Coal: A green energy!

When someone speaks about coal, it always comes to mind that coal is a polluting source of energy that we need to stop using, to keep our planet safe. But wait a minute; did you know that 41% of the world’s electricity production is based on coal?!

But what does this mean? Why countries like USA and Germany are are still using coal for electricity production?

The answer is not a simple one, but it is a combination of economic, supply and demand, technology and sometimes even politics. But we all know how coal is very polluting energy source was the sole reason for cities like London to suffer from Black cloudy sky that blocked sun light even in good summer days. At that time many poets mentioned these clouds of smog in their poems. And we thought that this century is not going to be a coal tolerant one! Surely we (environmentalists) were wrong about that.

Green Hosting: Reduce Your Site's Carbon Foot Print

Many website owners prefer green hosting to reduce carbon footprints as well as to grab the attention of environmentally conscious consumers.

If you are planning to launch a web business, web hosting is an important thing that you will have to consider. There are various different kinds of web hosting solutions that you can think of. Green hosting has become very popular. When you are starting a new business, it is natural that you need to think of your target customers, because businesses that do not have effective customers cannot operate successfully and efficiently. As the name implies in this case, such a hosting solution can create a good impact on the environment. 

Reduce The Harmful Effects Of Web Hosting:

There are plenty of harmful effects of web hosting. If you want to reduce these harmful impacts, you can definitely avail the option of green hosting. Your server will have to offer your website constant support round the clock. This is turn, makes the server release lots of heat as well as consume electricity as well. Moreover, with the increased numbers of these servers, the power consumed by them also increased. As a result, larger numbers of people are effectively emphasizing on the need to go for green solutions regarding server hosting services.

Necessity Of Green Solutions

There are large numbers of companies that are offering the green solutions for web hosting. In fact, it has become a necessity today to go for such hosting solutions, and the best thing about it is that there is absolutely no problem in the availability of cheap green hosting companies. Therefore, if you want, you can always look for such options, by means of which the constant emissions from your server can be largely reduced. 

Importance of Green Hosting

As a site admin you need to know that it is better for you to have a green hosting company, by notifying your customers or site visitors that you care about the planet and that you are using green web hosting services. This will make you stand out from the crowd of other websites that are not environmental aware. In turn this will lead for more loyal visitors to your website. Especially if your site is about selling green products like solar panels or wind turbines of what ever; this will increase your green devotion and credibility.

How these green hosting services operate

These green hosting companies simply switched to green sources of electric energy. Some have switched to windmills others switched to more than one type of electricity generation. Also they are spreading paper usage awareness and getting green sources of papers, that are recycled and did not harm trees in the process. 

Latest Trends Of Hosting:

In fact, in the recent days, the latest trend of hosting is green, and therefore, there are large numbers of web owners that are increasingly looking for such solutions. If you carry out a thorough research on the internet, you will also be able to find cheap green hosting companies that will offer you environment friendly solutions for your website. Accordingly, you can be assured that the internet communication will be safe and effective not only for you, but also for your customers that are frequently visiting your website. Accordingly, you can also maximize your earnings potential due to increased visitors.

While you are on the search for cheap green hosting companies, the best solution for you is to check with Cheap Web Hosting Geeks. You will get affordable solutions for green hosting. Here is a good site for information about linux servers.

If you have any comments please write them on the comment box below

Rechargeable Batteries Are Green

Like many people today, I am very concerned about the environment and all the damage that is occurring on a daily basis. From air and water pollution to mountainous landfills, we are filling our world with harmful emissions and millions of tons of garbage that will never disappear. I'm not an activist by any stretch of the imagination, and understand that there is bound to be some degree of pollution as long as humans inhabit the Earth. But I want to do what I can to reduce my own negative impact on the environment. I already take public transportation or ride my bicycle to work instead of using my car, and I recycle everything I can. Now I'm also starting to use rechargeable batteries instead of standard ones.

