EIM Issue 18

This is a particularly pertinent focus as the European Parliament has recently voted on the Recast of the WEEE Directive.

Finally our biggest coup this issue is the sustainable transport feature from Dr Gerhard Prätorius, Head of Coordination CSR and Sustainability at Volkswagen Group who is discussing sustainable mobility. Who better for the task?

Also following considerable hard work there have been a few developments at Environment Industry Magazine, we have now almost completed the upgrades to the website and can now offer a much more instant coverage of the news and comments and we have painstakingly archived all the editorials ever published in Environment Industry Magazine. The website also has an events calendar so please send in your event dates to be listed. And there are many more online advertising opportunities.

We have also developed a weekly E-newsletter which is widely distributed across the industry.

On top of all that you can see our forward features list for 2012 on the website and our 2012 media pack giving you all the important stats regarding Environment Industry Magazine.

Take a look at www.environemntmagazine.co.uk and if you want to receive the newsletter email [email protected] , you can use this email for all the usual questions and comments as well.

Until Next time

Alex StaceyManaging Editor

PS. Check out the Environment Industry Magazine staff profiles on our contact us page!

Welcome to the latest issue of Environment Industry Magazine. How can we possibly be in February already?

Did January happen? Or did we just jump from December to now? Maybe leap year is a literal description and we are jumping from one significant date to the next, from New Year to Valentines then to Pancake Day and on to Easter, It will be Christmas again before we know it.

I can’t go through Christmas again already; I haven’t recovered financially or emotionally from the last one yet.....

Any way this issue of Environment Industry Magazine is nothing short of fantastic (as usual!) The highlights I humbly suggest include one of the best accounts of the Japanese Knotweed industry from Ian Graham, director of Complete Weed Control. In an industry of full of misinformation and scare mongering Ian has provided a clear and logical path, explaining the issues and dealing with the problems.

We are also honoured to have the thoughts on the environment from the great John Bird founder of the Big Issue on the Famous Last Words page.

The other big issue in this issue is the green deal and we have comment straight from the horse’s mouth, well, Greg Barkers mouth but I think Greg knows more about the green deal than a horse (even a really clever one). Greg’s editorial is supported by comment from Sean Lockie, director of sustainability at Faithful+Gould, and by the CEOs from SummitSkills, Construction Skills and Asset Skills making this edition of Environment Industry Magazine the key place to find out about the Green Deal.

It is also the 5 year anniversary of the implementation of the WEEE directive this year and appropriately we have dedicated our waste section of the magazine to looking at the past and future of the WEEE directive from the BIS Minister Mark Prisk and from Dr Philip Morton CEO Repic.

INTRODUCTION FROM THE EDITOR

ENVIRONMENT INDUSTRY MAGAZINE |1|

Alex StaceyTel: 0161 3410158Fax: 0161 7668997Email: [email protected]

EnviroMedia Limited, 254a Bury New Road,Whitefield, Manchester, M45 8QN

Environment Industry Magazine is proud to be the official media partner for the UK Sustainable Development Association.Every effort is made to verify all information published, but Environment Industry Magazine cannot accept responsibility for any errors or omissions or for any losses that may arise as a result. Opinions expressed in articles do not necessarily reflect those of EnviroMedia Ltd. Environment Industry Magazine welcomes contributions for publication. Submissions are accepted on the basis of full assignment of copyright to EnviroMedia Ltd unless otherwise agreed in advance and in writing. We reserve the right to edit items for reasons of space, clarity or legality.

CONSERVATION: PAGE 58 - 65Page 60 - 62 SAVE THE FROGS!, Dr. Kerry Kriger, Excutive Director, Save the Frogs Amphibian ConservationPage 63 - 65 The Truth About Knotweed, Ian Graham, Director, Complete Weed Control

NEWS: PAGE 4 - 33Page 4-33 NewsPage 30 Steve Grant ColumnPage 31 Chris Hines ColumnPage 32 - 33 Jason Drew Column

FOOD, AGRICULTURE & PACKAGING: PAGE 34 - 41Page 35 - 37 Packaging Innovations 2012 Show PreviewPage 38 - 39 Food Sustainability, Dr Charile ClutterbuckPage 40 - 41 Sustainable Packaging, David Bellamy, Environment Policy Manager, Food and Drink Federation

WATER: PAGE 50 - 57Page 52 - 54 Price Setting Consultation, Keith Mason, Director of Finance, Ofwat

Page 56 - 57 All I wanted for Christmas was....., Nick Reeves, Executive Director, CIWEM

WASTE MANAGEMENT: PAGE 42-49Page 44 - 47 WEEE Have the Recast, Philip Morton, CEO RepicPage 48 - 49 What WEEE can do, Mark Prisk, Minister of State for Business and Enterprise

GREEN BUILDING: PAGE 66 - 77Page 68 - 74 Ecobuild 2012 Show Preview

Page 76 - 77 Sustainable Homes, Alan Yates, Technical Director, Sustainability - BRE Global

CONTENTS

|2| ENVIRONMENT INDUSTRY MAGAZINE

MISCELLANY: PAGE 120 - 144Page 121 Environment Prosecutions

Page 122 - 123 Climate Week

Page 124 - 125 Mapping, Andy Fleetwood, Blom

Page 126 - 127 Education: Sarah Bentley, Chief Executive, Asset Skills

Page 128 - 129 Summit Skills

Page 130 - 131 Mark Farrar, Chief Executive, Construction Skills

Page 132 - 142 Case Studies

Page 139 - 140 Famous Last Words, John Bird, Editor, The Big Issue

TRANSPORT: PAGE 112-119Page 114 - 115 Sustainability and Mobility - 12 Theses, Gerhard Prätorius, Head of CSR and Sustainability at the Volkswagen Group.

Page 116 - 117 Changes to Low Emissions Zones in London, Ashley Sowerby, MD, Chevin Fleet Solutions

Page 118 - 119 Energy Efficiency of Road Vehicles, Prof. Wolfgang Steiger, Chairman, European Green Cars Initiative

ENERGY: PAGE 86-95Page 86 - 90 The Green Deal, Greg Barker, Energy and Climate Change Minister

Page 92- 94 The Green Deal – just how green a deal is it?, Sean Lockie, director of sustainability at Faithful+Gould

TIMBER: PAGE 78 - 84Page 79 - 80 Timber: A Sustainable Super Material For Our Times, John Kissock, Chairman, Wood For Good

Page 82 - 84 How the UK Timber Frame industry is adapting to the current market and how it is evolving to face ,future challenges, Simon Orrells, chairman of the UKTFA

LABS AND TESTING: PAGE 104-111Page 106 - 108 Black Carbon, Jim Mills, MD, Air Monitors

Page 109 - 111 Mercury In Soils, Jane Firth, LGC Standards

LAND MANAGEMENT: PAGE 96 - 103Page 98 - 100 The Additional Pollution Risks That Occur In Extreme Weather Conditions, Brian M Back; Chairman of Environmental Innovations Limited

Page 102 - 103 Can technological advancements help alleviate water scarcity?, Ian Grant, Managing Director, Brownfield Briefing.

CONTENTS


Melting planet means a change in direction for Mark WoodClimate change’s impact on the Arctic causes fundamental change to record breaking expedition

Explorer Mark Wood, who completed his solo journey to the South Pole on 10 January after 50 days alone on ice, is facing a major change to his record breaking expedition due to climate change’s impact on the Arctic ice cap.

For three years Mark has been planning his North South Solo Expedition, aiming to become the first person in history to solo ski both the South and North Geographic Poles consecutively.

He successfully reached the South Pole after experiencing temperatures of -25C and wind speeds of 27 mph. Mark coped with broken ski bindings and extreme isolation, losing three stone in body weight and half his left foot in the process. Remarkably he covered the 612 nautical miles in precisely 50 days as planned.

Mark ranks the South Pole challenge at four out of ten. In comparison, he always knew the North Pole would be the ultimate test - under the veil of complete darkness, with unpredictable melting ice and roaming polar bears - an undeniable ten out ten for toughness.

He knew the environment was his biggest opponent. What he didn’t plan on was that it might almost derail the expedition due to rising global temperature, causing a shortening of the polar seasons.Due to the uncertainty of the ice, Mark realised that his original intention to ski from Cape Discovery to the North Pole would almost certainly end in failure.

Not one to be defeated Mark has come up with a new plan, ensuring his record breaking expedition stays on track. Reversing the journey, his world-first attempt will now involve skiing the 500 nautical miles from the North Pole back towards Cape Discovery, reporting live from the Arctic on the state of the ice as he travels.“It was always my intention to use the expedition to raise awareness of climate change and experience the effects first hand, but I wasn’t prepared for the level of impact I’m learning about. The new reverse expedition gives me a unique opportunity to report on the changing state of the ice live from the Arctic,” explained Mark Wood.

The change to Mark’s expedition means he will briefly return to the UK, en route to the North Pole. This provides a unique opportunity for the media to meet Mark and learn first-hand about his

OCG Lighting, the LED specialists, launched the NeoBulb Escort ATEX. Designed specifically for industries that have to deal with explosives, extreme temperatures and ignitable particles, it offers a 70% energy saving compared to current solutions providing energy-intensive industries a simple and cost-effective mechanism for achieving challenging energy reduction targets. The NeoBulb Escort ATEX lighting fixtures bring all of the environmental benefits of high quality LED lighting – long, maintenance-free life, excellent efficiency and incredible durability – to heavy industry applications. Simon Leggett, OCG Lighting’s Managing Director said “From factories using dangerous explosives, to pharmaceutical facilities with harmful materials, to bakeries with flour-filled air, the NeoBulb Escort ATEX range has considerable potential in a range of industries.”


New contaminated land guidance putting public at risk, claims CIEH

The Chartered Institute of Environmental Health (CIEH) today criticised changes to government guidance which could see developers building on land currently considered contaminated. Under the Government’s proposals as much as 300,000 hectares of land would be covered by the new rules – an area the size of greater London and Manchester combined.

The contaminated land regime is administered in local authorities by the CIEH’s members – environmental health practitioners (EHPs).

The CIEH says that the guidelines would water down current science-based risk assessments, which could result in fewer sites being treated before they are built on. Other changes include introducing consideration of social and environmental costs into decisions which previously have been made on health grounds and a number of detailed amendments which will discourage authorities from declaring land to be ‘contaminated’.

According to the Government, local authorities’ powers have played a very important role in dealing with land contamination, but the original guidance failed adequately to explain how to decide if land is sufficiently contaminated to require clean-up or not. That has been a cause of uncertainty, which has been responsible for slow progress on some poor decisions.

The CIEH disagrees with this, placing that responsibility squarely back on the Government.

Commenting, Howard Price, CIEH Principal Policy, said:“The Statutory Guidance is not to blame here. Though 12 years have now passed, the Government has failed to produce the additional technical guidance it depends on. A further drag on activity has been that in the last year the Government agreed to fund a total of only 17 bids for site investigations. Changes in the new guidance appear collectively to raise the bar on what will qualify as ‘contaminated’ still without addressing the problem of making the line between that and ‘not contaminated’ any clearer. They may make developing some sites easier but at a lower standard of health protection.”

Recycling campaign proves WEEE-ly successfulA campaign launched by West Sussex County Council and Viridor has seen a massive increase in the amount of Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) recycling across Selsey.

Residents were encouraged to take their old and unwanted appliances to a mobile recycling bank in Selsey itself and the nearest Household Waste Recycling Site in Chichester.

Hannah Rogers, Senior Contracts Officer for waste for West Sussex County Council, said: “Recent research by WRAP indicated that people tend to hold on to their small electrical appliances, so we wanted to make it easy to get rid of old TVs and hairdryers that may be gathering dust.

“The Selsey trial is the second of a number of WEEE collection events in the county. The campaign was supported by the WEEE Local Project Fund, a government grant for local authorities from the department for Business, Innovation and Skills aimed at increasing WEEE recycling. We used the funding to design and manufacture an eye-catching container and to support a local communications campaign including leaflets and advertising.

“As well as Viridor, we also worked closely with Chichester District Council and PCS – Electrolink to make sure the approach was completely joined up.”

Bill Griffiths, Viridor’s Recycling Manager, said: “On top of the bespoke WEEE container and local promotion, what seemed really effective was providing a mobile service so that residents in rural areas didn’t have far to travel to access a recycling facility.

“In one day we received 208 televisions, 12 fridges and over three tonnes of small appliances. Overall the trial generated seven tonnes of WEEE, the same as some other districts in the county collect in an average month.”

West Sussex is now looking at rolling the trial out to other rural communities to help increase WEEE recycling in more parts of the county.



New European study to investigate methane production in livestock

The new, collaborative, large-scale project named ‘Ruminomics’ has been commissioned under the European Commission’s 7th Framework Programme: Food, Agriculture, Fisheries and Biotechnology.

The € 7.7 million four-year project is a partnership between 11 European organisations, and will be coordinated by Professor John Wallace of the Rowett Institute of Nutrition and Health at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland, UK.

The demand for livestock products is growing, and the health of the farming industry is vital to the sustainability of rural communities. Farm animals are however significant contributors to the emission of the ‘greenhouse gas’ methane, but there is still much uncertainty around how this happens.

Methane is produced by ruminant animals, such as cows, as an end product of the digestion of forages and concentrate feeds by microbes within the animal’s rumen (stomach). Ruminants also use feed protein inefficiently, leading to both pollution and to further greenhouse gas production. Therefore technologies that will lower these methane emissions - and improve the efficiency of feed - will form a key strategy in mitigating the environmental impact of the farming of ruminant livestock.

Professor Wallace explains the aims of the collaboration as follows: “Ruminomics aims to increase the efficiency - and decrease the environmental footprint - of the farming of ruminant livestock, and to significantly advance current knowledge in this sector. The project will exploit state-of-the-art technologies to understand how ruminant gastrointestinal microbial ecosystems - called microbiomes - are controlled by the host animal, and by their diet, and how this impacts on greenhouse gas emissions, efficiency and product quality.”

“Our aim with this ambitious project is to develop new models and tools to enable the livestock industry to reduce environmental impact from methane and nitrogen emissions, and to improve the nutritional efficiency of the feeds they are using.”

The Ruminomics research programme will include:• Alarge-scalegeneticstudyinvolving1,000dairycows,torelatefeed intake, digestion efficiency, milk production/composition and methane emissions to the ruminal microbiome and the host genome, leading to new indicators and tools for genetic selection.• Cow-reindeerstudiestoinvestigatehowhostspeciesinfluence ruminal microbiology and function. Studies of bovine twins will define how the rumen microbiome varies in host animals that are genetically identical.• Nutritionworkwillassesshowdietaryoils,nitrogenand carbohydrates affect the ruminal microbiome and product quality.• Protocolstoinvestigateruminalmicrobiomesmoreaccurately, rapidly and cheaply. Also a novel method for on-farm methane analysis will be refined for easy application.• Engagementandparticipationofstakeholders,toensurethat findings and new tools meet the needs of the farming industry..

TRANSITION TOWN FORRES IS WINNING WITH BIOMASS

Transition Town Forres (TTF), located in Moray, Scotland, is a community that raises awareness of sustainable living and building local ecological resilience for the future. Windhager UK has become a part of TTF by supplying biomass heating.

TTF is all about sustainability and CO2 accountability and so it comes as no surprise that Windhager’s FireWIN pellet boiler was specified. Located in the main activity space, FireWIN is to act not only as a room heater but also a focal point for the community.

The transition movement has grown to now encompass more than 300 villages, neighbourhoods, towns, islands, cities and even councils in the UK and several thousand “transition initiatives” have started worldwide.

Marie Jacques, TTF Chairman who has visited the Windhager factory in Austria, commented, “We needed a fast response heating system with flexible programming to meet the changing needs of TTF. The pellet boiler is as controllable as an oil or gas boiler and can be operated with the timer or by manual override as and when required. It needs the self-contained hopper filling every few days from the wood pellet store, which is accessible from within the building. It is quiet, efficient and has the advantage of being a visible example of the use of bio fuel.”

Burning wood pellets was another tick in the box for TTF. Burning pellets is CO2 neutral, which means they only emit the same amount of CO2 that the wood absorbed during its growth. Pellets do not contribute to the greenhouse effect and make a valuable contribution to protecting the environment. As well as the FireWin, TTF has two solar thermal panels that contribute to the domestic hot water via a 210-litre hot water cylinder.


ONZO’S SMART ENERGY KIT WINS THE RUSHLIGHT AWARDS 2011/12Eventure Media presented the 5th Rushlight Awards 2011 at a sumptuous Gala Dinner recently at the Assembly Hall at Church House Westminster, London. Attended by companies and organizations that are leading the way in clean technology, investors, city advisers, specialist and general media, trade associations and government departments, the dinner followed, for the third year, the very successful Rushlight Clean Technologies Show which took place at Central Hall Westminster, just across the road.

The key note speech at the dinner was given by Baroness Worthington, the Labour peer, climate campaigner and patron of the Weinberg Foundation.

Baroness Worthington said: “I like to quote Alan Kay – the man credited with the invention of the personal computer – he said ‘the best way to predict the future is to invent it’. And that is why everyone in this room is here tonight – you are all involved in inventing the future. And your future is one where your new sprockets and valves are making a real impact on reducing our dependency on fossil fuels and reducing greenhouse gases.”

The overall winner was Onzo Ltd who have developed a suite of innovative appliance detection algorithms which disaggregate household electricity consumption from a single source of electricity data into individual appliance consumption. The data source can be a clip-on sensor, such as the one in Onzo’s Smart Energy Kit, or a smart meter.

The judges commented: “Onzo has developed an intuitive product that creates valuable energy savings for its growing user base. The simplicity and reach of Onzo’s offering led the judges to select the company as the 2011 Rushlight Award winner.”

The group category winners were:1. Artemis Intelligent Power for their ultra-efficient Artemis Digital Displacement® hydraulic transmission system which has been scaled up to replace the problematic gearbox and power electronics used in conventional wind turbine drivelines. It provides a compact and robust power transmission with variable speed, grid fault resilience, low weight, modular design and much higher efficiencies than previously achieved with hydrostatic transmissions; 2. Nexeon Ltd have effectively addressed the life cycle issues associated with silicon used for anode coatings,

thereby enabling silicon’s strong affinity for lithium to be exploited in lithium ion batteries. This enables batteries to have greater power storage and to be smaller and lighter, thereby, inter alia, improving the performance of electric vehicles significantly; 3. Highview Power Storage who have developed and deployed the world’s first Cryogenic Energy Storage system using a novel system design and development of ‘asymmetric’ cold recycle and storage. The system can be scaled to 100MWs/GWhs of storage and it can harness low grade waste heat (sub 100°C) from industrial processes converting it to additional electricity. All the components are available from mature supply chains; 4. Ocean Resource Ltd for their carbon capture and storage and oil recovery enhancement solution which combines an autonomous high stability buoyant structure moored to an integrated gravity base and fluid riser, seabed injection wells, and a 45,000 tonne capacity liquid CO2 storage facility with an insulated loading system to enable liquid CO2 to be injected into a subsea reservoir to sequester the CO2 and/or to facilitate enhanced oil recovery or methane release for energy production; 5. Nextek Ltd who have developed and deployed the first closed loop process for food-grade post-consumer recycled propylene packaging. The technology uses a novel process to decontaminate the polypropylene involving a high temperature melt and a solid low temperature decontamination so that food-grade standards can be achieved, thereby enabling virgin polypropylene to be displaced.6. Advanced Plasma Power who have developed a unique two-stage gasification technology, Gasplasma, which enables the clean, efficient and sustainable conversion of waste-to-energy. The two well-proven technologies convert non-recyclable waste into a clean hydrogen-rich syngas and an inert vitrified product which can be used as a building material. This process is being used on the world’s first enhanced landfill mining project in the world.

1stPlace


Scottish photographer wins prestigious national award for image of Tidal TurbineProfessional photographer Mike Brookes Roper (www.mikebrookesroper.co.uk), of Skerray, near Thurso, Scotland has been announced winner of the EEF Heroes of Modern UK Manufacturing Photography Competition at EEF’s National Gala Dinner in London.His award winning image, which was judged National Winner, Best photograph by a professional photographer, captured the beauty of Scotland’s booming renewable energy industry.Photographers were challenged by EEF, the Manufacturers’ organisation, to capture the heroic people, products, places or processes that make UK manufacturing great. There were three entry categories for professional, amateur and young people aged 14-19.

His winning image captures the base of a 150kW Tidal Turbine now in operation in the Moray Firth, Scotland. The judges said: “This powerful image of a contemporary industry is well composed and makes good use of lighting, producing a very striking photograph.” Mike was runner-up in last year’s competition.

Image: Mike Brookes Roper (www.mikebrookesroper.co.uk)

WINTER NO OBSTACLE FOR NEW CHRONOLIA™ WEATHERMIX LAFARGE have launched a unique, new cold-busting concrete designed to set even at low temperatures.

Chronolia™ Weathermix can tolerate far colder conditions than standard concrete with an accelerated setting time to allow construction to continue even in wintry weather.

Nick Yell, product development manager in the Readymix division at Lafarge Aggregates & Concrete UK, said the product was a brand new innovation for the UK.


On 8th January 2012 a tiny ultra-light aircraft left Ljubljana in Slovenia on a mission

to circumvent the globe using the smallest amount of fuel per distance flown whilst recording ambient

levels of Black Carbon (BC) – one of the most important measures of air quality in terms of both human health and climate change. UK based particulate monitoring specialist Jim Mills from Air Monitors says the project, which is known as ‘GreenLight WorldFlight’, “is tremendously exciting because it will, for the first time, reveal data on Black Carbon over an enormous area, and such valuable temporal and spatial data will provide

greatly improved insight into the ways in which BC emissions could be addressed.”

‘GreenLight WorldFlight’ Designed and manufactured in Slovenia, the Pipistrel Virus aircraft is being piloted by Matevž Lenarčič, a biologist, environmentalist and photographer. The plane has been modified to include an aerosol inlet for an Aethalometer to measure aerosol Black Carbon. Measurements will be performed throughout the flight and will include regions where very little or no measurements have previously taken place,

including parts of Antarctica, Africa and over the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.

The Aethalometer was specially designed by the company Aerosol d.o.o. – the manufacturing and development facility behind the Magee Scientific Aethalometers. Magee Scientific is the US company that originally developed the aethalometer technology.

Dr. Griša Mocnik, Chief Scientific Officer and Director of Aerosol d.o.o.,says “The instrument was equipped with an isokinetic inlet and had to outperform almost anything we had made before; so far, it has measured very low levels over the oceans and sometimes surprisingly high concentrations of light absorbing aerosols over land. So the design was a tradeoff between measuring both low and high concentrations with no user intervention.

Plumes of pollution will be encountered and using back trajectories possible source regions will be identified. The results will therefore be not only the concentrations of black carbon at the elevation of the flight but also the source locations.”

The raw data with a time resolution of 30 min is available with a time delay of about a day at: www.cgsplus.si/portals/0/WGF/index.htm

Image: sz bobo

Solo flight tracks global Black Carbon


An expedition to one of the deepest places in the ocean has discovered one of the most enigmatic creatures in the deep sea - the ‘supergiant’ amphipod. Amphipods are a type of crustacean which are particularly common in the deep sea and are found in greater numbers the deeper you explore.

Typically deep sea amphipods are 2 to 3 centimetres long with the exception of the slightly larger ‘giant’ amphipod found in Antarctica which grows to 10cm. But scientists have discovered a ‘supergiant’ amphipod in waters north of New Zealand which dwarfs the Antarctic ‘giant’. The newly captured specimen measures 28cm – nearly ten times that of ‘normal’ amphipods. A ‘supergiant’ estimated at 34cm was also caught on film.

The discovery was made during a joint UK and New Zealand expedition to the Kermadec Trench, north of New Zealand, led by scientists from the University of Aberdeen and National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA). Also aboard NIWA’s research vessel Kaharoa were researchers from the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa and Whitman College, in America.Using specially built ultra-deep submergence technology designed by the University of Aberdeen’s Oceanlab, the team deployed a camera system and a large trap to depths ranging from 6900 to 9900 metres.At depths of approximately 7000 metres, the team were hoping to recover specimens of deep sea snailfish which they have photographed before, but have not been captured since the early 1950s.

Voyage leader, Dr Alan Jamieson from the University of Aberdeen’s Oceanlab, said: “The moment the traps came on deck we were elated at the sight of the snailfish as we have been after these fish for years.“However, seconds later, I stopped and thought ‘what on earth is that?’ whilst catching a glimpse of an amphipod far bigger than I ever thought possible. It’s a bit like finding a foot long cockroach.” ‘Supergiant’ is a term coined by American scientists in the early 1980s after a few large specimens were caught off the Hawaiian Islands.Despite a few infrequent findings in the 1970s, the supergiant amphipod has not been reported since and has faded into the realms of rare and mysterious deep sea creatures, until now.

These new sightings and specimens captured represent both the biggest whole specimen of supergiant ever caught and the deepest point these have ever been found. Seven specimens were caught in the trap and up to nine were photographed gathering around the camera system. The largest specimen caught was 28cm long while the largest seen by the camera was estimated at 34cm long.

Dr Ashley Rowden, from NIWA in Wellington, said: “It just goes to show that the more you look, the more you find.

“For such a large and conspicuous animal to go unnoticed for so long is just testament to how little we know about life in New Zealand’s most deep and unique habitat.”Dr Jamieson added: “The surprising thing is that we have already been to this deep trench twice and never come across these animals before.

“In fact a few days after the discovery we deployed all the equipment again on the same site and we didn’t photograph or capture a single supergiant; they were there for a day and gone the next.”

Now the challenge for the team is to determine whether these new samples are the same species as those from Hawaii, and then try to establish why, out of the hundreds of species of deep-sea amphipods, these ones have evolved to be so large.

Supergiant’ amphipods discovered 7 km deep


Ten items to recycle rather than send to landfill In a further bid to reduce the pressure on landfill sites, Waste King - the environmentally-friendly specialist collections, clearance and recycling company - has published a list of ten items which are recyclable but are, commonly, sent to landfill.

Waste King’s managing director, Glenn Currie, said: “Waste King guarantees to recycle at least 85 per cent of all the waste it collects and, for example, over the last four weeks, we’ve separated 23 tons of wood from mixed loads. If we hadn’t separated this wood, it would have gone to landfill but now it can be recycled, reducing the need to cut down even more trees and allowing 23 tons of materials that aren’t able to be recycled to go to landfill in its place.” “While Waste King is working hard to reduce the amount it sends to landfill, everyone can do their bit to ensure that only non-recyclable materials go to landfill,” commented Andy Cattigan, Waste King Co-director. “A great way to do this is to make a conscious effort to recycle ten types of material that often find their way to landfill sites.”

These ten common materials that are recyclable are:

1: Glass containers can be recycled into new glass containers over and over again. Recycled glass is also energy efficient since the process consumes 40% less energy than new production.

2: Paper - from newspaper to cardboard boxes, junk mail to grocery bags, recycling paper products helps in energy conservation, water efficiency and air quality. Every ton of recycled paper reduces the production of virgin paper and energy use by 4000 kilowatts, water use by 7000 gallons, and pollution by 60 pounds. The extra 17 trees are an added bonus!

3: Plastic bottles comprise over 10% of our landfills. So recycling plastic containers is an important step to helping reduce the waste going to landfill.

4: Aluminium cans take over 500 years to deteriorate – so recycling them is a less

polluting option than putting them into landfill.

5: Steel is recycled more than aluminium, paper and glass combined, since thousands of food products are sold in steel cans.

6: Dry cell batteries are used by the million in modern Western society. Each of these contains mercury, which is highly toxic.

7: E-waste. Computers, mobile phones and TVs use non-renewable resources to produce and may release hazardous substances into the environment if they are disposed improperly.

