Category: Business
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Ford discusses their Electric Vehicle and smart grid integration plans
Just before Christmas I had a chat with Ford’s head of battery electric vehicle applications, Greg Frenette. We discussed how Ford has been working with utilities and industry organisations to ready its electric vehicles for deep integration into smart grids. It was fascinating for me to see just how far Ford have proceeded with their…
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Google Energy to start disrupting the utility industry?
Photo credit filippo minelli There is no doubt about it but Google is a disruptive company. First Google disrupted search, then advertising, then video (with their acquisition of YouTube), and then Office applications with the launch and continued development of Google Apps for Domains. Most recently Google has disrupted the mobile phone industry, first with…
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What If We Create a Better World For Nothing?
One of my goals in 2010 is to help move the sustainability debate beyond Global Warming. Global Warming or Climate Change is still arguable – while other environmental impacts and issues are not. Its surely time for sustainability advocates to reframe our narrative – and get beyond the Global Warming debate. We […]
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Green Numbers round-up 12/18/2009
Photo credit MildlyDiverting Welcome to this Friday’s Green numbers round-up! IBM Reveals Five Innovations that Will Change Cities in the Next Five Years IBM unveiled a list of innovations that have the potential to change how people live, work and play in cities around the globe over the next five to ten years: · […]
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PG&E smart meter communication failure – lessons for the rest of us
Photo credit svale What we have got here is a failure to communicate The famous line from legendary movie Cool Hand Luke is the first thing that comes to mind when one hears about the fiasco which PG&E’s smart meter rollout in Bakersfield Ca. has become. From the report on the SmartMeters.com site: a class-action…
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IBM’s John Soyring talks about IBM’s Smart Planet initiatives around water
I posted my video interview with IBM’s John Soyring previously as part of a round-up of my impressions of the IBM Connect09 event. I have since had the interview transcribed so I thought I’d post it once more as a stand-alone post, with the transcription – the content is that good. Transcription: Tom Raftery: Hi,…
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SAP’s Sustainability Performance Management software launched
I wrote a piece on SAP’s new Sustainability Performance Management (SPM) tool a few weeks back. At time of writing it was very much in the realms of speculation as the product was, as yet, unreleased. Last Thursday, Dec 10th, SAP announced the release of the software and having been given a preview of the…
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UK’s Carbon reduction commitment legislation – the shape of things to come globally!
Screenshot credit Tom Raftery – data from NASA The world is getting warmer. 2008 was the 9th warmest year on record. 2009, barring a sudden, severe, global cold snap, will end up being the 4th or 5th warmest year on record and with El Niño coming on in the Pacific, 2010 looks likely to set…