In this economic crisis, one always wonders if one is in the right job. Well, being eco-friendly can be very benefitting even monetarily do. Forbes recently came up with a list of environmental jobs with salaries easily over $100,000.

The top 10 job include:

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Biodegradable plastic would be a welcome change that will surely take us to our world of green. A young NY based company Perf Go Green has come up with a range of products from commercial trash bags to plastic drop cloths that will help reduce plastic waste.

Looking at the hug mass of plastic that hits the garbage dump, the introduction of biodegradable alternative would be a big step towards a greener earth.

Good news is that Perf Go Green products incorporate recycled plastics, combining them with Oxo-Biodegradable proprietary method. This method makes their bags easily decomposable into simple products when exposed to microorganisms, moisture and oxygen; contrary to regular plastic that takes hundreds of years to breakdown.

If true, this would be a breakthrough!
Via treehugger

PETA’s demand for replacing cow milk by human breast milk just went a step further. The animal loving organisation sent a letter to the management of famous ice cream brand Ben & Jerry’s urging them to do a big favour to cows and customers by switching to breast milk.
The inspiration to bring breast milk to your plate came to PETA from the Swiss Storchen Restaurant. Apparently, the owner of the restaurant, Hans Lochen, has come up with a menu made from human breast milk. He has developed some recipes out of experimenting with his wife’s breast milk. Lochen was extremely excited about bringing a new milk revolution when the authorities intervened and disapproved his plan. The restaurateur had placed ads for human donors.
This is just the beginning of yet another PETA battle. Experts find the practice unethical because if breast milk is used instead of cow milk, mothers might start putting profit before the needs of their babies.

Hmmm….quite an interesting POV…will it be us, the humans over animals or the other way around?
Via treehugger

A beer that’s green!!! Sounds absurd? Well don’t be too surprised. After organic and biodynamic wine it is green beer that is making news these days.
Going by the name of Cascade Green, this organic beer company manufactures the fuzzy liquor in Tasmania Australia with a commitment towards a greener life. Their special product is called ‘Beer of the Earth’ as Cascade Green has been consistently working for over 6 years to reduce the energy and water consumption by 16% and 30% respectively in the manufacturing process.
The website is an extremely vibrant affair. But you have to be more than 18 years of age to access it. Here I read about the brewery’s green location that is surrounded by 250 hectares of pristine forest with Mount Wellington in the backdrop. The company is doing its best to maintain the beauty of the natural surroundings. And it is also taking special care to neutralise carbon emissions by purchasing carbon offsets.
Via cascadegreen

Clean diesel car buyers in Japan will now be rewarded incentives by the next fiscal year. The government is looking to reduce carbon-dioxide emissions and is willing to go the extra mile for those who help them achieve their goal. And it’s certainly not the first time Japan will be doing so. If you remember way back in 1998, the Japanese government offered consumer incentives on hybrid cars for nine years to promote gasoline-electric vehicles when they were first launched.
The cars in discussion will be those which meet the tighter regulations on nitrogen oxide (NOx) and particulate matter (PM) emissions. These cars will be introduced in Japan by October 2009. News is that Nissan Motor Co will probably be the first to launch a diesel car that meets the criteria mentioned above. Honda, Mitsubishi and Fuji too will follow suit. Another thing to note is that the only brand selling diesel passenger car, Mercedes-Benz, will not clear the next emission standards.
Diesel cars emit less carbon dioxide and are 20-30 per cent more fuel efficient than gasoline cars.
Via enn

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In this IT age where PC’s and Laptops are ubiquitous, the carbon footprint/emissions from every singe PC in the world matters! An efficient power management strategy is required to avoid an energy crisis. The free software from Verdiem viz. Edison is one such green-product.� Released on Wednesday, this eco-friendly software saves Your PC’s Energy at home/ office by monitoring energy consumption by the machine in an efficient manner. It allows a person to schedule his/her computer’s entering the low-power mode while working at office/ home.�
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According to an estimate PC’s consume about ten percent of a home’s energy bill even in the screen saver mode! It emits CO2-the notorious GHG in amounts equal to a normal non-hybrid car! That means though you might be actively voicing your concern for environmental issues on various forums on the worldwide web; you are equally responsible for global warming thanks to your PC!� �

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But now, hopefully things will change as Edison has arrived. It lets the PC to enter a “suspend” state, which uses less energy. Users have the flexible option at hand to shut down the screen and hard drive before their PC enters the suspended state. Edison runs on Windows XP or Windows Vista and its license is meant for single person use. Its manufacturing company Verdiem estimates that the eco-friendly software saves upto 410 kilowatt hours of power per year. This corresponds to a saving of $36.50 in your electricity bill! The amount might look small to you as compared to the overall bill but in today’s time of skyrocketing inflation every single dollar counts! Similarly, every small step towards environmental friendliness helps in paving way for a greener and safer future.
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Via: green-pc

The latest entry in the world of diverse wastes yielding valuable “biogas” is yours truly, human excreta! We have heard about astronauts up there in space breathing oxygen churned out from their own urine earlier. Now down here on earth, our households will get powered by our own collective poo. Of course, this isn’t something that will happen in the whole world simultaneously for such an exclusive power generating mechanism will be test run under a $1.1 million pilot project. The latter undertaken by Terasen Gas of British Columbia (Canada) which is determined to purify “biogas” from human waste. The procedure will take place at the Lions Gate sewage treatment plant. This project happens to be the first of its kind in British Columbia although efforts to do the same are going on in the United States. Tearsen hopes to extract biomethane (biofuel) at the end of the process and distribute it via its existing natural gas distribution system. Methane gas is produced by sewage treatment via processes like decomposition / digestion of sewage and solid-liquid waste separation.