8: Motor oil is another item that can be recycled. A quart of motor oil can contaminate 2m gallons of clean water if not disposed properly. A truly recyclable product, motor oil can be refined again and again.

9: Leaves, grass clippings and other garden waste – which, of course, Nature designed to be recycled.

10: ‘Packaging’ comprises a third of all landfills. The more ‘things’ we buy, the more packaging we generate. Choosing products with minimal recyclable packaging will help to reduce damaging our environment.


UAE BANS PLASTIC PRODUCTS – EXCEPT

OXO-BIO PLASTICS

The United Arab Emirates have brought forward their ban on all disposable plastic products except

those made from oxo-biodegradable plastic, from next year to this year because of worries about plastic

pollution accumulating in the deserts and the sea, and its effect on the local wildlife. By Decree 77/5 plastic bags

and other plastic products had been prohibited as from 1st January 2013.

Oxo-biodegradable plastic, with its controlled lifespan and its ability to biodegrade completely either on land or water, has

proved popular across the Middle East and particularly in the UAE, where Symphony is an authorised supplier. This is a huge opportunity

for Symphony to supply a market estimated at 500,000 tonnes. Symphony is also making available its d2detector, a portable device

which can tell instantly whether a plastic product is oxo-biodegradable.

The Official Notice covers not just plastic bags, but all packaging and disposable articles made from plastic polymers derived from fossil-fuels.

These include but are not limited to, flexible shopping bags and semi-rigid plastic packaging for food, magazines, consumer-durables, garbage bags, bin-

liners for household use, shrink wrap, pallet wrap, cling film etc. and other articles normally used over short periods and subsequently discarded.

From now on, all plastic products will need an ECAS Registration Certificate issued by ESMA (Emirates Authority for Standardisation & Metrology). However, these will be

issued only for products made from oxo-bio plastic. These products must be made with pro-degradant additive from suppliers who have been audited by ESMA and they have to

comply with UAE Standard 5009 of 2009.

ESMA announced that plastic bags and other plastic products would be inspected at port-of-entry and that consignments without an ECAS Registration Certificate would be impounded and

appropriate action taken by the authorities.

ESMA will also conduct factory inspections to ensure full compliance of products being manufactured within the UAE.

BSRIA Cert has launched a new certification scheme that will benefit manufacturers and specifiers of weather louvres. This is the first ever louvre certification scheme that combines independent performance testing with factory production control (FPC) auditing. This will enable manufacturers to demonstrate the true performance of their louvres and provide confidence in their consistent production.

Chris Marney, Certification Manager at BSRIA Cert, said “Simply type testing weather louvres no longer provides adequate protection to customers, who can be disappointed as a result of misrepresented test results or inconsistent production. This scheme is all about knowing for sure how a product will perform, with clearly stated performance ratings and regular audits of factory production processes.”

The first weather louvre certified under the scheme is by Gilberts (Blackpool) Ltd. The BSRIA Cert mark will be used to promote the certified status of the Gilberts through use in sales literature and product labelling.

BSRIA Cert launches first ever certification scheme for weather louvres


Packaging professionals have named ‘Innocent’ their most admired brand for its environmental approach to packaging according to a new survey released recently.

The survey, put together by packaging trade show specialist’s easyFairs, questioned 289 packaging professionals, asking them a number of questions, of which one was to openly name a brand that they really admired for its green packaging approach. In response 10% suggested the ‘Innocent’ brand, followed by ‘Marks & Spencer’ (7%) and ‘Kenco’ (5%).

Matt Benyon, managing director at easyFairs UK and Ireland comments: “Innocent have made tremendous steps over the last few years in making their packaging better for the environment, from using food grade recycled plastic in their bottles, to making their cartons from 100% Forest Stewardship Council certified material. They also have a very strong sustainable packaging policy in place.”

He continues: “What impresses me most, is that we asked all those surveyed to name any brand they like, so to have 10% come back saying ‘Innocent’ is quite amazing, and just shows how Innocent get things right in not only the green packaging side of things, but conveying their green message across to its peers and consumers. A lot of companies are doing great things out there, just they don’t tell us, which is a real shame.”

Indeed, over a quarter (27%) surveyed, admitted that they were doing lots when it comes to environmental packaging but not shouting about it.

However, when asked what is driving their packaging decisions at the moment, top of the list was cost, with a huge 69% stating this. Over half (58%) also said that the tougher economic climate means they are less likely to introduce more environmentally sound packaging unless it saves them money as well.

This shows that there is still a battle between keeping costs to a minimum and improving environmental

performance of packaging for most professionals working in the industry.

Matt explains: “Our survey showed that 46% are interested in greener materials, but paying that bit extra for these materials is the problem. It’s a catch 22, companies need to keep costs down, but also understand the importance of having a proactive approach to environmental packaging. At the moment too many companies are still afraid to take that risk to switch to a greener solution, unless it costs them less, which in most cases is unlikely. We all know that Innocent is not the cheapest of products on the market, but it has educated the market place on environmental issues and how purchasing their products can help, which is why they have become so successful.”

Without a doubt issues that many professionals identify and agree with. For example, over a third (35%) said that it is the brand owner’s responsibility to educate consumers on the positive effect that environmental packaging has. 75% of those surveyed also admitted that it is the customer who is driving them to improve their green packaging and 66% said that their environmental performance was important to consumers of their products. It’s just delivering at a cost that works for them.

Matt comments: “I do think we’ve come a long way, and packaging professionals are doing a lot more than they ever have done compared to previous years to meet the ‘green’ demand from consumers. For example, we asked our respondents to be truly frank, and rate on a scale whether they could be doing any more to reduce the environment impact of their packaging, where 10 meant they couldn’t be doing anything more. 65% wrote down either 7 or above, which is very promising.”

Elsewhere the survey also showed that the toy industry is the most guilty of over-packaging, with 26% thinking this, whilst 61% thought that the cosmetics/perfumery/toiletries industries were the most innovative when it comes to packaging.

‘Innocent’ named as most admired brand for its environmental

proach to packaging


The UK’s most famous and successful member-owned and run social enterprise, The People’s Supermarket (TPS), has today announced that it is currently reviewing plans to support the opening of an upcoming store in Cardiff.

Plans for ‘Siop y Bobl’, Welsh for ‘The People’s Shop’ www.siopybobl.co.uk, are being coordinated by six enterprising volunteers from the local community and already has hundreds of potential members pledging their support. As Rebecca Clark from the Siop y Bobl core team summarises: “It’s great news that The People’s Supermarket is looking to support the opening of a store in Cardiff and make its first mark in Wales.

We have been hugely inspired by the success of the stores in London and hope to create an independent, people-powered alternative to supermarkets. This project is not just about opening another shop; it’s about creating a community around food, sustainability and happy, healthy living. It is as much abou¬t people as it is about food.”

Norbert Dentressangle has taken delivery of the very first road tractor to meet the Euro VI standards, two years before the new standards come into force.

The new Mercedes-Benz truck has a Blue Tec 6 engine, which reduces particle emissions by 50% and nitrogen oxide emissions by 77%. Always at the forefront of the race to minimise the environmental impact caused by trucks, Norbert Dentressangle has become the first transport company to test a EURO VI vehicle. Due to its policy of regularly updating its vehicles, Norbert Dentressangle already owns Europe’s cleanest fleet, with 90% of its trucks meeting Euro IV and V standards. The company also currently operates three diesel-electric hybrid vehicles - two 19-tonne Renault trucks and one 12-tonne Mercedes truck.

The Euro VI standards will be compulsory for all new heavy goods vehicles from 1 January 2014 and mark a new level in minimising pollution levels, in comparison to the current Euro V standards.

AWARD WINNING SOCIAL ENTERPRISE “THE PEOPLE’S SUPERMARKET” CURRENTLY REVIEWING PLANS FOR FIRST STORE IN WALES

The opening of ‘Siop y Bobl’ in Wales will be supported by the People’s Supermarket “Brick by Brick” campaign which will give the public the chance to buy a £1 ‘brick’, to fund future expansion. The People’s Supermarket is also offering the business community the opportunity to join the campaign, through sponsorship and their corporate social responsibility activities. TPS believes that the joining of these two communities will deliver a positive and lasting difference to people’s lives and the environment. Members of the public and supporters of The People’s Supermarket can buy their “bricks” online at www.thepeoplessupermarket.org

With full details for Cardiff People’s Supermarket yet to be fullyw confirmed, the announcement follows hard on the heels of a new site launch for a store in Hackney, East London. The People’s Supermarket offers a different business solution – one that is community driven, not solely commercially driven.

As Kate Bull CEO, The People’s Supermarket summarises: “The principle of the TPS is that it is “driven by the people for the people.” Having Siop y Bobl in Cardiff would be another example of the fulfilment of a close relationship with the local council, community and traders, which is an important step towards creating stronger, more sustainable cities. We are hoping to work with The Cardiff Siop y Bobl team to bring their plans to fruition in the near future.”

FIRST EVER EURO VI TRUCK.


45,000 birch, ash, rowan, hazel, oak and other native trees have been planted to create a new 60-acre Diamond Wood within the 600-acre Ffos Las land-holding. The work began last year when Prince Charles planted a commemorative oak during his visit to the racecourse. The new woodland at Ffos Las will not only provide a superb wildlife habitat and an attractive backdrop for the racetrack, it will also provide a sustainable local source of birch branches, which are used to construct the racecourse’s fences.

Georgina McLeod, Director of Jubilee Woods, said: “It’s fantastic that Racing for Change and racecourses across the country will be playing a part in helping the Woodland Trust to plant six million trees through its Jubilee Woods project. Horse racing has always been a big part of royal life and it is a fitting tribute to one of our longest reigning monarchs that racecourses across Britain will plant symbolic trees and woods to mark The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee.”

Rod Street, Chief Executive of Racing for Change, said: “In view of The Queen’s passion for horse racing, it seems very appropriate that each of Britain’s 60 racecourses should be celebrating Her Majesty’s Jubilee in such a meaningful way.”

All 60 of Britain’s racecourses will be marking the 60 years of The Queen’s reign by planting trees, coppices or Jubilee Woods as part of a national campaign by The Woodland Trust. The Jubilee Woods Project has set itself the goal of seeing six million trees planted in 2012, along with hundreds of new woodlands and 60 Diamond Woods of at least 60 acres.

The racing industry’s involvement will take in every racecourse in the country, from Perth in Scotland to Folkestone in Kent as well as the very aptly named Goodwood and Aintree race tracks. Much of the planting work will commence in February, assisting the charity’s ambitious plan of getting one million trees in the ground.

Stephen Atkin, Chief Executive of the Racecourse Association, said: “We are delighted that all racecourses are participating in the campaign. It is a mark of appreciation for the contribution The Queen makes to British horse racing as well as recognition of the importance of the environment and racecourses’ contribution to the wider community.”

Several racecourses have already started their planting programmes, with Sandown Park well on the way to completing an avenue of Acers within its grounds. Taunton Racecourse is supporting the Buckingham Palace backed initiative by planting a coppice of birch which will provide sustainable fence building materials in years to come. Amongst the others, Hexham Racecourse will be planting a copse of Royal oaks, creating a lasting legacy for the Northumberland track, while Haydock Park between Liverpool and Manchester is planting 400 trees and Huntingdon in Cambridgeshire 100. At Aintree, a tree will be planted close to the most famous fence that horses jump in the Grand National – Becher’s Brook.

One of the most ambitious projects is at Ffos Las in west Wales, Britain’s newest racecourse, where about

And it’s not just

Ain-tree and

Good-wood!

BRITAIN’S RACECOURSES

START TREE PLANTING FOR

THE JUBILEE


In its third Annual Review Forest Footprint Disclosure (FFD) highlights the business case for change in the way forests are used. The Review cites the risks and opportunities facing companies who, knowingly or unknowingly, cause deforestation through the use of ‘forest risk commodities’ (timber, cattle products, soy, palm oil and biofuels). The on-going participation of leading businesses in the disclosure scheme demonstrates that they recognise the operational, reputational and regulatory challenges they are exposed to, as well as the potential benefits of addressing them. However, while celebrating progress in this area, FFD is also keen to emphasise that although disclosure is a step in the right direction, in order to save forests companies urgently need to act upon the results to reduce their forest footprints.

“Whilst FFD welcomes the new disclosers this year, the time to act is now: there is a commercial imperative and the risks to the world’s forests are too great to wait. More companies need to wake up to the risks deforestation presents in their portfolios. Who wants to finance the destruction of life on earth, especially when it undermines wealth creation itself?” said FFD Chairman, Andrew Mitchell.

FFD praised those companies involved in its third disclosure report and particularly welcomed the addition of big brand names such as Johnson & Johnson, Tesco UK and The Walt Disney Company. The global reach of FFD has also expanded, with a significant increase in the participation of companies from developing markets: FFD is particularly pleased to note that Brazilian company Grupo André Maggi is a sector leader in this year’s Review. There was also greater participation from North American companies with Nike and Kimberly-Clark leading their respective sectors.

UK companies performed well, filling half of the sector leader spots with British Airways, Drax Group, Greenergy International, Marks and Spencer, J Sainsbury and Reed Elsevier all achieving recognition for the second consecutive year.

Speaking at the launch of the report, Theodore Roosevelt IV, Managing Director, Barclays Capital and Chair of the Pew Center on Global Climate Change, stated, “Together, we need to act to restore and maintain the world’s natural capital. The debate is moving on from the value of forests to the economic and business case for protecting them. Leading companies around the world have realised that eliminating deforestation from their operations and supply chains improves their sustainability and resilience and that it makes good business sense.”

However, it was not all good news – the Review highlights the ongoing lack of engagement by leading oil and gas companies, something especially shameful in light of their scale and available resources dedicated to environmental protection. BP, Chevron, ExxonMobil, ConocoPhillips, Royal Dutch Shell, Total and Valero Energy all failed to disclose in 2011 for the third year, and Petrobas (which was first invited to participate in 2010) for the second. However, Greenergy International Ltd, which led the sector and was also one of the most improved companies overall in terms of the depth of their disclosure, demonstrates that it can be done and is leading the way for others to follow.

Mitchell concluded, “Already, in our third year of operation, FFD is seeing good examples of corporate behaviour change from some of the largest companies in the world. We hope to inspire many more to switch to a more sustainable business model and look forward to working with more organisations in addressing their use of forest risk commodities.”

Forest Footprint Disclosure’s Third Annual Review highlights industry leaders in disclosing forest footprint

Big Business Recognises Risks and Opportunities of Forest Risk

Commodities


New research commissioned by Ofgem, as part of its Consumer First initiative, has provided yet more evidence that consumers want simpler and clearer energy information from suppliers.

The Consumer First Panel took part in a series of workshops run by Ipsos MORI. The panel supported the need for standardised and easily understood language on pricing and energy use information. Many also want to limit the number of tariffs to help them compare prices, and they want to see greater effort by energy suppliers to build relationships with their customers. The research also found that consumers want to see more done to:• helpcustomersunderstandhowtheycanuse information (e.g. about their personal energy use) to find the right tariff for them

Between 20% and 50% of all timber sold worldwide has been illegally sourced according to Projects Abroad – the world’s largest volunteering organisation.

“For many years the volume of timber taken from rainforests by far out-strips the rate of planting,” said Dr Peter Slowe, managing director of the UK-based Projects Abroad and a former economic policy advisor to Tony Blair who sits on Labour’s Finance and Industry Group. “When this is allied to illegal logging, worldwide deforestation will reach crisis point – beyond which restoration will be extremely difficult – at some time this year,” he said. Projects Abroad owns 476 hectares of Amazon rainforest which it runs as a reforestation and educational project. Many thousands of

volunteers, of all academic levels, have worked at the site which is at Taricaya in Peru.

“The average rotation of planting timber is only between 30 and 40 years which is not long enough for the trees to produce the volume of wood necessary to satisfy worldwide

requirements. This inevitably leads to continuing illegal ingress into the primary forest,” said Dr Slowe.

‘Chainsaw’ – a joint project between the World Bank and Interpol – reported last year that an area of the world’s rainforest the size of Austria was

illegally felled every twelve months. “The only way forward is through much stiffer timber security and for affluent western countries to pay

emerging nations to preserve their forests - probably under a scheme called Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation

(REDD),” said Dr Slowe. Deforestation accounts for very nearly a quarter of all the greenhouse gasses created by human activity each

year.

Projects Abroad has sent more than 41,000 volunteers to 27 different countries since its inception in 1992. Last year, they sent around 8,000 volunteers on

projects and are predicting an increase of at least 10% this year. Volunteers visiting Project Abroad’s Taricaya project are given the opportunity to take part in important

research work and biodiversity studies into all types of flora and fauna. Taricaya has South America’s highest canopy walkway, a freshwater turtle project, and a pilot farm.

• ensurethatsuppliercommunicationsareeasyto understand for all consumers• assurecustomersthatpotentialsavings/benefitscan be realised by switching to the right tariff for them.

Ofgem is currently consulting on proposals for a simpler, clearer more competitive energy market. It aims to improve transparency through simpler tariffs, new rules to improve and standardise information energy suppliers send customers in bills, annual energy statements and price increase notification letters and also tougher standards of conduct on suppliers.

Under Ofgem’s reforms consumers would be free to choose either standard tariffs with a standing charge set by Ofgem or non-standard tariffs which would be entirely set by suppliers. Ofgem is seeking views on how the standing charges for standard tariffs will be set.

FURTHER CONSUMER RESEARCH SUPPORTS NEED FOR

SIMPLER AND CLEARER INFORMATION FROM ENERGY

SUPPLIERS


Burnley solar firm expands after record £12m turnover

DAVEY PUTS ENERGY SAVING AT HEART OF STRATEGYA new offensive on cutting energy waste was launched by Edward Davey recently, with the creation of a dedicated team within DECC assembled to spearhead energy efficiency policy and make it more relevant to people’s everyday lives.The Energy and Climate Change Secretary recently unveiled details of the new Energy Efficiency Deployment Office (EEDO) at a meeting with industry leaders at The John Lewis Partnerships’ Peter Jones store on Sloane Square, London.

In his first speech as Secretary of State, Mr Davey said:“I’m hugely enthusiastic about energy efficiency. It’s the cheapest way of cutting carbon – and cutting bills for consumers. It has to be right at the heart of what we do. EEDO will be a centre of expertise, challenging our work and making energy efficiency real and relevant to people’s everyday lives. Two out of three consumers think their home is wasting energy, but only one in three is going to do anything about it. That has to change. We need to get out there and show people what energy efficiency can really do for them.

“The Green Deal will play a huge part in this work and will also support jobs in the insulation and construction industries – as many as 65,000 right across the country by 2015. It can help us deliver a fairer, greener economy, and help us get young people back into work – or into work for the first time. The UK has some of the most inefficient housing stock in the EU. But getting this right means as a nation we make energy savings over the next decade equivalent to two nuclear power stations while making everyone’s homes warmer and cheaper to run.”

The 50-strong team, which will be based at DECC’s headquarters in London, will pull together expertise from across the Department. EEDO staff will continue to support the delivery of the Green Deal, the rollout of smart meters and the increase in renewable heat as well as developing a new energy efficiency strategy to identify the potential for further energy efficiency across the economy.

Burnley solar panel company Solarlec has expanded its installation capacity after announcing a £12m turnover for last year.

Solarlec, who predicted a turnover of £7m earlier in the year, has recruited further staff to its installation teams after experiencing a sharp rise in demand for solar installations towards the end of 2011 following the failure of government plans to reduce the subsidies paid to homeowners who generate their own energy through solar panels.

The company, which sold more than 1,000 solar systems last year, has fitting teams working across the UK to complete the majority of solar panel installations within a day. The extra staff will enable Solarlec to take on a higher volume of projects, including large scale commercial installations.

The surge in demand for solar panels came last November after the government announced plans to halve payments made to households and businesses who generate their own renewable energy through solar panels.Last month, the Court of Appeal ruled that the government acted unlawfully by introducing the lower rate before the end of the consultation period, so the high rate is potentially still available for systems registered by 3 March 2012, subject to a further government appeal.

Solarlec director Ged Rowbottom said: “Creating local jobs and making a positive impact on Burnley’s economic outlook is a fundamental part of our business. Despite a difficult financial climate and challenging circumstances throughout 2011 we were able to build a strong and constantly evolving business – we look forward to a successful 2012.”


The bulk of the UK’s banking industry has such a massively negative global impact on both people and the environment that it is easily the most unethical sector in the British economy.

This accusation comes from Ethical Consumer which has published its latest banking report. In it the environmental and ethical record of over 40 of the UK’s leading high street financial institutions are rated against 23 different ethical and environmental criteria.

The results reveal that the vast majority of the UK’s banks are the least ethical companies in the country, making the banking sector as a whole the most unethical industry in the UK.

The report contains detailed and damning accounts about how the UK’s banks are involved in every form of contemporary corporate malpractice including tax avoidance, commodity speculation, greenwash and investments in climate changing industries.

Co-author of the Ethical Consumer Banking Report Rob Harrison said:“The 85 per cent of the UK’s population that bank with the Big Five banks will be appalled to learn that their money is being used to support a corporate culture that stands accused of everything from tax avoidance to exacerbating global hunger.”

The report also contains buyers’ guides that give details of ethical alternatives to current and savings accounts, cash ISAs and mortgages. Ethical Consumer’s recommended Best Buys for these products include:Current accounts: Co-op Bank, smile.co.uk, the Coventry, Cumberland, Norwich & Peterborough, Leeds and Nationwide building societies plus 24 credit unions Savings accounts + cash ISAs: Charity Bank, Ecology Building Society and Triodos Bank

Mortgages: Ecology Building Society followed by all 57 of the UK’s building societies + Co-op Bank

Co-author of the Ethical Consumer Banking Report Rob Harrison said:“The big financial institutions have completely lost their way on the whole issue of sustainability because their attention has been focussed on the global financial crisis. Whilst this is understandable it is still nonetheless unacceptable.”

“Our report into personal ethical banking shows that there is an alternative to the current flawed banking system, one which is just, fair and sustainable.”The Buyers’ Guides to personal ethical banking underpin a new Move Your Money campaign which has recently been launched.

Supported by a coalition of groups including wwCo-operatives UK, Ethical Consumer and the New Economics Foundation, Move Your Money is encouraging people to move their accounts from the failed and disgraced Big Banks to more ethical alternatives. The focus of the campaign is to get people to move their accounts next month in March.

Co-author of the Ethical Consumer Banking Report Rob Harrison said:“It is abundantly clear that neither the banking sector nor the government have any interest in overhauling the current flawed banking system. It therefore falls to us as consumers to build a better banking system for ourselves which is why we are now encouraging people to move their money to more ethical alternatives.”

‘UK BANKING: THE MOST UNETHICAL INDUSTRY IN BRITISH ECONOMY’


Computer Aid International, the world’s largest ICT for development charity, has announced that Ensoft, a UK company that develops software used within the internet and large corporate networks, has donated funds for three ZubaBoxes to educational and rural development projects in Zambia, Zimbabwe and Nigeria.

Computer Aid’s ZubaBox is a solar powered ICT hub fitted into a shipping container, designed to provide low power computing solutions to communities that do not have access to mains electricity or ICT. As a self-contained unit that is powered by solar, the ZubaBox can be deployed to the most rural and isolated communities anywhere in the world.

The ZubaBoxes will be sent to three not-for-profit organisations that work to improve education, health and economic opportunities in Africa. The projects are as follows:

Economic growth in Nigeria: The Murtala Muhammed Foundation is a non-profit organisation dedicated to improving the quality of life of Africans. The ZubaBox will be used by two schools in Taraba State. As well as being accessed by children and teachers in these schools, the ZubaBox will be available for use by the local community. Children and adults will receive training in computer literacy and benefit from the increased educational and economic benefits which the computers and online connectivity will bring.

Rural development in Zambia: Macha Works is a locally-led cooperative in rural Zambia that has built the largest rural wireless mesh network in Sub-Saharan Africa. In an area where internet access is only affordable to 1% of the population, the project has already enabled an entire community to benefit from low-cost internet access. The ZubaBox will help extend the benefits of ICT to neighbouring communities and will be used by health professionals, farmers, entrepreneurs and schools.

Improving education in Zimbabwe: UNESCO’s Madziwa Secondary School is located 26km outside of Chipange, Zimbabwe. Schools in the area do not have access to mains electricity but, with the ZubaBox, teachers from Madziwa and the surrounding schools will be able to access computers and e-learning materials while children will have the opportunity to learn the IT skills necessary for them to gain higher paid employment in the future.

John Cooper, Chairman at Ensoft, says “Ensoft works hard to drive the IT industry forward, benefitting users in the UK and across the world. However, our employees strongly feel that we should do more to help the many millions of people that do not have access to IT and the internet at all. Computer Aid’s experience in reducing poverty through technology makes them an ideal charity partner for us.”

Anja ffrench, Director of Communications at Computer Aid, says “We are excited to be working with Ensoft as the first corporate partner for our ZubaBox project and their support has helped us to provide not just one, but three ZubaBoxes to not-for-profit organisations across Africa. ICT is an essential tool for empowering communities and reducing poverty and Ensoft’s donation will bring the benefits of ICT to remote communities in Zambia, Zimbabwe and Nigeria. These ZubaBoxes will enable children to gain the IT skills they need for higher paid employment in the future, entrepreneurs and farmers can share knowledge and access new markets, while doctors and nurses can access the information and e-training needed for improved healthcare provision.

“Few rural communities in Africa currently have the infrastructure or resources required for ICT use. With Ensoft’s support, the ZubaBoxes will enable three communities to overcome these barriers.”

Ensoft and Computer Aid provide three ZubaBoxes to rural Zambia, Zimbabwe and NigeriaNew Ensoft and Computer Aid partnership delivers solar powered ICT to schools and community organisations in Africa


The Government has announced plans to ensure the future of the Feed-in Tariffs scheme to make it more predictable. Transparency, longevity and certainty are at the heart of the new improved scheme. The reforms will provide greater confidence to consumers and industry investing in exciting renewable technologies such as solar power, anaerobic digestion, micro-CHP, wind and hydro power.

The Feed-in Tariffs (FITs) scheme provides a subsidy, paid for by all consumers through their energy bills, enabling small scale renewable and low carbon technologies to compete against higher carbon forms of electricity generation. The surge of solar PV installations in the latter part of last year, due to a 45% reduction in estimated installation costs since 2009, has placed a huge strain on the FITs budget.

Climate Change Minister Greg Barker said:

“We are announcing plans to improve the Feed-in Tariffs scheme. Instead of a scheme for the few the new improved scheme will deliver for the many. Our new plans will see almost two and a half times more installations than originally projected by 2015 which is good news for the sustainable growth of the industry. We are proposing a more predictable and transparent scheme as the costs of technologies fall, ensuring a long term, predictable rate of return that will closely track changes in prices and deployment.

“I want to see a bright and vibrant future for small scale renewables in the UK and allow each of the technologies to reach their potential where they can get to a point where they can stand on their own two feet without the need for subsidy sooner rather than later.”

A better FIT scheme for consumers and communities

•Atariffof21p/kWhwilltakeeffectfrom1stAprilthisyear for domestic-size solar panels with an eligibility date on or after 3rd March 2012. Other tariff reductions apply for larger installations.

•TheDepartmenthaslistenedcarefullytofeedbackonthe energy efficiency proposals that we put forward in the

consultation of 31st October. Properties installing solar panels on or after 1st April this year will be required to produce an Energy Performance Certificate rating of ‘D’ or above to qualify for a full FIT. The previous proposals for a ‘C’ rating or a commitment for all Green Deal measures to be installed was seen as impractical at this stage. We estimate that about half of all properties are already eligible for a ‘D’ rating.

