With so much emphasis being placed on the environment, many large companies are jumping onto the train and going green. At least, that’s what they’d all like you to believe. But how do you really know how green a company is?

Enter Greenpeace. Their new scorecard is out! It’ll tell you which electronics companies are all talk on the environmental front, and which are actually taking steps to leave a smaller carbon footprint. Check it out and keep the rankings in mind as you go to buy gifts this holiday season.

Many people will tell you that playing video games all day is bad for you (whether that’s actually true or just an old new wives tale is yet to be proven), but very rarely do you hear about the negative effects gaming has on the environment.

Well, the Natural Resources Defense Council decided to look into it and discovered that American game console use added up to "an estimated 16 billion kilowatt-hours per year — roughly equal to the annual electricity use of the city of San Diego."

While asking everyone to toss their beloved video games might be a bit extreme, there are ways that you can mange their power use:

"Through the incorporation of more user-friendly power management features, we could save approximately 11 billion kWh of electricity per year, cut our nation’s electricity bill by more than $1 billion per year, and avoid emissions of more than 7 million tons of CO₂ each year."

For example, make sure you unplug your device every night. You don’t leave your other lights on when you go to bed, do you?

Check out the video above to watch Obama explain in his own words how his energy policy will effect you (and the rest of the world). It’s a speech he gave to the people at MoveOn.org, so it’s presumably a little slanted to the left, but it’s a decent all-around talk. Here are two final points that he’d like to see realized during his presidency:

• Implement an economy-wide cap-and-trade program to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 80 percent by 2050.
• Make the U.S. a Leader on Climate Change.

Welcome to Part III of my series on Obama’s energy plan. This section is going to focus on Obama’s ideas for decreasing the unemployment rate by focusing on creating jobs—Green jobs, specifically. This will not only help get the economy going again (and we all know that needs a jumpstart!), but will also decrease our collective carbon footprint. Here are some of his goals:

• Ensure 10 percent of Our Electricity Comes from Renewable Sources by 2012, and 25 percent by 2025.
• Deploy the Cheapest, Cleanest, Fastest Energy Source – Energy Efficiency.
• Weatherize One Million Homes Annually.
• Develop and Deploy Clean Coal Technology.
• Prioritize the Construction of the Alaska Natural Gas Pipeline.

This is a continuation of yesterday’s post, aimed to help you understand where Obama stands on energy adn environmental issues. His goal is to eliminate our foreign oil imports from the Middle East and Venezuela (a lofty one, to say the least). Here’s how he wants to do it:

• Increase Fuel Economy Standards.
• Get 1 Million Plug-In Hybrid Cars on the Road by 2015.
• Create a New $7,000 Tax Credit for Purchasing Advanced Vehicles.
• Establish a National Low Carbon Fuel Standard.
• A “Use it or Lose It” Approach to Existing Oil and Gas Leases.
• Promote the Responsible Domestic Production of Oil and Natural Gas.

With Barack Obama the official president-elect of the United States, I thought it would be appropriate to look at how his policies and ideas can have a positive impact on the environment. For the next week or so, I’ll be highlighting a few of his positions on energy and the environment (all pulled from his website, so it’s totally official). So, without further ado, heres what Obama’s New Energy Plan aims to do:

• Provide short-term relief to American families facing pain at the pump
• Help create five million new jobs by strategically investing $150 billion over the next ten years to catalyze private efforts to build a clean energy future.
• Within 10 years save more oil than we currently import from the Middle East and Venezuela combined.
• Put 1 million Plug-In Hybrid cars — cars that can get up to 150 miles per gallon — on the road by 2015, cars that we will work to make sure are built here in America.
• Ensure 10 percent of our electricity comes from renewable sources by 2012, and 25 percent by 2025.
• Implement an economy-wide cap-and-trade program to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 80 percent by 2050.
• Enact a Windfall Profits Tax to Provide a $1,000 Emergency Energy Rebate to American Families.
• Crack Down on Excessive Energy Speculation.
• Swap Oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to Cut Prices.

It’s important to know this stuff now, so we can track his progress. I know that I’d drive a plug-in hybrid car, but will 999,999 other people?

