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SUPERMARKET
REFRIGERATION
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Did you know that up to one quarter of the carbon footprint of supermarkets
come from the cooling gases used in their refrigeration systems? And that's before you
take account of the energy for powering equipment. But there are climate-friendly
alternatives. I was approached by the Environmental
Investigation Agency (EIA) who wanted to draw attention to this issue. I suggested
doing a survey ranking the supermarkets on their response to this issue. The survey has
been completed and the results will be announced at the end of January 2009 to coincide with a
Radio 4 programme - Costing the Earth - on the subject.
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AN ORGANIC DEATH
(Dec08)
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I'd almost forgotten that I'd participated in a film about green death.
Called 'An Organic Death' it's been shown on Current TV and more screenings are planned for
Christmas Day! This is such an interesting subject and the film only touches on a small
bit of it. Here's a link so you can watch it online. Have a look at the green death
section in The New Green Consumer Guide if you want to
know more.
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PROCTER & GAMBLE - NAPPIES AND
CARBON LABELING (Dec08)
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"Thanks for the excellent factsheet on carbon footprinting and
labeling - it's great work!"
Ioannis Hatzopoulos, P&G - Dec08
I've worked with Procter & Gamble on and off for about 20 years. Recent projects
include writing a briefing paper on carbon footprinting, which I think is a good thing and
carbon labeling which I don't. And in December 2008 I went to Geneva on a brainstorming
panel about sustainability issues and nappies.
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LUNCH AT VOLANS VENTURES
(Dec08)
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Founded in March 2008 by John Elkington (amongst
others), with whom I co-founded SustainAbility, Volans
Ventures promotes social and environmental innovation. I was invited to lunch and to hear
more about what they're doing. Volans is closely allied with SustainAbility - almost like sister
organisations - but it's smaller.
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RUSHLIGHT AWARDS
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The Rushlight Awards started last year with the idea of promoting renewable
energy and clean tech companies. I've been a main category judge both years. The
winners will be announced at an Award dinner in January 2009.
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GRAND DESIGNS
GARDEN SHED (Oct08)
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I was asked by Grand Designs Live in Birmingham to design a recycled garden shed.
It was exhibited alongside other creations by Kevin McCloud (Grand Designs Presenter) and Oliver Heath (ITV's Dream Homes) amongst others. One shed
was described as a love shack and another inspired by cycling - with a bicycle on its
roof. This is what I said about my shed:
"I decorated my children's bathroom with old toothbrushes, their baby shoes, pennies,
china, - almost anything that I could find that I could stick on the wall. I thought the
result was rather whacky and fun. So when I was asked to design a garden shed made from
recycled stuff, I thought I'd do something on similar lines - except, of course with a garden
theme. I'm always breaking the handles off my garden forks, so I thought it would be
great to have something else I could do with them - sticking them on the roof of my shed should
make it stand out. But I also wanted to illustrate that there are so many things we throw
away nowadays that could be used for something else. The roof is made from recycled gum
boots, the door from recycled mobile phones - and the hut is painted with paints that might
otherwise be thrown away. Then there's the challenge of making the shed useful for
storing things before they go off to be recycled - plastic garden pots, for example, and bits
of string. I think we could do so much more with our waste - I hope my shed will be a
recycling inspiration."
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GREEN ORANGE
(Sep08)
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Mobile phones may not be top of your list of environmental concerns. But
the mobile phone operators are being challenged by their customers - particularly businesses -
about what they're doing. Metro Research was asked by Orange to do some research on this
issue - and I joined them in giving a presentation at a workshop for Orange
executives.
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CAREER MENTOR
(Sep08)
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For anyone wishing to try out a new career or profession there's a new company
that can help - 925 Dream offers you the chance to try something out, so you can see what it's
like. The company was set up in 2007 gives people the chance to work alongside experts in
their field. I've agreed to be a possible mentor for someone interested in being an
environmental consultant. Click here for my entry.
