Green Futures

Bird-spotters convert to wind power

Roger East — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 17:12:18 +0100

Turbine turned on at RSPB showcase wildlife centre

The new wind turbine at Rainham Marshes could have special significance in the story of UK renewables. It’s nothing unusual in technical terms, nor in scale – it’s only a little 15kW job, just enough o help power a visitor centre. The point is that it’s a flagship visitor centre of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB). As such, it’s symbolically signalling that bird protection and wind power don’t belong in opposing camps.

Anti-turbine campaigners tend to make great play of the ‘bird kill’ card, citing the RSPB’s all-too-frequent objections to wind farms in the past. The Rainham turbine could do more to put this in perspective than any number of carefully weighed RSPB statements about case-by-case evaluation.

What we’re really witnessing is a change in emphasis – birders will still argue for sensitive siting, but they’re swinging their weight behind the common cause of combating climate change. Hence the RSPB’s April study of the case for wind power, which urges the Government to press ahead with more land-based wind farms while proposing a wildlife sensitivity map to point developers in the right direction.

Reinforcing the point, RSPB’s John Clare cries “hooray for the [London] Array”, now that the 175-turbine wind scheme in the Thames Estuary is back on track, thanks to funding from DONG Energy, Masdar and E.ON. Far from denouncing it as a threat to a colony of redthroated divers, he praises the agreement to phase the development in order to minimise disruption for the birds. “We badly need schemes like the London Array,” he says. “Above all, we need them to show how we can have clean power and wildlife. There has to be a world left worth saving, after all.” – Roger East

Hydrogen city car hits 300mpg and 30g/km CO2

GF assistant — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 16:42:38 +0100

‘Open source’, locally manufactured fuel cell car designed for sharing

With politicians and carmakers waxing lyrical about electric vehicles, the squat hydrogen fuel cell car with a top speed of 50mph introduced by start-up Riversimple in June is definitely bucking prevailing trends.

But what the Urban lacks in pzazz, it makes up in green credentials. Thanks to its super-light carbon composite body (just 350kg), fuel efficiency reaches an impressive 300mpg. It gives off no exhaust pipe emissions, and, says Riversimple, it’s also a ‘lower carbon’ car than the all-electric G-Wiz. The carbon emissions resulting from generating the electricity used to produce its hydrogen fuel work out, per kilometre, as half as much as those emitted in producing the power for the G-Wiz (30g/km as opposed to over 60g/km).

Riversimple’s lead engineer, former racing car driver Hugo Spowers, describes it as a first attempt at a “sustainable car” in the widest sense. That’s why Urban’s whole design and manufacturing process looks very different to your average car.

Firstly, it’s ‘open source’, which means design blueprints will be freely available for others to improve on. Secondly, the Urban won’t be sold outright, but leased to car sharing companies, local councils and individuals. ‘Sharing’ features, such as card-key door locks, are central to the design. And Spowers hopes to add a swappable dashboard so that different drivers can customise the same car with their own settings and driving stats. He reckons each car will have a 16-year life span, four times the average ‘leasing expectancy’.

Manufacturing will also be local and fairly small-scale. If Spowers is successful in finding the next $32 million in investment, he hopes to establish a site producing around 5,000 cars a year – possibly in Oxford.

Why hydrogen, you might ask. The fuel is not yet produced on a large scale without electricity from fossil fuels, nor is there existing infrastructure. “Hydrogen, in my opinion, is a massively better option [than electric batteries] for a city car,” responds Spowers. He explains that the Urban is not a fuel cell car in the same way as Honda’s Clarity FCX, which replaces a powerful internal combustion engine with a large (and expensive) fuel cell. Instead, it uses a small, 6kW fuel cell – perfectly adequate for the modest flow of power to the four wheelbased electric motors – and a bank of ultracapacitors, charged by a combination of the fuel cell and regenerative braking, to deliver brief bursts of high power for acceleration.

Spowers said Urban’s efficiency and range (200 miles compared with G-Wiz’s 75) mean drivers need refuel only once a week – so one hydrogen station could service scores of cars.

But will drivers be interested in sharing cars? Spowers thinks the idea of individually owned vehicles may be on its way out, especially if fun-to-drive cars like Urban can provide better city mobility. “We’re definitely taking the long view on this one,” he says. – April Streeter

Solar farm to transform Welsh city's skyline

GF assistant — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 11:05:52 +0100

Newport council outshines UK Government on solar power
Swimming pools, sports centres and schools are being eyed up as sites for a new ‘solar farm’. The Welsh city of Newport plans to pitch large-scale photovoltaic arrays on all public buildings, after a report found “great potential” on the rooftops. One sure target is the Velodrome, which will use power on-site from its 8,500-square-metre roof, while installations on other civic rooftops would feed sunshine back into the grid.

The plan, outlined in Newport Council’s Sustainable Development Proposal, takes its lead from the Moorland Park Community Centre, which won a 50% grant from the Low Carbon Building Programme to install a 2.75kWp system with 14 modules. The array was completed in June last year.

The initial report estimates that each 200W panel will generate 750kWh a year, to be sold back to the contracted supplier (currently EDF) at 10p a unit, generating £75 per year. This would pay back the cost of installation in less than 15 years, and then generate profit over the remaining ten years of the panel’s life.

Newport’s solar skyline is clearly ahead of the game, with the UK warranting only a D grade in a nation-by-nation report on PV progress. The report, by Green Cross International, found “no significant support for solar growth” in the UK – while France, Spain and the US all walked away with Cs, and no others matched A-grade Germany.

