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Utility Giant Embraces A Future With Renewables

PG&E eyes a ‘green’ future

California utility giant PG&E has made it one of its business goals to invest in clean energy. In the last few years, the company has signed contracts with renewable energy providers in the areas of solar, wind, wave and biogas. In this video, correspondent Sumi Das meets Ha LaFlash, director of emerging clean tech energy policy. According to La Flash, while going green will cost more up front, it’s the right business decision because the move to clean energy by its millions of customers, could one day make a meaningful impact on the environment.

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Tags: The Green Enterprise, Clean Technology, Green

  • How HP is Tackling E-Waste

    How HP is Tackling E-Waste

    PC maker, Hewlett-Packard has an ambitious goal to recycle two billion pounds of e-waste by 2010. Correspondent Sumi Das talks to the companys director of sustainability, Bonnie Nixon, about how they are meeting the challenge by building recycling facilities and stepping up their business practices globally. Das also speaks with Michelle Price, a marketing manager with HPs imaging and printing group. Price demonstrates how HP is re-using materials from old printer cartridges to create new ones through a process called closed-loop recycling.

    Tags: Hewlett-Packard Co., Printers, Document Management, Hardware, Peripherals, Enterprise Software, Software, Finance, Managerial Accounting, e-waste

    Date: 06-02-09 Length: 00:04:00

  • What Sustainable Design Means to the Bottom Line

    What Sustainable Design Means to the Bottom Line

    Autodesk tools aim to help designers conceptualize projects on a computer before starting the costly (and energy-intense) construction process. Correspondent Sumi Das talks to the companys director of sustainability, Lynelle Cameron about how architects for the Cathedral of Christ the Light and the California Academy of Sciences used sustainable design in their structures. Cameron adds, while green design isnt the top priority for all companies, she says sustainability can help the bottom line and will one day be part of everyday business practices.

    Tags: Sustainability, Bottom Line, Cameron, Autodesk

    Date: 04-07-09 Length: 00:03:26

  • Cisco Saves 90 Million Using TelePresence

    Cisco Saves 90 Million Using TelePresence

    Business travel is getting more costly everyday so many companies are turning to video conferencing to curb corporate travel. Cisco Systems has built a solution known as TelePresence. In this video, correspondent Sumi Das meets Laura Ipsen, co-chair of Ciscos Eco-Board. They talk about various green initiatives Cisco is developing such as a new Wi-Fi enabled city bus, energy efficient workspaces and their video conferencing solution. According to Ipsen, TelePresence has had a strong financial impact internally saving the company 90 million dollars in 18 months by reducing 20,000 meetings.

    Tags: The Green Enterprise, Video Conferencing, Cisco Systems Inc., TelePresence

    Date: 09-04-08 Length: 00:03:15

  • Napa Valley Hotel Prototypes Eco-Friendly Tourism

    Napa Valley Hotel Prototypes Eco-Friendly Tourism

    Hotels are known as energy wasters, generating large amounts of water and electricity to serve their customers. But one hotel entrepreneur is trying to change that by going green. In this video, correspondent Sumi Das meets Wen Chang, founder of the Gaia Hotel in the Bay Areas Napa Valley. He believes hotel owners can do more to help the environment, without hurting the bottom line. According to Chang, the Gaia Hotel is saving $50,000 to 75,000 dollars a year on electricity by using clean energy to power 12% of its operations.

    Tags: The Green Enterprise, Hotel, Entrepreneurship, Corporate Communications, Management, Marketing, Green, Green Enterprise

    Date: 07-22-08 Length: 00:02:38

  • Architect Finds Niche 'Greening' Homes

    Architect Finds Niche %27Greening%27 Homes

    In this episode of "Green Business Tactics," we meet architect Eric Corey Freed. Inspired by his childhood idol Frank Lloyd Wright, Freed renovates homes and structures to be more sustainable through architectural design, advancements in renewable energy, and the use of recycled metals and glass, and eco-friendly materials, such as bamboo.

    Tags: Home, Telecom & Utilities, SmartPlanet, Eric Corey Freed

    Date: 09-14-09 Length: 00:02:26

  • Going Green Inside The Wine Business

    Going Green Inside The Wine Business

    Frogs Leap Winery is nestled in the Bay Areas scenic Napa Valley. The vineyard is known for its crisp sauvignon blancs, and earthy zinfandels, but now theyre getting attention as one of first wineries in the U.S to be sustainable. In this video, we meet the winerys general manager, Jonah Beer. According to Beer, the winerys motivation to be green, is as much about the bottom line as it is about the environment. Financial benefits include: a solar installation that is saving the vineyard $50,000 dollars a month on electric bills and dry farming techniques that bypass the need for costly irrigation. Note: Frogs Leap Winery requires an appointment for tastings and tours.

