Why phubbing is not just anti-social but bad for the environment too

Phubbing, when a person snubs their companion by looking at their phone, is not just rude but leads to a big increase in the carbon footprint of the digital economy.
Carly Chynoweth
Guardian Professional, Friday 23 August 2013 17.26 BST

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Congratulations to the Sustainability Leaders Awards Finalists 2013

A record year for entries has made for an incredibly strong shortlist for this year's Sustainability Leaders Awards - find out who made the cut... 

Entry-level hit an all-time high this year, with more entries from more unique organisations than in any year since the awards began. This year's list includes multi-national corporations, retailers, manufacturers, luxury brands, SMEs, public sector organisations, Universities and more, all with one thing in common - they have demonstrated true leadership and innovation and are making genuine progress in embedding sustainability throughout their operations. 

The winners will be announced at the awards ceremony and dinner on November 21st across the 15 categories, including the IEMA Graduate of the Year Award. With the exception of the Sustainability Leader: Consultancy award, all of the categories below are judged by our esteemed and prestigious panel, chaired by Environment Agency chairman Lord Chris Smith. 

The shortlist and winner of the consultancy category is determined by a piece of third-party research commissioned by edie and conducted by market research specialists Accent - the sponsor of this category. More than 600 consultancy customers were surveyed about their experience of consultancy procurement over the past 12 months and were asked to vote for and rank their top consultancies. It means that this category is the only award that is voted for by the customer. 

The 2013 shortlist is as follows: 

Carbon Management 
Carbon Clear with Japan Tobacco 
Forest Carbon 
Sainsbury's 
SC Johnson 
Schneider Electric 
Tesco 

Energy Efficiency 
Akzo Nobel 
BT 
Dawn Meats 
SC Johnson 
Skanska 
Tesco 
TelecityGroup 

Stakeholder Engagement: Internal Operations 
Heathrow Airport 
Premier Foods 
PriDE 
Spirit Pub Company 
University of Leeds 
Scotia Gas Networks 

Stakeholder Engagement: Supply Chain 
Action Sustainability 
Asda 
Carlsberg 
Dairy Crest 
First Milk 
Marks & Spencer 

Sustainability Leader (Person) 
Claude Perras, London Mining 
Inder Poonaji, Nestle 
Matt Winterburn, Carlsberg 
Mike Putnam, Skanska 
Peter Laybourn, International Synergies 
Tim Haywood, Interserve 

Sustainability Product Innovation 
Bag Re:Born 
Cynar End-of-Life Plastic to Diesel 
Hanson Ecoplus Concrete 
Iceotope liquid cooling solution 
Samsung Electronics EcoBubble washing machine 
UPM BioVerno renewable transport diesel 

Sustainability Innovation: Systems & Software 
ACO Technologies StormBrixx 
BRE LIST 
E-fficient Energy eVO+R technology 
Lafarge Tarmac Efficient Building System tools 
Schneider Electric StuxureWare 
Sefaira building design software 
Siemens Smart Multi-Dwelling Unit Solution 

Sustainability Reporting 
Carlsberg 
Coca Cola Enterprises 
Co-operative Group 
Lloyds Banking Group 
RBS 
SGS 
Tiffany & Co 

Sustainable Building 
URS for Brent Civic Centre 
Heathrow Airport 
Larkfleet PassiveHouse 
Parsons Brinckerhoff for Kirklees College 
UK Energy Partners 
AECOM for the Energy Technologies Building, University of Nottingham

Sustainable Transport & Logistics 
5PL Ltd 
Arla Foods 
Fedex 
Telefonica UK 
Unilever 
Verilocation 

Waste & Resource Management 
Akzo Nobel 
Recolight 
Sita UK 
Somerset Waste Partnership with M&S 
Southern Railway 
Virgin Media 

Waste & Resource Management: Food & Drink 
Coca Cola Enterprises 
Co-operative Group 
Kelly's of Cornwall 
Premier Foods 
Whitbread 
Woolworths SA 

Water Management 
Coca Cola Enterprises 
Northumbrian Water 
Sainsbury's with Waterscan 
Thames Water 
Berendsen UK
University of Liverpool 

Sustainability Leader: Consultancy 
AECOM 
AMEC 
Arup 
Atkins 
ERM 
URS 

A huge congratulations to this year's shortlist and the team here is really looking forward to celebrating with everyone at the awards event on November 21st! 

