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This blog was originally published on The Breakthrough. Mark Mills’ recent report “The Cloud Begins with Coal” has received much attention in the past weeks, but largely for its comparison of the energy use of an iPhone versus a refrigerator. This factoid has become a distraction. Aside from his dependence on dubious statistics, Mills erroneously ignores the real benefits technology provides in combating [...]
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We’re in the middle of summer and, as usual during this travel season, gas prices have been rising. Thankfully, we haven’t seen the severe volatility in gas prices like we have in summers past, but most of us can recall from recent memory when an international crisis or environmental incident affected the U.S. oil supply – some kind of source disruption that curtailed a small percentage of our nation’s [...]
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In my previous blog, I talked about the importance of standards, and how the Responsible Recycling (R2) standard set the bar for the safe recycling of electronics. When I wrote that blog, the R2 Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) was in the final stages of updating the original R2 Standard (R2:2008) to become the new, improved R2:2013 Standard. Since that blog, the R2 Board of Directors (which includes [...]
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Xi Jinping mentioned the new political slogan “the Chinese dream” numerous times in his first speech to the nation as the President of China in March 2013. But what does it mean? To put the dream into practice, it appears the Chinese government’s first priorities are to improve food safety and address the pollution problem in China. In response to the toxic smog in Beijing and other major cities, [...]
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Nearly 200 company representatives from several industry sectors participated in our first-ever ITI Sustainability Series – product policy and compliance seminars held in Round Rock, Tex., Santa Clara, Calif., and Schaumburg, Ill. Many thanks to our hosts – Dell, Intel, and Motorola Solutions, respectively – and to the diverse speakers who shared their expertise at the seminars. We presented the seminars [...]
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President Obama today is set to unveil his climate action plan – a 21-page white paper intended to serve as a roadmap to reduced greenhouse gas emissions across myriad economic sectors. (Watch his speech live -- happening now.) The White House plan has three pillars: Cut carbon pollution in America Prepare the United States for the impacts of climate change; and, Lead international efforts to combat [...]
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In his blog on Thursday, ITI’s Dean Garfield quoted comments made by Google’s Eric Schmidt at the “How Green Is the Internet?” summit that we attended that day. Now, you can view Eric’s full comments as well as all the plenary remarks from the event. They are here, along with a two-minute overview video that gives testimony to the energy and intelligence that permeated the event. We also produced [...]
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Technology is a transformative force for good, and must be harnessed toward the challenge of environmental sustainability. That is the reality of the moment as well as the opportunity for the future that we focused on today at “How Green Is the Internet,” held at Google’s Mountain View campus. There are two things that jump out at me coming away from the session. One is the unique power and ability [...]
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How green is the Internet? That’s a great question. Not coincidentally, it’s also the name of a summit meeting today at Google headquarters. (You can watch live at www.youtube.com/googlegreen.) Participants make up an intriguing mix of experts from industry, academia, government and NGOs. For our part, ITI is helping to explore emerging questions around the environmental impacts and benefits [...]
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Tech is involved in myriad energy and environmental sustainability issues – each with its own complexities and differing global approaches. In an effort to break down some of these challenges and brainstorm on potential solutions, ITI, joined by IPC and SEMI, are hosting three sustainability events focused on developing regulations and compliance efforts. This regional series is a great opportunity [...]