Green Countries

YDT recently brought you rankings of green U.S. cities. We thought we’d continue by bringing you the global rankings as well. Reader’s Digest has a full article on this list, complete with information on why top countries are leading and how improvements by all can be made. It is obvious from these rankings that countries in the European Union show a trend to score relatively high. The top 5 countries are Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, and Austria. Another clear trend shows that underdeveloped countries rank much lower than developed nations. The bottom 5 countries are Chad, Burkina Faso, Sierra Leone, Niger, and Ethiopia; all of which are poor countries in Africa. The United States is 23 of 141.

Complete Rankings & Ranking Methodology

Plastic Bag Ban

Earlier this month the executive director of the U.N. Environment Program called for global ban on plastic bags. “Single use plastic bags which choke marine life, should be banned or phased out rapidly everywhere. There is simply zero justification for manufacturing them anymore, anywhere,” said Achim Steiner. Many countries already have bans in place like China and Bangladesh, while others are still heavily using plastic bags. Los Angeles plans to ban plastic bags by 2010.

Mongobay.com article
http://news.mongabay.com/2009/0609-hance_plasticban.html

.eco: The Green Domain

It’s safe to say that most of us are regulars to the internet world. That being said, you’ve probably come across domain names ending in .com, .org, .gov, and maybe even some of the lesser known ones like .mobi, .jobs, and .travel. Dot Eco, a nonprofit organization is working to get a new domain out there; .eco. It is proposed to be used for environmental platforms of a company, Disney.eco for example, or for companies with environmental missions, like sierraclub.eco. Will the .eco domain thrive with the popularity of .com, or fizzle out like .biz?

Read the BusinessWeek article here .