Between The Green Building and Hosting.com's initiative to buy Green Energy blocks to offset their data center's consumption downtown Louisville is becoming a little hot bed of green business policies at work.  

Demonstrating their intent to lead the commercial sector in green initiatives, Hosting.Com, a web hosting and co-location services company, is purchasing 208 Green Energy blocks - 1,000 kilowatt hours each - monthly for the next 12 months. To put that in perspective, that is equivalent to planting approximately 1,310 acres of trees, or removing 304 cars from the road.

Nationally, data centers consume up to 1.5 percent of all energy consumption. "We believe it is our social and business responsibility to offset our carbon emissions. Our industry is one that must take a close look at its energy consumption and the impact it will have on the environment," said Darren King, CEO of Hosting.Com.

King added, "We hope to set the industry standard on environmental stewardship. To that end, we have built one of the greenest data centers in the country, virtualized our server environments to optimize usage and output, and set up a program to reimburse all employees that participate in such programs."

Who on earth knew that data centers suck up 1.5% of all energy? Wow. Very cool of Hosting.com to pay attention and start moving the industry in a greener direction.

I don't mean to brag but we have an impressive number of geeks in Louisville and you know geeks, they love to gather. A few examples:

Social Media Club Louisville holds monthly get togethers to discuss the ins and outs of social media. Blogs, twitter, rss, social networking and all the other web 2.0 buzzwords you can think to throw into a conversation usually get discussed.

Let's Tweetup Louisville loves Twitter (I almost said "Louisville loves the Twitter" but I was afraid you would think I was serious and make fun of me. I'm a sensitive soul and can't deal with your mocking).

Of course the ultimate in Louisville geek gatherings is the twice yearly Louisville Geek Dinner. What do you know? The next Louisville Geek Dinner is Monday June 30, 2008. Well I know where I'll be on Monday night.

Of course IdeaFestival may be the ultimate Louisville geek gathering. I'll have to get back to you on that one after IdeaFest in September.

P.S. CNET's Geek Gestalt recently made his way to town. He visited the Louisville Slugger factory. Not particularly geeky nor involving any gatherings but we'll give him a pass because well, it's Geek Gestalt and all.

This video establishes what the commute in Louisville is not like but since my commute is short (*cough* home office *cough*) I don't really have many commuter stories. Do you? What's your Louisville commute like? Easy, visually stimulating? Boring and traffic laden? Seriously, I'm curious. Enlighten me.

The National Geographic channel show Ultimate Factories will be featuring the Louisville UPS hub next week. The video preview of the show looks pretty cool. I'd embed it here for you to watch but no, no the National Geographic channel is living in 2003. I'll just have to link to it instead.

IdeaFestival, that bastion of innovative ideas and big thinking that happens each September in Louisville has announced that a brand new $100,00 design prize will be given away at the 2008 festival.

The Curry Stone Foundation (CSF) has just announced the establishment of the Curry Stone Design Prize, an ambitious annual award of $100,000 for "...exceptional emerging designers with extraordinary design projects or ideas that contribute positively to living conditions for broad sections of global humanity".  This international award will be presented beginning in 2008 at the annual IdeaFestival in Louisville, Kentucky. The Prize, developed in partnership with the University of Kentucky College of Design, is being supported through CSF established by UK alumnus Clifford Curry and his wife H. Delight Stone, of Oregon.  IF is excited about the establishment of the Curry Stone Design Prize, it's involvement with the Festival and the opportunity it presents to greatly expand the international design content at the event.

Continue reading $100,000 Global Design Prize to Be Awarded in Louisville.