A battery, of course, is not biodegradable. If you just toss a used one into the trash, it will sit in a landfill and the toxic chemicals it contains will seep out and possibly contaminate the soil in the immediate area. There are many battery recycling programs in place, but I know a lot of folks simply dispose of them with their regular garbage. I want to get rid of the temptation altogether -- and reduce my own consumption -- by using rechargeable batteries.

Rechargeable batteries are more expensive to purchase than regular ones -- at least initially. The advantage of rechargeable batteries is that you can use them many times over. Once the "juice" runs out, simply stick them in a suitable charger for a couple of hours and they'll be ready to go again. This is a great way to power all your video games, controllers, wireless keyboards, assorted toys, and many other electronic items that you use regularly.

The quality of rechargeable batteries largely determines how many times you can reuse them. I recommend going for the best quality you can afford because that decision will pay off in the long run. There's no sense in buying cheap rechargeable batteries that can only be reused a few times. That doesn't save money or do the environment any favors. Instead, it would be much better to go with a name you can trust so you can count on having a dependable product.
Rechargeable batteries are available at local electronics shops as well as online. You can probably get better deals if you shop on the Internet, so be sure to check out several online stores to compare prices. In addition, some places offer additional discounts if you buy larger volumes, so that's something to consider as well.

Purchasing rechargeable batteries instead of standard ones is an easy way to show off your green side and demonstrate a bit of concern for the environment. If we all start doing this, we can ease the strain on our landfills without sacrificing our high-tech gadgets. Nowadays, there are rechargeable batteries that have current capacities six times the capacity of one-use batteries. This means that these batteries will last longer in your gadgets and will be able to be recharged and reused so many times. Moreover, rechargeable batteries are becoming better and better that some good quality types can stay charged for 6 months or more. Also some new types have gotten rid of the memory effect!

using rechargeable batteries is considered economical as well as green act as rechargeable batteries are cheap to recharge and will cost almost nothing of a considerable value compared to having one-use batteries. many well known battery manufacturers like Energizer and Duracell already started manufacturing rechargeable batteries, which pretty much proves that rechargeable batteries are better.

So instead of using 1000 batteries for one time and then tossing then away you can use just two rechargeable batteries and recharge them 1000 times!. So do you see the great benefits of using rechargeable batteries?!

part of the article is from here

Smartphones: Android Going Green

The advancement in smartphone technology has lead to a lot of big players jumping in on the action. Manufacturers teaming up with development heads devise and design strenuously for newer and better operating systems and software's supporting the dynamic platform of their machines, in this case smartphones.

Android is the mobile operating system released by Google after the company acquired Android, Inc. The word Android literally translates to something which has a biological foundation and closely mimics a human being. Any phone that uses an Android operating system is an Android smartphone. From a technological point of view, Android consists of; an operating system, middle-ware and key application. Android Smartphone's uses a version of the Linux kernel that has been modified to serve the mobile environment. Hence it is an open source Operating System (unlike Microsoft's Operating Systems).

Smartphone using Android OS

 The Android operating system was first released on 21 October 2008. Since then, various updates have been seen. These updates have mostly taken care of security issues or added new features.

According to a latest Global Network Research, Android surpassed iPhone OS market share for the first time on global basis in March 2011. Android is growing at a faster pace than iOS and now holds 14.5% of global impression share on the InMobi network. Globally, mobile impressions continue to grow rapidly, increasing by 21% on the InMobi network over just 90 days, driven primarily by smartphone growth of 34%. Android OS should exceed 40% share of smartphones worldwide with Samsung, HTC and Motorola leading the way with handsets based on the open-source platform.

In Q4 of 2010, Android passed Nokia's struggling Symbian as the leading operating system worldwide. A growing list of vendors who have made Android as the cornerstone of their respective smartphone strategies is propelling the growth of Android. The vendors include Samsung, HTC and Motorola, all of which have doubled their smartphone market share in the course of cranking out and selling various Android handsets.

