Belden "green" cables deployed in LEED facility
RICHMOND, Ind. and WILMINGTON, Del., January 27, 2009 -- Belden and DuPont Fluoropolymer Solutions jointly announce that Belden's Limited Combustible (LC) Category 6 UTP cables, jacketed with recyclable DuPont Teflon fluorinated ethylene propylene (FEP), were used in the IT infrastructure of the Buck Institute for Age Research in California. The Institute recently received LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) CI Silver certification for the environmentally responsible build-out of its new laboratory space, the Larry L. Hillblom Center for Integrative Studies of Aging.
Sponsored by the U.S. Green Building Council, LEED is a green building rating system developed to encourage design and construction of green, energy efficient, and high-performing buildings. The CI Silver Commercial Interior certification awarded to the Buck Institute included an Innovation in Design
Credit for Information Technology Infrastructure.
Planners of the 11,000-sq-ft laboratory build-out elected to use a combination of optical fiber cabling and fully recyclable Limited Combustible (LC) DuPont Teflon FEP-jacketed copper data cables in its LAN design. They were assisted by GreenIT, a consultancy dedicated to helping clients find practical and sustainable green solutions in IT infrastructure design. The copper cabling selected for the LAN data system installation is Belden Category 6 Limited Combustible (LC) cabling.
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Dell powers campus with wind energy
Round Rock, Texas, February 24, 2009 -- Dell now powers its 240,000 square-foot Oklahoma City campus with 100-percent wind energy, the latest action in its commitment to become the ‘greenest’ technology company on the planet. The company is partnering with Oklahoma Gas and Electric on the use of renewable energy and expects to avoid nearly 5,100 tons of CO2 emissions per year.
Dell also announced a plan to further reduce its worldwide facilities’ greenhouse gas emissions by 40 percent by 2015. The reduction will be achieved through aggressive energy efficiency, on-site renewable-energy and partnerships with utility providers.
Dell now sources about 35 percent of its U.S. energy use from green power and approximately 20 percent globally. The company is continuing to purchase enough green power, verified emission reductions and renewable energy certificates globally to cover its total electricity use.
Since 2004, the company’s U.S. investment in green power and renewable energy certificates, including solar, wind and gas-energy conversion has grown from 12 million kWh to more than 553 million kWh.
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IBM tool helps companies cut costs and emissions
LOS ANGELES - Jan 23, 2009 -- International Business Machines Corp. has unveiled a consulting tool that allows companies to reduce both costs and carbon dioxide emissions in their supply chains.
The offering -- which IBM calls the Supply Chain Network Optimization Workbench, or SNOW -- comes as companies are under pressure to both slash expenses amid a slumping global economy and reduce impact on the environment.
Built with IBM-branded software, SNOW helps clients review the number of distribution centers they need and decide whether to do manufacturing themselves or through a third party.
In a test, Chinese shipper and logistics company COSCO Ltd used the system to reduce the number of distribution centers it uses to 40 from 100, lowering costs by 23 percent and cutting carbon dioxide emissions by 15 percent, IBM said.
"When you improve the overall efficiency of a system you can almost automatically lower cost, waste, and environmental impact," Eric Riddleberger, head of IBM's business strategy consulting practice, said in a statement.
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Microsoft dashboard helps track carbon footprint
REDMOND, Wash., Feb. 9, 2009 -- Microsoft Corp. today announced the general availability of the Environmental Sustainability Dashboard for Microsoft Dynamics AX. The new toolset, available to Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009 customers at no additional charge, will enable midsize businesses to capture data needed to measure key indicators related to energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions as part of everyday business processes from within their enterprise resource planning solution, helping them pinpoint ways to cut their energy consumption and costs.
With the new solution, companies can collect auditable data on four of the core environmental performance indicators identified by the Global Reporting Initiative for energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions, including direct on-premise fuel consumption and the carbon footprint of their power usage with utilities and other vendors. Based on this information, organizations can monitor their carbon footprint and institute business practices that are both environmentally and economically sustainable, minimizing their exposure to fluctuating energy costs, for example.
“Businesses will find new opportunities for cost savings and improving operational performance by getting a fresh perspective on their operations,” said Kirill Tatarinov, corporate vice president, Microsoft Business Solutions. “In many cases, midsize organizations can't retain dedicated consultants to audit their environmental performance. By integrating groundbreaking environmental performance management capabilities with Microsoft Dynamics AX, we are bringing that critical information directly to customers as part of their everyday business management.”