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G24 SOLAR FILM
(Sep08)
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I found out about G24 Innovations when judging the Rushlight Awards in 2007. They
make solar film, which is a lot cheaper, lightweight and more efficient than traditional
solar. I went to see their huge factory in Wales, accompanied by Philip Wolfe from the
Renewable Energy Association, who is very knowledgeable about this
technology - he used to run a solar business himself. Clemens Betzel (MD - pictured on
right), who showed us round showed us that brilliant thing about about the solar film was
the huge range of potential applications - from recharging mobile phones to power computers
through brief-cases and back-packs. You can even put it on tents. Not so good
though was that the technology seems to be very slow in getting to the mass market and
realising its full potential. Currently the main target for G24 is re-charging mobiles
in developing countries, where there isn't any electric infrastructure. Roll
on......
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CLOSED LOOP RECYCLING
(Sep08)
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A brand new factory in Dagenham - Closed Loop Recycling is in its infancy. When
its running at full pelt it will be major player in recycling waste plastic bottles into
new ones - inside of a week. The initial part of the process is sorting - PET
plastics from HDPE - that's mainly soft drinks bottles vs milk bottles. But it also
sorts out the different colours, bottle tops, other plastic types - and removes the metals,
paper and any other debris. Almost everything has a home. If it's not recycled at the
Closed Loop plant it's sent off elsewhere. Given all the sophisticated equipment and
the fact that many parts of the process required energy for heating or blowing, I wondered
how much energy it all saved. Apparently, a recycled plastic bottled will use half as
much energy to make than a virgin one - so it's well worth doing. M&S are the
main sponsors of the plant - they're trying to maximise recycling of their plastic bottles
as part of their Plan A initiative. They've also set up a scheme to help people who
work in offices recycle packaging waste from lunches bought on the move.
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BIOGEN - BIOGAS
POTENTIAL
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A couple of weeks ago I went to visit one of the few emerging biogas plants in the
country.
At Biogen (www.biogen.co.uk), near Bedford, they take
in 30,000 tonnes of food waste and put it in large anaerobic digestors (ADs). Actually, they
have to remove the packaging first, but the principle is pretty simple.
The digestors are really silos designed to speed up the rotting process and collect the
methane that's released. The brilliant thing about it is that all the gas can than be used for
electricity generation - or even for vehicle fuel..
See full article about the biogas potential on Telegraph online
by clicking here.....
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DORSET KITE FESTIVAL
(Sep08)
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"I'm haven't yet got used to all these weird Dorset Festivals" said my friend as we
were sitting in the High as Kite Bar on Eggardon Hill. The Dorset Kite Festival is an
annual event but this year it was exceptional because of the cloudless sky, a good wind and
literally masses of people with kites.... Read more on my blog.
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GREENGAGED - DESIGN COUNCIL
(Sep08)
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The Design Council launched their Greengaged week (15th-19th September 2008) with a Big Bang
Breakfast. Alongside me on the panel were Clive Grinyer of Cisco, Ed McCann of
Expedition Engineering and Dorothy Mackenzie from Dragon. We were their to talk about
the role of design in sustainability and more specifically about the extent to which
designers have a key responsibility in the fight to prevent climate change. I think
that designers are too focused on existing products and solutions but need to be more
visionary in their thinking. However, the challenge is to come up with good ideas for
the planet that also make business sense - it's difficult to get companies on board if they
can't see any commercial benefit for them.....
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MARKS
& SPENCER PACKAGING LEAFLET (Aug-Sep08)
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I'm currently writing a leaflet for M&S customers on packaging
issues. The idea is to put packaging into perspective and to show where the real
problems are and what we could and should be doing about it. Probably the most
important thing to point out in relation to food packaging is that the impact of wasting
food is far greater than the impact of packaging. Did you know that in developing
countries nearly half of food is wasted before it even gets to market because there's no
packaging and poor storage conditions? The equivalent figure for the UK is
2%.
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KEY NOTE SPEECH AT THE OLGAS
- ONLINE GREEN AWARDS (Jul08)
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I don't buy very much but what I do buy is mostly online - perhaps as much as 90% of my
purchases, including food. I discovered that the green credentials of home
shopping only really stacks up with efficient delivery systems in place. And that one
of the most wasteful systems is timed delivery slots chosen by customers because it means a
vehicle can't cover nearly as many households - so more trips and more emissions. I
also learnt that if you added up the mileage of Royal Mail vans in a year they could drive
to Jupiter - and that the average CO2 emissions from first class letter is 29g and 20g for
second class. Royal Mail have not only found out how much they're emitting but they're
doing a lot to cut down. Given that they're delivering to homes anyway it's better to
use them than a competing company - the free-market in postal deliveries is not helping
climate change.
