| |
|
|
Here are some of the things I've been up
to.
Click on the links in the table to find out
more.
And have a look at news for previous years by clicking on the
hats.
|
|
LAUNCHING GENERATION GREEN YOUTH
MANIFESTO
|
|
Greg Barker, Shadow Minister for Climate hosted the reception at the House
of Commons. It was attended by a number of MPs, including John Gummer, as well as
organisations like Global Action Plan, Waste Watch and education bodies, as well as the
members of the Generation Green Youth think tank, and their parents. The event
was organised for the team to present their manifesto ideas to Government - they met Ed
Milliband, Minister for Climate Change in the morning. I have been the expert
advisor taking the children round some environmental projects and helping pull together
their thoughts.
|
 |
|
Back to top
|
|
JOINING THE WASTE WATCH BOARD (Feb10)
|
|
Recruited by Stewart Crocker, the executive director of Waste Watch, my first board
meeting was early in February 2010. It's a really exciting time to be a part of this
organisation as it's revising its strategy putting less emphasis on recycling and more on
reducing the amount we consume. I think we should be making more of what we have, both in
terms of resources and the planet.
"I really appreciate the energy, imagination and shear
spirit of enterprise which you are bringing to Waste Watch. Thank you so
much."
Stewart Crocker, Director of Waste Watch (Feb10)
|
 |
|
Back to top
|
|
CHILLING FACTS CAMPAIGN ON SUPERMARKET
REFRIGERATION (Feb10)
|
|
Launched on 1st February, 2010, the second Chilling Facts survey has been very successful
in drawing attention to the huge impact of supermarket refrigeration on climate change.
I've been working with the Environmental
Investigation Agency on their campaign to get the supermarkets to switch to
climate-friendly refrigeration gases. We ranked the retailers on their
performance and gave them detailed feedback on our assessment, covering in-store
refrigeration, distribution and warehouses. Next year, we plan to include air
conditioning too as these systems also contain HFCs, a gas that is about 3,800 times worse
than CO2 in terms of its global warming impact. And there are viable
alternatives.
Media coverage on the first day included a full page spread in the Guardian
and rolling news story on Sky, as well as Channel Five News. I helped set up
this campaign and along with Fioannuala Walravens from the Environmental Investigation
Agency and Nick Cox from Earthcare News am a judge. The three of us created a scoring
system to rank the supermarkets on how well they have performed. Waitrose, the
winner this year, was close to the bottom last year. And Co-op are the only store to
have actually reduced their point count.
Click on the icons below for Sky News and guardian coverage.
 
|
|
|
HONG KONG SPEECH
(Dec09)
|
| |
|
| Think of the large Hong Kong businesses - Cathay Pacific, HSBC, Jardines and Swires. They
were all represented at the workshops I spoke at organised by CIO Connect, a trade association
for Information Officers working in corporates. The topic was 'A Climate for Change' -
rather appropriate just a few days in advance of the Copenhagen Conference. |
 |
|
Back to top
|
|
RUSHLIGHT
AWARDS
|
|
Since the Rushlight Awards, for clean
technology, started three years ago, I have been a judge for the overall award
winner. This year I was also judging the green products category. Winners
will be announced at a dinner on 28th January 2010, which is preceded by a showcase, where
technologies can be viewed.
|
| |
|
Back to top
|
|
THE ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT OF FOOD
AND DRINK (Nov09)
|
|
|
Tim Lang, who has almost as many titles as Peter Mandelson, one of which is
sitting on the Sustainable Development Commission, admitted that no-one was yet clear about
what exactly a sustainable diet was. He told the food industry audience at a
Westminster seminar that there was much more clarity about what wasn’t
sustainable. I asked him about whether a vegetarian ready meal might actually
fit the bill, given that the food processing industry was far less wasteful of resources
than millions of individual households both in preparation and cooking. He
agreed that this might be the case and that it’s important ‘not to demonise food
processing’. But he also pointed out that home cooking had cultural and social benefits
that shouldn’t be over-looked.
Another hot topic was the significant impact of meat on climate change
emissions and how it might be possible to reduce global consumption – this was presented by
Tom Macmillan, director of the Food Ethics Council. But the highlight for me
was a presentation from the National Consumer Federation illustrating how incredibly
confused most members of the public are about sustainable food issues. She said
that she simply didn’t know what to do or what to think when faced with so much information
and such complexity. And that just about summed it up.
|
|
Back to top
|
|
SOMERSET WASTE PARTNERSHIP WORKSHOP
(Nov09)TEXT
|
|
I gave a key note presentation at a workshop organised by the Somerset Waste Partnership, who are responsible for waste throughout
the county. My speech highlighted some of the public misperceptions about waste,
packaging and plastic bags. I also illustrated the shocking problem that we have in
what's known as WEEE waste. This rather cute acronym stands for ' Waste Electrical and
Electronic Equipment'.
