Category Archives: Website Reviews

Greener and Greener with Yahoo!

yahoo green plan

I love seeing companies make an effort towards going green. Yahoo has been impressing me lately, starting with their commitment towards being carbon neutral, and now their new Yahoo! Green site.

The new site emphasizes how easy it is to go green just a little bit. They aren’t asking for huge things right away. They have a walk through of a green home to give you ideas as to how you can save energy at home. They encourage people to make a plan to commit to using less energy. Continue reading →

Dream Gone Green

This carbon neutral thing is really taking off with online companies. DreamHost, who hosts some of my websites, including this one, has gone carbon neutral.

They started this as of April 20, and they took a lot into consideration. In figuring their carbon production, they considered a great deal:

It means we’ve calculated our carbon footprint. Our footprint represents the impact of everything that DreamHost uses and leaves behind in the course of our daily work. All of the resources that we use – paper in the office, electricity for our 1300+ servers, even the gas in our cars that bring us to the office

Pretty good thinking. I like that they didn’t skip that employees have to get there.

So how are they as a website host? Continue reading →

Australian Website Hosting Company Goes Carbon Neutral

I find the idea of going carbon neutral quite interesting. It’s certainly gaining in popularity. I just hope it’s doing as much as its proponents say.

Webcity Web Hosting Australia has just gone carbon neutral, going through the Greenfleet program. Essentially, that means they’re having trees planted to completely offset the carbon production related to their carbon emissions.

This is a big company in Australia, so I’m quite pleased to see this happen. Be nice to watch more companies choose to think about the mark they leave on this world.

Do You Have Enough Ceiling Fans in Your Home?

As you probably know, air conditioners are real energy hogs when it comes to cooling your home. And with summer coming up fast, now is a good time to get some ceiling fans installed if you don’t have enough of them yet.

Farreys.com asked me to come over and take a look at their ceiling fan offers. That’s an easy thing to do, because I love ceiling fans. Farreys has a nice selection of ceiling fan specials for those who want a nice looking ceiling fan, something better than the base model from Home Depot, yet not break the bank.

I find my ceiling fan effective enough that even where I live, in a part of San Diego county that regularly gets over 100 degrees during the summer, I hardly ever need to turn on the air conditioner. And it’s only in one room. I’d love to have more, but we rent and so the one is it. Keeping the blinds closed and as many lights off as possible during the day, combined with just allowing myself to adapt to warmer temperatures, does the rest. Continue reading →

Travel and Climate Change

I love to travel. Most people do. Seeing new people or people you love, travelling to someplace other than home is just a lot of fun.

Unfortunately it’s not all that environmentally friendly. Travel can produce a lot of carbon.

I’m not against all travel. Taking a trip to a new place means seeing new things and maybe learning about a different way of life, if you travel to someplace not like where you live. It helps keep us connected to the rest of the world and to realize why living a more environmentally friendly lifestyle is important.

There are ways to make your traveling plans more environmentally friendly. It won’t work for every trip, but you do what you can. Consider traveling by train. If that won’t work, consider buying carbon offsets. Expedia has partnered with TerraPass to make it easier for you to buy carbon offsets to match your travel. It’s not perfect, as offsetting is still in its infancy, but it’s certainly better than nothing. Continue reading →