At least once a week a familiar scene plays itself out at BusinessGreen's Central London bunker. Having got into work someone will realise their mobile phone's battery is about to run out and will trail round the office asking if anyone has a charger. If they are lucky they may find a cable, but almost inevitably it will not be compatible and they will be left spending the rest of the day with a dead phone and a lurking feeling that they have become temporarily detached from the 21st century.

It is a scene recognisable to anyone who works in an office and one that Simon Daniel, chief executive of Moixa, reckons he could soon eradicate with a mobile phone battery that can be recharged through a USB port.

The technology has already been pioneered through the USB rechargable AA batteries which Moixa launched to much media fanfare last year and the development process required to apply the same principle to mobile phone batteries is at an advanced stage with Daniel already carrying a working prototype around with him. All he has to do when his phone dies is take the back off, fold out the USB connector and plug it into the nearest computer or laptop.

"It will be great for the business traveller allowing them to charge their phone almost where ever they are without needing to carry round the charger," he predicts.

The only downside is that incorporating the USB connector eats into the space usually occupied by the battery cutting its life by about 10 percent, but Daniel argues that with battery lives continuing to lengthen this is not a major problem.

For Daniel the bigger problem is not with the battery, but mobile phone manufacturers infuriating refusal to embrace more standardised components. "Distribution is difficult because the requirements for each phone are different," he admits. "But we are talking to many of the big mobile phone firms about the technology and we hope to have a model that can recharge from a USB port available early next year."

Like Moixa's AA batteries - which aim to replace some of the 15 billion batteries that are produced and disposed of each year - the new phone battery also has green credentials, Daniel argues, as it could ultimately replace the unwieldy, resource intensive and energy inefficient battery chargers that currently come with all mobile phones.

Meanwhile, Moixa is looking to promote adoption of its existing AA green batteries by offering firms the option of ordering batteries featuring their brand livery, which they could then give out at conferences and customer events as a more useful and sustainable alternative to dishing out countless free USB sticks to weary delegates.

Daniel is convinced, however, that Moixa's battery innovations are just the "ambassador" for a far more revolutionary green technology that could ultimately eradicate all the energy inefficient electronic device chargers which currently litter our homes and offices.

"Whether it's phones, or MP3 players, or laptops, or even printers, people are buying more low power devices and fewer large mechanical devices, like washing machines and fridges," observes Daniel. "As a result our power needs are shifting. This century is all about low power DC consumption. Most electrical devices we now buy have low power loads, but the problem is that it is very inefficient to make this new world work with the old world.

"You end up with a house full of adapters for turning the high voltage household current into low voltage DC suitable for these devices and most of these adapters are so inefficient they lose 20 to 60 percent of the energy going in. You can feel this happening when you put your hand on them and they are hot."

This is a not insignificant problem considering that there are an estimated 10 billion AC/DC adapters in use globally with the equivalent of three percent of the US' entire electricity supply thought to be wasted as a result of their inefficient transformers.

There are hopes that the combination of more energy efficient devices coupled with innovations in long distance DC cables and wider adoption of local energy grids powered by on site renewable power sources could result in a transition towards DC energy grids, thus eradicating the problem of inefficient transformers. But such an energy revolution remains decades away and in the meantime we are stuck with an extremely energy inefficient scenario whereby mains electricity is increasingly ill-suited to many of the devices we now use.

It is this considerable dilemma that Moixa is hoping to resolve with a new device, currently at the pilot stage, which aims to provide every home with one centralised, highly efficient AC/DC adapter. 

According to Daniel, this so called Energy Server would plug into a typical AC socket and convert the energy to DC using a transformer boasting efficiency far in excess of that found in typical charging devices. A hub, similar to a USB hub, would then allow different DC devices to be plugged into the server for charging.

While the primary purpose of this device would be to improve energy efficiency and remove the clutter of multiple mobile phone chargers and the like, Daniel is adamant that it will also pave the way for far more efficient use of energy generated from onsite renewable technologies such as solar panels.