See blog for an article I wrote on this. And Click here for
links to packaging briefing sheets I wrote
for M&S. And click her for links to plastic bags.
Steve Read, MD of Somerset Waste Partnership said this about my
presentation:
"Julia brings a fresh and challenging perspective to the issue
of packaging. She's keen to puncture the myths and misconceptions consumers have about
packaging but she doesn't let the retailers off the hook. Not afraid to be controversial,
Julia's presentation got people talking at a higher level"
|
|
|
Back to top
|
|
VISITING BEDZED WITH GENERATION
GREEN (nov09)
|
|
|
This was my second visit to Bedzed - the first was about a year after it
started in 2003. This time I came with about 20 school children as part of the British Gas Generation Green Think Tank, that I am leading. It is
our third visit to a 'green' project. The first was to Closed Loop Recycling in Dagenham, where they recycle plastic
bottles. The second was the Met Office in
Exeter, where the children learnt something about the science of climate
change. And our next meeting will be at the Houses of Parliament, where
we’re going to present the children’s policy ideas to Government. We’re
hoping that Gordon Brown may attend – or at least Ed Milliband – and perhaps some
Conservative MPs too. Greg Barker, Shadow Minister for the Environment has booked
the room for us, so that’s a good start.
See Blog for more about Bedzed….
|
|
Back to top
|
|
CHILLING FACTS
(Nov09)
|
|
I met up with Nick Cox from Earthcare Products and Fin Walravens from the
Environmental Investigation Agency. We
reviewed the results of our second survey on supermarket refrigeration for our Chilling
Facts campaign www.chillingfacts.co.uk
(see the blog I have written on this). The first survey launched on Radio
4’s Costing the Earth programme in January this year, showed that supermarket
refrigeration is a huge contributor to climate change. Worryingly, it also
revealed that although there are viable climate-friendly alternatives none of the
supermarkets had made much progress in switching their technology. As
much as 1/3rd of the carbon footprint of most supermarkets can come from the coolants in
their refrigeration and a further 1/3rd from the energy used to power their cooling
systems. This year the results of our survey were more
encouraging. But we won’t be reporting them until early next year, so you’ll need
to wait until then to hear more….
|
|
|
Back to top
|
|
2k RECYCLING (Nov
09)
|
|
In the UK we throw away mountains of plastic waste and use lots
of plywood. Apart from a small amount of plastic bottles and an
even smaller number of plastic bags, pretty well all the rest of our plastic
debris is discarded, never to be used again. Omer Kutluoglu, a
Turkish entrepreneur and INSEAD graduate, thinks this is ludicrous.
I visited Omer at the site of his new factory near
Luton. His business, 2k Manufacturing is setting up to start
recycling large quantities of mixed plastic, including electronic waste, into a
product called Eco Sheet. See my blog for more about this.
|
|
|
Back to top
|
|
WRAP
(Nov09)
|
|
|
|
I was a bit frustrated watching the panel session at the
WRAP conference on Resource Efficiency, at the Royal
Society. John Humprhies, from Radio 4’s Today programme was
typically witty in his introductions, and the contributions from Hilary Benn,
Minister of State for the Environment and Marc Bolland, CEO of Morrisons were
worth listening to. My frustration was because I had been invited to be
one of the panellists but had had to decline because of a previous commitment,
which was then cancelled at the last minute. So I had to content myself
with a couple of questions from the floor. In my place, giving the
consumer perspective, was Joanna Yarrow from Beyond Green. There was
also David Palmer-Jones, Chief Executive of SITA UK, Will Day from the
Sustainable Development Commission and Nick Pollard, CEO of Bovis Lend Lease. Bovis had a
number of initiatives focused on reducing waste. However, given that
the building industry is possibly the most wasteful industry on the planet, this
is long overdue. And I was a little disappointed that their targets for
Passiv Buildings (super insulated low energy buildingS) would not be fully
implemented until 2050 – too far in the future.
|
|
Back to top
|
|
BIG GREEN HOME SHOW (Oct09)
|
|
My talk was on eco-renovation. I explained that knocking
down a building and starting again is generally not the greenest option. We
should be making do with what we’ve got. Apparently you could drive around
the world about 10 times and use the same amount of energy as is embodied in the bricks
of a typical Victorian house. I also talked about what I’d done at my home and –
just as importantly – what I haven’t yet done. The Big Green Home show was
organised by the National Self Build & Renovation Centre. Their events
manager wrote to me afterwards saying:
"I had to drop you a line to say 'a huge thank-you' to you
for being such a fantastic guest speaker - you were absolutely superb!....
