(Clean TeQ), Microvi’s approach to water purification is fundamentally different from virtually any other water treatment company. With the highly efficient MB Water Solutions, Microvi applies cutting-edge biotechnology to cost-effectively treat major pollutants in water and wastewater without generating any secondary waste. To date, no other solutions exist to efficiently remove pollutants from water resources without secondary waste while still being capable of long-term, large-scale operation. The self-sustainable and self–cleaning nature of Microvi’s low-maintenance technologies further reduces energy and capital requirements, yielding significant savings for the customer.

“Nitrogenous compounds in drinking water continue to pose a serious health risk, yet traditional treatments are too expensive. They also create by-products that degrade the environment and are difficult to remove,” said Fatemeh Shirazi, CEO and founder of Microvi. “We are proud to work with Clean TeQ to bring Australians safe, healthy, life-giving water.””

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According to the Press Release, “Of the 4 billion wireless subscribers in the world, only 1 percent of them recycle their handsets. In the US alone, 130 million phones are retired each year. The global e-waste problem is substantial and growing, and is the target of eRecyclingCorps, a new Dallas-based company that made its debut today at CTIA. The company will help carriers buy back used handsets from consumers and ensure they are resold or responsibly recycled.

eRecyclingCorps is transforming the wireless device ecosystem by working with carriers to establish comprehensive buy-back programs that are customized and scalable. The company deploys a web-based platform that integrates directly into the point of sale system at carrier retail stores, where 60 percent of all US phones are sold. It makes valuable consumer trade-in incentives, efficient in-store collection and strict privacy controls an integral part of every new phone purchase. By partnering with eRecyclingCorps, carriers can reclaim subsidies, increase customer loyalty, and significantly reduce downstream e-waste.

Sprint, the first carrier to use eRecyclingCorps, has deployed the system in 1,100 company owned Sprint stores and 1,400 Sprint Preferred Dealers and through its online channels. Sprint’s buyback program gives customers an instant account credit for trading in eligible wireless devices. Sprint has announced an ambitious goal to achieve a wireless reuse and recycling rate of 90 percent as compared to device sales by 2017.”

Source: Press Release

Some interesting facts attached to it:

• Globally, only 1 percent of mobile phones are recycled (Source: USGS)
• Of the 275 million US mobile phone users, only 10 percent recycle (Source: EPA)
• 98 percent of consumers will recycle if they are given incentives (Source: ABI Research)
• E-waste is fastest growing waste stream in US (Source: EPA)
• Recycling 1 million mobile phones can provide 185 households with electricity for 1 year (Source: EPA)
• Nationwide, 130 million cellular phones go out of use annually (Source: EPA), creating an estimated 65,000 tons of electronic garbage

TD Bank’s new prototype stores will cover 3,800 square feet and cut energy consumption in half. Every inch will be dedicated to the green effort, from the solar panels on the roof to the wood from sustainable forests. Within the store, they will also use green cleaning products and recycle paper, glass, metal, batteries, and other materials. Other notable features include:

• Solar drive-thru canopy: a translucent canopy sheltering drive-thru areas that produces electricity for the bank’s use
• Kid’s center: a place for children to learn more about the bank’s green and financial aspects
• Customer service islands: a convenient information center for customers to learn more about the bank’s products and services
• Drive-up ATM: open 24 hours a day for convenient use by customers to access their accounts

In a recent interview the head of retail, Fred Graziano, shared some thoughts about TD Bank’s outlook on the green industry.

Green Street Journal: What factor or event ultimately led to the decision to go carbon neutral?

A: We can reduce our energy consumption, save money, and operate our business in a more sustainable manner. If we can build stores with solar panels – that generate energy we can use to power the store – for the same price or less than the stores we used to build, then that just makes good sense. We are proud of these first steps and know we have a lot of ground to cover, but we are happy to say that we are carbon neutral.

Green Street Journal: Do you think the decision to go green will have a significant impact on the decisions of potential customers?

A: We’re taking the environment seriously and we strongly believe this is the right thing to do for our business, customers, employees and the community. We want TD Bank to be as green as our logo.

Green Street Journal: Which of the renewable energy sources do you feel is the most promising? Are there any recent developments that lead you to believe so?