"The energy server can connect to the mains, but it can also connect to a local renewable energy source, such as a solar panel, which generates DC power that can be used directly by the server so you avoid the inefficient conversion altogether," he explains. "You can then switch between getting the power from the mains or the solar panel automatically as required."

As adoption of the next generation of low voltage lighting becomes more widespread the server could also be connected to the building's lighting network, improving efficiency still further by replacing the transformers that currently need to be incorporated in low voltage bulbs.

Daniel reckons Moixa is on track to roll out a version of the server that is both easy to install and priced for the mass market early next year. "We estimate it could cut 5 to 10 percent off domestic energy consumption within five years," he adds.

In an ideal world, a rapid transition towards long distance DC cables or local intelligent energy grids would make this innovation little more than short term fix. But with no sign that such a massive investment programme is imminent Moixa's Energy Server promises to provide an elegant solution to the inefficiencies caused by the massive proliferation of low power gadgets and the inadequacy of existing charging technologies.

Posted by James Murray on May 18, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Mobile phone giant Nokia last week became the first mobile manufacturer to launch a system designed to help its customers save energy, by alerting when their phone battery is full after charging.

The Nokia 1200, 1208 and 1650 will be the first models to feature text alerts that will automatically remind users to turn off their chargers when the phone's battery has been fully replenished.

The feature - which was first reported by BusinessGreen last year - will be rolled out across Nokia's product range in the future, the firm said. According to research from the Energy Saving Trust mobile phone chargers left on unnecessarily are costing UK consumers £47m a year and resulting in 250,000 tonnes of unnecessary carbon emissions.

Nokia appears to be trying to take a lead on energy saving initiatives after its newest chargers were given an Energy Star label by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and it announced aims to reduce charger electricity consumption by 50 percent by 2010.

"Ultimately we would like our users to be able to reduce their footprint by utilising the functionalities found on Nokia devices rather than using many separate devices such as cameras and MP3 players," added Nokia's director of environmental affairs, Markus Terho. "The new energy saving charger alert is part of this ongoing strategy."

Phil Muncaster

Posted by James Murray on May 17, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Moixa launched its USBcell rechargeable batteries back in September but the arrival of various new gadgets at Christmas finally forced my hand into using these clever units for the first time this month. In a word: brilliant.

The USBcell charges via any powered USB port with simple light alerts to show when the units are charging, nearly charged and charged. The plastic cap protecting the USB connector is removable and attaches via what would appear to be an elastic string that may look a bit flimsy but feels robust.

Two AA batteries cost £13 but with garage shops talking fortunes on Christmas day to feed insatiable toys, games and other devices, that's not such a bad price. At least I now have a working radio in the bathroom.

Of course, the ability to recharge batteries is not new but if, like me, you carry a laptop around with you and have a poor record on remembering peripherals, this is a convenient way to mitigate forgetfulness - not to mention the financial and environmental cost of constantly buying new disposable batteries.

Moixa has a strong UK retail presence and several ingenious ways to apply its trick to forthcoming AAA and other battery form factors so look out for more USB rechargeable batteries later this year. 

Martin Veitch

Posted by James Murray on January 29, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Flexible working – you know it makes sense.

OK in certain circumstances you can't work from home, but for those of us who just need a bog-standard word processor, email and maybe access to a smidgen of back-office data.

Just think of all that time wasted battling through London's transport infrastructure, especially when six evenly distributed snowflakes settle on railways lines leading to Paddington, Euston, King's Cross, Liverpool Street, Victoria and Waterloo.

And now the TUC and the CBI seem to agree that flexible working is the way forward.

The perennial opponents joined forces with lobby group Work Wise UK earlier this week to sign a new concordat committing them to promote the "development and implementation of smarter worker practices" as part of a programme to significantly increased adoption of flexible working practices by 2011.