•From1stApril2012,new‘multi-installation’tariffrates set at 80% of the standard tariffs will be introduced for solar PV installations where a single individual or organisation is already receiving FITs for other solar PV installations. This reflects the lower costs of such installations, as they benefit from the economies of scale. Based on the feedback received, the threshold is set at more than 25 installations. Individuals or organisations with 25 or fewer installations will still be eligible for the individual rate. DECC is now consulting on a proposal that social housing, community projects and distributed energy schemes be exempt from these multi-installation tariff rates.

•Thetariffformicro-CHPinstallationswillbeincreasedto recognise the benefits this technology could bring and to encourage its development.

A better FIT scheme for industry

•InlinewiththeevidenceoffallingcostsforsolarPV,DECC is proposing to peg the subsidy levels to cost reductions and industry growth to provide more certainty for future investments. This will ensure that subsidy levels keep in step with the market. It builds on the best of the existing German system and will remove the need for emergency reviews.

•Usingbudgetflexibilitytocovertheoverspendresultingfrom high PV uptake this year, while still allowing £460 million for new installations over the Spending Review period. This won’t have any impact on consumer bills beyond the agreed overall cap on renewable subsidies as it will primarily be funded from an under spend on the budget allocated for large-scale renewables.

IMPROVEMENTS TO FEED-IN TARIFFS SCHEME

Image copyright to DebbieMous|24| ENVIRONMENT INDUSTRY MAGAZINE

The Heritage Lottery Fund has backed a partnership between Hampshire & Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust and Sussex Wildlife Trust by awarding a grant of £412,400 for a new project called Making Waves.

The three year scheme aims to foster a greater sense of responsibility amongst the public for the protection of our seas and has been timed to coincide with government identification of new Marine Conservation Zones (MCZs – due to be designated from 2013) under the Marine and Coastal Access Act 2009. Making Waves will see a wide range of activities planned to help people learn about the wonderful wildlife and natural marine habitats of the Solent and Eastern English Channel.Richard Benyon MP, Environment Minister, supported the project, commenting:

“I am delighted that Hampshire & Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust and Sussex Wildlife Trust have been given this grant. I am always keen that there are as many opportunities as possible for people to learn about wildlife and the marine environment especially along such a unique stretch of England’s coastline.”Lisa Chilton, Head of People & Wildlife, Hampshire & Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust, explained how important the new scheme will be:

“The wildlife beneath the waves of our region is so colourful, beautiful, weird and wonderful that much of it wouldn’t look out of place on a tropical coral reef. There are dainty seahorses, exquisite slugs and even fish with fingers! Few people are aware of this hidden world, and even fewer have had the chance to explore it – so it is perhaps not

surprising that our seas haven’t been properly protected. Making Waves will help change that. We’re going to develop a variety of techniques and media to ‘immerse’ people in the marine environment and encourage them to conserve it into the future.”

Making Waves will involve all ages, with a particular focus on new audiences such as young people in coastal as well as urban, rural and inland areas. Two project officers will be employed, one to work with each Trust, to run a co-ordinated regional maritime learning programme to engage diverse audiences. The scheme will target Southampton, the Isle of Wight, Havant/ Emsworth, Brighton and Pebsham/ Hastings and St Leonards in Year 1; and in Years 2 and 3 Lymington, North Hampshire, Portsmouth, Gosport, Selsey, Bognor Regis, Littlehampton, Worthing, Crawley and Seaford/Newhaven.

UK waters are home to thousands of different plant and animal species. Some of the UK’s most diverse and important marine habitats are to be found in South East England, and over 50% of the region’s wildlife resides beneath the sea or on the shoreline. The Isle of Wight Needles and Sussex’s Seven Sisters chalk cliffs continue under the sea where rare sea caves and other formations host soft corals, sponges, molluscs, crabs and fish. In the

Making Waves to protect our seas: HLF backs Wildlife Trusts’

call to action

Coryphella SeaSlug credited by Paul Naylor


Solent, sheltered estuaries provide ideal habitats for nationally scarce sea grass plants which act as nursery grounds for many species whilst reducing coastal

erosion, filtering water pollutants, and absorbing significant amounts of carbon dioxide. These estuaries are also important habitats for visiting and resident wildfowl and waders, and a population of harbour seals. Further offshore, massive sub-sea sand dunes are important areas for sand eels, bass, flatfish, sharks and rays. Stuart McLeod, Head of the Heritage Lottery Fund for South East England, said:

“A key part of this project will be to positively engage people, target new audiences, and break down negative barriers to marine conservation. To

many, the sea is an alien environment. New government measures aim to bring in imminent conservation measures for our seas and promote greater public

engagement. Making Waves will play a vital role in this process to protect our seas and will offer people from all walks of life a chance to get involved.”

Activities planned include: • anewmarineoutreachserviceforschools• a programme of staff, volunteer, teacher and group leader training, including new opportunities for volunteers to get involved• anextensiveprogrammeofeventsforfamiliesandadultsincoastalandinlandlocationsandonkeytourist routes – including 28 family learning events, practical workshops and road shows • 20 pop up exhibitions in different locations• anintergenerationaloralhistoryprojectexploringpeople’srelationshipwiththesea• high quality interpretation materials including a DVD for screening on board ferries, and boat trips with live underwater footage• newmarineheritagewebcontentincludinglivediscussionswithmarineexperts• a marine learning conference at the end of the project

Making Waves has been devised by Hampshire & Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust and Sussex Wildlife Trust in response to a survey by Natural England in 2007 that found a lack of public awareness of the marine environment, with over 44% of respondents thinking that the sea was generally barren in their region. This three year project will contribute to the Living Seas strategy of the 47 Wildlife Trusts in the UK which includes the objective of helping people to understand and value this natural environment

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Torishima (Europe) Projects Ltd (TEP) will play its part in the London 2012 Olympic Games after securing an order with a leading drinks manufacturer.

Torishima has been chosen to refurbish boilerhouse and steam systems, leading to a double-digit energy saving in this area of the company’s plant because of increased boiler efficiency, heat recovery and associated practices.The project will deliver robust processes to support the anticipated peak production period associated with the Olympics, one of the most significant events in London’s history.

Meanwhile, Torishima’s expertise in renewable energy and carbon reduction has also led to an exciting partnership with Galliford Try Meica and Black & Veatch

ENGINEERING COMPANY HELPS FUEL THE OLYMPICS

to deliver state-of-the-art steam bioenergy systems that utilize the bio-gas produced at four strategic Anglian Water sites across Essex and Suffolk.

Torishima has a proven track record in the Water and Waste management industries - Wessex Water is another notable client - as well as operating in the Food and Healthcare sectors.

Guy Forrest-Hay, Torishima (Europe) Projects Ltd Business Development Manager, said: “We are delighted to be working on such high-profile projects for these prestigious clients, with a key focus on delivering carbon reduction.”


TALES FROM THE

Advanced Plasma Power celebrates double win at Rushlight Awards 2012

Advanced Plasma Power (APP), the leading UK based advanced conversion waste-to-energy technology company, today announces that it has been recognised by the Rushlight Awards, the well respected clean-tech industry awards which celebrate the very best technologies and innovation in the environmental sector.

The company received two accolades at the recent awards ceremony; the Environmental Management Award and the Clean Environment Award.

The Environmental Management Award, one of the few coveted ‘Judge’s Prizes’, voted for by a panel of highly respected figures from academia, politics and the energy sector, was awarded to APP from a shortlist of other award winners. The award recognises the technology that has done the most to reduce the environmental impact of a product or service. APP’s innovative Gasplasma® process turns refuse derived fuel into clean syngas and a solid, vitrified product, leaving no waste residues.

Confirmation of Board Appointment at Grantham Engineering

Grantham Engineering Limited, manufacturers of the Invicta range of industrial vibrators, has confirmed the appointment of Huw Williams as Technical Director. He will be responsible for all aspects of the design, specification and industrial application of the Company’s rotary electric, rotary hydraulic and pneumatic piston vibrators. The appointment releases the former technical director, Phil Turley, to take up the newly created post of Research and Development Director.

Grantham Engineering is confident that these board changes will greatly strengthen its management team, and reinforce its already strong position as a successful manufacturing company in the field of industrial vibration.

MAJ OFFICER RETURNS WITH DOCTORATE IN MARINE POLICY

The Maritime Authority of Jamaica is delighted to announce the return of its Director of Shipping Policy Eric Deans who has completed a Ph.D in Marine Policy at the University of Delaware.

Dr Deans is well known throughout the shipping industry and has worked for the Maritime Authority of Jamaica (MAJ) for 11 years. In February he resumes his responsibility as Director of Shipping Policy and Research and Registrar General for the Maritime Authority of Jamaica, which was administered in his absence by Mr Seymour Harley, who now returns to his role as Registrar of Ships.

New Ops Manager for Sunersol

West Yorkshire based waste recycling company, Sunersol, has appointed Simon Boyd to be its new Operations Manager. Simon, formerly of EnvironCom England and Viridor Waste Management, was the ideal candidate as in previous roles he has improved production throughput based on reconfiguration of production processes and project managed the relocation of a business. He also brings a raft of knowledge on recycling and reuse of WEEE along with substantial operational experience for material received from council HWRC sites and commercial collections. With Sunersol’s additional 35,000 square foot warehouse opening for its reuse solutions in the next few months, his knowledge and experience will be a great addition to the expanding management team and new client contracts.

New face to make garden blossomA greater profile and new direction are on the way for one of Aberdeen’s hidden horticultural treasures thanks to a new appointment.

Leading horticulturalist Mark Paterson - who was a key figure at the highly acclaimed Eden Project in Cornwall - has joined the University of Aberdeen to take up the post of Curator of the Cruickshank Botanic Garden. The 40-year-old, whose gardening career has taken him around the world, is delighted to be relocating to Scotland.

“The Cruickshank Botanic Garden is the most northerly botanic garden in Britain and it is very special,” said Mark, who is originally from Canada. “The University of Aberdeen really has a jewel in the crown with Cruickshank.”

Before moving to Aberdeen, Mark managed the tertiary education programme at Eden and prior to that headed up its 35-strong team of guides. Mark’s horticultural career has also included spells in Canada, Australia and the Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew, London as well as Threave Gardens in Castle Douglas.

At the Institute of Water’s Welsh Area Innovation Awards 2011, Pulsar’s unique Quantum 2 Pump Station Controller scooped the Product Award. Non-contacting ultrasonic device Quantum 2 is one of a new generation of pump station management devices; offering a range of sophisticated control functions that save money, energy and effort for water and waste companies.

Quantum 2 was also awarded a Highly Commended certificate at the Wales Quality Innovation Awards held in December.


WATERCOOLER....

DIRECTOR APPOINTMENT MARKS MILESTONE FOR NATIONAL SKILLS ACADEMY

The National Skills Academy for Environmental Technologies has marked a major milestone in its development – the appointment of its first executive director, Dr Cathryn Hickey.The Skills Academy is a national network of accredited training providers, set up by SummitSkills in spring 2011 to enable the building services engineering sector to upskill its operatives and meet demand for environmental technologies. The appointment of its executive director puts the Academy firmly on the way to becoming an independent organisation and provides the strong direction it will need in order to improve the quality of training for employees across the sector.

Cathryn Hickey’s previous roles include operations director for SummitSkills, as well as roles with Learndirect and Shell UK. Her experience in strategic and operational leadership will guide the Skills Academy as it continues to strengthen its network of training providers and establish itself in the sector.

GeoPlace wins Best Project Delivery at UK Public Sector Digital Awards

GeoPlace is honoured to be one of two winners of the Best Project Delivery category at the 2011 UK Public Sector Digital Awards for the development and delivery of the National Address Gazetteer Database. GeoPlace was presented with the award alongside Surrey County Council for their separate e-safeguarding project.

The award was presented by Joe Harley, CBE, CIO, for the UK Government and CIO and Director General for the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP). The prestigious awards ceremony – the primary technology awards event for the public sector - celebrates excellence in ICT enabled service delivery across all sectors of government. There were eleven categories in total covering current IT innovation and best practice technology implementation at all levels of government.

GeoPlace is a public sector limited liability partnership between the Local Government Association and Ordnance Survey. Combining data from local authorities, Ordnance Survey, the Valuation Office and Royal Mail, the aim of the National Address Gazetteer Database is to provide one definitive source of publicly owned spatial address data.

Johnson Tiles shines in EEF Future Manufacturing Awards

Stoke-on-Trent’s Johnson Tiles has won a prestigious national business award for its excellence in sustainable manufacturing.

The ceramic wall and floor tiles manufacturer beat regional finalists from across the UK to win the national EEF Environmental Efficiency Award, presented by sponsor ENER-G at a gala dinner in London.

Johnson Tiles’ rigorous environmental efficiency programme has paired massive savings in energy and water usage with a recycling scheme that prevents more than 20,000 tonnes of waste being sent to landfill each year.

The company introduced continuous improvement teams to assess and resolve environmental issues, helping to shrink the manufacturing and operational carbon footprint of the company’s Stoke premises from 37,824 tonnes in 2009 to 34,888 tonnes in 2010, a reduction of 8% against a target reduction of 3%.

As a result of changes in operational procedures implemented by the continuous improvement teams to reduce water usage, 43,000 cubic metres of water a year are re-used in other processes. Electricity consumption has also been reduced by the increased use of proximity switches and low energy and LED lighting. The overall flue gas emissions to the atmosphere have been reduced by over 90% since the installation of new kilns, resulting in improved air quality.

Joint Director of Environment appointed

Southampton City Council and Isle of Wight Council have appointed a joint director of Environment.

Stuart Love, the current director of economy and the environment for the Isle of Wight Council has been appointed to the joint role in a move which will save Southampton City Council £250,000 over three years.

It follows a decision by the councils last year to work more closely together to benefit their respective communities.

As part of the role, which is for an initial six month trial period, Mr Love will help maintain and improve quality services in the Environment areas of both councils, and will also work to identify other savings for both authorities through further co-working.

LRS Consultancy strengthens senior management team

LRS, the resource management consultancy, has made two senior appointments to support the company’s next stage of growth and development. Claudia Amos, who has twelve years experience in providing technical and commercial advice on infrastructure projects throughout the waste hierarchy and renewables sector, and Samantha Dunn, who is a specialist in sustainable supply chain management, have joined the team as Principal Consultants from February.

Their appointments will see LRS extend their existing service offer into producer responsibility and develop its infrastructure and investment offer to ensure that the full resource loop is supported. These two new appointments follow the recruitment of Paul Levett, former Deputy Chief Executive of Veolia Environmental Services UK, who joined LRS Consultancy Ltd as Chairman of the Board in October last year.


The necessary bottle?So who is this Ed Davey chap? Following Chris Huhne’s departure (a case of a woman scorned, if ever there was), our wise leaders had to find a new Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change. The essential credential was not to find a person with some knowledge and experience – never mind commitment – to the issues over which he or she would be presiding, but that the person would be a Liberal MP in order to maintain the status quo.

That cuts the options down somewhat, but at least the Liberal cohort can certainly be said to be the most vociferously verdant group in the house at the moment.

So why Ed Davey?

Well – it’s probably a case of why not? He’s an eminently bright guy, a first from Oxford in Politics, Philosophy and Economics and then more or less straight into politics: his first job was as an economics researcher for the LibDems. He was appointed the party’s senior economics advisor and took charge of costing the party’s 1992 manifesto. Hardly a career highlight, but there we are.

In ‘93, he left the hallowed palace, not altogether unsurprisingly following the ‘92 election. However, to be fair, the chap was still an idealistic 27 year old whose commercial and ‘real world’ experience amounted to very little indeed. He went on to join a company called Omega Partners, where he worked on strategic marketing analysis and business forecasting for various postal services. Two years later, he was chosen as the prospective candidate for Kingston & Surbiton, which he won in ‘97 and again in 2001 with a huge swing. By all accounts, he is a good and popular constituency MP – something that most would, I hope, regard as a real credential.

Whilst an MP, he’s done various jobs ranging from Economic Affairs Spokesman under Paddy Ashdown, and then No.2 in the treasury team under Charles Kennedy. From 2002 to 2005 he was in the Shadow Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, a short spell as Shadow Education secretary 2005 to 2006, Chair of the Campaigns and Communications Committee from 2006 to 2010, Shadow Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs and before this appointment, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills.

Not a lot of climate change or energy there, although one would imagine there would have at least been some exposure to the issues in his last job.

So what of his personal profile? Do we see any suitable credentials there?

Well – not as far as I can establish in the period between his appointment and penning this article, which to be fair is only a matter of a couple of days. It’s therefore understandable that he hasn’t been available for a natter on the phone, but on edwarddavey.co.uk he cites his ‘strong views on the environment’ as what ‘pushed him into becoming politically active and joining the Liberal Democrats’. On the party site, it states he was active in an ‘environmental campaigning group’ at Oxford.

So – our new Secretary of State seems like an all round good egg. Chris Huhne was a fairly heavyweight politician who mounted a robust defence of green policies against an ever louder clamour for them to be watered down. Whether or not Ed Davey is of a similar mettle is yet to be seen, but there is little doubt that he faces a considerable task. The Treasury seems to be losing the plot of green economics altogether, and that is hardly going to help the UK be the ‘world leader in green industries’ promised by Cleggy & Cam. The ‘hundreds of thousands of newly created green jobs’ remains some way away, and the recent debacle over the feed-in tariff is hardly encouraging. ‘Meeting and exceeding’ EU targets? Billions of pounds of investment? Well…

He’s off to a good and innovative start by pledging to tackle rising energy bills through combined purchasing, and has hinted that he intends to continue with Chris Huhne’s plans to increase onshore wind farms, even as 100 Conservative MPs signed a letter urging the opposite.

And herein lies the rub. His major task isn’t going to be dealing with the issues themselves, but keeping them on the agenda in the face of an increasingly hostile combination of backbenchers, cabinet colleagues and elements of the right wing press. He certainly has ‘bottle’ - he received a Royal Humane Society Award for rescuing a woman from the path of an oncoming train at Clapham, and I wager that few have what it takes to do that.

He’s already set out his stall – stating that he was committed to “a green economy where there’s lots of green jobs to help growth in our economy. I am determined to work to follow on Chris’ priorities, the Liberal Democrats’ priorities, the Coalition government’s priorities and make them my priorities. I want us to have a green economy where there’s lots of green jobs to help growth in our economy.”

I wish him the very best - for all our sakes.

[email protected]


We’ve all heard those statistics before: • Sevententhsoftheplanet’ssurfaceiscoveredin water.• Ashumanbeingswearebornnearlyeightypercent water, slowly reducing with age to between fifty-five and sixty percent.

Water is fundamental to life and other statistics show what happens when we don’t have access to that core of life or we disrespect our water:• Nearlyonebillionpeopledon’thaveaccesstoclean drinking water.• Nearlytwobillionpeoplelackadequatesanitation.• Onechilddieseverytwentysecondsfromawater related disease.• TheMurrayRiverinAustralianowattimesfailsto reach the sea and the Aral Sea is now a desert due to over abstraction. (Read Fred Pearce’s excellent ‘When the Rivers Run Dry’).

Here in the UK we have a strange old relationship with water. We want clean water to drink, we want sewage treatment works to ensure that our rivers, estuaries and coasts remain clean but we also have a reluctance to pay for this. We are happy to buy bottles of water at astronomic mark ups but whinge when the water companies announce price increases.

Everything we consume or use has a water footprint, from a pair of jeans to a loaf of bread. For example one kilo of beef in our diet has a water footprint of 15,000 litres, one kilo of wheat 1,500 litres. This is referred to as our virtual water use and for the average UK citizen that is 4,654 litres. Like it or not we are deeply tied in with water, whether on an individual or business level. The Stern report argued the financial case for addressing climate change. The same applies for water.

I would argue that we need to have a major respect for our water and how important it is to all of us. It is not something to be taken for granted and definitely rates at the top of our needs along with good basic food. For many people on our lovely blue planet water is a daily matter of life and death.

When I was at the Eden Project we worked with WaterAid on a series of events on World Water Day, the 22nd of March. One of the exhibits that the team set up was two stacks of water bottles. The first stack was the 150 litres that the average UK citizen gets through per day and the other stack the 10 litres that the average person in Africa consumes per day (and this doesn’t even touch on the “virtual water use”). It was a strong and startling display that really made people stop and think and appreciate what they’ve got and how comparatively easy life is for the vast majority of us.

Some of this had been triggered by an Eden team trip to Kenya where one morning we got up early to visit a watering hole, possibly to see wildlife. What greeted us was a constant file of women and mostly children carrying water up a steep scramble the equivalent of coming out of the main pit at Eden and then having to walk another five or six kilometres, and this was something they did every single day. Several of us took the water from the children and carried it for them. It is a humbling experience and one well worth trying on the 22nd of March this year. Simply fill up a bucket and carry it for a few hundred metres and then make a donation to WaterAid or another water related charity.

As a society our willingness to pay for the essentials of life has dropped. The percentage of our incomes spent on non-essentials has increased reflecting what could be viewed as a disconnection from what we are – animals. Yes, we may have evolved to an amazing degree but there is no getting away from it, we are just that: animals living for a snapshot of time on a tiny spinning spot of matter somewhere in the infinity of the universe…and when viewed from afar our planet appears overwhelmingly blue. An extra terrestrial being would struggle to understand the way we treat this vital life giving resource that appears so rare in the known universe. They may have some strong thoughts regarding the true extent of our evolution…

WaterAid – wateraid.orgWater Footprint – waterfootprint.org

Chris Hines MBE – www.agos.co


By Jason Drew, Author of The Protein Crunch – Civilization on the brinkwww.theproteincrunch.com

Water, Capitalism and the 21st Century .

The industrial revolution and modern capitalism were powered by water, the sustainability revolution we are entering will depend on it. Water will define our future as clearly as it has our past. How we manage this scarce resource, the choices we make and those that are made for us as a result of our actions will define the 21st century for individuals, businesses and nations alike. Let me explain.

Since man first grew cereal crops rather than hunting and gathering, water has shaped and defined human civilization. Our first settled villages and their farmed crops were on flat fertile land near rivers – some of these have now become our modern cities like London, Mumbai and Shanghai and our farmed land has moved upstream.

There is as much water now as when time began, you cant make more and you cant throw it away – water just is. It is one of the few substances on earth that is endlessly recycled. Indeed the drop of water in your morning coffee could have been in the heart of a whale or the sweat of a slave.

When the industrial revolution kicked off there were 1 billion people depending on that water – today there are 7 billion. Just as we have mined the earth for ancient sunlight in the form of coal and oil so we have drained our aquifers for water to drive manufacturing and our industrial farms.

It takes 30,000 litres of water to make a mobile phone, 10,000 litres to make a pair of jeans but it is in agriculture that most of our water is condensed for human use. A kilo of grain takes 1000 litres of water to grow and a kilo of beef takes up to 24 kilos of grain to produce or up to 24,000 litres of water. Today nearly one billion of us live off food grown using unsustainable water sources.

Take the Ogallala aquifer in the United States. Having emptied the Colorado river which now no longer reaches the sea, farmers are now busy emptying the massive aquifer on which the rich farmlands of the American mid-west sit. Farmers extract more water from that aquifer each year than has fallen on the plains above it as rain since the time of Christ. The Aquifer is so large that if it were emptied on to the 50 land based states it

would cover them one and a half feet deep in water. The Ogallala lies on a slope in the ground, at the point the aquifer is nearest the surface sits a town called Happy. Happy closed in march 2011 as there was no more water underneath their farmlands to pump out for irrigation. It will empty in time, as all the other aquifers we are using unsustainably, devastating food production in the breadbasket of the US.

The current turmoil in the Yemen is driven as much by water as politics. Sana’a sits on top of an aquifer, which has supplied its growing population with water until it started to run dry last year. Saan’a is likely to be the first capital city in modern living history to have closed because of a lack of water.

One hundred cities in northern China already ration water – Beijing’s future as China’s capital has been under review as its growth has outstripped its water resources. Twenty-four countries in Africa will not have enough water to meet their needs by 2025 as their populations continue to grow. Governments unable to build water infrastructure are privatising water utilities around the world. Countries seeking development loans from the World Bank are nudged firmly down this route. There is an increasing concentration of supply; with just three French companies now controlling 70% of the worlds privatised water market. There have been public backlashes at this corporate exploitation of a vital and once free natural resource.

Our modern corporations are defined by and use unimaginable amounts of water. I would argue that Coca Cola Corporation is not in the business of manufacturing soft drinks but rather the business procuring more clean water than almost any other enterprise on earth. Intel Corporation has a water recycling programme that claims to have saved 10 billion litres of water per annum – imagine what their usage is if that is the saving!

The finance world is also increasingly taking note of water and its usage. Ceres is a coalition of large investors and environmental groups that have targeted water risk


as an issue that 21st century businesses will need to address to survive. Ceres runs a database for institutional investors highlighting which companies are best tackling water risk.

Water risk is already affecting business at clothing maker Gap, which cut its 2011 profit forecast by 22 percent after drought reduced the cotton crop in Texas.Food giants Kraft Foods, Sara Lee and Nestle all announced planned price rises to offset higher commodity prices caused by droughts, flooding and water related weather factors.

However we continue to waste water on a monumental scale both in open canal agriculture in the developing world, wasteful manufacturing processes as well as for pleasure. In the US there are now 17,000 golf courses up from 4,000 in the 1950’s. It is estimated that there are 32 million acres of irrigated lawn in the US – more than three times the amount of irrigated corn fields. China is following the same development trend. Our children may well question our sanity in using our precious water to irrigate our lawns – then drilling for oil so that we can spend our weekends mowing them.

Since our early civilisations to the present day, our existence has been defined by persistent violence between our clans, tribes and now nations. Resources have often caused these – in the early ages this was around acquiring land, mineral and human resources. Since the industrial revolution we have intensified this violence and included our own subjects in that violence. Endless wars in the northern hemisphere have been combined with the violence of intense poverty - from the early industrial mills to the overseas factories that provide our consumer goods today.

The first modern war over water has already taken place. The seven-day war between Israel and Jordan to take the Golan Heights was as much about controlling the headwaters of the Jordan River as anything else. India and Pakistan have and will struggle with sharing the waters of the Indus on which they both depend. More than 260 river basins around the world are inter-national. The Nile is shared by six countries, the most populous, Egypt, being downstream. Within 15 years nearly 800 million people will share and need the waters of that mighty river. Five or more countries share thirteen key river systems – the waters of the Danube are shared by seventeen countries.

Our rivers will change their flow patterns as our glaciers and snow caps disappear, and as our aquifers run dry – the patterns of availability of water will alter at a time when humanity and its demand for water reaches their peaks. Will new de-salination technology come to the rescue ? Not in the timescaleswe have and the scale of the water issue we are all about to face

We need to get busy making some hard choices. We need to move to water wise agriculture which will require a transfer of technology and funding to developing nations. We need to reduce our waste of water for pleasure and move to waterwise gardening and civic spaces. Our leading companies are already understanding that water is no longer free and managing this increasingly scarce and expensive resource like any other – those companies that ignore their water footprint will fail their shareholders and employees as the sustainability revolution takes hold. The real issue is what we decide to do with the poor – many of whom have limited access to water. During the industrial revolution the rich have become overweight whilst the poor go hungry. In this sustainability revolution will we continue to water our lawns whilst the poor die of thirst as we take their water to make our consumer goods and food?

If we do not make better choices in the 21st century than we have in our past, we risk nothing less than the collapse of civilisation as the environmental migrations we will see will dwarf the economic migrations of the past. As we have seen in Yemen – people can put up with hunger and political repression– but not with a lack of water.

Lets get busy repairing the future.