Germany currently has the highest capacity in Europe at over 5,000MWp, but Spain is catching up quickly with the fastest rate of improved capacity, according to the EurObservER barometer. The sunny kingdom added 2,600MWp to its PV total last year thanks to a feed-in tariff that proved profitable for large-scale plants. – Anna Simpson

Obama drives up fuel efficiency on cars

GF assistant — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 10:48:34 +0100

Robust new mileage standards for US auto industryFlanked by two unlikely allies – California’s Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and General Motors CEO Fritz Henderson – President Obama has announced groundbreaking vehicle standards that will further cement the greening of the US car industry.

By regulating both miles per gallon and exhaust pollution, the new uniform federal standard links curbs on greenhouse gas emissions with fuel economy standards for the first time in US history.

Covering vehicle model years 2012 to 2016, the legislation will require car makers to achieve an average fuel economy for their fleets of 35.5mpg in 2016 (with 39mpg specified for cars and 30mpg for light trucks). It will replace the current CAFE – Corporate Average Fuel Economy – standard of 27.5mpg for cars and 24mpg for light trucks. According to White House calculations, the four-year programme should result in a saving of about 1.8 billion barrels in oil consumption, and a total reduction in greenhouse gas emissions of approximately 900 million tonnes – the equivalent to taking 3.7 million cars off the road.

The new single standard will replace existing federal and state laws governing both fuel standards and greenhouse gas emissions. Initiating a national vehicle emissions standard also brings to a close the increasingly bitter battle between California and the US vehicle industry over the state’s efforts to impose its own legally binding greenhouse-gas emissions standard. Seventeen other states had said they would follow California’s lead if the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) granted its request for a waiver enabling the state government to act unilaterally. While the EPA has not yet ruled on the waiver request, Obama’s national approach supersedes their decision.

The new standard may be modest in comparison with Europe, but it represents a huge step forward in the US, where motor manufacturers and their lobbyists have successfully squashed previous efforts at improving mileage requirements.

At the White House announcement, industry leaders were enthusiastic. “It launches a new beginning,” said David McCurdy, President of the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers. “The President has succeeded in bringing three regulatory bodies, 15 states, a dozen automakers and many environmental groups to the table.” – Polly Ghazi

Focusing minds: Guy Thompson on the challenge of sustainability

Katie Shaw — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 14:48:50 +0100

Since 1996, Forum for the Future’s Masters in Leadership for Sustainable Development has been training the sustainability leaders of the future. We track the career of a Forum alumnus.

Guy Thompson

Class of: 1997-8

Currently: Executive Director External Affairs, Natural England

Why I chose the Mprof
I had a career in conservation, but at the back of my mind a voice was saying, “I’ve got a degree in politics, I want to see something of the bigger picture”. I’m not a great academic, but this programme brought in thought leaders who’d been there, done that, for us to plunder their intellectual capital. It took my career in a whole new direction.

Things my Masters taught me
It was a crash course in understanding the scale of the challenge. I’d had an idea of sustainable development as this all-encompassing magical fix. By the end of the programme I was in no doubt how far we were from realising the vision. But I also saw how much progressive-minded folk have permeated sectors you wouldn’t expect.

"Build your career around your own values rather than around your perception of what you should do"

Career to date
My dream job was Parliamentary Officer for the RSPB – and I got it. The Masters definitely gave me the edge. I then worked for Forum for the Future as a Policy Adviser, before going to Green Alliance as their Director, where I had the chance to engage with environmental NGOs and politicians at the highest level – even Tony Blair. When I was approached by Natural England to join their executive board, I threw my hat into the ring.

What I plan to do next
This is a time of reflection for me. I’m struck by how far we’ve come and how little we’ve travelled. Here we are at the fag end of New Labour, which has failed to grasp the nettle despite understanding the imperatives around climate change – so my optimism has faded. On the plus side, I’m encouraged that evidence for global warming is focusing minds and bringing bigger actors to the table.

Advice for future leaders
Build your career around your own values rather than around your perception of what you should do, because that’s what drives you and will give you the energy to lead others.

Interview by Anna Simpson.

First UK power plant captures carbon emissions

GF assistant — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 14:07:23 +0100

ScottishPower plant to trial 'clean coal' technology'The UK’s second biggest coal-fired power station made headlines in May as the first in the country to start capturing its carbon dioxide emissions. Or, more accurately, a tiny proportion of them. Yet the project at Longannet, the 40-year-old plant on the Firth of Forth, puts ScottishPower at the forefront of a technology widely seen as crucial for the future of coal – and the climate.

A ‘small-scale replica’ of a full-scale post-combustion carbon capture plant (nevertheless 40 feet long and weighing 30 tonnes) is now running for seven months, recovering CO2 from flue gases. The aim is to test the chemistry of how different amine solutions absorb the CO2, the amount of energy needed to heat the gas-saturated solution to drive off the CO2 and capture it, and how many times the amines can be recycled around this process. Operating on just 1MW of Longannet’s total net capacity of 2.3GW, the technology is processing 1,000 cubic metres of exhaust gas per hour.

While this is carbon capture, it is not quite the much-vaunted ‘carbon capture and storage’ (CCS), as there’s no long-term storage arrangement in place. But ScottishPower hopes to scale the plant up to 300MW and link it with potential North Sea storage sites, if it’s chosen next year for the Government’s commercial-scale CCS demonstration competition.

Since taking charge of the Department of Energy and Climate Change, Ed Miliband has pinned a lot on the UK’s chances of getting CCS to work – both to keep coal (which still accounts for around a third of electricity delivered to the national grid) in the energy mix, and to develop a new green industry with massive export potential.

As well as the competition to deliver a post-combustion technology demo project by 2014 (focussing on the recovery of CO2 from flue gases), he is proposing a levy on electricity suppliers to fund up to three more, which might include pre-combustion methods of carbon capture.

