News from the EAC

The Environmental Audit Committee will hold a one-off oral evidence session with The Rt Hon Hilary Benn MP, Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs on the subject of The Challenge of Climate Change. The meeting will be held on the 4th of December, 2.30pm at The Wilson Room, Portcullis House.

The first evidence session on 2007 Pre-Budget Report and Comprehensive Spending Review will be held on Tuesday the 4th of December in Committee Room 16 at 10.20. Friends of the Earth, WWF and the Green Alliance will all be attending.

Building thousands of homes - not the greenest, but certainly necessary.

Monbiot writes a moving article on why, despite potential environmental implications, Britain needs more housing - but also more efficient use of the properties we already have. Read more.

Anna Shepard asks if companies are making empty promises.

"I have noticed a meteoric rise," writes Anna Shepard in the Guardian, "In the number of press releases that plop into my inbox from Companies Doing Something Green. And yet, when I read them closely, it generally emerges that said company is not doing pioneering pea-green thing, not quite yet, but planning to. In other words, it’s a promise."
And she's right - actions are far more exciting than intentions. That's why I love the fact M&S's plan aims for completion in only 5 years. The government, meanwhile, are looking at 43...

Meanwhile, in an attmept to speed things along, Ethicaldirectory are petitioning the Prime Minister to make Local Councils responsible to collect small businesses waste for re-cycling. To find out more, go here.

Boeing hauled up by ASA

Boeing have been reprimanded by the ASA for an advert which claimed new planes produced "less than 75 grams CO2 per passenger km". Boeing's calculation was incorrectly based on presuming full occupancy of seats, and was therefore judged to be misleading. So be careful with your measurements guys!

Also-rans

SMART cars are entering the US marketplace. Reserve yours now!

And some rather funky design ideas for Apple.

Bag boss terms ban "irrational hysteria"

To bag or not to bag? David Tyson, Chief Executive, Packaging and Films Association, goes head to head with activists in the Telegraph.

In the reduce, re-use, recycle hierarchy, the plastic bag has a better score than all so-called environmentally-friendly alternatives - provided we keep on re-using it.
Life cycle analyses of paper, as a replacement for plastic bags, show that far greater pollution occurs in their manufacture and transportation across the globe than plastic which is ten times lighter and thinner.
Similar concerns apply to shipping heavy and bulky cotton bags from Asia - and environmentalists should have serious reservations about the working conditions in which they are made.

How long will it take us to get to the bottom of this and similar environmental arguments?

Local warming

The Environmental Audit Committee (EAC) is today launching an inquiry into climate change and local, regional and devolved government.

Organisations and members of the public are invited to comment on the following issues by Jan 3 2008. Get writing!

1. How can central government best support and encourage local authorities, regional government and devolved administrations to take action on mitigation and adaptation, and other climate change related areas like waste and transport? What funding, powers, and structures are required to improve joined up delivery of climate change policy at all levels of government?

2. Is there clarity about the role played by local authorities, regional governments and devolved administrations in tackling climate change? How can their actions be coordinated and monitored? How can the accountability and transparency of the response at a local level be improved? How effective has the Nottingham Declaration process been?

3. What, if anything, needs to be changed in the framework governing the actions of devolved administrations, regional government and local authorities? For example, does there need to be a more explicit reference to climate change in the local government performance framework and will the new performance indicators on climate change be enough to stimulate action?

4. To what extent should there be disaggregated targets for different levels of government? How should independent targets, for example Scotland will set its own emissions target for 2050 (80% reduction rather than UK target of 60%) and the Greater London Authority has committed itself to making a 60% cut by 2030, fit together with national carbon targets and budgets? How can Government monitoring and forecasting of emissions be improved so as to disaggregate emissions, and the impact of carbon reduction policies, in different regions and nations?

5. How advanced and co-ordinated are local, regional and national programmes of adaptation to climate change? What support is there for adaptation? How vulnerable to climate change are local authorities, regional government and devolved administrations?