This gas can then be used to generate electricity for residences. Doug Stout, Terasen’s VP of marketing and business development says, “This pilot project will provide enough energy for 100 homes and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 500 tonnes each year”. Once the results of pilot project (expected to begin by July 2009) are found to be satisfactory, the company will pep-up its efforts to harvest methane from agricultural wastes as well. And perhaps farm waste together with that from humans will provide enough raw-material for large-scale production of biomethane. Definitely the news is a promising one. Also, it is interesting to note that after making equipments, gadgets & technology around them as sustainable, human beings themselves will be sustainable resources for electricity generation!

Via: green.yahoo.com

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The image of a happy Sarah Jessica Parker walking around on the streets of New York wearing absolutely drop dead gorgeous Manolo Blahniks or Jimmy Choos in Sex and the City will forever be embedded in our hearts and mind.� From personal experience, I can say that beautiful shoes make a happy woman. However, companies like Miôn, Simple Shoes, Planet Shoes, TerraPlana take this concept to a whole new level. They have come up with eco-friendly shoes which not only make women (and men) happy but they also make for a very happy planet.� These shoes come in every style imaginable for men as well as women. They are made completely out of recycled material, animal friendly products and relatively harmless chemicals. What more, the price range for happy earth shoes is quite competitive with shoes costing as less as $74. GreenPiggies have come up with a similar line for children so that our tiny tots learn a lesson or two in saving mother earth.

With eco-friendly shoes, organic food, vegan skin products, one can only imagine what will be the next step in the race to save our planet. Eco-friendly cars have been the talk of the town ever since companies like Honda and Genepax have launched cars that run on water. The commercial viability of these products are still questionable, considering one does not see many people wearing eco-friendly shoes and driving eco-friendly cars. Awareness, thus, become the need of the hour.

via Source

Being from the technology background does not necessarily mean that one has an eco-bent of mind. Going green is not just an activity. It starts with forming a similar mindset and that’s usually the hard part. So it came as a very motivating surprise when I read about the eco-responsibility initiative taken up by Sun Microsystems, an industry giant by many standards, to modify their data-centers (place where a lot of energy-consuming technical stuff happens on many huge machines simultaneously) in such a way that they emit less heat and CO2 and become smaller in size while not compromising with issues such as capacity and security of these data-centers. I felt that if a huge company like Sun is taking such a definitive step towards “going-green”, I as a speck in this huge universe also have certain responsibilities towards planet Earth.

I didn’t just want to take a theoretical green-turn. You can either talk about saving the planet or you can save the planet. I wanted to do something definitive like Sun. After much thought, I have realized one of the worst habits of most office-goers like me. At the end of the day I never shut down my PC. I always leave it as it is before signing off for the day. While it may seem like a very trivial matter but imagine the cumulative effect of billions and billions of PCs never being turned off day after day, year after year. The very thought is over whelming to me and devastating to the planet. I urge all reading this post to ponder over this for a moment and then act. One without the other is immaterial.

Via Sun

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Tired of a soaring electricity bill? Concerned for nature, want to reduce global warming but are a victim of lousy habits, always forgetful about switching off the lights or fans when you leave a room? For all those who are perfect example of “old habits die hard” notion but are willing enough to adopt greener ways, California based Agilewaves has come up with a smart device- The Resource Monitor. The device is native integrated system which functions in real time to monitor the electricity, gas and water consumption of your house. With the real monitor, you can carry out your chores without being worried about a hefty bill at the end of the month as you can set specific monthly targets for consuming these three facilities. The device uses behaviorally-driven quantitative feedback by the users for effective monitory. It is fit for use inside homes and offices. Resource monitor displays the consumption details and carbon footprint of a household/office via a built-in touchscreen interface or a password protected web page.

As I already said, the system is a real time analyst so now you can get hourly details about the eco-footprints of your daily activities inside your home/office. This well-structured monitoring approach helps in tightening the noose over reckless consumptions and wasteful activities. The company says its latest resource monitor tracks the performance of major appliances and then, calculated the resource consumption room/floor wise. Features like Standard browser application, real time data display, intuitive graphic UI, temperature data in key locations, budget setting and trend analysis and visualize time-series data to name a few, make Resource Monitor the ultimate watchdog device. The appliance comes from a responsible software company and it looks after your social, environmental and financial performance in a well–organized and efficient manner. Well readers, I m thoroughly impressed and would certainly go for it! What about you?

Via: agilewaves