The Julia Hailes Blog

Mad copper fiasco in IT

2011-11-16T17:40:00.021Z

Copper wires are valuable but often wasted

Crazy Copper Carousel, showing mains leads being made, not used and then heading back to China

HP Scanner - CD, 300 pages of manual in 9 different languages and 3 mains leads containing copper

Stripping wires

Simon Barfoot from Blackmore.it

Copper now sells for somewhere between £4000 a tonne and £5000 a tonne depending on where you look. That's why it's being stolen from telephone exchanges, from electricity stations and from railways - train disruption from copper theft is becoming nearly as common as suicides.

In IT equipment copper is common - particularly in wires. And many of these wires are made in China. So demand for copper in China is huge.

I've discovered that something really crazy is happening. When you buy a computer or a printer in the UK, it always comes with a cable, whether you want one or not. I've got lots in my office from previous machines, so I don't need another one. I'm not alone. Most people end up with an excess of these mains leads. So they chuck them out.

If we're lucky the discarded leads will end up being recycled. Many of them are transported to Scandinavia, where the plastic coating is melted off. And the remaining copper is then sold back to China, to make more leads that we don't want. Apart from being completely bonkers, there's a significant environmental impact to all this. Melting down the copper and plastic and all the transport, not to mention the packaging.

I went to see an IT recycling company last week - Blackmore.IT. Simon Barfoot, the CEO, told me about the 'Crazy Copper Carousel', as he called it. And, after we left, he sent me the photo (see above) of all the stuff along with an HP scanner. There was, not one, but three mains leads included because it meant they could ship the product to different countries, without changing the packaging - eek. In the same package there was also a set up CD and manuals in 9 different languages which amounted to about 300 pages in all.

This is just one small example of how wasteful the IT industry is. If the cost of copper, and other raw materials, isn't getting them to change, one wonders what will. Instead of sending me answers on a postcard - send me a tweet @juliahailes.

I've been told about one solution that's being used in Norway. Sean Feeney, who took over as CEO of Environcom in January 2011 used to work in Scandinavia and says they are far better at reducing E-waste, than we are in the UK. Their approach to manuals, CDs and cables is to put them in separate boxes to the computer itself. This means that only the equipment that's needed is actually sent to the country in question. Hewlett Packard should get in touch and revamp their systems accordingly.

I've started working with Environcom on E-waste issues. They're leading the way on re-use - see previous blog I've written about them.

Some key facts about copper:

A tonne of copper results in 300 tonnes of waste
40% of copper is recycled but 99% is potentially re-usable
4.4 million tonnes of copper are used each year
15.3 million tonnes of CO2 emissions are produced from copper mining each year
1.3 billion mobile phones produced each year account for 12,000 tonnes of copper
It's estimated that demand for copper will outstrip supply (what's in the ground) by 2100

Some of these facts have come from 'Reinventing the wheel - A circular economy for resource security' a Green Alliance Report, published in 2011.

Why aren't restaurants more sustainable?

2011-10-25T11:34:00.002+01:00

Bluefin tuna is one of the most endangered species on the planet but it's still being served in London restaurants.

Monkfish is not very sustainable either - if it's on the menu, ask the restaurant about their sustainable fish policies

The Hive Beach Cafe in Burton Bradstock is one of the first to sign up to the Marine Stewardship Council guidelines
Photo taken in October 2011

In some ways I’m a restaurant’s dream customer because I eat out a lot. But in some ways I’m a nightmare because I ask lots of questions, particularly about sustainability policies – or more often the lack of them. Recently, I’ve taken to tweeting about this too.

Recently, I went to Brinkley’s Restaurant in Hollywood Road. My friend asked what type of tuna they were serving. The waitress had no idea, so she went to ask in the kitchen. Her answer horrified me - bluefin tuna! Anyone with a glimmer of interest in sustainability issues will know that this is one of the most endangered fish species on the planet. It’s a bit like eating a panda or a tiger.

A very charming manager came to our table. She explained that Brinkley’s food was bought centrally, for all eight of their restaurants, so it wasn’t something she got involved with.

I suggested that she should recommend they check fish species with Fish Online. It’s a brilliant website where you can look up the sustainability rating of any fish. The higher the rating, the more problematic the fish – and 5 is the worst. That’s what bluefin tuna gets.

The River Café in Hammersmith wasn't much better. The waiter was also baffled by our question about their policies on sustainable fishing. So he asked Ruth Rogers, the owner, to help us out. She said that all their fish were ‘line caught’. But when we explained that this wasn’t the only relevant sustainability criteria, she appeared to flounder. We didn’t point out that monkfish, which was on the menu, is not line caught!

Rick Stein is another celebrity chef who really ought to know better. But when I went to his Fish & Chip restaurant in Padstow in 2009, I had a similar experience. The waitress didn’t even know what sustainability meant.

However, I haven’t just had negative experiences. Dorset’s Hive Beach Café in Burton Bradstock has signed up to the Marine Stewardship Council guidelines on sustainable fishing. And it has a blackboard telling you about where their fish comes from. It makes it so relaxing to eat there. If you want find out other restaurants with good fish policies you can look them up on Fish 2 Fork.

Of course, sustainability is not just about fish. It’s about how much energy, water and waste, as well as where the food comes from and even about community engagement too. That’s where the Sustainable RestaurantAssociation comes in – they offer advice to restaurants to improve their practices. And they have a ranking system too, so customers can see who’s doing well.

The SRA’s most recent campaign is to encourage the provision of doggy bags. They’ve worked out that the average restaurant produces 21 tonnes of food waste a year, which is about half a kilo per customer. I suspect that Yo Sushi produce even more than that. When I interviewed one of their staff, they estimated that they threw away about a third of what they make. And none of it appeared to be recycled. Clearly, they’d benefit from joining the SRA.

Waste is actually one of my biggest concerns. I have a particular problem with the number of disposable napkins handed out. My children seem to think I’m a nightmare in restaurants, but I could be a dream if there was more sustainability on the menu!

A version of this article is being published in Restaurant Magazine

Nappy recycling makes sense!

2011-10-14T17:48:00.000+01:00

Bronwen Jameson and Paul Richardson from Knowaste

The smell wasn't very noticeable until I went into the building. Then it hit me like a wall. I remember from visiting a sewage farm that the trick is not to breathe through your nose. And after a few minutes it wasn't quite so bad. My Knowaste guides – Bronwen Jameson and Paul Richardson - were showing me around their nappy recycling plant. Actually, it's not just nappies they're recycling but incontinence pads and sanitary products too – in the trade this is known as 'offensive waste'!

Pretty well everything coming into the plant is from the commercial sector - care homes, hospitals, day nurseries, washrooms etc. However, they do have plans to collect nappies and incontinence pads from households. There's more than a million tonnes of this type of waste produced in the

each year. Knowaste are unique in recycling it. And they've only been fully operational with their current process for a month - so they're still fine-tuning the process. If it were going full pelt they'd be able to recycle about 36,000 tonnes a year. But they're aiming to increase capacity with another 5 plants within the next three to four years.

Almost half of what comes into the plant is moisture, which has to be evaporated. This is done during sterilisation at the beginning of the process. Then the different materials are separated. About half of what's produced is fibre and a quarter is plastic. Surprisingly, the fibre is a good quality cardboard material, which can be used in outer or protective packaging, for example replacing foam plastics. The plastic bits are used to make roof tiles and rubbish bins, amongst other things. Knowaste are still researching potential applications. But they say that they aim to use all of what they produce within the

, rather than exporting it.

One of the challenges that Knowaste have had to overcome is dealing with the super absorbent polymer in nappies - known as SAP. They have to release moisture from the gel and stop it being so absorbent, so it can be separated from other materials. This, along with the faecal matter is then part of the small fraction of waste that isn't recycled.

Bizarrely, glass and metal is extracted from the waste. This comes from stray products such as drinks cans, cutlery and glass bottles being put in the wrong bin! But all of it is recycled.

My key interest was hearing about how the environmental benefits stack up. And Knowaste have the figures. When compared to either landfill or incineration, recycling reduces carbon emissions by more than 70%, roughly halves acidification and resource depletion and almost eliminates toxics.

This sounds good but most of the carbon benefits come from replacing virgin materials in the products made from recycled waste, rather than the process itself. Knowaste admit that they can improve. For example, they have planning permission for greener energy from waste gases, which would be a big step forward.

The economics for Knowaste look quite promising too. They charge about the same for recycling as it would cost to landfill - a total of about £85 a tonne, including landfill tax of £56 per tonne. But landfill costs are rising steeply with the tax alone set to be £80 a tonne in 2014 - and who knows what after that. For local authorities there's another benefit too. Nappies are almost the only wet and smelly waste that's left in our non-recyclable rubbish bins. So, removing them might reduce complaints from the public about less frequent non-recyclable rubbish collections.

My view is that the biggest eco-flaw with disposable nappies is waste - see leaflet I've written comparing disposable nappies with re-usables. Knowaste have shown that they have a good solution for this. The challenge now is for companies that produce disposable hygiene products to come up with a good system for collecting them from households. This is not just a problem for councils and the waste industry but for manufacturers too.

Inspiring E-Waste Company Leads on Re-use

2011-09-19T12:35:00.003+01:00

Sean Feeney from EnvironCom standing on fridge foam bits

Washing machines being tested

I'm rather surprised to discover that there are quite a few people who don't know what E-Waste is. I mentioned our E-Waste Campaign, when I was speaking to a large audience last week - and someone asked me to clarify. That wasn't the first time. The 'E' stands for electronic. And it covers anything from waste computers, to fridges, hairdryers, lamps and electric drills. A term more widely used by the industry is WEEE - Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment.

Whatever it's called, there's far too much of it. Our disposable society spews out electronic equipment as if it's as worthless as an apple core or a banana skin. Most of it still ends up on landfill sites - unceremoniously dumped. Some of it is recycled. But what this generally means is that it gets put into huge crushing machines and smashed up into lots of little bits. The different materials are then separated and recycled - but some of the valuable materials get lost in the process.

It would be far better if more E-Waste could be re-used. But the government have set a pathetic target of re-using 5% of what's collected - and remember this is only an aspiration!

I went to Grantham last week to visit a company called EnvironCom (website still under construction). If I'd been only a year ago, it would have been no different from other E-Waste recycling plants. Now, it's very different. They're re-using 15% of the stuff they bring in and they aim to increase this to at least 30% within 2 years. Perhaps even more impressive is that they've done this by almost doubling their employees and turning the company from a significant loss to £1m profit, in nine months.

This transformation has been brought about by Sean Feeney. He took over as CEO in January 2011, having previously worked for Dixons, which coincidentally is one of EnvironCom's biggest customers. He says that his experience in Norway helped shape his thinking about E-Waste - actually, it made him ashamed to be British. Over there, all waste electronics are banned from landfill sites - so there are really good systems for both re-use and recycling.

One of the worrying things about recycling in this country is that there's actually a perverse incentive for manufacturers to prevent it happening. Regulations mean that companies have to pay for recycling. How much they pay depends on their share of the market. So, for example, if a manufacturer sells 10% of TVs in the UK, they will pay 10% of recycling costs for any TVs collected.

The problem with this system is threefold. It means that the more that's collected for recycling, the higher the costs to the companies. It means that companies producing good quality merchandise that lasts don't get any benefit of producing less waste. And it means that there's no benefit in re-using equipment because anything that's sold could reduce sales of new stuff.

Going back to EnvironCom. Sean says that their objectives are: 1. To re-use as much as possible 2. To re-use parts if they can't re-use the whole machine and 3. To make sure that everything ends up in the right place.

I asked him about exports. This is a real problem for E-Waste - much of it is illegally exported and ends up in toxic dumps in developing countries. Even stuff that's exported within the rules can be a problem because it's difficult to be sure exactly what happens once it's left our shores. Sean explained that EnvironCom did export E-Waste to Africa but they were planning to stop this by the end of this year. Having spoken to him since my visit, he says he's brought forward the deadline to the end of October! I was impressed.

Most of the repaired household goods, such as fridges and washing machines, from EnvironCom are sold by British Heart Foundation shops. I saw the repair workshops on site. Piles of spare parts - and machines ready to be re-sold. I decided that when I need to replace equipment in my house, I'll be buying a refurbished one. It's cheaper, greener - and they have a 6 months guarantee.

Probably the most surprising thing about my visit to EnvironCom was to hear about the quality of some of the things they receive. For example, they've had lots of Ipads - even an Ipad 2, which was launched in March 2011! And Sean's expecting quite a few more in January 2012, when the Ipad 3 comes out.

One of Sean's inspiring ideas has been to give one of these 'waste' Ipads to any member of his team that's committed to go paperless! He's also opening a new plant just outside London in October. I'm sure it won't stop there - this is a company doing the right thing and reaping the rewards.

E bikes are brilliant

2011-09-02T12:32:00.001+01:00

We've had great fun with our E-bikes. I've been lent a couple for the Summer holidays from Just E Bikes. One's a mountain bike - Haibike - which my teenage boys like the best. And the other is a Koga, which I prefer because it's more comfortable, although not quite as powerful.

The bikes only give you power when you're pedalling, so it's nothing like riding a scooter. And you do get some exercise. Actually, it feels like you've got bionic legs. Going up hill is a breeze.

The best thing about the bikes is that we've really used them - including for journeys when we would have gone by car. My sons have cycled to the station, to friend's houses and to the shops. They're quite fit, so they could easily have cycled without using the E-bikes but the truth is they wouldn't have. My partner, Jamie, and I are the same. We've used the E-bikes much more than we would have if they didn't have the extra power. And we've gone much further afield.

Now for some of the technical details. The bikes can go for about 65km (about 40 miles) before they need to be re-charged - a bit less if there are lots of hills, as there are where I live. Apparently, it takes about 2 hours to fully re-charge them but we generally left them for several hours - or overnight - and the process is quite simple. The cost of re-charging works out at about £1 per 1500 miles.

The bikes come with a small screen that you simply click on the handlebars to start the electrics working. You can ride them without getting any extra power, if you want to get more exercise - or on one of three settings, number three for full power. And the Koga has a little device on the handle bars to give you an extra boost when you need it - I found it rather useful.

My main gripe with both bikes was that the screen information appeared to be a bit erratic. So if you wanted to get your average speed, trip time, range etc it didn't appear to be accurate. This could easily have been because I never managed to work out the system. But if that's the case, it needs to be simpler, because I like getting the stats!

Sadly, our bikes have to be returned soon, so we have to think about whether we want to buy our own. That's the biggest drawback. These bikes are not cheap. Over £2,000 each. Before you reel over in horror though, you should consider how much they might save you. For families with one parent working within 5 miles of home (22% of UK workers) - or even a bit further afield - an E-bike could actually replace a second car. Work out how much that would save in tax, insurance and fuel. And you'd be fitter and healthier too.

You can get cheaper E-bikes, but the Dutch ones I've borrowed are good quality and should last a lifetime. So perhaps we shouldn't be working out how much they are to buy, but how much they cost over 20 years. It's a bit like buying an energy saving light bulb - the up-front costs are more but the actual cost over the life of the bulb is less. And let's not forget that the bikes are a lot more fun than a light bulb!

But we won't be buying them for the children - they'll have to get back onto normal bikes, or persuade us to lend them ours!

We need more computer re-use

2011-08-02T12:30:00.001+01:00

We travelled up to Arnos Grove - an area of London I'd never been to before. My companion was Melinda Watson, who has set up the E-Waste Campaign, with me. We'd arranged to look round the office and depot of Computer Aid.

The factory floor was piled high with computer parts - hard drives, circuit boards, screens and wires.   Computer Aid takes in about 30,000 computers a year. When they've been refurbished, most of them are destined for countries in Africa and Latin America.

The idea is to re-use the equipment to help 'alleviate poverty' - by supplying schools, hospitals and similar institutions. Computer Aid also offer software solutions too - and training.

I was most impressed by the on site workshop, almost entirely manned by volunteers. They were separating parts, repairing faults and generally refurbishing equipment, so it could be used again. Apparently, the average after-life, for what they send out, is between three and four years.   Anything prior to 2002 is considered to be too old for repair.   These are recycled along with other unrepairable stuff.

Computer Aid get most of their machines from businesses - but they do accept donations from individuals too. The problem is that they don't have a budget for collection - so if you want to donate your old equipment, you have to get it to them. Having said that, it's not very expensive to transport and the 'feel good factor' is huge.

Considering the number of computers that are chucked out each year, it's surprising that Computer Aid, don't get more. Many businesses don't have any idea what's happening to their E-Waste. And that's a big problem.    Even when they assume that it's being recycled, it's quite likely to end up in massive waste dumps in far flung places, with children sifting through the toxic components.

Actually, there's so much abuse in exporting E-waste that many countries are beginning to refuse to import even refurbished computers. In Uganda, for instance, Computer Aid is one of very few organisations who have permission to bring in equipment because they're a trusted supplier.

At a government level there appears to be complacency. The WEEE (Waste Electronic and Electrical Equipment) Directive sets targets for recycling.   But it doesn't stipulate that the recycling should happen in the UK - in fact it's actually cheaper to export it. And there's very little checking to verify what happens once it leaves our shores. And another problem is that there's currently no target in the legislation for re-use. Computer Aid estimate that about 75% of the equipment they receive is good enough to be used again. An amendment to the WEEE Directive is coming in which sets a target of 5% (only!) to be re-used.

We need more Computer Aids. More re-use. More recycling. And much more happening in the UK.   Join our E-Waste Campaign to help sort this out. We're not just focused on computers though - we're looking at all E-Waste from hair driers to toasters and from electric drills to cameras.

Walking into Slovenia

2011-07-18T16:47:00.001+01:00

We walked over the mountains from Italy into Slovenia.   At the top the view was blue - we could see mountain ridges into the distance.

No-one else was there. We didn't come across any other walkers all day. The first person we saw was an elderly farmer scything grass in a meadow.   The other striking thing about Slovenia - and actually Northern Italy - was the number of bell towers. Every settlement had one.

The Soca river was turquoise blue. After a couple of nights in Kobarid we walked along the valley to the town of Bovec.   The 20km walk wasn't as arduous as the one over the mountains, even though it was longer.   But we were quite stiff when we arrived - and very pleased that we'd booked a massage.

We changed hotel to one with spectacular views and a spa. But we soon discovered why it wasn't on our itinerary - the food was terrible.   Actually, with one notable exception - Hotel Hvala in Kobarid - the the food wasn't a highlight of this trip.

The trip was arranged by Inn Travel, who are brilliant at walking and cycling holidays. Most appealing was that they transport all your luggage between hotels.   They also set up a great itinerary that wasn't too challenging.

