How corporate reporting improved Microsoft’s supply chain

Read the full post at GreenBiz.

In the past two years we’ve reported on the growing number of organizations using the GRI Reporting Framework and Guidelines to gain better insight into their suppliers’ social and environmental performance.

Microsoft helped lead this wave in October 2011 when the company asked approximately 20 key hardware suppliers and service providers to use GRI’s Disclosure on Management Approach framework to report on how they meet the standards in Microsoft’s Vendor Code of Conduct. The code includes coverage of environmental and social issues such as business ethics, labor and human rights and respect for intellectual property.

These new reports supplement Microsoft’s existing onsite supplier auditing program by helping provide the multinational software corporation with additional information about the management systems key suppliers have in place to meet the standards set out in the Vendor Code of Conduct.

Microsoft has integrated these disclosure reports into its information management systems for these categories of suppliers. More important, it has begun using the data to help enhance some of its training and capacity-building programs to help ensure that suppliers meet the Vendor Code of Conduct requirements.

 

Al Gore, Google search for a greener Internet

Read the full story at GreenBiz.

How green is the Internet? Al Gore, Eric Schmidt and other experts packed a room at Google headquarters Thursday to explore the Internet’s environmental impacts. With a crowd of about 100 people, it was the third event Google has hosted on this topic since 2009.

A full agenda, Gore’s star power, and scores of sustainability and cloud services gurus led to plenty of  stimulating discussions. Overall, Jonathan Koomey, research fellow at Stanford’s Steyer-Taylor Center for Energy Policy and Finance, was particularly insightful.

 

Rare Earth Elements and Recycling Possibilities

Via Docuticker.

Source: Library of the European Parliament

From Summary:

Rare earth elements (REEs) are a group of 17 metallic elements mined in ores containing low quantities of REEs. They have particular properties essential to many industries. REEs are key components of clean energy and high-tech growth industries, and are therefore considered a critical raw material.

REEs are imported into the European Union (EU) from a very limited number of producers. Until recently, China has been almost the sole supplier of REEs to the rest of the world. Demand for REEs is high and steadily growing, since more and more products include REEs. The REE market is therefore of economic and geopolitical importance.

Alternatives to the primary supply of REEs from mined ores are being developed to bring relief to the REE market. Recycling of REEs, from materials used in spent products, provides a secondary supply. However, closing the REE “life-cycle” is a technological challenge, due to the specific uses and properties of the elements. Recycling REEs is still at an early stage.

•  Direct link to document (PDF; 194 KB)

 

Samsung Galaxy S4 Scores First Smartphone Sustainability Certification

Read the full story at Triple Pundit.

Last week, TCO Development granted Samsung’s Galaxy S4 the organization’s first ever sustainability certification for smartphones.

The certification is important for Samsung and the overall smartphone market for several reasons. First, as smartphones proliferate and accomplish everything from reducing usage of laptops to helping alleviate poverty in emerging markets, the world’s resources necessary to manufacture them, from rare earth metals to petroleum, will become more constrained and difficult to procure. Furthermore, consumers are becoming aware of the social cost resulting from their assembly, as last year’s Apple-Foxconn saga clearly demonstrated.

 

Kickstarting: A Desktop Mill For Carving Your Own Circuit Boards

Read the full story at Fast Co.Design.

3-D printing seems limitless. You dream it, you build it. But mostly, 3-D printing is only good for making inert plastic shapes. What if you want to build whole, blinking, glowing, communicating gadgets?

The Othermill, by Otherfab, is a desktop mill that wants to do for circuit boards what the MakerBot has done for physical objects. Namely, the mill could enable you to create highly accurate, totally custom electronic guts to fit inside the unique spaces of bespoke gadgetry.

 

Where the Wild Things Are (and How They’re Related)

Read the full post from the USGS Science Features Blog. To view demo videos and download the apps, visit http://www.usgs.gov/core_science_systems/csas/challenge.html.

The U.S. Geological Survey is pleased to announce the winners of the “App-lifying USGS Earth Science Data” Challenge. USGS invited developers, information scientists, biologists/ecologists, and scientific data visualization specialists to create applications for selected USGS datasets, presenting them in innovative and informative new ways. The Challenge was open January 9, 2013, to April 1, 2013. Entries spanned a cross-section of topics including taxonomic classification, conservation status of species, the range and distribution of animals, and one innovative app integrating social media with species occurrence records.

