Sustainability Efforts at SXSW

Brandon Zeman | Mar 13th, 2009 | No Comments »

Greetings from Austin! I’m GreenWerk’s resident Social Media guy and I’m down here for the annual South by Southwest conference. I’ll be attending the interactive portion of SXSW, and while I’m down here taking in panels, networking events and parties, I’ll also be observing the green efforts of both the city of Austin and the conference as well.

Austin is definitely one of the most progressive cities in America for sustainability and green building, and South by Southwest seems to be following in the cities footsteps. The sustainability page on the SXSW site outlines the green efforts that are taking place this year. Nothing earth shattering, but it’s still nice to see the organizers actively promote sustainable practices related to the event. Large conferences like these have huge carbon footprints, so even small efforts can become powerful when scaled out over thousands of people.

Some of the green highlights include:

• Registration is entirely paperless
• Event publications and directories are printed on FSC paper
• Wide selection of bike rentals
• Pedicabs are frequent

In addition to the existing green choices, marketers were encouraged to be as mindful as possible about their impact for this event. Having materials printed in Austin and on FSC paper, making non-stop flights, renting Hybrid cars (if a car must be rented), using public transportation, even partnering with an event management company that focuses on creating environmentally friendly events.

On top of all this, Microsoft has partnered with TreeFolks, a “non-profit urban forestry organization whose mission is to grow and protect the urban forest of Austin and central Texas through tree planting, education and community partnerships.” Their combined efforts will help reforest the Balcones Canyonland Preserve. Microsoft will plant one tree for each SXSW attendee that opts to have a tree planted via a Microsoft survey.

Finally, even the hotel I’m staying at (Hyatt Regency Austin) is making efforts to reduce their carbon footprint. CFL bulbs can be found in every room, in all fixtures. In addition, linens and towels are only replaced when prompted by the guests.

Come back often as I provide updates from the conference this weekend.

You can check out my photos from the event on my Flickr page.

How Green Are The New Apple MacBooks?

Brandon Zeman | Feb 19th, 2009 | No Comments »

Inhabitat has done a pretty thorough investigation of Apple’s new MacBook Pro to determine just how green they really are. Apple claims the new Pros are the greenest laptops in the world. Inhabitat graded the new MacBooks in 5 categories:

• toxic content
• carbon footprint
• recycling potential
• energy efficiency
• commitment to continued progress

What did they conclude? Basically, Apple has made leaps and bounds in reducing toxic content and energy efficiency, and the LED-backlit screen is excellent. But the MacBook Pro is not necissarily the ‘greenest laptop in the world.’

Check out the full Inhabitat article, and watch Apple’s TV commercial touting the new MacBook Pro’s environmentally friendly features below.

Storing Energy in “Super Concrete”

Brandon Zeman | Dec 7th, 2008 | 1 Comment »

Finding ways to harness solar energy more efficiently, researchers are working on creating a mix of concrete that could store thermal energy created by solar panels at temperatures up to 600 degrees C. Researchers from the University of Arkansas, with a $770,000 award from the US Department of Energy will expose their creations to high temperatures, paying close attention to the rates of thermal loading and the effects of temperature cycles.

Solar Panels Heat the Concrete
Solar panels are used to gather heat that the concrete absorbs, but the energy must be transferred to the concrete via a steel tube. The researchers are also looking for ways of making this energy transfer more efficient.

“Solar holds great promise as an alternative source of energy,” said Panneer Selvam, professor of civil engineering. “The government recognizes this and knows that we must move in this direction. The problem is that scientists and engineers have not yet developed technology that will allow producers to harness solar power efficiently. So, one area of emphasis to reduce costs is something called thermal energy storage, which is nothing more than developing effective and cost-efficient methods of transferring heat from collectors and holding it before sending it to generators. That is what we are trying to do.”

Cheaper Solar Power
It costs anywhere between 13 and 17 cents per kilowatt hour to store solar energy. The Department of Energy wants to achieve the same storage at 5 cents per kWh by the year 2020.

via TreeHugger