Perpetual Innovation

Author: SustainMe

  • WME Honorees | World’s most ethical Companies.

    WME Honorees | Ethisphere™ Institute:

    Check it out.

    This is the list of the world’s most ethical companies.

    There is a huge presence of US firms. One reason would be because there simply are so many US firms. It seemed that all were publicly traded, so they already are doing a lot of reporting and now are probably doing social responsibility reporting.

    But it is interesting to see.

    Look at the companies in the various sectors.

    The several that I thought should be one the list turned out to be there. In a couple cases in different areas than I original thought.

    Now it would be interesting to cross-reference these companies with their sustainability reporting/commitment.

    Very cool.

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  • Why Won’t Yahoo! Let Employees Work From Home? – Businessweek

    Why Won’t Yahoo! Let Employees Work From Home? – Businessweek:

    Oh boy, Mayer is gonna cause a lot of shake up  here with her everyone-has-to-travel-to-work policy.

    Apparently (Today Show) she now as a nursery set up next door to her office for her new convenience. That helps new parents, maybe, but not the ones with kids in school or those people who live a longer way from the office.

    But Mayer is shaking it up.

    There has long been the debate about the down side of work-at-home (WAH). And a tech leader like Yahoo  might just be a place to face-to-face interaction that is lost from WAH.

    But, I fear that making everyone drive to work is a major setback to telecommuting efforts that are so very beneficial to the efforts of sustainability.

    Studies show that the true costs of telecommuting are far closer to $40,000 per year than to the $5,000 cost of gas. Most of that savings goes to the employer. Closer to $45,000 if you want to include the less-tangible costs of externalities such as infrastructure and greenhouse gases (GHGs).

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  • Should Monsanto own patent rights on the elements of life? – Los Angeles Times

    Should Monsanto own patent rights on the elements of life? – Los Angeles Times:

    Few people realize how patent intensive the food industry has become.

    The top 10 seed companies account for 2/3 of all seeds sold.

    A huge % of the seed sold are patented. Wow!

    “Over an 11-year period, the cost per acre of planting soybeans has risen a dramatic 325%.” Ouch!…
    BUT if the yield is improved, then the added cost to sow is well justified.

     Remember that genetically modified  (GMO) can/possibly be patented, organic not.

     But owning a gene and the patent on all activity to monitor/manage/tread based on that gene has interesting implications.  You can expect the pharma industry to watch this law suit in plants very closely.

    Keywords: GMO, organic, plant patents, Monsanto, seeds, farming, law suit,  genes,

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  • Taking a fresh look at solar energy’s benefits | Highlands Today

    Taking a fresh look at solar energy’s benefits | Highlands Today:

    Local article to Central Florida. It is good to see some movement on solar.

    Great. We all need to be more sustainable. Glad to see Coronado Solar getting out there and making it happen.
    Couple areas that aren’t precise. Probably lost something in the translation. Payback on solar hot water is usually 2 to 4 years. Really good ROI for pools (unless you like to polar-bear it in the winter). Payback for solar is usually 6 to 9 years; that’s probably the 6.5 years mentioned in the article.
    CO2e saved per home is about 6.68 metric tons per year based on 11.3MW per year with typical US electric power. (http://www.epa.gov/cleanenergy/energy-resources/refs.html)
    That would be about 155 trees planted from seedlings for 10 year (not 20+ years life of the solar array). (http://www.epa.gov/cleanenergy/energy-resources/calculator.html)
    It is always hard to visualize our carbon foot print. Each person in the US produces 5 metric tons of CO2 (or equivalent). Figure 2 people per household. And an acre of trees/forest takes out about 2 MTons per year (until about 30 years, then only 1MTon). So a household of 2 needs to plant at least 5 acres of new forest today to cover all of their burning of ancient forest (coal and oil) for the next 20-30 years.
    Oh well, energy-ize your house and save 15%-25% of your utilities for the change in your pocket. Get solar water heaters and save 5-15% and plan to go solar completely within the next few years. Maybe start the array and get the meter so it can easily be expanded in the future. Prices continue to drop and efficiency improve:-)
    Visit: http://www.carbonfootprint.com to calculate your own carbon footprint, individual or business.

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  • Iris From Lowes. PowerMeter from Google

    Iris:

    Setting up a smart home gets a whole lot easier. This helps to monitor the home energy use as a kind of side benefit.

    One of the advantages of doing this security and home management stuff yourself (DIY) is that the likelihood of actually utilizing it, and utilizing it well increases.

    The cost is about $10 per month for more services and longer record times, however?

    This probably can’t replace the home monitoring system like ADT. They live-monitor and use the telephone line (not the INet); The Homeowner’s Insurance company likes that type of monitoring for home and fire.

    Consider using power monitoring with such visual monitoring tools as those provided free from Google’s PowerMeter: http://www.google.com/powermeter/about/

    Simply monitoring power is the key. Two studies reviewed by Google show that a community that engaged in power monitoring had a 71% residential engagement. In a pilot study in Dubuque, Iowa with IBM showed a community realized 11% energy savings simply from monitoring and metering their power usage using SmartMeters… Well, and usage/behavioral changes in usage, of course.

    Just thinking, a little energy savings now could save us all a bundle of money this year and every year thereafter. And, oh, by the way, it would save a lot of impact on the environment. Smart Meters sound smarter and smarter.

    The greenest kilowatt is the one never used at the meter, never distributed down the transmission lines, never generated in the powerplant and the full source never mined or pumped.

    Just thinking.

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