Save water by using less electricity [News]

A single search-engine query, such as asking Google for the address of a restaurant or spa, consumes a tenth of a teaspoon of water.

Not literally and directly, but in the electricity needed to run the computers and servers involved.

When electricity is produced, the power plant consumes water for cooling, and some of this evaporates.

And there are 293 million Google searches – guzzling more than 1 million litres of such virtual water – each day.

A United States civil engineer, Mr Robert Osborne, has worked out the mathematics. The specific numbers can be debated, but more governments, firms and people are beginning to recognise that water consumption and energy use are fundamentally linked. Read more

CapitaLand Reduces Electricity and Water Consumption

This is a news release from CapitaLand.

Singapore, 14 January 2009 – CapitaLand’s Group-wide initiatives to Reduce, Reuse and Recycle have paid off. In the first 11 months of 2008, the Group reduced electricity and water consumption in 23 retail malls, office buildings and serviced residences in Singapore by 4% and 5% respectively compared to the same period in 2007, after adjustments for human traffic and occupancy rate. This is equivalent to about S$1.5 million based on current utility costs. The electricity saved can power 12,500 five-room HDB flats for one month while the water saved can fill 24 Olympic-sized swimming pools. Read more