RE<C
Google have a vision to develop renewable energy to become cheaper than coal to produce energy, this vision is represented as the following formula - (RE<C). Google is taking this idea very seriously, as its google.org site states that it is “making strategic investments and grants, advancing key public policies, and using Google products to unlock critical information”.

Powermeter
Google PowerMeter is a free electricity usage monitoring tool. It provides you with information on how much energy your home is consuming, this can even be visualised on your iGoogle home page.  It works by retrieving information from utility smart meters and in-home energy management devices. Most smart metres don’t give near real-time information, the advantage of retrieving near real-time information is that it makes it easy to reduce unnecessary energy consumption, and in turn costs.

Green tourism
Google also has green mashup site which assists tourists to find "environmentally friendly activities attractions and amenities" in five U.S. cities.

RechargeIT
The purpose of Google’s RechargeIT project is to accelerate mass commercialisation of plug-in vehicles. This project was launched in June 2007. Google has its own plug-in demonstration fleet of standard hybrid Prius cars as well as eight Priuses which have been retrofitted to become plug-in hybrid vehicles.  These are charged by Google's 1.6 megawatt solar installation. The data for the vehicles are collected and made publicity available.

Google again are setting the trends, what can your business take from Google’s example?

As part of the Eco-Village there are plans to build a green enterprise centre which will inherit the sustainable culture of the existing village. I am one of the directors of the board and we are tasked with ensuring that this project is successful.  So far we have put a vision and project plan together. Furthermore, we have secured funding to build the centre and we are down to the last three applications for the build tender.

Vision for the sustainable green enterprise centre.

The North Tipperary green enterprise park will use a best practice 'Interface' design to foster and nurture the development of participating eco-oriented businesses from incubation stage through to production in 758 square metre specialised building with an internal structure designed to promote collaborative enterprise and synergistic possibilities through geographic proximity.

It will provide smart solutions to environmental and resource issues, the companies locating in NTGEP will have competitive advantage through their provision of innovative product/service offerings with enhanced environmental performance.  It will also support eco-enterprise in the local area and educate existing businesses on how to evolve their existing business model to be more futuristic and sustainable.

Next steps

Next steps are to rebrand the North Tipperary green enterprise park to a more suitable name, to start recruiting potential residents and to start the build process. I shall keep you informed through Bloggertone as we progress of through this project.