Whether you’re setting off for Bangladesh or headed for a weekend camping trip by the lake, you’re probably planning to rehydrate with bottled water because of questionable drinking water or convenience, but just as you’ve cut the plastic bottle-habit out of your daily life (we hope), there are better alternative than buying a bottle every time thirst strikes.

The hand-held SteriPEN Adventurer is small enough to fit inside even the most overstuffed luggage and enables you to purify the water wherever you’re headed with UV light instead of chemicals, so you can skip the bottled water without picking up any funky digestive problems.

Ideal for use on water from clear running streams and questionable municipal facilities, the SteriPEN will rid your water of lurking bacteria and other bad news (although it won’t remove debris or improve taste, so avoid sediment-containing water). All you have to do is hold the SteriPEN in the water you want to purify, press the button and wait while the pen agitates and purifies the water with its UV light. Click here to read more

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Soon a session of reading in the backyard may serve a more practical purpose than just offering a relaxing afternoon. LG has debuted a prototype e-reader in the same vein as the Amazon Kindle, the Sony Reader, and the rumored Barnes and Noble e-book (which may feature color), but LG has taken the paperless idea of the e-readers a step greener by attaching a thin film solar cell to their e-book.

Attached opposite the e-book’s main screen, the credit card-thin, super lightweight solar panel soaks up sun and can provide an additional day of power if it receives 4-5 hours of sunlight (a bit tricky for winter reading in rainy and cloudy climates). A battery provides main power to the LG e-reader for conventional recharging and is backed up by the solar panel, which could theoretically support the e-reader for days with consistent solar charging.

The LG e-reader, while still in a prototype stage and unlikely to be available until 2012, could set a new standard in e-readers, which are already hailed for their eco-friendliness because of the reduced impact from not having to create and transport traditional paper books. If LG’s solar e-book proves successful, it could lead e-readers the way of calculators, one of the first devices to switch to full solar power successfully. Click here to read more

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It probably won’t come as much of a shock to many, but new research from the Carnegie Mellon University Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and Stanford University confirms that in all but a few cases online music will be a much greener choice for consumers, and that the amount of resources and energy saved can be significant.

The August 2009 study assessed the environmental impacts associated with CDs and MP3s and considered the variations between CDs bought in retail stores, CDs bought online and delivered by light-duty truck, CDs bought online and delivered by express air, albums downloaded and used digitally, albums downloaded and burned to disc, and albums downloaded, burned to disc and packaged in jewel cases. While most of us would assume that buying an MP3 and downloading it for digital use would be better for the planet, you might be surprised to find out that doing so could cut energy use and carbon emissions by anywhere from 40 to 80 percent. Click here to read more

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While electronics companies around the world have been working hard to assure buyers that they’ve gone green, Apple has had an especially difficult time convincing consumers of their eco-friendly actions. They’ve been called out by Greenpeace, ranked low on a few green company lists, and been critiqued by Dell for their campaign touting that they had the “greenest family of notebooks”. But the new portion of their site addressing environmental concerns could finally prove that there’s more green to Apple than just that familiar fruit logo.

Called Apple and the Environment, the site could well be one of the most open and consumer-friendly eco-focused sites in the electronics industry, and it may do more than just earn Apple consumer approval; it could set a standard for other companies, too.

On the site, Apple analyzes their environmental impact from a new approach, fully recognizing the lifecycle impacts of their products instead of just the effects of manufacturing, transportation and disposal (as many electronics companies have done). Ultimately, it states that its greenhouse gas emissions break down likes this: 38% from manufacturing, 5% from transportation, 53% from product use, 1% from recycling, and 3% from facilities. Factoring in the product use greenhouse gas emissions brings their overall emissions higher, but gives a much more accurate understanding of the effects of each product. Click here to read more

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Following in the footsteps of nonprofit organizations like Greenpeace, Newsweek took on 500 of the biggest companies in the US last week to rank the greenest businesses (and those farthest from it). The list, called Newsweek’s Green Rankings, was published both in a special 12-page section of the print magazine and online, and assessed the 500 largest publicly-traded corporations.

Hewlett-Packard secured top spot for their commitments to reducing greenhouse gas emissions—even in its supply chain, a first for IT companies—and for their efforts to remove toxic substances from their products. The newly number one company has taken heat from Greenpeace lately, however, for their failure to follow on green promises. The ability for HP to rank first when it much of its green action is talk highlights a common concern some environmentalists have raised about Newsweek’s Green Rankings; namely that the division of scoring across three categories (Environmental Impact, Green Policies and Performance, and Reputation) leaves room for businesses with big green intentions to beat out businesses with smaller—but more concrete—green actions.

Dell found its way into the number two spot, thanks in large part to their major use of renewable energy and the (much debated) carbon neutrality they achieved last year. HP and Dell weren’t the only two tech companies to receive high marks, however; half of the top ten highest ranking companies were tech companies and, likewise, half of the top 20, and those findings have also resulted in some doubts on the Green Rankings from environmentalists. The concern being that comparing tech companies to other corporations is unfair because of the very significant differences in operation, but Newsweek has stated that they not only took into account the difficulties of comparing companies in various sectors, but that the issue was the hardest they wrestled with and where they devoted most of their time. Click here to read more

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