I found them through the Green Traveller website. But I have to admit that we flew to Venice and took the train North from there before starting the walk.

Haller in the Horn of Africa

2011-07-18T12:07:00.003+01:00

I got a very encouraging email this week. It was from Louise Piper, director of Haller - an organisation I helped to set up nearly 10 years ago. As follows:

"In light of the extensive media coverage on the drought faced in the Horn of Africa, and some very harrowing footage of barren landscapes in Northern Kenya which depict families in great distress, I wanted to let you know that water conservation projects you have funded at Haller have ensured that the communities we work with are not in the same situation.

The drought is clearly of great concern for the region as a whole - but despite the reduced rain fall, the water harvesting techniques the communities have learned has ensured that the rain fed dams contain enough water for them to continue to farm. The dams and wells they now have access to will have great impact in the second half of the year enabling them to continue to grow enough food to support themselves until the next rains are due in November."

Clearly, the work that Haller has done 'releasing potential' has made an enormous difference to the communities involved.

Qualms about gold teeth....

2011-05-27T15:40:00.002+01:00

If you look carefully you can see my gold tooth on the left of this photo...

I've already got one gold crown and it looks like I'm due for some more.   My worry is that I don't think they're the best environmental option - I'm actually rather anti-gold on eco grounds.

Gold mining is one fo the dirtiest industry around, commonly using cyanide, arsenic and mercury. And the process is hugely wasteful too. To extract the gold for one wedding ring requires about 20 tonnes of rock and debris being discarded. It's estimated that ten thousand times more ore is mined than is refined into gold.   I haven't worked out how much is needed for a gold crown - perhaps it's similar to a wedding ring....

If I could specify that the gold used for my teeth comes from recycled sources, I'd feel a bit better. Apparently, there's enough of this precious metal already mined to last for at least 50 years. That makes me wonder why this filthy industry is continues to plunder the land rather than re-use what's already been extracted - about 2,500 tonnes are mined annually. 80% of this is used for jewelery.

There are other dentistry options but nothing apparently that works as well. My problem is that I clench my jaws at night and this puts a huge strain on my teeth. The best long term solution, I've been advised is gold.

But there are two compensating factors. The first is that my boy friend really likes my gold tooth and is keen for me to have more. And, the second is that I'm going to make sure the gold is recycled when I die - I'm specifying this in my will.   If I'm resomated - see blog I wrote on this - this will be a lot easier than it would be today!

Incredible Edible was amazing

2011-05-14T11:56:00.000+01:00

They've planted corn on the cob outside the police station. They're lettuces in rose beds. And tomatoes on waste land. There's even vegetables planted by school children in the graveyard. Incredible Edible, based in Todmorden is guerilla gardening at its best.

The station master loved broccoli, so when he died, they planted broccoli all around the station. The station also has a free library. There's no charge and no checking, but the number of books apparently stays the same.

I heard a presentation from one of the founders and was inspired. I thought I was going to hear about a project that was good but not very exciting. In fact it was brilliant and very exciting. It would be great if we could have this approach to local food, all over the country.

Anyone in the town can help themselves to raspberries, tomatoes, corn on the cob, beans, lettuce and lots more. And they'll find this produce in strange places all over the town. Sometimes they've had permission and sometimes they haven't but the scheme has become so popular that they've managed to get Council support - and lottery funding too.

They're also trying to be self sufficient in eggs - Every Egg Matters - so local producers are included in an egg map, telling people where to find them.

Last week I was judging community green initiatives for a competition set up by Project Dirt, and sponsored by Timberland. There were a number of food growing entries, involving people from deprived backgrounds, ex-criminals, ex-alcoholics etc. They might not have known about Incredible Edible, but anyone who's heard about it can't fail to be impressed.

I think this is what the Big Society is all about.....

Eco-scrutiny of my Eco-renovation

2011-04-08T10:30:00.005+01:00

Outside my flat near Ladbroke Grove

My London flat must be the most rigorously scrutinised property on the planet - in terms of its eco-performance. I've spent the last few months researching and specifying what eco-renovations are to be done - with help from green architect Jerry Tate. But this week, just before submitting an extensive tender document to builders, I had a number of energy specialists give their opinion.

The first was a trio, including Sue Welland from Homesun - a company offering solar PV on a 'rent a roof' basis. If your house is suitable - generally that means with a south-facing, non shaded roof - they'll install solar PV for free. Homesun then benefit from the feed-in tariffs and the householder gets free electricity in the day, when the sun is shining.

We knew my flat wouldn't fit the bill because it faces East/West and the roof is partly shaded. But Sue brought along John Parker from Eaga, to show me how they went about their assessments. It turns out that my roof has another problem, that I hadn't anticipated - it's slate. The fragility of slate makes it more expensive to install solar PV.

The really good thing about the Homesun approach is that they won't recommend solar unless it really makes sense - because they only benefit if enough electricity is generated. They're also responsible for maintenance.

The third member of the trio was Tim Hipperson, also from Eaga. He was carrying out an energy assessment and making recommendations on what I should do. This led to in-depth discussion about saving water.

Both Tim and John were very keen on a gizmo called Shower Smart - Eaga are giving them away for free. As long as your shower isn't electric, you can fit this nozzle-like device onto the shower hose - and it will reduce the amount of water coming through. I'm not sure whether I'll be using it because my new shower, bath and loo will all be top of the range for water efficiency.

We also covered lighting, radiators, pipes, heating controls, thermostats, insulation and there were several ideas about how to extend the life of boilers. Probably one of the most important changes to my plans, prompted by Tim, was to abandon the idea of an electric towel rail. I've decided to have a small laundry room (I've moved the loo to make space for this), with drying racks. And I had thought that this might include one hot water towel rail and one electric one. But Tim pointed out that electric heating is very carbon intensive - and people have a habit of leaving towel rails on, so this could be very wasteful.

The following morning, John Doggart, from the Sustainable Energy Academy, joined me for breakfast. I've known John for over 20 years, although, until we bumped into each other at Ecobuild, hadn't seen him in ages.

His approach was to measure up the flat and calculate its carbon emissions. He estimated that prior to installing a new boiler about 18 months ago the flat could be generating about 5.9 tonnes of CO2 per year. Post renovation he thought we would be reducing this by over 60% - but only if we added even more insulation than planned. John explained that although my flat has a converted attic, the neighbouring properties did not, which means they'd be cold. So now we're adding those party walls to the long list of insulation plans.

John followed up with an email. The good news, he said, was that my flat will be eligible to join the growing number of Superhomes across the country. These homes have days when they're open to the public, to give ideas on how to slash your carbon emissions. I'm not sure whether I'll join the scheme - it will depend on whether I manage to find a keen, green tenant.

Once the flat is rented out again, the intense scrutiny may have to stop. But until then, there's lots more to do. Builders should be starting work in May. I've been commissioned by the FT to write about it all in their Home & Property section. And there will be more blogs too.

Eco-building expansion

2011-03-07T15:20:00.005Z

When Ecobuild started 5 years ago less than 200 people attended. This year they were expecting 50,000 but over 80,000 had registered before the event had even started. I'm not sure how many actually came over the 3 days, but getting there felt like being on one of those Japanese commuter trains, where they pack you in like sardines. At the stations en route we were herded along the platform by Underground officials trying to keep the crowds moving.

Even though I was told before I went, that the speakers events were well worth going to, I didn't manage to get to any. I rushed from one meeting to another - and from one stand to another - like a rather frenetic bee. It was quite overwhelming but also extremely helpful.

I'm eco-renovating my London flat and pretty well all the suppliers I might use were there. Particularly useful was a meeting with Knauf Insulation. Trying to sort out what's the best material for each job is hugely complicated. 'Eco-friendly' paints, for example, are difficult to define. Are they the most 'natural' ones or those that are best for allergies or the ones that use the least amount of energy in production or those that last longest before a re-paint is needed? Flooring is another minefield. Synthetic flooring can be the most 'eco', but will floor tiles look OK in a domestic situation? I talked to both Interface Flooring and Forbo to get some answers.

I also found out about water-efficient baths and taps, about LED lighting, smart meters and monitors and even vacuum cleaners - Dyson have come out with a model that uses less than half the energy of most of their competitors. Even though exhibitions are not my favourite thing, I suspect I'll be going back to Ecobuild next year.

Shops aren't closing doors

2011-02-25T10:29:00.005Z

Some open shop doors in Yeovil - February 2011

I went into Jessops in Yeovil on a cold winter evening. The door of the shop was open and the hot air was being pumped out into the street. They're not alone. When I looked up and down the precinct I realised that there were more shops with their doors open than closed.

Other culprits included: Holland & Barrett, Topman, Primart, The Entertainer, Peacocks, Poundland, The Sweeteries, Cash Generator, Boyles Family Butcher. Actually, it seems a bit unfair to name just a few. I think I should do a proper survey in the town identifying the offenders and the few companies who are closing their doors.

This has been a bugbear of mine for quite some time. The amount of energy wasted through open shop doors is huge - it can be as much as 50% of heating costs being frittered away.

Before Christmas I read about The Close The Door Campaign, which is highlighting this issue. They've managed to get a number of retailers to sign up and agree to keep their doors closed. Neals Yard Remedies is one of these. And a friend mine said that she'd seen a notice on the door the Bridgwater stores explaining to customers, why they're not heating the atmosphere as well as their shop.

But some stores have signed up to the campaign and don't seem to have put the policy into practice all over the country. Primark is one of these. And although the Boots store in Yeovil had their doors shut, it's been reported to me that the store in North Allerton had their doors propped open with piles of baskets. And the staff inside were wearing thin short sleeve shirts in the middle of winter.

When challenged, many stores will say that they're fearful of losing customers if the door is shut. And that people might think they're closed for business. According to The Close the Door Campaign, research shows that this is not the case. Clearly, it comes down to good signs welcoming people in!

I sent a notice out to people in Somerset who were concerned about climate change. Peter Lansdown who lives close to Chard and Ilminster has been badgering shops in his area. He says that his bete noirs include Tesco, who have actually signed up to the Close the Door Campaign and Superdrug who have said that it's company policy, to keep doors open. He has also challenged Shoefayre in charge - and wrote to their MD. The response was that the issue would be put to shareholders. Peter doens't know if this has happened because even though he's followed up, he hasn't heard any more about it.

On the positive front, Peter says that the Heart Foundation Charity Shop had its doors open last year, but this year is keeping them shut - he wonders if this might be because he brought it to their attention.

We need more people like Peter. If you want to help, The Close the Door Campaign, gives you advice on what to do. My recommendation is that Yeovil would be a good place to start!

I've had laser eye treatment

2011-01-27T19:31:00.003Z

Dr. Dan Reinstein from the London Vision Clinic with colleagues

It's brilliant - I'm over the moon! I now have 20:20 vision again. I had the surgery just before Christmas. It was totally painless - although a little frightening. But I was completely confident in the surgeon - Dr. Dan Reinstein from the London Vision Clinic, which he set up. I've been a contact lens wearer for about 35 years. And, for me, that meant putting them in every morning and taking them out every night. Now, I'm wondering what I should be doing once I've cleaned my teeth! It's also great for reading. I was just beginning to need reading glasses, as well as my lenses - that meant a different pair of glasses for when my lenses were in and when they were out. It was quite a rigmarole.

From an environmental point of view, laser treatment is a good thing. I kept the waste from using lenses to a minimum, but there are lots of people who have disposables - and the cleaning fluids have to be changed regularly too. Looking around the London Vision Clinic, I did think there could be some improvements from the environmental perspective. For a start their letterhead is designed with their logo taking up the whole of the reverse side of the page - so single-sided is the only option. The lighting too is exrtremely bright, I suspect there could be some energy savings there. I think they should carry out an environmental review of their practices.

Overall, however, I have to say that the London Vision Clinic has been marvellous. The customer service is second to none. All the staff are very helpful. You have someone allocated to you to discuss any issues you may have. And the surgeon, in this case Dr Dan, is extremely attentive. The night after the operation I got a text to ask how I was - and it wasn't automated - and there were further texts to check I was OK when I had some light sensitivity problems.

So I'm starting 2011 with clear vision. But my eye-sight was not the only thing to get sorted in 2010. But it has helped me feel liberated and as a result I'm starting the year with a massive clearout. One of the repercussions is having Lego all over the bathroom floor - it has been washed in preparation for being stored in the attic. There are also new initiatives on the work front too - I've decided to set up a campaign on E-Waste. More on that coming soon…

Buying a second-hand green car....

2010-12-21T12:12:00.012Z

Buying my car in Horsham

My Audi A3 was a bit battered but I loved it. I particularly liked the fact that it was extremely fuel efficient, whilst also being quite speedy. Although, my sons complained that I drive too slowly and so didn't make the most of this quality.

One of the few problems with the Audi was it being very low slung. On one occasion I damaged the sump on a particularly vicious speed bump. And the final blow was also directed at the car's under-carriage. On the out-skirts of Bristol, the road was being repaired. They'd taken the top off it but left a drain cover sticking up. Bang. When I hit it the air bag went off and smoke filled my car. I got quite a shock.

I discovered that I wasn't the first person to have done this - and suspect that there were a few more casualties before the road was repaired. But the damage to my car was probably the most serious - it ripped the bottom off it. And my insurance company confirmed it was a write-off. Eek - that meant finding a replacement.

My first stop was The Green Car Guide. They give detailed information on the green credentials of new cars. The problem for me was that I planned to buy a second-hand one. However, I discovered that the guide had been set up in 2006, and so has information going back until then. And I got in touch with Paul Clarke, the founder and editor, of the Green Car Guide, who was very helpful.

Another useful website is the VCA Car Fuel Data. Set up by the government, this provides detailed information on fuel consumption and CO2 emissions of cars - both old and new. One thing I was confused about was the fact that CO2 emissions didn't appear to correlate with fuel efficiency. Actually, they do, but it's different for petrol and diesel cars. For example, the Toyota Urban Cruiser has a petrol and diesel version with pretty identical CO2 emissions - 129 g/km for the petrol and 130 g/km for the diesel model. But the fuel consumption for the petrol model is 51.4, whilst the diesel is 57.7.

Going back to my search. My criteria was for a four door, diesel, that was reliable, safe and as 'green' as possible! I need a family car, which a bit of space, as I have three teenage sons - or nearly teen as the youngest is actually 12.

My first list of recommended models included:
- A Honda Civic hybrid - petrol - 61.4 mpg
- A Volvo S40 saloon 1.6TD - diesel - 57.6 mpg
- A Ford Focus 1.6TDCi - diesel - 60.1mpg
- A Skoda Octavia 1.9 TDi - diesel - 53.3mpg
- A Toyota Prius hybrid - petrol - 65.7 mpg

So we started looking on Ebay. Found a Volvo V50 that looked like it would fit the bill. It was 1.6 litre and 2007 model. And it's fuel efficiency looked pretty good at 56.5 mpg average and up to 65.7 mpg for what's called 'extra urban'.

Fetching the car proved a bit of an adventure. I got severely delayed on a train to Tunbridge Wells because of the snow. The following day, the friends I was staying with very kindly drove me in a 4-wheel drive to Horsham, where the car was sitting in a snow-covered forecourt. After a night in Woking and a drive down the M3, I managed to get close to home - walking the last few hundred yards.

As I write the car has been snowed in for several days. My driveway is an icy slope. But I've been testing its fuel-efficiency on the journeys I've taken. Long distance I've managed 55mpg and on everyday journeys nearly 40mpg. Not as good as the official figures, but I've learnt from experience that this is normal.

I'm thrilled with my Volvo. It may not be quite as zippy as the Audi but it does have 4 doors and one real luxury in this weather - heated seats!

Eco-driving by Fiat

2010-12-07T16:47:00.003Z

If everyone in Europe was an eco-driver we could apparently save the equivalent of the annual CO2 emissions from Portugal!

According to Fiat, we'd also all be getting places faster. Their eco-driving advice encourages less stopping and starting - and less vrooming on the accelerator. That made me wonder if women were better eco-drivers than men. But, at the Fiat presentation a couple of weeks ago, I didn't ask if this was the case! There were an awful lot of men in grey suits, so I might not have been very popular if I had...

The Eco-drive gizmo is only available on Fiat cars - but that doesn't mean you can't put the ideas into practice when driving other cars. If you are a Fiat driver, you're given a USB chip, which is inserted in the car before each trip - then the details of your journey are uploaded onto your computer afterwards. The Eco-drive website will then tell you how well you've driven and how you might improve your eco-efficiency.

When I test drove a Fiat with the Eco-drive system, I was very interested to see how I'd done - and there was room for improvement. But after a few days the novelty wore off - and the advice didn't change much - so I didn't keep it up. The Fiat team said that there were plans to give live advice as you're driving but I didn't get the feeling that they were in a hurry to do this. And I don't think they'll get very far if they don't!

One of the other problems they're facing is consumer attitudes. Apparently, people are much more open to the idea of buying a smaller, more eco-efficient car, than they are to driving more efficiently. Yet, changing driving habits would bring an immediate reduction in CO2 emissions, as opposed to a very slow one if we wait for everyone to replace their cars.

At the Fiat event there was a presentation from the AA. They said that they'd saved a fortune by getting drivers to turn off their engines, rather than leave them idling when they weren't going anywhere. This is a common problem. Buses are particular culprits - and I've noticed the taxi drivers at Yeovil Junction - my local station - sit for hours with their engines running. I've find myself longing to turn off their ignitions!

Another speaker talked about giving drivers - particularly commercial ones - incentives to drive better. Apparently, in Japan the best eco-drivers of HGVs are in high demand and so get better paid. Fleet drivers too could be monitored for ec0-driving and given rewards for good performance.

I think Fiat have hit on a good idea. And they're clearly keen to promote it. But the biggest challenge is going to be getting many more people onto eco-driving - even when they don't have a gizmo to tell them what they're doing wrong!

Eco-renovation - starting with windows

2010-11-22T15:39:00.006Z

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

2010-11-16T17:12:00.010Z

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

2010-11-12T15:48:00.008Z

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?

2010-11-03T14:37:00.004Z

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….

Innocent Drinks - Taking my son to Fruit Towers

2010-10-26T11:43:00.010+01:00

My son Monty has been a big fan of Innocent Drinks - he's collected lots of their juice cartons and put them on his windowsill. After a trip to Fruit Towers - he's even more enthusiastic about the company, proclaiming that he'd like to work there.

He was particularly impressed with the fact that they've got a kitchen to test out their recipes, a gym for employees to keep fit and best of all a fridge with an unlimited supply of Innocent juices and veg pots.