6. How should the Committee on Climate Change reflect the interests and needs of the different levels of government across the UK?

7. What are the barriers to greater local or regional action? Do the different levels of government have sufficient powers to take action? What changes in policy are needed to support action at a local level? What policies are working well?

8. What impact will the new Planning Policy Statement on climate change have on emissions reductions and work on adaptation? How are the so called ‘Merton rules’ affected? How might other planning guidance be changed to reduce emissions?

9. Are local authorities meeting their duty to enforce building regulations in relation to environmental measures? Does the enforcement regime discourage non-compliance?

10. What good practice is there to be shared? How is best practice shared and does central government support for sharing best practice work? What role should UK Climate Impacts Programme, IDeA, Salix Finance, the Carbon Trust and Energy Savings Trust play in providing support?

Driving green forward

The UK motorsport industry today called for a more sophisticated approach to environmentally friendly transport. Motorsport Development UK commissioned research which shows that the industry is not just focusing on alternative fuels development, but is approaching energy efficiency and emission reduction in an holistic way.

Elsewhere in the industry, Honda has seen the success of the Insight Formula 1000 petrol electric hybrid rally car developed by Oaktec, and is now working with the company developing a competition version of their Civic hybrid car. Industry innovations include a biodegradable sports car (Warwick University), hybrid flywheel technology (developed by Flybrid Systems, to be used in an F1 car from 2009), and a hydrogen sports car (Hertfordshire University).

Google gets greener

"Renewable Energy Cheaper Than Coal" is the title of Google's new green initiative. Larry Pa comments in BrandRepublic:

Our goal is to produce one gigawatt of renewable energy capacity that is cheaper than coal. We are optimistic this can be done in years, not decades.

Google has already announced its intention to become carbon neutral, btu I think this is a far more interesting step.

UN talks IT and climate change

The UN heard yesterday that information and communication technologies are largely contributing to climate change but also hold the key to tackling it. Alexander Karsner, United States Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, spoke at the outset of a two-day meeting on the impact of ICT on climate change, and called for “very proactive problem-solving through the deployment of technology,” and commented that “markets alone do not make global strategies.”

Xerox Corporation Environment Vice-President Patricia Calkins also spoke. She told the nference that the paper industry was the fourth largest user of fossil fuels, and nearly half of all office paper became waste within a day.

Office solutions? Recycle paper into scrap notebooks or use a scrap printer. Sent printer defaults to double-sided. Are you buying your paper recycled? Do you use online rather than hard copy newspapers? Defniitely a couple of things to think about.

...And in the business world

Clifford Chance have released a report on climate change in the workplace, which amongst other lovely stats claims that 81% of employees are in favour of further regulation to enforce workplace change.

Toshiba has launched an offsetting scheme for laptops! For a shiny £1.18, you can 'negate' the CO2 released during your machine's production.

Greenbang questions why it's relatively low emitters such as the financial sector who're taking the thought leadership position on climate change.

The home front.

Greenpeace are a tad unhappy about Brown's nuclear plans. Responding to his CBI speech, John Sauven says:
"The prime minister last week outlined plans to generate twenty per cent of our energy from renewable sources, now just one week later we are back to the old mantra of nuclear power. Declarations like this threaten to strangle the renewables industry before it can even get close to that 2020 target."

Meanwhile, Oxford University's Environmental Change Institute has released a report claiming that homes could make emissions cuts of up to 80%. Amongst other measures, financial support to make changes and appropriate locating of new homes should help achieve this, reports the BBC. The Telegraph reports on a CBI report which claims getting the country back on track for its 2050 commitments could cost just £100 per household. However, nuclear power plays a significant role in this estimation.

Renewables take off

GE has reinforced its capability to meet the growing global demand for wind turbines, signing an agreement with one of the leading wind turbine blade suppliers, TPI Composites. A GE spokesman, somewhat amusingly, claims these are "exciting times in the wind industry". I don't know why I find that amusing, but I do!

