Eco-renovation - starting with windows

My flat windows from the street

One of my windows (not sash) when in bad repair

I have a flat in London that's been rented out for years. But I've recently started some renovation work, which I'll be reporting on over the next few months.

The first job has been repairing the windows. They rattled and in some places had large gaps, which let the air in and the heat out - see picture above. Some of the sills were rotting too. I found a company called Sash Repairs, and asked them to do the job.

You might wonder why I didn't replace the windows and put in double glazing. But if you look at the English Heritage website, you'll see that this isn't what they recommend - and they say it doesn't make sense environmentally either.

They pointed out that many sash windows have been in situ for over a century, whereas plastic replacements may only last a couple of decades. Then you have to think about the energy inputs in making new windows, and what happens to them when they're discarded.

My sash windows weren't just repaired, they were draft-proofed as well. I've learnt that repairing them can cut draft loss by 30%, and draft-proofing, by 90%. I can't tell you how much energy has been saved by the measures I've taken because the flat is occupied on a rather haphazard basis at the moment. But I can say that the windows don't rattle any more - and cold air isn't rushing in through the gaps.

I've now employed an eco-architect, Jerry Tate, who has already come up with some interesting ideas. A key part of the brief is to eco-renovate the flat, so that it's green credentials are a key part of its attraction for the rental market. That means, whatever changes are made, they'll need to be both super efficient and easy to operate.

I'll keep you posted.

Unilever's Sustainable Living Plan

Unilever brands

Paul Polman, Unilever CEO

There was a lot of talk about de-coupling. But they weren't referring to what people get up to in laybys. It was a Unilever inspired session on sustainable consumption, which I watched as a webcast. De-coupling in this case was all about 'green growth' - whether it's possible for a company to both increase profits and improve sustainability.

You won't be surprised to learn that Paul Polman, CEO of Unilever thought it was. In fact, he wants to double the size of the company, whilst reducing its environmental impact. And he seemed pretty committed - referring to WWF's calculation that we need three planets to go on consuming at current rates. As a father, he said, he didn't want to steal resources from future generations.

So Unilever have come up with a 'Sustainable Living Plan', with three goals: 1. To halve the environmental footprint of their products; 2. To source 100% of their agricultural ingredients sustainably by 2015 and 3. To help 1 billion people out of poverty. The last goal reflects their commitment to the social dimension of sustainability.

With 2 billion Unilever products sold every day, what the company does can make a big difference. And one of the important points they made was that they were looking at reducing their environmental impact from cradle to grave - and that included how consumers actually use the products they make. For example, by reducing wash temperatures for laundry detergents with their Persil Small & Mighty brand, although this is also being done by their main rival Procter & Gamble, with Ariel Excel Gel.

Another, less well known, example is with Unilever's Comfort One Rinse fabric conditioner, sold in developing countries. Only one bucket of water is needed to fully rinse the clothes, rather than three. If everyone used it, over 500 billion litres of water would be saved in a year.

After presentations from Unilever there was a panel discussion and Q&A session. Both John Elkington, co-founder of SustainAbility with me, and Jonathon Porritt, were on the panel. Dr. Mike Warhurst (Report on Overconsumption) from Friends of the Earth was really spot on with his question. He pointed out that with more people, more consumption, more meat eating and a requirement for less fossil fuels, demand for land is going to explode.

'Had Unilever measured it's land footprint', he asked, and 'how might this increase with some of the changes they proposed?' One solution offered was that the company would try to improve yields without using fossil fuel fertilisers. It was also explained that ingredients such as beef, soya and palm oil won't be sourced from forest areas. Unilever have teamed up with Greenpeace to call for a moratorium on all deforestation in some parts of the world.

Other questions were asked about companies becoming campaigners, about selling sustainability to the City and about how far Unilever will go in forcing suppliers and employees to change. But the one that flummoxed the respondents was a question asking whether the company would be able to commit to all their products being sustainable in 10 years time. It seemed that dropping unsustainable products or 'choice editing' was a step too far.

In summing up, Paul Polman, came up with a saying that could apply to many other areas of life - even what people get up to in laybys. 'You cannot talk yourself out of things you've behaved yourself into..'. It sounded like he wants to walk the talk...

Recycling in Somerset - new scheme includes plastic bottles and cardboard

I got stuck behind the recycling truck. What frustrated most was that it had just passed my house and I’d forgotten to leave anything out for them. But I’m a supporter of recycling.

When household collection was first introduced – about 7 years ago – my non-recyclable waste dwindled to almost nothing. Our home recycling system might appear to be rather complicated with about 10 different places for things to go, but actually it’s easy to operate. Under the sink for cans and foil, separate bins for home compost and council food waste, as well as different containers around the house for paper, cardboard, glass, cans, plastic bags, clothes, shoes, batteries and light bulbs. Phew….