The proposals seem wholly positive for people's work-life balance and, according to the concordat, major environmental benefits will also accrue if flexible working takes off, including:

• Reduced congestion, for example, through staggered travelling hours.
• Reduced emissions, which will benefit noise and overall pollution levels.
• Better utilisation of the capacity of our existing transport infrastructure.
• Reducing the need for future additional infrastructure.
• Slowing down climate change.
• Making our air cleaner to breathe.

Meanwhile, new legislation is also playing a role in encouraging flexible working with a recently introduced law meaning that from April this year anyone who is a registered carer will have a legal right to ask their employer for flexible working conditions.

The downside of this drive towards flexible working practices for many businesses is that IT managers and helpdesks will have to roll out infrastructure to support home working initiatives. But personally if I don't have to commute for two hours per day, that's two hours extra work I could be doing, putting extra wonga on the firm's bottom line, and probably paying for any such rollouts pretty quickly.

Firms wishing to embrace flexible working can join companies such as BT and Transport for London by signing up to the concordat by emailing concordat@workwiseuk.org

Dave Bailey

Posted by James Murray on January 26, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Confusion is mounting over the environmental credentials of Apple's portfolio after research from the US Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool (EPEAT) appeared to contradict recent claims from Greenpeace that the company's products are some of the most environmentally damaging on the market.

The EPEAT research, which is backed by the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), instead ranked some of Apple's products amongst the most environmentally friendly available, granting relatively high rankings to several of its notebooks, desktops and monitors.

The EPEAT ranking system gauges products based on 23 mandatory criteria and 28 optional criteria covering areas such as the product's energy efficiency, take back scheme, ease of recycling and use of hazardous components and chemicals.

Firms have to achieve all mandatory criteria to gain a bronze ranking, a further 50 percent of the optional criteria to gain a silver ranking, and all the mandatory criteria and over three quarters of the optional criteria to be awarded a gold ranking.

While none of the assessed firms achieved a gold ranking, Apple was amongst the best performers achieving a silver ranking for all its assessed products, including its Mac Pro, MacBook Pro and Cinema HD monitor.

The research prompted several reports highlighting the apparent discrepancy  between the two ranking systems' conclusions and led to plenty of gloating from Mac enthusiasts who have long claimed Greenpeace produced bias research in order to target Apple and exploit the company's high profile.

However, Scot Case, marketing director at EPEAT, insisted there was no contradiction between the two ranking systems' findings and that neither could be used to prove the inaccuracy of the other. "My initial reaction was that comparing the two systems was like comparing apples and oranges, but on closer inspection it is more like comparing apples and cows," he said. "EPEAT focuses on ranking the products, Greenpeace is looking at the whole company."

Greenpeace agreed Apple's contrasting position in the two ranking systems could be explained by their different criteria. "If both reports used the same criteria and had such different rankings then one report would have to be bogus," said Iza Kruszewska, toxics campaigner for Greenpeace International. "But we are using very different criteria."

According to Kruszewska, the criteria used in Greenpeace's own report were narrower in focus, only looking at the chemicals used in the products and the manufacturers' eWaste policies, but more stringent in these areas compared to EPEAT.

"For example, one of the mandatory criteria for EPEAT is compliance with the RoHS directive," she explained. "But we don't give companies credit for that as compliance with RoHS is something they should be doing across the board as a minimum."

Similarly, one of the mandatory EPEAT criteria states that "all flat panel video display devices manufacturers shall report on the amount of mercury used in light sources in all covered products". But Kruszewska said that Greenpeace's system required firms to "ban Mercury, not report on it", in order to gain a high ranking.

Another difference is found in the two ranking systems' attitudes to PVC and brominated flame retardants. Whereas EPEAT states that ensuring large plastic parts are free of PVC and hazardous flame retardants is an optional criteria - one which the 16 ranked Apple products admittedly met - Greenpeace wants firms to commit to eliminating PVC and brominated flame retardants from the whole product and publish a timeline for achieving their elimination.