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KEY NOTE
SPEAKER AT RECKITT & BENCKISER EVENT (jul08)
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Reckitt Benckiser's Carbon 20 initiative commits to a 20% reduction in carbon
emissions by 2020. The most significant thing about this is that it includes the carbon
emissions during consumer use, as well as in producing products. Given that 90% of the
impact of a surface cleaner is in our homes, this means there's a lot to be done in advising
all of us on low impact cleaning. For a start don't use a kitchen towel every time you
have a spill! This was one of many issues I talked about in my presentation to
Reckitt Benckiser executives, meeting in Marlow. Their key brands include Harpic, Airwick and
Finish.
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SPEECH IN
CROATIA FOR AISE (Jun08)
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Where bombs and missiles fell in the early 1990s, I stood looking at washing lines and
cats. Swallows were diving over the rooftops of Dubrovnik in the evening sun - it was a magical
experience, perhaps all the more so because I was there for such a short time.
My trip to Croatia was arranged by AISE - the European Soaps and Detergents Manufacturing
trade association. They invited me to speak at their annual conference for executives in the
industry. Their feedback was that my speech was 'well appreciated' and that 'it was
good to have some challenging views". See Blog...
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GREEN FAIR & SCYTHING FESTIVAL -
SOMERSET (Jun08)
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This is the first time I've made a milk shake through bike power! The photo was taken
at the Green Fair and Scything Festival, near Muchelney in Somerset. I was invited to
make a speech alongside two other local authors, Rosie Boycott and Paul Kingsnorth. Rosie
was talking about food issues and promoting the paperback edition of her book, which has been
re-named 'Spotted pigs and green tomatoes' . And Peter Kingsnorth was
talking about - Real England - the battle against the bland, which is a well written
rant against the homogenisation of our society. Paul is concerned that we're losing our
quintessentially English institutions along with small farms, rural post offices and many
traditional English pastimes, such as scything!
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SEA KAYAKING IN SCOTLAND
(May08)
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I took the night sleeper from London to Glasgow and then transferred to the Fort William
line and beyond that towards Mallaig. Joining a group of environmentalists we had a
couple of days to talk and share our different perspectives on the most pressing issues of
today. Meanwhile we learnt sea kayaking in the most breathtakingly beautiful setting -
with the islands of Sky, Eigg and Rhum as blue shadows across the water - and seals bobbing and
splashing around us.
Read more on my blog.
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MAY 2008 M&S BAG
SCHEME
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M&S launch carrier bag charging scheme with a leaflet written by me and a video of why I think they're right to charge for their bags and make
them from recycled plastic. And why biodegradable or paper bags are not the answer
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On May 6th M&S are launching their initiative to charge for bags in all their food
stores across the UK. To coincide with this I have written a leaflet for them carrier
bags and why we want to reduce the number we use but any we do make should be made of recycled
plastic!
RECOUP - RECYCLING PLASTICS....
Most plastics can be recycled but that doesn't mean they are. Recoup have been
campaigning for more plastics recycling - particularly of bottles - since the early
1990s. A long time ago I went to open their 100th bottle bank but haven't really been
involved since. So attending their conference brought back memories, as well as getting
me up to speed on the current state of plastics recycling in the UK - much better than it was
but a long way short of where it should be. Here's an article I wrote about the Recoup
conference and plastics recycling for Telegraph online. Click here.
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RECENT FOOD RELATED EVENTS (mar
& apr 08)
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I've been to a lot of food ethics events recently - being a member of the
Food Ethics Council (FEC) is keeping me busy! I've chaired
three of their Business Forum meetings - on food miles, meat consumption and
ethical labelling; attended a working group meeting on the conflict between limiting
air-freight food and fair trade; spoken at a food ethics conference in Birmingham
co-hosted by the Food & Drink Innovation Network; and the FEC's most recent
meeting was discussion GM food - that's going to be a feature for their September
newsletter.