A: With the purchase of wind power, all 2,600 TD Bank ATMs from Maine to Florida will be green. TD Bank has purchased a block of renewable energy large enough to power all of its ATMs. We are using solar and hydro power as well. We think these are all great resources and we will try to use what makes sense for our operations.

The bank has made plans to open five to ten more green stores in the next two years. Their main goal is be constructed LEED certified to continue their commitment to stay green. This spring, TD bank plans to open a new store in Queens Village, N.Y. targeting the highest level of LEED certification, platinum.

Google has taken many steps to enter into the energy business. First they dipped their toes in Google PowerMeter. After that they created Google.org which invests in renewable research and development. They now created a new Google entity called Google Energy, LLC. This new entity filed at FERC to become a wholesale power marketer. There are around 1,600 United States entities who have FERC’s approval to operate as power marketers. Most of these are utilities. Google is always surprising us with jumping into new and exciting businesses.

Google Energy is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Google, Inc. (Google), a technology company focused on web-based services. Google Energy states that it was formed to identify and develop opportunities to contain and manage the cost of energy for Google. Google Energy states that it intends to act as a power marketer, purchasing electricity and reselling it to wholesale customers.

Google Energy – FERC

The Why Yacht. The designer has teamed up with Hermès to create a luxury green yacht with breathtaking views. It offers a 200 square meter master suite and a 30 meter opening stern.

Some neat green features include 900 square meters of solar panels. In addition, there is a diesel-electric propulsion system designed to save around 200 tons of diesel per year.

Nanawalls

Green technology is in its ascendancy due to a desire to clean up the planet. Consuming less natural resources and converting from brown to green energies are some of the most important topics in the political world today. Though many of us do not exist in the political world, we go to work and we come home every day. We all spend a large amount of time indoors, not in the nature that we are so desperate to protect. A company called Nanawall has created an innovative, green way to bring the nature to you, inside your home.

Using systems of large, folding glass walls, Nanawall allows its customers an unobstructed view of the outside world. Which, at any time can become part of the room should you desire the natural elements in your living space. Due to the folding nature of the Nanawall design, the outside world can either be kept at bay and viewed through the sliding or folding doors. Or, the doors can be opened up, letting the outside world inside the home.

Nanawalls products come in a variety of different framing options, including: wood, aluminum and aluminum clad. The products that Nanawall sells are NFRC/Energy Star certified, the wood framing options are made from Douglas Fir, Pine, Meranti, Spruce and American White Oak. All wood framing options are created with an eco-friendly water based pre-treatment. The aluminum frames are made from 50% recycled material, and come with an eco-friendly powder coated finish. In addition, Nanawall systems are known for their weather resistance with high marks in air infiltration and water penetration.

The recycling of electronics is slowly becoming big business. There are companies that withdraw the gold from computer processors, while others reuse different elements of our day-to-day electronics, turning them into new products that we all must have. This holiday season, Goodwill and Dell Computers are making it easy for consumers to recycle their unwanted electronic equipment. With 1,900 Goodwill stores participating in the Reconnect donation program. The Reconnect program allows consumers to recycle their products at little or no cost, proving an effective and cheap way to get rid of old electronic devices.

The Reconnect program began in Austin, Texas in 2004 and is celebrating its fifth year in operation. The Reconnect program, from that time has diverted more than 96 million pounds of electronic waste from landfills across the country. In addition, the Reconnect program has created 250 green jobs, which involve disassembling and remove components.

The participants of the Reconnect program receive a tax receipt regardless of the brand or condition of the electronic device. Donated equipment that meets a certain criteria may be re-sold while devices in need of repair may be refurbished, or simply broken down. For those who are looking to get a tax write-off while buying new electronic devices this year, the Reconnect program offers a great way to be a consumer as well as to be kind to the environment.

Wave power generator developed by Aquamarine Power took the energy award for Innovation in Engineering at the Engineer Technology and Innovation Awards 2009 in England today. Officially launched in November off the coast of Scotland, the “Oyster” is the only wave generator currently in operation. It rests on the sea floor just off shore, reaching just above the waterline. Energy is generated as it flexes forward and back with the waves.

Oyster is unique amid wave generators due to its low impact on the environment, relative low weight, and small onshore space requirements. Aquamarine was unable to comment on the cost to develop the Oyster, but they expect it will be competitive to other devices under development. Each Oyster should produce approximately 2MW.

