For those concerned with the state of the environment, many of this week’s headlines might not have seemed the most promising. After a long and protracted battle, the polar bear finally made its presence on the United States’ list of endangered species official. One study found that greenhouse gas levels had reached their highest mark in 800,000 years, and another catalogued the massive number of changes pinpointed to anthropogenic global warming in the past 30 years. With little change, you might fear the future of the planet was lost already.
But today’s news also brought word of a very positive change: a new World’s Largest Offshore Wind Farm has been announced, with an impressive three billion dollar price tag already sunk into the projects bank account. The crown of world’s largest offshore wind farm, which has bounced around quite a bit over the past few years, will settle for the time being just off the coast of Kent, England. Dubbed “Greater Gabbard”, the project, when completed in 2011, is slated to generate some 504 megawatts, or enough electricity for 415,000 homes.
The decision to build the plant, and the go-ahead for funding today, were seen by some as a much-needed shot in the arm for the wind energy industry. Reported struggles as of late include the pull-out of Dutch firm Royal Shell from the London Array—an even more ambitious offshore wind project—and a warnings from energy companies that the growing cost of wind farms might impede their ability to become profitable. But the willingness to green-light this project, and the eagerness of companies to buy in, seems to suggest concerns over the future of wind farms may be passing.
“This is a great boon for the United Kingdom. Wind on such scale will bring strong economic and environmental benefits for the UK,” said Eddie O’Connor, CEO of Airtricity, one of the companies participating in the project. “Greater Gabbard will save money as well as contributing to the amount of electricity generated from emissions-free sources.” The project will continue to push Great Britain to the forefront of offshore wind power, adding to the more than two gigawatts already being produced.
While this seems like tremendous amount electricity, however, it still falls well behind Germany, whose current wind production levels of 20.6 gigawatts make it far and away the world’s most wind-reliant nation. Indeed, Greater Gabbard’s scope is dwarfed by many other wind-based operations currently in planning, including T. Boone Pickens’ six-billion-dollar, four-gigawwatt proposal for the Texas panhandle.
It was only a matter of time before the big tech firms started to realise that without electricity, there ain’t no interwebby.
Greenbang started reading about IBM’s clean-tech investments last year. Word on the street is that this has been ready for some time, but they’ve just announced it - perhaps that’s all part of some kind of campaign and timing thing. Who knows?
Anyway - it’s good. And it’s big.
IBM’s has a new idea for improving the production of solar-powered energy.
Remember that cub scout thing where you used a magnifiying glass to concentrate sunlight to set fire to a piece of paper and your enemies? You wouldn’t if you were a brownie and into making daisy chains. (For all non-UK reader, ignore that last sentence.)
Well IBM has taken that principle and applied it to photovoltaic cells and says it could dramatically increase the amount of energy produced.
The IBM scientists are using a large lens to concentrate the sun’s power, capturing about 230 watts in a centimetre-square solar cell. That energy is then converted into 75 watts of usable electrical power, about five times the energy captured by typical cells used in solar farms.
IBM says the cells could be produced in commercial quantities for $2 (£1) each or even less.
So is it time for a smartie party? IBM seems to think so:
Solar cells use many of the same materials, processes, and underlying science that go into making computer chips, so IBM sees the move in this area as a natural progression from its traditional business.
This was particularly so when it came to controlling excessive heat on the cells. Concentrating the equivalent of 2000 suns on such a small area generates enough heat to melt stainless steel, something the researchers experienced first hand in their experiments. But by borrowing innovations from its own R&D in cooling computer chips, the team was able to cool the solar cell from greater than 1600 degrees Celsius to just 85 degrees Celsius.
This was done by coupling a commercial solar cell to an IBM liquid metal thermal cooling system using methods developed for the microprocessor industry. They used a thin layer of a liquid metal made of a gallium and indium compound that they applied between the chip and a cooling block. Such layers, called thermal interface layers, transfer the heat from the chip to the cooling block so that the chip temperature can be kept low.
Rah - so that’s that. Come on other tech firms - keep up, get those knees up…
Last weekend, something embarrassing happened to Greenbang in the supermarket.
She walked into the supermarket and picked up something she didn’t plan to buy. And when she was in a line waiting to pay, she suddenly realized she did not have a grocery bag with her, while the old lady before her had one, and the young man after her also fumbled his out of his briefcase.
She guessed she had three options:
1) pay for a cloth bag which costs 3 RMB ( it is not expensive, but almost the half of the price of the stuff she wanted to buy
2) use the plastic bags the supermarket offer which made her the only one in this line who use plastic bag.