Another suggestion is to set dates for making CCS compulsory – assuming it proves workable. New coal-fired power station projects (such as the two new 800MW units E.ON so controversially wants to build at Kingsnorth) would only be permitted if ‘carbon capture ready’ – ie they have the space to retrofit the equipment for capturing and transporting out the CO2, an identified site for its eventual storage, and a feasible route for getting there.

Miliband has also proposed that any new project must implement CCS on at least 300MW of its net power capacity from day one, and commit to full-scale retrofit of CCS within five years of the technology being technically and commercially viable. This will be a judgment for the Environment Agency, which it is expected to make by 2020 – though the Government accepts it will need to do something else if that day never comes.

Also on the cards is a proposal to set emissions performance standards to improve the efficiency of all (including existing) coal-fired power stations.

A consultation is now under way (until September) on these proposals, and their possible extension to existing coal-fired power stations. Critics, including Greenpeace, fear the outcome could be a fudge that gives coal a long-term future, while CCS remains just an uncertain promise.

A recent report by AEA Group, published alongside the Government’s consultation document, puts a figure of £2-£4 billion a year by 2030 on the Future Value Of Coal Carbon Abatement Technologies To UK Industry. A leading role in this sector could support 30,000-60,000 jobs, it says. That’s no mean prize – and the US, Canada, Australia, Germany, Norway and others may all be chasing it too. – Roger East

Waste heat from computers to warm buildings

Katie Shaw — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 10:20:48 +0100

Telecommunications company aims to hook up London site to nearby homes and offices

Any laptop user will know that even the most casual of Twittering with a computer resting on your knees can get uncomfortably hot – so imagine the vast amount of heat that a massive IT data centre kicks out. Now telecommunications company Telehouse Europe is planning to capture that and pipe it to nearby homes and businesses.

When it opens in 2010, the nine-storey £80 million Telehouse West data centre in London’s Docklands will provide up to 9MW of ‘free heat’ – enough for water and space heating in about 450 local homes.

Telehouse intends to install a heat exchange unit to pump water, warmed by the data centre’s cooling systems, to the perimeter of the site, from where a developer can pipe it on to their own site and use a heat exchanger to warm or cool buildings.

Barratt Homes had shown an interest in using the resource in housing planned for the adjacent site, says Martyn Bishop of WSP UK, the engineering consultancy working with Telehouse on the project, but the development is on hold due to funding difficulties, so the hot water is still up for grabs.

Telehouse isn’t planning to charge for the hot water, but would expect a contribution to an appropriately sized heat exchanger on its own site. “They’re going to get free energy for life, so it’s not an insignificant offer,” he adds.

If the waste heat is used to the full, it should result in an overall annual saving of 1,110 tonnes of CO2 emissions. – Iain Aitch and Hannah Bullock

When floods become fun

Shelley Hannan — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 10:39:09 +0100

It’s time to reassess our difficult relationship with floods. Could we even consider them as a good thing?

Requiring householders to apply for permission before they pave over front gardens might sound like yet another finicky planning hurdle for home improvers. But the law, introduced last autumn, actually marked an important first step in reconnecting people with their local water environment.

Cumulative loss of garden area increases surface run-off and ultimately contributes to flooding in drains and watercourses, explains Bill Finlinson, Associate Director of environmental consultancy Entec UK. “I don’t think the average person has any idea about the implications, on the wider community, of what they are doing,” he says.

At the end of a decade of headline-grabbing flood events, our collective attitude to flood risk remains well behind the times. “We had a fairly flood-free period from the late 1940s until the end of the 1990s, and I think people rather forgot about flooding. During that time a lot of inappropriate development went on – and we’re paying for that now.” The challenge, he argues, is to open people’s minds to different ways of thinking about the subject.

Which is why Entec’s flood specialists recently got together to brainstorm the thorny issue, alongside ecologists, engineers and business strategists. The resulting discussions, which have been pulled together with news, opinion and resources in an open forum, make interesting reading. Ideas include not only how to work with floods to avoid the horror of ruined homes and infrastructure, but how to reconnect people, in a more positive way, with what is a natural phenomenon.

One contributor suggested designing public spaces with cascading pools or fountains that would operate only during times of excess water: “Flood alleviation becomes a treat, a transitory feature that is appreciated while it’s there.” Another points out that “Oxford’s development grew around the historic water meadows. When these flood and freeze in winter, people [would] go ice-skating… The flood was looked forward to.”

“Floods are a natural process,” reminds Finlinson. In essence, they are seasonal fluctuations in water flow that we should allow for. Floodplains are part of a river’s ‘living space’, providing important drainage areas and wildlife habitats.

He’s encouraged that an assumption against new building on flood plains was central to last year’s Pitt Review of the handling of the 2007 floods. The publication’s 92 proposals included closer ties between weather forecasters and flood emergency services, and an end to the humble sandbag.

There’s no sign yet of flood-powered fountains being built around the country, but new projects are at least taking the suggestions on board – and some even include ‘flooding’ and ‘fun’ (or leisure) in the same sentence.

For example, Entec is involved in a scheme in Cornwall to create green corridors on ex-mining land, which would absorb floodwater more effectively than pipes, and double up as nature areas and playing fields. “Most of the time, people would see these corridors as open spaces that they could use for leisure,” Finlinson says. If planners accept the surface water management proposal, drawn up in collaboration with the local authority, future developers would be bound by the scheme.

This mirrors plans for a 120-metre-wide ‘blue belt’ on the flood plain of the River Derwent in Derby, which will protect homes and businesses, and create access to the river. It has been put forward by the Environment Agency as a more sensible solution than simply replacing the river’s ageing flood defences.