Fruit Towers was a little surprising. For a start there were no 'towers' at all - it was all on one floor. Also, outside the offices were a couple of rather unusual vans - one was covered in fake grass and the other was painted like a cow. The humourous tone continued inside. There was a whole wall of letters, photos and other things that people had sent in to show their appreciation of Innocent products.

In another corner, there was a bag of woolly hats to put on Innocent bottles. One of their recent campaigns 'The Big Knit' encourages people to send in these their woolly offerings, which look like egg cosies. Innocent then put them on their bottles and for each one they use, they donate 25p to Age Concern.

Another campaign is to be 'bee-friendly'. With a promotion on their bottles they're offering 'buy one, get one bee'. Although they only use honey in one of their products, the concern is about bees as pollinators of plants - clearly bees play an important role in producing fruit. In fact 70% of the fruit used by Innocent has to be pollinated. Money raised will be used to help introduce 2 million more bees to the UK.

Dig a bit behind the scenes at Innocent and I found that the buzz doesn't fade - they're working on water, energy, working conditions and supply chain best practice. One of the things I'm most impressed with is that when they discovered that the biodegradable plastics used in their bottles might not be the best environmental option, they stopped using it. Now they're using 100% recycled plastic in their bottles and they're one of the first companies to do this.

What they do with their iconic cartons might be a more difficult challenge. Cartons have to be shipped abroad for recycling and there's some debate about what they can usefully be made into. Watch this space.

Monty's now extended his collection from Innocent juice cartons to plastic bottles and veg pots. But we haven't yet managed to get him any Veg pots because they'd run out on the day we went - and I've yet to try one out. I thought he might be disappointed that Innocent didn't make their drinks at Fruit Towers but he was inspired. His disappointment may come when he discovered that not all offices are such fun and not all companies have such a heart.

I need a new boiler

2010-10-26T10:54:00.003+01:00

Our boots, shoes and tennis raquets were all wet. They were stored underneath the hot water tank. When the boiler man came he said that it wasn't actually the tank that was leaking but the pipes leading to it. The pinhole leak had been created by corrosion.

Even worse was the water tank in the roof. I've now discovered that there's a leak from there too. It's caused a huge stain on the ceiling in my spare room (see photo), which is spreading - my washing up bowl and other receptacles have been put underneath to catch the water. Another plumber came this morning - he's coming back later this week to sort out this problem.

Both the plumbers agree that I really need to get a new boiler, along with tanks and pipes. What I'm hoping is that my existing system will give me a little more time to work out what sort of boiler I want to buy.

When I moved to my house in 2004, I knew the boiler wasn't going to last much longer, although given that it was already around 25 years old, it was, apparently, pretty efficient.

Unfortunately, my house is not on the gas mains and the boiler I have is oil fired. That means I have two main choices for replacing it - either another more efficient oil fired boiler or a biomass one, probably run with wood pellets. Another issue is that I'm planning to install solar thermal for my hot water in the not too distant future, so whatever I get has to be compatible with that.

I've started my research and will be giving a progress report on how I get on…

Bristol Council are wheelchair crazy

2010-09-23T10:44:00.006+01:00

Gas guzzling, wheelchair-friendly taxis at Bristol Temple Meads station

I told the taxi driver at Bristol station that I didn't want to go with him because his taxi was too big. But I had no option because he was first in line.

The driver was actually quite sympathetic to my concerns - based on the fact that bigger cars are less fuel efficient. But he told me he had been forced to buy a large vehicle by Bristol City Council. They have introduced laws that mean all hackney cabs in the city have to be wheelchair friendly.

A laudable objective you may think. But my driver complained that this meant he had to spend more money buying his car and more again to run it. He told me that his previous saloon car did 34.7 mpg in town and 48 mpg on the motorway. His current one only does 25mpg in town and 28 mpg on motorways. That really stacks up over the 20,000 - 30,000 miles he travels in a year.

I worked out that he'd be using nearly 300 extra gallons of fuel annually compared to his previous car. And if you multiplied this across the 900 licensed cabs running in Bristol it would come to about 270,000 extra gallons of fuel a year.

If Bristol was full of wheelchair travellers this might make some sense. But I also learnt that in the last five and half years my driver has picked up only two people using wheelchairs.

This is totally ridiculous. There are other far more carbon-friendly ways for Lib Dem controlled Bristol Council to ensure taxi availability for wheelchair users. I wonder if any of them have ever thought about the wider impacts of their regulations - they should. Let's hope that other cities don't follow suit.

Aluminium should be recycled again and again....

2010-09-10T14:08:00.012+01:00

Aluminium cans and other waste at the Nottinghill Carnival 2010

I've recently started getting my hair highlighted. The first time was in France a couple of years ago. They daubed a strong smelling substance on strands of my hair and left it to do the job. But with follow up appointments closer to home, I've discovered that British hairdressers use aluminium foil - loads of it.

Every strand of highlighted hair is wrapped with foil, after the colouring has been applied. I'm pretty sure that the hairdressers I've used to date have then just chucked the foil away. But when I discussed the issue at a hairdresser I went to a few weeks ago, I was delighted to discover that they recycled it. Not so good though was that what they were doing was illegal! They had to put the foil in domestic recycling facilities because commercial ones weren't available - and they would have had to pay for disposal.

Aluminium is actually one of the most important materials to recycle. That's because it takes a huge amount of energy to produce and a lot of that can be saved by recycling. So, for example, it takes about 20 times more energy to make a new aluminium can than a recycled one. Another concern is that the raw materials used to make aluminium are often sited in forested areas - rainforests too - so it can contribute to deforestation.

One really good thing is that you can recycle aluminium indefinitely. In 2009 in the UK about 55% of aluminium cans were recycled and 41% of aluminium overall. I don't think that's good enough. As I was asked to give the key note speech at the Alupro 2010 conference - Alupro promote aluminium packaging recycling - so I decided to investigate what's stopping more recycling. Here are four reasons I came up with:

1. Weight based targets: Recycling targets for local authorities are currently measured by the weight of the material they collect - and aluminium is very light.

2. Local authority incentives: Although aluminium is one of the highest value materials collected, local authorities are not directly benefiting from increased collection.

3. Commercial recycling madness: Whilst there is household collection of aluminium cans throughout the country, facilities have not been set up for pubs, clubs and other catering establishments. These premises have to pay for waste disposal, which means they can't use domestic recycling facilities, and often there aren't any commercial ones available.

4. On the go recycling - early days: Apparently most drinks cans are used when we're out and about but it's hard to find recycling facilities on the streets or at events.

I went to the Nottinghill Carnival this year - see pictures above. There were piles of waste, with lots of cans. I haven't checked to see if they were recycled but I suspect not.

Alupro have been promoting recycling for many years. And recently they've set up a new initiative called Every Can Counts, which is specifically directed at 'on the go' recycling - one of the first events where they were spreading their message was the Isle of Wight Festival this summer.

But in my view we need much much more. With a carrot and stick appoach, the government should be letting local authorities reap the rewards from collecting high value materials, whilst fining them for any aluminium that ends up in landfill.

Whether aluminium is used for hairdressing, ready meal containers, chocolate wrappers or soft drinks it should be valued - and used again and again and again....

Behind the scenes at McDonalds

2010-06-06T17:52:00.012+01:00

It wasn't 'Old McDonald had a farm'. Actually, the farm belonged to the Duchy of Cornwall although it was being run by farmer, Richard Hoskins. Near Dorchester, almost over-looking the Prince of Wales new town of Poundbury, the beef farm turned out to be a key supplier for McDonalds.

The expedition was the first of McDonald's new Open Farms programme and we were accompanied by silver medal Olympic athlete Heather Fell who plans to compete in London. McDonalds is an official Olympics sponsor and will be supplying food at the 2012 Games. In fact, they anticipate that their Olympics restaurants will be three times as busy as the busiest McDonalds restaurants at peak time - and that they will be providing one in five of all meals at the Olympics. Wow.

Contrary to popular belief McDonalds source all the beef for their UK restaurants from Britain or Ireland. Many of the calves on the farm I visited were male fresians, which are of no use to the dairy industry. I was surprised to learn that the quality of this beef isn't very different from a real beef cow - but they grow much slower. However, one of the key elements in getting healthy cows and improving growth rates is making sure that these calves get colustrum from their mother's milk in the first few hours after birth. Those that are denied this life-giving sustenance will have a weakened immune system and won't thrive.

We also talked about the animal feed. Soya is still used - and the company has to check that this doesn't come from any place where it's causing deforestation. The farmer explained that it still isn't economic to grow alternative protein feed crops in the UK, which might be a better environmental option. It appears research into this is ongoing.

Another area of research, in this case sponsored by McDonalds, is animal welfare. A fellow guest on the tour was Mike Gooding from the Food Animal Institute (FAI), where McDonalds is a founding member. He told me about the work they were doing on animal behaviour and how that should be considered in modern farming practices - for example promoting chicken rearing in apple orchards. And he had interesting ideas on taking an eco-system thinking approach to agriculture.

On to the restaurant in Weymouth. Full of enthusiasm I volunteered to make some Big Macs. Having washed my hands and donned a hat and coat I was given instructions. These were also written on a card. First get the bun. Give it a squirt of sauce - not sure what flavour - then the onions and salad. Fetch the burger from the grill, add a slab of cheese and finally the gherkins. I may have missed something, but that's about it. My burgers were boxed and on display within seconds.

For me, the most impressive thing in the restaurant was that they only wasted about 1% of the cooked food. Kitchen staff are given a detailed sheet on how many of what items should be ready depending on how busy the store is - and clearly they've worked this out to a tee. By contrast, at Yo Sushi I discovered that they waste about one third of the food they produce.

Not so good, in my view is that McDonalds has some way to go on its wasteful packaging. And the manager at Weymouth wasn't sure what coolants are being used in the refrigeration - these can be a major contributor to climate change. I also have to admit that I'm not a great fan of McDonalds food - I didn't eat any Big Mags or other burgers, although I couldn't resist some chips.

My relationship with McDonalds goes back a long way. In the late 1980s they tried to sue John Elkington and I for what we said about them in the Green Consumer Guide. Since then, the company has moved on a long way. In fact, I think they've gone a lot further than they're generally given credit for. Most environmentalist see McDonalds as an eco-demon. I think that behind their iconic yellow arches lurks some surprising green thinking - and I welcome it.

Poem - The Poor Old Humble Plastic Bag

2010-05-22T09:06:00.007+01:00

I gave a speech this week at the Plastics and Films Association (PAFA) annual lunch. 'Films', as in 'plastic films', I should point out because a number of people have been confused.

The 200 strong audience at the Dorchester Hotel were particularly appreciative when I said that plastic bags were better for the environment than paper ones - see carrier bag fact sheet I've written for Marks & Spencer. They were also happy with me pointing out that measuring the weight of a product was a very inadequate way of assessing its environmental impact. And that in future they should be measuring the total carbon impact of products throughout their lifecycle.

More contentious was my enthusiasm for retailers charging for carrier bags. I fully recognise that the environmental impact of carrier bags are insignificant in the scheme of things. But I also think that people should be encouraged to minimise waste, for example by bringing their own bags with them for shopping. The counter argument for this is that the plastic bag tax in Ireland actually managed to increase the amount of plastics sold. People were buying plastic rubbish disposal bags rather than using their old carrier bags. And more paper bags were also handed out.

I've given so much thought to the plastic bag debate - and done numerous radio interviews on the subject - I decided to write a poem about it for the conference. Here it is:

THE POOR OLD HUMBLE PLASTIC BAG

Why does everyone like to slag
The poor old humble plastic bag
It’s been banned in Malibu, Modbury and Mexico
The Welsh have said they’d like it to go

Banish the bag screams the Daily Mail
It lasts forever is the biggest wail
And Gordon climbed onto the bag band wagon
Boris too denounces the plastic dragon

Meanwhile the industry tries to be heard
They say ‘the public are quite absurd’
And that ‘plastics are actually very good
Far better in fact than paper, which is made from wood’

‘It’s lighter, more durable and takes up less space’
But nothing they say gives them grace
They’re making money, they can’t be believed
So the public think they’re being deceived.

The problem is surely our disposable society
This is the cause of the bags notoriety
It’s become symbolic of what we waste
So that’s the issue that can’t be faced

And that’s why everyone likes to slag
The poor old humble plastic bag…….

Another challenge for the industry is to use much more recycled plastic in the products they make. And to improve on recycling rates. Some people are aware that you can recycle plastic carrier bags but very few realise that these schemes can include lots of plastic packaging, whether it's for food or post. But beware, if you put degradable plastic wrapping into recycling schemes it will contaminate the load and mean it can't be recycled.

There's a lot more to the plastics debate than meets the eye! Have a look at the Plastics 2020 Challenge website to find out more.

My goldfish died along with Labour - Here's my coalition manifesto

2010-05-12T12:11:00.021+01:00

My goldfish died at the same time as the Labour Government...

Zac Goldsmith, formerly editor of the Ecologist, gets elected in Richmond

Chris Huhne - New Minster for Energy and Environment

Caroline Lucas - the first Green MP in the UK

My goldfish died in the night. I've posthumously named him 'Gordon'. It seems rather propitious that their floundering exit coincided. And I couldn't be more delighted. Not about the fish but about the departure of Labour. New, progressive or just tired, I was thoroughly fed up with them.

There are so many developments on the political front that it's hard to keep up – it's very exciting. But one of the things that pleased me most was the prominence of environmental issues in the coalition deal, right from the start. For example, David Cameron's first offer to the Lib Dems acknowledged that both parties want to create a 'low carbon economy'.

Caroline Lucas makes history as the first green MP. And Zac Goldsmith, former editor of the Ecologist, and a prominent green wins his seat in Richmond. Things are looking up. And Liberal Democrat, Chris Huhne, has been appointed Minister for Energy and Climate Change. His first radio interview talking about his position on nuclear power was excellent.

So I thought I'd take the opportunity to create my own eclectic green manifesto for the incoming government.

1. Switch to decentralised energy: Instead of large-scale decentralised power stations, whether coal, gas or nuclear, we should be setting up a system for home-produced energy from a range of sources. This will mean significant investment in changing the National Grid. Click here for Greenpeace video - The Convenient Solution.

2. Source more energy from the sea: If we put more investment into wave and tidal power, we could get a sizeable part of our energy needs from the sea. Click here for the Renewable Energy Centre.

3. Line motorways with wind turbines: We need a substantial increase in wind turbines and one idea might be to site them in places where people will find it hard to complain about their visual impact. Click here for Ecotricity's plans for Wind Parks.

4. Use methane from rotting waste: There's huge untapped potential for using gases released from rotting waste to power vehicles and heat buildings. Click her for my blog on biogas.

5. Change electricity charging: Let's pay power companies more money if they sell less electricity and encourage them to charge high energy users more per unit of electricity rather than less.

6. Introduce planning laws to make green building mandatory: All new buildings should be super-energy and water-efficient, with LED lighting, high levels of insulation and draft proofing, as well as smart metering. Click here for Ecos Trust and here for Exploration Architecture.

7. Require schools to set targets for reducing carbon emissions: Every school should be required to publish details of their energy and water consumption, along with targets for reduction. They should also ensure that climate change and other environmental issues are well covered in the class room. Click here for Generation Green Manifesto

8. Make cooling climate-change friendly: Cooling gases used by supermarkets, other retailers and in transport vehicles should be climate-change friendly - see Chilling Facts campaign for further details.

9. Rethink government policy on electronic waste: We need to reduce, re-design, re-use and recycle E-waste, taking into account the life-cycle impacts of products and promoting closed loop solutions. This should include scrapping the compulsory switch to digital radio. Click here for Guardian article on electronic waste and here for BBC article.

10. Introduce a comprehensive waste policy for the health service: There are real opportunities to dramatically reduce medical and hospital waste, as well as encourage energy recovery from hospital incinerators. Click here for Waste Watch who are working on this issue and click here for my blog on hospital waste.

11. Remove the obstacles to commercial recycling: Current laws actually make it more difficult for pubs, clubs, restaurants, retailers and other commercial premises to recycle, as the focus is on domestic waste - this needs to be sorted. Click here for Waste Watch

12. Legislate for fuel-efficient cars: All new cars should be required to do at least 50 miles to the gallon - or even more. Click here for Green Car Guide.

13. Provide incentives for low-impact travel: Innovative, low cost public transport systems should be introduced throughout the UK, as well as incentives for cycling and car-sharing. Click here for Campaign for Better Transport.

14. Increase the costs of flying: Tax aircraft fuel in the same way as fuel for cars so that air fares are significantly more expensive. And stop proposals for building any new airports or runways. (It's the first day of the Government and the news is that plans for a third runway at Heathrow have been scrapped). Click here for details of Greenpeace Airplot campaign

15. Switch the army to re-chargeable batteries: Billions of disposable batteries are used by the army every year - often they're discarded only partly used. Rechargeables would save both money and resources. Click here for article I wrote on batteries in the Telegraph.

16. Carry out an environmental audit of all government departments: They should be setting an example and leading the way in green procurement. Click here for Forum for the Future report on green procurement.

17. Legislation to reduce the climate change impact of food: Agriculture accounts for less than 1% of UK GDP but contributes about 7% of our total GHG emissions - we should be doing more to reduce it. Click here for Food Climate Research Network

18. Set up marine reserves and support sustainable fishing: Extensive Marine reserves should be set up to help preserve fish stocks. And the government should be promoting sustainably sourced fish. Click here for Fish Online.

19. Protect forests: Draconian measures should be introduced to protect forests from agricultural expansion, such as from soya or palm oil. Click here for the Princes Rainforest Project.

20. Introduce legislation for greener death: A new process known as 'Resomation' using water rather than fire, should be replacing cremation. With one quarter the carbon footprint and no mercury pollution 'bio-cremation' as it's sometimes called is being held up by the need for government legislation. Another benefit is being able to safely re-use gold fillings and artificial joints. Click here for my blog on resomation and here for link for Resomation Ltd.

Down in the woods

2010-04-23T14:20:00.007+01:00

Children at Mallinsons Woodland Workshop

Shower made from living willow

Guy Mallinson

My sons spent a couple days of their holidays in the woods. They were trying out Guy Mallinson's Woodland Workshops.

The setting is magical, particularly as Spring was in the air. I was particularly intrigued at the new shower block, made from living willow - as the foliage becomes more dense users will be less exposed to being spied on (see picture above). Not surprisingly, most of the structures are made from wood and are rather beautiful. Less expected is the woodburning pizza oven but I didn't see it fired up.

