Photo: matze_ott

Ah, the product service system (or PSS): one of TreeHugger's favorite concepts shrouded by one of the clunkiest names. For anyone who'd like a quick refresher, a PSS replaces a product with a service; instead of paying for the product itself (and whatever maintenance and upkeep it requires), you pay to use the product for a bit, and then give it back. Think of it this way: a PSS is often an answer to the question, "Hey, do you really need to own one of those?"

There are a few classic examples: libraries, bike sharing (pictured above), and car-sharing services are all good ones, and we've rounded up a bunch of other good examples in the past. But what makes a good product service system? Read on for a few examples of some newer PSS's that also exemplify why it's better to rent than buy.

I’m not sure if Malhotra was referring to American Football or what the rest of the world calls football, but both stadiums are quite large. Wembley Stadium photo: Lawrie Cate.

Got your attention now? That amount of oil equivalent, three cubic miles, is how much the world uses in a year if you take into account all sources of energy, says Ripudaman Malhotra of SRI International's Chemical Science and Technology Laboratory in Greentech Media. What’s more, is that by 2050 at current rates of increase the world will consume nine cubic miles of oil.

Pretty sobering, but what is more sobering (it does indeed feel like cold water thrown on the renewable energy industry) is that to replace that amount of energy usage with renewable sources is nigh impossible. Here’s Malhotra on the challenge laid before us in a nutshell:

You may have seen the TreeHugger interview with Goldman Environmental Prize winner Yu Xiaogang where he talks about hydropower in China and the tradeoff between increasing power supply and the environmental and community concerns of doing so.

For some more info on the issues surrounding developing hydropower on the Nu River, including an overview of the traditional, micro and small-scale hydropower usage on the river, check out this video clip from China’s Green Beat. Good stuff, with applicability to any number of different types of big-push style projects in the developing world.

Cassava, not in Cambodia... photo: The Ewan

Just a quick one on ethanol and Southeast Asia: Chinaview.cn is reporting that Cambodia has opened the nation’s first ethanol production facility. Using cassava as a feedstock, at least initially all of the plant’s production will be for the export market (primarily the European market...). Here are the rest of the details:

images: Dartmouth Wave Energy

Here’s a wave power technology which you may not have heard of: It’s called the Searaser and (though only in prototype stages, I’ve got some reservations about how well it may scale up, as well as the name which somehow I always see as 'Sea Eraser') it may be worth watching.

The principle is fairly simple and proven in a different context: Use the Searaser to pump quantities of sea water up a hill where it can be stored in ponds until needed and then released downhill to drive hydroelectric turbines to create power. This is how the Searaser works:

Interested to learn exactly what happens to your recyclables once you toss them in the blue bin? RecycleBank offers a whole series of videos on YouTube that shows you just how recyclables are processed.

Read on for more from the series.

Photo of TVs via Elsie Esq

Just yesterday we half-heartedly gave Sony some props about their new Green Glove television recycling program. Well, turns out the company offers some of the best recycling services around.

The Electronics TakeBack Coalition has released a report card for TV manufacturers and has graded companies on the quality of their recycling programs. The results are pretty depressing, especially considering the push companies are making for people to buy upgraded TVs for the switch to digital.

Read on to see where your TV’s manufacturer landed.

Photo via Paul Hammond

A major measurement used in figuring out the efficiency of a data center is PUE, or Power Usage Effectiveness. However, that measures the efficiency of data center cooling and power supply. What about the efficiency of the equipment humming away within the data center?

The Green Grid, a consortium of IT firms that is gaining industry clout, plans to give data centers a satisfactory way to measure how efficient their equipment is, and give everyone else a standardized way to make comparisons.