Finlinson says there’s no doubt that attitudes towards flooding are changing. “Just five years ago, if you talked to many local authority planners you’d be told that drains were something the drainage department did. Now it’s much higher on their agenda.”

What needs to happen next, he says, is to engage with the public. He’d like to see neighbourhoods prepared for the worst – not just those that have suffered flooding in the past but places where this may be a future challenge. “You need to be honest with people,” Finlinson says. “You have to make them aware of the water courses where they live and the risks involved, and say: ‘Occasionally, there’ll be more water than these drains can take. But we can cope with this – this is manageable.’”

He stresses that the discourse must not revolve only around risks but opportunities too: “We need to think of flooding as something that society can live with – and that can even be a good thing.”
– Julian Rollins

Entec UK is a Forum for the Future partner.

What’s in the tea leaves?

Shelley Hannan — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 15:42:20 +0100

Exports of tea and fresh flowers are key to Kenya’s economy – but can they ever be sustainable?

It’s 2023. Kenya’s population is headed for 60 million, with 100 people disputing each square kilometre of land. It’s not known when the next rain will fall, and exhausted soils mean meagre harvests.

This hard-hitting scenario is one of the tools that tea and flower multinational Finlays has used to plan for a sustainable future. It has committed to an ambitious set of goals to prepare for risks and to maximise opportunities over the next 15 years, by promoting environmental recovery and resilience, and becoming carbon neutral.

Finlays is one of the world’s largest tea-trading companies. It has been working in Kenya since the 1930s – taking advantage of the rainfall in Kericho, 2,000 metres above sea level in the Western Highlands – and now produces over 23 million kg of tea every year in Kenya alone, alongside 92 hectares of flower farms.

But if Finlays is to maintain this level of productivity in the future, it will have to face up to a series of challenges. Kenya is already experiencing water scarcity and struggling with social unrest caused by competition for resources and a growing number of ecological refugees. The Mau Forest used to be the country’s principal watershed, with flow throughout the year, but now there is only water when it rains, limiting the supply for irrigation and hydropower, not to mention drinking water.

“Our business model is particularly vulnerable,” admits Simon Large, Commercial Director of Finlays, “because of our extensive reliance on Kenyan resources – the people, land and water. The eco and social systems we work with are increasingly fragile.”

It was early in 2008, when social tensions escalated into a violent crisis, that Finlays commissioned Forum for the Future to help it develop a strategy with sustainability at its core.

The starting point was a set of compelling scenarios projecting the social, political and ecological challenges of today 15 years into the future. A ‘Walking the tightrope’ scenario envisaged a politically stable Kenya pursuing a free-market and enjoying high economic growth, but struggling to accommodate a mushrooming population with natural resources under ever-increasing strain. In another scenario, ‘Hanging on’, businesses were acting for short-term gain against a backdrop of tribal conflict.

“A company like Finlays can’t afford to underestimate the immediacy of climate change,” said James Goodman, Head of Futures at Forum for the Future, “but their commitment to sustainability was consistent throughout the company. We never felt that our advice was being taken less than seriously.”

Finlays has already begun its journey towards a net zero impact, minimising water waste and actively maintaining the health of the soil. They are also planning to strengthen relationships with the local community by creating more opportunities for employment and developing partnerships with smallholders. No one can foresee the company’s future, but, says Large, “sustainability is now an unchallenged part of it”. – Anna Simpson

Have we tipped the scales for sustainable fish?

Shelley Hannan — Fri, 29 May 2009 13:01:37 +0100

As the Marine Stewardship Council marks its tenth anniversary, have efforts to transform fishing practices from 'boat to plate' finally reached a tipping point into sustainability?

CEO Rupert Howes certainly thinks so. “We’ve reached a tipping point in our efforts to meet the world’s ‘biggest challenge after climate change’,” he says, gearing up for a year of worldwide events, including a Global Sustainability Seafood Lunch.

At the root of the MSC was a beguilingly simple idea: to use the market to reward best fishing practices. The approach was to define a standard for the sustainable management of the world’s fisheries and reward those fisheries that met that standard – for example, by sticking to scientifically agreed limits and reducing ‘bycatch’ (everything that gets fished up alongside what you are specifically trying to catch). Then it would encourage consumers to buy their products, identifiable by the MSC’s logo: ‘the fish with the tick’.

The first fisheries entered MSC assessment in 1999. In the early days, however, few in the industry or the NGOs gave much credence to the proposition of addressing unsustainable fishing practices via a market-based programme. Nor did they believe that the MSC, an independent organisation spawned from a collaboration between WWF, the world’s largest conservation organisation, and industry giant Unilever, would have the muscle to drive it forward.

So what went right? Warming to his ‘tipping point’ theme, Howes tells how sticking to the vision has paid off. In the past three years, he says, “both the number of fisheries in the MSC programme and the number of labelled products have quadrupled”. We’re not just talking tiny niche markets, either, we’re talking 8% to 9% of the global wild edible seafood harvest – that’s over five million tonnes of certified sustainable seafood each year.

The MSC works ‘from boat to plate’ engaging fisheries, processors, retailers and, increasingly, foodservice and restaurants. With more supplies of MSC-certified seafood available, the organisation is now stepping up efforts to raise consumer awareness – hence the worldwide Global Sustainability Seafood Lunch this September [see right].

So far, says Howes, the MSC has attracted a lot of what are generally viewed as the best managed fisheries in the world. Not that it has been plain sailing for all of them to qualify. The South Georgia Patagonian toothfish (a.k.a. Chilean sea bass) fishery, for instance, only won certification after investing in measures ranging from adding observers on boats and banning transhipment of catch from boat to boat, to closing the fishery for part of the year, and weighting their long lines to prevent seabird bycatch.

