Turn this Black Friday Green: How to Have an Eco-Friendly Black Friday
Posted By: Carlee Vellinga
Thanksgiving preparations have most likely begun in your home. You may be pulling out your decorations, adding to the growing dinner shopping list and filling up your calendar with family gatherings. The holiday season requires extra energy. If you are planning on doing holiday shopping on Black Friday, check out these energy saving tips. You can make the holiday season more green with a few simple steps. The advice in this article by Jennifer Barry at Earth911.com explains how to save time while being mindful of your energy use.
5 Steps to an Eco Black Friday
Black Friday: A day where millions of shoppers, still weary and full from the previous night’s Thanksgiving feast, flock to retail stores across the country at pre-dawn hours to fill their carts and bags with deals aplenty as the holiday shopping season officially kicks off.
Phew. Are you tired from that description? We are too, but as wearisome as that might have been, it’s nothing compared to the drain that can be Black Friday. While deals abound, crowds, traffic, early hours and the like can make the day after Thanksgiving a drain on your energy and the environment.
But don’t fret. Follow our easy guide to a greener Black Friday, and we promise you’ll not only reduce your environmental impact, but perhaps your stress level as well.
Google Buys 20 Years Worth of Wind Farm Energy
Posted by: Micah Pratt
In recent years, Google has built its image around its environmentally conscious stance. Now, it has purchased clean energy from wind turbines to become more energy efficient. Here is an article from mashable.com about Google’s recent contract with an Iowa farm that will help it decrease its carbon footprint.
Google Buys 20 Years’ Worth of Wind Farm Energy
Google has just signed a contract with an Iowa wind farm to purchase clean energy at a set rate for the next 20 years.
This move is in keeping with Google’s strong environmental stance; with specific regard to energy consumption and wind-generated energy, the company has been championing PowerMeter and has invested $38 million in wind farms this year alone.
In fact, Google gained the ability to buy and sell electricity like any other public utility in February in order to achieve its goals for carbon neutrality and more efficient energy use in its massive data centers. This Power Purchase Agreement is the first deal brokered under the auspices of Google Energy.
On the official Google blog, Google’s SVP Operations Urs Hoelzle wrote, “On July 30 we will begin purchasing the clean energy from 114 megawatts of wind generation at the NextEra Energy Resources Story County II facility in Iowa at a predetermined rate for 20 years… This power is enough to supply several data centers.”
The company’s long-term commitment will generate a significant amount of capital for NextEra to develop more wind projects.
