energy consumption

This should make netizens feel better about themselves: being online and saving the environment can go hand in hand.

For example, shopping online, instead of traveling to the stores by car, means cutting back on gas consumption and associated emissions.

But there is a downside. Many online surfers are unaware of the enormous energy consumption that goes with running the Internet. Still, even though end users aren't the biggest consumers, they can still do a lot to keep energy consumption under control and even save a little money for good measure.

Innovation in the trillion-dollar-per-year construction industry has been pretty sluggish over the past century. The low-tech method for producing standard gypsum drywall, for instance, was invented in 1917. It has plenty of drawbacks -- including the release of some 20 billion pounds of CO2 into the atmosphere annually -- but is still in use.

Not to go against Elvis Costello, but it turns out that digital music, not radio, is a sound salvation, at least when it comes to fighting climate change.
A new study conducted by researchers from Carnegie Mellon University, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and Stanford University confirms what we already assumed:  downloading music cuts energy consumption and CO2 emissions compared to shopping at your local record store.  Digitizing wins again.

McKinsey & Co. have released another report about climate change, but this time they're putting it in motivating terms:  money, money, money.  The consulting firm has calculated the amount of cash the country could save over the next decade if we fully commit to becoming more energy efficient, and the amount is huge:  $1.2 trillion.

Companies like Google and IBM are trying to lead the world in cutting-edge, efficient data centers.  Not to be outdone, on Tuesday Yahoo announced they're hoping to change to future of data centers as well.  The company unveiled plans to build one of the world's most efficient data centers in Lockport, NY and the details do sound pretty exciting.

The University of Illinois, Urbana has not only met its goal of reducing energy consumption by 10 percent, but has saved a whopping $5 million as a result.  The college started the project to cut its energy use only 10 months ago, but they had given themselves a year to accomplish their goal.

Microsoft has released a beta of Hohm to help consumers save energy and reduce their utility bills. The free application is built on the Windows Azure cloud operating system and was developed with help from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the Department of Energy.

The City of Bilbao's metro service has announced that the transportation system was powered completely by renewable sources last year, making it the first metro system in the world to do so.

The Department of Energy recently underwent an energy audit by its inspector general and the results (PDF) were not good. It seems none of the seven facilities surveyed were complying with the department's own power-saving guidelines when it comes to computers.