Blackle is a search engine, powered by Google, which seeks to save energy by rendering everything black. Have a look at it; the entire page, apart from a dark grey title and a few pieces here and there, is black.

Why? Apparently it saves energy to have black, or dark colored, backgrounds (good news for this site…although, to be honest, I can’t claim to have been aware of this issue when designing the site). So, is this true? Can we really save energy by only visiting darkly colored sites? Turns out we can…sometimes.

For those people living in the States, here’s a useful article I found on TheStreet.com, which gives practical advice on how you can get rid of your old computer when you upgrade. The EPA estimates that 15% of discarded computers wind up in landfills every year, where they leak toxins like lead, mercury and even arsenic into the soil and potentially the groundwater. The writer, Eileen Gunn, explains what she found out after purchasing her new Apple.

Here’s a great idea I found out about from the team over at EcoGeek. Leveraging blogging’s wide appeal, coverage and influence the call has gone out for bloggers to unite under the Blog Action Day banner to highlight problems with our planet.

Scheduled for October 15^th, Blog Action Day has so far signed up close to 6000 blogs and websites who want to talk up environmental issues. With a different theme each year, the organisers have selected the environment as the 2007 theme both for the clarity of its importance and the undeniable urgency that issues like global warming and pollution have. So, on October 15^th they want every blog out there to post on something to do with the environment; an ambitious and admirable aim.

Never let it be said that The Green Lounge ignores the good deeds of its competitors. When it comes to green computing, we’re all for ideas and initiatives that advance the cause, and it looks like Intel’s come up with a good one. Friday last week, they announced the launch of LessWatts.org, a website designed to encourage innovations that could drive down the energy requirements of Linux servers, PCs and household devices.