Move over Google, You're wasting too much damn energy!

If you have any sort of conscience for energy efficiency you should stop using Google and start using Blackle.

Blackle.com is the exact same thing as Google, except the screen is black. By changing the screen from black to white you are saving some energy. Under the search engine on Blackle it show how many Watts of energy it has saved in the day by switching the background to black.

This is very easy to do, there is no reason not to change.

Just think if everyone started using Blackle, how much energy do you think we could save? Could be a fun experiment.

Check it out HERE!

Side note: Because of this I have changed the background of my blog from WHITE to BLACK.

TED TALK: BILL GATES

What's up Bill Gates? No carbon emissions by 2050? Let's Go!

GREEN DETECTIVES

Green Detectives is a great website run by Enviromedia that follows climate change.

Green Detectives includes a detailed blog involving sustainability practices not only with businesses but also peoples everyday life, a timeline titled "Road to (Climate Change" that shows all of the environmental advances that will help climate change, and my favorite interactive tool on this website which is called the Green Detective Decoder which goes over commonly used terms used when talking about sustainability, green practices, and climate change.

Ever since 2007 when the "green" movement hit the world, industries have found ways to profit off of what we call "green," when in fact they are in no way environmentally friendly. It is what Enviromedia calls "Greenwashing" (I have a blog post about the whole website devoted towards greenwashing). This website includes up to date articles under Cases Cracked, that focus completely on these types of companies.

This is a really informative website for someone just learning about the "green" movement and climate change in general.

Check it out HERE

Eugene: Green Store

The Green Store. 5th and Olive. Eugene, OR.

Today was an incredibly sunny day for the middle of February in Oregon so I decided a bike ride through Eugene would do the trick. Upon coming back from a little act

ion on the river I rode past this store that caught my eye.

Being in the brand new Green Brand Strategies course, which focuses on brands that claim themselves as being green, I decided I had to go inside and see what all of this was about.

Upon perusing the aisles for a couple of minutes

I noticed an overwhelming amount of greenwashing. Many different products were just normal products that do nothing "green" except for the fact that the title of their product was "ECO___" or had something about being "Green" on the packaging. My favorite is when a product claims they are green by littering the packaging with earth tones and green leaves as if it was plucked from a tree right before hitting the shelves.

Here are a few of the products I found in the aisles, I took these pictures with a camera phone so the quality isn't too high...

What I did like about this store was that it installs solar panels on houses. Although solar

panels have been around for a long time we will start seeing more and more houses powering themselves via solar panels. It is a great way to save energy and cut costs. The Green Store also installs windmills but they said that they rarely sell windmills due to the lack of wind in Oregon (I was wondering the same about solar panels and the lack of sunshine in Oregon).

They have a website HERE

Eugene: Sy's Pizza

Sy's is a great place in Eugene to grab a slice of pizza and a garlic knot, I was in there yesterday doing just that when this sign to my right was screaming at me in my peripherals.

These two signs read "Don't put my box baby in the trash..." and "Translation: If you are putting a box in the trash you don't need a 'TO GO' box. NEXT TIME USE A PLATE AND HELP US AVOID FURTHER PRICE INCREASES"

Sounds about right, every time you throw away a box means that you asked for a box but you stayed at Sy's to eat the pizza. Sy's makes a good point by telling us to just get a plate next time we eat-in at Sy's.

Then I looked at my plate. It's a paper plate, that I have to throw away after I eat because of all the grease marks. Now, doesn't that seem sort of odd for them to be so critical of people using boxes when they give out plates? Plates cost money to buy, just as the boxes do.

My resolution: Sy's should have re-usable plastic plates in order to cut the cost of having to buy paper plates for those who eat-in. If you think about it Sy's is not that big at all, it seats less than 10 people inside. If they were to get plastic plates that they recycle and clean after each use they wouldn't have to keep buying paper plates, and the price increase would not be necessary for the next piece of pepperoni I will be craving!

GREENWASHING INDEX

Greenwashing index is a great site run by EnviroMedia in partnership with the University of Oregon School of Journalism and Communication. It focuses on criticism of advertisers these days banking in on the "green" movement. The site is structured with all sorts of commercials and print ads for your viewing pleasure, after viewing the ad you are to rate the ad from 1-5, 5 being BOGUS and 1 being Authentic and sincere about

"green" strategies and practices being advertised.

This is a fun site, great to see what brands are genuine about their advertising and business practices and also which ones are using it solely for profitability i.e. bullshit.

GREENWASHINGINDEX.COM

Sustainable Brand: HP

HP, Hewlett Packard, is one company that has been instilling sustainable business practices in their manufacturing of products for over 10 years now. Since before the "green" fad swept the world with words like "clean coal", and "green technology" there was HP. A business that was based on less waste and environmentally friendly business practices. Here are a few statments from their website I found inspiring:

"HP developed its Design for Environment (DfE) program over 10 years ago with the goal of reducing the environmental impact of products and services. In addition to meeting safety and regulatory requirements, our objective is to design products that use fewer materials, are more energy efficient, and are easier to recycle, while maximizing overall value for our customers."

-Key words here I like are "fewer material", and "energy efficient." Many times people are wasting energy without even knowing it in our own personal lives, and for a large company like HP to be conscious of how much energy they are using is great for the environment with the amount of products they make every year.

"Electronic waste, or “E-waste,” is a growing environmental concern. Worldwide regulatory trends highlight the need for companies to consider the impacts of their products at the end of their useful lives. Our vision at HP is to offer recycling services wherever we sell our products worldwide."

-Great! E-waste is more trash, more trash to fill the landfills with, why not help out someone else in need and recycle the already used products for someone else to use instead of contributing to global waste.

-As for the future?

"As a leader in corporate citizenship, HP is committed to proactively addressing global environmental challenges. We will continue to build partnerships with key stakeholders and communities; develop innovative technologies and business solutions; and balance the interests of our corporation with the needs of the environment."

-I think as a company it is important to build relationships with groups and organization with the same goal, it will only propel productivity.

Here is an article on some other sustainable brands including HP: HERE