environment

AT&T is making two announcements in conjunction with the upcoming Mobile World Congress in Barcelona that could help consumers reduce their environmental footprints.

First, the company is announcing a new remote monitoring platform that will ultimately allow users to remotely and automatically adjust energy usage in their homes. The service and technology is being developed for international carriers, who can then develop and sell energy conserving services around the world. The service platform will also allow carriers to offer home security services too.

AT&T is calling the new platform Digital Life. The system, which can be … Read more

Apple's Chinese supply chain has come under fire over the years for its allegedly poor environmental record. But according to a new report, Apple now plans to address that with independent audits.

Apple is bringing in independent environmental auditors to at least two supplier factories in China, USA Today reported yesterday, citing environmental activists. Speaking to USA Today, Ma Jun, founder of the Institute of Public & Environmental Affairs (IPEA), said that Apple agreed to the reviews in January and will allow auditors in two facilities, possibly starting in March.

The reviews, Ma told USA Today, will focus on … Read more

Apple's massive North Carolina data center will be powered by the nation's largest end-user-owned solar array, the company revealed today in a report on its environmental footprint.

The facility, which is being constructed in Maiden, N.C., has been awarded LEED Platinum certification from the U.S. Green Building Council, the company said in its report.

"We know of no other data center of comparable size that has achieved this level of LEED certification," the company said in its report. "Our goal is to run the Maiden facility with high percentage renewable energy mix." … Read more

Apple isn't the most popular company among environmental groups in China, but the iPhone maker is willing to extend an olive branch.

Speaking to the Wall Street Journal yesterday, Chinese environmental leaders said that Apple is starting to "meet their concerns" over the impact its supply chain is having on the environment. The company has reportedly agreed to audit 15 of its component suppliers that have been accused of pollution, and engage in more oversight to ensure the environment is being preserved around supplier facilities.

"This is a major step forward," Ma Jun, a top … Read more

Enviro-Bear 2010 is part game, part joke, part art piece, and part game design experiment, a bold and ridiculous app that's basically a Rorschach test for gamers, in which you play a bear driving a car who's trying to run over and then scarf up enough food to hibernate in the last 5 minutes before winter.

Whether you love or hate Enviro-Bear 2010, a few things are certain: the interface is deliberately difficult (reflecting, one might suppose, the difficulty a real bear would experience driving a car), as you touch and drag to direct the bear's paw … Read more

Technology projects that range from delivering clean drinking water to implementing a cheaper bank infrastructure in developing countries were honored last night at the Tech Awards in San Jose, Calif.

Five of the 15 projects honored also received $50,000 each for developing technology that benefits humanity and supports sustainability.

The Tech Awards, sponsored by The Tech Museum in San Jose, were established in 2001, to recognize 15 projects annually in five categories: environment, education, equality, health, and economic development.

"The tens of thousands of people who didn't have clean water to cook or bathe in Honduras now … Read more

After five months at sea, British adventurer and environmental advocate Roz Savage made landfall this morning in Mauritius, completing her solo row across the Indian Ocean and becoming the first woman to row solo across the "big three": the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian.

Savage, 43, set off from Australia five months ago in her 23-foot rowboat. After rowing more than 4,000 miles, she arrived in Grand Baie, Mauritius, today.

In total, she has rowed about 15,000 miles and spent more than 500 days at sea. She completed the Atlantic row in 2005, and then went on … Read more

Rising global demand for cleaner energy from biomass could drive more land acquisition in poorer nations where food security and land rights are weak, an International Institute for Environment and Development report said today.

"If left unchecked, the growing pressure on land access could undermine livelihoods and food security in some of the world's poorest countries," the London-based nonprofit research group said, calling for more public scrutiny into global biomass expansion plans.

Biomass energy makes up 77 percent of world renewable energy, and trees and woody plants account for 87 percent of that biomass, the report said. … Read more

A recent scientific study suggests that bees are significantly disturbed when mobile phones are used in close proximity to the furry critters. The study may shed light on why the bee population is in decline globally.

As bees can communicate through sound, the experiment at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology observed any changes to the noises the insects made when active mobile phones were placed in their hive. The results were quite worrying.

Read more of "Cell phones causing decline in bee numbers?" at Crave UK.