Tech giants lead green rankings

When international magazine Newsweek compiled its annual Green Rankings for 2010, three of the global top five companies were technology giants IBM, HP and Sony, writes The UK Telegraph.

Placed at one, two and four respectively, they were closely followed by Deutsche Telekom, Toshiba, Vodafone and Nokia - if real proof was needed that giant corporations have made a real commitment to a new way of working, this is it. Accusations of 'greenwash' are difficult to sustain in the face of multibillion-pound commitments, the report says.

For consumers, the report points out, there are some even more noticeable differences: Dell, which by some measures is the greenest company in the US, uses bamboo packaging; Apple, which does not usually submit its processes to rankings for such league tables, has whittled down the packaging for its products to a fraction of what it once was; and Intel has worked to make sure its processors deliver the same performance without using halogen or lead.

Companies from Taiwan, the US and Europe will showcase the results of their research into green technologies at an exhibition in Taipei this week, says Focus Taiwan.

The Taiwan International Green Industry Show, now in its second year, will be held until this Thursday with a total of 180 companies occupying some 320 booths - increases of 20% and 19% respectively.

Taiwan's industry “has evolved over the past decade to meet soaring global demand for green technology and alternative energies,” the Taiwan External Trade Development Council, co-host of the event, said in a statement.

Energy suppliers CE Electric and British Gas, along with Durham University and EA Technology, have submitted a bid for funding to run the country's largest 'smart grid' in Yorkshire, states Energy Helpline.

The organisations are looking for support for the £54 million scheme, which is designed to test green technology on thousands of home and business energy properties. If a £28 million government grant is secured from industry regulator Ofgem, the project could test 160 000 smart metres, 150 electric cars, 800 solar panels and up to 1 500 ground-source heat pumps on around 14 000 homes and businesses in the north-east and Yorkshire.

If successful, the smart grid could cut energy bills by £8 billion across the country and reduce carbon emissions by 43 million tonnes, the Northern Echo reports.