Jason Drew


FOCUS: FOOD, AGRICULTURE & PACKAGING

Page 35 - 37 Packaging Innovations 2012 Show PreviewPage 38 - 39 Food Sustainability, Dr Charile ClutterbuckPage 40 - 41 Sustainable Packaging, David Bellamy, Environment Policy Manager, Food and Drink Federation


Taking place on 29th February and 1st March, easyFairs® Packaging & Print Portfolio 2012 provides the perfect place to discover the future of design to package your product, improve environmental performance, and see the up-to-the-minute packaging technology solutions.A diary date must for brand managers, marketers, manufacturers, retailers, engineers and technologists seeking the ultimate packaging solutions. easyFairs® Packaging & Print Portfolio looks set to return bigger and better with PACKAGING INNOVATIONS co-located with four shows CONTRACT PACK, ECOPACK, PACKTECH and the launch of the new PRINT INNOVATIONS show.

When the event took place in February 2011 it attracted nearly 4,500 visitors and over 350 companies exhibiting. It is now the UK’s premier packaging show for primary and secondary packaging.

Among the many new products at the shows, Southern Cross Packaging (stand C13) will be demonstrating OvenPack, a safe and functional hot meal delivery system designed specifically for a fantastic cooking and eating experience, whether the meal is served onto a plate or eaten out of the tray.

PACKAGING INNOVATIONSCONTRACT PACKECOPACKPACKTECHPRINT INNOVATIONS

UK’s PREMIER PACKAGING SHOW RETURNS TO THE NEC


Simon Haarburger, Co-owner and Sales Director at Southern Cross Packaging, said: “The OvenPack provides a unique solution that not only results in a simple cook and opening experience for the consumer, but also enables food processors to fill and seal without major capital investment. Furthermore, the Widely Recycled status means that the OvenPack can be rinsed and deposited in the waste paper recycling stream for a truly sustainable solution.”

SK Direct (Stand K37) will be introducing two new tamper evident seals at PACKAGING INNOVATIONS. Product contamination and ultimately product recall due to product tampering can cost companies thousands, but security seals are not only important for the companies producing the product, but also to give the consumer evidence of any tampering. Tamper evident packaging tape SK76 is a security carton sealing tape to keep content safe in transit or storage. Also new is the clear tamper evident retail packaging

to link with consumer electronics to support brands and retailers in providing consumer information at the point of purchase. Seeing is Believing will demonstrate the key benefits of smart packaging and point of sale and display. This includes long life, closed loop reusable, recycling and recyclable materials and processes.”

FKuR (Stand E33), who develop biodegradable plastics, have become Europe’s exclusive distributors of Braskem’s Green-PE (sugarcane ethanol-based polyethylene) which they will be displaying at the show. The ethanol used to make Green-PE is made from sugarcane produced in Brazil. The renewable resource ratio per product can reach up to 100%, depending on the application. As a result of Braskem’s technology and raw material source, each ton of green polyethylene produced captures up to 2.5 tons of CO2 from the atmosphere, helping reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Dr. Edmund Dolfen, FKuR’s CEO, commented: “As a leading player in the European

seals with UV void messages. Sander Greving, Sales Director at SK Direct, said: “The

retail packaging labels indicate any unauthorised entry, without interfering with the

original packaging design. The void message left after removal is very clearly visible

under UV-light. Labels are printable by hot-foil printing including sequential numbering

and barcodes.”

One of the companies demonstrating the advantages of low carbon footprint will be

Easibind International (Stand E26) who were one of the first companies to achieve

the Carbon Trust Standard. They will be demonstrating the advantages of low carbon

footprint and added value print media.

Harry Skidmore MBE, Chief Executive at Easibind International, explained: “We’ll be

offering two services, Less Is More and Seeing is Believing. Less Is More will promote

a range of visual display packaging, small format POS and signage and 3D visual active

promotions. This will include the use of printable electronics and interactive technologies


Bioplastics market we are happy to be part of Braskem’s innovative campaign for changing resource utilisation. Our ´Green PE´ has the same technical properties as regular PE made from crude oil, but this unique and ground-breaking product is made from natural resources.”

If you are looking for a new solution to a traditional cardboard box, make sure you visit The Not Box Company (Stand F18) who are aiming to take the traditional ‘one use’ cardboard box out of the global supply chain, with their Notbox - a unique, cost-effective and environmentally-friendly alternative to the traditional one-use cardboard box. Notbox can be used in exactly the same way as a standard cardboard box, but will last for up to three years! Notbox will also be showcasing their most recent products, an insulated cold chain Notbox and NotPod, a unique supply chain distribution pod.

Due to popular demand ‘The BIG Packaging Debate’ will be returning to the NEC, where a

panel of packaging experts will form a lively Question Time style session discussing whether

‘Sustainable packaging is saving the planet or costing the earth?’

Another six brave contestants will also be entering The ‘Lion’s Lair’, pitching their latest

products live to a panel of brand, retail and packaging experts where they will be given a very

worthy public thumbs up or thumbs down. Plus easyFairs will also be looking back at previous

winners to see if the Lion’s predictions were correct.

For those of you keen to keep up with latest issues and trends, there will be 50 scheduled free-

to-attend learnShops™ to choose from, spanning across every aspect of packaging delivered

by industry experts.

For further information or to register for the show please go to www.easyFairs.com/PIUK.

Companies interested in exhibiting can find out more about booking a stand by calling

Rabinder Aulakh, Head of Sales on +44 (0)20 8843 8814 or email Rabinder.Aulkah@easyFairs.

com.


‘Sustainable food’ is food which is healthier for people and the planet. Food production and consumption accounts for about 1/5 of all Greenhouse Gases on the planet. In developed countries 2/3 of this comes from manufacturing and processing after the farm, whereas in developing countries about the same proportion is produced on farm.

The contribution of packaging to this Food Footprint is relatively small, if you count the carbon. Most of the global warming potential (according to the Stern Report a few years ago) of food production is due to three main impacts – each about a third – the change from forest to farm, excessive use of nitrogenous fertilisers, and meat production.

This applies worldwide, whereas UK food production makes a relatively larger food footprint. We need about five times our own land space for our Food Footprint – the land needed to grow and to produce the energy and absorb the pollutant. We import a higher proportion of the food we consume than any EU country and now import £15billion worth of food we could produce ourselves – that excludes all the coffee, bananas and tea etc.

By producing more of that food ourselves, we would do much more for the health of ourselves and the planet than any other measures. The World Health Organisation says: “Fortunately, the strategies needed to create desired changes in nutritional and environmental patterns are often complementary and, as a whole, provide cost-effective, sustainable development for agricultural land.”

If we want to eat more sustainable food, the best way to reduce the negative impacts is to eat healthily – just follow the 5-a-day fruit & veg guidelines. According to a

study using the Food Footprint, this will reduce unwanted environmental impacts by over 20%. The next best thing we can do is to eat locally – taking another 10% off the impacts, while going completely vegan takes off another 5% and going organic a further 2%.

In the past there has been discussion about the carbon count of food packaging. But it is not a matter of just counting carbon and treating each part of the process distinctly. The whole food package is inter-related. Packaging could be seen in relation to the food inside. Just as glass and tin is associated with longer transportation distances, then cardboard could be seen as more appropriate for local food production. It is opening up the relation between the packaging and the food.

While in terms of carbon, food packaging is a minor component of the overall figure, packaging has helped lengthen the food chain, allowing food miles to increase – both around the globe and around the country. The invention of tin cans for Napoleon’s armies helped drive the global supply chains. Packaging has evolved alongside the development of a global supply chain, as transportation networks have lengthened. As they have lengthened so have the half-lives of the packaging materials.

Can food packaging respond to the changes that are needed to make our food system more sustainable? Could packaging convey the importance of eating healthily and demonstrate that this also helps the planet at the same time? Food packaging could thus have an important part to play in promoting more sustainable food, than being seen as the unwanted wrapper.

Food sustainability for the food and packaging section By Dr Charlie Clutterbuck, Sustainable Food


There are already signs that packing can send the necessary signals. Look how many items now have union jacks. It is clear that many people are taking some sort of action – not necessarily nationalistic, to go for the flag sign. To many it is a way of signaling that this hasn’t come halfway across the world. At first they went for the Little Red Tractor sign, only to find it didn’t mean British – but ‘British standards’ so it could still have come round the world – to decent quality standards. Then ASDA introduced union jacks on produce to signal ‘grown in UK’. This was supposedly against EU regulation, but nobody ever got punished so all the others followed suit.

Can packaging reinforce this sort of signal? We know there are lots of labels for Fairtrade, Organic and other Welfare standards. Is there any way that packaging can signal ‘more sustainable’ – thus avoiding another logo?

It would seem that the longevity in packaging may become less of an issue. If transportation is made more ‘logical’, rather than ‘logistical’, there will be less need to stand up to constant battering. A new, Europe-wide, life-cycle assessment (LCA) for metal cans, glass jars, cartons, and pouches used for ambient food applications finds that using cartons saves CO2 emissions and fossil resource consumption by up to 60%.

If tins and glass are good for travel, and the travel is declining, then carton manufacturers may be able to open up new opportunities. Clearly plastic will have less use too, as the longevity of plastic and its inability to be broken down easily will count more against it in the future. Clearly more ‘local’ has a lot of implications. The drive here is not for packaging that can last and stand up to a battering half way across the world. Instead the drive would be to find packaging sourced locally and appropriate to the product.

If one area has cows, and wants to add value by producing cheese, as we are now doing in Lancashire, then it would seem appropriate to use local materials to wrap it too – and provide a sign for customers that all parts of the food system need to be looked at. Instead of using tin foil, local paper made at local paper mills in the nearby mill towns could give the image of localness, and provide an example of industrial ecology – something we haven’t heard much about recently. Put simply, it is the siting of industry to use the products and by-products of one process as raw materials for the next. By siting our industries in relation to each other we could save vast amounts of energy and waste. We should be building our industries in relation to our future farming and food.

There is much more in this to explore in terms of the relationship between sustainable food and its packaging. War on Waste found that 5% of the weight of the shopping baskets were

made up of packaging, with average weight of packaging in a basket ranging from 645g for the basket from Tesco to over 800g for Waitrose’s basket. The proportion of waste packaging that was recyclable ranged from 58% in Lidl's basket to 67% for Sainsburys. Are these results ‘accidental’ or does this say something about these stores and their different attitudes to food and the environment?

Can packaging be made that uses less energy and convey more messages? From an environmental perspective, the ideal package would either weigh nothing or be reused or recycled an infinite number of times. Most packaging does come close. So what can it tell us about the food inside?

Could food packaging do something else – say reduce food waste? Clearly that is what glass and tin have done down the ages. By protecting and preserving food, packaging reduced levels of waste and the consequent burden on landfill.

Can we calculate whether the use of a few grams of plastic for packaging, often considered ‘bad’, balances the saving of a kilo of tomatoes from waste? Then can we compare brown bags with tomatoes grown locally – ie question not just the wrapping but also the processes in production and logistics that go with it?

Food waste presents a far worse problem in terms of its carbon footprint than does the packaging that surrounds it. WRAP says over a third of all food purchased (not ‘produced’) goes to waste. But what sort of waste? Food waste to landfill is a whole lot different from food into the garden wormery. Can packaging somehow help turn food into compost conveniently? This is especially acute in city dwellings where there may not be access to a garden.

By treating packaging as an integral part of the whole process – rather than distinct carbon counting, we see the picture is more complex and dynamic – just like the whole food web. Yet it is also relatively simple. We need packaging that helps local production, provides safe delivery, but can then turn the waste into something useful.

This is a new way of discussing food packaging. You can find the details to the statistics quoted here and much more in terms of e-learning materials on my site www.sustainablefood.com. This site could be used to provide a forum for those who know more about food packaging to enter this debate about the relation between food and its packaging.


Food and drink packaging–a fresh perspective

By David Bellamy; environment policy manager - Food and Drink Federation

Packaging and packaging waste has long been an easy hit for politicians and policy makers alike and it has attracted its fair share of negative press over the years. A lot of this is probably down to the fact that packaging, particularly sales packaging, represents a very visible use of resources, especially after it has fulfilled its purpose. However, what is often overlooked is arguably the much more important role modern packaging provides in delivering food and drink products throughout the supply chain, from their point of production to their point of consumption with minimal damage and spoilage such that the materials, energy and water invested in them do not go to waste. It is because of this that packaging protects far more resources than it uses.

The issue of reducing the negative impacts of food and drink packaging to ensure an optimal balance between function and impact is very much at the forefront of our sector’s collective desire to minimise its impact on the environment. In fact it is something our members have been engaged in either individually or collectively under the WRAP Courtauld Commitment for some time. Last December we released the fourth annual progress report of our Five-fold Environmental Ambition, which showed that our members had further reduced their product and packaging waste in the supply chain by 6.9%, and had further cut the carbon impact of their packaging by 1.2% over the period 2009-10. This was in effect the contribution made by FDF member signatories to the progress made under the first year of Courtauld Phase 2.

These reductions have been achieved despite an estimated increase in sales volumes of around 2% over the period, decreases in UK recycling rates and increases in emission factors associated with transportation. They also come on top of achievements made under Courtauld

Phase 1, which successfully halted packaging growth by 2008 despite an increase in population and size of the grocery sector. Plus by the end of the agreement in 2010, WRAP reported that 1.2 million tonnes of food and packaging waste had been prevented.

A lot of these positive achievements have been helped by manufacturers working with other parts of the packaging chain as well as by proactively engaging with key stakeholders such as WRAP. Fundamental to this is the need to design packaging that takes into account the full life-cycle and characteristics of the product it seeks to protect, the supply chain and the needs of consumers. What we mustn’t do is focus on narrow considerations such as packaging waste and recycling and ignore the bigger footprint issues such as product wastage, water consumption, energy use and transport impacts.

Another aspect of this joint working is focused on reducing the end of life impacts of packaging. The government recently commented that the current inconsistent approach to recycling across local authoritys leaves consumers confused with what they can and cannot recycle. FDF and its members are working with the packaging chain and other stakeholders, in particular local authorities and the waste management sector, to encourage a more harmonised approach to household collection including through local authorities working more together in partnerships which has benefits for both the quality and efficiency of recycling, thereby helping create sustainable value in new end markets.

Food and drink manufacturers strive to find the optimum point between over packaging and under packaging, the point where the packaging delivers the product to the consumer in perfect condition using only as much of the right kind of material as necessary to perform this task. In other words, finding the balance between function and impact. Packaging is a controllable cost for most product manufacturers not only in terms of the purchase costs but also disposal costs after it has been used. Under the Packaging Waste Regulations all but the smallest producers receive a recovery/recycling obligation based on the amount of packaging material they put on the UK market. For these reasons alone industry would not want to use excessive packaging. Another is the risk of non-compliance with the Packaging Essential Requirements Regulations, which clearly state that any business putting


products on the market must ensure that the packaging volume and weight must be the minimum amount to maintain the necessary levels of safety, hygiene and acceptance for the packed product and for the consumer.

These regulations embody the principle that packaging must be both fit for purpose and environmentally sustainable. Research organisation INCPEN’s report Why Products are Packaged the Way they Are (May 2011) highlights how what is sometimes viewed as excess packaging, actually either has an important role to play in the protection of food products, or is a reflection of what can be achieved by current technology or recycling availability. For example, light-weight products such as breakfast cereals are often packaged in both a bag and a box. The use of both is due to the fact that cereals tend to be fragile and highly absorbent, so the bag acts as a barrier to prevent odours or moisture affecting the product and the box prevents the contents from being crushed. Questions can also arise as to why there is always a headspace between the top of the bag and the box. This is because up to 200 bags are filled per minute on the packing line before being inserted into the box. If the bag was designed to completely fill the box, it would be impossible to fit it into the box. Also, breakfast cereal products tend to settle during filling and transport, creating some headspace when the pack is opened. Manufacturers do as much as possible to reduce it; however, their priority remains getting the final product to consumers in the best possible condition.

Developments in packaging technology on products such as fresh meat (usually a polyethylene terephthalate (PET), polypropylene (PP) or polystyrene (PS) tray covered with plastic film) have reduced product wastage by as much as 25% since the introduction of supermarkets in the 1960s. This environmental benefit more than compensates for the fact that after use it is not worth spending more resources and energy on sorting and cleaning the packaging for recycling. However such packs can still go for energy from waste recovery. A similar situation exists with plastic yoghurt pots which are a highly convenient and lightweight packaging form for consumers with single pots increasingly popular as a snack food. However they present a challenge for recyclers as they can be made with a number of different polymers depending on the functionality required and often contain product residues which weigh more than the pots themselves. This means they are not currently widely collected for recycling in the UK as any residue left in them as well as the variety of polymers used does not justify the energy cost of recycling them. However this situation may change as more mixed plastics recycling facilities come on stream. In conclusion, effective packaging plays an essential role in the protection and preservation of products and ingredients as they transit through our modern global supply chains. We must stop looking at packaging in isolation but as a key contributor to sustainable products

across the entire life cycle. Whilst it is important for business to keep the use of packaging under review and to minimise its

negative impacts, such assessment must also take into account the consequences of using inadequate packaging in terms of the impact of food waste including the loss of resources embedded in that waste.


WASTEMANAGEMENTPage 44 - 47 WEEE Have the Recast, Philip Morton, CEO RepicPage 48 - 49 What WEEE can do, Mark Prisk, Minister of State for Business and Enterprise


• Scope• Separatecollection/increasedWEEEcollectiontarget / retailer take back of very small WEEE in-store• ShipmentofWEEEabroad/reusetargets• FinancingofWEEE/extensionofproducer responsibility

ScopeThis is a key area addressed by the Recast as it defines the Electrical and Electronic Equipment (EEE), and hence Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) that is covere d by the Directive.

The Recast details a move to ‘open’ scope – meaning that all electrical and electronic equipment will be covered unless specifically excluded (and there is a list of exclusions given in Article two of the Recast) - six years and one day after entry into force (so if this is mid-2012 then it will come into force mid-2018). This should greatly improve clarity and consistency of application of scope.

Collection and TargetsThis is the area of the Recast that refers to separate collection, an increased target and retailer take back of small WEEE in store. This is a critical feature of the Directive. The aim remains the same: avoid creating WEEE where possible and minimise environmental impact, but where WEEE is unavoidable, increase collection to maximise reuse, recycling and recovery (of secondary materials).

The current target for MSs is a minimum of 4kg per

Nine years on from the introduction of the original WEEE Directive in January 2003, Dr Philip Morton, CEO at Repic, takes a look at how the system has evolved and what has changed in this time.

The Directive has been going through a Recast process. The review was kicked off by EU officials in December 2008, an agreement reached in principle on December 20th 2011, and expected to be formally approved at a vote in the European Parliament between January 16th – 20th 2012. The WEEE Recast is finally here.

Assuming it is approved, the Recast will then undergo a process of legal scrutiny and translation into Member State (MS) languages, and it will be published in the Official Journal (OJ) by mid-2012, when it will become effective. MSs will then have a maximum of 18 months to transpose the Recast into law, so for the UK we expect the new WEEE Regulations to come into effect from the beginning of 2014.

So, there will be a period of discussion, debate and consultation in each MS with the first UK consultation expected around Q4 2012, and a possible second - if deemed necessary - during 2013. It is doubtful that anyone will claim the current UK system is perfect, so, armed with experience from the last few years, the Recast provides an ideal chance for a full review.

So what does all of this mean? What has changed and is it good or bad? In brief, a few key changes incorporated into the Recast concern:

WEEE Have the Recast

By Dr Philip Morton, CEO of Repic


head of population; a one size fits all target that is easy for some and impossible for others. The UK currently collects around 8kg per person, however some Scandinavian countries collect 15kg, whilst others fall below 4kgs. Why is this?

It is because the amount of WEEE discarded depends on many factors, such as life- cycle of product, market saturation, consumer behaviour, state of the economy etc. In less mature markets, for example, more people buy new electrical and electronic goods because they don’t have an item, rather than buying something to replace an old item. So, in these markets very little WEEE is generated when new purchases are made. Over time, these markets will saturate too, so a new target which recognises where each country is now, and where it needs to get to, is required.

In terms of improving collection rates, the Recast addresses the issue of targets and the key points to note are as follows:

• “….from4yearsaftertheyearofentryintoforceof the directive (so from 2016), the minimum collection rate shall be 45% calculated on the basis of the total weight of WEEE collected expressed as a percentage of the average weight of EEE placed on the market in the three preceding years in that Member State.”

• “MemberstatesshallensurethatthevolumeofWEEE collected evolves gradually during the period from 4 years after entry into force (2016) to 7 years after entry into force (2019) unless the final collection rate (65% EEE or 85% WEEE generated) is already achieved”.

• “7yearsafterentryintoforceofthisdirectivethe minimum collection rate to be achieved annually shall be 65% of EEE placed on the market in the three preceding years or alternatively 85% of WEEE generated on its territory.”

And Importantly:

• “Until1stJanuaryoftheyear4yearsafterentryinto force of this directive (from now until January 1st 2016) a rate of separate collection of at least 4 kilograms per inhabitant per year of WEEE from private households is collected or the same amount of average weight of WEEE that was collected in that Member State in the three preceding years, whichever is greater.”

The UK already collects more than 4kgs, so presumably the new target (from 2012) will be the average kgs collected over the three preceding years until the end of 2015 – so, for example, the 2013 target will be the average of collections in 2010, 2011 and 2012. Then in 2016 it will become a minimum of 45 per cent (by weight) of EEE sold in the preceding three years (2013, 2014,

2015), ramping up at the end of 2018 when it becomes either 65 per cent of the average EEE sold in the three preceding years, or 85 per cent of WEEE generated. This latter target, based on WEEE generated, is a much better one which reflects the individual nature of WEEE arising in each Member State and is favoured by many stakeholders.

Everyone agrees that we must capture as much WEEE as possible, but common sense dictates that you can only capture what is there. In order to improve the efficiency of WEEE captured and treated within the system, the Recast includes the points below in addition to the current requirements:

• “Memberstatesshallprohibitthedisposalof separately collected WEEE which has not yet undergone the treatment specified in article 8”. This should mean that WEEE from all sources is properly treated and counted, and should help to prevent illegal exports and improve the amount counted towards the target.

• “Memberstatesshallensurethatdistributorsprovide for the collection at retail shops with sales areas relating to EEE of minimum 400 square metres, or in their immediate proximity, of very small WEEE … free of charge to end-users and with no obligation to buy an EEE of equivalent type, unless an assessment shows existing collection schemes are likely to be at least as effective...”. The UK may not need this and might be able to demonstrate that the existing collection schemes are adequate.

• “Memberstatesmaydesignatetheoperatorsthat are allowed to collect WEEE from private households…”. This does not mean collecting WEEE from the home, the term actually means to collect WEEE that originated from private households but has been deposited at collection points (often called Business to Consumer, B2C) - as opposed to WEEE from sources other than private households (often called Business to Business, B2B).

• MemberStatesmayrequirethatWEEEdeposited at collection facilities…is handed over to producers or third parties acting on their behalf or is handed over, for the purposes of preparing for reuse, to designated establishments or undertakings”. Again this is aimed at ensuring WEEE is properly captured, treated and counted and will be essential if the UK is to hit the higher targets.

Shipment of WEEE Abroad and Reuse TargetsEveryone agrees that illegal export is unacceptable. It causes terrible environmental impact (usually in developing countries), loss of critical rare earth materials because the recovery process is basic and focuses only on easily recoverable secondary materials, and it causes negative health and social impacts.


Part of the problem is that the current system only records the WEEE that goes through ‘official channels’, but in reality, large quantities of WEEE (50 per cent or more, according to the Commission) remains outside these channels. Much of this is undoubtedly collected, and in the UK, it is probably properly treated by economic operators - such as scrap dealers, but simply not reported. Some, however, escapes to illegal export or other unacceptable treatment routes. So we need to be counting everything that we are collecting in order to close the loopholes, recognise the gaps and minimise illegal export and poor treatment.

The Recast addresses this in a number of ways. Firstly by increasing the target for WEEE as described above and recording it in the system. Logically, if more is captured then less can escape. Secondly, by increasing the recovery and recycling targets by five per cent this should improve the quality of recycling and rule out treatment in countries where

standards fall short. And finally, it also tightens the criteria on exports of EEE - often WEEE is sent abroad under the guise of working EEE that can still be used, when in fact, it has no value as a working piece of equipment, so ends up in landfill abroad.


All of these updates are positive, but the key remains at national level on transposition. In the UK, for example, to prove that WEEE has been recycled responsibly at an approved treatment plant, the regulations work on a system of certificates called evidence notes. Collectively, evidence notes represent the total amount of WEEE collected in any year. One of the main issues in the UK system is that there is the potential for several parties (intermediaries) to become involved in the recycling chain and where this happens, and WEEE evidence is transferred or traded, its origin becomes untraceable and the audit trail becomes longer and less clear – which means the risk of leakage and the illegal export of WEEE increases.

In theory, the act of trading or transfer of evidence is intended to be a year-end balancing activity, as every note must be owned by schemes in the correct proportion. However, in reality, if a Producer Compliance Scheme (PCS) has evidence that it doesn’t directly need to meet its own members’ obligations, then there will be another PCS scheme which does need it, and therefore, will be forced to buy it from them regardless of cost or origin.

The risk of leakage from the system can significantly decrease where there is a direct relationship between those collecting WEEE and a PCS that actually needs and directly finances the WEEE for its members’ obligations. This is because the audit trail is far shorter, making it easier to know where WEEE comes from, where it goes to and who pays for its treatment. So how the UK addresses this through the transposition will be crucial.

Financing of WEEE and Extension of Producer ResponsibilitiesDuring the Recast process, some stakeholders pressed for producers of EEE to become responsible for financing the cost of collection from the home. Many more, however, saw this as an unnecessary measure which was both environmentally and economically unsound.

The Commissions own work shows that currently around 37 per cent of WEEE is captured in official systems, only 13 per cent is discarded in wheelie bins as unsorted municipal waste, and 54 per cent is the ‘known unknown’, which is made up of WEEE that is collected (and much of it may be properly treated and recovered) but nobody knows what happens to it for certain as it is not recorded. So inevitably, some of it will be illegally exported or poorly treated.

It would seem perverse, therefore, to introduce a system of collection from the home with all the associated environmental impacts of additional vehicle journeys and accompanying costs, when these collections already take place and are already profitable for economic operators.

What we need to be doing in reality, is concentrating on the massive 54 per cent that is ‘known unknown’. In many cases, it might not be necessary to change anything from

an operational perspective – so still allowing, indeed encouraging, economic operators who already make money from scrap to capture more, but ensuring that what they do collect, is recorded and counts towards the target.

Addressing the 13 per cent in consumer wheelie bins is of course important but it is probably best addressed by consumer awareness campaigns. Fortunately, the Recast supports this and leaves it as a Member State option, stating in Article 12:

• “Memberstatesshallensurethatproducersprovide for at least the financing of the collection, treatment recovery and environmentally sound disposal of WEEE from private households that has been deposited at collection facilities...”

• “Memberstatesmay,whereappropriate,encourage producers to finance also the costs occurring for collection of WEEE from private households to collection facilities.”

In SummarySo, it is fair to say that the system has come a long way since the original introduction of the WEEE Directive in 2007. The Recast is now done and is expected to be formally approved by the European Parliament between January 16th and 20th 2012. At this point, it will be legally checked and translated, and then published in the OJ by mid-2012. The absolutely critical next phase is the transposition of the Recast into each MS national law. The Directive says what must be achieved; the transposition is the ‘how we achieve it’. The clock is ticking and we have just less than two years to get it right.

For more information about Repic, visit www.repic.co.uk


As we mark the five year anniversary of the UK’s Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Regulations, we should take time to consider why it’s in all our interests to correctly dispose of electrical goods to protect the environment and help bolster economic growth.

It’s estimated that as a nation we will generate 1.3 million tonnes of unwanted electrical equipment this year; the equivalent of filling Wembley Stadium 6 times over. That’s a huge figure, not only because of the environmental impact but also because of the value of materials in the waste. About £1bn worth of palladium – a very rare metal – could be discarded within old computers, televisions and other electricals over the next few years.

