Friedbeef’s Tech

Carbon offsetting is the new environmental buzzword around town.  Al Gore’s preaching it and Rupert Murdoch’s adopting it, so here are a few ways you can implement it from a tech standpoint…

1. Save Energy by Switching Colors on Google

BlackGoogle.com is a site which allows searches and results on Google to be displayed against a black background.  How important is this?

“An all white web page uses about 74 watts to display, while an all black page uses only 59 watts. I thought I would do a little math and see what could be saved by moving a high volume site to the black format.
Take at look at Google, who gets about 200 million queries a day. Let’s assume each query is displayed for about 10 seconds; that means Google is running for about 550,000 hours every day on some desktop. Assuming that users run Google in full screen mode, the shift to a black background will save a total of 15 (74-59) watts. That turns into a global savings of 8.3 Megawatt-hours per day, or about 3000 Megawatt-hours a year. Now take into account that about 25 percent of the monitors in the world are CRTs, and at 10 cents a kilowatt-hour, that’s $75,000, a goodly amount of energy and dollars for changing a few color codes” - via EcoIron

2. Power Windows More Efficiently

“CO2 Saver is a lightweight application that runs in Windows. It adjusts your Windows power settings so that your computer, monitor and hard drive consume less electricity when you’re not actively using them. It calculates how much power is saved, and converts it into pounds of CO2 emissions prevented by having the toolbar installed. You see the amount of CO2 saved by yourself and all toolbar users together.” 

Granted most of these options can be adjusted manually via Windows power settings, so this is really geared towards newbies who don’t want to mess with power settings, but still want to make a difference.  Also, the social aspect of this toolbar helps bring across the fact that put together, the impact we make from simple power saving is truly huge.

3. Calculate Your Carbon Footprint and Take Action

Like it or not, each of us has an impact on the carbon levels of the world.  The amount carbon your lifestyle creates is called your “carbon footprint”.  Yahoo Green has released a calculator for you to measure yourself.  This is a useful barometer on how badly we are affecting the environment with our simple actions.   It also goes one step further, they also give tips and help you make plans to inspire actions to bring those levels down.

4. Make Your Driving More Carbon Friendly

Before getting a new ride, check out which cars are the most environmentally friendly options (At the time of writing the #1 car is a Honda Civic hybrid).  Already own a car you’re happy with?  Daily Fuel Economy Tip also provides you with updated news on the lowest fuel prices.

5. Build a Greener PC

Did you know a SATA hard drive uses slightly less energy than IDE? or that the Intel Core 2 Duo E6700 processor runs 42 percent faster than the Intel Pentium D 960 yet consumes 40 percent less energy?  Plenty of PC building tips slanted towards green living can be found at PlayGreen.org

Bonus tip #1 : Check out part 1 & part 2 of the ‘Save the World Using Your Desktop’ series

Bonus tip #2 : Check out 10 first steps you can take towards lighter living.

[tags] environment, carbon, carbon footprint, green [/tags]

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