Climate Change, Economics, Energy, Most Popular
Green MBAs Find $350 Million With Climate Corps
This past summer, 47 Fortune 1000 companies discovered opportunities for saving a combined $350 million through energy efficiency measures. Across all projects, these savings represent an opportunity to reduce over 400,000 metric tons of annual greenhouse gas (ghg) emissions. These figures are enough to catch the attention of any business manager looking to improve the [...]
Solving the Energy Efficiency Puzzle
In 2008 and 2009, McKinsey & Company published two leading reports that describe the vast potential for economic and environmental gains that are possible through energy efficiency measures. However, it’s almost 2011 and we have yet to see widespread investment in such (EE) measures. This begs the question, “why don’t we see more businesses and [...]
Texas Instruments Saves Big with Efficiency Projects
In 2008, Texas Instruments (TI) saved $5.1 million through reducing energy use by 5% and water consumption by over 7%. As a result, TI reduced its worldwide carbon footprint to 2.07 million metric tons of CO2, which represents a 2.8% reduction in the company’s worldwide carbon footprint. The company’s 2008 Corporate Social Responsibility Report outlines [...]
Hohm: Microsoft Enters Home Energy Management
The field of competitors within the emerging field of energy management software now includes Microsoft. Earlier this week Microsoft launched Hohm, a home energy management application that delivers appliance specific energy consumption data to users through a web interface. The intention behind Hohm is to enable consumers to gauge their electricity usage and determine strategies [...]
Hara launches with an Enterprise Solution to Environmental Accounting Software
A major new player in the energy management software arena named, Hara began selling their software-as-a-service offering on Monday. With a $6 million investment from Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Hara has launched with a promise to enable customers to reduce the cost of doing business through monitoring and managing their consumption of natural resources. [...]
Google Power Partners Announced
Earlier this year, Google announced the development of a gadget called Google PowerMeter which delivers personal electricity usage data to consumers on their individual computers. This effort took a big step forward on Wednesday of this week when Google announced a list of eight initial electric utilities that will serve as partners. United by a [...]
Will China initiate a carbon tax?
China’s Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Environmental Protection have requested research from a regional think-tank to develop preliminary proposals for a national carbon tax. The proposals, which are due for publication within the month, may one day become a part of the Chinese government’s strategy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. International governments have pressed [...]
Wattz up with Consumption Calculators?: Newer Options Have Come a Long Way.
With the increasing likelihood of a federally mandated system for regulating carbon emissions (aka “cap and trade”), it is becoming apparent that businesses will soon be required to implement accounting measures to report on their emissions of greenhouse gases. A cornerstone measurement to be required in this process will be the consumption of services and [...]
350 MW Solar Project Pipeline Acquired
San Francisco-based Recurrent Energy just brought distributed solar generation closer to a large scale with their acquisition of a 350 MW solar project pipeline from UPC Solar. The recent acquisition represents a significant milestone in Recurrent’s focus on smaller utility-scale assets across the Continental US, Hawaii and Canada. Read more about this exciting development.
Municipal financing programs for renewables
A quick link to a recent NYTimes article on municipal financing for residential renewable energy infrastructures: Harnessing the Sun, With Help From Cities