Despite this figure, we’re certainly a lot better than we used to be when it comes to recycling electrical goods. Recent statistics show that the first three quarters of 2011 were the most successful yet for household WEEE collections by local authorities and retailers. Almost 375,000 tonnes were collected in this time – up 4% on the same period in 2010. That was all financed by the producers of electrical equipment.

WHAT WEEE ALL CAN DO TO MAKE A DIFFERENCEBy Mark Prisk MP, Minister of State for Business and Enterprise

Pending results, if this positive trend continued in the last quarter, we could certainly expect to see a total collection figure of over 500k in 2011. This is great to see. It shows that people are changing their attitudes to recycling – a key aim of the WEEE Directive.

But it’s not just households that are contributing to the increase in recycling of waste electrical goods. The WEEE regulations have a significant impact on UK businesses. The introduction of the WEEE Regulations has stimulated significant progress in recent years to improve the recycling of electricals, the generation of new investment and the creation of jobs in the recycling industry whilst helping businesses meet their recycling obligations.

Increasing reuse and recycling of WEEE makes good business sense and helps improve the UK’s security of resources. Many of the precious metals and materials in WEEE come from outside the UK and are the subject of increasing demand and rising prices. We need to ensure we don’t lose these valuable resources. Developing secondary sources of supply can help businesses reduce their reliance on overseas supplies and minimise environmental impacts by reducing the need for primary extraction.

The illegal export of WEEE leads to the loss of critical materials from the UK as well as to detrimental impacts on the environment and human health of the receiving countries. Combating illegal exports continues to be a priority for the Government and UK regulatory authorities, and much effort and resource is being put into this issue with a number of prosecutions undertaken and in train.


Looking Ahead

So what’s next for the WEEE agenda? As we witnessed last month, Members of the European Parliament voted in favour of introducing higher targets for the collection of waste electricals, a widening of product scope and increasing obligations on large electrical retailers to take back unwanted items from consumers as part of a revision to the original Directive to be brought into force over the next six years.

This is certainly a welcome result as it stretches the environmental objectives of the Directive whilst avoiding unnecessary burdens, and allows sufficient time for member states to respond to the challenge.

The revised Directive requires all 27 EU member states to increase their WEEE collection rates above the current target of 4kg per person. In 2010, the UK collected almost 8kg per head – double the required amount.

Following endorsement by Europe’s Council of Ministers, the UK Government will consult on necessary amendments to the UK’s WEEE Regulations later this year. We will use that opportunity to consider other improvements we should make to the UK WEEE system that are good for business.

This will include how we might reduce administrative burdens placed on businesses by the regulations, and seek to ensure the cost of compliance by producers of electrical equipment more closely resembles the true cost of transporting and recycling the waste they are required to finance.

What you can do

Together, we’re certainly making progress and demonstrating we have the ability to recycle our electrical goods to the benefit of consumers, business and the environment. What’s important now is that we use this as a benchmark to strengthen our commitment to tackling WEEE disposal even further.

The UK Government is offering its support and guidance for businesses and the public in understanding WEEE regulations. To find out more visit www.bis.gov.uk/weee.

Top tips:There are several easy ways to avoid house/office clutter and get rid of old electricals without throwing them away:

• Dropthemoffatyourlocalrecyclingcentre.Alllocalauthorities across the UK now have dedicated facilities for collecting waste electrical goods. Find your nearest WEEE recycling point by visiting www.recyclenow.com/why_recycling_matters/electricals

• Yourtrashisanotherman’streasure:providingthatyour unwanted electrical goods are safe for use, pass them on to family and friends who could give them a good home and extend their useful life; and

• Someretailerswilltakebackyouroldelectricalitemin store when you purchase a new item from them. Ask whether your local store participates in the Distributor Takeback Scheme, which will provide more information on local recycling facilities.


WATERPage 52 - 54 Price Setting Consultation, Keith Mason, Director of Finance, Ofwat

Page 56 - 57 All I wanted for Christmas was....., Nick Reeves, Executive Director, CIWEM


The Price setting Consultation

By Keith Mason; Director of Finance and Networks at Ofwat

We have come a long way since the water and sewerage sectors were privatised 22 years ago.

In 1989 polluted beaches and rivers, and a neglected infrastructure, meant we were seen as the ‘dirty man of Europe’. In 1990, less than 80% of England and Wales’ bathing waters met the required standards. Yet taxpayers had little appetite for spending more. Water companies were seen as inefficient, and the system meant there was little incentive for them to improve standards of service. Privatisation of the sector sought to tackle these challenges head on.

And we have come a long way since then. The sector has delivered huge improvements in service for customers and in environmental standards. We now have salmon in the Mersey, more than 100 Blue Flag beaches, and our drinking water is recognised as up there with the best in Europe.

Leakage is also down by a third since its mid-90s peak. That’s more than enough water saved to serve the daily needs of London, Birmingham and Manchester. And the proportion of properties at the highest risk of sewer flooding has been reduced by more than 75% in the last decade.

In achieving this, the water and sewerage companies will have invested almost £100 billion (at today’s prices) between 1989 and 2010. This is double the rate of investment when compared to pre-privatisation levels. Yet we have been able to keep bill increases down by driving out inefficiencies. Bills are 30% lower than they would have been without our regulation. A litre of tap water delivered and taken away costs less than a penny.

New challengesAt first sight then, it is hard to see the case for change in water and sewerage regulation. But look into the future and the picture is more worrying. The social and environmental challenges that the companies are facing are different in scale and complexity to those of the past. They help make the future much less certain. In particular, the effects of climate change, a growing population and changes in lifestyle mean we cannot necessarily rely on doing things in the same way as before.

In many areas water resources are becoming more stretched. Collectively, the water and sewerage sectors need to consider the way services are planned, managed and delivered so that they are secure over the long term. We need to become smarter in how we value, manage and use our water.

And while this is a long-term industry, we cannot afford to wait – already, some water sources in England and Wales are running dry because too much is being taken from the environment.

Tackling these challengesThe good news is that steps are being taken to address these challenges. Most recently, with the government publishing its Water White paper in December. The White Paper sets out the Government’s overarching policies for a sustainable water and sewerage sector in England through to 2030.

Of critical importance is the overall direction of travel that the paper sets out. The proposals in the White Paper follow three key themes:• Afocusonthedeliveryofasustainablesectorover the long term. This includes the importance of ensuring that the sector continues to be attractive to investors over the long term and that the cost of capital remains affordable.• Afocusonimprovinghowwemanagewaterresources so that we are resilient to a changing climate and future increases in demand - and in a sustainable manner so that we do not damage the natural environment.• Aneedtocreateamorecustomerfocussedindustry including giving business customers choice over their supplier and helping customers with affordability problems through company designed social tariffs.

We welcome the White Paper putting customers at its heart, while recognising the challenges facing the sectors such as the effects of climate change and population growth and the compelling case for reform. It provides the foundation to deliver a long-term, sustainable water and sewerage sector.

Delivering a sustainable sector where bills are kept down



Our work in this areaThere is much in the White Paper that is complemented by our own work, particularly our publication in November of a consultation on a framework for future price limits. In that document we set out for consultation our proposals for the framework within which we will set price limits in the long term.

In summary our proposed approach would: • encouragecompaniestosethighleveloutcomesin consultation with their customers and stakeholders, and give the responsibility and accountability for delivering those outcomes to companies.• includeproportionate,targetedandtailored incentives to encourage delivery of those outcomes efficiently and effectively.• besupportedbystrengthenedcustomerengagement.• encouragecompaniestomeetdifferentcustomer needs by setting separate retail and wholesale price limits. • ensurethesectorcancontinuetoraisethefinance needed to invest in ongoing improvements at a reasonable cost.• beflexibleenoughtoadapttoemergingchallenges and new information.

Ensuring environmental sustainabilityOur proposals aim to make sure that the right incentives are in place so that companies do not focus on investment-heavy engineering solutions where better value, more environmentally sustainable alternatives may exist. This includes encouraging more efficient water trading. Water trading between companies has the potential to reduce the costs of supplying services to customers, while also protecting the environment by encouraging more sustainable choices about how water is used.

We also propose to use an environmental incentive to discourage water being taken from where resources are already overstretched to avoid damage to the environment – we call this the Abstraction Incentive Mechanism (AIM). Currently the scarcity and environmental costs of water abstraction vary substantially between areas. Yet at the moment water abstractors have few incentives to optimise the efficiency of their water use and investment, and to reduce the damage over-abstraction has on the environment.

By valuing our resources in the right way we send clear messages not only to companies about how they should plan and use resources more efficiently, but also to consumers about the care they should take in using those services.

Our approach in this area is in keeping with the government’s approach. Environmental sustainability is at the heart of thinking in both the Water White Paper and our framework paper. This sector must be environmentally sustainable if it is to have legitimacy in the eyes of crucial stakeholders including customers and government.

The Government’s proposals for the long term reform of the water abstraction regime are intended to facilitate better use of resources, and reduce barriers to both water trading and trading of abstraction licences. The clear aim of this is to improve incentives to better manage the water that we have.

In the short to medium term, there are proposals to deliver a more transparent and planned way of achieving sustainability reductions which should provide greater clarity to companies, who may be able to realise value in unused water abstraction licences. Government has also proposed more emphasis on interconnection and bulk trading as part of companies’ statutory Water Resource Management Plans.

Financial sustainabilityOf course the sector not only needs to ensure environmental sustainability. It needs to be financially sustainable.

Investors value the stability, transparency and consistency of the regulatory framework for the water and sewerage sectors. The preservation of investor confidence in this long term sector is important so that efficient companies can continue to finance their investment programmes. Our future price limits proposals will continue to provide predictable returns to the investor that reflect the low underlying risk of the sectors. We will continue to use similar mechanisms to do so. For example, we will use a regulatory capital value approach, particularly in the capital intensive wholesale part of the business.

We are considering moving to a total expenditure (“totex”) approach that considers operating and capital expenditure together. This could help address any perception of a bias towards capital expenditure in the choice of solutions to achieve outputs and outcomes.


Picture the scene…a group of youngsters waiting round the twinkling Christmas tree for something special to arrive, excitement growing as the days then hours are counted down to the great moment. Well, that was the scene in the CIWEM Policy Department while waiting for the Water White Paper. CIWEM has spent years campaigning for the true cost of water to be reflected in prices, has developed great reports on Regulation for a Sustainable Water Industry and Integrated Water Management, organised countless seminars and conferences and worked hard with Defra, Regulators, MPs and others in the run up to the production of the White Paper in order to get our points across.

On the day of ‘arrival’ the CIWEM Policy Team all gathered to speedily read and then discuss what we all thought. Recent Government papers have often resulted in cries of upset, hurling of objects in disgust and gnashing of teeth within the first hour or so. By lunchtime that day, the team were all looking rather subdued. And that’s the point about the Water White Paper. It’s a bit like waiting for a rich Uncle at Christmas time in the early ‘80s to get you the latest red glowing digital watch or electronic calculator then you find out he’s broke and got you a C&A snowflake jumper instead. You’ll still be thankful for it and say thanks and know that it’s a sensible present but actually what you wanted was far sexier.

CIWEM thinks that the White Paper is generally good stuff; we are very pleased that there is a strong pro-catchment bias and a realisation that water isn’t a separate ‘sector’ or substance from everything else out there. At the CIWEM Catchments Conference in November 2011, the Minister, Richard Benyon MP strongly endorsed a catchment approach and Government support for pilot catchment projects and this is a key step forward. We are happy to play our part in the many work streams that will emanate from the

paper and the following Bill. So the whole ‘direction of travel’ is fine and will be beneficial in the long run to the environment.

CIWEM laid out its stall well in advance of the development of the White Paper in two briefing reports.

Regulation for a Sustainable Water Industry outlines CIWEM's vision for the future of the water industry. It includes the 10 features that CIWEM believes would create a more sustainable water industry and the benefits that these would provide and suggests future legislation, policy and guidance in how we might achieve it. The report is available from:

http://www.ciwem.org/policy-and-international/current-topics/water-management/regulation-for-a-sustainable-water-industry.aspx

Integrated Water Management moves our thinking beyond water to other agendas such as energy and carbon, planning, biodiversity, agriculture and ecosystem services and demonstrates examples of it in practice. The report aimed to identify why when achieving more integration has been on the agenda in the water industry for a number of years meaningful progress has been limited. The report is available from:http://www.ciwem.org/policy-and-international/current-topics/water-management/integrated-water-management.aspx

CIWEM also joined with Waterwise, WWF and others in the Fairness on Tap coalition to call for fairer pricing of water for consumers and the environment.

So whilst we consider the White Paper to be positive, I believe that it contains a clear contradiction: How can we value water and not take it for granted, but not pay a price for water that properly recognises its true value?

All I wanted

for Christmas

was……By Nick Reeves OBE, Executive

Director, CIWEM – Chartered

Institution of Water and

Environmental Management


The fairest way to ensure this is to establish widespread metering allied to flexible and social tariffs so that those less able to pay are supported but that profligacy is discouraged.

There are some fundamental issues to consider:

• Currentwaterconsumptionis not within sustainable limits. • Waterwastageishigh.• Ournaturalenvironmentis under significant stress.• Millionsofcustomersstruggle to pay their water bills.

All of which are set to get worse with the onset of climate change and a rising population. Today’s system, based on 1974 rateable values, does not reflect water use, nor does it protect many low-income families from unaffordable bills. But the White Paper is very weak on tackling these issues.

The issues surrounding water affordability and metering should be considered at the same time as the two are inextricably linked. I believe it is essential that the two are also dealt with together, as it would be counterproductive

to create a robust framework to solve affordability issues if this

is not compatible with future policies on metering.

Paying for what we use is not only the

fairest way to pay for water, it

is also the only

way to build the clear picture of patterns of water consumption which will be needed to move forward sustainably and to ensure that water is affordable for all in the long term.

You can argue till you are blue in the face about people not liking meters and it being costly, but of course people are going to dislike losing what they see as an unlimited water supply, and saving the planet’s resources isn’t all about taking the path of least resistance at every turn.

It is too weak to assume that people will change their behaviour to the degree needed through anything but higher prices – maybe in the Government’s current attitude there is just too little carrot and a puny straw instead of a great big stick, but in these times of demographic change, unsustainable exploitation of resources and climate change, much stronger incentives to change are needed.

We welcome the programme of work set out in the White Paper for 2012 and beyond which should ensure progress on a number of key issues: including a Water Bill; the widespread focus on catchment approaches; a national strategy on urban diffuse pollution; guidance to water companies on social tariffs; a national SUDs standard and approval system and new guidance to OFWAT on social and environmental factors.

We agree there is a need for water companies to take a more innovative approach to managing water; there remains inertia and risk aversion within the water industry that has been exacerbated by the way that OFWAT has hitherto regulated the sector. We hope that this White Paper will help in driving forward a more innovative and sustainable water industry. At a January 2012 CIWEM-supported conference on the EC Blueprint for Water, Peter Gammeltoft of the EC noted that there was to be an EC framework for water innovation and we hope that the rush for innovative products and processes will be pounced upon by the Government departments who can promote British products and therefore increase the market for UK research findings and products.

Broadly this is a positive document which should set in train work on a number of fronts that will in time deliver positive benefit for the environment and society. But central to this is that we value our water properly, and this White Paper does too little to encourage wider metering which is a crucial part of this balance.


CONSERVATIONPage 60 - 62 SAVE THE FROGS!, Dr. Kerry Kriger, Excutive Director, Save the Frogs Amphibian ConservationPage 63 - 65 The Truth About Knotweed, Ian Graham, Director, Complete Weed Control



Frog populations have been rapidly disappearing worldwide and nearly one-third of the world’s amphibian species are endangered and on the verge of extinction. Up to 200 amphibian species have completely disappeared since 1979 – many from seemingly pristine wilderness areas such as national parks. Amphibians are currently going extinct several thousand times faster than they naturally should be. There are numerous reasons to be concerned about frog extinctions. On these pages we will attempt to shed some light on one of the worlds most serious and overlooked environmental crises: the rapid disappearance of amphibians.

Why are frogs important and worth protecting? Amphibians are important for maintaining balance in the ecosystem, and humans derive many direct benefits from frogs. Adult frogs eat large quantities of insects, including disease vectors that can transmit fatal illnesses to humans (e.g. mosquitoes/malaria). They also eat agricultural pests that would destroy our crops if their populations were not kept under control by frogs. Frogs act as natural pesticides that reduce our dependence on potentially harmful chemical pesticides. India and Bangladesh banned the exportation of frogs for use as food in the late 1970’s when they realized that mosquito populations were increasing as the frog populations declined.

Frogs and their tadpoles and eggs also serve as an important food source to a diverse array of predators, including dragonflies, fish, snakes, birds, beetles, centipedes and even monkeys. Thus, the disappearance of frog populations disturbs an intricate food web and results in negative impacts that can cascade through the ecosystem.

Most of us are dependent on water that comes through a community filtration system, so in these tough economic times, it’s great to have tadpoles around: the tadpoles keep our waterways clean by feeding on algae, and thus reduce the costs associated with water filtration – saving us money on every month’s utility bill.

Amphibians also serve as bio-indicators. Like the proverbial “canary in a coal mine”, amphibians are an early warning system that alarm us of environmental degradation. Most amphibians are dependent on both the terrestrial and aquatic environments and they have a permeable skin that can easily absorb toxic chemicals. They are also slow to move, so cannot easily find a new home if their habitat gets destroyed. These traits make frogs especially susceptible to environmental disturbances, and thus the health of frogs is thought to be indicative of the health of the biosphere as a whole.

Amphibians produce a wide array of skin secretions, many of which have significant potential to improve human health through their use as pharmaceuticals. Approximately ten percent of the Nobel Prizes in Physiology and Medicine have been awarded to scientists whose research depended on amphibians. When a frog species disappears, so does any promise it holds for improving human health.

Why are frogs disappearing?Frogs and other amphibians face an array of human-induced threats, and many species are likely to go extinct if people do not change their actions that are contributing to this amphibian extinction crisis. There are six major factors negatively affecting amphibians: habitat destruction, infectious diseases, pollution & pesticides, climate change, invasive species, and over-harvesting for the pet and food trades. To make matters worse, many of these threats act in concert with one another to create synergistic (magnified) effects. For instance, perhaps exposure to a particular pesticide would not normally kill frogs and maybe a disease would only make the frog mildly ill. However, if the frogs became infected by a disease after a pesticide has compromised their ability to mount a sufficient

Frogs are disappearing: you can save them!

By Kerry Kriger, Ph.D. and Michael Starkey - SAVE THE FROGS!


immune response, the population may experience a lethal disease outbreak, and be driven to local extinction. If a significant portion of the species’ remaining habitat had already been logged, invaded by introduced species, or had become unusable due to altered rainfall patterns, the species could be on a rapid path toward global extinction.

How you can helpThe rapid disappearance of amphibian populations in recent decades is undoubtedly the most tragic loss of biodiversity we have ever witnessed, and is one of the most serious environmental issues of our time. Fixing a problem of this magnitude requires a collaborative effort on the part of scientists, politicians, educators, businesses, and members of the media, as well as high-profile personalities such as actors and musicians, who can quickly influence public opinion and bring an obscure issue (such as amphibian declines) to the forefront of public consciousness. It also requires a concerted effort on the part of average citizens, all of whom have the ability to reduce their impact on the environment, and exert their influence on elected officials and the businesses they choose to support.

(1) Do NOT use pesticides. Pesticides and herbicides are toxic chemicals that generally undergo little to no testing on amphibians prior to their being approved for use. Many of the USA’s 18,000+ registered pesticides can cause immunosuppression, sexual deformities, or even death. Unfortunately, the law of gravity has it that many of these pesticides end up in waterways, where amphibians live and breed. To make matters worse, amphibians have permeable skin that is highly absorbent. Clean water is clearly good for both humans and wildlife.

(2) Do not eat frog legs. Europeans alone consumed roughly 120 million frogs per year in the 1990’s. The harvesting of amphibians for the food trade is often unregulated, and in many underdeveloped countries, such as Thailand, is likely a primary contributor to amphibian declines. Even in countries where the import/export of endangered species is controlled, there are virtually no protocols or laws in place to ensure that diseased amphibians do not get transported. While most of the world’s frog legs come from wild-caught frogs, American Bullfrogs (Rana catesbeiana) are commonly farmed and transported worldwide. They are known carriers of the amphibian chytrid fungus (Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis) and

thus are likely to be primary contributors to the global spread of chytridiomycosis, a disease that has decimated amphibian populations worldwide. In a recent study, 62% of the farm-raised bullfrogs sampled in Los Angeles markets were infected! California imports several million of these bullfrogs each year, many from farms in Taiwan and China. Bullfrogs are also quite adept at establishing populations in areas to which they are introduced. They are large and compete with native amphibians for food and shelter, making them a harmful invasive species when they are outside their natural range (the eastern United States).

(3) Do NOT purchase wild-caught amphibians. Did you ever wonder where the frogs you see in pet stores came from? Most of them were taken from their homes in the wilderness. Several million wild-caught amphibians are legally imported into the USA each year, and there is a thriving global trade as well. The black-market trade – often in legally protected species – compounds the problem. Do your part by either not having an amphibian as a pet, or only buying captive-raised native species.

(4) Slow down driving on wet nights. Frogs and salamanders like to take their time crossing the road...give them a break! There are over 700 million cars on the planet, so it’s no surprise that roadkill is a significant cause of frog mortality in many urban and suburban areas.

(5) Be like a frog and go green! We live on a planet with finite resources and a growing population of 7+ billion people. We need to reduce, re-use, and recycle as much as possible in order to conserve our natural resources for future generations and to reduce the need for logging, mining and drilling. Water conservation is amphibian conservation, so turn off the tap when you can. Use rechargeable batteries: they save you money and keep heavy metals out of the environment. Do not purchase bottled water, as the production of plastic harms the environment, and fuel is wasted to ship the bottled water to your local store.

SAVE THE FROGS!Founded in May 2008, SAVE THE FROGS! is America’s first and only public charity dedicated exclusively to amphibian conservation. Our mission is to protect amphibian populations and to promote a society that respects and appreciates nature and wildlife. Our vision is a world in which not a single amphibian species is threatened with extinction.


American Bullfrog

support of the ban, which they are now considering. We plan to continue raising awareness of Atrazine, as we are certain that once people know about it, they will not support the government allowing it in their water supply or on their corn!

Keeping Invasive Species from Harming California’s Native WildlifeOf particular concern to California’s environmental conservation efforts is the importation of several million live American Bullfrogs (Rana catesbeiana) into California each year, for use in the food and pet trades. Bullfrogs are native to eastern North America, but have established populations throughout California, where they cause massive ecological damage due to their voracious appetites for native wildlife, their propensity to spread deadly diseases, and their role as competitors with native amphibians for limited food resources. Bullfrogs are listed on the IUCN’s list of 100 worst invasive species. We have initiated a petition to California’s Governor Jerry Brown, calling for a statewide ban on the importation, sale, release, and possession of American Bullfrogs. Santa Cruz County, where SAVE THE FROGS! is based, is set to soon become the first county in the country to ban these voracious predators of native wildlife.

Saving Ghana’s FrogsOver 80% of West Africa’s original rainforests have been cleared in the last half century. In September 2010 we launched SAVE THE FROGS! Ghana, our first international branch. Africa is fraught with both social and environmental problems, and Ghana is an excellent location from which to initiate SAVE THE FROGS! educational and advocacy programs that we plan to spread far and wide across the African continent. One of our primary goals in Ghana is the creation of a new national park in the Atewa Hills, home of the critically endangered Togo Slippery Frog -- but under threat from mountaintop removal mining.

Please go visit www.savethefrogs.com and learn more about our work and ways you can help SAVE THE FROGS!

And have a happy Save The Frogs Day!

Education and Appreciation of Amphibians Education lies at the heart of all environmental conservation efforts, but currently only a small proportion of our society knows that amphibians are disappearing. This lack of awareness in the general public is one of the greatest impediments to successful amphibian conservation efforts, as most of the threats to amphibians could be ameliorated if people were aware of the effects of their actions.

Save The Frogs Day is an event we conceived and coordinate, and its main purpose is to raise global awareness of amphibian issues, especially in schools and among politicians. Save The Frogs Day has been officially recognized by Governor Tim Kaine of Virginia, Governor Bev Perdue of North Carolina, and Mayor Gregor Robertson of Vancouver, British Columbia. The 3rd Annual Save The Frogs Day (April 29th, 2011) was the largest day of amphibian education and conservation action in the planet’s history, with 145 known events in 21 countries. We are working hard to ensure that the 4th Annual Save The Frogs Day (April 28, 2012) will be even larger and we call upon schools, zoos, museums, and community groups worldwide to take part and organize events to educate their local communities, or even build frog ponds!

The SAVE THE FROGS! website (www.savethefrogs.com) has webpages dedicated specifically to students and teachers, with many freely downloadable educational materials. Our frog poetry and art contests receive entries from thousands of students worldwide each year, and provide teachers with an easy way to get their students interested in amphibians. The goals of the contests are (1) engage sectors of society not often involved in environmental affairs (namely poets and artists), and (2) enable non-science teachers - most of whom would otherwise be unable to teach their students about frog extinctions - to educate their students about amphibians and assist the students in developing an appreciation for frogs.

Banning Harmful PesticidesAtrazine is one of the world’s most common pesticides: though the European Union banned it in 2004, over 80 million pounds of it were used on American crops last year, and it is still in use in 60 countries. This harmful pesticide is an endocrine disruptor that can turn male frogs into females at concentrations as low as 2.5 parts per billion. On the 3rd Annual Save The Frogs Day, we held a rally at the steps of the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to call for a federal ban on the use and production of Atrazine. A week later we delivered the EPA over 10,000 petition signatures in


Japanese knotweed has been a guest on our shores for around two hundred years, initially as a desirable ornamental but more recently as a much maligned and virulent intruder. In recent years a flourishing industry has appeared, to rid concerned clients of the problems brought by its presence. The growth of this industry has been almost as spectacular as the spread of the species itself throughout the UK, with some areas having remarkable populations of the plant.

For the customer however, there are many different takes on what is best to do, when to do it and how much it ought to cost. The need to deal with Japanese knotweed is dictated by the circumstances in which it is found to be growing. A construction project for example with a very short window of opportunity may well require a more direct approach than, let’s say a stand of knotweed growing on a roadside verge. The law though is clear: as a landowner you have a responsibility to prevent its spread into the wild, (Countryside and Wildlife Act, 1981, section 14.2). The interpretation of this law though is less than clear; whilst the disturbance and distribution of soil containing rhizome is evidently an issue, does allowing the growth to remain unchecked constitute a crime?

For the client the critical issue is to establish the facts regarding Japanese knotweed. In many respects the required knowledge is not that complex or indeed elusive, even a moderate understanding is sufficient to seek out a suitable solution to any given problem. Of course there are many ‘specialists’ whose sales pitch is riddled with tales of crumbling new builds and it is their desire to maintain the illusion that only massive spending can result in control.

The truth about Japanese knotweedIan Graham, Managing Director, Complete Weed Control Ltd.

In searching for a contractor to resolve your problems, you will hear of unique ‘systems’ to produce control with herbicides within tiny timescales, single application methods that are a permanent fix, rhizome testing that confirms results and no doubt many other weird, wonderful and inevitably expensive solutions.

