a couple more comments RE: 5th item FW: item: PCMag.com GreenTech Approved List

Barrett,

A couple of comments about tone:

With regard to SolarCity: When people read this post I want them be thinking “Wow, that’s cool. Finally, a company that understands that most Americans won’t pay thousands of dollars for solar panels no matter what and is changing the playing field by offering them for zero money down.” We almost always write about only cool shit and I would like that to come across a little more. Things like SolarCity aren’t just better for the planet, they’re actually better for people’s lifestyles because, in this case, the service saves them money too. That’s a key point that we’ll want to highlight when it’s applicable. If the green choice is the best choice you can make, then we’re going to get some serious buy-in from people. If it’s a good alternative, that’s pretty good, but if it’s the best choice, then that’s awesome.

With regard to Motorola cell phone: Let’s avoid words like “therein.” This is a lifestyle blog. Your grammar is impeccable which I greatly appreciate. But I’d like the tone to be more conversational/chatty while still being authoritative.

Last comment: When writing these pieces, I think it might be helpful to think about why someone who isn’t environmentally inclined is going to like this product/service. And also why is it good for the environment. That’s the perspective from which we write. The first point isn’t always made so explicit but it should be what people think as they read. The second point often has to be explicit so people know why their reading about it on the LazyE site.

Hope this is helpful.

Josh

From: Barrett Brown [mailto:barriticus@gmail.com]
Sent: Wednesday, April 22, 2009 12:02 PM
To: Josh Dorfman
Subject: Re: 5th item FW: item: PCMag.com GreenTech Approved List

Josh-

Here's that set of five reviews. You didn't specify what keyword you wanted for the Renew cell phone, so I went with "recycled cell phone;" let me know if you want me to replace that with something else, and if you have any other tweaks you'd like made to any of these.

Thanks,

Barrett Brown
Brooklyn, NY
512-560-2302

ZERO S Takes Electric Motorcycle to New Heights, Speeds

A hundred years after being overtaken in popularity by its gas-powered counterpart, the once-ubiquitous electric car looks set for a comeback as auto firms in China, India, and the U.S. demonstrate new, more practical models for release over the next few years. Less noticeable but similarly swell are the parallel advances that have been made in recent years within the realm of the electric motorcycle, which is quickly coming into its own as a viable option for urban transportation sans the gasoline.

In this case, the company to watch may very well be Zero Motorcycles, a California firm that's shattering industry barriers with its Zero S model. Whereas many electric vehicles are still widely knocked for their less-than-ideal performance in terms of speed and acceleration, the Zero S goes from zero to 30 in less than two seconds, which is great for those occasions when you've just got to be going 30 miles an hour within two seconds of a given moment. The model's atypical speed advantages derive in part from its equally atypical design; incorporating aircraft-grade aluminum frames and such things as cylindrical swingarm cross tubes, the Zero S weighs in at a relatively light 225 pounds. Nonetheless, it also features full torque across the board and exceptional throttle response.

Even as the bike manages a performance comparable to its gas-guzzling cousins, the Zero S is an electric through and through, capable of powering up at any standard outlet and making use of a lithium ion battery which is itself non-toxic and considered safe for landfill disposal. As such, the bike produces less than one-eighth of the pollution per mile and only a hundredth of the nitrous oxide than does a standard chopper. It's also extraordinarily quiet, which may upset purists of the sort who live to rev their engines and do whatever it is that makes the engine sound like a .243 going off next to one's eardrum, but to hell with those people anyway.

Price-wise, the Zero S clocks in at just under $10,000. Zero plans to have demo models available in dozens of cities across the U.S. and Europe in the near future and is already shipping to buyers across the globe.

Great America Networks Conferencing Great for Facilitating Video Conferencing

Although everyone secretly loves hitting up those free continental breakfasts at business-class hotels – this being the only manner in which most otherwise staid adults can get their hands on novelty cereals without this being known to one's peers – sending a dozen branch managers to Dallas or some such place to conduct presentations at one's corporate mothership has never been a particularly cost-effective business tradition nor a particularly eco-friendly one. Better to pick up some croissants and take advantage of the information age with Great America Networks Conferencing, a fine little firm that lowers the cost and expertise barriers once inherent to video conferencing.