You made a very inspiring speech and I would have no hesitation whatsoever in
recommending you to other event organisers as a guest speaker on eco or renovation
matters as a whole - or as an after-dinner speaker - as you have such a warm and
welcoming 'touch' to your delivery."
Naomi Handford-Jones, Big Green Home Show, Centre Events Manager
The National Self Build & Renovation Centre, Oct09
|
|
|
Back to top
|
|
AMSTERDAM DECLARATION – CLUB OF
ROME (Oct09)
|
|
|
The two day conference in Amsterdam was organised by the Club of Rome,
famous for its Limits to Growth Report in the early 1970s. Worryingly, the
over-riding theme was that their concerns and predictions about the depletion of the
world’s natural resources were proving to be rather accurate. And that the
threats from climate change would shortly be irreversible unless there was a very dramatic
change in the world’s response. The culminated with a document called the Amsterdam
Declaration. The plan was to present this to the Copenhagen Summit in December as
further reinforcement to some significant global commitments. Gorbachev was one
of many high profile speakers – Click here to see my blog.
|
|
Back to top
|
|
AGE OF STUPID
(Oct09)
|
|
I’ve been wanting to see this film for some time, so when I discovered there
was a screening close to my home in Somerset I signed up. Actually, I sent out
information about the film and managed to recruit about 20 people to come along too, including
my children. I did find it interesting but I have to admit, not as compelling as An
Inconvenient Truth. See my blog about
it.
|
|
|
Back to top
|
|
CAOBISCO - CHOCOLATE &
CONFECTIONARY (Sep09)
|
|
The European trade association for the chocolate and confectionary industry -
CAOBISCO held its 50th Anniversary event in Brussels. My speech on sustainability issues
focused on traceability in the supply chain, sustainable agriculture, climate change and
packaging. But I didn't forget to mention obesity and fair trade. At
the dinner after the event I was presented a gift for giving a challenging and provocative
speech.
Cadbury's research shows that 64% of the carbon footprint of a milk
chocolate bar comes from the dairy component.
|
|
|
Back to top
|
|
PROCTER & GAMBLE - BABY CARE AND
DETERGENTS (Aug09)
|
|
|
I sit on Expert advisory panels for Procter & Gamble on both babycare -
chiefly nappies - and detergents, which includes cleaning products. At a recent meeting
we've also advised on batteries, as P&G now own Duracell. The most recent baby
care meeting was in August 2009, although I met up with some of the P&G team, whilst giving
a speech in Malta to the disposable hygiene products industry, in September.
|
|
Back to top
|
|
EDANA - DISPOSABLE HYGIENE PRODUCTS
(Sep09)
|
|
The European trade association for disposable hygiene products held their
annual event in Malta. My speech highlighted concerns about our disposable society,
explained the public confusion over what is the greenest nappy option and looked at whether
eco-labelling will help or hinder environmental improvements.
|
 |
|
Back to top
|
|
GENERATION GREEN VISITS THE MET OFFICE
IN EXETER (Sep09)
|
|
This was the second trip for the Generation Green youth think tank. The
first was to see a plant recycling plastic bottles in Dagenham. This time round we went
to the Met office in Exeter. It was a real eye opener into the science of climate
change. The meterologists at the centre didn't differentiate between those studying long
term trends and those focusing on the weather in the next few hours or days. They were in
no doubt that climate change is real - and they should know. The children were given the
chance to present an imaginery e weather forecast for their area in 50 years time.
|
|
|
Back to top
|
|
MARKS & SPENCER
(Sep/Oct08)
|
|
|
|
Having written a consumer briefing sheet (and done a video) on carrier bags
for M&S, I am now working on a similar briefing on packaging issues, which will be
published online. This will be followed by a briefing paper, also on packaging issues
but targeted at businesses, government and NGOs, explaining in more detail M&S's
strategy, approach and policy recommendations. And, alongside Jane Bickerstaffe from
Incpen (Industry Council for Packaging and the Environment) and Mark Barthel from WRAP
(Material Change for a Better Environment) I sit on an expert advisory panel at M&S
focusing on packaging too!
|
|
Back to top
|
|
|
|
|
