Toshiba has been into the manufacture of incandescent bulbs for a long, long time. It was amongst the first to start producing bulbs in Japan, 120 years ago. What initially started as a 10 bulbs a day affair reached to as high as 78 million incandescent lamps a year. The ill effects on the environment that these bulbs have are well known, and Toshiba was moving to stop production, its announcement to this effect yesterday just came in a year earlier than the planned date, which is a good thing.

Having shipped nearly 4.07 billion bulbs, Toshiba will now focus on new more eco-friendly technologies, like LED lighting. Toshiba’s decision to stop production will lead to the huge savings of 430,000 tons of carbon dioxide emissions, which alone should make us cheer this decision. They will, however, continue to produce specialty incandescent bulbs, which we hope would soon meet the fate of their general-use counterparts.

Source: FarEastGizmos

A lot of natural gas is just burnt away, without serving any meaningful purpose whatsoever. The flares are a common sight on many such installations. In 2005, it was estimated that nearly 0.5% of the CO2 emissions from fossil fuels come from natural gas flaring. Today, it may be enough to power Germany. This natural gas could be put to perfectly good use, and that is exactly what Brazil’s Petrobas intends to do.

The Brazilian state oil company is looking for solutions that may come from the partnership of U.K.-based Compact GTL and Japan’s Sumitomo Precision Products, or from Columbus-based Velocys. It is expected that this “associated gas” can be turned into synthetic crude oil. This would be achieved by the use of compact GTL (gas to liquid) plants that the said companies are developing.

The process is commercially viable only on a huge scale, so the challenge facing the companies is to reduce the GTL plants into compact packages that can fit into an offshore platform, or on the floating production, storage, and offloading (FPSO) vessels used to explore and service offshore oil fields.

Source: Technology Review/ TreeHugger

Reduced business travel can have a marked effect on the environment, and all the technologies at our disposal today would mean that businesses wouldn’t suffer for lack of such travel. Probably with this in mind, Arkadin Global Conferencing has announced the launch of Climate Care day, a day when businesses large and small, are urged to replace business travel with remote meetings, for one day.

It may work well to encourage businesses to move towards remote meetings, and what is asked for the “Climate Care Day” could well be applied for most parts of the year, except when travel becomes an absolute necessity. Businesses could not only reduce their carbon footprint, but also save time and cut back on costs associated with such travel.

The Climate Care Day would be observed on March 26, a day ahead of the WWF’s Earth Hour. The day is supported by WWF and will, hopefully, elicit a positive reaction from businesses.

Retail giant Wal-mart has announced massive greenhouse gas emission cuts from its global supply chain. In an effort to go green, the company will reduce 20 million metric tons of emissions by 2015. The larger goal of Wal-mart, as the company puts it, is to only use renewable energy and create zero waste.

The promised emission cuts would equal to taking off 3.8 million vehicles off from the road, for a year. To add an edge to its effort, the retailer has joined hands with Environmental Defense Fund. Most of the reduction is likely to come from better and more efficient use of energy. The reduced energy use would in turn translate into lower costs for the company, and lower prices for its products.

Apart from the emission cuts, the retailer also plans to introduce an index that will define the envrionmental impact from the products sold by Walmart. This of course, would help consumers in buying products that have minimal impact on the environment.

Source: Reuters

Plastics are evil, big villians in every environment story. They are made from fossil fuels, refuse to biodegrade for centuries, and the modern lifestyle ensures that mountains of plastic are produced every year. Nearly 150 million tons of plastic is produced every year, and 99% of that is made from fossil fuels. There are plant based plastics like PLA out there, and though this one is made from corn, it still requires fossil fuels at various levels, and doesn’t really compost easily. Scientists at Imperial College London appear to have made this wasteful product a bit sweeter.

Researchers have found a way to create plastic from sugar. Or more specifically, using a polymer extracted from glucose in trees and grasses. Researchers say the source of the plasic are fast growing non-food crops, and they don’t require a small area could produce a large amount of plastic. Also, the process is less energy intensive and the plastic would biodegrade in a few months. The new plastic could be commercially available in just 5 years from now.

Source: Telegraph, TreeHugger

Nature is full of colors, be it plain or vivid, it’s all there. Artist Norm Magnusson however, has found his skill in adding colors, or decoration to nature. While the idea of “decorating nature” is ambiguous and may well be termed an exercise in futility, it still seems to be a bit interesting and it does make for some intriguing pictures.

The artist is based in a rural town near Woodstock, New York, and he uses nature as his canvass. Magnusson’s work isn’t tough to notice, for nature is “decorated” in colors different from the natural surroundings. Fallen leaves in bright colors and stripes against a brown background are tough to miss, and stones with colored patterns stand out from the rest.

The idea behind the series is deep. Magnusson intends to explore the relation humans have with nature, and our desire to use nature the way we see fit, and the desire to bring order to spontaenity of nature.

Source: Decorating Nature, Designboom

Danish shipping conglomerate Maersk has found an easy way to save money by saving fuel, and drastically reducing its environment footprint; all by slowing down a bit. It is conventional wisdom that moving at optimum speeds can improve fuel efficiency, but when you’re a shipping company, the most common way is to move at full throttle so that you deliver the cargo as fast as possible, it’s just business. And that is where Maersk scored.

Two years ago, the company decided to halve its top cruising speed. As a result, the journey that earlier took three weeks now takes a month. But more importantly, the company achieved a 30% saving in its fuel cost, and also reduced carbon emissions by the same amount. The reduced costs also helped the company remain competitive during the recession and a time of rising fuel costs. That clearly is a very wise approach. Just so you know, driving at 55mph in place of 65mph, can reduce emissions by 20% and increase fuel economy as well.

Source: TreeHugger

These bulbs utilize a combination of nanofiber-based reflectors and photoluminescent nanofibers, as these fibers come in contact with electric current, they give out white light. The output is 55 lumens of light per watt consumed. The company says the device should be ready for the market in 3-5 years.

Source: Popsci

The town of Levallois-Perret, near Paris in France has come up with a new way to heat water in pools; they use heat from sewage to do that. Sewage in the town’s pipes averages to a temperature of nearly 68 Fahrenheit, and Sophie Deschiens, the town’s Environment Councilwoman thought it was a bad idea to let all that go waste. She looked for solutions, and finally found a way to channel that heat into the town’s pools.

A series of stainless steel plates filled with a heat trapping liquid were attached to the sewage pipes. The heat that these plates gain can then be transfered to the pools. The pools, spas, and jacuzzis in the town’s new aquatic center, are all heated by this mechanism. The project cost $650,000 to implement, and is hoped to recover its costs in a decade.

Savings on the environmental front though, are huge. The town’s energy costs have gone down by 24%, and its green house emissions have been slashed by 66%.

Source: Fast Company

Soccer is the most popular game in the world, and now it’s one that will add fun to generating energy. The fun energy generation part is up to the sOccket ball, a soccer ball that can generate energy. Intended for use in Africa, about 15 minutes of play with the ball will generate enough electricity to power an LED light for 3 hours, or to charge electronic gadgets.

The sOccket, will be a little different than the standard ball used in the game. But the difference can be compensated by the advantages it offers. Still in the prototype stage, sOccket uses an inductive coil mechanism, like the one used in shake-to-charge flashlights.

Soccer is very popular in Africa, and the primary way to get lights for many homes there is to burn kerosene lamps. The LED lights this ball will power may substantially reduce the use of these lamps, and the health hazards that come with burning kerosene indoors.

Source: Discovery