On the first day my children grumbled a bit about the early start but they didn't complain at all on Day 2. They made bows and arrows, reed bracelets and woodland shelters. They learnt how to make fire, tie knots and survive outside. Real boys own stuff. But there were girls there too and they appeared to be just as happy.

Guy Mallinson, who has set up the enterprise, offers courses for adults too - carving totem poles, charcoal drawings, primitive pottery or making wooden bowls and garden gates. And the venue is available for parties and other events too.

If you want to go down to the woods, I'd recommend it.

3D movies creating 3D waste

2010-04-17T19:06:00.009+01:00

I loved the film Avatar - particularly the strong environmental message running through it. I saw the 3D version in Yeovil, with my sons, Rollo and Monty. They were equally enamoured. In fact, Rollo thought it was the best film he'd ever seen.

But, we went home clutching three pairs of 3D glasses. There weren't any bins at the cinema to re-use or recycle them - they were just handed out without instructions. I wondered about the waste this was creating. I've now found out. If the 42.1 million pairs of 3D glasses used to watch Avatar were laid end-to-end, they'd stretch 3,987 miles.

Even worse, now that 3D films are becoming more popular. Avatar has been followed by another 3D blockbuster - Alice in Wonderland. And there are more to follow. Then there's home 3D systems too coming onto the market. Apparently just shipping 10 million 3D glasses around the world results in emissions comparable to 917 barrels of oil.

My other son, Connor, was equally enamoured with Avatar. But he told me that in the cinema where he watched it, they had recycling bins for the glasses. Cinemas then sterilise them in industrial dishwashers, before they're used again by other customers. Imax claims its glasses can be washed up to 500 times, which means they'll last 3-4 months, before being thrown away.

This might sound OK, but actually it uses a significant amount of both energy and water and I wonder if it's really necessary. After all, we sit on train or bus seats that other people have sat on before - even loo seats. They're not sterilised after each use. If anyone is worried by re-wearing 3D glasses that someone else has worn, they can always wipe them with a hankerchief. But it's probably against our over-zealous health and safety legislation.

Now it's being suggested that these glasses should made from biodegradable or compostable bioplastics. It's so frustrating that people have this nonsensical idea that anything biodegradable is eco-friendly. What it would mean is that the glasses would be a one-view wonder before being chucked away. Very few would end up in a compost heap. Even if they did, you have to think of the energy and resources used to make and transport them. And those that end up in a landfill site like 80% of our domestic waste, would be releasing greenhouse gases as they rot. That doesn't make any sense.

I think the best practical option would be for people to take their glasses home and re-use them for any future 3D movies. But this wouldn't be so good if you lose the glasses or don't remember to take them to the cinema next time you go. So perhaps the wash and throw approach, increasingly offered by cinemas with recycling bins for 3D glasses, is the most practical option.

I haven't yet seen the 2010 3D version of Alice in Wonderland. I'm going to hunt for the glasses lying around the house and make sure I have them with me. I think I should also be asking the Yeovil Odeon to start a recycling scheme. If they get going on the glasses, they might start recycling the packaging on their over-priced popcorn and fizzy drinks too.

I'm not supporting fuel price campaign

2010-03-28T14:10:00.006+01:00

I received a round robin email this week. It was launching a protest campaign about the price of fuel. The allegation was that although the current price of oil is low, the price at the pump is high - hitting 114.9 per litre in some areas. And the worry is that this will soon mount to £1.50 per litre some time soon.

A year ago there was a similar campaign asking people to stop buying fuel on a particular day. This time round the idea is to stop buying fuel from particular companies - BP and Esso - for the rest of this year. The thinking is that if these companies aren't selling any fuel then they'll reduce their prices and the other companies will have to follow suit.

But, of course it will only work if they get millions of people to boycott the two companies and the email urges everyone reading it to forward it on to at least 10 others. It's extraordinary how quickly chain mails like this can whip through the population. Apparently, if each person follows instructions it will take only 6 generations to reach three million others.

The email I was sent had lots of email addresses on it - it hadn't been Bccced. So I copied all the addresses for my response, as follows:

"I think this is a ridiculous idea and won't be supporting it! We should all be aiming to reduce our petrol and diesel consumption to reduce carbon emissions. If fuel is cheap, people drive more. For anyone concerned about fuel prices I'd recommend buying a more fuel-efficient car, driving less, shopping on the internet, using the train and taking up cycling and walking. I'll be doing all those things but also buying my petrol from BP - not Esso because Exxon has a very powerful anti-climate change lobbying campaign. Best wishes and apologies. Julia"

I sent this off with some trepidation. I anticipated quite a hostile response. Actually, it wasn't too bad - I got three follow up emails. The first asked me what a 'sustainability consultant' was. I wasn't sure of the tone behind the email but recommended that the sender look at my website and have heard nothing more.

The next sender was a bit angry but not about the stance I took. His concern was that his email address had been circulated to zillions of others by me and the person who originally sent the campaign message to me. I thought he had a valid point, so I apologised and promised that if I'm ever foolish enough to send out a mass email again I'll hide the list of names.

The third and final email I've received so far was a bit more critical about my position on fuel charges. Her position was that it was all very well for me but she had special circumstances - a disabled son - that made it a particular hardship for her. And that she needed others to campaign on her behalf. Clearly, I'm sympathetic to her situation and understand that she might need some extra help. But I don't think that justifies cheap fuel all round.

We have to be able to deal with exceptions if we're going to make any significant changes to reducing climate change emissions. And we have to accept that not everyone is going to be a winner. So anyone who's driving around in a gas guzzling car and complaining about fuel charges doesn't get my sympathy vote. If the prices stay high it might encourage people to change their car or drive less.

M&S listening to underwear concerns!

2010-03-10T14:32:00.008Z

Mike Barry - Head of Sustainable Business at M&S

I buy most of my underwear from M&S. You won't be surprised to hear that this winter I've bought some thermals!

Reading the pack I was surprised to see the following instructions - 'It's easy to look after too - just put it in the machine and then the tumble drier.' My eco-radar went into over-drive! This didn't tie in well with M&S's ground-breaking Plan A initiative.

Tumble driers are pretty well top of the black list for energy wasting appliances. Even if you live in a small flat you should be able to find somewhere to dry your clothes - a rack in the bath or a pulley system near the ceiling, for example.

I've been working with M&S for years advising them on sustainability issues. So I wrote an email to Mike Barry, Head of Sustainable Business. He emailed me back, as follows: 'Lingerie have agreed we will remove this 'recommendation' to tumble dry thermal for Autumn 2010, on the packaging.' He went on to explain that there would still be a drier symbol on the sew-in label because that's just to show that the items can be tumble dried.

I'm looking forward to warmer weather but in the mean-time I'm still wearing my thermals - and I won't be putting them in the drier.

Eco driving simulator

2010-03-10T13:49:00.005Z

I crashed.

The Energy Savings Trust brought their eco driving simulator to the M&S Plan A suppliers conference, where I was speaking. It looked great fun, so I thought I'd have a go.

I discovered that the optimum eco-efficiency score was seven - seven of what I'm not sure. And the best score of previous drivers, on the board, was 6.9. The chap demonstrating the machine explained that you could get more than 7 if you were a super-efficient driver.

First, I wanted to get an idea of what you were supposed to do, so I watched someone else. He was clearly a cautious driver and went slowly, whilst he was working out the system. And his final score was 6.8 - not far behind the leader.

I'm quite competitive, so I thought I'd try and beat that! But I couldn't even stay on the road. The pavements, lamp posts and other cars leapt out at me as I swerved wildly trying to avoid them. It wasn't long before I crashed. The good thing about this was that the machine stopped and my eco-rating score started again from scratch.

There was no clutch - only the accelerator and brake pedals and a rather odd set of gears. The optimum driving speed was between 4o and 6o kph. And there were lots of traffic lights. They were a real hazard. The trick was to use your speed to coast as much as possible, rather than constantly braking and accelerating.

I understood the idea but putting it into practice was another matter. My score was 4.6, which is not so great. However, although I think my normal driving is rather better than that. Although I do have an unfortunate habit of scraping the side of my car or reversing into gates, my eco-efficiency seems to be pretty good. In my Audi, I often get around 5ompg, whereas official figures suggest it should lower than that.

You may think that this is all a pointless exercise but how you drive makes a big difference to the fuel efficiency of your car - by as much as 20%. So take your foot off the pedal, coast a bit more - and try not to crash!

Addendum - I'm rather pleased to see that it has been proposed to fine drivers for leaving engines running when the car is stationery. I found out that if you're going to stop for more than 9 seconds it makes sense to turn your engine off. The Energy Savings Trust, suggest that a minute is a good guideline. The point is the same - you're causing pollution and going nowhere. That doesn't make sense. They also explain that modern engines don't need warming up, even in cold weather. Just get in a drive.

The Environmental Investigation Agency - Fighting Eco-Crime

2010-03-01T12:23:00.006Z

I’ve been made a lifetime member of the Environmental Investigation Agency or EIA for short. I think this campaigning organisation fighting eco-crime should be getting more attention.

Founded in 1984, the EIA is rather unique in its approach to campaigns. Whether it’s illegal logging, smuggling ozone-destroying chemicals or trading in endangered species, they have under-cover detectives finding out what’s going on.

At their open day, which I went to this week, we were able to see some of the equipment they use to secretly film these activities. I wanted to take some photographs of the more ingenious methods used but they didn’t want them to be publicised, so I can’t reveal any more.

Currently, one of their biggest concerns is the illegal trade in tiger parts. Wild tigers in China are slaughtered for their skins which are then used in luxury rugs. And tiger farms have been found to be selling wine made from tiger bones. Another threat to tigers is destruction of their habitat – a few years ago EIA campaigned against illegal talc and marble mines that were operating in what should have been protected tiger areas.

Ivory trading is also targeted by the EIA – in 1989 they played a key role on getting it banned. But they report that in 2009 ivory seizures have soared as elephant poaching is on the rise. The organisation is going to be working on the ground to gather evidence of the syndicates responsible, so they can be brought to justice.

Only this week it’s being reported that Bristol City Council are planning a plant-fuelled power station. Apparently, one of the main feedstocks will be palm oil. This vegetable oil is also ubiquitous in a vast range of everyday products from soaps to soups and from chips to chocolate. EIA logging investigators says that the spread of palm oil plantations is a major cause of deforestation, which in turn is a significant contributor to climate change.

In Europe, as much as 19% of wood imports come from illegal or suspicious sources. In the US it’s nearly half that because in 2008 it became illegal to import or sell products made from stolen timber. And EIA helped get this on the statute books. They hope to do the same in the UK.

My involvement with EIA is through the Chilling Facts campaign, now in its second year. Targeting UK supermarkets we wanted to highlight the huge climate change impact of their refrigeration gases, which are responsible for nearly one third of their carbon footprint. EIA is calling for a worldwide ban on HFCs. This is technically possible, but politically difficult. However, I’ve managed to give both Ed Milliband and his shadow Minister for Energy and Climate Change, Greg Barker, the technical briefing document about the campaign.

The first Chilling Facts survey was published in January 2009. Ranking the supermarkets on their commitment to moving away from HFCs, it highlighted how little attention had been paid to the issue. However, the second survey showed significant progress, as all the major players had some improvements to report. And some were setting a deadline for phasing out HFCs - although there's still a long way to go.

Next year we’re planning to include air conditioning in our survey, as this uses HFC gases too. And we’re going to be looking a the disposal of refrigeration equipment - we think that supermarkets may not be keeping track of this. In particularly, we're worried that the climate-unfriendly cooling gases are not being captured, as they should be.

If you want to know what’s happening on the front line of eco-crime, join EIA and find out. And click here to see a video overview of their work.

Green death - Will water replace fire in crematoria?

2010-02-23T16:20:00.004Z

I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about green death – and what I’d like done with my remains when I die. The idea of being eaten by vultures or other wild animals has always held some appeal. But I’ve recently come across a more practical alternative – that's pretty environmentally friendly too.

My main objective is to turn my body into nutrients as fast as possible – with a minimal amount of packaging and emissions. But it takes quite a lot to get our bodies to become mulch. ‘Ashes to ashes, dust to dust’ is not strictly accurate as it takes at least 75 years for a body in a coffin to rot – and in some soil conditions the corpse may still be in tact a century later. Given that we're running out of burial space, this is a bit of an issue.

In crematoria bodies do turn to ashes quite speedily. But the problem with this is that it can be a pretty polluting process. In the past the big issue was the PVC linings used in coffins, but this isn’t allowed any more. Now mercury emissions from tooth fillings and dioxins are a big headache. Apparently, at least 11 per cent of the mercury contamination of North Sea fish comes from crematoria and this could escalate to nearly a third within the next decade, because of the huge increase in the number of fillings in today’s older generations.

Another problem with crematoria is carbon dioxide emissions contributing to climate change. The average body weighs 67 kilos and this produces about 44 kilos of CO2. Another 50 kilos of CO2 is produced from the fuel used in cremation – although fatter people produce less because their fat helps the burning – and another 83 kilos of CO2 is emitted from burning a wooden coffin. If everyone who died in the UK went through this process it would result in well over 100,000 tonnes of CO2 every year, which is the equivalent of taking a return flight to Australia 30,000 times.

But a new process known as ‘Resomation’ using water rather than fire, could well replace cremation in the next decade. With one quarter of the carbon footprint and no mercury pollution, ‘bio-cremation’ as it’s sometimes called, sounds rather appealing.

The idea is to dissolve bodies in a watery alkaline solution using potassium hydroxide, which is like low sodium salt. Whereas cremation is burning or boiling a body, this process is an accelerated version of natural decomposition using heat and chemistry. And rather surprisingly, the 400 litres of water used in the process can be disposed of down the drain – that’s what is being done in Minnesota, where the first system has been installed. And that’s the plan too for Florida and Toronto, who will be installing resomation systems shortly.

The process takes about two and half hours compared to roughly one and half hours for cremation. At the end of this the bones have become soft and can be easily made into a fine white powder. After cremation the bones and other remains have to be put into a cremulator, which is like a heavy-duty magimix. It takes about half an hour to grind them down to the ashes that relatives are presented with.

Another rather significant benefit from resomation is that if you have any gold teeth or artificial hip joints, they will come out looking shiny and new – and can be used again. This might appear to be rather distasteful but given that as a society we accept the idea of re-using other people’s organs, I can’t see that this would be any worse.

One thing that’s always annoyed me about crematoria is that coffins are burnt along with the dead bodies. The main reason for this is that the crematoria are designed in such a way that they need a stiff board underneath the body to manoeuvre it into the furnace.

The Resomation process requires the body to be contained in wool or silk, rather than wood. But it was recognised that funeral operators and relatives don’t generally like to see the shape of dead bodies when they’re being moved. So they’ve designed a metal frame to hold the bodies. These can be put into the dissolving liquid – and then used many times over. With a re-usable wooden transport casket, the whole ceremony can be made to look pretty similar to a standard cremation.

Given that resomation has such good green credentials and has been given the thumbs up by the funeral industry, you may wonder why it’s not yet available in the UK. Particularly since the first of these British made units are already being installed in the US, with many others planned.

The reason for the delay here appears to be a log-jam at the Ministry of Justice. Technically, Resomation is legal by virtue of the fact that it is not actually illegal. But in reality it would be difficult to introduce it without specific legal documents that are tailored-made for the process. And the company behind it – Resomation Ltd – set up by Sandy Sullivan, who has invented this process, wants to go about this the right way from the beginning.

When I called the Ministry of Justice to find out what was happening, I felt like I had been transported into a series of ‘Yes Minister’. I was told that one department was waiting for another, that Ministers had changed and that hydrolysis (as they call it) falls outside the regulatory process, so it might need an Act of Parliament. But then it was explained that perhaps it wouldn’t because it wasn’t actually unlawful. The only thing that was clear was that sorting out the legal confusion over the process hadn’t yet become a priority.

In a subsequent email it appears that the Ministry has changed its mind again about primary legislation. They say that it will be needed because this process does not amount to burning and is therefore not covered by cremation legislation. The problem is that they’re not planning to do anything to sort out this impasse and say they're waiting to hear the views of the Environment Agency before considering next steps. Oh dear…

So, I can’t yet change my Will and request resomation of my remains. Until that happens I’m specifying an Ecopod coffin that’s shaped like a seed but made from recycled newspapers. I’d like old textiles to be used as a coffin liner – and to be put into an unmarked grave in a green burial site. But I’m hoping it’s not too soon.

This article is also being published by the Natural Death Centre, a charity promoting openness about death and dying. Another alternative to cremation is cryomation. I plan to research the environmental issues around this process too - but I believe that it's similar to resomation and a whole lot better than cremation.

Food Inc film is worth seeing

2010-02-16T15:24:00.005Z

I was really impressed with Food Inc - it was powerful and compelling - and even after a busy day in London I didn't fall asleep, which is quite unusual.

The main point of the film was to illustrate how the American food system has been centralised under the control of just a handful of hugely powerful companies, who are behind the 47,000 food brands on the market.

I've actually been to Nebraska and seen the vast beef feedlots but was still horrified at the pictures - and the fact that the average American consumes 200lbs of meat in a year. The film explains that cheap meat comes from cheap corn, which appears to be the source of many unhealthy foods - from fizzy drinks to jelly, syrup and snacks.

Cows it says are not actually designed to eat corn - they much prefer grass. But corn is not only cheap but makes them fatter quicker. Apparently, it also makes them more prone to high levels of E-coli in their gut. And the industrial scale slaughtering - there were thousands of slaughter houses in the 1970s, but now there are only 13 - makes it difficult to stop this E-coli getting into the food system.

One of the most shocking stories portrayed was about a mother, whose young son had died from E-coli poisoning. She was campaigning on food safety. But she had been so thoroughly legally gagged by the American food corporates that she was even unable to reveal what she ate!

Chicken production was just as horrifying as beef, not least because of the secrecy that surrounded it. The film makers were only able to find one farmer who would show them inside a chicken shed - and even then they were restricted.

Lack of transparency is also a central feature of the GM industry. Monsanto got a lot of flack for aggressively taking over soya production in the US. Their Roundup Ready Soya had a market share of just 2% in 1996 but now over 90% of US soya has their patented gene. And they have an extremely rigorous system to check up and punish anyone who stores and replants their own seed - and so avoids paying them.

Monsanto also appear to be extremely keen to avoid any food labelling, which tells consumers about the use of GM. The point was made that if they were proud of what they were doing, they wouldn't object to publicising it.

