The Partnership for Sustainable Communities has chosen Boston and Hartford out of five inaugural state capital beneficiaries to become Green Capitals. This is good news to hear as this is evidence that sustainability is becoming a bigger part of overall planning. By having the EPA, HUD and Dept. of Transportation all involved in the process, a comprehensive plan is on the right track to take shape. In Boston, the plan is to tackle City Hall Plaza in the near term but let’s hope it’s only a start and continues from there. See article here: http://www.greenbiz.com/news/2010/09/09/boston-hartford-among-cities-chosen-green-capitals-program
Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category
Boston and Hartford Becoming Green Capitals
Thursday, September 9th, 2010 by JeffWhat’s the largest cloud computer user? Malware
Monday, August 9th, 2010 by JeffI was surprised to find out that the largest cloud computing user isn’t Google or Amazon or any of the other common brands you think of but the people who developed the botnet Conficker. I thought this was a good article on how malware is evolving and ways to protect yourself. http://www.infoworld.com/d/security-central/fighting-todays-malware-869?page=0,0 The article went into how bad these attacks are (hint: worse than you think) to how they work and surprisingly how easy it is to develop one. As more and more business and activities are conducted over the internet it’s good to be aware of how best to defend yourself from malware.
Networking event for Apple Business, featuring CHIVE Events
Monday, August 2nd, 2010 by Glenn
FREE Networking event for Apple business clients, friends-fans-clients of Chive and fellow entrepreneurs and sustainable business owners! Open to the public!
CHIVE- Sustainable Event Design & Catering is a local, small business comprised of women entrepreneurs- Jen, Lindsey, Julia & Anne, who have started and grown their business on Macs and Apple products. Making a big impact in their business and industry, Chive utilizes Apple technology, software and support- like the Business Team, to help them effectively brand & market the business, manage daily operations, stay connected with staff, keep the books and propel their business to success.
BASG Summer Sustainability Series – “Sustainability Open Mic Night”
Wednesday, July 14th, 2010 by Glenn
G2 is sponsoring a new Boston Area Sustainability Group event at the House of Blues Boston on July 28th, 2010.
Summer is the time when it does a body good to relax, unwind, and get ready for the end-of-year push. Rather than not meeting at all this summer, we at the BASG are taking a different approach and having a “Sustainability Open Mic Night” at the House of Blues. No, we aren’t going to be singing any songs, but what we are offering is an opportunity for you to come share your stories – both successes and challenges – and to learn.
Summer BBQs as Zero Waste Events
Wednesday, July 7th, 2010 by Kevin
Late last week was the annual Summer BBQ at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, located outside of Harvard Sq. This event and the Holiday party mark the two biggest events where hundreds of scientists, along with their friends and family enjoyed a couple hours of festivities (and luckily some great weather as well). This year the Harvard Green Team, with support from the Harvard Office of Sustainability, teamed up with the event’s long time organizers: the Harvard-Smithsonian Social and Recreation Committee. The organizers tried to make it a zero waste event – not an easy task with that many people and the “this is how we’ve always done it, we’re not changing a thing” mentality.
Crowdsourcing: Yes we can
Friday, June 11th, 2010 by JeffYou know when you have a problem and you’re having a hard time figuring it out. You eventually ask a friend for advice, then move on to a family member or another friend, seeking more opinions and advice. When you finally make a decision, you’ve essentially crowdsourced to come to that decision and you feel much more confident and comfortable with that decision. That’s only with a small group, imagine hundreds or thousands or more. I came across this article about InnoCentive and thought it’s a great tool to help solve any problems your company might have. I also think it’s a critical tool to help with the current problems of BP’s oil spill disaster. Share this with as many people as you can. Through the wisdom of the crowd, maybe the solutions can get to the ears of BP one problem solver at a time.
http://www.greenbiz.com/blog/2010/06/02/how-crowdsourcing-can-help-solve-bp-nightmare
Datacenter Powered by Bull****
Wednesday, May 26th, 2010 by JeffI came across this article and thought it was funny as well as intriguing that a datacenter could be powered by…crap. HP is studying this issue although they say they are not currently exploring where to put this technology to work. Cullen Bash, a member of HP’s Sustainable IT Ecosystem Lab team says, “It can be done today.” I initially thought that the majority of US dairy farms are located in the Midwest but after doing some quick research I found that California is where the large farms (2,000+ cows) dominate and is the Nation’s largest milk producing state. I thought that is a perfect situation as most of the tech giants, Google, Yahoo, Facebook, Intel and HP are headquartered in the Golden State so proximity wouldn’t be an issue. Although these dairy farms aren’t located in the Silicon Valley they wouldn’t be relatively too far away either. I also thought it would be a great application to use for underdeveloped countries because generally speaking their economies are agriculturally based so it would be great synergy helping to diversify and grow an economy using none other than the power of BS. http://www.greenbiz.com/blog/2010/05/18/hp-envisions-cow-powered-data-centers?page=0%2C0
Glenn Grant Appears on Money Matters Radio
Thursday, May 20th, 2010 by Glenn
I was recently invited to appear on “Money Matters Radio with Scottie McCall” where I spoke about Green IT and Cloud Computing for small and medium businesses. I had my choice of anything I wanted to talk about, this was an easy decision. My logic was if the show is called “Money Matters” why not talk about two great things that can easily save you money and add to the bottom line. There is nothing like saving the planet and money at the same time, especially in this economy. Check out the interview below. If you have any questions or want to learn how you can leverage these in your business feel free to reach out.
Listen to the interview:
Glenn Grant – Money Matters Radio – May 11th 2010
“Money Matters with Scottie McCall” is broadcasted Monday through Friday at 2:00PM on WBNW AM 1120, WESO 970 and WPLM AM 1390. moneymattersradio.net
Back the Mockup!
Wednesday, May 19th, 2010 by JeffI came across this interesting mockup tool with hand-drawn UI elements that looks useful for designers and engineers. Collaboration is a big part when deciding on a product or design and this seems to be speedy with real time functionality and easy to use. At $79 a desktop I’m not sure if that is on par with the rest of the marketplace but with Adobe’s Indesign CS5 substantially more and Balsamiq’s simple tutorial videos it appears that ability to move to this is easier. With G2 being a young IT consulting firm I was intrigued with Balsamiq’s, a tiny software company founded in ’08, success (20,000+ customers & $1.6million in ’09 sales) and green credentials (free licenses to non-profits). I thought at the very least it was a helpful tool worth sharing with our online community. Check out a demo here: http://www.balsamiq.com/products/mockups
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