Now that the MSC is becoming increasingly accepted as a way of ensuring sustainable fishing, Howes is looking forward to casting its net wider, raising awareness with more fisheries – including those in developing countries – and improving their ability to meet MSC standards. Perhaps, too, there will be help from national governments. The Dutch, he notes, have put forward u1 million to fund MSC certification, with the retail sector firmly on board.

As the momentum grows, Howes is excited about what could be achieved in the next ten years. “If we could get 20% of global fisheries in the programme, that could change the terms of trade in seafood forever – where sustainability is at the heart of buyers’ decisions around the world, and can’t be ignored.” – Chris Alden

Ten-year tick list

Fisheries in the MSC programme: 41, producing more than five million tonnes
Under assessment: more than 100 fisheries
At ‘pre-assessment’ stage (still confidential): about 45 more
Number of labelled products: around 2,300
Market spread: 42 countries
Examples in UK market: Birds Eye Omega 3 Fish Fingers, Young’s Smoked Alaska Salmon, Pret a Manger’s MSC Really Wild Salmon sandwich, Sainsbury’s Kids’ Fish Pie

Marine Stewardship Council is a Forum for the Future partner.

Prius-style power for London buses

Shelley Hannan — Fri, 29 May 2009 12:38:08 +0100

Hybrids to cut carbon in the capital

A new generation of hybrid buses are to hit the streets of London, in the first stage of what is expected to be their largest rollout in Europe. The number of these ultra-quiet, low-carbon vehicles is to quadruple to 56 this spring and reach 300 by 2011 – representing just under 4% of the London fleet.

Their diesel-electric motors will cut CO2 emissions by up to 40% – bringing an immediate contribution to Mayor Boris Johnson’s strategy to reduce the capital’s emissions by 60% by 2025. He has already ruled that, by 2012, all new buses entering London’s fleet should be powered by hybrid technology.

Transport for London is using the introduction as a way to put the latest advancements in technology “through their paces”, explains spokeswoman Vicky Morley. It will be monitoring the performance of the different models, manufactured by companies including Volvo, Wrightbus and Optare, to work out which systems are best suited to the capital. “It might be that we need a combination of technologies for routes with few stops, or longer-distance routes in outer boroughs,” she says.

Debuting on route 141 (London Bridge-Palmers Green) is Volvo’s I-SAM (Integrated Starter, Alternator Motor) system, a parallel hybrid design similar to that already available in cars such as the Toyota Prius. The five-litre diesel engine and electric motor are able to run separately or in parallel in the bus, and an electronic unit controls various functions – including the motor, braking, A/C and hydraulics – to get a 25-30% more efficient fuel performance. – April Streeter

Putting the green into green wing

Shelley Hannan — Fri, 29 May 2009 12:22:54 +0100

New NHS strategy aims to lead the way on sustainability

From low-carbon buildings to swapping bottled water for tap, the NHS has published a carbon reduction strategy designed to slash its footprint and meet tough 2020 targets.

At 18 million tonnes CO2 per year, the NHS carbon footprint has increased 40% since 1990. Now the NHS Carbon Reduction Strategy For England sets out plans to cut emissions in stages as follows:

10% by 2015
26% by 2020
80% by 2050.

It promises tight energy efficiency standards and rigorous carbon management, with “regular board-level reviews” to keep it all on track.

“If you focus on energy usage, you’ll only be hitting about 20% of the carbon footprint,” explains Dr Dave Pencheon, Director of the NHS Sustainable Development Unit (SDU).

“So if we’re really going to fulfil our aspiration of being an exemplar sustainable and low-carbon organisation, we need to work across travel, transport, food, procurement and energy.”

Procurement is key: buying goods and services is responsible for nearly 60% of the NHS carbon footprint. Every organisation, says the strategy, “needs to consider their approach to commissioning, sourcing and buying”. This includes considering whether new items are even needed, and looking for reused or recycled options where appropriate.

When it comes to food, says Pencheon, “we know the provision of high-meat diets is carbon intensive and environmentally destructive – and it’s not particularly good for human health to overindulge in high saturated fat”. So this could lead to fewer meat and dairy dishes on the menu, and more sustainably sourced fish.

All new NHS buildings should aim to be ‘low-carbon’ by 2015. While giving no set definition of the term, Pencheon says this would mean “significant measurable reductions” to help meet the Government’s aspiration of zero-carbon status for all public sector buildings by 2018. There will be greater emphasis on designing buildings to encourage sustainable behaviour. “If you work in a hospital and it’s too hot, and there are no building controls around, you simply open a window and waste the energy,” says Pencheon. “So giving people access to thermostats is one example.”

Water, too, “should be managed as a precious resource”, says the paper. The first step, adds Pencheon, is to measure and cost use. Water-saving moves could include tap water (rather than bottled) for onsite meetings, speedy identification of leaks, water efficiency technology and recycling. ‘Scrubbing up’ could get smarter, too: research at two Glasgow hospitals revealed that of two types of tap used for surgical scrubbing – ‘knee on’ and ‘elbow on’ – the former helped save 5.7 litres of hot water, and approximately 80g CO2, per scrub.

There’s a powerful economic incentive for action, says Pencheon: “Even if you’re only saving a few thousand pounds [through reduced energy bills], that’s money that could be going into direct patient care.”

“It’s really good to see the NHS are waking up to this,” says Helen Clarkson, Deputy Director of Forum for the Future. “Making it happen is the real challenge, so we’re working with them to look at delivering on it.” The key, she says, is not to stop at ‘tweaking’ existing practices.

She’s currently working with the NHS SDU, looking at how the healthcare system needs to be adapted to prepare for climate change. And work is under way with the Sustainable Development Commission on a vision for a sustainable healthcare system, as part of the evidence base for the Marmot review of health inequalities commissioned by the Government.