The success amongst the investors about this open-source platform is worth noticing as well. Recently, Tapjoy, mobile monetization company, is starting a $5 million fund to make it easier for app creators to shift their apps to the Android mobile operating system. It's a vivid sign that one small company is finding it easier to business on the Android platform. Moving on, Google Nexus, one of the benchmark for quality Android devices over the past two years has gotten upgraded to Nexus 4G.

 Nexus 4G is rumored to be packing a dual-core Snapdragon processor. It will also run Android 4.0 "Ice Cream Sandwich"; judging from Google's past Nexus devices, it will likely be the first phone to run the new OS.

Android application development has also picked pace as its market share and productivity sky-rocketed globally. Android developers and prospective Android application development agencies are working in tandem and delivering the best Android mobile applications for Android Marketplace. One of the most common and popular Android application is the smartphone game, Angry Birds.

Global winds of technological development specifically mobile application developments are bringing glad tidings for Android open-source. The future is no longer fruity and Apple blue, its Android green.

E-Waste Market Size Continues to Grow

 The disposal of electronic waste is pretty much affected by cost concerns resulting in as much as 80 percent of e-waste ending up overseas where it is recycled in an un-environmentally friendly way.

In countries including China, India and Nigeria, the precious metals are removed by hammers, gas burners and bare hands, which results in lead and mercury being leaked into the air. Safety costs in the U.S. make shipping off these electronics to other countries a more cost-effective measure, as it can cost up to 10 times more to recycle electronics in the U.S.

Foreign countries are starting to crack down though, as Hong Kong authorities already returned 85 containers of electronics in 2007, including 20 from the U.S. China also now produces one million tons of e-waste itself according to Greenpeace China, and this number is on the rise.

As every thing in this world is based on profitability, many companies prefer to ship these wastes to places where the man power is cheaper and where quality and environmental standers are lower. Then we'll wind up in a closed loop that will not help our environment. We need to force companies to recycle for the sake of earth and not for the sake of making piles of money.

You might want to read:

E-Waste Market Size Continues to Grow

Paper or Plastic Which is Green

Almost everyone has heard that to help the environment at the grocery store you need to choose paper bags over plastic. But why is this? And with new manufacturing technology, does that adage still hold true?

In a study done in 1990, paper and plastic bags were assessed based on both the energy used to produce the bags and the pollutants produced from the bags. The study had interesting results. Researchers found that products of two plastic bags used only 87% of the energy used to produce one paper bag. To produce a paper bag, high amounts of coal, wood, and petroleum are used, resulting in a total energy usage of 1,680 kilojules (kj). Plastic bags, on the other hand, use petroleum and natural gas, and use only 1,470 kj to produce two.

In looking at the pollutants generated by both plastic bags and paper, plastic bags again came out the winner. Researchers divided the pollutants into three different waste categories: solid, atmospheric, and waterborne. In every category, two plastic bags produced less pollution than did one paper bag. There are flip sides to the argument, however.

While plastic takes less energy to produce than paper, and produces less pollutants, paper can be composted, while plastic cannot. Also, a common energy source to produce plastic bags is nuclear fission, which results in radioactive waste – a potentially harmful pollutant in its own right. So what is the right answer? Unfortunately, there is no clear cut winner. If you really want to be as contentious as possible when bagging your groceries, bring your own string or cloth bags that can be reused.

McDonald’s Turning Green

In McDonald’s 2009 Best of Green highlights, they mention that their use of an interactive software program, EcoProgress, for managing and reducing energy usage in restaurants in France achieved an 11% savings in electricity.


In Australia, McDonald’s is involved in water management and say that over a 20 year period their advanced stormwater retention tanks can save nearly 4 million liters of water. In addition to this they are using water-conservation technologies that include low-flow spray nozzles, dual-flush toilets, and extensive native landscaping and water conservation improvements through smart irrigation practices. McDonald’s Australia’s recently updated landscaping guidelines educate contractors and field personnel on issues such as water conservation, the use of native and drought-resistant plantings, and advanced stormwater retention methods.

