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More information here.

From Press Release:

SINGAPORE, April 25, 2012

For its energy conservation initiatives using the system it originally developed, Fuji Xerox Co., Ltd. received the Fuji Sankei Group Award of the 21st Grand Prize for the Global Environment Award, organized by the Fuji Sankei Communication Group.

The Award extends high recognition to the verification experiments conducted at the company’s R&D site, Fuji Xerox R&D Square, for EneEyes–a self-analysis system to visualize energy consumption–, with which all employees can analyze their energy consumption from various perspectives. During the power saving period in the summer of 2011, around 100 people who are in charge of saving electricity by each floor and organization conducted self-analysis of power consumption of their respective areas using the system. They developed and implemented detailed energy saving measures, thereby clearing the government standards and achieved nearly 30 percent energy saving year on year.

In its greenhouse gas mitigation targets for 2020 announced in 2009, Fuji Xerox pledged to reduce its CO2 emissions throughout the entire product lifecycle and to provide solutions to reduce its customers’ and social CO2 emissions by seven million tons. The EneEyes verification experiment is part of the company’s efforts to develop technologies and products to achieve the targets.

Fuji Xerox will continue to take new initiatives and promote activities to deliver the achievements to customers, thereby contributing to providing solutions to challenges of customers and the society.

About Grand Prize for the Global Environment Award

The Grand Prize for the Global Environment Award was established in 1992 with special cooperation from World Wide Fund for Nature Japan (WWF Japan) as a program to award industries, aimed at the symbiosis between industrial development and global environment. The award recognizes companies and organizations for their contribution to environmental conservation, with the aim of developing new technologies and products that contribute to global warming mitigation and the establishment of a recycling-oriented society, promoting environmental conservation activities and businesses, exploring the social system for the 21st century, and further heightening awareness on the conservation of the global environment.

Singapore, 20 April 2012 – Members of the public will now be able to better monitor their energy consumption and adjust their usage to save energy and money. The National Environment Agency (NEA) has developed two new mobile applications (apps) – “NEA Energy Audit” and “Life Cycle Cost Calculator” – to help the public track energy consumption and calculate the overall energy costs over an appliance’s lifespan. In addition, an Android version of NEA’s popular “myENV” has also been released.

These new apps were launched at today’s Youth for the Environment Day at Dunman High School, graced by Guest of Honour – Dr Vivian Balakrishnan, Minister for the Environment and Water Resources.

These efforts aim to use technology to enhance NEA’s public outreach by sharing environmental information on mobile and social media platforms. By leveraging technology to keep the public informed, they can be empowered to practise good environmental habits. For instance, the new energy efficiency apps will help people save on energy consumption and money. Members of the public can also contribute positively to the environment by reducing energy usage, thereby helping to mitigate climate change.

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App Solutions To Save Energy

Households can play their part to reduce greenhouse gases and fight climate change when they conserve energy. The “NEA Energy Audit” mobile app allows households to find out which appliances are the top energy users at home and estimate the monthly energy costs incurred by each appliance. Households buying new energy-intensive appliances such as air-conditioners, refrigerators and clothes dryers can also use the “Life Cycle Cost Calculator” app, also developed by NEA, to estimate the overall costs that different models are likely to incur over the appliance lifespan. Tracking such overall costs is important as the energy costs incurred can be many times of its purchase price (See Annexes A & B for details and screenshots).

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“myENV” Android Version

Together with the new energy efficiency apps, an Android version of NEA’s popular myENV has also been released. Rolled out in July 2011, NEA’s myENV iPhone application has generated about 68,000 downloads thus far. Users are able to obtain updates on air quality, weather information, as well as dengue clusters. They can also provide feedback to NEA on any environmental lapses.

Android users can now download “myENV” from the Android market and receive these latest environmental news updates and information for free.

The “NEA Energy Audit” and “Life Cycle Cost Calculator” are currently available on iPhone, and can be downloaded from the App Store for free. In the future, the applications may be extended to other platforms such as Android and iPad.

Members of the public are encouraged to provide feedback and suggestions on the applications by emailing nea_contact@nea.gov.sg, or calling 1800-225-5632.

The Eco Music Challenge is an online songwriting competition organised by the National Environment Agency (NEA) for talented and passionate individuals to express their appreciation and support for our beautiful environment through music.

Start going green now and get your shot at fame as you sing and write your way to a cleaner, greener Singapore. And if that isn’t cool enough, you also stand to win up to S$13,000 in cash and Sony prizes!

What’s more, we have introduced a new Schools Category that enables primary and secondary students to compete among their peers on their song writing skills. The top 2 winners will then join the 10 shortlisted finalists in the Open Category for a special 3-week mentorship programme. They will then pit their skills at a Grand Finale concert held on 25 August 2012. The winning song will be selected as the official Clean and Green Singapore theme song for 2013. The winners will also get to showcase their songs at The Merry Men and at other public events.

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For more information, visit www.nea.ecomusic.sg

Oh and, we’re a lot noisier on twitter.

Read the article here.

Why printers fail to work after a number of prints.

Why lightbulb technology (pre-LED) had never advanced since 1879.

Why batteries always begin to not work, and gadget manufacturers never have a replacement.

Yes it was all planned.