"We've got commitments from many manufacturers to be free of these chemicals by 2009 or 2010, but Apple has not given us any such commitment," said Kruszewska. "These chemicals are toxic and they are persistent within the environment."

Greenpeace also marked down Apple in its report for failing to clearly define the precautionary principle it follows in material selection and refusing to provide more detailed information about the substances used in its products.

The protest group further argued that Apple would not even qualify for the EPEAT bronze ranking if the criteria were applied globally as it does not operate a take-back scheme – mandatory under EPEAT's ranking system - in every region that the company operates.

However, Case rejected suggestions that the EPEAT standards were not stringent enough, noting that no product had yet achieved the higher gold standard ranking. "What EPEAT is trying to do is create market-based incentives for companies to improve the environmental standards of their products," he said. "We're educating corporate purchasers to buy EPEAT approved products and that has created an incentive for manufacturers to move towards achieving the gold ranking."

Apple said in a statement that it disagrees with Greenpeace's rating and the criteria it chose. "Apple has a strong environmental track record and has led the industry in restricting and banning toxic substances such as mercury, cadmium and hexavalent chromium, as well as many BFRs (brominated flame retardants)," the statement read. "We have also completely eliminated CRT monitors, which contain lead, from our product line."

But Kruszewska insisted Apple was falling behind in the race to improve the environmental sustainability of IT products. "Between the first and second edition of our report other companies - including some of the Asian players who are operating in far less stringent regulatory environments - have made substantial improvements to their environmental policies," she said. "But Apple has done very little."

She added that Apple's resistance appeared to be at least partly a result of their secretive corporate culture. "They don't like to be pushed and have told us that they don't give commitments about future products - they just get on and do it. Well if that's the case we wish they would just hurry up [and release greener products]," she said. "They are design leaders and we expect them to do far better."

Posted by James Murray on January 12, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (3)

Dell has revealed it is to publish a demanding set of new targets designed to reduce the company's environmental footprint over the next five years.

Speaking exclusively to GBN, Lena Pripp-Kovac, head of corporate responsibility and sustainability for Dell in EMEA, said that the company was preparing to announce a series of new environmental five-year goals as part of its annual sustainability report, which will be released in the next few months to accompany Dell's annual report.

She said that the targets would include raising customer awareness of environmental issues and improving the energy efficiency of products. "We want [environmental] goals across the whole lifecycle of the product," she explained.

More specifically, the company is considering a five year goal to ensure the use of renewable energy technologies at Dell manufacturing sites, according to Pripp-Kovac.

The revelations came a day after Dell launched a major new carbon offsetting initiative that will see it offer customers the opportunity to donate towards a reforestation programme designed to offset the carbon dioxide emitted from powering their new equipment throughout its expected three-year lifespan.

Pripp-Kovac said the Plant a Tree for Me service would be rolled out in the UK in April and that Dell was currently looking for a local environmental management partner to run a reforestation scheme in the UK similar to those schemes underway in the US.  She also confirmed that UK customers keen to offset would be asked to donate the same as their US counterparts, meaning they will be able to offset a laptop for £1 and a PC for £3 at current exchange rates.

However, she admitted Dell was unsure of the level of customer response the scheme will enjoy. "We don’t know how much interest there will be, but the most important part of this scheme is to raise customer awareness," she said.

The scheme is unlikely to win unqualified praise from environmentalists who argue that reforestation schemes are an ineffective means of offsetting carbon as the science surrounding the impact on climate change is still open to debate and there are no guarantees when a tree is planted that it will live long enough to absorb the expected levels carbon dioxide.

Pripp-Kovac accepted there were some valid concerns over reforestation schemes, but said that by partnering with The Conservation Fund and Carbonfund.org Dell had selected respectable and independent environmental bodies to undertake the offset calculations and manage the reforestation scheme.

She added that that the primary aim of the scheme was to raise customer awareness of climate change and insisted that offsetting was just part of a wider environmental strategy including improvements in products' energy efficiency and investment in renewable energy.