    Tags: The Green Enterprise, Winery, Wine, Frog, Vineyard, Best Practices

    Date: 07-15-08 Length: 00:03:24

  • Sun, Employees Save Big with Open Work

    Sun, Employees Save Big with Open Work

    In an age of high gas prices and global warming, businesses are trying to figure out how their employees can spend less time on the road and more time telecommuting. Sun Microsystems believes they've hit upon the answer with their 10-year-old Open Work platform. In this video, correspondent Sumi Das meets Dave Douglas, vice president of eco-responsibility, and finds out how the project operates and why it's been a success. According to Douglas, Open Work has had a strong financial and environmental impact, saving 68 million in real estate and energy costs and cutting carbon emissions by 29,000 tons in 2007.

    Tags: The Green Enterprise, Sun Microsystems Inc., Telecommuting, Human Resources, Workforce Management,

    Date: 07-18-08 Length: 00:03:00

  • Take a Tour of the World’s Greenest Museum

    Take a Tour of the World’s Greenest Museum

    The historic California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco has re-opened for business and is being called the greenest museum in the world. Correspondent Sumi Das talks to Aaron Pope, the manager of sustainability programs at the Academy about the energy efficient technologies theyre using to reduce costs including a solar installation and a natural ventilation system. He also discusses how the museum is marketing its green innovations to attract more visitors. The strategy is working, the museum is averaging 43,000 visitors a week, which is 60 percent better than initial projections.

    Tags: Museum, Leadership, Strategy, Management, Green, Cal Academy

    Date: 03-31-09 Length: 00:03:17

  • Utility Giant Embraces A Future With Renewables

    Utility Giant Embraces A Future With Renewables

    California utility giant PG&E has made it one of its business goals to invest in clean energy. In the last few years, the company has signed contracts with renewable energy providers in the areas of solar, wind, wave and biogas. In this video, correspondent Sumi Das meets Ha LaFlash, director of emerging clean tech energy policy. According to La Flash, while going green will cost more up front, its the right business decision because the move to clean energy by its millions of customers, could one day make a meaningful impact on the environment.

    Tags: The Green Enterprise, Clean Technology, Green

    Date: 08-04-08 Length: 00:03:11

 

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Utility Giant Embraces A Future With Renewables

California utility giant PG&E has made it one of its business goals to invest in clean energy. In the last few years, the company has signed contracts with renewable energy providers in the areas of solar, wind, wave and biogas. In this video, correspondent Sumi Das meets Ha LaFlash, director of emerging clean tech energy policy. According to La Flash, while going green will cost more up front, it’s the right business decision because the move to clean energy by its millions of customers, could one day make a meaningful impact on the environment.

Sumi Das: When people think of utility companies, they imagine large power plants burning fossil fuels 24 hours a day. But PG&E is trying to change that perception by investing in clean energy. Their motivation: To help fight the climate crisis. Hal LaFlash is the director of emerging clean tech policy at the company. He says while going green will cost more up front, it's the right business decision for PG&E and its 15 million California customers.

Hal LaFlash: The renewables do cost a little bit more than conventional power, but you're getting a carbon-free source and ultimately in the long run it will end up being in a better position for customers.

Sumi Das: And even though customers will have to pay more in the beginning, clean energy is attractive to those who want to be part of the Green Movement. In the last few years, PG&E has been busy making deals with the renewable energy providers from wind, to solar, to wave energy.

Hal LaFlash: We've signed 33 contracts in the last five years with almost 2,000 megawatts of the new renewable generation, and now nineteen percent of our load is under contract for renewable generation.

Sumi Das: One of the standout contracts is with Solar Energy provider Solel. Soon the company will supply enough energy to power 400,000 California homes. The project will rely on 1.2 million mirrors to capture the sun's heat in California's Mojave Desert. But while clean energy from solar and wind have a proven track record, some renewable technologies are less tested. One of the ideas they're exploring is converting cow manure into power, and with roughly 17 million cows in California, there's a lot of poop that can be reproduced.

Hal LaFlash: Biogas gives us the opportunity to actually make a substitute renewable natural gas that we can put in the pipeline and fuel some of these plants that would otherwise be natural gas field.

Sumi Das: As for the financial impact, the cost are neutral, the benefits are to the environment. We've seen how the sun is a great source for converting energy, but PG&E is also looking at another very important natural resource, the ocean. PG&E has partnered with Finavera Renewables to harness the ocean's energy and convert it for utility purposes. It's known as wave power.

Jennifer Zerwer: There's a variety of technologies being developed right now. One technology, the company that we signed the purchase agreement with uses buoies that float in the water. The up and down action of the water drives a set of pumps that then pressurizes sea water which turns the turbine generating electricity.

Sumi Das: While many of the technologies you've just seen are still in their nascent stages, PG&E believes the eventual move to clean energy by its millions of customers, could one day make a meaningful impact on the environment. I'm Sumi Das reporting for BNET.