And the Winners Are…

The winner for Best Overall App is “TaxaViewer” by the rOpenSci group. TaxaViewer is a Web interface to a mashup of data from the USGS-sponsored interagency Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS), the Phylotastic taxonomic Name service, the Global Invasive Species Database, Phylomatic, and the Global Biodiversity Information Facility. TaxaViewer allows the user to view species-specific taxonomic data, invasive status, phylogenetic relationships, and species occurrence records. TaxaViewer innovatively combines these datasets using the statistical package R that many scientists are already using for data analysis. Additionally, rOpenSci has made all of the source code available via Github. The combination of innovative use of data and technologies along with the applicability of the name resolution functionality made this the winning application.

The Popular Choice App award goes to the “Species Comparison Tool” by Kimberly Sparks of Raleigh, N.C., which allows users to explore the USGS Gap Analysis Program habitat distribution and/or range of two species concurrently. In addition, the application’s “swipe tool” provides the ability to make visual comparisons of the maps. The application also incorporates ITIS data and provides external links to NatureServe species information. Fun and easy to use, the Species Comparison Tool provides an intuitive way to determine where species might be located as well taxonomic status and life history characteristics. The sleek design and engaging quality of the swipe tool makes this an application that is useful for the public and scientists alike.

“These applications provide us and, more importantly, the public with easy-to-use tools for accessing and viewing taxonomic and biogeographic data,” said Kevin Gallagher, USGS Associate Director of Core Science Systems. “The innovative and thoughtful ideas represented in these applications are great examples of how complex data can be made more accessible.”

Winners were selected based on relevance to the USGS mission, innovation in design, and overall ease of use of the application. Utilizing the Challege.gov platform, the general public chose the winner of the Popular Choice App award. Both applications will be available for at least one year for viewing and use by the public.

 

NASCIO Catalog of US State Mobile Apps

The National Association of State Chief Information Officers (NASCIO) has developed a catalog of mobile apps developed by state governments for use on tablets and smartphones. Users can click on the interactive map to see what apps are offered by their state or territory. Apps are also searchable by a list of 20 different categories, including health and wellness, economic development, tax and payment information and education loans and grants.

Currently, the most of the apps are related to tourism, DMV, legislative, and benefits information. The site also includes a submission form for apps not currently included.

 

The hidden energy costs in the wireless cloud

Read the full story at Smart Planet.

In recent years environmental groups like Greenpeace have campaigned major tech companies like Apple, Amazon, and Microsoft to clean up the cloud by focusing on using renewable energy to power data centers that house the servers that store much of our digital information. But a new white paper says that data centers should be the least concerning energy drainer when it comes to the “wireless cloud ecosystem.”

Researchers at The University of Melbourne calculated the energy consumption of the different components that are used to support cloud services accessed through wireless networks. What they found is that energy consumption by the wireless cloud will be massive, and data centers are only a fraction of the problem. Take a look:

 

New ‘Transient Electronics’ Disappear When No Longer Needed

Read the full story from the American Chemical Society.

Scientists today described key advances toward practical uses of a new genre of tiny, biocompatible electronic devices that could be implanted into the body to relieve pain or battle infection for a specific period of time, and then dissolve harmlessly.

These “transient electronics,” described here at the 245th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society (ACS), the world’s largest scientific society, could have other uses, including consumer electronics products with a pre-engineered service life. The meeting, which features almost 12,000 reports on new scientific advances and other presentations, continues through Thursday.

Dr. John Rogers, the lead researcher on this study, is an upcoming speaker in the Illinois Sustainable Technology Center’s Sustainability Seminar Series. The seminar, which will be simulcast as a webinar, is scheduled for Thursday, April 25 at noon CDT. Register for the webinar at https://www4.gotomeeting.com/register/507424991.

 

In-Situ Launches Water Monitoring Smartphone App

Read the full story at Environmental Leader.

On-site water monitoring instruments manufacturer In-Situ has announced its Smartroll Multiparameter (MP) Handheld Instrument and iSitu smartphone application for environmental monitoring applications.