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HP today introduced a new range of powerful desktop and notebook PCs and displays designed to meet the performance and reliability demands of business users while helping businesses increase efficiency and reduce their impact on the environment.

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What's the biggest and easiest thing that supermarkets could do to cut their energy bills and reduce their carbon footprint? They all know the answer. Put doors on their fridges.

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Microsoft recently opened Redmond Ridge 1, the company’s first purpose-built Research and Development Support (R&DS) facility designed specifically to consolidate computer labs from the main Redmond campus and house servers used in the development and testing of its software products.

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RVs are not known for their fuel efficiency. Some can need a gallon to get just 8 miles out of town. But here’s one that goes to the other extreme.

Originally envisioned as weighing just 50 pounds, and with a pullout drawer to extend its length for sleeping; inventor Paul Elkins‘ camper was designed for maximum efficiency. It had to endure winds of 60 mph, heat of 100+ degrees. And it’s not merely fuel efficient. It uses no fuel at all.

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A hot shower is relaxing, but is also a huge waste of energy: we heat our water with massive amounts of natural gas, oil or electricity, then transport the heated water to our tubs for a few seconds of sudsing, before washing it down the drain full of raw, wasted heat and energy! What if we could recapture this untapped source of wasted energy by transferring the heat from that shower waste-water to cold incoming water? The EcoDrain, a simple heat exchange unit, does just that, saving water heater use by up to 40%.

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A silver lining of the economic downturn is that efficiency has moved to the top of the business agenda. The recently enacted U.S. stimulus package includes more than $11 billion in funding for energy efficiency funding that will hopefully achieve the trifecta of saving energy, money, and jobs. And companies of all types are embracing efficiency to cut costs while improving environmental performance.

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Dell has created a useful list of energy efficiency tips related to computer usage

dell efficiency tips

Researchers at Purdue University have shown how to reduce fuel consumption and dramatically improve the efficiency of hydraulic pumps and motors in heavy construction equipment.
The new designs incorporate two innovations: They eliminate valves now needed to direct the flow of hydraulic fluid in heavy equipment, and they also might incorporate textured "microstructured" surfaces inside pumps to improve performance.

Research has shown the "valveless" design alone could reduce fuel consumption by 40 percent. Further savings could be realized by combining the valveless design with the advanced microstructured surface concept, said Monika Ivantysynova, Maha Fluid Power Systems Professor in Purdue's School of Mechanical Engineering.

fuel consumption efficiency energy efficiency pumps motors

IF ANYBODY should be on top of the world today, it is Amory Lovins. That is not just because the energy visionary makes his home on a mountain in Old Snowmass, Colorado. Rather, it is because today’s interrelated energy and climate difficulties have at last made the world see the importance of resource efficiency, energy innovation and holistic design—principles that he has been advocating for nearly four decades.

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Networking giant Cisco Systems has a goal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from its operations by 25 percent in the next four years–with the help of technologies it’s created. Cisco also wants to help customers do the same. Correspondent Sumi Das looks at green innovations at Cisco, including: an HD video-conferencing system, energy-efficient data centers, and a new office environment that encourages employees to work from unassigned spaces.

cisco greenhouse gas emissions efficiency