Meet the Venus septic system from Biokube, a Danish company that is specializing in green-thinking engineering. Venus here was designed specifically for people in California, who frequently have to deal with water shortages. I lived in Northern California until I came to Pittsburgh, PA for college, and I can tell you first hand that droughts are constantly an issue. Because of this, people are not only simply aware of conserving water…they actually do it.

The Venus septic treatment system works to water your lawn with the water that you flush down the toilet, let run down the drain or use to wash your clothes. The average American home goes through 400 gallons of water a day, which means that there should be plenty of water to keep your grass green…the Venus makes that possible.

While the thought of playing around in grass that is watered with what gets flushed down the toilet may sound gross, fret not. It has bio filters and leeching fields that ensures the disposed household water is clean enough to be safe. There’s no word yet on how much these will cost, but one thing is for sure: the idea of it all is pretty sweet, eh?

First of all, I’d like to point out that the picture above is absolutely not a photo of what I’m talking about. I just couldn’t figure how to get these images off of the ADDI Concepts webpage (I’m guessing that maybe they frown on "borrowing"?)

Anyway, here’s the deal: we all know that global warming is seriously affecting our friends, the polar bears. Because the ice in the ocean is slowly melting, when they go out hunting they’re forced to swim longer and longer distances between floating ice caps, where they can rest. In fact, as it stands now, some are forced to swim Michael-Phelps style for up to 10,000 kilometers. Many are drowning, and there doesn’t seem to be an end in sight.

Enter the design masters at ADDI. They’ve created a concept that will keep the bears afloat…a polar bear life jacket! Essentially, they just did it for fun. They seem to believe that it’ll never leave the concept phase, because a life preserver will keep them afloat—long enough to starve from not being able to catch delicious sea creatures underwater.

However, with technology advancing the way that it is, it makes me wonder if the idea is so far-fetched after all. I mean, my iPhone knows to turn the picture horizontal when I put the phone on its side. What’s to keep the same kind of gadgetry from knowing when they want to dive for food, deflating the flotation device for a half hour or so?

Right now, switching to incandescent light bulbs is one of the easiest ways to make your home a little greener. But guess what? Those aren’t the end-all, be-all of environmentally friendly lighting options. This LED bulb, created by Frog Design, will last for a whopping 30 years. That’s longer than most marriages, which makes me wonder if maybe I should include these in my prenuptial agreement.

As an added bonus, they look like traditional bulbs and fit into regular old sockets. To learn more about the crazy technology that is encased in such a simple design, click here.

As I was shopping earlier today, I noticed that there were Christmas decorations for sale everywhere I looked. Of course, this can only mean one thing…Halloween is almost here!!!

With such a big holiday right around the corner, I started asking myself how one could make the whole thing a little better for the environment. Green Halloween costumes, perhaps? Then I stumbled across some environmentally friendly Halloween candy, and knew I had found my next BGM post. So, without further ado, here are three green options to hand out to trick-or-treaters:

Jelly Belly Natural Flavors: You may be asking yourself why these jelly beans are any different than the stale ones sitting in the candy jar (since Easter!) at your office. To start, they’re actually very tasty. They’re also free of preservatives, artificial colors, artificial flavors and funky chemicals. Instead, they’re sweetened with actual fruitstuff, like banana puree and coconut flakes.

Betty Lou’s Organic Golden Smackers: Admittedly, this wouldn’t be my first name choice for this particular product. However, the candy itself is awesome. Comparable to a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup (but trans-fat free!), these treats are made out of organic chocolate, oats, agave syrup, brown rice and peanut butter. If you hand these out to the kids, you can be sure your house won’t get TP’d (although the same can’t be said for your penny and toothbrush brandishing neighbors).

Endangered Species Chocolate Halloween Treats: These are waaay better than Hershey’s Kisses. Made from 100% ethically traded and organically grown chocolate, they’re a delicious way to bring attention to endangered species. Each of the wrappers highlight an endangered plant or animal, so the kids will learn while satisfying their sweet tooths (or is it sweet teeth?). Plus, the company donates 10% of the proceeds to environmentally friendly charities. Not bad!