“In Brazil, Chile and Argentina, McDonald’s has partnered with local organizations that transform used cooking oil into biodiesel. Currently, 270 restaurants in these markets deliver their used oil to be converted into biodiesel, representing over 1,000,000 liters of oil to date.” Is this superficial greenwashing or is McDonald’s stepping up to the plate on environmental issues?


McDonald’s is also jumping into the green building environment in the US. Last year, they opened their first “green restaurant” (in Chicago) for a new pilot program on green building. It received the Gold LEED rating! In one location in North Carolina, it has actually installed a charging station for electric vehicles.
McDonald’s is also making a big difference in Japan. By joining the Team Minus 6% program hosted by the Japanese government, “to reduce CO2 emissions by 1kg per person, per day, by offering a discount to consumers who registered to participate in the program,” McDonald’s helped to increase the participants from 40,000 to 380,000.Also McDonald’s Japan has installed LED lighting in 33 restaurants in 2009, CO2 emissions were reduced by 18 tons annually per restaurant and electricity consumption in the restaurants’ dining areas was reduced by an average of 44 percent, saving an average of $9,400 per year. Based on the demonstrated environmental and cost benefits, the decision has been made to install LED lighting in all new McDonald’s restaurants in Japan, and a review is underway to determine if LED lighting should be standard for all McDonald’s Japan restaurants.

In 2003, McDonald’s opened its first HFC-free restaurant in Vejle, Denmark. Equipped with appliances operating on natural refrigerants such as Propane, Isobutene, and CO2, the restaurant has none of the HFC gases harming the ozone layer and contributing to climate change. Compared with restaurants using conventional technology, the pilot restaurant consumes about 12 percent less energy and its Total Equivalent Warming Impact is on average 27 percent lower. Emissions are reduced by 25 tons of CO2 equivalents per year. "It really is cool to be green!" they say.

Moreover McDonald's saves nearly 161,000 trees a year thanks to the fact that the innovative container that holds the Big Mac (as well as the Quarter Pounder and Filet-O-Fish) is made with at least 37 percent recycled content.

Is McDonald’s a world leader in environmental issues now, or is this minor activity compared to their non-environmentally friendly activity?

Thus such an influential company is going behind green matters and that can be a huge benefit to the environment. For sure, they have influence on the success of the soya and cattle moratoria in the Amazon. And, clearly, they are helping to boost climate change action in Japan. They are doing a lot with some of their buildings to reduce energy usage. Is it enough? Is it living up to it’s environmental responsibilities? Is it a multi-national company others can follow?

If you have any thing in mind please write your comment below, and I'll be very happy to read it and even reply to it!

Eco-Friendly Kitchen: Tips For Going Green In The Kitchen

Today, we must keep in mind the environment in most everything we do and that includes the renovation and construction especially in the kitchen is the room in the house with the most used. If you are either building a house that needs a kitchen design, or you're in the middle of a project of remodeling the kitchen, trying to be environmentally friendly should be part of your plans. Here are some tips for cooking green, you might consider: 

Cork, bamboo flooring or recycled: When it comes to green cooking tips, choosing a kitchen floor green can go a long way to be green. Consider using a cork, bamboo or other natural flooring or recycled. There are a number of options out there, and most are very durable. The coating most readily available is a recycled rubber flooring. They are made of 80 to 100% post-consumer products including tires. Rubber floors are extremely durable and come in a variety of colors and styles. Cork and bamboo, while not recycled, the products offer both rapidly renewable that do not require deforestation of millions of trees to produce these types of floors. Both cork and bamboo are natural products as well. 


Reclaimed wood flooring: If you prefer to look older, more traditional or even old, you might consider reclaimed wood floors that will give you a traditional look in your kitchen eco-friendly. This is exactly what it sounds like; wood used was taken from another house or building, then repackaged and is ready to install in your home. For the rich warmth of old wood, this product can provide the look without destroying more trees. 

