

Blowing in the Wind: Jobs in the Wind Industry
October 12, 2011

Like other renewable energy resources, wind energy is taking off. The second quarter of 2011 saw more than 1,003 megawatts of wind power capacity installed, and the wind industry has contributed upwards of 35 percent of all new generating capacity during the past four years, second only to natural gas, according to the America Wind Energy Association.

A Place in the Sun: Jobs in the Solar Industry
October 05, 2011

Solar is no longer on the back burner; it's right there at the front of the stove, demanding that economists and job seekers alike take notice. "It's a tough environment, but I think it will continue to grow," said Gerald Kelly, communications director for Third Sun Solar. "As we move forward as a nation, more people will see that it makes sense to develop renewables."

Greenies Give Google 'Good Example' Props
September 09, 2011

For the first time in the search engine's history, Google revealed just how much electricity it takes to power its massive computing infrastructure. Google announced that for the year 2010, it used 2.6 million megawatt-hours of energy to run its data centers, search mechanisms, Gmail, YouTube and display ads globally.

Pollution Report Trashes Apple's Chinese Suppliers
September 02, 2011

Apple's Chinese component suppliers were accused Thursday by a coalition of Chinese environmental groups of discharging waste and toxic metals into the communities where they're located and threatening the public health of the people living in them. "The large volume of discharge in Apple's supply chain greatly endangers the public's health and safety," the coalition stated.

Mobile CRM: Go Green to Get Green
August 25, 2011

As is so sadly the case with many environment-oriented subjects, Green IT was consigned to the back burner at a lot of businesses when the economy began grinding its gears several years ago. The same thing happened to a lesser extent to some potentially game-changing CRM strategies, most notably mobile CRM.

Rewards for Recycling: Q&A With Gazelle CEO Israel Ganot, Part 2
August 24, 2011

In the fast-moving world of consumer electronics, last year's gaming system and smartphone are old news. Luckily, however, they're not entirely worthless. Electronics recommerce company Gazelle buys this equipment, offering consumers cash, as well as free packaging and shipping -- and then resells it for a profit.

Rewards for Recycling: Q&A With Gazelle CEO Israel Ganot, Part 1
August 23, 2011

Gazelle takes your old cellphones, laptops, digital cameras, camcorders, GPS devices, game systems, calculators, e-readers, LCD monitors, tablets, and any other out-of-date electronic equipment cluttering up your home or office, and turns it all into cash. It has paid out more than $25 million to 175,000-plus customers and kept 300 tons of electronic waste out of landfills.

MDM and the Next-Gen Green Data Center
August 17, 2011

Does "green data center" refer to having more greenery around your data center site? No, definitely not. It means reducing your carbon footprint by making effective usage of the core center of your organization -- your "information assets." Being green requires an end-to-end, integrated view of the data center.

The Greening of Government IT
August 02, 2011

The U.S. government is actively pursuing a major shift in information technology operations that emphasizes the use of cloud technology. While this effort eventually may reduce the amount of "on-site" electronic equipment used by federal agencies, other forces are at work that will keep the government's demand for electronic devices and components at a high level.

Amazon and Greenpeace: Dark Clouds on the Horizon?
May 03, 2011

The buzz around cloud computing has been so steady for so long that industry observers should be forgiven if they were lulled to sleep. But events of the past couple of weeks served as a cold water wake-up call that may have obscured cloud's supposedly bright future. The first was an unplanned outage at an Amazon Web Services datacenter in Northern Virginia that lasted for days and affected numerous websites.

Figuring Out Your Carbon Footprint's Shoe Size
April 27, 2011

It's not easy going green. There are, however, software programs and online assessment tools that can measure a business's carbon footprint and help make it smaller. Every technology in business uses energy and has a carbon footprint -- from the lights in the ceiling to the data center they illuminate. "Green IT can mean anything from energy-efficient products to easily recycled products," said John Pflueger, principal environmental strategist at Dell.