One statistic that the food industry may be keen to hide is that one in three Americans born after 2000 - and half of minorities - will contract early onset diabetes. Cheap food actually costs more if you factor in the health problems created by obesity. The audience were asked to imagine how different food would be if the success of national policy was measured on the number of hospital admissions in a year.

The film's director, Robert Kenner, was at the screening that I went to, along with Patrick Holden, Director of the Soil Association. And the panel discussion was chaired by Charles Redfern, founder of Organico and Fish4Ever. Holden emphatically pointed out the film was equally applicable to the UK.

To my mind the most significant point made by Kenner was that the food industry is focusing on technical solutions to solve problems that arise from the industrial food system we've created. His view was that they should be changing the system itself. Factory farms, mega industrial processing, animals designed to fit machines and crops that are far removed from nature may not actually be the best way of feeding the world's population.

Food Inc can now be viewed in cinemas around the country. But if you miss it, you'll be able to get it on DVD in June. I'd like to give some copies to schools - it's a real eye opener but may lead to some awkward questions about school dinners....

How Green is Scarlet - Eco-hotel in Cornwall

2010-01-28T16:35:00.005Z

My first impression of the building was horrendous. It was sitting on the cliff top surrounded by bungalows and modern seaside houses. Looking at the website for the Scarlet Hotel near Bedruthan Steps in Cornwall, I had thought that it stood on its own in a beautiful bay. The picture of the distinctive red hot tub stands out apparently in isolated splendour. And it was the tub that convinced me that what I was looking at was actually where we were heading.

Entering the hotel was another matter. It was spectacular - a large glass window with an infinity pool and a beautiful view of the sea beyond. And the hotel foyer was further enhanced by some truly wonderful artwork – a figure made from beech nuts and elsewhere a man made from bark. Our room was also a treat. Spacious, light and airy, with the sun beaming in the window from across the sea.

The hotel had only been open for a matter of days when we arrived – less than 3 weeks. They apologised in advance for any teething problems – and we found them. The telephone system was impossible to use, there was no bulb in one of the lights, no labels to tell you which switch would illuminate what part of the room and no space for soap in the shower.

But it was the eco-features that I was most interested in. The Scarlet has been built as an green building and has an impressive list of more than 100 measures that it has taken in this respect. From re-homing reptiles to maximising solar gain the building. And from using recycled cement and sustainably sourced wood to installing a biomass boiler and grey water harvesting. Also, the use of sea thrift on roof tops apparently reduces heating and cooling loads, as well as supporting butterflies and other insects.

I didn’t think the green policies in running the hotel had been quite so well thought out. There was nothing to tell guests that they should hang up their towels if they didn’t want them laundered. And they had sumptuous towelling dressing gowns that presumably got washed after each visit. The environmental impact of laundering is significant, so reducing the load is worth quite a few eco-brownie points. I should point out that in their literature, the Scarlet says they do encourage guests to minimise their use of towels but there was nothing in evidence that I saw. Perhaps this was another teething problem.

However, the hand-made organic soaps each in its own little bag were clearly intended. I’ve still got the cotton bag but haven’t yet managed to find anything useful to do with it. I suspect that most people simply throw them away. This is worse than wasting soap. They say anything left behind is used by the laundry as a stain rub. But far better would be using liquid soaps in a plastic bottle that is re-filled after each visit. One hotel I’ve heard talking about their green initiatives said that this measure alone saved them a substantial amount of money, so that’s another benefit.

We arrived at around tea time. Delivered to our room were some of the most delicious scones I’ve ever eaten, with clotted cream and jam. We had to hold back remembering our dinner booking later on.

Although the evening food was good to eat, I was disappointed that there was nothing on the menu about the sustainability of what was being served. The head chef was happy to come and talk. He told us that everything was locally sourced but he didn’t seem to understand that this on its own didn’t make the food ‘sustainable’.

For example, there wasn't any information on whether the Scarlet avoided fish species that are endangered. They could have referred to the Fish Online a website set up by the Marine Conservation Society, which gives advice on which fish are OK to eat and which are not. Equally, the film 'End of the Line', which is all about sustainable fishing has a section on their website encouraging people to rate restaurants on their fish policies. I wanted to know what their policy was on blue fin tuna, skate and monkfish, all of which are not recommended.

Equally, there was nothing about the impact of meat on climate change. I’m not a vegetarian but could be tempted by some delicious non-meat alternatives.
Given that the Scarlet have invested so much in being a green hotel, it seems extraordinary that they’ve over-looked some obvious areas of real impact. And one I haven’t mentioned yet – the television in my room was left on stand-by.

I have to forgive them for not being in a more isolated location although I’d recommend that they make this a bit clearer on their website. And I wouldn’t make too much fuss about the teething problems. But my view was that they need to add quite a few more points to their long list of eco-measures and perhaps change a few policies to boot. A good start but still some way to go.

Christmas cards

2010-01-16T09:48:00.008Z

The Jeremy Vine Show wanted me to have a pair of scissors ready for my interview. The idea was to record me, Blue Peter style, cutting up my Christmas cards so I could use them again. Listening to the programme afterwards, I don't think the scissor cutting was audible! But the message about re-using Christmas cards was very clear.

Now that Christmas is over you've probably forgotten all about the frantic preparations. But I'm baffled by how much people worry about Christmas cards. The concern is that they've not managed to send out any this year or not enough. There's a simple answer to this conundrum - don't send them. I don't.

If you're very determined that you could try pruning your list. For example, I think it's particularly wasteful to hand out cards to people you see all the time - or send them to local friends. An example of this is at my children's school. They come home with piles of cards from their school friends. Another example is the cards you get from local suppliers and businesses -

the post office, the local printer shop etc.

Email cards are becoming more popular. I'm quite in favour of these, particularly if they're funny or they're backed up with a donation to charity.

A card in the post can be a treat though, if it's got some news inside - and perhaps from someone you don't see very often. I do like hearing about what friends have been up to. And generally those are the ones I respond to. After Christmas I cut up my cards - use the picture side to send out thank you notes and recycle the other side with my cardboard. If there's any news I put it in my box of letters - I'm a bit of a collector.

My radio interview also covered re-using wrapping paper, which is another one of my foibles.

All of this might appear to be rather pointless and trivial but perhaps not when you consider that we throw away over 3 millions tonnes of waste over Christmas. This includes an estimated 1 billion cards, which is an average of 17 each and 83 square kilometres of wrapping paper. So I hope you'll sending out fewer cards next year and using your scissors on the ones you receive.

Hong Kong was dirty

2009-12-03T17:44:00.009Z

Photo I took of the smog in Hong Kong - it should have been a sunny day!

Air conditioning in Hong Kong is having a huge impact on climate change

Kowloon

Christmas tat in street market

We flew through a brownish smog as we descended into Hong Kong airport. During my four days in the city I was horrified by the pollution. As the Star Ferry belched its way across the Harbour towards Kowloon, the high rise towers of Hong Kong were shrouded in a thick mist.

Most people blamed the Chinese factories a little way across the border. When the wind blew from that direction, they said, it was far worse. And, apparently, there was some reprieve when the recession began to bite - but now it's full steam ahead. However, I did speak to one person who thought that at least 50% of the pollution came from the city itself. (See Clean Air Foundation video on pollution in Hong Kong) For a start, Hong Kong harbour is apparently one of the few places in the world where there are no restrictions on burning the dirtiest of fuels. And going back to the Star Ferry - I heard that they were planning to renew the boats shortly but have said that they can't afford the clean technology to reduce emissions. Shipping is becoming a bit of an issue.

A couple of weeks ago it was reported that just 16 of the world's largest ships can produce as much sulphur pollution as all the world's cars. Regulations to control emissions from shipping seem to be rather lax even though vast quantities of goods are being transported this way. The focus to date has been on airlines.

Another shocking thing about Hong Kong was the sheer consumerism. So much useless stuff for sale that I felt totally overwhelmed. I had thought I might make the most of my few days in the city and buy some Christmas presents. I spent about £2 on a holograph picture of fish!

And then there's the air conditioning. My residing memory of the city from my first and only previous visit was the huge contrast between the outside humidity and the freezing temperatures inside the buildings. At this time of year the weather is perfect - not too hot or too cold. But that didn't stop the chilly buildings and taxis. Taxi drivers weren't too impressed when I opened the windows but it made for a much more comfortable ride.

I've discovered that if the air conditioning is set at a moderate 27C, they will use about half the amount of energy than at 21C. But it's not just the energy that's a real shocker for air conditioning, it's the cooling fluids. The old systems are leaky and the coolants used have a global warming impact several thousand times worse than CO2. I reckon that about one third of the carbon footprint of the whole of Hong Kong could come from their air conditioning systems alone. But I have to admit that this is a complete guess. I'd really like to carry out a survey and get the real figures - it might be even worse.

You may be wondering why I was travelling to the other side of the world and creating my own huge carbon footprint. The answer is that I went to make a speech to Hong Kong businesses on climate change. Perhaps, what I said and the follow up on air conditioning and shipping will make amends. It's too early to tell.

On the positive side, the people I met in Hong Kong were great. There was a real energy about the place and the connections were amazing - introductions to people working in the same area as me, meeting up with people that I hadn't seen for ages and finding out that unconnected friends knew each other.

One organisation that was doing some very interesting work both on child poverty and environmental issues is ADM Capital Foundation. As well as campaigning on rainforests, climate change and air pollution they're also trying to raise awareness in China about the negative impact of shark fin soup.

Hong Kong is apparently the shark fin capital of the world. Unfortunately the soup has become a symbol of weath - a pound of shark fin can sell for more than $300 - and it is considered to be an integral part of celebrations and banquets. But shark fishing is hugely wasteful - the fisherman cut off the fins and throw the bodies, which may still be living, back into the sea. It is estimated that about 20% of sharks and related species are on the verge of extinction. I was amazed at its prevalence in both shops and restaurants - even at the airport.

My house is quite cold but the air is clean and I'm glad to be back.

Lizards on the menu

Toads in a net

Somerset produces less waste

2009-11-25T17:16:00.010Z

My son Monty at Dimmer landfill site in Somerset

Somerset has the lowest amount of waste going to landfill per head in the UK – an average of between 160kg and 165kg per head. This is significantly less than the UK target for 2020, which is 225kg per head. And Somerset also heads the league table on recycling.

One of the reasons for this is that they’ve introduced weekly collection of recycled waste and bi-weekly for the rest. When this happened in my area (South Somerset) it radically changed my habits – and it appears I’m not alone. Another thing that’s makes a big difference is the size of wheely bins – the bigger the bin, the more people chuck away.

I gave a key note presentation at a workshop organised by the Somerset Waste Partnership, who are responsible for waste throughout the county. My speech highlighted some of the public misperceptions about waste, packaging and plastic bags. I also illustrated the shocking problem that we have in what's known as WEEE waste. This rather cute acronym stands for ' Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment'.

When I mentioned the problem of WEEE waste at a conference the other day, I was told that this country is now meeting recycling targets for the sector. Unfortunately, I've discovered that the system doesn't stand up to much scrutiny in terms of making the most of the valuable resources used by the industry. Did you know for example that 90% of computers chucked away have a re-sale value but only half are actually re-used.?

I was sent a podcast link last week all about recycling electronic waste and how it's done. It was absolutely horrendous. Huge clunky chains smashing up equipment and reducing the valuable parts to scrap. That scrap is eventually sorted and some sort of recycling is done. But it could be so much better. When you think that abut 1,173 tonnes of stuff is dug out of the ground to retrieve a tonne of copper, surely we should be retrieving every ounce we can find of that material - not just smashing it to bits and creating rubble.

Also, plastics waste from computers and other electronics count as recycled when they're shipped off to China. I have no objection to sending waste to China for recycling per se, but I do think that we need to make sure that it is actually recycled. And what's more that it's turned into something useful. There's not much point to recycling if it doesn't mean reducing demand for raw materials or saving energy.

Another big issue raised at the Somerset workshop was about food waste. Apparently, the average household in the UK chucks away the equivalent to £480 worth of edible food in a year. And from an environmental point of view this is disastrous. All the energy, land and resources used to grow crops is utterly wasted if it just ends up on the rubbish heap. And, for every tonne of food waste produced 4.5 tonnes of carbon are emitted into the atmosphere.

Luckily land fill taxes are rising exponentially over the next few years. This means there's more and more incentive for local authorities to come up with other ideas about what to do. But one of the problems is to make sure that they're actually targetting the waste materials that have the biggest environmental impact, rather than those that are heaviest. For example, if we put all our efforts into glass bottles or even newspapers, we could be missing other materials, where the potential for reducing carbon emissions is far greater.

Public concern over packaging can also lead to some distorted priorities. You may be surprised to learn that only 3% of everything thrown into landfill sites is actually packaging. We may need to shift our focus to the building industry, for example, which is a hugely wasteful.

There's so much more we could and should be doing to reduce demand for raw materials coming into the system and the amount of waste coming out. We must make sure that what we maximise the efficiency of what we do by giving signficant incentives for good practice and swingeing penalties for bad.

And whilst we're at it, surely the government should be setting 2020 targets for waste reduction, significantly lower than what is readily achievable today? Somerset may be leading the way but we don't want to be quite so far ahead of the pack!

We need more Bedzeds

2009-11-18T09:03:00.005Z

Bedzed - Beddington Zero Energy Design

William Steel, Generation Green Think Tank member

Did you know that cats give off about 10 watts of heat and dogs about 15 watts. I suspect that a friend of mine with a Great Dane gets as much heat from his as a human though - roughly 100 watts. I was told this whilst being shown round Bedzed - Beddington Zero Energy Design Building.

This green apartment complex on the outskirts of London makes the most of heat from a variety of sources. The most impressive thing is that none of the flats actually have radiators - they're not needed. The building is very well insulated, they're designed to optimise heat from the sun and they also make the most of body heat too! One of the ways they do this is by creating a building that's used for both residential and office space. This means there are people around all the time - keeping the space warm.

There are 99 flats in total - and there are only three boilers servicing all of them. These are used for hot water. But it means that each dwelling is using about 83% less gas than people living in neighbouring properties. And 40% less electricity.

They're also efficient in their water use. The average person in the UK uses roughly 153 litres of water per day but at Bedzed it's nearly half that. However, I learnt that in the US the average is 460 litres of water a day per head and in Las Vegas it's a staggering 1300 litres! And Las Vegas is a desert area.

One of the ways they save on water is by putting bubbles in it. This makes the spray from taps look like there's a lot of volume, when actually, there's not very much. Low flush loos also play a part.

This was my second visit to Bedzed - the first was about a year after it started in 2003. This time I came with about 20 school children as part of the British Gas Generation Green Think Tank, that I am leading. It is our third visit to a 'green' project. The first was to Closed Loop Recycling in Dagenham, where they recycle plastic bottles. The second was the Met Office in Exeter, where the children learnt something about the science of climate change.

Our next trip will be to the Houses of Parliament, to present the children's policy ideas. The plan is to invite MPs, including the Prime Minister, to hear what they have to say. And to understand that there are lots of children who are concerned about their future and want to do something about it.

The great thing about Bedzed was that it was a real illustration of how attractive green living can be. None of the children would have preferred to live in the neighbouring buildings - a bog-standard development, with no green rooves, electric cars or community living. And Bedzed research showed that people living there generally knew about 20 of their neighbours. The equivalent figure for the UK is 3 neighbours.

You can see from the photos that the roof top cowls are very striking. They move with the wind and effectively ventilate the building, so the super thick insulation doesn't make it too stuffy.

It's a great pity there aren't more buildings like this. Having sat on the District Council in my area I think there's not nearly enough incentive to go this route. We need more innovation and green thinking - remembering that we're building in problems or solutions for many years ahead. If builders can't do it they shouldn't be given planning permission - perhaps that's one of the messages the children will be taking to Government.

Recycling plastic mountains

2009-11-09T10:35:00.008Z

Omer Kutluoglu - Plastics recycling entrepreneur

In the UK we throw away mountains of plastic waste and use lots of plywood. Apart from a small amount of plastic bottles and an even smaller number of plastic bags, pretty well all the rest of our plastic debris is discarded, never to be used again. Omer Kutluoglu, a half-Turkish entrepreneur and INSEAD graduate, thinks this is ludicrous. One of his previous businesses was selling small cheap electronics – phones, MPG players and similar – many of which are bought as disposable items.

I visited Omer at the site of his new factory near Luton. His business, 2k Manufacturing is setting up to start recycling large quantities of mixed plastic, including electronic waste, into a product called Eco Sheet.

The brilliant thing about this process is that it can take mixed plastic from pretty well any source and even contaminated material – bits of paper and metal for example don’t cause a problem. This avoids a huge amount of sorting and grading, which is a significant part of most recycling processes. It also means that the volume of raw material for the process is almost infinite and it will be diverted from the waste stream.

There are lots of products that could use Eco Sheet but 2k have decided to focus on replacing plywood for the building trade and signage industry, which gets through between 20 and 25 million 8ft by 4ft sheets every year. This is virgin wood – some of it from rainforest areas. The plywood boards, used as fascia for building sites are often discarded after a single use – they are damaged by getting wet. But the Eco Sheets are impermeable to water and can be used again and again. They are also lighter, don’t have splinters and are cost competitive.

The plant in Luton is just gearing up but, not surprisingly, demand from the building industry is high – it looks likely to exceed supply as soon as the product becomes available. Other plants are planned around the country. My view is that the sooner they’re up and running the better. The building trade is currently the most wasteful industry on the planet. Anything we can do to lessen that has to be a good thing.

Amsterdam Declaration - Club of Rome Conference

2009-11-07T15:16:00.010Z

Club of Rome conference delegates

Gorbachev looking a bit grim, arriving at Club of Rome conference

Gorbachev was the most high profile speaker but others on the platform included the former Dutch Prime Minister Ruud Lubbers, a former Chilean President, as well as leading lights from the environmental world, such as Jim Hansen, Gunter Pauli, Bill McDonough, Michael Braungart and Ernst von Weizsacker. There were also contributions from business including Philips Electronics, Shell and Triodos Bank.

The two day conference in Amsterdam was organised by the Club of Rome, famous for its Limits to Growth Report in the early 1970s. Worryingly, the over-riding theme was that their concerns and predictions about the depletion of the world’s natural resources were proving to be rather accurate. And that the threats from climate change would shortly be irreversible unless there was a very dramatic change in the world’s response. The culminated with a document called the Amsterdam Declaration. The plan was to present this to the Copenhagen Summit in December as further reinforcement to some significant global commitments.

In my view there were three major conclusions from this conference, as follows:"

1. The world needs to move away from GDP as a measurement for wealth, so that prosperity is not directly linked to depletion of resources.