Posted by James Murray on January 12, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (0)

IT hardware giant Dell yesterday announced plans for a major new environmental initiative that will see it offer customers the opportunity to offset the carbon emissions generated powering their Dell systems.

The "Plant a Tree for Me" scheme was unveiled by Michael Dell at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, where he also issued a plea for other IT firms to implement similar environmental initiatives.

"Programmes like 'Plant a Tree for Me' and our global recycling efforts empower our customers to participate with us in making a difference," he told delegates at the event. "It is our hope that other companies in our industry will join us to improve the environment that we all share."

Under the scheme, which will be launched in the US in February before being rolled out globally in April, customers buying new Dell kit will be given the option to donate $2 for a laptop and $6 for a desktop towards tree planting programmes run by The Conservation Fund and the Carbonfund.org.

The company said that the trees would "absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, offsetting the equivalent emissions resulting from the production of electricity used during the average three-year use of a computer". 

The move is the latest in a line of initiatives designed to entrench Dell as one of the leading lights in the IT industry's push for more environmentally friendly business models. The company has won plaudits from environmentalists for its take back scheme and developments in more energy efficient systems, and was recently praised by Greenpeace for its strong record on removing toxic chemicals from its components.

"Dell is taking significant and inspired leadership toward ecologically intelligent design by initiating the responsible return of its products and its Plant a Tree for Me programme," said William McDonough, author of Cradle to Cradle and a renowned environmental expert. "It's a very exciting time; both programmes represent delightful strategies of hope for the clean and green future."

However, the tree planting programme is unlikely to receive unqualified praise from environmentalists, many of whom have raised doubts about the effectiveness of reforestation as a means of combating climate change. Critics claim that calculating the amount of CO2 a tree will absorb is an inexact science and is based on the assumption that the tree will survive for its entire projected life. One recent study even argued that reforestation programmes outside of the Tropics have no effect on climate change and may even increase global warming by darkening the surface of the earth. They argued that renewable energy schemes or energy efficiency programmes are a more effective way of offsetting carbon emissions.

Posted by James Murray on January 10, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Samsung is poised to launch a new fuel cell powered lap top by the end of the year, according to industry reports last week.

The Direct Methanol Fuel Cell will be integrated into a docking station for Samsung's Q35 ultraportable laptop and promises to deliver power eight hours a day, five days a week for a month.

GBN's sister site, The Inquirer, also reported that Samsung is working on miniature portable version that can deliver 15 hours worth of power "on a coffee cup's worth of fuel".

Samsung said that the 1,200 watt/hour cell delivers energy density four times better than that of its competitors.

Leading laptop manufacturers, including Samsung rival IBM, are investing heavily in developing fuel cell technologies that not only promise longer life spans than traditional lithium ion batteries but are also more environmentally friendly. Advocates of fuel cells argue they are carbon neutral as the fuel comes from plant matter and are far easier to dispose of as they do not have the toxic chemicals found in batteries.

Posted by James Murray on January 5, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (2)

According to the Energy Saving Trust, UK consumers' penchant for leaving their mobile phone chargers turned on at all times is costing them £47m a year and leading to 250,000 tonnes of unnecessary carbon emissions.

But mobile phone manufacturer Nokia thinks it may have come up with an innovative and refreshingly simple answer to this thorny problem.

According to Nokia's director of environmental affairs, Markus Terho, next year will see the launch of a major energy efficiency drive by the company that will see all new phones include a standard reminder on the display alongside the battery charged message reminding users to unplug their charger.

"We  know customers want to see more action from company's to help them reduce their environmental impact," he said. "Alongside work to reduce the energy consumed by our chargers we also think this reminder will prove effective."

It will be interesting to see if the kind of users already too distracted or lazy to turn off their chargers will respond to a written message on their phone screen. But Nokia is to be applauded for trying to find a simple solution to the problem and if it works effectively the company may have uncovered an effective solution to the problem while it continues to enhance the efficiency of its chargers.

Posted by James Murray on November 23, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (7)