www.everythingsgonegreen.co.uk

Nokia’s President and CEO unveiled a new concept Nokia mobile phone that is, at last, pretty environmentally friendly.

The new Nokia concept mobile, branded “Remade” is supposedly constructed from nothing new, thus reducing the carbon footprint of the device, using less raw materials, reducing landfill waste and making the whole production process more energy efficient.

The Nokia remade is a recycled, post-consumer piece of modern technology. Made from recycled aluminium (old drinks can), plastic from recycled plastic bottles, old car tyres and, rather than the old acid-etched circuit board, the green mobile phone has printed electronics.

But before you rush out and ask for a Nokia Remade to replace your funky iPhone or N95, remember that this is just a concept phone. For now.

Let’s hope Nokia do the right thing and start using recycled material in ALL their products.

Over at the BBC there’s a great video story on a car that runs on air.

The car, well, a small van actually, has a tiny engine that runs on compressed air and uses other fuels for longer journeys. That means that during the urban cycle the vehicle makes absolutely no emissions at all. Except, for now, a bit of noise.

Inventor Guy Negre, an ex Formula 1 engineer, said that:

“The first buyers will be people who care about the environment”

Which is highly likely as the vehicle is reported to be capable of up to 140 MPG.

Monsieur Negre has been promising to deliver this concept for about 10 years now, but with the backing of Tata, the Indian manufacturing giant, the concept is close to completion.

Tata’s backing helped MDI Enterprise S.A. to put the finishing touches to their Compressed Air Technology (CAT) engines.

Search behemoth Google has set out its desire to generate green energy that is “cheaper than coal”.

On Tuesday Google stated that it is investing in solar, wind, geothermal and other emerging energy technologies. The initiative, known as RE< C (Renewable Energy Cheaper than Coal), is recruiting energy experts and engineers in order to develop clean renewable sources. Google is expecting to invest “hundreds of millions of dollars” in mainly solar thermal and advanced geothermal technologies.

With so much investment and a track record of employing some of the sharpest talents in its search and technology business, Google is sure to attract the right people. With the huge injection of cash and the finest minds, Google is aiming to have the technology to generate a Gigawatt of power cheaper than coal, the idea is to develop the technique so rapidly that carbon emissions can be tackled in a matter of years rather than decades.

Google.org, Google’s investment arm headed up by the aptly named Dr. Larry Brilliant, has plans to invest in a number of strategic grants. Two companies with promising energy technolgies are eSolar Inc and Makani Power Inc. eSolar are involved in solar thermal energy and Makani Power are wind energy technologists.

Google has already stated its intentions to green energy but this is also a shrewd business decision too. With the number of data centres that Google has, the cost of energy is bound to soar as resources dwindle. In addition with oil prices up and coal generating 40% of the world’s electricity, not to mention the huge surge in demand for power from emerging economies like China and India, a clean and green source of power will not only benefit all of us but Google too. And a healthy return on their investment would not go amiss too.

Did you know?

To power an ordinary 100-watt light bulb for half an hour you’d have to cycle for 40 minutes.
To power the equivalent energy-efficient light-bulb that puts out the same light but is only 21-watts, you’d have to cycle for just 8 minutes.

OK, so we’re here to make sure that everything goes green but we’re not here to push products for the sake of boosting so-called green credentials… so what of the home wind turbine for instance?

Well, there’s been a bit of press recently regarding the fad of the wind turbine with notable people such as David Cameron, Jamie Olive and the new Science Minister, Malcolm Wicks giving their endorsements.

The wind turbine has become a bit of a green fashion statement with only around 650 installed so far in this country and but with another 15,000 Windsave wind turbines in production for pre-Christmas delivery since B&Q offered the Windsave on their green promotion last month for under GBP1500.00 including installation.

Now, the important factor to note is this:

The average wind speed in the UK is 5.6 metres per second which is enough to generate around half a kilowatt of electricity. This would probably save the average household with its average windspeed around GBP100.00 a year in electricity bills.

Therefore: The wind turbine in this situation would take 15 years to pay for itself.

Now you could be in a below average windspeed area, for instance, in a city where tall buildings might block the wind flow.

On the other hand you could be on a hillside or high up and in an extremely windy are. It is this extreme where the marketing bumpf says you could save up to 30% of your annual electricity bill.

The not quite so cool green option is cavity wall insulation or loft insulation option which could save something like GBP150.00 off your annual fuel bill and would therefore only take 3 or 4 years to pay off. Then there’s turning your thermostat down a notch. Even better, how about replacing your old lights with energy efficient bulbs or swapping those halogen spotlights for some cool LED lights?

