Friends of the earth have launched E - Day, Energy Saving Day. It runs from 6pm on Wednesday 27th february until 6pm Thursday 28th February. The idea behind the day is to show how even the smallest energy savings can add up. As you will know if you are a regular visitor to ibuygreen we also want to encourage everyone to make any energy savings they can. It can all add up to a BIG saving that really make a difference.

27.02.08 

We have had a great start to the New Year with initiatives from Google and BT. Adding to those two Trevor Bayliss the inventor of the wind up radio has created a wind up music player. The Eco Media Player can store up to 500 songs and has several other functions including video player, FM radio, LED torch, photo viewer, memo recorder, data storage and a mobile phone charger.  The  player  retails at  £140  and Bayliss  hopes that  along with the wind up  radio this will  be  his legacy.  Winding the device for one minute will produce enough energy to power the device for 40 minutes music playback. The player can also be charged from a pc connection and the battery when fully charged can last for up to 20 hours.  Another fantastic initiative to save more energy. What next wind up phones? Apparently yes, Trevor Bayliss is talking with BT about a wind up mobile phone. We will let you know as soon as we have more information.

11.02.08 

In the last few weeks we have seen the UK government announce that schoolchildren between the ages 11 - 14 are to take compulsory cooking lessons in an attempt to tackle the ever growing obesity problem. Some classes even offer to teach teenagers about debt and how to avoid a lifetime of owing money. So why not have energy efficient classes?  If we could teach our children how to take a few simple steps to save energy in the home then hopefully habits learned in childhood are taken into adulthood and an energy efficient life. The savings potentially are massive. Unlike obesity and debt we are not quite at crisis point and this step would be a proactive move on behalf of the government showing serious long term commitment to reducing the impacts of climate change. Perhaps Mr. Brown, Mr. Benn and Mr. Balls need to get their heads together to make some real change happen!

07.02.08 

There must be something in the air this year as we have another good news story. Britain's leading home phone provider BT has invested 2 million pounds to improve the energy efficiency of it's handsets. Four new phones have been launched which will save 50% energy used by previous models. BT have also set themselves the target of making 90% of home phone handsets more energy efficient by the end of the year. This could save 195,000 tonnes of carbon emissions over the next three years. Gavin Patterson Group Managing Director at BT said "BT has continued to address environmental concerns by launching the phones. We know that our customers are just as keen to reduce environmental impact and, through these phones, we will jointly make a difference." Another great initiative to help us all be more energy efficient at home and save money on our electricity bills.

31.01.08 

Inspired by a blog by Mark Ontkush titled "Black Google Would Save 750 Megawatt-hours a Year" Google set out to create Darkoogle in a bid to save energy. An all white web page uses approximately 74 watts to display where as an all black page uses 59 watts. A saving of 15 watts. This may seem a small saving but when you consider that about 200 million people around the world use Google every day the savings potentially are significant. Unfortunately at the moment there are not the same options available as iGoogle but it is available in 2 formats in 47 countries. With the tag line ' Darkoogle is to remind us all to save energy in our daily life' we at ibuygreen totally agree. We applaud large companies such as Google taking the initiative to help us all save energy. It shows that some small changes really can make a big difference.

30.01.08 

The United  Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change opened today in Bali. The convention is being hosted by the Government of Indonesia and will bring together representatives from 180 countries. With the Kyoto Protocol expiring in 2012 it is vital that a further global action plan is put  in place to fight climate change. There are 3 main areas  for discussion over the next 2 weeks. These are to start the negotiations on a climate change deal for after 2012, to set an agenda and to decide when these negotiations will be concluded. ibuygreen will be keeping you up to date with all the news from the conference.

03.12.07