2. The target for reduction in greenhouse gases should be no more than 350 ppm (parts per million) rather than 450 ppm, if we are to avoid runaway climate change.

3. Developed countries should commit to building no new coal-fired power stations and developing countries, including China should have clear deadlines for phasing them out.

He heads the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York but is best known for his testimony on climate change to the congressional committees in the 1980s, that helped raise broad awareness of global warming issues. As well as explaining some of the tipping points for climate change he told the conference that “the most essential thing is to put a price on carbon emissions”. His idea was that the US, China and Europe should ramp up the costs of carbon emissions and invest revenue in preventing climate change. Developing countries, exporting carbon intensive products or services, would also have to pay, but the money would be given back to them to pay for women’s education, re-afforestation and other important initiatives.

Gorbachev summed up his views by saying that “This is an emergency – the planet is in a perilous and disastrous state.” And that we need “political will at the highest levels to commit to industrialised countries leading the reduction in emissions”. He also pointed out that the economy was not undermined by environmental concerns but by the ‘glorification of consumerism”.

The Dutch Minister for the Environment, Jacqueline Cramer, made her commitment clear. Her message for the Copenhagen summit was that "We have to turn the Age of Stupid into the Age of Wisdom”. I hope that she’s not alone in pressing for action and innovation. My fear is that she may be overwhelmed by those trying to put the brakes on and explaining why any commitments should be made by someone else.

As well as attending this conference, which I found very motivating, I spent 4 days in Amsterdam with my eldest son Connor and my mother. We went on a canal cruise and did a lot of walking around the city, crossing over quite a few of the 1281 bridges that are an integral part of the city – and we stayed on a barge.

My mother, Minker with my son Connor and me in Amsterdam

The Age of Stupid film

2009-10-22T23:53:00.007+01:00

I've just watched this film at a screening in the nearby village of South Petherton. The village hall was jam packed, although I was one of the few who had taken along my children. At the beginning we were warned of bad language in the film but actually all that I noticed was someone swearing a couple of times.

It wasn't really a very child-friendly film. My middle son, who is nearly 13, found it hard going - he said it was 'boring' and not nearly as good as 'An Inconvenient Truth'. However my youngest son, who is two years younger was more positive. He wanted to look at the website - www.notstupid.org.

Sitting next to me was a friend who imports toys and stationery products from China. I turned to look at him when the film explained that about one quarter of the energy produced in China is used on making - in their words - 'crap products' to export overseas. He was asleep! To be fair, I don't think he snoozed off for long and he definitely didn't do it after that - but perhaps that was because I kept an eye on him....

The part of the film I found most engaging was about a chap who was trying to get more wind turbines built in the UK. He said that we really needed to move faster on this but most of the proposals put forward are turned down in the planning process by protesters.

The key concern is aesthetics. And this is despite the fact that most people claim that they are worried about climate change and want to do something about it. That 'something' clearly doesn't stretch to having turbines anywhere near their homes. Personally, I'd be very keen to have some turbines on the hill where I live - they would be far more attractive, in my view, than the existing mobile phone mast. But I'm not yet sure how my neighbours would react...

There's one statistic in the film that's particularly striking even though I've heard it before. It tells us that whilst only 1% of scientists are sceptical about man-made climate change, the figure for the general public is around 60%. I think that there's so much debate about whether there is a problem or not because it diverts people from facing up to the fact that we're all going to have to make changes to our lifestyles.

Certainly, when I went to the Met Office in Exeter, where weather across the globe is forecast in the near and long term, there were no doubts at all. They were unequivocal. Climate change is happening and we need to respond.

The Age of Stupid gave insights into people's lives across the globe. One of it's strongest messages is about the disparity between the rich and the poor, as well as pointing a finger at the capitalist system. They summarised this with a quotation saying that our society was good at making a profit but not so good at preservation. And in the debate that followed the film in the village hall there were fiercely opposing views on this subject.

Personally, I don't think we can sort out all the evils of the world - and come up with a completely fair society with no poverty or injustice. And I believe that it doesn't make sense to suggest that we have to address these concerns before we can really do anything about climate change or other environmental issues. I don't think it's a sin to make a profit. What I do think is that we want to try and make sure that people profit from working towards a green future.

That's an argument I've been having for a very long time. In 1989 I was a speaker at the Green Party conference in Wolverhampton. I was heckled from the audience with a cry of 'why have we got someone on the platform who is making money from the environment'. Although the debate may have a similar theme, I think we've moved on a long way from then - and many more businesses are moving in the right direction. I don't want to take away the profit motive. I want to encourage them to do more - a lot more.

Hopefully, the Age of Stupid, will help with this. It was certainly thought-provoking on a number of levels. I'd encourage anyone who hasn't seen it to go, although you might get mixed reviews from your children.....
Phone mast on Coker Hill

Water refill stations are coming

2009-10-14T15:30:00.005+01:00

I generally carry a water bottle around with me when I'm travelling. It saves on buying bottled water on the move. Anyone who has read previous blogs of mine will know that I'm not a great fan of bottled water - lots of energy used in transport, packaging, waste etc...

However, according to the Guardian, London is going to introduce its first water refill machines in late October. They'll be on trial. The 'Hydrachills' as they are known, will be installed at Hammersmith Bus Station and at the Tower Bridge Museum. These machines will fill up to 500ml of chilled water for a small fee. Even better, the proceeds will go to Waste Watch, which is a charity working to reduce waste.

The hope is that the scheme will be extended to bus and railway stations, as well as the London Underground, ahead of the 2012 Olympics. Let's hope they're a success.

Solar powered lighting is good

2009-10-14T15:13:00.004+01:00

My outside light is great. It's a solar powered security light, with a movement sensor. I've had it up for a few months now and it's works really well. It came from Eco Promotion - a website that sells lots of energy efficient products from light bulbs to radiator panels.

We had to put up a small solar panel a little way from the light installation, so that it got some light in the day - but it's not in a very bright spot because it's on the North side of the house. Even so, it seems to get plenty of power for what's needed. The light itself is above the back door. It seems to know before we've even started coming through the gate in the car because it's always on, when I'm parking.

But, of course, the best thing about it, is that it doesn't use any energy to run.

One of my worries when I moved to this house was that all the outside light installations literally gobbled energy, even if they're only on for a short time. The one I had was at the bottom end of the range and still used 200 watts.

I'd definitely recommend solar lights wherever you can use them. I'm not such a fan of CFL lights with sensor that turns the light on when it's dark - so it's on all night whether you need it or not. I don't think lights should be on when they're not being used. A movement sensor makes much more sense.

Is Rick Stein's fish sustainably sourced?

2009-09-22T10:46:00.005+01:00

Last weekend I went to Padstow. This fishing port is best known for its association with Rick Stein, who appears to own half of the businesses in the town from his eponymous restaurant, fish & chip shop and deli to a local pub, bistro and patisserie.

Predictably there was no space for a last minute booking at his restaurant. We were told that we might be able to eat there if we tried our luck at the bar without booking. The menu looked great but the uncertainty wasn't what we were looking for. So we decided to try out Stein's Fish & Chip shop, the following day.

I've been there before and remembered that the food is great. Good chunky chips, fresh salad and a wide range of grilled and battered fish.

But what about the sustainability of the fish we were eating? There were no signs anywhere I could see telling customers what the policy was. So we asked the Polish waitress whether the fish had been sustainably caught. Not surprisingly, she didn't understand the word 'sustainable'. A lady from behind the counter overheard. She shouted across that the cod was from 'sustainable sources'.

We wrote the word 'sustainable' down for our Polish helper and tried to explain what it meant. But she didn't get much help from her colleagues except to say which fish had been locally caught. Most but not all of it. The 'sustainable' cod came from Iceland, I think. The sea bass was farmed - which is quite common. And there was no information about the skate and the monk fish, which are the two species I know to be particularly vulnerable.

Advice from Fish Online, which advises on the sustainability of fish says this about skate:
ADVICE: The common skate belies its name as it is becoming very rare in UK shallow seas and in European waters. Common skate is assessed as Critically Endangered by IUCN -World Conservation Union. Avoid eating.

Monkfish advice is a little less categorical: Monk or anglerfish are a long-lived species and have low resilience to fishing. Avoid eating fish from the depleted southern stock. To help increase the sustainability of fish eaten from healthy stocks, ensure fish is above or equal to the size at which it matures - at least 70cms - and avoid eating during its breeding season - spring and early summer.

Surprisingly, if you look at Rick Stein's website, he talks about sustainable fishing. And in 2006 the Sustainable Fish Summit was held at Rick Stein's cookery school in Padstow. So why not say something about the issue in his fish and chip shop? Given that Stein's name has become almost synonymous with fish, I think this is a huge failure.

Even the Food Standard's Agency is advising consumers to make 'informed, sustainable choices' and to 'choose fish that has been produced sustainably or responsibly managed' as well as to look for 'assurance scheme logos'. I try hard to do this - and often ask at the restaurants or hotels I go to about their policies. But it's unusual to get a well-informed response. Many think that 'locally caught' is synonymous with 'sustainable' but it's not.

Back to my fish and chip lunch - rembering advice from Charles Clover's excellent film 'End of the Line', and from Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's TV series on fish, I thought I look for an alternative to cod or haddock, like pollock. It wasn't on the main menu but luckily was a special for the day. And it was truly delicious.

Next time I'm in Padstow, I'll make another visit and hope that things have changed. Sustainable fish policies should be easy to see, easy to understand and promoted to the public. If not then we'll be lucky if there's any fish left for us to eat and Rick Stein will be out of business - or at least his fish business.

Bottled water - Eau de Vie or 'Eau de tap'

2009-07-28T14:56:00.006+01:00

I was invited to eat a 'Water-Rich Menu' at Quo Vadis in Soho. The host was Nicholas Stanley, Managing Director of Eau de Vie. Although his new enterprise is all about water, he seemed quite surprised when I - and a number of the other guests - declined the champagne in favour of water. But then I found out that he'd been in the wine industry for many years - starting at Corney & Barrow.

We started with watercress, radish and broad bean salad and followed that with turbot, a fish, which apparently needs good clean water to survive. And for pudding we had a strawberry water ice.

I've always been rather passionate about drinking tap water. It seems absurd that UK households are provided with a plentiful supply of good quality drinking water, flush as much as one third of this down the loo and then many people actually buy bottled water to drink. (See blog I wrote on the subject for the Telegraph in Feb 2008).

Many people argue that they don't like the taste of tap water but in taste tests this rarely stands up to scrutiny. Although, warm water doesn't taste so good - and putting it in the fridge also means the chlorine has time to evaporate.

The real scandal about bottled water however is the environmental impact. Shipping water and heavy bottles around the country or sometimes importing it from far away has a significant environmental impact, using lots of fuel. And, apparently, it takes about three times more water to make a plastic bottle than to fill it. One website I've looked at claims that in America they make 60 million plastic water bottles a day!

So what's different about Eau de Vie? It's cooled, filtered water served in re-usable glass bottles. You can get it flat or fizzy. The system is being sold to restaurants as an alternative to bought in bottled water. And it's a lot cheaper too - about 2p a litre. At Quo Vadis they include it in the cover charge. Other restaurants still charge for it but less than the other branded waters.

The environmental credentials appear to stack up too. A glass mineral water bottle will result in 500 times more waste to landfill and have over 13 times the carbon footprint than Eau de Vie. And a PET plastic bottle will result in 40 times more environmental waste to landfill and 4 times the carbon footprint. If you multiply these figures for a typical restaurant serving 5,000 litres of mineral water a year, the savings are signficant.

Fellow guests at lunch included Loyd Grossman, famous from 'Through the Keyhole' and for his sauces - even if you don't recognise his name, you may find his distinctive voice familiar. I was amused to hear that he's now playing in a rock band with Valentine Guinness as the lead singer. Also there was Edwin Datschefski, a fellow environmentalist, who I've known for years. He has been advising Eau de Vie on their sustainability credentials and has to technical expertise to give the product claims credibility.

I was given a couple of bottles of Eau de Vie to take home. At room temperature I carried out a taste test with my children as guinea pigs. They were given two glasses of water to taste and had to say which they liked best. One was 'eau de tap' and the other Eau de Vie. They were unaminous in choosing the filtered water. However, I'd like to do the test again with both samples being cooled - but I'll have to wait because I've run out of the bottled brand.

For restaurants this system would seem to be a real winner. Compared to other bottled water it costs less, has less environmental impact, attractive branding and is a good quality product. Even compared to tap water it may not do so badly if you take account of freezing the ice cubes and washing up the jug.

There are plans afoot to adapt Eau de Vie for the domestic market. That wouldn't be so good for me because I'm quite happy with tap water. But for committed bottle water buyers or frenzied carbonated water enthusiasts it could not only save money but reduce their significant carbon footprint too.

So Eau de Vie gets my qualified support - a bottled water that's better than others.

Generation Green visit recycling plant

2009-06-30T11:28:00.007+01:00

I was impressed by the passion, enthusiasm and knowledge of many of the children who are participating in the Generation Green youth think tank, sponsored by British Gas. Age 7-14 we met at Dagenham docks to have a look around the Closed Loop recycling plant.

They were told all about recycling plastic bottles and were quite surprised that so much of the process was actually devoted to sorting out the different types of plastics and the different colours. There was also a machine that sniffed the plastic chips to check for any contamination - it had a 'nose' that was four times more powerful than a dogs. And one of the children told us that a dog's nose is 1000 times more powerful than a humans (I don't know if that's true!).

At the end of the day the children came up with some green ideas. These included calling for more recycling bins in city centres, theme parks and fast food restaurants. They realised that domestic recycling was getting quite good but if you're on the move facilities are generally pretty poor. They also complained about over-packaging of toys and suggested that companies making plastic bottles should reduce the number of colours and the materials they use to make recycling simpler.

One of the children recommended green buses promoting environmental issues. Another said that they wished there was green club in their area because they'd join it.

I was their expert advisor throughout the day and told them at the beginning that we wanted lots of questions - as it turned out that wasn't a problem at all. They were amazing and had plenty to say. Here are some quotes from the day:

"I just want to make the world a better place."

"The blades on wind turbines should be painted lots of different colours."

"We should stop using industrial stuff like bricks and fossil fuels." Followed by "That's a bit drastic."

"Humans are greedy."

"Try giving everything up and forget about it." Followed by "I won't'

"Humans have dominion over the Earth so they don't care what they waste."

"We should cut out fossil fuels and make use of the energy around us - solar power, wave power etc."

"I love knowing when you're saving CO2"

"It's a good thing that oil is running out - it might mean we have a greener world - the reality of it means we have to re-think and that renewables are the obvious choice."

The next trip is in the Autumn. We'll be taking the children to the Centre for Alternative Technology in North Wales. And there will be one more trip before we pull together some of their policy ideas and take them to Downing Street. By that time we may have a new prime minister. But whoever is then residing at Number 10, they should be pleased to get some fresh ideas - these children are representing their generation. And they want to be heard.

An inconvenient truth about fish - The End of the Line

2009-06-28T11:18:00.009+01:00

A fish collapse. 90% of the big fish are gone. The global fishing capacity is big enough to catch four times more fish than actually exist in the sea. We've just squandered one of the greatest resources on the planet - wild fish.

The End of the Line leaves one in no doubt about the devastating impact of the world's fishing fleet. What really amazed me was how recent catastrophic over-fishing has been. Back in 1988 when I co-wrote The Green Consumer Guide we did point out that cod was facing collapse in the North Sea, that dolphins were being caught in tuna nets and that the sturgeon was being over-fished for caviar but the main focus of our fish section was on pollution, whaling and fish-farming.

Although I've kept abreast of fish issues since then, there were things in the film that surprised me. One of these was the total collapse of the Newfoundland cod fishing industry in 1992 - and that it has never recovered. Another was that the Chinese data for fish consumption was completely inaccurate and hugely over-claimed the amount of fish they were eating. This meant scientists thought there were far more fish being caught than was the case - so the red alert on declining fish stocks was late in coming.

One part of the film that was quite amusing was seeing Charles Clover 'playing' the Nobu restaurant owner about his policy on blue fin tuna. The restaurant is best-known for Boris Becker's antics in its broom cupboard but apparently attracts many celebrities, although I didn't see any when I went there. I won't be going again. Having listened to the facts about the scarcity of blue fin tuna, they are keeping it on the menu, albeit with the information that it is 'unsustainable'. Apparently transparent but this is a classic example of a company simply avoiding the issue - they clearly don't give a damn.

I think that the message at the end of the film telling people what they can do is much clearer than the action messages from An Inconvenient Truth. The recommendations are: 1. Ask before you buy - only eat sustainable seafood 2. Tell politicians - respect the science, cut the fishing fleet and 3. Join the campaign - for marine protected areas and responsible fishing.

Charles Clover pointed out that although this is a serious problem, unlike climate change it's relatively easy to do something about it - and that's encouraging. He explains that the cost of converting 30% of the world's oceans into marine reserves would be less than is currently paid out in fish subsidies. Let's do it.

Pig heaven

2009-06-23T12:36:00.004+01:00

A friend of mine called Sarah has bought three not so little piglets. They're only 9 weeks old but already quite porky. They're also rather endearing and very friendly - snuffling and snorting around their wooded enclosure. One of the piglets has been nick-named 'rotavator' because he seems to be particularly good at turning over the soft earth with his nose.

Even though these pigs are destined to become ham, bacon, sausage and pork chops, they appear to be living in a pig heaven. Plenty of shade, crumbly soil and regular supplies of food. They're given pig nuts to fatten them up. But the remaining part of their diet is a little more controversial.

I was horrified to discover that it is actually illegal for any food that has been through a domestic kitchen to be used for pig food. That includes potato peelings, carrot tops and apple cores. If you go to the supermarket and buy some fruit and vegetables you can give it directly to the pigs - but not if you've stopped off in the kitchen en route.

This is yet another example of the over-the-top nonsensical legislation that has been brought in following BSE and foot and mouth. Laws are being passed that are more mad than the mad cows - or pigs - they are trying to prevent. They are being devised on the basis of what could be a problem and applied across the board, whether it makes sense or not.

The result of this is that for the first two days in their new home these piglets were being fed whole bananas and fresh vegetables that were fit for human consumption. My friend then went to Waitrose to see if she could have some of their food waste. The request was refused even though it transpired that the waste from that store all went directly to landfill. The local Sainsbury store was better - they were sending food waste to a nearby wildlife sanctuary.

More positively, I can report that Sarah has found a local organic retailer who is happy to provide a bucket of pig feed every week. The piglets will apparently be joining some other animal consumers in hoovering up the leftovers.

