Will's Thoughtstream

I’ve used EcoSky, a Portland-based green web hosting company for quite some time, and I’ve been very happy with their services. A recent Sustainable IT article on Greenest Host got me thinking about green web hosting in general.

What is a green web hosting company?

Generally, it is a company that is at least using some form of renewable energy to power their web and mail servers. Some companies may generate that renewable power themselves using solar panels, such as California based Greenest Host, or wind power. Other companies may buy their renewable power from the utilities. Some companies may buy conventional electric power, but then use purchase carbon credits to advertise themselves as carbon neutral. A review of the green web hosting companies I could find through Google found most to be committed to 100% renewable power, with solar and solar/wind combinations to be most common.

What kind of green hosting company do I choose?

While any renewable power web hosting company is going to be greener than the alternate, those companies that have committed to their own on-site renewable power generation, such as solar or wind, are making a long term commitment to green power. They’ve already made the investment in power generation, and there’s little incentive for them to switch to non-renewable power. I think these companies are the best choice, because they are unlikely to revert back to conventional non-renewable power simply to save money or because of a change in ownership. That said, any green hosting company is still a great choice.

A secondary benefit of green web hosting companies is to drive improvements in the energy efficient of web servers. Energy efficiency is of importance to all IT data centers, including web hosting companies, as electricity to power servers and provide cooling is one of their primary operational expenses. Virtually every large IT supplier is now creating energy efficient servers to help meet this demand. Traditional computers use anywhere from 60 to 120 watts (way more for gaming machines), but a computer built to optimize energy efficiency will consume less than 25 watts. Green web hosting companies, because of the higher cost of their electrical power, have even more incentive to find innovative ways to save power.

Green Web Hosting Resources:

Directory of Green Web Hosting Companies

EcoSky, true solar powered web hosting
AISO, true solar powered web hosting
Greenest Host, true solar powered web hosting
Smooshy Lab, 100% solar powered,
Ecological Hosting
Eco Web Design, UK based Solar Powered Web Hosting
Dream Host, carbon neutral web hosting
Solar Load by Hosting Direct, wind powered
Tree Center, wind and solar powered
Think Host, 100% wind/solar powered
SustainableWebsites, 100% wind
XERT Communications, Australian based 100% renewable powered
Ilisys, Australian based carbon neutral

Green ISPs

EcoISP
Green ISP

More information

TreeHugger article on several green web hosting companies
Eco Business Links, directory of about 10 green hosting companies

Posted by will hertling at 10:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

There's a pair of interesting posts this morning on the green job market. Triple Pundit has a nice discussion about the options available for those who wish to live by their ideals:

Will socially-responsible entrepreneurs have to be content with living a saintly pauper's existence? The financial success of green and socially-responsible companies like Clif Bar, Patagonia, Seventh Generation and others would seem to indicate that there may be a way to sidestep the saint vs. sellout dilemma. Hundreds of graduating MBA students may soon help to forge a path between these two limiting options.

Graduates of the class of 2007 are finding the job market is receptive to those who want to do good by the environment. As public awareness of global warming grows, companies are scrambling to put in place greener practices, to present themselves as more eco-friendly and to develop products and services to fill a new demand for all things green. The phenomenon is creating jobs in fields like urban planning, carbon trading, green building and environmental consulting. "The environmental job market is the strongest that it's been in many years," says Kevin Doyle, president of the Boston-based consulting company Green Economy Inc. and coauthor of "The ECO Guide to Careers That Make a Difference."

But is an accurate representation of the green job market?

As a graduate of a green MBA program, I think that these two articles are looking only at the good news, and concluding that things are great. But when you look at the whole picture, a different story emerges.

Sure, there are more green jobs than ever before. I see them inside the major Fortune 50 company in which I work, I see them in my local community, I see them at major green companies like Patagonia. This is definitely positive news, especially as compared to five years ago, when the number of jobs was far fewer.

But the number of applicants far exceeds the number of positions available for them. Patagonia has over 700 applications for each job that they open. Several recent sustainability jobs in Portland, Oregon each had several hundred applications.

More than 99% of applicants are not getting the jobs they want. What about the less than 1% that do? Are they able to live by their ideals and make a living? Hardly.

A recent sustainability job at a for-profit financial company for a data analyst paid less than $15 per hour - less than $30K per year. You won't be eating a lot of organic food or wearing much sustainably made clothing at those kinds of wages. A comparable job at a Fortune 500 company would probably pay $80K to $100K. So living by your ideals does have a cost - about $50K to $70K per year.