Not all of this is collected. But I’ve discovered that Somerset Waste Partnership are starting to collect plastic bottles and cardboard, as well as paper, glass, cans, foil, clothes and shoes. The Sort It Plus scheme, sponsored by Marks & Spencer, is being rolled out across the county. Coverage is a bit eclectic at the moment, although everyone will be included by the end of March 2011. I’m one of the lucky ones – it was introduced in my area a couple of weeks ago.

As it turned out, I didn’t see the leaflet about it or the green box that’s supposed to be provided. But, before writing this article, I checked the SSDC website, where I found a very useful section called ‘My neighbourhood’. This told me what I needed to know about my local waste collection. – and some other things too.

Most people will be pleased to learn that they can now recycle plastic bottles. But less pleased that they still can’t recycle yoghurt pots. These are generally made from a different material, which is less recyclable, as the systems are simply not in place to deal with them.

Yeo Valley have tried to address this problem by making their yoghurt pots from PET plastic (recycled), which is what most soft drinks bottles are made from. Unfortunately, this doesn’t yet improve their recyclability in Somerset. The problem is in the sorting, as well as public confusion. Don’t despair, things may improve on this front - meanwhile all yoghurt pots have to go in the non-recyclable bin! And Yeo Valley still get brownie points for taking a lead."

Another issue that I wrestle with is plastic bottle tops. When I went to look round a recycling plant , tops and stray bits were separated for recycling. But, in Somerset, bottle tops are not welcome, in particular if they’re left on a soft drinks bottle, because it can make them impossible to flatten and bale.

If you want to be a model recycler, you’ll put your plastic bottles, cans and cardboard in your black box – remember to flatten the cardboard – and your paper, glass and foil in the green box. But it’s not the end of the world if you don’t get it right. It’s also preferred if you rinse out dirty containers, so that people handling it afterwards don’t have to put up with the smell. However, if you use clean, running water to do this, particularly if it’s hot, you might end up having a bigger environmental impact than not recycling at all.

Somerset is trail blazing. The recycling truck may have made me late for lunch but I’m delighted it comes to my house. And perhaps next week, I’ll remember to put my waste out in time!

Is the Green Deal a Good Deal?

This week I went to a Green Monday event http://www.greenmondays.com Held in the offices of Merrill Lynch, the theme of this well attended evening was 'The Energy Bill - The Green Deal'. This Bill is due to go before parliament by the end of this year, but is still in its formative stages.

We heard from Patrick Erwin, who is leading the DECC team behind this legislation. The principle sounded good. The government are devising a scheme to encourage householders to reduce energy bills in their homes. And the idea is to help people pay for energy efficiency improvements, such as insulation and draft-proofing, in the form of a loan, which is then repaid through energy bills. And the expectation is that the resulting savings in household energy bills will more than off-set the cost of the loan.

I have two major concerns about this. And I managed to ask the panel, which included Mathew Sexton from B&Q, their views on one of them. I explained that a carbon consultant I've met told me that solar PV panels made in the coal economy of China could take as long as 25 years to pay back the carbon footprint of manufacture and export, by which time the equipment would almost certainly be redundant. The question I asked is 'whether the governmet have actually looked at the life cycle carbon impact of the energy-saving measures they’re planning to fund?'.

The answer was a little worrying. They haven't. But, I was told that the Green Deal is not just about carbon emissions, it’s about fuel poverty too. So, apparently, even if householders are just saving themselves money and being made more comfortable, the government will have achieved some of their objectives. I'm not convinced. I’m sure these other objectives could be more effectively achieved by targeting vulnerable groups, rather than with a scheme open to the whole UK population.

My other concern is about consumer behaviour. The Green Deal has to be simple. And it will have to communicate its benefits. So the core messages have to be that signing up will be easy and cost effective - and will require very little effort.

It's the last part of this that's the tricky bit. Simply put, if people are really going to reduce their energy bills, it will require real changes to their behaviour - and even some compromise in comforts. Having signed up to the Green Deal, many people may feel justified in wasting more energy than before. For example they might feel entitled to walk around their houses in the middle of winter clad in a t-shirt, or have gushing hot water available 24 hours a day, or perhaps leaving their electrical equipment on stand-by. If so, they could be both horrified and amazed that their bills are not actually coming down - they may even go up.

The table I sat on discussed the communications challenge of the bill. We agreed that encouragng consumers to change their behaviour must be integral to the messages about the Green Deal. But, more importantly, we came up with a simplified approach to the initiative. This addresses my concerns about the life cycle carbon footprint, as well as consumer confusion on what energy efficiency measures actually make sense.

Our idea is that the Government should commission research into the top 10 or 20 cost-effective, energy saving measures in homes. The Green Deal would then offer loans only on these products.

This would mean that we could be confident that any products offered as part of the Green Deal would actually reduce carbon emissions, promote energy efficiency and have the potential to reduce householders fuel bills. It would also make the offering much simpler for the public and ensure that the Green Deal is a Good Deal for all….