On average, waste food has a carbon footprint that is 10 times greater than packaging. But whilst there's uproar about the excessive packaging on food. In most developed countries we actually waste about half the food we produce hence the campaign Love Food Hate Waste. And increasingly councils are trying to collect food waste either for composting or for anaerobic digestion - to collect the methane gas from it and use it for fuel.

But pigs are a traditional dustbin for food waste. It seems to me that it's a crime to remove their integral role in the domestic food chain. My garden isn't so suited to pig rearing as Sarah's but if I ever manage to go that route, I'm pretty sure I'll be flouting the law and giving my pigs all sorts of delicious peelings and scraps. B***** the bureaucrats.

Food waste for fuel in London and beyond...

2009-05-13T16:33:00.006+01:00

I had an early start to get to London for the start of a workship on AD - anaerobic digestion. It might be a bit weird but it's a subject I'm rather passionate about. AD is essentially like composting in an enclosed system. It can be used to treat food waste, farm waste, sewage sludge and pretty well anything that's slushy and compostable.

At the end of the process you get biogas, which can be used to generate electricity, heat boilers or as a vehicle fuel. And the remaining sludge left at the bottom is an excellent fertiliser - replacing energy-intensive agri-chemicals.

In 2006, when I was researching The New Green Consumer Guide, I realised that AD had huge potential but was barely being used. At the end of the year I organised a conference with South Somerset District Council called 'Biogas - Explosive Potential'. Amazingly the conference hall was full to bursting as interest in the issue was just getting going.

Back to the London event. Organised by BiogenGreenfinch, who describe themselves as a company pioneering food waste recycling for biofertiliser and renewable energy. The workshop entitled AD in the City - solving the urban food waste challenge was aimed at London councils encouraging them to use AD.

They appeared to be pretty keen on the idea. Ealing Council signed up with BiogenGreenfinch last year, for 5,000 tonnes of food waste but this is a very small proportion of the 2.5 million tonnes apparently produced by Londoners - and that's only domestic food waste. Two other West London boroughs have just signed up - Richmond and Hounslow - and Hammersmith & Fulham look like they'll be joining the fray. And following the workshop, other councils are apparently queuing up to have a look at whether it might work for them.

The London Councils are being encouraged by the London Waste and Recycling Board. This body was set last year to boost recycling - and is chaired by the London Mayor - Boris Johnson. They said that food waste in London is contributing about 210,000 tonnes of CO2 to the atmosphere each year.

I don't think much food was wasted from the lunch served at the end of the workshop. Cooked by Oliver Rowe, who runs a restaurant near Kings Cross called Konstam, it was delicious. The unsual feature of the restaurant is that it sources 85% of its ingredients from within the M25. this means using apple balsamic vinegar, rape seed oil, rosehips, nettles, ground elder and wild garlic. It also means that the menu is very seasonal. We were served the most appetising pork with crunchy crackling and rhubarb sauce, served on a bed of lettuce with roast potatoes.

Cycling to school

2009-05-12T19:04:00.003+01:00

This photo was taken in 2007 - not on the way to school...

It's brilliant. I've started cycling to my son's school in the morning - and back. Rollo and Monty got me going. They decided that they wanted to run to school along the lanes. I was rather surprised to see how far they got - 2 miles on the first day and 3.5 on the second when I had got them to put on their trainers.

The enthusiasm for being fit was contagious. Rather than following after them in the car - and picking them up for the final leg of the journey, I thought I'd try cycling. We got the bikes fixed and set out on Monday morning, only a little ahead of our normal departure time. It's 4.5 miles and took us about half an hour. I think Monty, who was with me, could do it a bit faster but he had to wait for me at the top of the hills!

I thought that the return journey would be the problem. Actually, quite the opposite. I could take a more leisurely pace, look at the view and smell the scents as I rode by. Lilac and May trees are at their peak.

Back in my office by 9am I am feeling fitter and healthier. I just hope we can keep it up - when the weather isn't quite so nice I suspect I won't be quite so keen. This morning it was very cold to start with, so tomorrow I'm going to find some gloves....

My Garden

2009-05-12T18:42:00.004+01:00

It's such a wonderful time of year for getting into the garden. I've actually managed to mow the lawn - I'm afraid that I didn't use a scythe. I've also been pruning the apples trees - and getting rid of the ivy that's wrapping itself around them and planting vegetables.

Home-grown food is a real treat. Apart from an abundance of apples, which come regardless as to how much attention I give them, the rest of my produce was a little thin last year. Only enough tomatoes for an odd sweet mouthful. Cabbages, cauliflowers and purple sprouting that withered on their storks. And squashes that never materialised. Although I did have success with my globe artichokes.

I realised that what was needed was nutrients. The farmer next door gave me a whole heap of cow manure, which has now been dug in and planted with seed potatoes. My compost from food waste doesn't look ready for spreading, so I went to B&Q to see if I could get some nice crumbly stuff for planting the other vegetable seeds.

I was rather disappointed to see that they were still selling products containing peat, albeit with a message saying that the peat had come from sustainable sources. I still don't think it's a good thing. Monty Don's comment about peat just about sums it up "Digging it up is like ripping out ancient hedgerows just to make sawdust". B&Q didn't stock compost made by the council from household food and garden waste, so I didn't buy it from them.

Another problem I have is weeds. One patch has been completely over-taken by nettles, dockleaves and buttercups. The gardener who came to help with some digging suggested that I spray it with Roundup. I'm afraid not - my garden is organic. Neither was I very enthusiastic about the recommendation to use slug pellets - I've got a jar of broken egg shells I'm going to try out to deter these pests. Or maybe I'll go slug hunting at dusk.

Rabbits too like to eat my vegetables. Luckily there are two fearsome rabbit predators around - my cat, who likes to leave their remains around the house, and the farmer next door who shoots them and gives them to me for the pot.

This year, I'm hopeful there will be an abundance of vegetables, so my artichokes won't be the only treat.

Regifting - eek

2009-05-12T11:25:00.004+01:00

A rather well-wrapped present...

I don't just recycled my rubbish, I recycle presents too. I've recently discovered that this is called 'regifting'. Apparently this is an American phrase and I learnt it from my sister-in-law, who comes from the state of Washington but is now living in Devon.

If I get a present that I don't think I'm going to use I put it in my a large Ottoman box in the spare room. This also applies to presents given to the children. If they don't look that interested or I think they're going to tear through the wrapping and then lose interest in seconds, I seize the gift and store it away.

The present box, boosted by things I have bought too, is then a brilliant resource for birthdays throughout the year. Wrapping paper too is used again - the Sellotape carefully removed and names cut out.

Recycling presents and wrapping paper is good from a green point of view. Clearly it makes sense to pass things on if you're not going to make the most of them. However, there are pitfalls and I've recently experienced one.

Thinking about a suitable present for my 6-year old nephew, I found a remote controlled car still in its box. It seemed particularly appropriate because it required a bit of adult help in putting it together - and my brother (his father) is an engineer and so well qualified for that.

Luckily we arrived with a few presents - some from my children, as well as one from me... Oh dear. My sister-in-law exclaimed when she saw the car "It's a regift!". And she had given it to one of my children for Christmas. Huge embarrassment. Luckily, she saw the funny side. She said that she'd be able to dine out on the story for a little while.

This experience hasn't deterred me from 'regifting' but it will make me more careful to make a note of who has given me what. And, my nephew didn't seem to mind a bit - he was delighted with the car!

Haller transformation

2009-05-02T11:15:00.003+01:00

Below is an article I wrote for Telegraph website about millipedes, hippos and Haller in Kenya. I'm a trustee of Haller - a charity, I co-founded that supports sustainable living in Kenya. In March I spent a week just North of Mombasa looking at how things have progressed since my last visit over four years ago. The article gives an idea of how Haller started and some of the projects that are now happening on the ground.

Millipedes and eco-systems

Look around at the lush and fertile landscape and it's hard to believe that this is a man-made environment. Yellow weaver birds making a huge din whilst building their pendulous nests, a sleek cormorant prepares to dive into the water and even a hippo wallows in the mud.

The hippo as it turns out has a vital role to play in the ecosystem. The mud on it's back is removed from the ponds and so stops the water hole from silting up. The crocodiles too play their part. They feed on the dead farm animals or remnants from the thriving organic fish-farm. And their excreta helps fertilise the water making the algae grow, which is food for the fish as well as nutrients for the rice paddies and bananas.

Only 30 years ago – this thriving forest landscape was a rocky, lunar-like desert, created by mining coral for cement. Actually, there are still parts of it which have been newly quarried to give one an idea of how it all started. The inspiration behind the transformation is Dr. Rene Haller, a Swiss agronomist, who has just celebrated his 50th anniversary of living on the Kenyan Coast.

In 1959 he came to work at the Bamburi Cement Factory – growing fruit and vegetables for the workers. But Haller didn't stop there. He started experimenting with different trees to see if any would put down roots into the dry, rocky terrain. The Casuarina tree, whose seeds had been washed onto Kenyan shores when Krakatoa erupted in the 1860s, was the best candidate. It produces nutrients in nodules on its roots and so is self-sustaining.

But Haller's most miraculous discovery was the beneficial effects of the millipede. This marvellous red-legged insect loves eating the needles dropped by the casuarinas. It's pooh then becomes the humus for the more vegetation – thus starting the whole ecosystem development.

Haller's vision didn't stop there. He managed to set up lots of different business enterprises supported by rehabilitated land, both employing and providing food for hundreds of local people. He also managed to demonstrate the value of conservation – for example, by showing farmers the benefits of tree-planting in preserving water for irrigation.

An inspiring man, Haller has managed to get worldwide interest in his ideas. The most exciting of which is a charity named after him – Haller – which is promoting his ideas in the poverty-stricken rural communities close to the quarry.

An example of the holistic thinking applied by Haller, the organisation, has been used in dam building projects. To prevent the fresh water pools becoming breeding grounds for mosquitoes, they have introduced fish, which eat the mosquito larvae. The fish are also a rich source of protein for the community and they fertilise the water, which makes it even better for feeding the crops. Also, any surplus fish can be sold, providing much needed income for the community.

If you run through the forest trails, that now criss-cross the rehabilitated quarry land near Mombasa, you're very likely to crush a shiny black millipede – or a mating pair – under foot. But you should avoid them if you can. They continue convert the forest floor into rich humus unaware of the pivotal role they've played in greening the cement quarry – and now helping the local people out of poverty.

Rene Haller often says 'seeing is believing' – he doesn't just tell people how to do something, he shows them. If you find yourself near Mombasa, go to Haller Park and have a look. If you're not planning to be there you might be inspired by looking at the Haller website.

Greening hotels

2009-04-28T15:07:00.008+01:00

I stay in hotels all the time. And I quite often give feedback.

Most hotels are incredibly wasteful. Common practices include:

-Leaving lights on in bedrooms when they're unoccupied
-Double beds with lots of pillows for only one person (resulting in lots of unnecessary laundry)
-Individually wrapped soaps, shampoos and other products
-Over-heating or cooling rooms with no controls to turn the temperature down - or off
-Water-wasting lavatories and baths

And I don't think I've come across a hotel that doesn't leave the television on stand-by. Another common practice is to have a hugely energy-intensive electric toaster that remains on throughout breakfast even if no-one is using it. You'll know if I'm around because I turn it off - and I've discovered that it will heat up very quickly once it's turned on again, so this shouldn't be a problem.

What you may have noticed is that most hotels ask guests to hang their towels up if they don't want them washed. Quite often the explanation for this is that it will save on detergents. That's ridiculous - the real issue is that it will save on the amount of energy used to launder the towels. But I find that hanging up my towel doesn't always prevent it from being washed - that's really annoying.

Earlier this month, I stayed at a Ramada Hotel in Geneva. I noticed that the extractor fan in the bathroom didn't go off when I shut the door or turned the light off. I could still hear a continuous whirring noise. I contacted reception and explained the problem thinking that my room may be in need of a maintenance visit. But I discovered that all the other rooms in the hotel also had their extractor fans on all of the time! Just imagine the energy wasted for that.

I waded through a website feedback form for Ramada, expressing my concerns - as well as saying that the breakfast had been exceptionally nice. To my surprise, I got a response - and a swift one. The general manage of the hotel explained that he'd taken 3 years to get to the bottom of this problem but he had just had a meeting with an air treatment company, who he hoped would resolve it. So I hope that if I stay again I won't have to put a piece of cardboard in front of the fan to reduce the noise.

The Ramada Encore in Geneva is part of Wyndham Hotels, who do appear to have an environmental policy if you look hard enough on the internet. However, my view is that it's not very apparent in their hotels. I'm hopeful that this may change. The responsive general manager from Geneva said that they may include it on the agenda for their annual conference. Let's hope this will start the ball rolling.

I can't remember if I've stayed anywhere belonging to the Rezidor Hotel Group. But I did chair a discussion on greening hotels at the the Best of Britain Travel Trade Forum in March, where Rezidor's business manager, Alexandra Hammond, talked about what they're doing. The hotel chain has won a number of environmental awards having significantly reduced energy, water and waste from their hotels. Although, Alexandra did admit to having those terrible toasters that are left on all the time.

The other two hotels at the conference were the Bedruthan Steps, a large family hotel in Cornwall and Strattons, a boutique hotel in Norfolk. They were both full of ideas and initiatives although I felt that Bedruthan was a little reticent in promoting their responsible approach to customers.

Hotels are huge energy and water users - and produce a lot of waste. This means that there's lots of potential for savings. I'm disappointed that to date environmental measures in most hotels are largely tokenistic - the insincere notices about towels - when they should be tackling their impacts across the board. That means laundry, lighting, soaps and kitchen waste to name just a few.

Environmental issues have become mainstream for most of the businesses I work with. My concern is that for the hospitality industry it's still niche. This has to change.

Rant about disposable napkins

2009-04-28T14:25:00.005+01:00

"Do you ever find it annoying when you're given wads of napkins and bags you don't need?". I was amazed to find this statement on Pret a Manger's website. The answer is 'yes - very annoying'.

The reason for my surprise was because I think that Pret is once of the worst culprits of napkin mania. And I experienced it only last week. I ordered 'one capuccino please, with no napkin and no lid'. The man serving me was a bit hesitant about the request for no lid - but unlike the train catering trolley people he didn't try and insist. And he didn't give me a napkin.

But the chap serving the girl next to me was another matter. He shoved a bundle of napkins on her tray - at least four. And she was only buying a chocolate muffin and a drink. Before I realised what was happening, I exclaimed - "Why are you giving out so many napkins - she only needs one." He looked a bit startled and said that the company policy was to give out one napkin for each product bought. Of course that's nonsense - and I told him so.

Having explained that Pret a Manger had an environmental policy and that he should be reducing waste I handed him back the excess napkins - checking with the girl that she didn't actually want them. I'm not sure she would have said, even if she did, because she looked a little nervous.

I should point out that I don't generally leap in on behalf of complete strangers, although my family are very familiar with my over-the-top reaction to disposable napkins. I've taken to carrying around a small cotton pouch in my bag with unused napkins I've collected. This means I encourage anyone I'm with to send back napkins when we're eating out - and use mine, if necessary.

OK, so this might seem a bit eccentric. Some of my friends have taken to sharing their napkin by tearing it in two to demonstate their frugality!

It's by no means the most serious issue on the planet. But I think that disposable napkins are truly symbolic of our wasteful society. They're served in abundance - under bread rolls, with bottled water, wads with your sandwich - they're often unused and they're left lying around where they're not wanted (see photo I took at Waterloo station). And it's almost impossible to eat out without being given one - even when you're as vigilant as I am...

I'm not suggesting that you should never wipe your hands or your face after eating. But why not restrict your napkin useage to when you really need one? And don't be mislead into thinking it's alright if they're 'environmentally friendly'. Even if they're made from recycled paper they're wasteful - and we'd be better off without them...

Off to Kenya and street lights closer to home

2009-03-05T09:50:00.011Z

Denuded landscape near Mombasa

Sustainable agriculture training plot near Mombasa

The offending street light on Coker Hill

Rural view from my house

Me - clearing the drive of snow

Another morning digging ourselves out of the drive. As I was heaving large mounds of snow into the bank I was thinking about where I'll be in a couple of days time. I'm off to Kenya tomorrow.

I'm heading straight to Mombasa, from where I only have a short drive North to my destination. The purpose of the trip is to go and see how much progress has been made by a charity I co-founded in 2002 - Haller. Louise Piper, who really got the organisation going and has run it ever since, was inspired by the work of Dr Rene Haller. Rene suggested that she get in touch with me and it started from there. We really wanted to replicate Rene, but failing that decided that we wanted to keep his legacy going way into the future.

Rene's approached, which we've christened 'The Haller Way' is to use eco-system thinking. He's rehabilitated large areas of land destroyed by quarrying for cement and taken it from a barren landscape to a lush and fertile forest. Even more impressive is the fact that he's managed to create over 50 different business enterprises, employ hundreds of local people and demonstrate that saving the environment can go hand in hand with sustainable and thriving communities.

The brilliant thing about Haller is that we've been able to do so much with relatively little funds. Money invested in Kenya goes a lot further than in the UK - and we've got people and projects already working on the ground. To date, we've managed to set up an environmental education centre, run training programmes on sustainable agriculture, build dams and operate a mobile medical clinic, amongst other things.

It will be really exciting to see how these projects have progressed - the last time I was there they were in their infancy. I saw the plans for the education centre but there wasn't yet any sign of it emerging from the ground.

Back to Coker Hill in Somerset, where I live. I've just been sent a letter telling me that one of other residents on the ridge is asking for street lighting. We live in a rural area with spectacular views over the countryside and they want to pollute it with a horrible haze destroying the clear night skies we currently enjoy. I've alreay written a blog entitled 'Street Light Rant', so no-one will be surprised to hear that I'm less than keen on the idea!

There's one street light close to my house (see photo above) and it shines in my bedroom window. Far from introducing more, we should be getting rid of the one that's already there. These concerns may be far from my mind when I'm in Kenya but I hope that I won't be alone in opposing them, when I return.

Some reasons why this should not be permitted:

- Surbabanisation: Coker Hill is a rural area and should not be surburbanised.
- Light pollution: Street lights block out the night sky
- Climate change: We should be cutting back on energy use (and waste) rather than adding more
- Unnecessary: If people are concerned about getting to their properties they should get torches or failing that install movement sensitive lights that only come on when needed.
- Public money: Waste of public money

Shopping Trauma

2009-02-18T19:25:00.007Z

I don't really like shopping - particularly when it entails actually going out of the house. I do most of my shopping on the internet. Earlier this week, I went into Yeovil for a few things. It made me even more committed to purchasing with my 'mouse'.