I agree that the job market for sustainability jobs is improving, especially as compared to five years ago. But even with a green MBA, it is still far more difficult to find a green job than a non-green job, and only a small fraction of the green jobs out there would allow you to achieve income parity with a non-green job.

Posted by will hertling at 8:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

a.k.a. Hacking the Stroller

With three small kids, we have a yard full of strollers. Single strollers, double strollers, even triple strollers - in normal, umbrella, and jogging styles. But we lacked a good double jogging stroller and we lacked a bike trailer. We knew that some bike trailers could convert to become jogging strollers. After a bit of review, we narrowed our options to a Burkey D'Lite trailer or a Chariot Cougar. After reading the canonical comparison between the Burley and the Chariot, we were leaning in favor of the Chariot, especially because we wanted a good walking/jogging stroller - and while biking was important, it wasn't the sole use.

Having bought the Chariot Cougar, we started using it. And living within convenient walking distance of the grocery store, a very regular use of the stroller became visits to the grocery. And which point, you're left with the question of where to put the groceries. The Chariot does have a very nice cargo area on the back of the stroller. It fits about two large bags of groceries, but because the space is narrow, it's not as easy as just putting two bags in. Instead, we end up packing the groceries directly into the cargo area. It works, but then it becomes time consuming when you get home to carry individual items into the house.

The other problem, as I'm sure that every parent has run into with funny (and/or dangerous) results at times, is when the stroller becomes too back-heavy, tipping it back and sending your child into the air (or simply flipping over backwards when you lift your child out.) This can happen with just a heavy diaper bag, never mind with really heavy stuff like quarts of goat milk and jars of baby food packed into the cargo area.

The Chariot is a very adaptable chassis. It can function as a bike trailer, regular stroller, jogging stroller, and even ski stroller. I noticed that the chassis has two square openings used for the jogging stroller, ski stroller, and bike trailer attachments, but that these square openings were not in use when the stroller had just the regular swivel wheels on front. Since these openings were clearly make to handle some weight, they would be strong enough to carry a front cargo tray, right?

Chariot Double Stroller with Front Cargo Tray

I purchased two 4 foot, true 1x1 square rods at the lumber yard, and used some spare lumber to create a cargo tray. The cargo tray will hold three large grocery bags side by side. It's flat, and has sides, so it can hold a variety of other things that need to stay stable - such as in these pictures when it's carrying our dinner and some plates we were borrowing for a party.

Front cargo tray counter balances rear cargo area (left)

The front and rear cargo areas work well together. By providing a little extra weight on the front, even when the rear area is loaded heavily, the stroller will not tend to tip over backwards. The front cargo area, by virtue of its size, lends itself to all kinds of things that you couldn't even consider without it: such as carrying three kids worth of soccer gear, spare clothes, water, and snacks to the park for a morning of soccer.

Closeup of wood tray construction

To build the tray, I first sanded the two 1x1 pieces to take a little off, as the actual tube opening is about 1/16th of an inch less than true 1x1. I put the two 1x1 in place, cut the wood for the bottom of the tray, and then screwed it onto the 1x1s while they were in place. This helped me keep the exact alignment needed. It's a snug fit, and I rely just on friction to hold the tray in place. This seems to work well, although there are definitely holes in the chassis themselves that would lend themselves to a cotter pin if needed.

Between kids and the two cargo trays, I'm way overloading the Chariot, but it doesn't seem to mind at all. (The factory rear cargo area is only rated for 5 pounds capacity, but I've easily put 20 pounds or more in it.) The stroller is very solidly built.

The one downside is going up curbs without a cutout. With weight in the front tray, it can be hard to get enough leverage to get the front end to pop up over the curb. If it is very lightly loaded, you can do it. Otherwise you need to plan your route to take into account curb cutouts.

Posted by will hertling at 10:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

A Miele vs. Bosch Comparison

In our old house, a 1920 era Bungalow, we had managed to squeeze an 18” wide dishwasher into the kitchen by removing one of the original 1920s kitchen cabinets. There were only two choices for an 18” wide dishwasher: a low end model made by one of the American appliance companies, and a Miele. Having been delighted with our Miele vacuum cleaner, we decided to go with the Miele dishwasher despite its extravagant cost. We were thrilled with our dishwasher purchase, especially after having lived without a dishwasher for several years. Like the vacuum cleaner, the Miele dishwasher excelled in every way at washing dishes: everything always came clean, without any rinsing, it was exceptionally quiet, the dishes were dry at the end (without the energy waste of a heating element), and the dishwasher was very energy and water efficient - so much so that we received a nice rebate from the State of Oregon.