The sheer size of the NHS means that if it does get sustainability sussed, the impact could be huge. “It’s the biggest employer in Europe,” says Clarkson. “If you could persuade everyone who works there to start thinking about sustainability, the impact on awareness levels would be massive.” – Claire Baylis

The future’s made of straw

GF assistant — Fri, 29 May 2009 12:10:47 +0100

Lincolnshire’s bale-out for housing shortages

North Kesteven District Council in Lincolnshire is to become the first local authority in the UK to use straw bales to construct social housing, when they begin a pilot project of two semi-detached properties in West Grove, Martin, this May.

The bales will provide the main structure of the three-bedroom homes, which are described by the council as “typical, affordable, council houses”. But there’s nothing typical about the amount of energy they’ll save: swapping bricks for straw will increase insulation by up to three times more than building regulations require, so these houses won’t need heating systems. They’re anticipated to cost less too: the council has budgeted £110,000 per house – £20,000 less than the equivalent brick-build. And in the future, thanks to the experience gained through this project, future costs could be lower still.

The houses are designed by Amazonails, who are also behind the country’s first two-storey straw bale home, recently built in Somerset [see Landmark for straw]. Manager Emma Appleton believes straw bale homes could be part of the answer to housing shortages. They are simple to construct, easy to modify and can last upwards of 200 years. “We get the impression that other UK councils are certainly interested in using straw bales, but are waiting to see how North Kesteven gets on.”

In order to generate capacity and skills for any future straw bale projects in the area, the council will select and train a local contractor for the job, and residents and organisations will be invited to watch the building process. Once completed, in approximately six months’ time, potential tenants will apply through the normal council housing allocation scheme. – Anna Pigott

Empire State Building gets eco-makeover

Hannah Bullock — Tue, 26 May 2009 11:39:45 +0100

Iconic skyscraper to slash energy use by 40%New York’s most iconic landmark, the Empire State Building, is set to become one of the city’s greenest buildings, thanks to a $20-million retrofit that will slash energy use by nearly 40% over the next 15 years.

Forming part of a wider $500-million rebuilding programme for the 381-metre high skyscraper, the refurb will save an estimated $4.4 million each year in energy costs and has a payback of under five years.

“We’re putting our money where our mouth is and showing how this is not just good for the environment, but also good for people’s pockets,” says Dana Schneider of Jones Lang LaSalle, one of the key project partners working with the building’s owner, Tony Malkin.

Measures include:

Insulation: trapping radiator heat; triple-glazing the tower’s 6,500 windows (manufactured on-site to reduce transportation)
Low-energy air con: refurbishing the existing system, and sending waste metals for recycling
Educating tenants: a model ‘green’ office suite on display
Incentivising tenants: an energy metering system displaying their real-time usage; sub-metered billing to replace flat-rate charges

Aiming for LEED Gold accreditation (the second highest category in The Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design green building rating system developed by the US Green Building Council), Schneider wants the project to be an exemplar for building retrofits worldwide. “Existing buildings currently create 40% of the world’s carbon emissions, rising to 70% in cities like New York and London, so we have to act.”

They’re also hoping to get the message out to the four million or so tourists who visit the Art Deco skyscraper every year: “It’s part of our mission that every single visitor will know about our retrofit.” The team plans to install an interactive energy display wall in the lobby to keep visitors amused as they queue to board the lifts for the nail-biting ride up to the viewing platform on the 102nd floor. – Rebecca Schischa

Looking good on paper

Shelley Hannan — Thu, 21 May 2009 14:38:54 +0100

Printing is big business – a £14 billion industry with a carbon footprint to match. But a new service could see the sector getting a much better handle on its climate impact.

If they look hard enough, shoppers can see the carbon footprint of a packet of Walkers crisps, a carton of Tropicana or a Tesco light bulb. When it comes to print buyers, who are organising the production of thousands of annual reports or millions of campaign fliers, it hasn’t been so easy to work out their impact.

Not until March, at least, when the British Printing Industries Federation (BPIF) launched a special carbon calculator to measure the footprint of a one-off print job as well as the annual figure for a printing company. It’s the first such tool designed for a specific sector that uses the official principles of the Carbon Trust’s PAS 2050.

Richard Owers, Director of Beacon Press, which became the UK’s first carbon-neutral printing organisation back in 2002, is excited by this new initiative: “Print and paper production generates significant amounts of carbon, but today there are good opportunities to reduce this carbon footprint on a wide scale.” He was part of the working group instrumental in progressing the idea and believes a product’s footprint could eventually become part of a print buyer’s daily decision-making.

The level of detail in the tool is pretty impressive, including data on processes upstream of the printing itself. In all, the footprint covers the manufacture and distribution of the paper (pulping, running the paper-making machines), the print site itself (energy and vehicle use, internal transportation, associated business miles and other consumables used in the print process), waste management, and retail (transportation to the retail site and in-store energy use).

“We’ve tried to do a full lifecycle of the printing process,” explains the BPIF’s Liam Gardner. “But it’s massively complex when you try to calculate the impact from cradle to grave,” he admits. For instance, if you’re looking at inks and solvents, do you calculate the energy needed to extract the oil in the first place, he asks. “So we’ve focused on getting the basics right,” he explains.

So far, several printers – including the Pureprint Group, which incorporates Beacon Press – have taken part in the testing stage. While the results aren’t yet public, Gardner says it’s already clear that paper production is proving the most carbon-intensive element of the printing process. Paper can account for anything from 50% to 90% of the emissions of a printed product. The figure is particularly sensitive to the specifics of production, such as where the fibre was obtained, whether it is virgin or recycled, how far it was transported, how fuel-efficient the vehicles are, how much energy was used at the mill, and what type of energy...

