There are a number of new “green” technologies making there way to the market. The US is even cutting a year off of the 40 month time period for approval of patents, just for new green technologies. “Every day an important green tech innovation is hindered from coming to market Is another day we harm our planet and another day lost in creating green businesses and green jobs.” Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property, David Kappos. Speeding up the patent process is allowing more innovators to invest and develop green technologies, and get them to the market much more quickly. With the new innovators hard at work and the shortened time period that it takes there products to hit the market there is a boom of new technology and amazing new green products. Not only are there plenty of innovators already on the green scene but there are a group of up and coming students who are studying green technologies in their business schools. There are new courses specially designed for teaching students green technologies such as, Solar Photovoltaic’s education. There are even online business schools offering courses in the field of green technology. Teaching students how to apply their knowledge of green technology on a professional and business level, and bringing up an advanced new generation of innovators.
New “Green” Technologies Hitting the Market
There are many new green innovations hitting the market some on a small scale and some on a much larger scale. Here are a few of the smaller things that are out on the market. Every little thing you can do as an individual to help the environment counts. Even the things that seem small have great impact.
Green Printing
There are many new software programs that are helping people who print often reduce not only their effect on the environment but also the amount of money they spend on different printing products. One of the bigger names in this type of software is Preton Ltd. Green printing. This company has revolutionized printing software. Their software optimizes pixel printing using mathematical algorithms to eliminate unneeded pixels when printing. This reduces the amount of ink and toner you use by a considerable amount and saves you money on printing supplies. If you are a business owner, utilizing this new green printing software could save your company money and cut down the amount of waste that your company produces, in turn helping to save the environment.
This seems like something so trivial to worry with. However each year over 17 billion cardboard toilet paper tubes are thrown away, equaling enough cardboard tubes to fill the Empire State building not once, but twice. Scott’s Natural and other toilet paper companies have started making toilet paper without the cardboard tube. By doing so these companies are saving resources and reducing our countries yearly waste by a considerable amount. Consider also using this type of toilet paper for your home and business as well. The average person uses 100 roles of toilet paper a year, at an average age of 70 that 7,000 roles in a lifetime, and 7,000 cardboard tubes you are putting to waste.
Green Cell Phones
There is an estimated 150 million cell phones that will be replaced this year. That equals 65,000 tons of waste. Cell phones use metals, plastics, ceramics and contain toxic materials like brominated flame retardants and lead. These chemicals are being released into our atmosphere and soil when cell phones are buried away in landfills. Recycling a cell phone is an easy process and much of the material from cell phones can be reused. Samsung has now created a cell phone made with hazardous free material and recycled plastics. Even the packaging the cell phone comes in is made of recycled paper and is printed on with soy ink. By buying green cell phones and or recycling old ones we are saving our environment from 65,000 tons of toxic waste.
Now on to some of the bigger innovations that are revolutionizing the ways we can reduce our impact on our planet.
No Emissions Electric Bus
Imagine all the busses that are used for public transportation and the emissions that they are spitting out into our atmosphere. With new green technology the GE research team has created a battery powered bus. The team utilized the use of a lithium and sodium battery in a dual power system allowing the bus to have great performance and acceleration. There is still a need for advancements in the size and cost of batteries before this type of transportation could be used throughout the country. Technologies like this could make a huge difference in the amount of pollution that transportation creates and the way we travel in the future.
New technologies are being designed with solar energy to make solar power easier to provide on a larger scale. Different companies are designing thin-film solar panels and even have designed these panels in cylindrical shapes allowing them to gather solar energy from all sides, this new design has increased their efficiency by 20 percent. This new thin film material is seen as the way of the future for solar energy. It can be produced in roll to roll form like plastic and is much cheaper, than traditional hard bodied solar panels, to produce. If the materials are cheaper to make they will be cheaper for the general public and make solar powered energy more within the general public’s reach.
This information has barely scratched the surface of the new green technologies that are being developed to help reduce our effect on the environment. At the rate that these technologies are being produced and with the upcoming “green” business students, it looks like the green market could revolutionize our very way of living. There are many things we can do as individuals to reduce our impact and with new technologies there will soon be many things we can do as a nation to reduce our overall effect on our environment.
Millie Baltimore lives in the US Mid-West, working as a business administrator. In her free time she advocates for online universities.