If you don’t hang around developers, you may not know that any acronym that starts with YA usually means “Yet Another”. In this case, YASC is Yet Another Sustainability Conference. If anyone profited off of environmental concerns in 2007 it was the conference industry, where a rash of new energy efficiency, sustainability, environmental and green themed conferences hit the market. I found many of them useful, especially earlier in the year when the information was still fresh, but by the end of the year I found myself showing up, doing my part, and heading out.

YesterdayDell announced that they were going to join the Carbon Disclosure Project’s Supply Chain Leadership Collaboration. I happened to have been talking with Paul Dickinson about this at the GeSI board meeting last week, and I think that this a good idea. As we have been saying in the past, alignment among the key players in the electronics supply chain is going to be critical for making deep progress. In particular, I’d like to see EICC (the group formerly known as Electronics Industry Code of Conduct) adopt this (or some variant) and standardize the specific info that will be requested of the electronics supply chain.

Video of a rare zamoboni fire.

FromBill Simmons on espn.com:

If you get a chance, read Two Steps Forward: The Six Sins of Greenwashing by Joel Makower. It is the other side of my recent post on the rights of consumers. These are two sides of the same discussion for the following reason: most of these eco product claims are failing because they are trying to give consumers the answer, instead of the data. Instead of saying “Here’s the data on the impact of this product”, they want to jump to the conclusion, saying “This product is green.

I only saw this once or twice, but it was one of the best they’ve ever done.

Excellent news.

You’re aware of our climate challenges, you’re not super rich, and you’re out looking for a new car. Its a pretty safe bet that you’re taking a look at the stickers on the car windows that tell you how many miles per gallon you might get. In the US there’s two numbers, ‘city’ and ‘highway’, but you have a good sense of your driving patterns so you know how to weigh these numbers in your decision.

I was tongue-in-cheek when I originally wrote about the idea, butFiji water has made it a reality! I’m not sure if I like their name (“carbon negative”) or mine (“double carbon neutral”) better. So, what’s better for the environment - drinking “carbon negative” water that’s bottled in Fiji and shipped to your store in plastic bottles, or drinking “carbon positive” tap water? You make the call….

If you haven’t seen the exploding comet yet, make sure you check it out. There’s a good history here.