“We expect our first demonstator farm to be deployed in 2012″ and they have an agreement with Aircity to “develop 1,000MW worth of sites by 2020″ said Angela Monteagle, a marketing executive with Aquamarine.

“Winning this award is fantastic news for Aquamarine Power and for the team at Queen’s University, Belfast. It recognizes that together we are driving innovation and progress in the wave energy industry.” said Martin McAdam, Chief Executive Officer of Aquamarine Power. The Oyster has garnered several awards including, “British Renewable Energy Innovator Award 2009″, and “Emerging Technology Promoter of the Year Award 2008.”

Waves run day and night year round regardless of weather conditions making this technology possibly more reliable than solar and wind. Still in the development stage, the next few years of Oyster’s operation will spread more light on how well they compete.

Owning a television is as common as using some form of transportation to get to and from work, nearly everyone has a television set. This year though, there is a change in the LCD/Plasma TV market, one that is both eco-friendly and has the shoppers’ wallet in mind. Many TV manufacturers including the Japanese firms like Panasonic, Sony, as well as others from around the globe have begun to produce a new wave of more economically and environmentally viable television sets.
While the components that go into making these new brand of TV’s, dubbed “eco-TVs”, may not be ideal, the amount of energy that is spent by them has been significantly reduced. For those who still own a cathode ray tube television, it is understood that it can be used as a heating device during cold winter months due to the amount of electricity that is required to operate the box. The same was true with plasma and LCD televisions, but that is quickly becoming a thing of the past. Due to innovation paired with common sense, some technology driven, the price of operating a TV will become significantly less.

Some of the new features in these power saving TV’s include more efficient backlighting, to cut down on electric operational costs. While other tweaks involve including a motion sensor in the television, which will only turn it on when movement is detected. For those who sleep with the TV on, this has the potential to save large amounts of coin on the electric bill. One of the big steps forward has been to reduce the amount of heat that a television produces. Using less power has allowed newer TVs to run cooler, so cool that there is no discernible difference from touching the front and rear of the set.

Eco-TVs are seen as the next big step in private entertainment, and many companies are beginning to focus on cutting costs of operating their sets. These sets include the Viera V series plasma set by Panasonic, which uses nearly half as much as what the previous set in the series produced. The Aquos series of TVs which are made by Sharp use less energy and are cheaper to run than their predecessors. Sony has also begun to set up production of eco-TVs, with their Bravia VE5 series of televisions, which use close to 40% less energy than traditional LCD TVs.

As the Eco-TV market is heating up, the TVs themselves are cooling down. Only time will tell what is to be the next advancement in television technology.

Green technology is the way of the future, as it will provide consumers and businesses a cleaner way of completing essential tasks while having far less of a negative impact on the environment. Green energy, in the forms of solar, wind, geo-thermal and hydro will soon gain a bigger foothold in electric grids across the world. There is a question that goes along with this new technology though, and an important one at that: since everything that humans make eventually falls apart, what will happen when clean energy creating substances become too old to be productive?

There is a natural life to all things, and photovoltaic cells are no different. There is a problem when the end-life phase occurs in the solar industry, that problem is that there is no true way to completely naturally dispose or recycle the product. In Europe, where the flair for solar power has taken off, steps are being taken to change this situation and create a “double green” industry. The idea of double green is that a product utilizes green technology, and can also be recycled to create another green product. First Solar, a company that makes photovoltaic cells has a system for recycling the solar panels that it builds. It has created a collection and recycling program for old and tired panels. The process of recycling involves shredding the module, then crushing it to break the bonds that have formed. From there the glass is removed, as are semi-conductor materials; the glass is cleaned up and the semi-conductor material leaches into large drums for 4-6 weeks. At the end of the process, the recycling process is incredibly efficient in recycling nearly all of the portions of the original module, with nearly 90% of the glass being reused and 95% of the semi-conductor material reused for future cells.

This process mainly happens in Europe however, where solar is an up-and-coming way of producing power. In the United States, there is currently no recycling program devoted specifically to photovoltaic cells, and they are usually disposed of under the regulations for hazardous waste. At the moment this is not a terrible problem due to the lack of initiative by politicians to create tax incentives that would help the solar industry grow at a rate where such recycling legislation would be needed.