The calculator has had keen interest from major paper manufacturers since its launch, including industry giant UPM-Kymenne, who have provided data (verified by the Carbon Neutral Company) on 38 paper brands.

Owers says it’s a huge leap forward from a year ago, when there was “virtually no published data on paper”. “If there’s one area where we want better and better reporting of carbon footprinting, it is paper – because it’s such a big part of the total.” He points to the fact that the carbon footprint of seven million tonnes of graphic papers (printed paper, as opposed to packaging, and including newsprint) used in 2007 stood at over 6.7 million tonnes – a pretty hefty ratio.

One of the strengths of the initiative is the way it is already getting key players in the sector discussing environmental issues, explains Gardner. “Through the tool, we want to push the message up the supply chain, and get printers talking to their customers and suppliers.”

Within the last year, Owers says, environmental printing has “changed from being a niche product to a mainstream business choice,” and this latest BPIF initiative could well further the trend. “Because there is now an industry standard for calculating carbon footprints, customers can request this information before they place their order. It may only be 10% of the purchasing decision, but if it features as one of the purchasing criteria then buyers can drive real carbon reduction in the supply chain.” – Claire Baylis

Beacon Press is a Forum for the Future partner.

Private equity gets principled

GF assistant — Thu, 14 May 2009 15:00:03 +0100

Better late than never?

That would be a forgivable reaction to the news that 13 global private equity firms – who between them hold stakes in some of the biggest names in British business, such as Birds Eye, Boots and United Biscuits – have taken a key step towards integrating environmental and social concerns into their businesses, by signing up to a new set of guidelines on responsible investment.

The signatories, all members of the Private Equity Council, include major names such as Blackstone, Carlyle, KKR and Permira – which became famous amid the buyout boom of the pre-credit crunch years.

Now, under the auspices of the UN-backed Principles for Responsible Investment, they have met with institutional investors to create a set of guidelines specifically for the private equity industry.

The nine principles include considering “environmental, public health, safety and social issues” when evaluating investments; seeking “to grow and improve companies in which they invest for long-term sustainability”, and respecting the human rights of those affected by investment activities.

There need not be a contradiction between pursuing profits and sticking to such principles, the Council believes. “In today’s world, in order to maximise return on investment, we believe that businesses must address these issues,” said Robert Stewart, its Vice-President for Public Affairs.

Stewart suggested that so-called limited partners – mostly institutions such as pension funds and asset management firms, who invest in private equity funds – would seek to ensure that the guidelines are being followed before investing.

Alice Chapple, Director of Sustainable Financial Markets at Forum for the Future, said that while some limited partners are active on sustainable development issues, it was by no means “a matter of course” that they would hold private equity funds to account.

But she said that these do have an opportunity to think about long-term business risks such as climate change – because they take companies out of the stock market and buy and sell over a three- to five-year cycle. “You have the luxury of pulling a company into a private place while you sort out long-term perspectives – and come out at the end with a company more robustly positioned for the long term,” she said. – Chris Alden

Institutional investors’ interest in climate change appears to be increasing despite the recession. The Carbon Disclosure Project, which holds a database of corporate information on climate change, said that 475 investors signed its latest annual request to companies for climate change information – up nearly 25% on the previous year.

Downturn spurs on green agenda

GF assistant — Thu, 14 May 2009 12:34:12 +0100

Governments around the world have been spurred on by the downturn to do more, not less, to combat climate change. That’s the powerful conclusion for the ‘green economy’ agenda which emerges from a report by specialist asset managers at Deutsche Bank (DB). But there’s still widespread worry about whether – and where – more opportunities for a game changing ‘green new deal’ are going begging.

The DB Climate Change Advisors’ report identifies a combination of 250 new regulatory initiatives supporting climate change action (particularly to mandate more use of renewable energy) and over $200 billion worth of green spending and incentives in the recent stimulus packages introduced in the US, China, the EU and elsewhere. And it credits this double push with providing attractive opportunities to investors in such key areas as:

scaling up solar electricity and wind power generation
energy-efficient buildings and lighting
opening up the prospect of a ‘smart grid revolution’
developing mass market hybrid and all-electric vehicles (such as GM's Volt) – with $26 billion going into battery technologies, fleet purchasing and helping manufacturers re-tool.

Mark Fulton, DB’s global head of climate change research, believes that the overall trend of stimulus action “will provide crucial support to climate change industries during the current global economic downturn”.

Without it, the outlook could be grim. Global investment in clean energy technologies (including wind, solar, biomass and tidal) rose 5% to $155 billion in 2008, according to Angus McCrone of New Energy Finance. But, he warned, “we will struggle to get anywhere near those levels” in 2009, with developers strapped for funding in the credit crunch, and the price of fossil fuels tumbling.

What is striking, though, is how company values in the renewable energy sector – and other green technologies –have consistently outperformed the global stock market average. Over five years to the end of February 2009, a new set of FTSE indices show the peaks and drops in startling relief – but the renewable and alternative energy index records an overall increase in value of 42.5%, while the FTSE global all cap index has fallen by 17.4%.

These companies should continue to offer superior growth in the long term, Will Oulton, FTSE’s Head of Responsible Investment, told Green Futures. “I’m not finding many people who’d disagree with that,” he added. The impact of stimulus packages has yet to be fully felt, he believes, and will continue to feed through into the market this year and next as it becomes clearer where the money is actually going to be spent. Commitments on carbon cutting and switching to more renewable energy should contribute to the momentum, he believes – and much of the potential that’s been sitting in small companies will go on proving attractive to major global business. – Roger East

Council leads on sustainable spending

GF assistant — Thu, 14 May 2009 12:04:15 +0100

Leicester sets itself ethical procurement challenge

Leicester City Council (LCC) is forging ahead with an ambitious new approach to procurement: making sure that everything bought is sustainably sourced. The policy will impact on some £190 million worth of spend.