3) drop the stuff, buy them next time when she brings her grocery bag. Shrewd and face-saving Greenbang chose the third one.
We’ve got less than one month left to the strict ban on plastic bags in the supermarket in June.
Cloth grocery bags, which were barely seen in China before the ban was issued, becomes the must-have for every family.
Prices range from free to several hundred yuan RMB, which indicates a new business and a huge market. At an import and export fair last month, a variety types of cloth bags were shown by some fabric companies who are eager to open up the marker originally belonged to the plastic bags, according to Xinhua news (Chinese link)
This “Green bag” business does not only benefit the fabric manufacturer. Epson launched its grocery bag design competition and Nokia gave out its fancy cloth bag for free to housewives in some communities in Beijing several weeks ago.
Of course, those bags all have their companies’ logos on, which might be a kind of “soft ad”.
Some local real estate agents are more straightforward - just put their ads on the bags and everyone who carries this bag help to promote them.
Greenbang could not imagine life without plastic bags a few months ago, and was worried about how the ban on plastic bags really carried out and whether people would accept this “radical” policy.
But it seems going well at the moment, and with the help of so many pretty grocery bags, people will get rid of their relationship with plastic bags soon. In case the same embarrassing thing happens again in the supermarket, Greenbang now puts a grocery bag in her handbag.
With the Measures for the Disclosure of Environmental Information coming into force on May 1, all enterprises in China are expected to timely and accurately make public their ecological footprints.
This will bring to an end the embarrassing practice that multinational companies are virtually left free to shirk the standard operating procedures of their countries of origin by not publicizing pollution information.
Looks great, but let’s look a little closer.
On the one hand, at least it showed the government’s determination to crack down on pollution and make this issue more transparent.
But what Greenbang doesn’t’ like it is its pointed criticism toward multinational company. Who are the biggest polluters in China? I don’t think it’s the multinationals.
Since there are no official ecological -ootprint surveys of companies and manufacturers in China, there is no evidence to prove which one, multinational or local, should shoulder the major responsibility.
Why does it seem that polluters are all multinational companies and they are in the headlines most of the time? Maybe, first of all, because it is easier for locals to do PR in China; secondly, isn’t it more eye-catching to point at a famous multinational company than an unknown small local one.
However, this is not to say the richer you are, the better you protect the environment; it is all about environmental consciousness and more importantly - the system that checks their environmental behaviour. Therefore, those environment-protection regulations should apply equally to all companies, no matter multinational or local.
Biofuels have a bad name, but we’ve been following D1 Oils for a while through the splash-and-dash fuel stories.
The company, a UK producer of biofuels, is trialling the potential of Jatropha curcas, its main biodiesel crop, in poor soil conditions on the island of Sumatra in Indonesia.
Jatropha is favoured by some people as a biofuel option because it absorbs a good amount of CO2 as it is grown, but can also yield around 2,000 barrels of oil per square mile per year. It is said on the web (and Greenbang doesn’t know this) it can boost the fertility of crappy soil so food could be grown in the future. There’s a nice little article on Jatropha on EcoWorld.
Back to D1, which says the trials will be in co-operation with University of Bengkulu (UNIB) in South West Sumatra, and will test the performance of jatropha in “ultisol” soil types, which are common in Indonesia. These acidic soils, which are deficient in plant nutrients, cannot generally be used without the aid of lime and other fertilisers and are easily exhausted.
D1 says Jatropha curcas is well adapted to poor quality soils, and with a balanced mixture of fertilizers, will grow well there. The trials will compare growth and yield of Jatropha curcas under different schemes of fertiliser application to see which works best.
The Indonesian trials are the latest in a series of partnerships that D1 is developing worldwide with the objective of gathering data to improve the cultivation and productivity of jatropha and other alternative biofuels crops in different regions, climates and soil conditions.
Microsoft - led by this man - has formed a five-year alliance with the European Environment Agency to “inform Europeans on changes to environmental conditions in real time — and empowering citizens to play their part in data gathering.”
The move is part of EEA’s broader vision to build a Global Observatory for Environmental Change. The Observatory aims to be a resource for experts, policy-makers and individuals and will allow citizens to submit local data. This shuld allow it to deliver an ever-more detailed, accurate and up-to-date picture of environmental conditions throughout Europe.
By improving the availability of information, the EEA aims to enable policy-makers and citizens to make decisions about the environment and their impact on it. It could also evolve to include real-time satellite information for emergency relief services, as well as for other environmental operations.
Microsoft is providing development services to help the EEA extend the focus on important environmental factors that include air, ozone and water quality information.