So, the lesson: Before splashing out on your 1500 quid wind turbine, have you got your cavity wall insulation? Check if your local council has any grants or schemes to help out. Also – is your loft insulation up to scratch? It should be to a depth of 8” to sufficiently insulate your loft space and by using natural wool loft insulation you’ll be doing a much greener move – wool loft insulation (take a look at Thermafleece) is a bit more expensive but is completely natural and has better heat retaining properties than artificial insulation.

Conclusion: Do the math, have a site survey and THEN see if wind turbine installation is right for you. If not, there’s plenty of other things you can do to go green.

Yes, you did read that right… Environmentology^TM

We were just having a little web surf when Honda’s Environmentology^TM website came up, a lovely looking little site proclaiming the company’s commitment to environmentalism.

First up we reminisced over the original 1974 Honda Civic, the first vehicle to meet the United States’ Clean Air Act.

Then there was the first mass-produced 4-cylinder 50mpg car, 1986’s Civic CRX-HF, the odd-looking Hinda Insight from 1999 and on to the more usual Civic Hybrid of today.

There’s also some unusual technology in the CNG (compressed natural gas) powered Civic GX (recognised as the cleanest running combustion-engined vehicle ever certified by the EPA) and the rather tasty-looking FCX Concept, a hydrogen fuel cell car.

So basically Honda are letting us know that they’re well keen to produce zero-emission and near-zero-emission vehicles. Bring it on, we say.

“Leaving an average PC switched on costs in excess of GBP8.00 or USD15.00 per month and is equivalent to generating nearly a ton of CO₂ per year!”

That’s what they say over at TurnItAllOff, a site dedicated to informing the casual visitor of the costs of PC energy use.

The site is both fun & informative and has an energy savings calculator to work out how much money your business can save by simply switching off your computers at night.

In this little 2-person office right now, we save about GBP124.00 a year by simply switching off PCs when they’re not needed… now that may not seem a lot, but that’s could be the budget of the company Christmas trip down to the local ale house!

Or so they say on the frontpage of the Tesla Motors website.The latest buzz in the green car community is the Tesla Roadster; a sleek sports car that’s quick & fast and totally electric powered.

Historically most electric-powered cars have a reputation for being slow or ugly. Or both. But this Tesla Roadster is no slouch and it looks good too: which isn’t surprising considering it’s based on a Tesla-specified Lotus Elise chassis, has a number of Lotus Elise parts and is assembled at Lotus’s Hethel factory near Norwich. Gorgeous.
So, it looks great, but how does it perform?

Well, Tesla boast that their Roadster is capable of 130+mph and gets from 0-60mph on around 4 seconds. What’s more is that it has a peak 248hp and only weighs 1200kg. Not bad at all for an electric car. And add to that the 250 miles between charges, that’s pretty smart. And having all that Lotus-engineered suspension it probably handles somewhat too.
Want one? Yes, thought you might. We’d have one too, but the limited edition Tesla Signature One Hundred Roadsters have sold out all ready. And if you want your very own Tesla Roadster they’re taking orders for the next batch of 100 electric rockets, so get your $25,000 deposit down and don’t forget to cough up the $75,000 balance on delivery. That’s a lot of money, even in England, but I bet it’s a lot of fun too. And pretty green by the sound of things.

Yes, that’s right: Sir Richard Branson, the Virgin boss has pledged all the future profits from his travel & transport businesses, Virgin Atlantic and Virgin Trains, toward renewable energy and investments.

All the profit from the next 10 years, around £1.6 billion pounds or $3 billion dollars, will be channeled into research for alternative fuels under the banner of Virgin Fuels, an investment unit set up as the Virgin Groups first venture into the green sector.

Cilion Inc, of Goshen, California receives the first investment into their ethanol production business, cleaner, greener & cheaper than the usual corn-to-ethanol plants which rely too much on fossil fuels in the production process.

Sir Richard is clear in his intention that people should be weaned off their dependance on coal & fossil fuels and strongly believes that business, especially those involved in transport should be at the forefront of developing environmentally-friendly strategies.

Virgin Fuels’ promotion & investment in Cilion aims to set-up 7 ethanol production plants, producing some 440 million gallons a year, going some way toward contributing to Governor Schwarzenegger’s aim for California to produce 20% of its own Bio-fuels by 2010.