Since February, all goods and services – from paper clips, vending machines and uniforms to transport, energy and construction works – are now subject to a dazzling array of ethical and environmental criteria. These include using low-carbon technologies, favouring locally sourced products, and working only with suppliers and contractors adhering to International Labour Organisation rules on child labour.

LCC is also phasing out GM produce and bringing in fairtrade products. Plans are currently in the pipeline to introduce fairtrade bananas and fruit juices in all council-run school canteens.

Fiona Dowson, a procurement expert at Forum for the Future, says we shouldn’t underestimate what’s involved in implementing a completely ethical approach to sourcing in a public sector organisation: “Lots of organisations have policies…but don’t really follow up with practical actions beyond fairtrade tea and coffee. It’s great that Leicester are taking a joined-up approach to sustainable procurement, considering environmental, ethical and community issues together.”

LCC’s sustainability officer Helen Landsdown stresses that given the scale of the task, implementation will not happen overnight, but rather on a "case-by-case basis". Each big spending area will be targeted, with LCC “working with procurers to find ways to make necessary changes”.

Although the council “won’t have the same level of influence as Tesco or Gap”, says Dowson, the fact that it is prioritising its efforts where “there’s most scope to create change” is encouraging.

And with a collective purchasing power of £40 billion a year, the UK’s local authorities could start a hefty ball rolling. – Rebecca Schischa

Blueprint for green stores

Shelley Hannan — Mon, 11 May 2009 03:24:59 +0100

Retailer’s latest Manchester supermarket sets its eco standard Tesco is to use its latest ‘eco-store’ – a new 52,000 sq ft supermarket at Cheetham Hill in Manchester – as a ‘low-carbon blueprint’ for all the new supermarkets it builds in future.

Stephen Heal, the company’s director of climate change programmes, says that the Cheetham Hill store’s carbon emissions should be 70% less than those of an average store of its size in 2006. The sixth Tesco supermarket with the ‘eco-store’ tag, it boasts a natural refrigeration system, a combined heat and power (CHP) plant, a timber frame and cladding, rooflights to allow natural daylight inside – and a ‘very good’ rating for the building on the BRE Environmental Assessment Method (BREEAM) system. Investment costs were around 10% higher than a typical store – but fuel bills are predicted to be 48% lower.

Heal emphasises that, by building such outlets, Tesco will boost the market for sustainable building technologies. “It will help those technologies improve, help markets grow, and help bring costs down,” he said.

“Like all of these things, the more you do it to scale, the cheaper it becomes,” agrees Peter Madden, Chief Executive of Forum for the Future – who visited the store before it opened in January, and said its use of timber cladding and natural light made it feel like “a more pleasant environment to shop and work in”. He added: “Building stores in this way costs more than a traditional model, but their sense is that they will recoup that through lower energy prices, higher staff productivity and better customer engagement.”

Madden now thinks it’s time for Tesco to raise the bar and start talking zero-carbon superstores. “With the right design, they can go a very long way in that direction,” he said.

And what about the retrofitting of existing supermarkets? Heal accepts that the Cheetham Hill store isn’t a retrofit blueprint, but says it still offers “guidance for architects and designers” who are retrofitting and replacing existing stores.

There could be more to learn on this from Marks & Spencer’s ‘eco-conversion’ in Bournemouth, which also achieved a ‘very good’ BREEAM rating. The store, originally built in the 1940s, benefits from energy-saving measures and water-saving initiatives, such as dual-flush toilets and self-closing taps, that have cut water use by 15%. – Chris Alden

DIY giant opens eco-store

Shelley Hannan — Mon, 11 May 2009 02:44:56 +0100

B&Q pushes green products, sets stretch target on emissionsIt boasts the UK’s biggest building-mounted turbine, a rooftop garden, and solar panels. And it’s challenging the notion that consumers won’t go green in a recession. Opened in February, B&Q’s eco-store in New Malden, on the southern outskirts of London, is the DIY retailer’s most sustainable so far, with just half the emissions of a standard B&Q store. Other key features include:

geothermal space heating
solar thermal water heating
energy-efficient lighting
‘sun pipes’ to bring natural daylight into darker areas of the store
rainwater harvesting for the garden centre plants and for flushing the toilets.

David Childs, B&Q’s Director of Properties, said the building was conceived as a “testbed” for energy-saving and renewable energy measures, and is a step towards its goal of a zero-emission store by 2012. The company has set itself a stretch target of cutting carbon emissions by 90% by 2023.

There is, of course, a commercial side to the initiative: just as energy-saving technologies are used in the eco-store, so they are available to customers – albeit on a different scale. “We use the same solar thermal panels as we sell in our stores,” said Childs. “We have a 30,000-litre rainwater recovery tank; our customers can invest in water butts.”

Forum for the Future’s Dan Crossley welcomed the news. “Retailers like B&Q are trying to make sustainable products available, easier to understand and more affordable – and we would encourage that,” he said.

The company got customers through its doors with a cleverly timed offer on loft insulation, just a day after Ed Miliband announced plans for green makeovers for UK homes [see ‘Retrofits for Brits’]. It sold a million rolls priced at £1 each (a 90% reduction) in just three weeks.

The 90% carbon emissions reduction target – one of the most ambitious yet adopted by a major retailer – is part of a ‘One Planet Living’ initiative devised in conjunction with sustainability charity BioRegional. Specific measures include:

building and retrofitting low-energy stores
sourcing local, seasonal, organic and fairtrade food for canteens and cafes
devising a logistics strategy to reduce haulage fuel use.

– Chris Alden