Aside from offering all of the fundamentals that companies have come to expect from such services, GAN's web-based software also provides users with a wide range of nifty features for use in their webinars (which is either the best or worst neologism to come about in recent years); most of these tools appear to be simple enough that even the most techilliterate (we can make up words, too) presenters can not only conduct face-to-face meetings from thousands of miles apart, but also present documents and other visual aides in a manner far superior to simply sticking a piece of paper up to the camera and asking it it's in focus. Users can, of course, import Powerpoint presentations; other features include a nifty “whiteboard” with which participants can collaborate via doodle, as well as the ability to annotate videos in real time. The software also allows for easy recording of sessions, the storing of documents online for easy and consistent access, and the use of emoticons (essential for those with inexpressive faces). All in all, up to twelve video feeds can run simultaneously.

GAN also offers a purely audio-based conference system for use on those occasions when visuals aren't needed or participants are particularly ugly. Among other things, this option provides the services of a human operator who can greet all comers and moderate question-and-answer sessions.

Both the video and audio conferencing systems are available without subscription or other commitments, with charges being based entirely on duration of usage.

Zinio Brings New Feasibility to Digital Magazines

The fretting over the decline of the printed word is nothing new; the respective arrivals of radio, film, and television each prompted widespread concern that newspapers and magazines would soon be obsolete at worst or rare at best. But the internet differs from earlier threats to the ink-and-paper culture insomuch as that it promises to evolve the medium rather than eliminate it – and Zinio, a growing firm that offers digital magazines at low subscription rates, is doing its part to hasten the end of what will someday be remembered as the very odd practice of reading and writing our words on dead vegetable matter.

Zinio provides users with the ability to instantly download magazines to be read either online or off by way of any number of reader programs, thereby allowing subscribers to enjoy their favorite periodicals on their PC or PDA. Options abound, with Zinio offering quite a bit more variety than you'll find at your average newsstand or even your above-average one; over 1,000 publications are available for download by the issue or by way of a subscription. As one might expect, the reduction of costs associated with actual printing and shipping allow for bargain rates, and special offers abound. Conveniently enough, Zinio also allows users to search the site's entire database of available issues by keyword order to find particular articles on a given subject.

The company also offers a small selection of consumer books, but won't be competing with Amazon and its Kindle reader anytime soon; only a couple dozen are available at the moment, with offerings limited mostly to travel guide. On the other hand, Zinio has partnered with textbook publishers to provide digital versions of their products at rates well below the expensive norm; a downloabable copy of Macroeconomics by Campbell McConnell, for instance, goes for a bit over 60 bucks, half of what a new copy costs over at Amazon.

As wonderful as all of this is for starving students and tree-huggers alike, there's now another good reason to give Zinio a try: the Read Green Initiative (goreadgreen.com), a program organized by Zinio, offers first-time users a free one-year subscription to a magazine of their choice, with proceeds of any additional subscriptions purchased going towards the planting of trees, this being a welcome reversal for the printed word.

SolarCity Leasing Cheap Solar Panels at No Money Down

The three or four California homeowners who still own their homes are better positioned than ever to go the oh-so-Earth-friendly solar energy route thanks to a well-timed new offer from SolarCity, a firm that's already outfitted hundreds of residential properties with cheap solar panels. California being typically ahead of the curve in such things, state residents are being invited to take advantage of the company's SolarLease program whereby homeowners may lease a solar panel array with no money down.

As most solar buffs are already aware and as SolarCity is keen to note, the use of solar panels in particularly sunny regions can turn consumers into producers by way of a net metering agreement with one's local utility company; these allow homeowners who have accrued extra energy during daytime non-peak hours to automatically distribute it into the regional power grid, pocketing peak-hour rate returns from the utility in the evening and thereby further reducing one's energy bill further. Likewise, when solar-equipped homes run out of the energy that they've absorbed, they'll automatically switch back to the traditional energy grid for their fueling needs.

From a financial standpoint, it's an attractive offer. As the savings calculator found at SolarCity's website can demonstrate in further detail, many homeowners who jump on the lease stand to benefit from immediate net savings on energy expenditures due to decreased energy bills, even taking into account the monthly lease payment. Of course, there's also the matter of federal and state tax incentives, which themselves have become significantly sweeter in recent years.