When we moved into our new house last Fall, we were again faced with purchasing a dishwasher, This time we had more options, because we were looking for a normal 24” width dishwasher. After reading Consumer Reports, we decided to go with the top ranked model: a Bosch. It was still, relatively speaking, an expensive, high end model, but it had received a glowing review by Consumer Reports, and it was less costly than the equivalent Miele.

We waited with great anticipation for the new Bosch to arrive and get installed. We loaded dishes into it, and washed them, and lo’ and behold, we had sparkly clean dishes. We just didn’t have that many sparkly clean dishes. Strangely, the 24” wide Bosch seemed to hold less dishes than the 18” wide Miele. That didn’t seem like it could be possible, so I figured that I needed more practice loading the Bosch.

Well, after a week of practice, I’d had it with the Bosch. Yes, the dishes were definitely clean, but they always came out wet, and even with practice, we still weren’t getting very many dishes in there.

Miele: The three rack dishwasher

I checked out prices of the Miele, and called the friendly folks at Standard TV and Appliance to see if I could return the Bosch. Even though the Bosch dishwasher had been installed and in use for several days, they still graciously took it back and refunded our money. I ordered the Miele, and a week later we had the 24” Miele installed.

Sure enough, it was clearly obvious that the Miele could hold much, much more than the Bosch. How much can the Miele how? Why can it hold so much more?

I took a few photos of our Miele one morning after having run a particularly large load of dishes. You should know that we have three young kids, so we have an abundance of small plates and bowls – way more than adults or older kids would go through in a day.

Bottom Rack

Here’s what was in the Miele:

Bottom rack:

• 10 adult dinner size plates
  
• 3 adult large soup bowls
  
• 5 adult small cereal bowls
  
• 3 large kids plates
  
• 4 large kids bowls
  
• Cutting board
  
• Large pasta colander
  

The middle rack

Middle rack:

• 4 small kids bowls
  
• 2 small kids plates
  
• 10 kids glasses/cups
  
• 2 adult large glasses
  
• 2 measuring cups
  
• 2 plastic storage containers with lids
  

The cutlery rack

Top rack:

• 4 tiny kids bowls
  
• 15 knives, including eating and food prep
  
• 10 adult forks
  
• 9 adult spoons
  
• 7 kids spoons
  
• 4 measuring spoons
  
• 1 measuring cup
  
• 1 sippy cup lid
  
• 1 vegetable peeler
  

In short, there were 55 non-utensils items in the dishwasher ranging from a very large colander to very small kids bowls, and 41 utensils.

I believe there are three reasons that the Miele can fit so much more. First, the tines that hold plates on the bottom rack are much closer together than on the Bosch, or other ordinary dishwashers. I believe Miele can accomplish this because the dishwasher is so effective at cleaning that it can still get all the dishes perfectly clean even with less room between the plates. Second, the cutlery goes on a third rack, at the top of the dishwasher, instead of taking up valuable space on the bottom rack. Third, the middle rack has two fold down arms. I think these arms are meant primarily to help hold wine glasses steady when washing those kinds of glasses, so that they don’t rub against each other. But the shelves function equally well for holding small bowls and plastic food storage containers. In fact, they are especially good for the kinds of small plastic items that normally get flipped over during washing and fill with water. When placed on those fold down shelves, the small plastic items are held in place by the cutlery tray, so they don’t move around or flip over.

The end result of all this extra capacity is that we can do less dishwasher loads (saving money, water, and energy), as well as be able to fit pots and pans that would otherwise end up having to be hand washed. By comparison, if you take the same number of plates that would fill the Bosch’s space-inefficient bottom rack and put them instead in the Miele’s bottom rack, you’re left with enough room in the Miele for two to three large pots.

Oh, and the Miele gets all the dishes perfectly clean, and the dishes are dry at the end, and it's very quiet.

I highly recommend this dishwasher - as far as I can tell it's the ultimate dishwasher.

Posted by will hertling at 7:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Here's a cool mashup that's a wonderful example of technology helping create awareness of a quality of life and sustainability issue: Provide your address to Walk Score, and it will dynamically evaluate the walking distance to the key places, such as grocery stores, parks, and libraries.

Our home in Portland, Oregon scored a 69. My childhood home in Brooklyn, New York scored a 77. How about your place?

Posted by will hertling at 1:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)