The US President Barack Obama, and Vice President Joe Biden are expected to make important announcements that will provide stimulus for a greener future. An Obama administration official has said that the President will make announcement regarding Smart Grids during his visit to Florida. Obama’s announcement of a Smart Grid will be the government’s largest investment of economic stimulus funds in clean energy.

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A greener apple ...

Gadget makers have often been accused of being wasteful and excessive, leading to giant carbon footprints. Organizations like Greenpeace have been very vocal of these practices and now even consumers are beginning to take notice.

Apple, like other companies, has moved to reduce its carbon footprint, and has vowed to reduce it dramatically over the next few years. Apple, though currently ranked above competitors like HP and Dell, is still placed below the fold by Greenpeace.

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FedEx and UPS are both major package carriers/shippers, and this time around they are not just battling for business share and growth, but also to beat the other in sustainability targets.

Going green also makes business sense as a number of consumers and clients choose to go with the service offering a lower carbon footprint.

To that end, both are vehemently trying to reduce their carbon footprint, and setting new goals like the 20% reduction of carbon both of them have promised to achieve by 2020.

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The VARYAP Meridian Project, which was unveiled in Istanbul, the largest city in Turkey, recently has been described as Turkey’s “most green” development. A mixed-use, super-development which will house Istanbul’s new financial and business district, the project is located the Atasehir district.

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Though alternative energy can provide jobs across many sectors in the United States economy, formulation of a policy in this regard may take many years to develop.

State laws on “green” power and regional cap-and-trade schemes on greenhouse-gas have been instrumental in impelling local economies to start converting from plants based on fossil fuel to green jobs, US governors told Senate’s Committee on Environment and Public Works.

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The Sears Tower in Chicago is to undergo a “green” change that will cost a cool $350 million. The plan is to make the 110-story office tower,the tallest building in the United States as well as in the Western Hemisphere at a height of 1,450 feet, “a beacon for environmentally sound space.”

Green Sears Tower

American Landmark Properties, which owns Sears Tower, expects to cut the building’s electricity consumption by 80% and water consumption by 40%. Sears Tower, built in 1973, will be renamed Willis Tower later in the summer of 2009.

The 9-point “green” plan for Sears Tower includes the following measures:

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Tokyo will soon require domestic electricity companies to buy surplus solar power generated by households at about twice the current price.

The plan will come into effect as early as April the start of Japan’s new fiscal year. Tokyo wants to promote solar power as part of Japan’s efforts to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

“Japan has already led solar power technology in the world. With the scheme, we would like to firmly secure the lead.”

Japan’s utility companies now voluntarily buy surplus electricity from domestic solar panels. A bill will go to parliament to make buying mandatory for power companies at double the current price. Homeowners will be able to recover the initial cost of installing photovoltaic cell systems quicker and more homes will be encouraged to install solar panels.

Japan has pledged a 10-fold increase in solar power use by 2020 from today’s level and offer solar power systems at half the current price within four years.

Japan is badly behind in meeting its own targets under the Kyoto Protocol. With this new scheme, they will start catching up, or else.

Image courtesy of lcrf

In case you liked the green wall in Madrid, here’s something that breaks the conventionality. Blending with the trees and the nearby green, here’s a creative design by Parisian-based architects from R&Sie Architects who turned a concrete house into a living home.

Dubbed the Lost in Paris House, here’s a 130 sqm structure has been covered with more than 1,200 ferns that draw all their needs from some 300 traditional glass-blown beakers filled with a chemical mixture of bacteria, nutrients, and rainwater. Nothing short of breathtaking, Lost in Paris had to deal with the French planning rules for five years before turning into the creepy city rain-forest you see in here.

It sure brings the concept of the vertical garden to a new height. [StyleCrave via Wallpaper]

Dare to trash it?

Trying to educate or make people aware that we should be good stewards to our environment is not an easy task. I can’t think of any good reason, but it’s a fact. However, I’m trying to do as much as possible to change that. How? With images that will fuel your creative thinking and inspire to protect rather than ‘not care’. I looked online for some and I came out with these amazing green meadows surrounded by a stunning scenery that only adds to its perfectness. Wild, yet so pure, isn’t it?

Images courtesy of DCSL, tokyogoat, 0000ff, egefan, wetwater, thebmag

Dell is trying to reduce the packaging waste by 10% in the next four years. Using green packages for their products – intensive recycling and sustainability programs, the company will help preserve “more than 150,000 trees” and should see a drop in costs by some $8.1 million.

The effort is to integrate an “air-filled cushion technology and renewable materials including molded pulp cushions and recycled High-Density Polyethylene (HDPE) thermal-formed cushions”. Most materials they’ll recycle, are milk jugs and laundry detergent bottles – 2 million of these.

Meanwhile, Dell is trying to prove they’ve embraced the “green road” and announced that their Greenprint Advisor, a free web-based resource center is now available for U.S. businesses and organizations to evaluate their green initiatives. It’s expected to go globally soon, too.

Any other manufacturers to at least look green? – via TGDaily