SolarCity's lease offer also includes a number of other goodies. The company makes clear that it handles all aspects of its solar panel program, from a free consultation that includes advice on particular government incentive programs to installation to any necessary maintenance down the road. Solarcity even monitors the power levels of individual home panel system in order that they might provide any necessary fixes in the event of under-performance, in which case they'll also compensate participants for each potential kilowatt that may have been lost in the meantime. In fact, the only minus we can see here is that customers aren't given the option to buy outright at the end of the lease, although they do have several options by which to extend or modify it.

In addition to California, SolarCity plans to extend its leasing offer to other states in the near future; keep an eye out.

Motorola MOTO W233 Renew Viewed as Best Recycled Cell Phone

If there were a recycling Olympics – and incidentally, there is not – then the Motorola MOTO W233 Renew would definitely take home some sort of prize; the newly-released recycled cell phone is constructed in part from old water cooler jugs, of all things, and its cradle-to-grave existence is marked by several other similarly significant nods to ecological soundness as well. For instance, it's shipped in recycled packaging alongside a postage-paid envelope with which to send back one's old model for recycling, and the phone itself complies with the stringent Restriction of Hazardous Substances directive, which is to say that it can be disposed of safely and cleanly due to the absence of dangerous chemicals therein. As a consequence, it's been declared Greentech Approved by PCMag.com, which also deemed the Renew to be “the most environmentally friendly phone on the U.S. market.”

Still, the Renew isn't particularly geared towards gadget fetishists, eschewing as it does some of the flashier features that have become native to cell phones lately. But it sports all of the basics of the sort that everyone had on their-turn-of-the-century Nokias, and those who've tested it out thus far have reported it to be a solid voice phone with unusually good reception and exceptional screening of background noise. For environmentalists in search of green alternatives in the communications age, the Renew is a good call.

On Tue, Apr 21, 2009 at 3:41 PM, Josh Dorfman <josh@lazyenvironmentalist.com> wrote:

Let’s table Power Cube for now. How about this product - http://www.goodcleantech.com/2009/04/motorolas_recycled_plastic_pho.php

And let’s reference that it qualifies under PC Mag’s criteria (see below). For stories and product reviews like these I’m cool with around 200 words, rather than something necessarily more lengthy - http://www.motorola.com/consumers/v/index.jsp?vgnextoid=3bd6df420e68e110VgnVCM1000008406b00aRCRD

From: Sarah Hawes [mailto:sarah@rosengrouppr.com]
Sent: Tuesday, April 21, 2009 3:12 PM
To: josh@lazyenvironmentalist.com
Subject: item: PCMag.com GreenTech Approved List

Good afternoon,

At PCMag.com, everyday is Earth Day. PCMag.com has compiled its “GreenTech Approved” list, which rates products’ energy efficiency and recyclability. Extended to include cell phones for the first time, PCMag.com’s GreenTech Approved benchmarking system provides consumers with the inside scoop on the best eco-friendly products that help them to live a green lifestyle.

We hope you will share the GreenTech Approved list, which can be found at http://www.goodcleantech.com/best_products/. More information included below.

Best,

Sarah

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact:

Sarah Hawes, The Rosen Group

sarah@rosengrouppr.com, 646.695.7050

PCMag.com Expands “GreenTech Approved”

In Concert with GoodCleanTech.com, Tech Leader Highlights and Applauds the Most Energy Efficient Tech Products with New Green Benchmarking Tests for Mobile Phones

New York, NY (April 21, 2009) – At PCMag.com, everyday is Earth Day: As part of an enhanced “GreenTech Approved” benchmarking system, PCMag.com will now add mobile phones to its comprehensive list of the most eco-friendly tech gear available on the market. Since 2008, PCMag.com has bestowed the GreenTech Approved honor, which rates products’ energy efficiency, recyclability and certifications earned, as well as results of a suite of benchmark tests in the PCMag.com Labs. The new and improved GreenTech Approved list can be found at http://www.goodcleantech.com/best_products/.

“As mobile phones become the primary computing devices for millions of people around the world, their environmental impact is more important than ever,” said Jeremy Kaplan, PCMag.com Executive Editor and GoodCleanTech.com Editor. “The GreenTech Approved list singles out the best of the best in each product category, from HDTVs to laptops to hard drives. In a fight against the polluters and resource hogs of the world, PCMag.com enables consumers to make smart green purchases for a healthier world.”