The new dashboard harnesses Microsoft Dynamics' RoleTailored design, which equips employees with a personalized Role Center based on the information they need to do their job. The dashboard itself serves as the environmental manager's Role Center, delivering the information crucial to performing that job. Furthermore, these reports can be easily surfaced within employees' individual Role Centers within Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009 or other familiar productivity tools, such as Microsoft Office SharePoint Server. This allows organizations to increase their internal transparency, drive employee engagement and rapidly raise awareness of environmental initiatives, and propagates green practices and frugal energy usage companywide, embedding them firmly in organizational culture.
“The Environmental Sustainability Dashboard for Microsoft Dynamics AX helps companies address one of the biggest challenges facing business today -- the need to gather and track environmental data,” said Rob Bernard, chief environmental strategist at Microsoft. “Equipped with this information, companies will be able to make decisions that benefit both their bottom line and the environment.”
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ReCellular collected 5.5 million cell phones in 2008
ANN ARBOR, Mich., Feb. 20, 2009 -- ReCellular collected and processed 5.5 million phones for reuse and recycling in 2008. This represents a 35 percent increase year-over-year, reflecting ReCellular's efforts to increase the availability and consumer awareness of cell-phone recycling in the U.S. and Canada.
"This year, we made great progress towards our goal of transforming the lifecycle of a cell phone," says Chuck Newman, ReCellular CEO. "With the help of our industry partners, ReCellular is working to create a sustainable model where every handset is recycled into the core materials needed to build its replacement."
- ReCellular collected 5.5 Million Phones, weighing as much as three Boeing 747-400s
- ReCellular donate-a-phone programs raised $4.0 million for charitable causes and grassroots organizations, from local Boy Scout troops to the national Cell Phones for Soldiers program
- ReCellular's 102 point data-removal process deleted an average of 5 megabytes of information per handset - removing a total of 10 terabytes of personal contacts, e-mail, photos and financial information from donated phones
- ReCellular recycled 1.2 million pounds of materials, including handsets, batteries, phone chargers and accessories, and paper and plastic shipping materials
- ReCellular reclaimed 21,000 pounds of copper, 954 pounds of silver, and 96 pounds of gold from recycled circuit boards and electronics accessories
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Sprint sets 90 percent wireless recycling goal
OVERLAND PARK, Kan. -- Feb. 12, 2009 -- Sprint today announced the wireless carrier's goal of reaching a 90 percent phone collection rate for reuse/recycling compared with annual wireless device sales by 2017. With more than 140 million cell phones discarded every year in the United States, the need for responsible wireless phone recycling is greater than ever. Sprint has instituted a “Zero e-Waste” policy with the providers who receive and process the recycled phones it collects, ensuring they are recycled safely, ethically and responsibly.
“This is a challenge for the entire industry,” said Dan Hesse, Sprint CEO. “Sprint is committed to lead the industry in conserving natural resources, decreasing energy use and lowering greenhouse gas emissions.”
A recent Sprint survey examining consumers' mobile phone recycling habits found that nine out of 10 surveyed own at least one and as many as five old, unused mobile phones. To encourage consumers to recycle their unused wireless devices, Sprint offers two free programs: Sprint Buyback and Sprint Project Connect.
Sprint customers can go to
www.sprint.com/recycle or call toll-free (866) 364-5680 or going to any of the more than 1,200 Sprint-owned retail stores nationwide to return eligible Sprint or Nextel devices for account credits.
Anyone can recycle with Sprint Project Connect. The program accepts all wireless phones, batteries, accessories and data cards, regardless of carrier or condition. Free postage-paid envelopes are available at any Sprint-owned retail store, and come in the box with most new phones sold by Sprint. Free postage-paid mailing labels are also available at
www.sprint.com/recycle .
In 2008, Sprint collected more than 3 million units, equal to 34 percent of devices sold, an increase from 22 percent in 2007. Of the handsets that Sprint collected in 2008, more than 90 percent were reused.
Sprint adheres to a Zero e-Waste policy that ensures none of the wireless equipment collected through Sprint's recycling and reuse programs enters the waste stream (i.e., landfills or waste incinerators). Sprint does not ship electronic scrap to “underdeveloped” countries. All of Sprint's recycling vendors are contractually obligated to follow Sprint's Zero e-Waste policy and are audited to ensure compliance.
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