Join us for a night of networking, innovation and rewarding excellence at the Sustainability Leaders gala dinner and ceremony. Taking place on November 21st at London's Grand Connaught Rooms, the black tie event is a must-attend for sustainability professionals. Celebrate the leaders who are making a difference by booking your place today, and take advantage of our early booking rate.

http://www.edie.net/news/5/Congratulations-to-the-Sustainability-Leaders-Awards-finalists-2013/?utm_campaign=SLA+finalists+announced&utm_source=emailCampaign&utm_medium=email&utm_content=

Start-ups call government’s £30m SME advice scheme “utter nonsense”

The Growth Vouchers programme aims to help small businesses grow

By Sam Shead | Techworld | Published: 16:03, 09 August 2013

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Lux Research Releases Top 10 Innovative Companies Profiled in Q2 2013

Promising new emerging technologies for 3D printing, disease-resistant crops, solar-powered oil production, and Alzheimer’s diagnosis highlight Lux Research’s Q2 2013 list

BOSTON, MA – July 2, 2013 – Leading emerging technology research firm Lux Research profiled 420 companies across 18 different emerging technologydomains in the second quarter of 2013 as part of its ongoing intelligence services.  Drawing on the deep domain expertise of its analysts, Lux Research uses primary research to provide detailed information and critical analysis of firms developing emerging technologies that are poised to impact global megatrends like sustainable energy and infrastructure, sustainable health and wellness, and materials revolutions.

Each quarter the Lux Research team of analysts identifies the 10 most compelling companies profiled across all its coverage areas. Each firm gets a “Lux Take” that ranges from “Strong Caution” to “Strong Positive,” to provide a bottom-line assessment of its prospect, with a “Wait and see” rating  for companies that still face too much uncertainty for a definitive call.

The top 10 from Q2 2013 are:

1. Morflora – Wait and see – Agro Innovation

By achieving transgenic-level disease resistance without any genetic modification Morflora sidesteps contentious issues; its current pilot program has Morflora poised to be a part of most major seed treatment products within three to five years.

2. Cognoptix – Wait and see – Bioelectronics

Its point-of-care ocular beta-amyloid aggregate test for early Alzheimer’s diagnosis could help shift medicine towards preventive care, consequently reducing costs and improving outcomes.

3. Arcam – Strong Positive – Advanced Materials

Electron beam melting (EBM) 3D printers offer high-quality metal parts with faster throughput and higher strength than selective laser sintering; it has a unique business model encouraging compatible third-party material powder inputs.

4. GlassPoint Solar – Wait and See – Solar Systems; Exploration & Production

The poster child for solar-powered enhanced oil recovery (EOR) has raised $29 million from investors including Royal Dutch Shell, and has a 7 MW pilot project constructed with PDO in Oman.

5. Iceotope – Positive – Efficient Building Systems

In the high performance computing market, this early-stage company aims to replace traditional air-cooled servers with its novel sealed liquid units, reducing cooling energy by over 50%.

6. Imprint Energy – Positive – Printed, Flexible, and Organic Electronics; Mobile Energy

With its best-in-class thin-film battery technology and a credible path to cost reduction at high volumes, Imprint is working with the U.S. intelligence community on wearable applications.

7. Ascenix Biotechnologies – Wait and See – Bio-Based Materials and Chemicals

A formidable foe against older and larger bio-based chemicals, Ascenix’s route to the important methyl methacrylate doesn’t require propylene or cyanide and could have attractive economics.

8. AlterNRG – Positive – Alternative Fuels

In a space where companies are struggling to finance and build projects, AlterNRG is making sales from its high-temperature plasma gasification to convert a range of waste streams into syngas.

9. Cooledge Lighting – Wait and See – Energy Electronics

Flexible planar LED modules should find attractive applications in the commercial lighting segment; this company offers a twist on planar modules by incorporating the flexibility of OLED lighting using traditional LEDs.

10. Kebony – Positive – Sustainable Building Materials

Rising prices and increased global awareness about protecting tropical forests has led to a significant demand for tropical hardwood replacement.  Kebony is well-positioned to capitalize on these trends with itsfurfuryl-alcohol-modified softwood that has comparable cost/performance to Burmese teak.

About Lux Research

Lux Research provides strategic advice and ongoing intelligence for emerging technologies. Leaders in business, finance and government rely on us to help them make informed strategic decisions. Through our unique research approach focused on primary research and our extensive global network, we deliver insight, connections and competitive advantage to our clients. Visit www.luxresearchinc.com for more information.

Contact:

Carole Jacques

Lux Research, Inc.

617-502-5314

carole.jacques@luxresearchinc.com

http://www2.luxresearchinc.com/component/content/article/178.html

Iceotope plans to revolutionise the traditional data centre

While transferring and re-using heat to power other devices

by Lee Bell

COOL SERVER MAKER Iceotope demonstrated its fully immersed liquid cooled server system to The INQUIRER when we recently visited the University of Leeds where it was first deployed.

Icetope impressed us with its unique technology, which claims to use typically 20 percent less power than traditional server systems. Its business development director Richard Barrington talked us through the firm's plans for revolutionising the traditional data centre.

Submerged in a non-conductive liquid, so as far as the electronics inside are concerned, the liquid acts like air meaning they can be submerged in it without electrocuting anyone that comes into contact with it. There is no need for fans or moving parts inside the server, as the liquid naturally expands as it takes heat away from the electronics.

"What we're actually doing here is science, not IT," Barrington said. "We're using thermo fluid dynamics, we're using mechanical engineering, advanced fluids, and very bright people to put that all together for this solution."

Iceotope's submerged server idea came from the principle that a traditional data centre costs as much in power to run it over its lifetime as the hardware itself.