The EEA and Microsoft are developing an internet portal offering access to information by location and allowing for search criteria based on local environmental monitoring agencies. The data will be updated in real time in a comprehensive manner. Users will also be able to access the information through Windows Live and MSN.
Prince Charles has made an impassioned plea for an end to deforestation as the most effective means of halting climate change.
Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme this morning, the Prince said it was crazy that the rainforests should be worth more dead than alive. He said he understood that may poor countries derived an income from logging and timber products, and more recently in the production of bio-fuels. But he said the developed world need to stump up the money to compensate those countries for their loss of income.
This could amount to some $30 billion a year, he said, which still makes it one of the cheapest and immediate ways of cutting down CO2 production, and preserving weather patterns. He said it was the equivalent of just 1 percent of all the insurance premiums paid around the world, which made it a very good bargain for ensuring the weather patterns stay stable.
“When you think they [rainforests] release 20 billion tonnes of water vapour into the air every day, and also absorb carbon on a gigantic scale, they are incredibly valuable, and they provide the rainfall we all depend on,” he said.
The Prince said that in his recent meetings with world leaders, he had used the opportunity to raise the issue and had met with a favourable reaction. He said a “huge effort” would be needed.
To listen to the interview, get the podcast from Auntie Beeb:
Pepsi-Cola, “a recognized leader in sustainability” according to its publicity machine, has managed to produce its lightest bottle yet to hold its ‘flavoured non-carbonated beverages’ (that’s ‘still drinks’ to you and me).
Why should you care? Well, it means the 500ml contained will actually contain 20 percent less plastic and therefore will result in a reduction of 20 million pounds of waste.
Watch out for the new bottles of Lipton Iced Tea, Tropicana juices and Aquafina from the end of May.
Here’s what Robert Lewis, the company’s head of packaging said about it: “The challenge was to deliver significantly lighter packaging that would provide the same shelf life as the heavier bottle, withstand the manufacturing and distribution process yet not compromise aesthetics. After a full year of hard work from multiple corners of the company, we hit the trifecta— a bottle that satisfied the needs of our system, our consumers and the environment.”
Greenbang wonders why Pepsi wasn’t doing this before if they really are sustainability leaders… And Pepsi, how much water does it take to make one bottle of your flavoured non-carbonated beverages, if you include the manufacturing and agriculture process? That’s not on the label yet.
Then again, a nice glass of flavoured non-carbonated beverage on a hot day can be quite nice, just so you know…
The shock-horror headline “Concern over recycled polyester” was enough to stop Greenbang in her tracks. Were people spontaneously combusting as their thighs rubbed together? Were wearers of the stuff being thrown out of their communities for having no shame (or fashion sense?)
The truth was far worse. As the story in EcoTextileNews revealed, the makers of recycled polyester have been having trouble getting hold of enough used plastic bottles to boil up (or however it works) and so the dastardly cads, based in Taiwan, have been buying up NEW bottles to recycle instead.
As the report says: “Retailers and brands that can fully trace their supply routes are likely to be able to put a stop to this practice but those who buy fabrics and garments on trust, with little knowledge of where they come from, may find themselves exposed to accusations of greenwash and subsequent brand damage.”
Steptoe and Son could have made a killing if they were around today. Greenbang remembers the episode where the son (Steptoe Jnr) bought 200 pairs of used false teeth. That pretty much fuelled his reasons for never watching the dirty pair again.
But - the rag and bone trade ain’t what it used to be. In fact there’s good money in it these days.
Greenbang had the pleasure of meeting the guys at waste-management company IWMS - last week. And very clever boys they are.
They offer to take your waste away for half the price of the competition, but keep as much out of landfill as possible by recycling materials, such as metals, plastics and other bits and bobs, by reprocessing and reselling them.
IWMS published a survey today that says 60 percent of business waste can be easily recycled. There’s no rocket science behind that, but really how many businesses actually bother to do that?
Philip Mossop, Director at IWMS, said:
“This research should be a wake-up call for UK businesses. Landfill tax is becoming a major business expense – it’s set to rise 32% a year for the next 5 years. Every two hours the UK produces enough waste to fill the Albert Hall – but we can easily recycle 60% of all that waste (if we also try and recycle more difficult waste, that figure can go as high as 75%, or greater).
“We’re working with UK businesses, particularly in the retail sector, helping them to divert as much of the waste that they produce as possible away from landfill. But all too often, recycling waste is not a priority, and responsibility for recycling is not assigned to a specific senior person within the company. This needs to change if UK businesses are to reduce their landfill tax bill and meet their CSR requirements.”
The survey results might just happen to coincide with a business message, but it’s one Greenbang thinks is worth a mention.