The truth however is that all contractors have access to the same limited number of active ingredients within their choice of herbicide. These herbicides are controlled by law and are detailed within the UK Pesticide Guide and fully within the CRD website. The labels for these products detail their suitability and need to be adhered to fully. Equally the application itself needs to be carried out by an operator with the correct training and certification who will need regular update training to ensure full legal compliance. There are only a handful of these herbicides and some of them will be out of the question due to the proximity of trees, other desirable vegetation or indeed the presence of a water course. That means that there are no ‘cure all’ concoctions available to any contractor. Equally there are very few methods of application. Spraying, injection, wiping etc all have their place but sadly none provide instant success. The testing of rhizome is great but its results mean very little - knowing that part of the plant is ‘dead’ is really no help. Digging up every last part of the extensive rhizome system and testing it would be useful, however it rather defeats the point surely? In essence unless every part of the plant is successfully treated (especially the none visible element), or removed, or isolated by means of barrier materials, then the problem is not solved.


Happily this is usually entirely possible without breaking the bank. Careful consideration of the site, its history, the planned development, level changes, timescales, buried services, previous attempts at control (or concealment) are all to be considered. Sometimes minor modifications to a planned build can create the opportunity to resolve matters with ease.

The document of choice to learn about what might be appropriate in terms of an approach to control would be the EA guidelines. Both comprehensive and well illustrated it is a great starting point in learning about the subject. Sadly even this tome is also somewhat flawed. A great example is the instruction to excavate 7 metres from the edge of a stand of knotweed, but only 2.5 metres down. When excavating, it is practically unheard of for rhizome to venture this far from the surface vegetation; however it is common for the rhizome to be 3 metres deep. Arguably the most important advice within the guidelines can be found in the section entitled ‘The status and use of this code’ where the following observation is made: ‘Site managers need to be careful of claims made about products and methods on offer for controlling Japanese Knotweed, particularly those that claim it can quickly destroy the problem completely’. Wise words indeed.

There are only really three options when it comes to controlling Japanese knotweed: the first to remove it from the site in its entirety, the second to treat it with herbicides, or thirdly to isolate it from the structure which it threatens. Each of these options has their place, but rarely is the best solution immediately apparent whilst there are so many factors that will influence the choice.

There are a number of simple rules that ought to be remembered and passed on within the industry. They are as follows:

Always survey a site for Japanese knotweed first, preferably prior to buying it. Never initiate site clearance prior to being certain about the presence of the weed (a little knotweed goes a very long way). In the event of Japanese knotweed being identified, isolate it; not doing so has cost some companies large sums of money. Take

the time to consider all of the available options before embarking upon what could be a very expensive and fruitless exercise.

On a final note, don’t forget that we are dealing with a weed here, not radioactive waste or a killer virus. Indeed a quick search of the internet will reveal numerous tasty sounding recipes with Japanese knotweed as the key ingredient.

For the most part, a considered programme of control with sufficient thought as to how best to manage any impact upon the intended development plan will bring a happy and sensibly priced conclusion to the problem.


Knotweed

crumble!

Ingredients • 30lengthsofknotweed• 1banana• 4tablespoonsorangejuice• 1tsppowderedginger• 120gButter• 120gsoftbrownsugar• 180gflour

MethodCut knotweed into 5cm chunks place in an oven

proof dish and pour over orange juice and add up

mashed banana into the gaps.Mix the other ingredients with your fingers and

sprinkle over the top.Place in pre-heated oven at 180Â°c and cook for 20

minutes or until the crumble has turned golden.


Green Building

©limpertsacadamy.com

Page 68 - 74 Ecobuild 2012 Show Preview

Page 76 - 77 Sustainable Homes, Alan Yates, Technical Director, Sustainability - BRE Global


Ecobuild your future at the biggest event in the world for sustainable design, construction and the built environment

Make a note in your calendar – Ecobuild, the world’s biggest event for sustainable design, construction and the built environment is back at London’s ExCeL on Tuesday 20 – Thursday 22 March.

And it’s bigger than ever. Over 1,500 suppliers will be exhibiting, creating the biggest showcase of sustainable construction products you’ll see anywhere. From big names such as Saint-Gobain, BASF Construction Chemicals, Kingspan, Vaillant, and Worcester Bosch, to up and comers in Ecobuild’s Green shoots entrepreneurs’ zone. You’ll be able to see the latest and best in everything from building materials to micro-renewables, from rainwater harvesting systems to interiors.



Ecobuild puts all these innovative products in context through its vast information programme, making a visit exceptionally good use of time. There’s the three-day, three-stream conference, sponsored by the UK Green Building Council, that tackles macro themes such as Beyond construction: achieving a sustainable future, Making sustainable construction happen and Design, architecture & sustainability with renowned commentators including Sir John Beddington, Monty Don, Janet Street Porter, Greg Dyke, Tony Juniper and Angela Brady, covering topics as diverse as Growing out of trouble – how social enterprise can help restore society, People and the planet and Collaborative consumption.

A topical addition to the programme for 2012 is an ‘Olympics special’ hosted jointly by the Construction Products Association and BRE in which Construction Minister, Mark Prisk and Peter Bonfield, Adviser to the Olympic Delivery Authority on materials procurement consider how, having delivered ‘the greenest games ever’, the learning from the development of the Olympic Park can be put to use in other developments. Later, Chief Construction Adviser, Paul Morrell, UKTI CEO, Nick Baird, and Atkins CEO, Uwe Krueger discuss the platform the Olympics legacy will create for UK businesses to apply this learning to international projects, and build further the UK’s world-leading reputation in sustainable design and construction.

More applied is Ecobuild’s seminar programme which delivers practical advice from experienced practitioners through over 130 sessions including Energy & innovation in buildings, Better through BIM, Buildings in use, Future energy and Sustainable by design.



Tuesday 20th - Thursday 22nd

March 2012ExCel, London

www.ecobuild.com


Visitors looking to get their hands dirty can do so at a dozen or more live attractions - literally in the case of Ecobuild’s Natural, traditional…sustainable which demonstrates cob wall building alongside straw bale construction and carpentry techniques.

Elsewhere on the exhibition floor Renewable Heat Focus, sponsored by Vaillant, gives daily talks and one-to-one advice on how best to benefit from the Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI), plus a showcase and working models of the latest technology including solar thermal, biomass and heat pumps.

Renew, sponsored by Knauf Insulation, provides practical advice on achieving one of the most important aspects of achieving an energy efficient building – a highly insulated, air-tight building envelope through daily live demonstrations covering making hard to treat buildings more energy efficient, solid wall insulation, internal wall insulation, insulating lofts and floors, party wall insulation and cavity wall upgrades.

Ecobuild’s Solar hub, sponsored by Solarcentury, demonstrates how the installation of solar PV still offers attractive rates of return via the UK Feed-in Tariff, despite adjustments to the Government’s incentive scheme, through a series of talks and presentations, plus one-to-one advice. Visitors will get practical guidance on how to specify the most appropriate system for the best results, maximise the return on investment, reduce carbon emissions and mitigate rising energy costs as well as being able to see a range of solar innovative systems from on-roof, to semi-integrated to fully roof-integrated products, and feature the latest technologies from leading modules manufacturers.

Continuing the solar theme, SolarZED by ZEDfactory puts affordable solar-powered transport at the heart of sustainable development, and challenges received thinking on the provision of high density public transport by proposing zero carbon personal transport as a viable option.

In addition to the main programme, Ecobuild’s exhibitors and partners will be offering a variety of events including the TRADA timber tours, the BREEAM awards, sessions from UKTI on international opportunties, and a programme of sessions in the UK-GBC’s ‘big tent’ on the exhibition floor.

Spend a day at Ecobuild. Even better, spend two or three. With so much to see, learn and experience, it’s a super-efficient way to make contacts and get up to speed with the latest issues and products.

It’s all free to attend when you register at www.ecobuild.co.uk where you can also create your own itinerary using Ecobuild’s online planner.



Whilst the proposed National Planning Policy Framework has prompted a lively debate on the issue of sustainable development, there is general agreement on the need to improve the sustainability of the UK building stock – and the key role that planning has to play in that.

Chris Cousins, Local Government Liaison Manager for BRE Global, describes how local planning authorities are increasingly using national schemes such as BREEAM and the Code for Sustainable Homes when setting sustainability requirements for building developments.

The report in December of the influential Commons Select Committee on Communities and Local Government has been among the many contributions to the debate on proposals for a National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF). This highlighted, among other issues, the importance to sustainable development of considering environmental and social factors – as well as those of economic growth – and the crucial role of Local Plans.

Local Plans are prepared by local planning authorities to guide day-to-day planning decisions. The Committee concluded that the NPPF should reflect the statutory supremacy of Local Plans, and called for it ‘to require local planning decisions to be taken in accordance with the presumption in favour of sustainable development consistent with the Local Plan’.

Improving sustainability through Local Plans

An effective way in which local authorities can take action on issues such as carbon emissions and water use is to set requirements in Local Plans that go beyond the statutory minimum requirements. More than half of local authorities in the UK are now specifying sustainable building policies in their plans, and the proportion continues to grow.

Setting sustainability standards involves a wide range of issues – from energy consumption to health and well-being to biodiversity – each requiring expert knowledge if goals are to be achieved. Also, different geographical areas may have varying sustainability priorities (for example, an urban authority may have particular concerns about the ‘heat island’ effect), and different developments have varying potential for achieving sustainability targets, depending on their size and location, etc.

What is needed is a sustainability standard that addresses the full range of issues, but can be applied flexibly to take account of local circumstances. With this in mind, an increasing P

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number of local planning authorities are using building sustainability assessment schemes, such as BREEAM and the Code for Sustainable Homes (CSH), to help them set sustainability requirements. In Wales, for example, the national government has specified their use throughout the country.

BREEAM and CSH

BREEAM is the most widely used methodology in the world for assessing the environmental performance of buildings. Many public and private organisations require BREEAM assessments of their buildings as a matter of policy, to provide a comprehensive and cost-effective way of improving both environmental and economic performance. The Government requires all new buildings in its estate to undergo BREEAM assessment. The Code for Sustainable Homes is one of the Government’s key tools for driving up standards in the housing sector and, in the process, driving innovation in the construction industry.

The full range of environmental issues

‘BREEAM and CSH are holistic measures that assess a wide range of issues – energy and carbon dioxide emissions, water, materials, surface water run-off, waste, pollution, health and well-being, management and ecology,’ says BREEAM Director, Martin Townsend.

‘The buildings assessments are carried out by qualified and licensed, independent assessors’, says Townsend. ‘That means that the development management planners in local authorities don’t need a complete range of sustainable building expertise, which can include anything from knowledge of building materials – whether the timber is sustainably sourced for example – to surface water issues.

‘The planners can rely on the fact that these details have been professionally and independently assessed. So if they set a requirement for a particular CSH or BREEAM level, and the assessment demonstrates that the development has achieved that, they can be confident that their targets are being met.’

The councils comprising North Northamptonshire (Corby, East Northamptonshire, Kettering and Wellingborough), for example, have adopted a sustainable housing policy that requires residential units delivered before 2013 to meet CSH Level 3, those delivered from 2013 to 2015 to meet CSH Level 4 and those delivered after 2016 to meet Level 6. Many other councils have made similar provisions in their development plans.

Flexible approach to local prioritiesCouncils can apply BREEAM and CSH flexibly to take account of sustainability issues that they have identified as priorities. For example, they may stipulate that housing be built to CSH Level 4 for most of the issues covered, but require a higher standard in relation to the sustainable use of water. This is a common occurrence in south-east England where rainfall is relatively low.

On the other hand, it may be unreasonable to expect buildings in rural areas with infrequent transport links to score well under the transport section of BREEAM, so lower ratings can be set for this while still setting challenging targets for other aspects of sustainability.

This flexibility allows councils to apply a uniform and consistent standard, while encouraging the local planning authority and developers to work together towards realistic, practicable goals for sustainable construction.

Too high a price?

Not all developers welcome the challenges of exceeding statutory requirements, and may even resist compliance with BREEAM or CSH standards – often because of concerns about the perceived added expense of meeting environmental targets.

But improving sustainability need not mean extra cost. Recent research from the Department for Communities and Local Government has shown that the costs of building more sustainably have fallen by nearly three quarters over the last three years.

In fact there is growing evidence of the market benefits of more sustainable buildings. A report by Maastricht University, for example, has suggested that ‘research on office buildings in the United Kingdom shows that BREEAM ratings can have a positive 21 percent to 26 percent effect on rental and sales’. And there are wider economic benefits – improving building standards will trigger further improvements in the supply chain as manufacturers and suppliers respond to the new demands.

This presents a great opportunity for new ‘green jobs’ and for the UK economy as a whole. As the Government has pointed out, the Green Deal alone is predicted to trigger £14bn of investment to 2022 and support at least 65,000 construction and insulation jobs by 2015.

For more information on BREEAM and planning go to www.breeam.org/planning.

TIMBERPage 79 - 80 Timber: A Sustainable Super Material For Our Times, John Kissock, Chairman, Wood For Good

Page 82 - 84 How the UK Timber Frame industry is adapting to the current market and how it is evolving to face ,future challenges, Simon Orrells, chairman of the UKTFA


Timber: A Sustainable

Super Material For Our Times

Wood for Good is the Timber Industry’s Promotional Campaign. It aims to raise

awareness of the versatility and sustainability credentials of timber and last year

published a Government facing manifesto. Chairman, John Kissock gives us the

background of the aims of the campaign, and the messages they’re sending to

Government.

Wood is a construction material virtually as old as the earth itself. Easy to grow, easy to harvest and durable, it has formed the mainstay of homes and buildings since ancient times. Yet in the past fifty years, fears about flammability, and the vogue for more ‘modern’ materials has meant that wood has fallen somewhat out of favour.

In recent times, the checklist of the qualities we expect from the materials we specify has had to change once more. The negative impact that buildings - both in the construction phase and once they are standing - can have on the environment can no longer be ignored, and mitigating this damage is not just laudable, government standards are making it an imperative.

Targeting Zero The Low Carbon Construction report of autumn 2010 threw down the gauntlet to the construction industry and challenged it to lower carbon emissions, both in its working processes and in the embodied carbon of the buildings that are created. Indeed designing low carbon buildings is already a necessity when competing for public sector contracts.

Similarly, mechanisms are being put in place to standardise how the environmental credentials of new builds are assessed. For example, the Building Research Establishment’s (BRE) Green Guide evaluates the relative environmental impacts of the most commonly used construction materials. This enables low carbon building materials to be specified at the start of the building process. In addition, the development of The Code for Sustainable Homes is helping to drive change towards sustainable building practices by giving a star rating to reflect the sustainability of a specification. All projects must meet the minimum sustainability rating of one star, with exemplar projects being granted six stars.

For the architect, then, concern for aesthetics and structural qualities must be paralleled, if not trumped by environmental considerations. Now, and in the future, architects must specify materials based not only on the appearance, applications and durability but on their low carbon credentials. And these new standards mean that the time is right for timber to take the stage once more.

Wood is good for the environment There is a natural human instinct to believe that for something to be of worth, it must be hard won and in scant supply. Yet timber, which has the potential to be in bountiful supply across the world, offers a solution to one of the most troubling problems of our time – climate change.

Sustainably grown wood is an endlessly renewable and natural resource. It needs little more than sunlight and rainfall in order to grow, therefore expending significantly less energy during ‘production’ than any other mainstream building material.

The production of steel requires 24 times the energy needed to produce timber products, and concrete can give off 140 kg CO2 per cubic metre produced. Moreover, as they grow, trees are producing the oxygen we breathe – almost three quarters of a tonne of oxygen for every cubic metre’s growth, a quality which no other material can possibly develop.

And the reasons why will be something that most of us can recall from our GCSE science lessons. Trees absorb CO2 as they grow, meaning that wood is carbon neutral. Indeed, because of the carbon sink effect, wood from sustainably managed forests are carbon positive. For example, Europe’s forests provide a carbon sink for 150Gtonnes of carbon dioxide. In the UK, if we were to increase our forest cover by just 4 per cent (from 12 per cent to 16) then by 2050 we could abate up to 10 per cent of the nation’s carbon emissions.

So far, so understandable. Yet the idea that chopping trees down can actually be good for the environment is counterintuitive. Protecting trees is the milieu of the environmentalist. Chopping them down is a space occupied by the ruthless capitalist. If trees have such a positive effect, then surely the timber industry, whose business is chopping trees down, has a negative effect? The reverse is true. Just as younger people are more physically fit, younger trees are more physically adept at processing carbon. Sustainable forestry - and 83 per cent of the timber used in the UK is from certified sustainable


Pouring cold water on the myths. Is wood a fire hazard? - Just one in eight fires on a part-completed building was in a building constructed from a timber frame system. - In finished timber buildings the incidences of fire in timber frame structures are no greater than other materials. - There is one fire in a timber framed building for every 59 fires in non-timber frame buildings. In completed buildings there were 802 fires in timber frame buildings compared with 47,600 fires in those with non-timber frames.- Modern timber treatments greatly reduce the risk of fire, and these treatments will last for many years. - Proper site security systems can eliminate wood being a fire hazard during the construction phase, when, like other materials, it is more vulnerable.Source: Annual Fire Statistics Monitor, Department for Communities and local Government

sources - ensures that the process of CO2 absorption and oxygen emission is maximised. Each tree is harvested at the peak of its cycle, and replaced with three younger, more carbon efficient trees, before its ability to absorb and emit declines.

Even if timber is not grown in the country in which it will eventually be used, timber still remains a more sustainable option than other materials. Promoting commercial forestry helps safeguard forested areas from destruction for development or farming. Moreover, an independent study commissioned by the American Hardwood Export Council (AHEC) found that the carbon sequestration during each tree’s growth more than offsets the total combined emissions from harvesting, processing and transporting timber to the EU from America.

Small wonder then, that the environmental benefits of sustainable forestry, and an increased market for timber, have been consistently proven in independent studies and trials to be at the heart of strategies to lessen the impact of climate change.

The silent benefactor While trees are hugely beneficial to the environment during their growth cycle, their usefulness does not end when they are felled.

Wood also has the best thermal insulation properties of any mainstream construction material: five times better than concrete, 10 times better than brick and 350 times better than steel. This is because wood’s low thermal mass means that it has very limited ability to conduct either heat or cold, meaning that using timber in buildings makes them more easily able to retain heat.Carving the agenda: Wood for Good and what we wantTimber, as one of the most sensible and sustainable ways of minimising our carbon output, needs to have its voice heard. Our campaign seeks to place the UK timber industry in the vanguard of the battle against climate change.

The UK has agreed to some binding, and ambitious, targets for greenhouse gas reduction, such as the Copenhagen Accord and the Kyoto Agreement. Our manifesto outlines to Government the environmental case for sustainable wood, and argues that increasing forest cover means that driving demand for timber is a key strategy at our disposal in ensuring that we meet these targets.

More specifically, one key change we will be lobbying for this year is the establishment of a ‘wood first’ rule on all public sector new build projects. When its use is feasible, wood is without a doubt the most sustainable construction material out there. We want policy to reflect this.

In addition, we aim to tackle the lack of base level awareness about the benefits of sustainable forestry, both in some sections of the construction industry, and among the general public, who are, of course, the end users of the buildings and products that the timber and construction industry create. We must banish the idea that chopping down trees is always a negative.

In addition, we want to generate interest in wood among architects and specifiers. This is why we are running CPDs for architects and support schemes such as the Wood Awards, which celebrate the best in timber constructed buildings.

If we drive growth in the market for timber, we are one step towards a wholly natural way of addressing a man-made problem. As a material, its beauty speaks for itself - we’re making sure its power has a voice too. To learn more about the CPDs that Wood for Good offer for architects go to: http://www.woodforgood.com/who-we-are/education


You don’t have to search very hard to find negative news on all sectors of the UK housing market, but more worryingly sustainability appears to have taken a back seat to perceived economics. This is a worrying trend and believes that this blinkered approach could ultimately harm the race to zero carbon by 2016. I feel that many house builders have reverted back to build methods that on the face of it appear ‘safer’ in cost terms – this couldn’t be further from the truth. House builders should acknowledge the many other operational benefits timber frame can deliver and factor these into overall build costs. Reduced on-site waste and less cluttered sites improve health and safety standards, improved build quality means fewer call backs resulting in reduced snagging costs and higher customer satisfaction levels. As for house builders suggesting that speed of build is not a factor during recessionary times, they are ignoring the significant cash-flow benefits of building in timber frame, by planning and executing the use of timber frame at its optimum.”

Adding fancy bolt-on technologies to poor, leaky building fabric is not a sustainable solution in any sense.

This does nothing to reduce the carbon footprint of new dwellings, it just stores up long-term maintenance issues for tenants and home owners and more importantly reduces the efficiency of certain renewable technologies. For renewable systems to work at their optimum, the building fabric needs to be highly thermally efficient with virtually no unwanted air leakage. This is a principle adopted in Germany for some time, under the PassivHaus guise and what most timber frame systems can deliver here in the UK. Our FabricFirst message is more relevant now than ever before.

Whilst most UKTFA members are slightly more upbeat for the prospects of the housing market, the industry, ever resourceful, is growing share in other sectors. Retail, education, health care, hotels, leisure and student accommodation are all sectors now alive to the benefits of timber frame.

Kevin Riley, Vice President Timber Construction for Finnforest believes in the development of timber frame solutions in market segments outside of the housing market. Riley says: “The development of systems such as Finnforest’s Low Energy walls and Kerto-Ripa are

How the

UK Timber Frame industry

is adapting to the current market and how

it is evolving to face future challenges

By Simon Orrells, chairman of the UKTFA


enabling the specification of timber engineering in a wide range of non-domestic applications. For example new build projects in the retail, commercial, industrial and education sectors are benefiting from the environmental, long term sustainability and architectural versatility of engineered timber. Whilst there is a real interest in the specification of more environmentally sound systems, what we have recognised is that the performance and price equilibrium has to work for the client. With our Low Energy wall panels we have delivered to clients, such as Tesco, the opportunity to realise the best of all worlds: off-site quality, assured manufacture, speedy installation and a performance that exceeds expectation in terms of u-value and air tightness.”

Equally IKEA recognised the benefit of the Kerto-Ripa panel system – with 1,000m2 per day of 16m clear spanning, fully insulated and weather proof roof elements being installed at one of their stores in Finland. Again all the factors combined to deliver performance and speed that allows build programmes to be maximised to get the shop’s cash registers ringing faster.

Kevin Riley continues: “At Finnforest we firmly believe in the adaptation of proven systems from within our European network of businesses to bring a new perspective to the UK timber frame and engineering fraternity. In this way we are able to work with the sector to advance the interest of timber engineering with the key target client groupings.”

White Design is an architectural practice and sustainability consultancy specialising in the design of context-sensitive, low carbon and low environmental impact buildings and landscapes. Craig White, Director explains “Our approach to sustainability overarches, underpins and threads through all our work. The practice has four areas of specialism: architecture; landscape architecture; consultancy services; innovative materials and research. Timber is always at the core of our thinking, but our solutions based approach to the structural element of design has led us into a variety of exciting new developments.”

A great example of this is the planning consent for the pioneering Leeds-based LILAC project which received planning consent in May last year. LILAC, a community-based Co-operative Society, now moves to the next step in its £3M plan to build 20 affordable eco-homes and a common house from timber and straw. White Design’s plans use an innovative construction system called ModCell©, which puts straw bales inside an

engineered timber frame to create super-insulated wall panels. LILAC is committed to building with ModCell because the straw will be sourced from Yorkshire farmers, bills will be reduced by around 80 per cent and an average three-bedroomed house will lock up nearly 50 tonnes of carbon emissions. Members of the local community will be invited to come and help build the straw bale walls this autumn in a nearby farmer’s barn.

White adds, “LILAC is a great model for groups who want to design and help build their own communities at a price that they can afford. We look forward to getting this off the ground as one of the first real community-led low carbon neighbourhoods in the UK.”

The Modcell product is an example of one of many solutions based approaches our members are evolving. We have come an awful long way from the timber frame our members were producing in 2000 when the UKTFA was formed. This evolution has been driven by new, tougher building regulations, but I like to think that unlike other elements of the industry, we don’t wait to be regulated to advance our products, we are truly at the cutting edge of sustainable construction.

While our members are enduring the same difficulties as the wider construction industry, I am encouraged to see the resourcefulness, determination and sheer enterprise we deliver as a sector. I am convinced that the future for timber frame will be bright and the industry will kick-on and thrive as a major part of the UK construction industry, delivering value, quality and sustainability.

ModCell© panels on site


ENERGYPage 86 - 90 The Green Deal, Greg Barker, Energy and Climate Change Minister

Page 92- 94 The Green Deal – just how green a deal is it?, Sean Lockie, director of sustainability at Faithful+Gould


For the Coalition Government, tackling climate change, securing our future energy supplies and making an ambitious transition to a low carbon, high growth economy is an urgent and vital task.

Energy efficiency lies at the very heart of our strategy. It means being smarter about the energy we use – making the most of a precious resource and eliminating waste.

As families and businesses face rising energy bills, the cheapest energy is the energy we don’t use. In a world of increasing energy prices, market volatility and reliance on imports, being efficient with energy has never been more important. Growing numbers of families and households are struggling to pay their energy bills. We estimate this year up to 4.1m households will be in fuel poverty in England alone.

On top of this, the UK building stock is among the most inefficient in the world and responsible for 43% of total UK emissions in 2009. Homes and businesses across Britain are wasting energy and money yet demand for energy efficiency measures remains low, as many people cannot afford the upfront costs or lack confidence in the quality of the work.

The vision for the Green Deal

This is where the Green Deal comes in. It will be the biggest home energy improvement programme of modern times addressing the urgent need for a step-change in our approach to energy efficiency in existing domestic and commercial buildings. This will be critical to meeting our carbon emissions and fuel poverty targets.

We are currently consulting on this ground breaking policy and the time window for applying closes on 20 January, so I urge anyone with any last minute comments to get them to us at DECC.

The vision for the Green Deal and the new Energy Company Obligation (ECO) is an ambitious and far-reaching one. It’s a world where the UK leads with a dynamic new energy efficiency market where the consumer is in charge, with nationwide brands, local businesses and community organisations competing to deliver the best proposition for the consumer. Under

By Greg Barker, Energy And Climate Change Minister

THE GREEN DEAL



our plans, the Green Deal and ECO will support more significant energy efficiency improvements that have not been promoted before, and support green investment and economic growth. The results will be cosier, warmer homes with lower emissions and fewer families in fuel poverty.

We estimate the Green Deal will catalyse £14bn of investment over the next decade, supporting at least 65,000 insulation and construction jobs by 2015. Insulation installers and others in the retrofit supply chain all stand to benefit from this long overdue energy efficiency makeover.

How will it work?

The Government is currently establishing the groundwork to enable private firms to offer consumers energy efficiency improvements to their homes, communities and businesses at no upfront cost, and recoup payments through a charge in instalments on the energy bill. The plan is for energy efficiency measures to be provided by businesses people can trust, installed by accredited professionals, and backed up with a legal framework. Customers will pay nothing up front as businesses will do that for them.

Once the property has been refitted, Green Deal providers will get their money back from the expected savings on energy bills over the lifetime of the measures. This is the big change. Through legislation the finance is tied to the energy meter so payments can be made not just by the current occupier, but by the beneficiaries once the current occupier moves out and moves on.

The Green Deal will be available whether people own or rent and, because it’s not like personal debt, personal credit ratings are not a factor. The Green Deal offers landlords a real opportunity to invest in the energy efficiency of their properties at no up-front cost to themselves. Meanwhile tenants will repay the cost of measures through their energy bill savings, enjoying warmer properties without increased fuel bills. This is a win-win opportunity for landlords – making the property cheaper to run, more environmentally friendly and more attractive to rent.

Alongside the Green Deal, the Government is planning to replace the existing energy company obligations like CERT and CESP. The new Energy Company Obligation (ECO) will provide around £1.3bn a year to ensure everyone is able to benefit from the Green Deal, no matter what their income is or the type of house they live in. It will focus energy companies on improving solid wall properties, which have not benefited much from previous schemes, and on improving the ability of the vulnerable and those on lower incomes to heat their homes affordably.

