Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Wipro, HCL among top five green firms


Two Indian companies Wipro and HCL have emerged amongst the top five greenest electronics companies in the world. While Wipro shares the top position with Nokia, HCL at third position is marginally behind Sony Ericsson, according to Greenpeace's just released Guide to Greener Electronics. The NGO rates leading electronic brands on a wide range of chemical, e-waste and new energy criteria.

Wipro is tied with Finnish mobile phone manufacturer Nokia at a score of 7.5 out of 10, up from 6.9 last September. Rajesh Nag, general manager (Business Operations), Wipro Infotech (Systems and Technology), says, "Wipro takes pride in being a responsible IT organisation and actively participating in the green journey. The core mission of Wipro green computing is to work towards clean and sustainable IT products and solutions, which help customers achieve high productivity in energy, space and asset management through the lifecycle"

Wipro has moved up account of its performance on the chemical criterion and for using recycled plastic. Besides, the company's recently launched Greenware range of desktops are not only 100% recyclable, but also toxin-free. The Greenware range has a share of 13 % of the company's total hardware output.

While Swedish mobile phone maker Sony Ericsson is at the second position with a score of 6.9, HCL follows closely at 6.7 points, going up from 6.1 on the back of its improved performance on the chemicals and energy criteria. Besides, HCL has set a target of greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reduction of 20% by 2014 on a baseline of 2007-08. HCL has scope to improve its score by using renewable energy. "Today sustainability has to be acknowledged as a pivotal point in any organisation's growth. It gives us great joy to receive such a recognition," said a spokesperson from HCL.

Talking about the trend, Vinnie Mehta, executive director, Manufacturers' Association for Information Technology (MAIT), says, "The mood of the moment is green. Indian companies are getting greener because of their increased awareness about the business case of going green. Such products may be costlier upfront, but they turn out to be cheaper in the longer run." Greenpeace's Guide to Greener Electronics aims to get the electronics sector shoulder the responsibility for the full life cycle of their products. Apart from ranking criteria on toxic chemicals and e-waste, the NGO has recently started factoring in the energy criterion in its ranking, says Abhishek Pratap, campaigner, Greenpeace India.

Saying that the two Indian companies have done very well, he adds, "The presence of two Indian companies in the top five of greener electronic companies in the world shows that Indian companies are ready to take a leadership role and will compete with best in class in cleaning their supply chain and greening their products."

Sunday, May 2, 2010

Melting icebergs causing sea level rise

Scientists have discovered that ice floating in the polar oceans is melting, causing sea levels to rise. The research is the first assessment of how quickly floating ice is being lost.

According to Archimedes' principle, any floating object displaces its own weight of fluid. For example, an ice cube in a glass of water does not cause the glass to overflow as it melts.

But because sea water is warmer and more salty than floating ice, changes in the amount of this ice are having an effect on global sea levels.

The loss of floating ice is equivalent to 1.5 million Titanic-sized icebergs each year. However, the study shows that spread across the global oceans, recent losses of floating ice amount to a sea level rise of just 49 micrometers per year - about a hair's breadth.

Andrew Shepherd, professor at the University of Leeds, who led the study, said it would be unwise to discount this signal.

"Over recent decades there have been dramatic reductions in the quantity of earth's floating ice, including collapses of Antarctic ice shelves and the retreat of Arctic sea ice," Shepherd said.

"These changes have had major impacts on regional climate and, because oceans are expected to warm considerably over the course of the 21st century, the melting of floating ice should be considered in future assessments of sea level rise," he added.

Shepherd and his team used a combination of satellite observations and a computer model to make their assessment.

They looked at changes in the area and thickness of sea ice and ice shelves, and found that the overall signal amounts to a 742 cubic kilometres per year reduction in the volume of floating ice.

Because of differences in the density and temperature of ice and sea water, the net effect is to increase sea level by 2.6% of this volume, equivalent to 49 micrometers per year spread across the global oceans, a Leeds release said.

The greatest losses were due to the rapid retreat of Arctic Sea ice and to the collapse and thinning of ice shelves at the Antarctic Peninsula and in the Amundsen Sea.

The findings were published this week in Geophysical Research Letters.