The PCMag.com GreenTech Approved list is divided into six product categories:

Mobile Phones: PCMag.com assesses various criteria, including whether mobile phones have an Energy Star certified charger, comply with European RoHS standards, use solar power and contain recycled materials. In addition, PCMag.com checks if the manufacturer has a free takeback policy and if it is a member of RBRC, an organization that helps recycle batteries.

· Motorola MOTO W233 Renew

Computers: PCMag.com tested power usage in four scenarios: in the idle state, sleep mode, completely off and working as hard as possible. Each manufacturer is asked to detail the steps taken to reduce waste and recycle PCs. In addition, PCMag.com looked at certifications such as RoHs and EPEAT, which set standards for energy use and toxic components.

Desktops:

· Apple iMac

· Apple Mac Mini

· Dell Studio Hybrid

· Lenovo ThinkCentre M57p eco

· Lenovo ThinkCentre a61e

· Zonbu Desktop Mini

Laptops:

· Lenovo Thinkpad X301

· Lenovo Thinkpad SL400: Centrino 2

· Lenovo Thinkpad X200: Centrino 2

· Apple MacBook 13-inch

· Fujitsu LifeBook U810

· Toshiba Portégé M700-S7002

· Apple Macbook Air

· Lenovo Thinkpad X300

· HP Compaq 2710p

· Fujitsu Lifebook P8010

Hi-Definition TVs: PCMag.com bases the core of its benchmark methodology on Energy Star’s latest guidelines, including common usage scenarios and methods for obtaining measurements. Energy Star’s test methodology focuses heavily on the efficiency of a TV using its default picture settings—and PCMag.com expanded upon this to include calibrated picture settings as well as user-accessible features that influence HDTV power consumption.

· 46-inch Samsung LN46A850

· 22-inch Toshiba 22AV500U

· 46-inch Toshiba Regza 46XV545U

· 55-inch Samsung LN55A950

· 52-inch Sharp Aquos LC-52D65U

· 42-inch Toshiba Regza 42XV540U

Blu-ray Disc Players: The relatively small size of most Blu-ray Disc players also means that fewer raw materials are required for their construction, and as a result, the use of any toxic materials is automatically lessened. To evaluate their efficiency, PCMag.com used Energy Star’s eligibility criteria for DVD products, augmenting the methodology to include power consumption based on the playback of specific video material.

Sony BDP-S350 Blu-ray Drive

Hard Drives: Hard drive testing is based on energy consumption and ease of recyclability. PCMag.com tests with the USB 2.0 interface in addition to testing all of the interfaces that the drive may come with—including FireWire 400, FireWire 800 and eSATA. PCMag.com tests on a Windows or Mac testbed, depending on the focus and formatting of the drive, and drives are tested with their backup software or with PCMag.com’s standardized tests.

Western Digital My Book Studio Edition II

LCD Monitors: To qualify, desktop LCD monitors must have a display that meets at least two of the following certifications: Energy Star (U.S. EPA), RoHS and EPEAT Silver or Gold. PCMag.com takes into consideration the display’s energy saving characteristics, looking for features such as sleep timers, automatic and remote shutdown capabilities and ECO modes that offer low luminance as well as displays that are made using eco-friendly materials and have zero or limited mercury content.

HP LP2275w

“We hope that by highlighting GreenTech Approved products, other companies will follow suit and green their product offerings,” said Kaplan. “In the future, PCMag.com plans to extend this benchmark to all products on the market.”

About the PCMag Digital Network

The PCMag Digital Network (www.PCMag.com) is one of the world’s best-known publishers of leading technology-based digital content products. Its flagship property, PCMag.com, delivers comprehensive labs-based product reviews and the world-renowned PCMag Editors’ Choice Awards, the most trusted buying recommendations for technology products and services across the globe.

Reaching more than seven million highly engaged technology buyers and influencers, PCMag Digital Network provides contextual marketing solutions that drive results. Brands within the Network also include ExtremeTech, Gearlog, Appscout, Smart Device Central, GoodCleanTech, DL.TV, Cranky Geeks, and PCMagCast. The Network’s content is delivered worldwide to readers across a multiple platform of Web sites, e-newsletters, Webcasts, broadband video, software downloads and RSS feeds to users in more than 20 countries.

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