Delivering the Green Deal

To make sure the Green Deal gets off to a flying start, we need to ensure three things. Firstly, that we have the demand there in the first place so we’re making £200m available when the Green Deal starts to provide introductory offers. Our legislation also provides a voice for tenants living in poorly insulated, draughty homes or operating from energy inefficient businesses. We will get tough so that by 2018 the poorest performing rented housing and business stock is brought up to a decent energy efficiency standard. This will provide another market for installers.

Secondly that consumers can trust in the service and products. Trust is important when it comes to having work done in homes, so consumer protection will be built in from the word go. There’ll be proper accreditation, a quality mark and insurance-backed warranties to prevent against rogue traders.

Thirdly that the very organisations which have grass roots knowledge of homes and communities, like social landlords and local authorities, are working in partnership with the private sector. Local authorities could opt for a very hands on approach by becoming a Green Deal provider or partnering up with another provider. They might go door to door to help promote better energy efficiency and increase take-up of local offers. Regardless of how they choose to get involved we want to tap into the knowledge and influence they have in the local community so we can prioritise help for the poorest.

We want to see more collaborative working, not just between Green Deal providers and local authorities but neighbouring councils working together, charities, voluntary organisations and community groups getting involved to come up with innovative solutions to rolling out energy efficiency on a street by street basis.

What’s next?

The Green Deal will be a bigger national effort than putting on the London Olympics. Just as the Games are closing in the summer, we will be getting ready to kick-start an energy efficiency overhaul of homes and businesses across the country. I am looking forward to reading the responses we have received for our consultation. It’s an exciting time in the world of energy efficiency, and we are on the brink of a revolution to make homes across the country cheaper to run, cosier to live in and ultimately fit for the future.


The Green Deal – just how green a deal is it?

With the Green Deal being the Government’s flagship eco policy, a lot is riding on both the policy’s currently public consultation, and its wider uptake from householders and businesses. Yet the need for such a policy is clear, with a quarter of the country’s carbon emissions coming from residential heating and a further quarter coming from commercial premises. So what kind of reception is the Green Deal being given by the industry, and is it really going to deliver the benefits the Government has promised?

The Green Deal certainly started out with a simple premise. That any home or business in Britain will be able to carry out a full energy refurbishment of their property and fund it through a loan from the policy’s start date of October 2012. The funding is in theory repaid through energy savings. Under the deal the loan will be lodged against the property, and not the owner or occupier and the loan repayments will then be added to a property’s electricity bill – meaning they will be passed on or tied to the property. Loans will be available up to £10,000 and they will be repaid over a maximum of 25 years. Rules over what qualifies for funding are covered under what is called the ‘Golden Rule’.

This policy allows the Green Deal to overcome three big barriers to increasing the uptake of energy efficient building improvements. Firstly, householders

are often reluctant to install works which have a payback time longer than they hope to own the property. Secondly, it delivers a clear benefit to the landlord over and above the attraction to tenants. The third is that energy saving measures should be selected and installed in a ‘whole building approach’ which limits the trade interfaces and any potential disruption.

There has been some concern amongst landlords about the Green Deal’s proposed minimum levels of energy efficiency. It is now expected that, from 2018, it will be illegal for landlords to let property which does not achieve at least an E rating on the energy efficiency ratings scale. It is thought that this ban will affect some 682,000 properties – and landlords will in effect be forced to make changes to their properties if they wish them to be let, although there will be some get out clauses for listed buildings.

Through the Green Deal the Government in effect has facilitated the payment of UK residents (both landlords and tenants) and industry to insulate homes and factories and install energy saving kit to reduce carbon emissions. As the deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg said, “People can now insulate their homes, save and all at no upfront

By Sean Lockie, director of sustainability at Faithful+Gould


cost”, when he helped launch the initiative. A research consultation on the Green Deal has also been published which showed that homes will on average be cheaper to heat and light in the future, precisely because of the Government pursuing this policy. The Department of Environment and Climate Change (DECC) has published a list of expected works upgrades, including insulation, boiler improvements, double and triple glazing and more advanced heating controls.

To take advantage of the Green Deal you will have to have your home or business assessed by a Green Deal Assessor (GDA) who will produce a Green Deal Report. A GDA may be an independent assessor or they may be employed or contracted to a Green Deal Provider (GDP). The Green Deal Provider will be an organisation which performs a range of key roles all underneath a single structure: sourcing quotes for all of the works, overseeing the installation and ultimately providing the actual loan. To protect consumers against mis-selling, and to make sure loans are not offered where the financial circumstances are not appropriate, both the GDA and GDP will be strictly accredited and monitored.

An Energy Company Obligation (ECO) is expected to provide around £1.3bn/year of support, split between “affordable warmth” (c. £325m/yr) and energy efficiency improvements for “hard to treat”, largely solid wall homes (c. £975m/yr). ECO will replace both of the current schemes, CESP and CERT, by the end of 2012 placing a new requirement on UK energy suppliers to deliver against both CO2 and fuel poverty reduction targets. Other than £200m of introductory support recently announced by the Government, ECO is likely to be the only form of long-term financial subsidy available to bolster the Green Deal and it will be utilised where homes fail to achieve the Golden Rule.

The Golden Rule means that any loan repayments must not exceed the expected monetary savings on energy bills. The savings will be calculated using a software package which will use Government-approved algorithms. Even so, the savings will not be guaranteed. The theory is that the bill payer will always be saving more than they will be paying. However, this will be based on a set of standard occupancy and standard heating patterns which may not match actual energy use.

Recently there have been some very high profile criticisms of the Green Deal and, in particular, this Golden Rule. One common criticism is that the Golden Rule works best for high energy using households, which presumably are also the least likely to apply for the loan, whereas it penalizes low energy households. Problems could occur if, say, savings are modelled on perhaps a family of 4 occupying the property and if, say, this density and use changed to a single person. This would then affect the consumption and the payback levels. Even more worrying about the rule though is its arithmetic. For instance, most of the suggested works to be implemented

currently have very short guarantees or warranties, i.e. 3-6 years. However, businesses and consumers will be offered warranties through the Green Deal which cover the full 25 year period of the contract. While it’s entirely understandable the Government has set the warranty of works at 25 years, to boost uptake and prevent people complaining that the product they’ve installed has failed yet they’re still paying for it, it also makes the arithmetic of the Golden Rule suspect.

If a particular product fails and requires replacing several times throughout the 25 year period, then some form of extremely complex ranking to assess the likelihood of future product failure will be needed. As David Strong, who is chairing the forum looking into accreditation for the Deal said, “Some measures might require replacing two or three times in the twenty five year period. If you add on that cost then it’ll completely blow the golden rule.”

So, is the Government right to attract this criticism and is its flagship policy doomed to failure? Well, no. For a start the Government has to do something, and aiming to reduce carbon emissions by 2 million tones is not a bad start. And as the Climate Change minister Greg Barker recently said, “The Green Deal is expected to attract capital investment of up to £15bn in the residential sector alone by the end of this decade and at its peak, the Green Deal could support around 250,000 jobs.” And we’re not alone in trying to implement this type of scheme. Several similar policies have already been implemented in G8 / G20 countries including Norway, South Korea, Australia and the US.

There is also the time and awareness element. Put simply, the Government knows the Green Deal isn’t perfect and is aware of its shortcomings. With the Government’s own consultation on the Green Deal just coming to a close on 18 January, now is the ideal time to tweak it and rectify some of the problems which have been so publicly highlighted. It was particularly interesting to see the CBI’s recent consultation submission highlighting the need for the policy to be based on three clear principles: i) long-term certainty to investors and households, ii) simplicity to drive take-up for both households and businesses and iii) cost effectiveness to ensure that emissions reductions are achieved at the lowest cost to the economy.

So while it’s easy to carp and cavil about the detail with much of the scheme’s criticism being fair, this author takes the wider perspective of broadly supporting the Green Deal. It’s not perfect, but it’s a much needed policy to kick start a domestic refurbishment programme which will, hopefully, deliver clear benefits to the UK.


LAND MANAGEMENT /DEVELOPMENT

Page 98 - 100 The Additional Pollution Risks That Occur In Extreme Weather Conditions, Brian M Back; Chairman of Environmental Innovations Limited

Page 102 - 103 Can technological advancements help alleviate water scarcity?, Ian Grant, Managing Director, Brownfield Briefing.



THE ADDITIONAL POLLUTION RISKS THAT OCCUR IN EXTREME WEATHER CONDITIONS

There is still heated debate about who or what is responsible for climate change, and in what measures can and should be taken to combat its effect. However, what is virtually universally accepted is that climate change itself is a fact of the future. That factor must therefore be taken into account when companies are implementing or updating their emergency pollution containment procedures to comply with new European Directives.

No matter how well prepared a site is for a spill incident, everything changes in extreme weather conditions. The spate of Arctic conditions which swept across most of the UK and Northern Europe in recent years brought with it a series of major difficulties for companies attempting to deploy conventional spill and pollution control apparatus such as drain mats and plugs. Even the most diligently prepared emergency teams struggled to locate drains under inches of snow. However, locating the drain is only the first of many problems, some dangerous rather than just time consuming. Attempting to chip away ice from a frozen manhole cover with a shovel or blowtorch is obviously not a good idea on a site with stored Petrochemicals or above a sewer with potentially explosive gases. Extreme weather or a major accident will quickly turn theory to practice and expose flaws in a site’s emergency equipment and health and safety procedures. As anyone who has had a recent ISO14001

annual audit or Environment Agency inspection will attest to, complacency isn’t an option.The risk of equipment failure also increases greatly in extreme weather conditions, and when combined with frozen pipes and inaccessible drains the control of spills becomes an even bigger challenge. A comprehensive search of the internet surprisingly unearths virtually nothing on spill containment in extreme weather conditions. This would indicate that it’s an area which hasn’t really been given the attention it deserves or that there is a misconception that effective containment simply isn’t possible in snow or icy conditions. More and more companies are turning to in-drain containment systems which can be fully automated and convert a site’s existing drainage system into a capacious vessel to capture spills and firewater. This weather-proof method of containment buys invaluable time to organise the safe extraction of the spill/firewater from the drain, without the need for staff to put themselves at risk by entering slippery areas to try and mop up the potentially hazardous material. Once installed, this embedded technology with its auto-safety maintenance checking facility and auto deployment capabilities is untroubled by extreme weather conditions as everything is controlled from above ground.

Severe conditions also pose extreme challenges for Airports. When your flight is delayed because of bad weather, the familiar sight of de-icing trucks and crane

By Brian M Back; Chairman of Environmental Innovations Limited


biodegrades. An additional concern is the presence of Tolyltriazoles, which are used as flame retardants and corrosion inhibitors, and have a very high toxicity. The lethal dose for humans of Ethylene Glycol is a little over three ounces, according to a report prepared for the EPA. It has also been linked to cancer.

A recent award winning study by Rhode Island academic Nate Andrews found that even in summer months he was obtaining readings of three parts per million of Glycol in local ponds and brooks. Within two months of the first snowstorm, those readings escalated to fifteen parts per million, increasing iron and hydrogen concentrations in the water. “The closer to the airport we are, the worse the water quality seems to be and that is downstream as well,” he said. “All the storm drains [at the airport] run into the water system. The catch basins do not work because glycol dissolves into the water. This is not naturally occurring and it is toxic. So if a little fish eats it and then another fish eats that fish and so on, then a hawk eats the fish, it is a chain reaction of events,” said

mounted sprays are quite naturally welcome and an indication that you will hopefully soon be on your way. However, long after you have arrived at your destination the effects of that de-icing are still causing a potentially devastating effect on the environment. The de-icer fluid is not designed to adhere to the aircraft, meaning that the vast majority, at least 80%, will find its way into the atmosphere or spill on the tarmac and consequently find its way into the airport’s various drainage systems.

Approximately 98% of ADF (anti-icing/de-icing fluid) used consists of Propylene Glycol (for anti-icing) or Ethylene Glycol (for de-icing). It is diluted with water to a consistency dependant on ambient temperatures, the colder the air the higher the Glycol content. The mixture, most commonly 90% Glycol and 8% water, is then sprayed onto the aircraft at a temperature somewhere between 150 to 180F. It can be applied using handheld nozzles or from automated gantries.

As well as the mammalian toxicity of Glycol, it can also cause non-natural bacterial growth as well as deplete dissolved oxygen in lakes and streams as the substance


busiest airports in the United States are within three miles of a major waterway. “Without recapture efforts 50-80% of the Glycols may end up in the local waterways” says Mark Williams of the Maryland Aviation Administration. In Europe recycled Glycols can be used to de-ice aircraft, a practice which is not currently permitted in the US.

Designated de-icing areas (De-icing Pads) are becoming more popular, some operated by independent third parties. This option makes it easier to capture the runoff in a single place rather than have multiple de-icing

operations taking place at each gate. Munich International Airport

has been recycling ADF since 1992. As a result, the airport operator has reduced

its de-icing costs by approximately one million Euros per season. It is also significantly

reduced the total organic carbon (TOC) released to the wastewater system by approximately 350,000kg

per season and reduced its externally purchased ADF by approximately 2m litres per season. So it is not just the environment that benefits from a responsible containment of ADF runoff. Environment agencies in the UK and around the world are currently working on specific guidelines for the use, capture and disposal of ADF.

Apart from the basic moral responsibility to protect the environment that any decent business has, the new legal requirements have empowered the authorities to forensically trace pollution back to its source. The new stringent Polluter Pays Principle at the heart of the new European Directive (ELD 2004/35/EC) makes no allowance for ignorance or extreme weather when it comes to instigating fines or allocating potentially massive remuneration costs, many of which are not covered by standard indemnity insurance. So it’s vital that when choosing a pre-emptive emergency containment system, and implementing Health and Safety procedures, that companies ensure that they will work in all circumstances and in all weather conditions.

Andrews. His evidence has been passed to the State Department of Environmental Management where it is ‘being litigated’.

In May 2010 Heathrow Airport was fined for allowing surface water runoff containing Glycol to enter a local lake. As a result oxygen levels plummeted killing hundreds of perch and trench, and thousands more fish had to be relocated to a nearby lake. The Environment Agency described the spill as having a ‘devastating impact’ on the lake. On top of the fine the airport also had to pay £195k compensation for loss of revenue to the ski company who lease the lake. Other UK airports have also been fined for similar Glycol pollution incidents.

Environment protection agencies around the world require airports to monitor storm water runoff, usually controlled by local discharge permits. It is not difficult to believe that these restrictions take a low priority when a sudden bout of extreme weather threatens to ground hundreds or thousands of flights, and priority goes to de-icing planes and clearing runways. It is not just the spraying of ADF to de-ice the planes which has dire environmental consequences, the chemicals and grit used to clear runways can also easily find their way into local watercourses or groundwater. The total amount of Glycol used is virtually impossible to estimate. However, even a small airport like Norwich used 125,648 litres of ADF in 2009. What is clear is that containment and recycling of the ADF is essential; forty five of the fifty



Water shortages are increasing and the value of water as a resource is rising all the time, but less resource is being put into clean-up than a few years ago. Ian Grant reports.

That is the context.

On a world scale, the shortage of water is leading to deep fossil water mining, which is a non-renewable resource. Water wars are predicted and the capital city in Yemen may have to relocate as it will run out of water. Sana’a could be the world’s first capital city to go dry; the population is growing at a rate of 7% per year as people flee from the drought affected outer reaches of the country. Part of the problem is qat, an addictive plant chewed by the majority of the male population and which takes an awful lot of water to grow.

Water shortage is also a serious issue facing the UK. By 2033, the predicted consumption is set to be 1,074 litres each day.

But besides the abstraction stress facing shallow aquifers, there are also contamination threats which range from hydrocarbons to arsenic, fluoride, and saline intrusions. Diffuse pollution dangers include nitrates and pesticides.

Saline intrusion, for example, is a common problem in parts of the world, but more recently abstraction levels in places like Kent has led to worries this could become a problem.

Technological advancementGroundwater assessment and remediation have come a long way over the last fifty years, with advances in chromatography allowing oil to be speciated into different chemicals and compounds. And followed by an explosion of technologies including pump and treat, air sparging, soil vapour extraction, surfactant flushing and pumping, and bioremediation.

Risk assessment came to the fore in the mid-nineties, along with a new found level of pragmatism – with clean-up levels more practical. This trend continued through the noughties with advances in instrumentation and practical technologies – chemical oxidation, enhanced in situ bioremediation and enhanced monitored natural attenuation.

Signs are that pragmatism is still increasing, with improvements in effective measuring. And also the better integration of different technologies.

Dr Jeremy Birnstingl of Regenesis believes the increasing austerity will mean the focus changing to looking for the significant possibility of significant harm rather than just the possibility of significant harm. He points to examples in the United States where authorities are saying that in some cases, it is better to have no

Can technological advancements help alleviate water scarcity?By Ian Grant, Editorial Director, Brownfield Briefing


abstraction from the water body, rather than go through the expense of cleaning it up. And in some developments, the solution is to put tougher membranes down, capping the pollution rather than cleaning it up. He warns that trends in the US are often reflected in the UK.

IssuesEven with advanced technologies, groundwater pollution is still regarded as ‘unseen’,‘underground’, often complex, in three dimensions, subject to ever changing dynamic forces. Remediators still have to rely on ‘limited’ data which often only represents snap-shots in time.

Sorting out ‘heterogeneities’ is a big issue. Guidance can be highly complex. And ecological risk assessments can open up a can of worms.

One area of debate is whether the right chemicals are being analysed. In 2009 the US National Research Council stated: “Chemicals that have not been examinedsufficiently in epidemiologic or toxicological studies are often insufficiently considered in or are even excluded from risk assessments; because no description of their risks is included in the risk characterisation, they carry no weight in decision-making.

That occurs in superfund-site and other risk ssessments, in which a relatively short-list of chemicals on which there are epidemiologic and toxicological data tends to drive the exposure and risk assessments”. And this is also true of the UK.

A number of emerging contaminants may prove to be a challenge both from a remediation and analytical point of view for consultants and contract laboratories. These include perfluorinated sulfonates and their break-down products, 1,4 dioxane, pharmaceutical compounds including penicillin, acetominaphen and oestrogen (and others), perchlorates, and the phosphate-based flame retardants including Tris(chloro-isopropyl)phosphate.

These are slow to become part of a routine water quality or soil analytical suite and yet are known to be a problem in the environment. The challenge of detecting, delineating and remediating these compounds is one which we will be increasingly faced.

Professor Phil Morgan of the Sirius Group, says that compounds are really hard to judge with tailing and rebound; inadequate site investigation; geological variability; the physical and chemical properties of contaminants; biological effects; poor verification design; plus time and budgets adding to the problem.

He adds: “Components behave very differently from each other and can affect the behaviour of others in terms of solubility, biodegradation, sorption and vapour composition. Some components within the mixture may be degraded in preference to others due to degradation kinetics, higher energy yield or inhibition effects.”

However there are positive trends. According to James Baldock of ERM one of the problems of groundwater assessment and remediation is that traditionally the problem has been looked at haystack scale not needle scale. He says advances in high resolution site characterisation (HRSC) have enabled this ‘needle’ based approach, resulting in cost savings for clients.

At the qualititative scale there are gore sorbers, the use of geophysics, MIP and CMT wells and at the quantitative scale techniques such as Waterloo Profilers.

He says common problems include the location of the source zone insufficiently known/unknown; depth of contamination insufficiently known and underestimation/overestimation of contaminant mass. This can result in remedial techniques either not being appropriate and/or adequately designed, with remediation goals not achieved.

He says using HRSC significantly reduces uncertainty through generation of high resolution datasets and improves understanding of subsurface heterogeneity, leading to confidence in data from all stakeholders.

Although costing more in terms of time and resources initially, it has advantages in terms of investigation time and a reduction in remediation costs by accurately refining treatment zones. It also improves the certainty of remediation performance – the contaminant and subsurface conditions are fully understood.

But will such advancements be enough to alleviate increasing scarcity?

Newzeye is running a conference on Cost-Effective Assessment and Remediation of Groundwater, Tuesday 1st May 2012, at 15 Hatfields, London and a Conference on Mining and Minewater in June at the British Geological Survey.

http://www.brownfieldbriefing.com/events/regulatory-updates-and-new-technologies-cost-effective-assessment-and-remediation-groundwater


LABS ANDTESTINGPage 106 - 108 Black Carbon, Jim Mills, MD, Air Monitors

Page 109 - 111 Mercury In Soils, Jane Firth, LGC Standards


Traditionally, ambient particulates have been measured gravimetrically according to their size. However, in this article Jim Mills, Managing Director of Air Monitors, will demonstrate that the time has come to change or at least augment the way ambient particulates are monitored and regulated. Air Monitors has supplied most of the UK's ambient monitoring network, but Jim will explain why the measurement of Black Carbon could change the way we look at particulate pollution, so that focus will be given to strategies that could result in improvements to human health AND make a very significant contribution to the fight against climate change.

Jim will also outline the rationale behind a new €3million EU funded project (Carbotraf) which will use Black Carbon measurements to inform traffic management systems in both Glasgow and Graz.

BackgroundAs a result of the health problems and mortality caused by smoke and soot in the 1950s, legislation was created in a number of countries including the UK and the US, which resulted in a significant decline in the levels of particulates. At that time, most of the particulate was derived from the burning of coal in homes and factories.The most common measurement standards for particulates specify the mass of particulate that passes through a 10µm inlet (PM10) or a 2.5µm inlet (PM2.5). However, these methods take no account of the chemical or biological content of the particulate nor do they consider the number of particles.

Despite the dramatic reductions in PM10 and PM2.5 that have been achieved, a significant level of human health problems persist, including effects on respiratory and

cardio vascular systems, including asthma, heart disease and cancer. People with existing lung or heart conditions may be more susceptible to the effects of air pollution.

Many scientists now believe that finer particles may be the major cause of ill health because they are able to travel deeper into the respiratory system, and because these tiny particles can act as sponges carrying small amounts of toxic species such as PAH’s and dioxins which are adsorbed onto black carbon particles and transported deep into the body. PM10 and PM2.5 measurements provide a total figure for everything with mass in the sample and thereby assume that all particles are of equal significance. In reality this is not the case because some of the particles are benign from a human health perspective or are not anthropogenic so are of less interest from an air quality management perspective.

It is fortunate that the fine particles (from the combustion of fossil fuels) that are of most interest are black carbon and can be measured with an Aethalometer, which employs an optical method to only measure those fine particles which are black.

Importantly, an Aethalometer can provide a real-time readout of the mass concentration of 'Black' or 'Elemental' carbon aerosol particles in the air which means that live data can be used to manage the main contributor of urban black carbon: road traffic.

Global WarmingIn addition to the public health issues relating to Black Carbon (BC), there is also a major consideration with regard to climate change, because BC stays in the atmosphere for a relatively short period of time – from

– the elephant in the room!Black Carbon

By Jim Mills, MD, Air Monitors


days to weeks, before falling to ground as a result of dry deposition or precipitation. This is an important consideration in global strategy to combat climate change because BC emissions are the second largest contribution to current global warming, after carbon dioxide emissions. However, since CO2 stays in the atmosphere for many decades, emissions reductions will take a long time to have an effect, which means that efforts to reduce BC could have a much faster impact on global warming.

BC reduction is fast becoming recognised as a major opportunity in the fight against climate change. In June 2011, a UN Environment Programme (UNEP) study estimated that ‘near-term’ global warming could be quickly reduced by 0.5 degrees Celsius by a reduction in BC emissions and that this would have an even greater benefit in the Arctic where it could reduce warming by 0.7 degrees.

BC increases global warming by absorbing sunlight, darkening snow and influencing the formation of clouds. The effects of BC are most noticeable at the poles, on glaciers and in mountainous regions – all of which are exhibiting the greatest effects of climate change.

Why has the elephant been ignored?In the 1950's it became clear that a dramatic reduction in airborne smoke and soot was required and the PM10 and PM2.5 monitoring standards provided useful tools with which to measure progress. In addition, other measures of air quality such as SO2, NOx and Ozone were developed, but the significance of BC has only become clear more recently.

In 1952 over 4,000 Londoners (above the ‘normal’ mortality rate) are believed to have died as a result of the Great Smog. However, in 1992, the Department of Health set up a Committee on the Medical Effects of Air Pollutants (COMEAP) which concluded that up to 24,000 deaths were still being ‘brought forward’ in the UK in 1995/1996 due to the short term effects of air pollution.

At that time no standards or regulations were proposed for BC because it was assumed that the effort to reduce PM10 and PM2.5 would also reduce BC.

From a public health perspective, the PM10 approach results in effective legislation to reduce overall particulate emissions, but once this has been achieved it is logical for the focus to move to the finer particulates. These often have the most detrimental effects and it is pleasing to note that BC is becoming one of the most popular subjects for discussion in many recent meetings of air quality and public health professionals.

The problem with Black CarbonGenerally speaking gaseous pollutants are breathed in and breathed out again in short fashion. In contrast, some of the fine particulate that is breathed deep into the respiratory system tends to stay there. This problem is compounded by the fact that BC effectively acts as a vehicle to transport other harmful materials which can adsorb to its large surface area. These include PAH’s and dioxins, which are known to be carcinogenic.

The measurement of particulates to PM10 and PM2.5 is complicated by the fact that a hundred-fold reduction in particle diameter equates to a million-fold reduction in mass, assuming a specific density and spherical particle shape (see table).

Particle Diameter (microns) Particle Weight(mass units)10 5001 0.50.1 0.0005

So the most potentially harmful particles are not adequately measured by this method. In addition, carbon concentrations vary from time to time and place to place.The regulatory focus on PM10 and PM2.5 has resulted in

highly efficient combustion processes in industry and in modern engines. However, these new developments are designed to meet the PM mass standards; not necessarily to reduce the fine particulate, for which monitoring is not currently required by legislation. As a result, BC and other fine particulate materials in urban areas have become a major concern.

CARBOTRAF – a project to reduce BC levels through traffic managementCARBOTRAF is a Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) of the European Commission. Lasting for three years, the project will study the relationship between traffic flow, BC emissions and CO2 in urban environments.The project aims to create a method, system and tools for adaptively influencing traffic flow in real-time to reduce CO2 and BC emissions caused by road transport in urban and inter-urban areas.

The inter-relationships between traffic states and CO2 and BC emissions will be investigated. In particular, a model linking traffic states to emission levels will be established on the basis of existing and new simulation methods and tools.

A decision support system for online prediction of emission levels will use real-time and simulated traffic and air-quality data. Based on the prediction, a low emission traffic scenario will be achieved by imposing ITS (Intelligent Transport Systems) measures such as re-routing and adjustment of traffic light sequences.

The two host cities are Glasgow, Scotland and Graz, Austria which were chosen due to their ability to manage traffic flows using ITS, which will be enhanced by real-time air quality monitoring systems and a decision support system provided by IBM Inc.

The project will involve international partners from both the academic and industrial sectors. For example, Air Monitors will provide BC monitors, meteorology, mobile air quality and traffic monitoring equipment, and Envirologger (an associate company of Air Monitors) will provide real-time data collection, storage and display technology. Other partners include Imperial College London, the Austrian Institute of Technology, VITO (Belgium), ETS (Belgium), EBE Solutions (Austria) and IBM.

Recent developmentsEncouragingly, the elephant in the room is starting to be noticed. On 14th November 2011, BBC UK Environment correspondent Richard Black published an article entitled ‘air pollution puts lives at risk’, in which he outlined the Environmental Audit Committee’s recent report which claimed the government’s failure to meet EU standards on air pollution is ‘putting the health of UK residents at risk. Bad air quality costs the nation £8.5 - £20bn per year via poor health,’ the report says, ‘and can cut life expectancy by years.’