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MERRILL
LYNCH SPEECHES (mar & apr 08)
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The Forward Planning seminar at Merrill Lynch for Global Wealth Management clients
focused on entrepreneurship and women. The panel discussion included Dr Rebecca
Harding a founding partner of Delta Economics, Karen Darby the founder of SimplySwitch and
Caroline Plumb the CEO of a rather inspiring research company called Fresh Minds. I
gave the key note presentation on my environmental career - but I was also able to talk
about my entrepreneurial ventures which included selling daffodils and mushrooms as a child
and inventing magnetic L plates! The second Merrill Lynch event I spoke
at included a key note speech by Marjorie Scardino, in place of Anita Roddick - I've written about it in my blog...
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MORRISONS
(Mar08)
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I've started working with Morrisons advising them on sustainability
issues. Their newly built Bradford headquarters is state of the art. I spent a
couple of days there finding out what they have done to date. This included visiting
a local Morrisons store, a fruit and veg packing and distribution centre and Farmer's Boy,
their meat processing factory.
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SHELL INTERNATIONAL
(Feb08)
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The speaker for a meeting of Shell communications executives cancelled at the
last minute because she had lost her voice. I was contacted by the speaking agency and
replaced her. My brief was to talk about energy issues. This included a 20 minute talk,
followed by a Q&A session, further discussions over dinner, where I table hopped for each
course and finally a summary to give feedback. Shell's feedback was that they were
surprised and impressed by my knowledge of environmental issues.
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RECYCLING PLEDGE
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I've signed a recycling pledge to support the Somerset Waste Partnership - see
picture.
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BOTTLED WATER - EAU
NO!
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Article for Earth Telegraph about the perils of bottled water - and why we
should all be drinking eau de tap. Click here to read article.
Radio 5 Live, Richard Bacon Show on bottled water (feb08)
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MORGAN STANLEY GREAT BRITONS AWARDS DINNER (Jan08)
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I really appreciate 'can do' people and you can't get much more 'can do' than Tim Smit
(see photo), founder of the Eden Project - and the Lost Gardens of Heligan. So I was rather
delighted to be on the judging panel that selected him for the short-list 0f three for the
Environment section of Morgan Stanley's Great Briton Awards.
The other finalists for the Environment Great Briton 2007 were Jonathon Porritt, who has
so many green ventures behind him it's difficult to choose which one to mention and Jeremy
Leggett, who set up the UK's largest solar company - Solar Century - but is also a leading
speaker and writer on peak oil. Luckily I didn't have to select the overall winner because
any one of them could have come out on top.
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PROCTER & GAMBLE EXPERT
ADVISORY GROUPS (Jan&Feb08)
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I've been to both Germany and Switzerland to sit on expert panels advising
Procter & Gamble on sustainability issues to do with their baby care, laundry and
cleaning products. The sessions give a fascinating insight into the how the corporate
giant behind brands like Ariel, Fairy and Pampers is serious about reducing it's global
footprint.
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TELEGRAPH ARTICLE ON ENERGY
MONITORS
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Energy monitors don't directly save you energy - but they should help you work out where
you're wasting it around the house and so cut back. I reduced my electricity bill by at least a
quarter, when I got one - which more than paid back the cost of the monitor. Setting them up
isn't too difficult - actually, if you keep calm, it's quite easy........
Click here to read more......
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M&S PLAN A BRIEFING
(Jan08)
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One year on from launch Plan A, M&S hosted a briefing to give us a
progress report. With Stuart Rose, heading the team, there was an impressive list of
actions and initiatives - some achieved and others still on the drawing board. I
wrote an article about the event for Earth Telegraph Online.
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NUMIS - INVESTMENT
BANK
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I'm working with Numis investment bank helping identify potential
opportunities in renewable and clean technologies for them to raise capital for.
I'm particularly interested in looking at opportunities in anaerobic digestion (AD)
systems.
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CARBON TRUST WINTER
LECTURE
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Putin apparently joked that 'climate change is good for Russians
because they won't have to wear fur coats'. But listening to Dr Pachauri, Chairman of
IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) wasn't very funny. His Winter Lecture,
hosted by the Carbon Trust, was held, rather incongruously at Claridges.... Click here for more....
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