IT departments exist because if something goes wrong with technology a business can come crashing down. It’s the modern world and like it or not we just can’t function without computers.

Technology is the backbone of a business. Computers, monitors, printers, phones, all chugging away earning thousands of pounds, great. But they also lose thousands of pounds too. You can’t shy away from technology but neither can you shy away from energy issues and carbon footprints.

It would be great if big businesses cared about the planet. Some of them do (or at least pretend to) others couldn’t care less about the Polar ice caps.

Luckily though, they do care about themselves. Take the Ashmolean museum for example it burns $25,000 per year on energy. That’s money coming out of their pocket, and now they want to save energy. How do they do that? Well the head of IT and a headband with a brainwave detector could be the answer.

For example, Carnegie Melon University recently conducted a study which concluded that shopping online is considerably better for the environment than the traditional method of shopping at retail outlets. One example used in the study was the purchase of a flash memory stick, and it was found the environmental impact of the traditional retail method was 35% greater than making an identical purchase using the internet.

In another study – carried out by CleanTech this time – it was noted that the carbon footprint of a traditional printed book was 7.5 kg of CO2 during the course of its life. However, the carbon footprint doubled if the customer used their car to drive to the store, buy the book and then return home again rather than having it delivered by mail.

Approximately 65% of the emissions generated by traditional shopping methods are a direct result of the customer’s transport to the store and back again.

Shopping online and choosing postal delivery is not only better for the environment – it will save you time and you will often get what you’re looking for at a lower price. You can increase the environmental benefits even more simply by choosing the right type of product.

For example, if you choose to buy electronic books instead of the conventional printed type, you will save on paper, ink and the energy used in the printing and binding process. As a rule, electronic books are cheaper than the printed versions – plus you save on gas. You can even subscribe to get newspapers and magazines delivered to e-book readers like the Amazon Kindle readerevery day.

Likewise, if you opt to download music to your PC or mp3 player, you will save on CDs, packaging and distribution emissions. Downloading movies, which you can now do from Amazon, iTunes and a host of other sites also has both financial and environmental benefits.

So when it comes to buying on the web, why not consider a two pronged attack. Firstly, if you can avoid a trip to the store in your car by buying online then that will generally be a good option. Secondly, if you can substitute downloadable products for physical ones then not only will you be doing your bit for the environment – but you will save time and money into the bargain.

Prof Murray said: “With many glaciers experiencing rapid thinning, time is of the essence in discovering the effects of these drastic changes.

It will allow researchers to convert vast amounts of scientific data on temperatures in thousands of locations into meaningful images, leading to better interpretation of the results.

According to the university, the icing on the cake is that the computer’s operation has also been specifically designed to be energy efficient.

Blue Ice is housed in a new “green” data centre and boasts energy efficient computer processing units which provide high performance computing within a small carbon footprint.

The computer, the latest from the series of IBM “blue” series, one of the first of which defeated Kasparov in 1997, can now make two trillion calculations per second.

Surrounded by a spectacular visualisation suite, the surprisingly small supercomputer will try to help Welsh scientists understand one of the most worrying modern climate trends: the thinning of polar ice sheets.

To read the full article please visit  BLUE ICE

PS. Blue ice is the term given to the ice which is melting at the toe of a glacier.  This ice appears blue. I’ll try to hunt out a picture for you.

The forests in Ontario support one of the world’s largest intact ecosystems.  There are more than 200′ sensitive’ species of animals including polar bears, wolverines and caribou as well migratiry birds.

Ontario’s forest is a significant global carbon sink, absorbing some 12.5 million Tonnes (about 30 million tons in ‘old money’)  of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere each year.

The Canadian Forestry Service tells us that Canada’s total greenhouse gas emissions account for about 2% of global emissions.

Well Done Mr McGinty – Ontario’s Premier.  You obviously didn’t attend the same school as Mr Bush!

If anyone in Canada is interested in Powertune Energy Saver.  Please leave me a comment, thanks.

How Low? Achieving optimal carbon savings from the UK’s existing housing stock: A new report commissioned by WWF-UK and prepared by UK ACE, the Centre for Sustainable Energy and Dr Richard Moore, concludes that it is feasible to reduce CO2 emission levels in the UK domestic housing sector by 80% by 2050.  Read the report to see what governmental policy changes are deemed necessary to ensure this happens.

The Report 

The last paragraph reports that the battle for the environment will be won or lost in our cities. They have the highest potential for eco-living due to local facilities, public transport links, dense housing and shared public resources.—–One of the first things to tackle head on is awareness and recognition of personal responsibility.

To check your carbon footprint visit http://footprint.wwf.org.uk

To red the full article visit http://www.carbonmanagers.com/blog/file/newsletter-articles/uksca