Apple Inc plans to power its main U.S. data center entirely with renewable energy by the end of this year, taking steps to address longstanding environmental concerns about the rapid expansion of high-consuming computer server farms.

The maker of the iPhone and iPad said on Thursday it was buying equipment from SunPower Corp and startup Bloom Energy to build two solar array installations in and around Maiden, North Carolina, near its core data center.

Once up, the solar farm will supply 84 million kWh of energy annually.

Ahmedabad: These tiny creatures love heavy metal. It’s not music we mean, but toxic metals like cadmium, mercury, chromium, lead and zinc: stuff that not only cause cancer but also trigger impairments in humans after they seep into our soil and groundwater. A five-year research at the Central University of Gujarat (CUG) has zeroed in on a special group of microbes — mainly bacteria, fungi and actinomycetes — that not only munch on these deadly wastes but also turn the land useful by a process of bio-cleansing.

Microsoft on Tuesday vowed it would be carbon neutral in the fiscal year starting July.

The plan to zero-out the overall amount of climate-changing gas spewed while running data centers, software labs, and offices and even during work-related travel included charging departments a fee for carbon produced.

"The goal is to make our business divisions responsible for the cost of offsetting their own carbon emissions," Microsoft chief operating officer Kevin Turner said in a release.

Junk must be deposited with authorised recyclers

The State government is all set to issue the e-waste guidelines in the next two weeks, with the Electronic Waste (Management and Handling) Rules, 2011, coming into effect from May 1. Highly placed sources told Deccan Herald that even though the guidelines were supposed to be introduced soon after notification of the Act, it has been delayed as the government took time for consultation with stakeholders and NGOs.

Apple has agreed to a jointly monitored audit of pollution controls at a supplier's factory in China, in what activists see as a breakthrough in their efforts to persuade the world's most valuable company to address environmental concerns.

A maker of printed circuit boards for the Silicon Valley company is due to be inspected in the next few weeks by auditors, with Apple and the China-based Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs (IPE) jointly monitoring their efforts.

With the rules for proper disposal and recycling of electronic waste to come into force from May 1, the Tamil Nadu Government has in place the systems and processes, according to the Environment Minister, Mr B.V. Ramanaa.

Addressing the Assembly following the debate on the demand for grants to Environment and Forests, he said the Central Ministry of Environment and Forests has notified the e-waste (Management and Handling) Rules, 2011 which are to come into force next month.

Component vendors of Wipro Ltd will now have to mandatorily disclose their emission, energy and eco-footprint to the company.

Wipro has sounded out about 40 suppliers who supply components such as computer motherboards, monitors and other ingredients that go into devices such as PCs, laptops, light bulbs to disclose the footprint.

Tons of wires, some burnt and some half-used with the copper jutting out, dozens of old mobile phones abandoned on shelves of hostels, hundreds of broken capacitors and plenty of old P3 computers — these are merely some things that comprise the vast mass of e-waste generated from colleges, a real treasure trove for recyclers.