green

Castoff computer parts can make for quirky jewelry, if you feel like flashing keyboard button earrings or circuitboard cufflinks.

Unlike these models of creative recycling, some costume jewelry imported from China contains heavy metals from discarded electronics and could make you sick, as the Wall Street Journal reported last week.

Some novelty necklaces and earrings are laced with lead and antimony that likely came from e-waste thrown away by consumers in the United States and other developed nations, then shipped to China for unsafe recycling. "Best Friends Forever" necklaces from Claire's mall shops and stud earrings from … Read more

Maybe golf cart makers are wising up to the fact that not many people will trade in their perfectly good electric golf cart for wind or solar specialty carts.

Cruise Car, a maker of solar golf carts, has announced a new kit it says will allow most popular electric golf carts to use solar power as an energy source.

The Sunray Solar Roof Kit, which can send power directly to an existing 36- or 48-volt battery, can generate up to 180 watts or 60 volts. Cruise Car says this will allow electric golf carts to go 30 percent farther between … Read more

The "Twin Force" engine that Ford's been hinting about these past months will deliver the power-performance of a V8 with the fuel economy of a V6, Ford confirmed to CNET News.com.

The engine will have direct injection plus a turbocharger, according to a Ford representative.

The company would not confirm when or in which production models consumers can expect to see the new technology.

Many of the recent announcements concerning fuel injection and turbocharging technology have been related to diesel engines. Ford's claim is an interesting one that, if true, could put its "Twin … Read more

There aren't enough down-to-earth, Web-based tools to help you visualize a greener home. The Green Building Studio is for architects, while Lucid Design Group's energy dashboard is found only in a slim number of buildings. Yahoo's Green House is pretty, yet it can't be personalized.

But I just wasted a fine chunk of the afternoon playing with a kids' Web site that makes a great model for what I'd like to see for adults. My Abodo is an excellent, Flash-based interface that walks you through building a virtual green home. Created in part by the … Read more

MakeMeSustainable is a new green social networking site. Although entering a crowded field, the service wisely translates how greening your everyday habits saves money. It tallies dollar signs, trees, and carbon emissions to track changes in your usage of electricity, heating, transportation, and travel over many months. I like that it takes you directly to sites where you can achieve a goal instantly, such as by buying CFL bulbs or carbon credits, or downloading a power-saving app for your PC. And you can form and join groups based around your interests.

MakeMeSustainable builds a personal profile based upon your quick … Read more

Perhaps it's not surprising that a company founded on the idea of automation hones in on efficiency when it comes to clean tech.

Over the past year, IBM has started working with a handful of energy efficiency and water conservation start-ups, betting that those technologies will find steady demand.

"So far, we've seen a trickle of the capital needed to make scalable changes. One thought is to see if we can dramatically increase efficiency and reduce waste to free up capital," said Andrew (Drew) Clark, director of strategy at IBM's Venture Capital Group.

Around 10 … Read more

Hydrogen Fuel Cell Technologies, which makes hydrogen fuel cells for toy cars and boats, has signed a deal with Wah Shing Toys in which Wah Shing will mass manufacture the company's products.

Hydrogen. Yes, it's impractical to buy a hydrogen car today. Hydrogen cost about $1 million each and filling stations are fairly rare. But HFCT says that other applications exist. Switzerland has banned gas-burning boats on many lakes. There's no reason boathouses, which already sell propane, can't sell hydrogen too.

And the kids love it. HFCT's key product so far is the H-Racer, a … Read more

At CNET, we've been publishing information about HDTV power consumption for a year and a half in our Quick Guide, which currently lists the results of our tests of more than 50 televisions. Until now, this data has been restricted to the Guide, but it really belongs in each individual HDTV review. That's why we're pleased to announce the "Juice box," a new chart that summarizes the television's power consumption and scores it against other models.

You can check out an example here. Clicking the phrase "Juice box" takes you to an … Read more

Hydrogen is lightweight and efficient as a fuel. When it burns, you get water as the exhaust, and the fuel cell technology that burns the gas is well developed. The major hang-up has been how to produce hydrogen without needing lots of fossil-derived energy.

Apparently, the way to cheap hydrogen is through aluminum. Purdue researchers earlier this year announced they'd found a way to use aluminum to get hydrogen from water. Today a Chinese ceramicist who did graduate work in Portugal says there's an even simpler way to derive hydrogen. This process uses powdered aluminum at room temperature, … Read more