Green Technology : Get social and eco-friendly this Earth Day (infographic)

Earth Day is Sunday, April 22, and if you have no idea how to celebrate, we can help.

This weekend people will unplug their electronics, get out of their houses, and ride their bikes to a tree planting Earth Day celebration, hoping to make up for all those times they sent a water bottle to a landfill or poured paint down their drains. But if the thought of going outside and interacting with nature makes you shudder, you can do your eco-friendly part from the comfort of your couch.

Recyclebank, a company that rewards people for doing earth-friendly things like recycling and planting trees, put together an infographic of social actions you can take to be more eco-friendly.

If every one of Facebook’s 845 million users cut one minute off their shower time, the amount of water saved would fill 1.1 million Olympic-sized swimming pools. If every person on Twitter turned their computer off for one hour, the energy and carbon emissions savings would be equivalent to taking 9,128 cars off the road each year.

Given Pinterest’s ever-growing popularity, if every person on Pinterest pinned a green tip to one of their boards, there would be 12 million green tips pinned every month. This tip may be the least energy-saving of the bunch, but spreading the green love around can’t hurt.

Whether you celebrate Earth Day indoors or out, you can reduce your carbon footprint by shutting down your computer, taking a shorter shower, and recycling those water bottles already.

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Green Technology : Meet the $60 ‘Earth Day’ LED light bulb

Just in time for Earth Day, Dutch electronics company Philips is unveiling a new super energy-efficient light bulb today with a shelf life that should last about 25 years.

The catch? It costs about $60, but Philips is said to have forged deals with some stores to bring that cost down to about $20, according to the BBC. Still, that price might be too high for consumers, as VentureBeat has previously pointed out.

The new bulbs are made of light emitting diodes (LEDs) that are more energy-efficient than traditional incandescent bulbs, and have same color quality as standard bulbs. LEDs are typically found in TVs, computers, and car headlights.

Philip’s new bulb won the Bright Tomorrow competition last year from the U.S. Department of Energy, which asked companies to create an affordable energy-efficient alternative to the standard 60-watt incandescent light bulb. Philip was an easy winner, as the only entrant in the competition.

Even at the cheaper $20 price, the new LED lights face heavy competition from the much cheaper  compact fluorescent bulbs.

The new bulbs hit retail store shelves today.

Photo via Philips

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