Archive for Green Technology from United Kingdom

Do the Green Thing

by on July 28, 2009 at 3:29 pm

I met Andy Hobsbawm, who I feel as if I must have run into at TED over the years.

Andy established the first international Internet agency in 1994 and was a founding director of leading British new media company Online Magic which merged with Agency.com in 1997. He is currently European Chairman of Agency.com, which sponsored a Traveling Geeks dinner at Soho House in London earlier this month.

His big passion is Green Thing, where he is co-founder. Green Thing is an award-winning non-profit service that inspires people to lead a greener life. With the help of brilliant videos and inspiring stories from creative people and community members around the world, Green Thing focuses on individual behavior change. (more…)

Updates From the Folks at Think London

by on July 26, 2009 at 4:23 am

Thinklondon A few updates from the folks at Think London.

A topic which is currently hot in is clean tech. London’s Mayor Boris Johnson (one of THE TIME 100 Most Influential People) has declared he wants to make London the ‘electric vehicle capital of Europe.’

Many of Think London’s clean tech clients, such as Tesla Motors, are setting up in London because of the Mayor’s clean tech and renewable energy policies.

They are planning quite a few events this year in the US, all based around business opportunities for US companies and the London 2012 Games. See the event schedule.

Another interesting development they are seeing, is the amount of Chinese companies setting up or expanding in London. They seem less affected by the economic crisis ‘angst’ and see it as a great opportunity to invest elsewhere.

Big Chinese financial services companies are particularly keen to set up or expand their operations in London, such as China Construction Bank and China Merchants Bank.

And, Think London is adopting all the social media tools to keep tabs on and in touch with people. More from them in the coming weeks and months.

Thinklondon social media

Cambridge Consultants UMI Lowers Energy Consumption & Saves Money

by on July 21, 2009 at 10:37 pm

Below, I’m talking to Eric Wilkinson at Cambridge Consultants in the UK to better understand their UMI (Universal Metering Interface), a new low power board-to-board wired interface. UMI is primarily aimed at smart metering of meters (electricity, gas, water, heat), displays and gateways.

Many metering product developments are being held up because the communications standards have not yet been finalized by the relevant national authorities.

UMI solves this problem by separating the metrology and communications functions into modules with a wired connection between them. This unbundling is useful because the metrology standards and regulations are stable.

Manufacturers can develop smart-ready MID-approved meters today by including one or more UMI ports. These meters can actually be installed in the field now; the primary aim is at ultra low power applications.

UMI will be launched as an open standard later in 2009. The below video shows how this technology can be used to regulate kitchen appliances.

By monitoring energy consumption, UMI can automatically turn off higher energy consumption appliances during expensive times and run lower priced appliances when absolutely necessary, saving consumers money.

Consumers can actually select what they are ‘prepared to pay’ on a dial on their wash machine or other appliance. Click play to learn more.

Colalife: using Coca-Cola distribution network for social good

by on July 8, 2009 at 10:24 am

Hp-main Well, Colalife.org, something casually observed at NESTA, as part of the Traveling Geeks tour in the UK, is a bigger deal than I expected.

This guy, Simon Berry, had observed that all over the world, Coca-Cola was really good at delivering product.  In each shipment, there was wasted space, which could deliver needed supplies if the right packaging was invented.

Well, Simon worked with 'em to make it happen, as you see in this photo. That can carry a lot of medical supplies.

Pretty cool common sense, effective idea that really helps.

Here's the deal in their words:

That Coca-Cola use their distribution channels (which are amazing in developing countries) to save children's lives by carrying 'aidpods' that fit in the unused space between the necks of bottles and carry 'social products' such as oral rehydration salts, malaria tablets, vitamin A, water sterilisation tablets or whatever else is required locally.