"The research project asked the question, what's the most efficient way of cooling?" Barrington said. "Well, the most efficient way is water, but you can't mix water and electronics because it will conduct electricity and you'd fry everyone within 100 miles. So how do you do it differently?"

Iceotope's server design was therefore based on finding a liquid into which it could submerge the electronics so it uses convection to remove heat from the electronics. It tried and tested 63 different liquids before arriving at the one it settled on, which was 3M's Novec.

"We came up with the idea of encapsulating each individual server so they can be hot swappable," Barrington said. "We wanted to build something that could fit into a standard cabinet because that's what people expect, so when you stack all that together then there was only one real outcome, which is our [submerged server]."

In what would normally be quite an inefficient, fanned and noisy configuration, Iceotope's liquid-cooled server system accepts power at the top, which runs into liquid-cooled power supplies. If you feel inside the rack, it is warm because it is pulling the heat away from the electronics.

The server system claims to be up to 90 percent efficient at capturing heat from the submerged servers, which can then be transferred and reused to heat other devices, such as domestic radiators, at temperatures up to 50 degrees Celsius, thus doubling power savings.

"Convection moves the heat from the electronics to the servers' cold plate, then a second circuit harvests all of that heat to a heat exchanger and the heat exchangers then transfer the heat to an external state and in this case, it's heating some domestic radiators," Barrington explained.

"If this is a 10KW cabinet, we'll capture 9KW in heat. So there's 1KW lost and we can improve on that as we're not insulating the doors yet, but that's still 75 percent more efficient than air. The heat is coming out in a commercially viable product, hot water that can be re-used."

Icetope claims it can put up to 20KW of computing resources into a traditional sized data centre rack that would normally contain only 4KW to 5KW of computing reasources.

"The decision was to build something that would take industry standard technology such as Supermicro motherboards and standard two-socket systems, and build the infrastructure around it," Barrington said.

The firm also claims it can fit more resource in the same physical space because its server is completely silent.

"With no worry for humidity or air quality I can put it next to a desk, it doesn't actually need a data centre," Barrington explained. "And there's no worry about air quality in the surround area [that] the Iceoptope's rack is in. Because it doesn't breathe air you can put it in a really hostile environment and it doesn't care."

The server can't just be used in the colder times of the year. Rather bizarrely, it can also be used to create refrigerated air through 'absorption chilling', that is, taking hot water to generate chilled air, and you can heat your buildings in winter all from the same water source.

Iceotope is hoping to show off its server project in a more upscale setting soon, but at the moment it is focusing on generating interest in its systems.

"It is up to exciting people and getting their imaginations fired up for this because, for example, we are now seeing data centres that are 14 to 18 Megawatts as a regular occurrence these days, which is about £14m a year in power on average," Barrington said.

"So if I can take 10 Megawatts off that as heat and do something productive with it, you start to get a scale of what you can do with this."

"The pre-production system now in use at Leeds University is really a demonstrator of what is possible," Barrington added.

Iceotope is experimenting to increase the density in its submergeable server as well as the possibility of liquid cooling switches and storage.

http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/feature/2276400/iceotope-plans-to-revolutionise-the-traditional-data-centre

PETER HOPTON ANNOUNCED AS NEW ICEOTOPE CEO

Original Iceotope founder to steer company reins through new investment and further product development

Iceotope, the creator of next-generation liquid cooling, today announced that Peter Hopton, the company’s original founder, is to assume the position of CEO starting immediately. Having been operating as Iceotope’s chief technical officer since 2011, Hopton has been instrumental in Iceotope’s commercial and product development, building on the company’s customer base and increasing its profile within the technology industry. It is with these achievements in mind that the Iceotope investors have decided to promote Hopton to CEO. In this capacity he will continue to guide the company through investment and product development, as well as expand upon its rapidly growing commercial opportunities.

As part of this senior management change, Neil Bennett will step into the role of Executive Chairman. Bennett will continue to be involved in the business at a boardroom capacity but will hand over control of the day-to-day running of the business. On Hopton’s appointment, Bennett said “Peter has shown leadership at every level and has the ability to guide this company from both a technical and commercial standpoint. He is the focal point of the technology as well as the board room and is doing a great job. We recognise that he’s been working tirelessly to develop a successful product and business and it is entirely on merit that he takes up this new role.”

Hopton commented on the new position, “I’d like to thank Neil for his commitment to the cause during his spell as CEO and also the investors for putting their full weight behind me. It seems like the IT industry is starting to come around to the idea of liquid cooling and many influential forces within have now recognised the game-changing potential of Iceotope’s technology. We’re growing rapidly as a business but it’s becoming clearer than ever that liquid cooling and Iceotope both have a bright future ahead. I have faith that I can guide the company to its next stage of development and it is a great privilege to be given the opportunity to do so.”

http://www.datacentre.me/news/peter-hopton-announced-as-new-iceotope-ceo-2923.htm

ICEOTOPE Winners of Cooling Solution of the Year 2013