Printing web pages can be a frustrating experience, yielding both poor layouts and wasted paper. @greenit recently called attention to three utilities purporting to reduce print waste, one desktop-based and two online. The Vertatique home page can be challenging to to print since it is a dynamic assembly from an underlying content management system (CMS), rather than a hard-coded HTML page, so I used it for a quick test of the two online utilities.

I was asked during my HPA sustainable media session to compare the carbon footprint of a movie delivered by DVD versus one delivered by streaming. It was a good question, but one that required much research.  Here's the first half of the answer.

Proposed California Energy Commission regulations could mean significant changes to its consumer electronics market, possibly even the de facto end of plasma set sales.

Time to update listings from organizations that have developed "green" ratings for computers and consumer electronics, and for these products' manufacturers.

Remote power management of desktop computers is becoming an increasingly powerful tool to control energy consumption and carbon emissions. Behavioral techniques, like encouraging users to turn off their machines at the end of the day, are not always effective and may interfere with off-hours IT activities like upgrades. The Energy Star program now publishes a list of commercial and open-source power management products, along with success stories. Visit Energy Star's Power Management home page for an overview of resources for both organizations and individuals.

E-devices are so pervasive in our lives that we might not consider the full potential of personal e-waste reduction. The British weighed in last year with a new law that, according to Discover magazine, expands the e-waste definition to include electrical 'adult toys'.

Earth Hour is an initiative sponsored by the World Wildlife Fund and others to raise awareness about global warming by asking individuals, municipalities, and businesses to turn off their lights for one hour (8:30PM local time, 28 Mar). Turning off our personal computers and e-devices appears to be a more complicated issue.

Vertatique raised the issue back in 2007 of increased home energy consumption and carbon emissions due to widespread deployment of digital-to-analog (DTA) converter boxes in 2009. Energy Star reports that "In the U.S. alone, depending on viewer behavior and product design, EPA estimates that conventional DTAs could consume more than 3 billion kilowatt hours (kWh) per year and cost Americans $270 million annually in additional electricity bills."  New DTA models hold hope for improving the situation.

Apple's new Mac Mini has achieved EPEAT Gold certification through attention to four different aspects of its design and life cycle.