Standby Switch off!

We are told that leaving all our electronic bits and pieces on standby is costing the planet dearly – as well as our electricity bills - but switching everything off, in today’s, uber electronic household could take you the better part of a day. Now you can do it at the flick of a switch.

Bye Bye Standby is a set of power adaptors which you simply plug into your wall socket and then plug in your appliance. A single (remote control) switch can switch EVERYTHING off in one go. Look on it as ‘central locking’ for the home! Available as a starter pack from Domia. http://www.simplyautomate.co.uk/search.asp?catid=376&cat2=376

Eco Moped

If you don’t want to go as far as one of the ‘eco’ hybrid electric/petrol cars from Toyota or Honda, and just want to ‘zip’ around town, this might just be for you.

The Eco Moped is electric – you plug it in to recharge it – and it offers zero carbon emissions when you are riding. It can be delivered to your door, nationwide (in the UK), and you will soon be able to walk into a showroom in London, Manchester, Birmingham, Oxford, Leeds and Cambridge. It can travel for 30 miles on one charge, takes about 3-6 hours to recharge and can make a top speed of 37 mph.

More details from Ecomoped.com

How Green is Your Company?

Ever wondered how green some of the larger manufacturing electronic companies are? Well Greenpeace have as well and just published the 4th edition of their "Greener Electronics" report.

Apple, which had a hard time from Greenpeace last time, has made the largest improvement because of a pledge to phase out PVC and other chemicals in their product line.

Nokia make it to the top of the list because they already did that! They also exceeded a set of Greenpeace benchmarks. Nice to know that someone is keeping an eye on all this. You can find full details on the Greenpeace website.

Wind to Light – Art

No one seems to want a wind turbine at the bottom of their garden but they might change their mind when they see these.

Artist Jason Bruges has installed 'Wind to Light', a ‘cloud of light’ made up of tiny wind turbines which power LEDs on London’s South Bank. When the wind blows the LEDs light up to produce a kinetic light cloud – a firefly-like shimmer around the south bank architecture.

Part of this year’s Architecture Week theme of “how green is our space’, the installation illustrates alternative, ways of harnessing energy that explore the power of the wind in the city, visualising it as an ephemeral, luminous cloud.

Being able to visualise the direct relationship between wind power and our environment is difficult – this looks like it does just that with elegance and intelligence.

A short video of the installation is available here.

Consumer Pressure and Dixons goes Green

People often wonder if they can make any difference to eco issues and global warming without organising a riot. Well, it seems that your money talks and has made Dixons Store Group, Europe’s largest electrical chain, take a hard look at some of the products it sells.

They have noticed a rise in the sale of energy-efficient products so are now going to persuade their suppliers to phase out the standby function on TVs and DVD players. It seems that around 10% of an average household’s electricity bill is wasted because gadgets are left on standby.

Money talks!!

[From the Independent]

In the meantime, if you do have a lot of electrical equipment which sits on standby all day, have a look at this handy device which might help.

Hybrid Cars – Not just for the Eco Worrier

It seems there are masses of eco worriers sitting at traffic lights in their Toyota Prius, the world over, feeling smug that they are not emitting an ounce of CO2. Good on them, but the Hybrid from Toyota (petrol/electric), with reduced emission, and high MPG, appears to also be saving people a small fortune - so they might be feeling smug for a very different reason!

In this year’s UK Budget, the Chancellor dropped the Car Tax for this type of low CO2 emission vehicle to £15.00 a year. Experience shows that you use around 40% less petrol and, if you are self employed you can offset the entire purchase price of the car against tax! Because the car is exempt from the London Congestion charge, capital drivers, who go into the zone every day, can save almost £2,000. You can also park for free in Manchester!

I’ve been driving a Prius now for 3 months, it works just like a roomy (ish) family car and the Inland Revenue will be paying me to drive it when I put my tax return in – Oh and I’m using much less fuel and pumping out much less CO2. I’m also not smug at traffic lights! [A]

Eco Electronics?

If you recently bought a new flat screen LCD computer monitor you will know how difficult it is to recycle the old one. I drew a complete blank - no one wanted it.

Help is at had with a new web site www.mygreenelectronics.com which aims to provide useful info on the three ‘R’s’ Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Rethink. It was just launched and will be added to on a daily basis. There is a long list of Green electronic providers as well as info on the recycling aims of famous companies. Perhaps a good place to look when you want to find out just what to do with that redundant box of electronics.