Eco-friendly lighting: When it comes to going green in the kitchen, you must choose your lighting carefully. When choosing lighting for your new or remodeled kitchen, you can use products that will keep the green theme. First, look at the types of bulbs you will use. Devices that have CFLs rather than incandescent bulbs use one quarter the power. LEDs can reduce energy consumption by 80-90%. Lamps and lighting fixtures that use LED lamps are generally constructed exclusively for this type of bulb. CFLs can be used in any device that accepts a regular incandescent bulb. In addition to artificial lights, also consider the use of skylights and sufficient quantities of energy-efficient windows in your plan. By readily available natural light in your kitchen, you can greatly reduce the need for artificial light sources, at least during the day. You can also consider options for solar powered lighting. 

Recycled Counters: One of my favorite tips green kitchen is recycled glass countertops are becoming a popular product for use in kitchens. These glass countertops are very durable and have a variety of styles which emulate the look of granite and marble. They are a mixture of recycled glass with a base of concrete or resins that are non-petroleum based which can be used for safe and beautiful green kitchen counter. 

Energy-efficient appliances: One of the most talked about ways to go green in the kitchen is the appliances energy efficient. When you are ready to equip your kitchen with new appliances, be sure to look for devices that are marked with the Energy Saver labeling. All major appliances are now energy rated, so you'll be able to comparison shop for the best on the market.
Solar Power: While many people think that solar energy comes in the form of a whole-house which includes panels that cover the roof of your house, there are other options that can provide the solar energy for applications that are much less effective complicated. Instead of taking on large-scale conversion to solar power all your needs, you might consider a small solar system that makes your water heater to take care of all your hot water needs that can help add to your design green kitchen. These systems are compact and designed to work exclusively on the electrical system of the heater. This type of system costs a fraction of what the entire solar system of internal costs, and can save you hundreds of dollars a year on your electricity bill.
Once you have your new eco-kitchen in place, there are some things you can do every day to be more environmentally friendly and live a greener life in your kitchen: 

Use cloth, not paper whenever possible: This is going shopping and cleaning the kitchen. When you go shopping, use cloth, reusable bags to carry your purchases home. This allows literally tons of plastic and paper from landfills each year. Another canvas to opt for towels is that you use. Choose cloth napkins for your kitchen cleaning instead of paper. Not only will you keep all that paper out of the additional landfill, but you will save a lot of money not spent on a paper towel so it's one of those things cooking green can save you money too! 

Composting: Start composting your kitchen waste. You can create a soil rich in organic matter from the compost you. In other words, composting is a process that allows you to place food, coffee and other food waste created in a pile outside. Materials added through a natural process that eventually rot them in a product that can be added to the soil in your garden to provide nutrients. Composition is relatively easy and another way to keep unnecessary waste in the trash. 

Use environmentally friendly cleaning products: There are cleaning products greener and available to use in your home. These green products are not harsh chemicals to clean. They come from natural materials and safe to do a great job cleaning things without putting something dangerous in the wastewater. You can also come with some of your own green products with things around the house, like vinegar to clean windows or baking soda for stains on dishes. 

Using local and organic products: Going green in the kitchen can be as tasty and delicious way to fit your eco-kitchen is trying to buy as much organic produce and local as possible. Organic products are popular because the process used to grow organic agriculture does not deplete the earth and not to introduce chemicals into the soil or plants. Whether organic or not, using local produce and is a great idea because it supports local business and you know where the product is grown. Best of all, it does not get shipped across the country in a truck, and it is usually picked fresh at the peak of maturity, so it just tastes better. 

Whether your redoing your kitchen or simply try to do things better, you can make many changes that will lead to a greener kitchen in your home. It just takes a little attention to doing the right things, and it will eventually become your lifestyle. 





Get some more green kitchen tips and find other ways of going green at http://greenologyspot.com.