BusinessGreen reports on the launch of the UK's first bioethanol plant in Norfolk last week.

HP is buying renewable in Ireland:
HP today announced relationships with two renewable energy providers, Airtricity in Ireland and SunPower Corp. in the United States, as part of the company’s goal to reduce its energy use by 20 percent by the end of 2010.The contract with Airtricty will ensure that nearly 90 percent of HP’s energy use in Ireland is renewable, exceeding the company’s 2007 target for carbon emission reductions.

UN releases research

The UN's Human Development report warns today that we could be less than 10 years from ecological disaster, and it will be the world's poor who are hardest hit in the even of warming.

The future of technology?

The Independent reports on a potential new discovery to be announced shortly. And for a mere 25000, you could attend...

Al Gore is to be the star turn at a dinner where guests have paid at least £1,000 a head, and some will have parted with £50,000 for their share of the Aberdeen Angus steak and pink champagne, under the high ornate ceilings of London's Royal Courts of Justice. The combined wealth of the diners has been estimated at £100bn. But the most unusual aspect of the evening is not the price of the tickets but the nature of the floor show. In place of professional performers, the guests will be regaled by people who are not always thought of as entertainers, though some think they are all mad. They are inventive British boffins who care about climate change.
They are hoping that the showcase dinner will knock years off the time it can take for industry to see the mass marketing potential of a new discovery. And the one that will be shown to Mr Gore and fellow guests is highly marketable and could revolutionise the market in clean technology, according to the founder of the British Inventors' Society, Kane Kramer.

Best Green Companies Award - would your clients qualify?

The Sunday Times today announces that it is launching the Best Green Companies Awards to encourage, acknowledge and publicise businesses and other organisations, which are striving to improve their environmental performance.
At a time when many people are confused by a plethora of green messages and exaggerated claims, The Sunday Times recognises that there is a widespread desire for a stamp of credibility to mark those companies that are genuinely striving to improve their environmental performance.
Companies are invited to take part in the Best Green Companies survey which involves both employers and employees measuring their organisation’s approach to environmental management.
The methodology has been co-created with Bureau Veritas, the environmental performance specialists, and the survey will be co-ordinated by Munro Global, the independent research-focused marketing services group.
The employers’ section measures key performance indicators including standard core areas such as energy use and recycling, and also allows organisations to describe their environmental objectives and efforts to increase awareness of green issues in the workplace. The employees’ section seeks to understand the extent to which management strategies are embedded in, understood and acted on, throughout the organization.
Anyone can nominate their company. All they need to do is to register at www.timesonline.co.uk/bestgreencompanies before February 29, 2008 and complete the survey in the relevant category. The entries will then be assessed by environmental performance specialists and the winners will be announced at an awards ceremony and in a Green List supplement to be published with The Sunday Times in May 2008.
Richard Caseby, Managing Editor, The Sunday Times said: “There is no greater challenge facing UK companies today. We believe that if organisations have taken key steps to address their impact on the environment then they should be recognised and celebrated. The Sunday Times passionately supports good employer practice and our Green List seeks to build on this.”
The Best Green Companies awards follow the success of the prestigious Sunday Times Best Companies to Work For awards which celebrate the best practices in employment.

Travel light

The UN Secretary General has welcomed the decision by the World Tourism Organization’s General Assembly to focus on climate change. One of the themes for their next conference is to be adapting to the impact of climate change, and limiting tourism's own contribution to greenhouse-gas emissions.

Blindingly obvious

...but still a fantastic insight. Students at Blakewater college have designed window blinds which generate solar power as part of Comet's "Gren Gadget of the Future" challenge.

Need some more green goodies?

Well, get along to Branch. There's a 20% sale on all their yummy products today. See Inhabitat for details.

Airing your (clean) laundry in public

Hmmm... Not sure it's the best ad I've ever seen...