self-sufficiency
For many, the 1970s is a decade to forget. After the free love of the swinging 60s, the 70s heralded recession, spiralling oil prices, the four-day working week and rubbish piled high in the streets during the winter of discontent. If that wasn’t bad enough the 70s also spawned
eco store
Asda opens its first UK low carbon superstore today in Bootle, near Liverpool. The store’s frame is made entirely from timber and will be a 35 per cent more energy efficient than any existing Asda store, the Wal-Mart owned company claims. Other features include solar-powered lighting and recycled rain
Hi there Greenbangers Don’t forget that we’re meeting tomorrow night (Tuesday) for the Greenbang Sustainable Technology Group. These monthly events are a great chance to get into clean tech if you’re new to it, or to meet like-minded folk who are doing some amazing things. We’re
china
CEOs of three of China’s largest companies have made a commitment to fight global warming and play a key role in the world’s transition to a low carbon economy. The announcement comes as research has revealed that China has overtaken the US as the world’s leading emitter
Four years from now people in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane will have the infrastructure to make the widespread use of electric cars a reality. Macquarie Capital and power company AGL have signed an agreement with Shai Agassi’s Better Place to provide infrastructure to support the environmentally friendly vehicles. Under
biomass
The Drax coal power station in Yorkshire, branded by critics as the UK’s biggest polluter, is to go green by investing £2bn in three biomass power plants. Working with Siemens, the company will develop 900MW of biomass fired renewable energy. Biomass energy is created when forestry residues, agricultural by-products
renewable energy
The UK’s target to produce 15 per cent of its energy consumption from renewable sources is “unachievable” unless the government makes major changes to policy that encourage large-scale generation, micro-generation and energy efficiency. That’s according to a report, out today, by peers on the influential House of Lords
biofuel
Algae is one of the real hot spots in biofuels and the Carbon Trust has launched a research and development initiative aimed at commercialising the use of algae biofuel by 2020. Forecasts claim algae-based biofuel has the potential to replace a significant proportion of fossil fuel – more than 70 billion
Jeremy Melhuish of The Commercial Group talks to Greenbang about their awards for environmental improvement.
investment
Nicholas Stern, author of the influential Stern Report on Climate Change, says recession is the ideal time to build a low carbon future. Writing for The Guardian newspaper he said increased government spending should not be focused just on boosting short term demand but promoting growth that can be sustained.
india
Envirofit is ramping up production and expanding its line of clean-burning stoves in response to increasing demand in India. Envirofit stoves claim to reduce toxic emissions by 80 per cent, use 50 per cent less fuel and reduce cooking time by 40 per cent compared to biomass fuelled cooking fires.
The Japanese government has just unveiled plans to cool the New Chitose Airport terminal building in summer using snow collected in winter. According to this article on Japan Today the system, which will be introduced in 2010, will provide almost a third of the cooling energy for the terminal building.