First on my list was an energy-efficient, decorative light-bulb, with equivalent light to a 100 watt incandescent bulb. Given that new legislation has rather controversially banned the sale of ordinary 100 watt bulbs, buying a compact fluorescent (CFL) version should have been easy. At Toolstation they looked baffled. The chapped flipped through the catalogue to discover that they only sold 60 watt equivalents. B&Q were no better.

A quick look on the web at Energy Saving World and I find what I want in seconds.

B&Q have been leaders in environmental policy for some time. I've sat on a government committee with Alan Knight who used to be their Environment Manager, so I'm quite familiar with it. But going into the shop I didn't see any evidence of this. Furthermore, I bought a garbage pail from them about 10 days ago. The first time it was emptied it broke - the bucket appeared to be brittle and got a hole in it.

On this ill-fated shopping expedition, I forgot to bring the bucket for evidence. Even though I'd telephoned in advance, they said I had to get it before they could help me further. But what really horrified me was the girl behind the customer service counter. She said that if I brought the bucket back they'd replace it with one from another bin - and then just chuck that bin away! When I challenged her about this rather wasteful approach, she said that actually, they'd probably sell the bin without the bucket at a discount price. The bin was very cheap to start with and probably imported from China so I can understand why they might take this approach but it still made me uncomfortable.

Worse was the girl's attitude to food waste. She said she put all hers in a plastic bag and threw it in with the main rubbish. I explained to her that in South Somerset there's a very good scheme for collecting food waste (weekly) if you put it in a brown bucket. She wrinkled up her nose in distaste and said that it might attract maggots. And she admitted she threw away masses too! Oh dear...

I'd also bought in some cardboard to take to the Scrapstore but by the time I got there they were closed. However, I did manage to get to the main recycling centre.

Wondered why the can bank wasn't there. The chap explained that there were so many TVs and related equipment being chucked away that they had run out of 'cages'. Digitilisation is coming....

On the way home I saw a huge flock of starlings circling and swooping. They almost made up for the shopping trauma...

Snow crash

2009-02-06T18:21:00.005Z

I would have abandoned the idea of school if I hadn't run out of oil. I've been lasting a year on one tank - and I lasted a bit too long. Of course it ran out over the weekend before the snow hit.

Actually the house wasn't that much colder than normal. During the day I only have the heating on in my office anyway. But I really missed not having a hot bath (I generally share the bath water with the children!).

We took nearly half an hour clearing the drive. It was incredibly icy - but very beautiful. The lane wasn't any better. My neighbouring farmer very kindly rescued us. Headed down hill thinking it was the better route.

One of my sons then declared that the drama was over but it wasn't. We were in first or second gear going very slowly when I lost control of the car. It just slipped and started gathering speed. So I steered into the hedge. The car teetered on the brink of turning over but settled. We were shaken and stirred but not hurt.

Luckily there was a car behind. We were rescued for the second time that day. The chap inside was another neighbour and he had some friends with a tractor nearby. They pulled us both out of trouble - and we finally got to school.

Ironically the other highlight of my week has been the launch of a campaign called Chilling Facts, which I've been involved in (see blog below). The Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) launched their survey ranking UK supermarkets on the global warming impacts of their refrigeration systems. The issue was covered by Radio 4's Costing the Earth, amongst others, and we've already seen some response from the supermarkets. If you haven't already sent a letter encouraging them to do more - click here.

But I wondered if the chilling message about global warming might be getting lost amongst all the news about local cooling.

Chilling facts about supermarket refrigeration

2009-02-02T12:35:00.004Z

I've been working with the Environmental Investigation Agency on a campaign to highlight the climate change impacts of supermarket refrigeration. The HFC cooling gases used have a global warming impact that is about 4,000 times worse than CO2, so this is a huge issue.

Here's an article that I've written on the results of the supermarket survey. The issue is being covered in BBC Radio 4's Costing the Earth - Totally Uncool.

Article:

Waitrose was the worst of the main supermarkets in a global warming survey announced this week.

The Chilling Facts survey ranked the supermarkets according to what they have done to reduce the climate-change impact of their refrigeration.

Carried out by the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) last summer, the survey put M&S top of the league, followed by Tesco, although Tesco is the biggest overall contributor to global warming through their refrigeration, because of their size.

The cooling gases used in supermarket refrigeration can account for as much as 30% of their carbon footprint. They’re many thousands times more powerful than CO2 in terms of their global warming impact. But it’s not only technically feasible for supermarkets to switch to climate-friendly gases, it would actually be cheaper if more of this type of equipment was made – although replacing fridges and freezers ahead of time will add to costs.

Another obstacle has been that very few refrigeration engineers have been trained to work with the climate-friendly cooling gases. M&S and Tesco have invested in training to overcome this problem.

Fionnuala Walravens from EIA said that she felt the survey results were ‘hugely disappointing’. She said that “supermarkets know that their refrigeration chemicals are a major contributor to climate change, but they’re not doing much to address this problem.”

In the UK supermarkets are the biggest source of global warming emissions from climate-damaging cooling gases, which are also used in air conditioning systems. In 2005 emissions from this source was equivalent to 2 million tonnes of CO2, which would be the same as for flying a plane from London to New York over 2.5 million times.

Asda and Co-op got points for energy efficiency but they had problems with leakages. Sainsbury too scored for energy efficiency but overall their carbon footprint was still increasing.

Morrisons was lagging because they refused to participate in the survey and the response from Waitrose was felt to be apathetic.

Iceland managed to score minus one because they had gone back on a commitment made in 1999. Just ahead of them is Lidl with zero points because no information could be found on how it has responded to this issue and it failed to participate. Aldi managed to score one point because of work they’ve done in Germany on climate-friendly refrigeration.

The Chilling Facts campaign has been set up to get public attention focused on supermarket refrigeration. EIA believe that this will force the switch to climate-friendly cooling gases. They plan to repeat the survey annually, so that the supermarkets can show what improvements they’ve made.

CHILLING FACTS RANKING

M&S 42/100
Tesco 32/100
Asda 24/100
Co-op 23/100
Sainsbury 20/100
Morrisons 17/100
Waitrose 12/100
Aldi 1/100
Lidl 0/100
Iceland -1 / 100

See article in Scotsman - in particular the comments!

Here's a link to coverage in the Telegraph (2feb09)

Radio 4's Costing the Earth - Totally Uncool (2feb09)

Guardian article (2feb09) Supermarkets fingered for refrigeration greenhouse gases - A chilling wake-up call has been issued about the global warming potential of hydrofluorocarbons

An Inconvenient blog (2feb09)

Chilling Facts website

Plugs, insurance, credit crunch, beetles and lunch

2009-01-28T17:09:00.009Z

Konstam Restaurant, near Kings Cross

Michael Pawlyn fom Exploration Architecture, with his Brompton bike

Close up of the plug chains at Konstam Restaurant

Last week was busy. I flew from meeting to meeting. Not literally I hasten to add - they were mostly in London.

I started with a meeting about insurance - I'm not a great fan of the industry. They're so inefficient and bureaucratic. Talk about excessive paper production.

I was talking to Adam Clutterbuck. He's looking at how to reduce claims for the insurance industry by investing in preventative measures. Wouldn't it be better for houses to be protected from flooding rather than sending in huge bills for ruined carpets and damaged property? This would save money for the insurance companies, hassle for householders and environmental impacts too....

From there I went on the Chair a meeting of the Food Ethics Council. Attendees included representatives from McDonalds, Unilever and Weetabix. And we were talking about whether the credit crunch was going to reduce consumption - and get people looking for better value products or whether they'd just buy cheaper goods.

Clearly, none of us are going to stop eating. So the debate for the food sector is a bit different than for other industries. An early indicator of the crunch affecting food seems to have been in the plummeting sales of organic produce. The general view, however, was that pressures on land and water were going to have an even more significant impact on food than the world economy. Either way it seems we're going to have to tighten our belts.

My first meeting the next day was about wind power. I'm a big fan of wind - apart from anything else I like seeing the whirling turbines. And I'm interested in how polarised opinion is on the issue.

Lunch was at a restaurant called Konstam, near Kings Cross. It was amazing. Suspended from the ceiling were displays made from plug chains - see photo. And the menu was equally original. It's all sourced from within the M25. I had pigeon and some rather interesting vegetarian dish.

Was being taken to lunch by Michael Pawlyn, founder of Exploration Architecture - he used to work at Grimshaws and was one of the architects involved in the Eden Project. His approach is to take ideas from nature and apply them to buildings and design. I particularly love the Water Theatre combined with a de-salination plant that was inspired by the Namibian fog-basking beetle.

Next stop was London Bridge - the offices of Blue Rubicon. They work with British Gas on Generation Green a schools and community plan encouraging green behaviour - and have asked me to work with them on this.

Down to Woking in the evening to watch the Vagina Monologues. Anthea Turner was one of the three women on stage talking about vaginas in both comical and tragic turns. It was quite a revelation. The man I went with was out-numbered by about 100 to 1 - but I thought it was much more fun to go with a date!

Had a lunch meeting the following day at SustainAbility, the company I set up with John Elkington, in 1987. It was rather shocking to discover that I hardly knew anyone there - and hadn't worked with any of those I did know.

A short walk from their to Chancery Lane, my next meeting was in the offices of London Remade. It had been organised by Kit Strange from the Resources Recovery Forum, to discuss innovative solutions for waste.

Fortunately for me, Kit was coming to the Rushlight Awards black tie dinner event in the evening. He let me come and change at the Royal Society of Arts (RSA) and share a taxi. I had been a judge for the overall winner of this renewable energy awards scheme that's in its second year. Novacem, a company developing a cement that actually locks up CO2 rather than releases it, won the main prize. The cement industry is close to the top of the league for its climate change impact, so Novacem's idea could make a huge difference.

The following morning, I was relieved to be heading back home. Although I have lots to do in the office it's less tiring than being out and about.

Bee in my bonnet about fuel efficiency

2009-01-19T16:02:00.004Z

I’ve got a bit of a bee in my bonnet about the fuel efficiency of cars. I can’t understand why they’re not a whole lot better than they are.

With this in mind, I agreed to try out a BMW 118d. The manufacturers told me that it did 62.8 mpg. Given the size of the car – 3-door hatchback – this didn’t bowl me over but it sounded respectable.

What I liked best about it was the gizmo inside telling me how many miles to the gallon I had managed on the journeys I took. I re-set it at the beginning of most trips and kept tabs on how I was doing. My sons and I were particularly amused at managing to get 99mpg out of the car when going down the hill on the way to school.

But most of the time we were disappointed. I didn’t manage anywhere near 62.8 mpg on any journey I took – either long or short. The average was between 40-50mpg. I managed a bit more than that on a couple of long journeys. Perhaps if I’d gone 100 miles along a motorway at 50 mph, the efficiency would have soared. But for tootling around the countryside, nowhere near.

Apparently you can improve the efficiency of your car by up to 25% by driving more carefully. That means not revving the engine excessively and not accelerating or decelerating too much. I’m quite careful about this and am rather proud to get an average of about 50mpg from my Audi A3, so I don’t thing this was the problem.

Going back to BMW. The good thing is that they’re beginning to recognise that people do want low emission cars. And they’ve obviously been focused on making changes to their vehicles. In fact a survey of the top 14 car manufacturers (Transport and Environment – T&E – 2008) shows that between 2006 and 2007 BMW have improved the fuel efficiency of their cars by four times the average of other car manufacturers.

That sounds pretty good until you realise that BMW were starting from a pretty low level of efficiency. In both 2006 and 2007 their average emissions were the second worst amongst the manufacturers in the survey.

I’ve been told that I’m quite a hard task-master when it comes to judging these things. But I’m baffled by the car industry’s approach to reducing emissions. If it’s technically feasible to get 60-70mph from a medium-size car, why aren’t zillions of small cars being produced that will do 80-90mph – or even more?

Cost is the biggest driver for change in relation to efficiency – but BMW say that about a fifth of people consider the carbon footprint to be a key factor. And a huge percentage – 70% - say that the Government should be offering financial incentives for driving more efficient cars.

My children told me that I shouldn’t say anything horrid about the car we were loaned because they wanted me to try out another one – perhaps a bit bigger. But I’m afraid that I’ve had to disappoint them. Maybe another manufacturer will loan me a car when they’re certain it will exceed 70mpg down the lanes of Somerset.

Christmas tree alternative!

2008-12-20T18:06:00.005Z

Monty by our Leylandii Christmas tree...

I got an email asking me whether I thought an artificial Christmas tree or a natural one would be the greenest option. I said that I thought an artificial one - made from plastic - would be better environmentally, if you re-used it year after year. But I've never gone that route. (I've now discovered that a plastic one only wins out if it's used for 20 years or more - and that most people only use them for 6!)

Up to now my best year has been with a tree that I re-planted in the garden. But not all of us have the space for this on an annual basis.

If you are going for a Christmas tree you should certainly recycle it afterwards. Most local authorities now have facilities for doing this. But you need to get round to disposing of it pretty soon after decorations come down or you miss the boat. I have to admit that I've had trees shedding their needles on my compost heap well into the New Year.

But this year is different. I was wondering if I could avoid having a tree altogether. My three boys are aged 14, 12 and 10. They had other ideas. So I suggested to my eldest son that he should take the others into the garden and get some twigs and things and make their own Christmas tree.

My vision was for a twiggy sculpture draped with Christmas decorations. But they did better than that.

We have a rather horrid Leylandi hedge that's grown out of control. My neighbouring farmer has promised to cut it in February, so we can rediscover the view. Meanwhile, the boys have lopped off a couple of tops and tied them together. They now stand decorated in the corner and look pretty much like any other Christmas tree.

I think this is the greenest Christmas tree option of all....but I'll have to decide how to recycle it at the end....

Yo Sushi is Wasteful

2008-12-20T16:39:00.004Z

It’s a shame there’s not a Yo Sushi at Waterloo because that’s my regular train station and I’m a fan. If I’m going through Paddington I often perch on one of their stools and help myself to something exciting from the conveyor belt – and at airports too.

If you’re interested, it’s not too difficult to find out that Yo Sushi have a policy on the sustainable sourcing of their fish. They don’t sell bluefin tuna, which is one of the most endangered species on the planet but they admit that this is partly due to its stratospheric price tag.

There’s plenty of yellow fin tuna though. Apparently most of it comes from the Maldives and Sri Lanka, where the fishing methods are more sustainable than in other parts of the world. Yo Sushi’s fish suppliers all follow recommendations from the Marine Stewardship Council about which fish is sustainable and which should be avoided.

Their nutritional guidelines seem pretty good too. Raw fish and rice are healthy foods and not very fattening. If you want to check there's a little table at the back of their menu booklet, telling you how much fat, sugar and salt is in their food.

And I discovered that their policy on freshness and hygiene was rigorously enforced, as you’d expect. Staff have to change their plastic gloves, wash their hands and throw away food that’s been on the conveyor belt for too long. Every dish is given a time stamp. Once that expires food gets tipped into the rubbish containers. Some dishes are only given an hour, fish and rice generally get two and salads three hours.

And that’s what made me wonder about how much food was wasted. A lot, it turns out. I asked the chap behind the counter what proportion of food he thought was chucked. He said it could be as much as a third. Yikes! More is apparently thrown away at off-peak times because the conveyor belts must be kept stocked but less is eaten.

I’d noticed before how much packaging there was. What I hadn’t noticed was that none of it was recycled – all the food and other rubbish was thrown into the same bin.

It’s all very well sourcing your fish sustainably but if huge quantities of it end up in the bin that’s not sustainable at all. And I have to admit that I thought the staff training on eco-issues could be improved. I asked an employee, who’d been working at Yo Sushi for 15 years about the sustainable fish policy. He didn’t know what ‘sustainable’ meant and told me instead about how fresh the food was.

Yo Sushi needs to go much further than just ticking the box about their fish suppliers. It should audit its systems to minimise waste, separate what it throws away and train staff on environmental issues that are relevant to the business.

The carbon impact of wasting food is huge – even worse it it’s fish or meat, so fast-food chains should make this a priority issue. I might be an unusual customer in some respects but I suspect that I wouldn’t be the only one interested to hear what they’re doing on this front. I’d also like to know if they’ve looked at other issues like air freighting food and energy efficiency. I couldn’t find anything on their web-site, so I suspect not.

My final verdict on Yo Sushi? Thumbs up for healthy food but thumbs down for a healthy planet.

Originally written for the Food Ethics Council (www.foodethicscouncil.org) magazine by Julia Hailes who is a member.

Wasting heat through open doors

2008-11-26T09:51:00.002Z

This week I had a meeting with the Carbon Trust, a government-funded organisation that helps businesses move towards a low carbon economy. They offer advice on saving energy, so I thought it was rather ironic that the doors of the large office block where I went were wide open – letting the heat out and the cold in................................

This is not just a problem for office blocks - shops often have open doors to 'welcome' customers, my son's school leaves doors open throughout the winter and many public buildings and hotels are over heated so people open the windows to let the heat out............

Read more about this in my article on Telegraph online by clicking here....

Good riddance to US car companies

2008-11-25T12:18:00.004Z

I sat next to a chap from Citicorp Bank for Sunday lunch at a pub last weekend. His company was apparently waiting to hear about the $2o billion cash injection from the US government. But he was more struck by the news about America's car giants and their approach to getting a government bail out.

I could hardly believe my ears. With no shortage of regular flights available, all three CEOs - from Ford, Chrysler and General Motors - chose to fly to Washington in their own company private jet. My banker friend said that news of this profligacy flew around the City - the sheer crassness shocking even high earners.

Apart from the cost of three separate jets at an estimated $20,000 a piece, what about the environmental impact? At the very least, these corporate gluttons could have shared a private jet between them.

To me it was symbolic of the American car industry's whole approach to fuel efficiency. They don't understand it. If every car in America averaged 45mpg, apparently they wouldn't need to import any oil. It's currently 25mpg, which is even less than in China. And Americans travel further than the rest of us too - and own more cars.

With less than 5% of the world's population, Americans own about a third of all cars. I don't want to prop up their car industry - let them go. How are we ever going to reduce greenhouse gas emissions when the whole world is focused on maintaining current consumption habits at the same level as they are today?

Selling less cars, driving less miles and making cars more fuel efficient will all reduce global warming impact. Let's spend the money on better public transport, re-designing cities and tele-commuting.

So I say 'good riddance' to Ford, Chrysler and GM - and let's get rid of their bosses while we're at it....