Behind the brand: Google

Back in September I read an article by Peter Salisbury about Google that made me think a little differently about the web. I had always known in the back of my mind that have a paper-free environment and no office meant that I was reducing my carbon emissions but by using Cloud Services for my entire digital life was just as bad because servers are on 24/7 keeping my data safe and available.

Over the years so-called Green search engines have appeared, including Blackle which changed the display from white to black to save energy. Of course I did dismiss this as a little sensationalist because merely reducing energy used does not, a planet, save.

So, after reading the article by Peter Salisbury I had learned that Google are incredibly energy-efficient not just to be Earth-friendly but this has obvious financial benefits for them. Adorned on top of the Googleplex in California is a sea of solar panels making use of their climate. Their datacentre‘s around the world are making use of ‘free cooling’ by channeling the outside climates in to cool the servers. This is a company that is thinking AND doing, and more importantly they are aware of the impact they have on the world and acting responsibly.

Now, they are inherently not a green company for sure, otherwise you would never throw out a perfectly good office fit-out only to bring in some brightly-coloured design classics in to your reception but acting responsibly is a lot more than I had expected and more than most corporations are doing.

Google claims that using Gmail instead of your average email system is up to 80 times better for the environment. The reason? Cloud servers are leveraged 100 percent while average company servers never use their entire capacity and have processing overhead wasted. “Using Gmail for an entire year uses less energy than is required to manufacture a bottle of wine, drink the wine, ‘stuff a message in the bottle and throw it in the ocean’” (about 1.2 kg CO2).

Similarly, one minute of watching YouTube videos uses 0.00002 kWh of energy on Google’s side (without counting your computer that actually displays the video). To put that in context, it takes approximately 0.15 kWh to boil a full kettle, which means you could watch 7,500 minutes (125 hours) of YouTube videos for the same energy used.

Something else that is quite amazing is that Google reuses everything, especially water. They are currently running two facilities that use 100 percent recycled water and they’re goal is to have all of their data centre’s using 80 percent recycled water this year. Incredible.

For a company that has 79.61% of the global search engine market share, this is good news to hear. Not only are they a massive search engine, but their email client is one of the largest webmail providers and this is powered by the same servers.

I now feel a lot better about using Google for all of my data. Thank you Google.

Further reading:
www.google.com/about/datacenters/
www.google.com/green

Terence Conran at 80

I recently wrote this article for my other project Heart Home magazine… I wanted to share it with you all. Read the article in the magazine on page 88.

On the eve of his 80th birthday, Sir Terence Conran can reflect on a long and fruitful career in high-street retail, restauranteering and the promotion of design in industry. Heart Home took some time out to celebrate the Conran empire.

It seems strange to think that we have Sir Terence to thank for bringing the duvet to the British nation back in the Sixties, or for bringing the second Gaggia coffee machine to London during the Fifites. How this one man has discreetly shaped our lives is testament to his forward-thinking; he knows what we want before we know it ourselves.

Born 4 October 1931, Terence Orby Conran began a life of discovery and business. Venturing to France in his early life to work, he travelled back to the UK in the Fifties with a vision to bring Britain to where our European counterparts have been for so many years. He says ‘you could only buy olive oil from the chemist’. Now with several successful business ventures behind him, including several restaurants, The Conran Shop furniture emporium and, of course, the massively successful Habitat brand which he opened in 1964, Sir Terence is still working hard to democratise creativity and bring good design to the high street.

His latest venture is a collaboration with mass-market powerhouse Marks & Spencer to bring good contemporary furniture in to the homes of the discerning Brits once more. Happy Birthday Sir Terence Conran!

Article was created closely with our friends at Crane.tv

Boxpark makes its mark

Opening this August, Boxpark is planning to bring some shabby chic glamour to a wasteland patch in London’s Shoreditch.

Housing creative types in a make-shift market opposite the Tea building just a short walk from the financial services at Liverpool Street, Boxpark will be made entirely out of shipping containers stacked two high creating an interesting shopping experience that is also affordable for designers and makers.

With a vision that Boxpark will change the retail environment in Shoreditch to showcase, for the first time, brands and companies that have not had the opportunity to take a London space of their own. This is a very exciting opportunity to find something original, fresh and unique in a time where anyone can be online and everywhere we should see some great emerging brands at Boxpark.

Using a space that will eventually see a major development built in its place, Boxpark is making the most of this open land, next to Shoreditch High Street station, and a material that is in abundance in the UK, the shipping container. We import more than we export, and rather than sending the containers back over the oceans empty, they are often disposed of or reused. They have been used in many creative ways in the past, but if Boxpark is a success we may see many ‘pop-up’ malls appearing over the UK in years to come.

Shingle house, Dungeness

“Dungeness in Kent is one of the largest expanses of shingle in the world. It is of international conservation importance for its geomorphology, plant and invertebrate communities and birdlife. This is recognised and protected through its conservation designations.

The location of the existing buildings and their material qualities dictated the external envelope of the house. Situated in the distinctive Dungeness landscape, it is important that the building is sensitive to its surroundings and sits comfortably with the local vernacular.

Designed as a ‘living experience’, the brief required a simple house comprising simple accommodation. The notion of daily ‘rituals’ and the close relationship with nature, are common features of the design approach, which have been used as a tool for organizing and positioning key spaces within the house.”
NORD architecture

Source: Man Make Home

Pile up at Pino

Pino is a market place for unique, functional and innovative design objects. The idea for the concept came from the name of the shop, Pino, which means a ‘pile’ or ‘stack’ in Finnish.

Pino took this quite literally when designing their logo and the shop fixtures, piling things on top of each other.

The interior concept with a subtle colour palette works as a background for the fresh, colourful identity and products.

Taking it a step further, their stationery takes on the same design although, as expected, in a very ordered way. Beautiful… for the anally retentive amongst us. Hands up, who loves to straighten their desks? Me too.