Following a similar theme, the Sunday Times published an article entitled ‘How a Breath of Air is Toxic’ on 13th November 2011 which reported that people living or travelling in Britain’s cities ‘could be sucking in more than 100 million tiny toxic pollutant particles with each breath, according to the government’s National Physical Laboratory (NPL).’

The article went on to explain: ‘The tiny particles of soot and poisonous carbon compounds come from car exhausts, brakes and tyres and are thought to contribute to about 30,000 premature deaths a year from heart and lung problems.’

Clearly, the importance of BC is starting to become accepted and it is encouraging to note that a new PhD project will commence at King’s College London in 2012 to study ambient levels of Black Carbon.

Historically, air quality legislation has been largely driven by human health issues and major advances have been achieved in developed countries. However, it is clear that whilst the focus on PM10/2.5 has resulted in major reductions in total airborne particulate, to date fine particles have been largely ignored.

Additional new monitoring standards based on BC would substantially help to address this issue and drive improvements that would both enhance human health and help in the fight against climate change. If we are to make progress on both fronts we must recognise the elephant in the room, and Black Carbon should become the new PM10.

Further information is available at www.airmonitors.co.uk


Environmental protection is a truly international issue – emissions, whether man-made or natural, have no respect for national borders, and legislation is in place to limit and monitor emissions. Regulations continue to develop as we understand more about the environmental impact of pollutants and their toxicity and bioaccumulation in organisms and the food chain. In order to assess the effectiveness of, and compliance with, such environmental programmes, monitoring and testing is required.

Reliable chemical measurements are vital in the process of environmental protection and enforcement. In order

to ensure that measurements are reliable a laboratory will use a range of quality tools including third party accreditation, instrument calibration, participation in proficiency testing schemes and the use of reference materials. A reference material is a sample of known composition that can be used for calibration of equipment, the assessment of a method, or for assigning values to the unknown samples. A certified reference material (CRM) must state the uncertainty of the values and be certified by a procedure which establishes its traceability back to the relevant international reference for the property values given (e.g. mg/kg). CRMs therefore

Fighting Mercury as Global PollutantEnvironmental protection requires accurate analysis, driving the need for high quality laboratory reference materials. This is described in the context of mercury in soils by Jane Firth, LGC Standards, and below, by Batjargal Bombor and Dr.Enkhmaa Dagvadorj of the Central Geological Laboratory of Mongolia.


provide a common standard, allowing comparison of results over time and between laboratories in various locations around the World.

In selecting a reference material for method validation or quality control, the analyst must assess the suitability for the particular application and aim to find the closest match to their requirements. The selection process must take into account factors such as matrix match, analytes and uncertainties. Is the matrix of the reference material similar to the samples to be analysed? Are the range, levels and chemical form of analyte in the reference material similar to those in the samples? Is the measurement uncertainty appropriate compared to the uncertainty associated with the method used?

LGC Standards (www.lgcstandards.com) supplies the widest range of such environmental reference materials, to support laboratories in measuring a wide variety of analytes in a range of matrices including water, plants, sediments, dusts and soils. The demands for new materials continues to grow to match the requirements for specific samples being tested. The three CRMs recently produced by the Central Geological Laboratory in Mongolia provide an effective match to ensure the accurate testing of mercury in soils as described below.

By Batjargal BOMBOR, Dr. Enkhmaa DAGVADORJ Fighting Mercury as global PollutantThe issue of mercury as a global pollutant has been high on the agenda in recent years. Increasingly, international groups are joining forces in the worldwide fight against the dangers posed by mercury (Hg) and its compounds in the environment. In 2003 the United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP) initiated the Global Mercury Partnership to protect human health and the global environment from the release of mercury and its compounds by minimizing and, if feasible, ultimately eliminating, global, anthropogenic mercury releases into air, water and soil. The progress, and international interest in this topic, was highlighted at the recent “10th International Conference on Mercury as Global Pollutant”

held in Canada in July 2011, which attracted more than 800 pre-eminent experts from sciences and politics on mercury as a global pollutant.

The Central Geological Laboratory (CGL), Ulaanbaatar/Mongolia, is playing a significant role in this context, having recently produced three new soil certified reference materials (CRMs) to be used in the fight against mercury as a global pollutant, as described here.

1. Mercury and Impact on HealthWhile mercury is a naturally occurring element, human activities, such as burning coal and using mercury to manufacture certain products, increase the extent of damage mercury is inflicting on the environment. Long understood to be toxic to humans and wildlife, its ability to bioaccumulate in living tissue, and undergo long-range transport in the atmosphere has led to global concern about mercury.

Metallic mercury released as a result of industrial processes can be converted by bacterial action into the even more toxic methyl mercury compound, which can more easily enter and bioaccumulate in living organisms and concentrate through the (human) food chain. Even small quantities of mercury have the potential to affect the nervous system causing tremors, while larger amounts can lead to mental illness and severe lung, gastrointestinal, and kidney damage. Children and pregnant women are considered highly vulnerable in this context.

2. Mercury Emission Sources Coal smoke from combustion (power stations and domestic) is one of the main sources of anthropogenic discharge of mercury into the atmosphere. Although the average content of mercury in coal, at 0.3 g/t, is relatively low, the yearly combustion level of 7 billion tonnes of coal worldwide accumulates to the total emission of more than 2000 tonnes of mercury per year.

It is estimated that another 650 tonnes of mercury are released into the environment each year during small-scale gold mining. To separate gold from gravel, such mine operations treat wash concentrates from stream sediments with liquid mercury. Gold easily combines with mercury to form an amalgam which is heated over an open fire to evaporate the mercury, leaving the gold behind. The mercury is lost in this process, contaminating air, soil and nearby waterways. According to the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation, two to five grams of mercury are released into the environment for every gram of gold recovered.


3. Analytical Tracking of Mercury TracesThe toxic effect of mercury and mercury compounds occurs even at low concentration levels, resulting in the need for sensitive analytical methods for the determination of mercury. In analysing water samples, standard methods like BS ISO 17852 (formerly EN 13506) and EPA 245.1 are applied. These are based on cold vapour atomic absorption or atomic fluorescence spectrometry techniques. Solid sample materials, such as soils, require preparations such as digestion in aqua regia followed by a reduction of the mercury by SnCl2 or NaBH4. The resultant elemental mercury is then purged from the digestion solution by an inert gas stream and transferred to a detection cell. Method development at CGL using a mercury direct analyser for rapid analysis of mercury in soil and coal samples. without any pre-treatment, have yielded positive results. This method, based on EPA 7473, integrates thermal decomposition sample preparation with atomic absorption detection in the instrument, and reduced the analysis time to 5 minutes per sample. The oxidation of the sample matrix in a hot oxygen stream, followed by the removal of interfering compounds in a catalytic tube, also proved highly efficient.

The determination of 170 ng Hg in the presence of high concentrations of organic matter, sulphides, carbonates, iron, fluoride and chloride detected no interferences. After pre-concentration by amalgamation, mercury is detected by atomic absorption. For a test portion of 100 mg, the working range from 5 µg/kg – 5 mg/kg Hg is highly satisfactory for most applications. Higher concentrations of mercury require smaller test portions to fit into the instrument working range. For calibration, natural soil reference materials with certified mercury concentrations were successfully applied.

4. Certified Reference Material (CRM) from CGLToday’s need for more reliable and sensitive environmental analysis has triggered a surge in demand for mercury in soil reference material, where worldwide demand currently exceeds supply. Central Geological Laboratory CGL, Ulaanbaatar/Mongolia, has recently developed and produced three new CRMs for this application. These three CRMs, CGL 303, CGL 304, and CGL 305, are available as 30g or 50g units and are intended for use in analytical quality control and instrument calibration.

What is so unique about these CGL CRMs?:• Theproductionofthese“CRMsfromMongolia” strictly follow the requirements of ISO Guides 30 – 35.• The3mercuryconcentrationscertified(0.157,1.52, 2.75 mg/kg) are ideal for the calibration of the working range of instrumental mercury direct analysers (EPA 7473, ASTM D6722 - 11).• Thematerialsshowcomparableresultsforalltested analytical and digestion methods: aqua regia/reflux, aqua regia/microwave, AAS cold vapour, AFS cold vapour, AAS direct analyser.

The Central Geological Laboratory (CGL), founded in 1957, is the leading professional organisation in Mongolia for a comprehensive range of mineral analysis techniques as well as environmental testing. CGL, a state-owned company, is accredited at national and international levels and in 2005 was the first laboratory in Mongolia to be accredited in the mineral research sector (on the basis of ISO/IEC 17025 standards together with ISO 9001). In addition, CGL regularly participates in the international proficiency testing programme GeoPT organised by the “International Association of Geoanalysts”. Accordingly, CGL analysis results are by now accepted in many countries and CGL is actively cooperating with professional organisations all over the world.

LGC Standards is Europe’s leading supplier of reference materials, providing products and services to improve measurement and quality control within the laboratory. Jane Firth is Business Manager - Food, Environment and Industrial, at LGC Standards. For more information contact [email protected]

Batjargal Bombor, is General Director of the Central Geological Laboratory, Mongolia.

Dr. Enkhmaa Dagvadorj is Head of Reference Material and Metrology Section at CGL


TRANSPORTPage 114 - 115 Sustainability and Mobility - 12 Theses, Gerhard Prätorius, Head of CSR and Sustainability at the Volkswagen Group.

Page 116 - 117 Changes to Low Emissions Zones in London, Ashley Sowerby, MD, Chevin Fleet Solutions

Page 118 - 119 Energy Efficiency of Road Vehicles, Prof. Wolfgang Steiger, Chairman, European Green Cars Initiative


Globalization has developed enormous economic momentum, putting people in a position to raise their standard of living. The world’s population will grow to more than nine billion by 2050 and all these people will need energy and food, housing and mobility, education and healthcare. Technical progress, productivity increases, innovations and resource-efficient structural change will help to achieve the necessary improvements. The guiding principle of the 21st century is sustainability. According to the Brundlandt Definition, “sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” This concept is enjoying growing acceptance all over the world. What sustainability essentially means is that the way we manage our lives and the resources we consume must not restrict the opportunities available to future generations. Environmental, economic and social objectives must be reconciled. That said, the following 12 theses elaborate the relationship between sustainability

and mobility in order to create a perception of what sustainable mobility could mean.

1. Globalization is an enormous accelerator for the world-wide division of labor; as a result, there will be a strong increase in the volume of traffic in the foreseeable future. However, transportation is not only a product of the division of labor, but a value creator as well.

2. History shows that turning to the path of more sustainability obviously depends on a certain level of economic development. No economic development means no sustainability – neither social nor ecological.

3. A transportation system that meets the requirements of sustainability must resolve the following contradiction: Traffic growth as a driver of economic development and traffic volume as a cause of environmental impacts and climate change.

Sustainability and Mobility - 12 ThesesBy Gerhard Prätorius, Head of CSR and Sustainability at the Volkswagen Group.


4. Even if the climate debate were to disappear from the agenda – and at present there are no conclusive scientific or political reasons to indicate that – the strong increase in energy demand and competition for energy raise the question of alternative sources of energy for different means of transport.

5. This relates to the transportation system as a whole, but above all to motorized individual means of transport. The rule of thumb is simple: The more advanced economic development is, the more “individualized” the transportation system becomes. In countries with a developing solvent middle class, a further aspect is added to the systemic advantages of the automobile, i.e. flexibility, security and comfort: Cars as a symbol of economic prosperity. Automobile market developments in what are known as the BRIC states (Brazil, Russia, India and China) are correspondingly dynamic. There are currently around one billion vehicles in the world. In just ten years from now, there could be well over 1.3 billion. This mobility boom must be handled responsibly. And that means pressing ahead with environmentally-friendly drive technologies and developing intelligent and networked traffic systems.

6. The key issue for sustainable mobility lies in energy supply and storage technology. The greater the success in establishing CO2-neutral and renewable energy supplies, the more sustainable mobility becomes.

7. There is not merely one technological option on the way to “automobile sustainability”. Technology competition is spurred on by “classical” drivetrain technologies with their strong focus on gasoline and diesel engines. The more these drivetrains harness their improvement potential – and that is still very substantial – the more challenging it will be for alternative drive concepts to stay in the race. The most promising solutions are those which do not need a completely new supply infrastructure. There will be different propulsion options in the future, all of which can cater for different mobility needs, depending on their advantages.

8. A future perspective for an optimized individual mobility system could be battery electric powertrains for urban and suburban areas, combined with plug-in hybrid cars for longer distances. These should be powered by renewable energy based on renewable electric power and on biomass.

9. These fuels produced from biomass, i.e. Regenerative raw materials, create a largely CO2-neutral cycle in terms of fuel consumption and service life. An appropriate alternative power supply would bring lasting benefits, since it would both make a contribution to conserving resources and help avoid

a further increase in global warming. The ecological advantages of alternative fuels are partly or entirely negated if their production is, for example, associated with deforestation or the cultivation of monocultures which not only harm the environment, but also compete with the food chain, thereby causing social problems. The introduction of an internationally valid biofuel certification procedure would ensure that the opportunities for more sustainable mobility are also actually harnessed.

10.

11. New communication technologies, the new “digital natives” generation and new business models will bring significant innovations in access to and use of mobility modes (“carsharing 3.0”) which can contribute to make individual mobility more sustainable.

12. Companies must be seen as a part of the solution on the road to sustainability. They must be recognized for their contribution to solving social and ecological challenges. We must of necessity find ways to combine economic development in the form of economic growth and competitiveness with social and environmental sustainability at both micro- and macro-level.

Apart from product-related innovations for more sustainable mobility, the traffic system as a whole, i.e. the interaction of vehicles and infrastructure, also plays an important role. Serious additional environmental and economic impacts result from a permanently overloaded infrastructure and from traffic congestion. Communication-based, intelligent traffic management can lead to substantial efficiency gains in this context. Another important contribution to traffic sustainability takes the form of improved cooperation among all means of transport, e.g. comodality and intermodality.


Fleet management, by its very nature, will always be a major contributor to an organisation’s overall carbon footprint. Whether a fleet is made up of company cars, heavy plant equipment or vans and buses – the amount of

fuel consumed and miles travelled can seriously damage an organisation’s green credentials. Gone are the days where monitoring fuel consumption and driver mileage were only concerns for the accounts department, and the respective employees reclaiming their expenses. This year fleet managers have never had more incentive to commit to not only monitoring carbon emissions but reducing and reporting on that reduction too.

Recent changes to emissions legislation, along with increasing pressure to be ‘seen as green’ within corporate social responsibility agendas, will provide a catalyst for traditionally environmentally unfriendly fleets to analyse existing operations. Such fleets will then be in a position to take one of two approaches: implement well intentioned yet meaningless processes in an attempt to help jump through the numerous legislative hoops and keep all the proverbial plates spinning, or seize the opportunity to genuinely tackle elements of fleet management - including driver behaviour, inappropriate vehicle allocation and maintenance, which contribute to inefficient and costly operations - to promote a culture of change and greener, leaner fleet management.

Legislative compliance The Low Emission Zone (LEZ) regulation was introduced in 2008 to ‘encourage the most polluting heavy diesel vehicles driving in the capital to become cleaner’. As of January this year, the standards have become more stringent – with more vehicles now being affected and those previously affected required to meet even tighter emissions standards. This will mean larger vans, minibuses, lorries, buses and coaches registered before the 1st October 2006, unless provided with a certificate

for fitting a filter or converting to an approved gas engine, will qualify for the daily charges for driving in the city’s LEZ.

Most qualifying vehicles will be automatically registered on Transport for London’s database, and number plate recognition cameras will operate to identify offending vehicles and issue the daily charges to the registered keeper accordingly.

When it comes to reducing emissions and cutting costs, fleet managers will now be forced to think carefully before sending a vehicle into the LEZ. Equally, Penalty Charge Notices (PCNs), which are between £500 and £1,000 depending upon the weight of the vehicle, for failure to meet the daily payments within the set time limits are likely to skyrocket without appropriate measures in place to manage both the allocation of vehicles and extensive amount of administration required to pay on time. Creating an intuitive and automated process to manage this new compliance obligation and payment streams, whilst reducing the likelihood of incurring PCNs for failure to pay promptly, should be a consideration for all organisations operating vehicles within the greater London area.

Driver behaviour At the heart of creating a greener fleet is the organisation’s driver community and challenging traditional driving techniques. The Energy Saving Trust estimates that using smarter driving techniques can reduce fuel usage by up to 15 per cent, meaning real financial savings of over £250 per year per driver in fuel costs.

Instigating a shift in driving culture among an often large and seasoned group of driving professionals can be met with scepticism and resistance. In the first instance, opening up a dialogue with drivers to educate them to the pitfalls of harsh breaking, aggressive acceleration or lengthy vehicle idleing can pave the way for increased

Creating greener fleet operations in the face of continued financial austerity:

a circus act or an opportunity for optimised perations?

By Ashley Sowerby; managing director of Chevin Fleet Solutions


MPG and reduced emissions. However, taking a harder-edged approach to monitoring driver behaviour in order to be able to intervene when problem drivers are identified, is arguably a quicker and more successful means of achieving your carbon reduction cost saving objectives.

When it comes to monitoring driver behaviour in order to implement change, GPS tracking technology may be required. Yet, simply having access to data relating to driver behaviour isn’t enough to enable visibility or identify trends. Integration with fleet management software can translate raw data received from tracking devices into a meaningful breakdown of statistics and graphs relating to each driver. Better yet, intuitive technology can pluck problem drivers from the system in order to facilitate intervention, set improvement targets and agree incentive schemes.

Careful vehicle allocation An element of fleet management that has previously remained relatively low on the fleet management agenda is that of appropriately matching vehicles with trips. Yes, ensuring a seven seater pool car isn’t assigned to a single driver when a small hatchback is available has always been best practice but there’s previously been no real pain associated with failing to adopt it. As we are all aware, these days, an organisations environmental stance can make the difference between a tender landing on a decision-maker’s desk or in their recycling bin.

Before the environment became a big issue, and before legislation like LEZ and The CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme put an organisation’s environmental policy in the spotlight, fleets could get away with paying little attention to the utilisation of vehicles. With this increased demand to demonstrate carbon reduction best practice comes an increased need to monitor and manage vehicle usage. This is a straightforward task for a small and straightforward fleet but considering many fleets operate in between 500 and 20,000 vehicles, ensuring vehicles are utilised with the environment in mind can be a challenge, especially if relying upon paper-based methods of asset management.

Overcoming this barrier to effective vehicle utilisation can be achieved by implementing fleet management software that has the ability to provide total visibility over each and every vehicle, including its MPG and LEZ qualifications. Opting for a solution that provides intuitive alerts to users relating to the above is an additional way to take the pain out of the process and ensure green credentials are prioritised.

Maintaining green fleet momentum The condition of a vehicle can significantly impact its environmental efficiency, so ensuring a fleet is well maintained is essential for any organisation keen to reduce its carbon footprint. And this means ensuring not only scheduled MOT and servicing is carried out regularly but also that day-to-day vehicle checks are conducted to ensure oil and water levels are where they should be and tyre pressure is correct. Again, this requires a certain level of employee engagement - especially for company car and grey fleet vehicles. To ensure checks are carried out on a per-trip, daily or weekly basis, particularly for large commercial vehicles, fleet managers can automate the process and remove the need for paper-based checks. In turn, through the use of mobile technology, like PDAs and Smart Phones, drivers can conduct checks and update the central office or workshop in real-time, providing increased control and reassurance that vehicles are operating at optimum efficiency.

Whatever your view on climate change, whether you’re an active environmental campaigner or you struggle to separate your household recycling come bin day, adopting green strategies in fleet management to help your organisation navigate its way through the myriad of legislation and create cleaner, leaner fleet operations is smart business sense. In times of economic uncertainty, going green may seem to some like an unnecessary expense, yet in many ways investing in greener processes in the short-term results in optimised fleet management operations, which in turn reduces cost in the long-term. Running an environmentally conscious, successful and compliant fleet in 2012 will require a lot of plate spinning, but new environmental legislation and implementation of greener processes shouldn’t be met with neither anxiety nor complacency but with excitement to rise to the challenge ahead.


The European Green Cars Initiative is a public-private partnership (PPP) launched at the end of 2008 in the context of the European Economic Recovery Plan set up by the European Commission. The objective of this partnership is to support R&D on technologies that are essential for achieving breakthroughs in the energy efficiency of road vehicles. A major pillar of the initiative is the electrification: the program funds projects in the areas of energy storage systems, drive train technologies, system integration, grid integration, and transport system integration. Despite its name, the Green Cars Initiative is not only covering passenger cars: also technology research on powertrains and vehicles, for vans, buses and trucks, is included, for both city and long distance transport. And beside the major pillar of electrification there are also opportunities for projects on the implementation of alternative fuels, such as CNG. The other pillars of the program are trucks and logistics, in which vehicle optimization and adaptation to missions is a major topic to reach more efficient road transportation.

In total, the PPP European Green Cars Initiative makes available a total of one billion Euro for R&D through joint funding programmes of the European Commission and the industry, in the period 2009-2013. This R&D funding is complemented by loans available at the European Investment Bank under two mechanisms: the Risk-Sharing Finance Facility (RSFF) and the European Clean Transport Facility (ECTF), a loan instrument which has been specifically designed for lowering greenhouse gas emissions in the transport industry. Until now, more than 8 billion Euro of loans have been approved for the automotive sector. Concerning the R&D projects, the first round of calls was launched in July 2009, and since then more than 50 projects are under way. For more information, the website www.green-cars-initiative.eu is providing all the necessary details.

The electrification of road vehicles has received particular attention in this PPP considering the high potential of electrified mobility for energy efficiency, climate protection and decarbonization, resources management, and air quality. Within this pillar of electrification is included the development of full electric vehicles, the various possible architectures of hybrids, and vehicles equipped with range extenders. The electrification represents a great potential to be seized

The European Green Cars Initiative: a public-private partnership for energy efficient road vehiclesBy Prof. Wolfgang Steiger, Chairman, European Green Cars Initiatve


by Europe’s automotive and energy industries, requiring coordinated efforts of these sectors, in partnership with public authorities. Turning such innovative vehicles into viable products ready for mass markets requires significant technological innovations addressing a series of major challenges, including: affordable, safe and high-performance energy storage, vehicle-to-grid interfaces, thermal management, advanced drive-train control, robustness and safety as well as the seamless integration into the transport system. Together with these technological innovations, the future generations of vehicles require effort in terms of components standardization, sub-systems modularization, and new manufacturing requirements: costs reduction and ability to respond to demands variations will be the key driving forces towards success in mass markets uptake.

In this respect, the PPP European Green Cars Initiative, together with another PPP of the European Commission, “Factories of the Future”, have interesting interactions to develop, in particular for integrated product-process approaches and new materials aspects, with the objective of sustainable high performance manufacturing of the next generation of vehicles. Underlining the legitimacy of public-private partnerships for this matter, the electrification of road transport requires in addition careful demand-side measures and timely regulatory frameworks, for which a shared knowledge of the expectations and the challenges are of high value. In partnership with industry, the European Commission and EU Members States have with such measures key policy tools able to act as leverage effect towards the mass market uptake.

While this electrification of passenger cars and delivery vehicles is predicted to increase over the next decade and to be implemented progressively in our cities, the powertrains of heavy-duty vehicles necessary for long distance transport are expected to remain based on the internal combustion engine. Although the powertrains of the commercial vehicles are already very optimized towards fuel efficiency, the predicted increase in goods transport demand requests that new technologies are investigated in order to compensate the overall increase of fuel consumption and its effect on the carbon footprint of freight transport. These efforts towards more energy efficient trucks must cover three main areas of R&D: vehicle efficiency, driveline efficiency, and driver efficiency. And such as for electrification, timely developments are also necessary in terms of demonstrations, production, market introduction, and regulatory frameworks. At the same time, CO2 emissions from freight transport can be further reduced through measures to optimize the use patterns of vehicles and the logistics schemes in general.

Indeed, an optimized use of transport resources and infrastructures has the capacity to optimize the performances of the transport system as a whole, bringing more efficiency in the view of traffic fluidity,

of transport services reliability, of safety and security, of cost reduction, and of utmost importance a reduced carbon footprint. An important opportunity for the European industry is therefore represented by the development of integrated services and business models complementing transport modes and building cooperation between the actors of the logistics chains. In close link with the R&D performed on commercial vehicles, research and innovation is needed on this pillar in order to achieve efficient door-to-door logistics, with goods being shipped seamlessly across modes and networks thanks to ICT solutions, to cooperative business practices, to co-modal transfer hubs, and to an extended standardization of freight carriers in terms of dimensions and modularization. Here as well the regulatory framework will be of high importance to support the deployment of innovative solutions.

By addressing the challenges of cleaner vehicles and more efficient mobility within these strategic pillars, the European Green Cars Initiative PPP targets energy efficiency gains in the whole transport system. The changes in transport that will occur in the coming decades will be societal changes. The energies used in transport will evolve, in particular through progressive electrification. The vehicle designs will multiply, with new ones adapted to the new powertrains. New mobility services will be developed, integrating these different energies and vehicle types according to specific transportation needs. Also the integration of networks, between private and public transport, or between transport modes e.g. road and rail, should take place and bring to an end today’s fragmentation, which holds back the efficiency and the reliability of transportation from a user point of view. An efficient and affordable transport system is fundamental for Europe’s economy. With the developments of new vehicle concepts and powertrains, the automotive industry, with the multiple actors of its supply chain, and with its influence on many raw material industries, will need important modifications, implying impacts on employment and changes on the skills required. This scenario is played moreover on an international perspective, where European actors have to position themselves globally, anticipating demands both within Europe and across the world. The role of research and innovation is therefore very important to bring efficiency to the transport system, to deliver solutions for tomorrow’s mobility, but also to ensure a brighter future for Europe’s economy. A programme of European dimensions such as the European Green Cars Initiative public-private partnership is definitely a good example of actions to take in order to build this future.


MISCELLANYPage 121 Environment Prosecutions

Page 122 - 123 Climate Week

Page 124 - 125 Mapping, Andy Fleetwood, Blom

Page 126 - 127 Education: Sarah Bentley, Chief Executive, Asset Skills

Page 128 - 129 Summit Skills

Page 130 - 131 Mark Farrar, Chief Executive, Construction Skills

Page 132 - 142 Case Studies

Page 139 - 140 Famous Last Words, John Bird, Editor, The Big Issue


ENVIRONMENTAL PROSECUTIONS

Chesterfield man in court over illegal transportation of tyres

A Chesterfield man received a suspended prison sentence after illegally storing thousands of tyres and transporting some of them to Vietnam.

Andrew Revell, aged 50, of The Green, Hasland appeared at Derby Crown Court.

Revell was sentenced to a 12 month prison sentence suspended for two years on each of the five charges, ordered to do 200 hours unpaid work and ordered to pay full court costs of £9,578.75.

Trago Mills successfully appeals against sentence

Trago Mills has had its fine for dumping and burning waste at two of its out-of-town shopping stores reduced following a hearing at Exeter Crown Court.

The company appealed against a fine of £185,000 imposed by South Devon magistrates in September 2011 after pleading guilty to five offences of illegally depositing and disposing of waste at sites near Newton Abbot and Liskeard.

Kent landfill firm fined 46,000GBP for repeatedly breaking the law

The Environment Agency has successfully prosecuted Kent firm, Bournewood Sand & Gravel Ltd after they repeatedly breached their landfill permit. The company was fined a total of £10,000 and ordered to pay £36,000 in costs.

Environment Agency officers visited the site in Swanley on a number of occasions and discovered lorry loads of contaminated waste being accepted at the landfill site.

One such visit identified a major leak from an on site diesel tank which had not been cleaned up, but left to sink into the ground.

Boaters ordered to pay £6,587 for flouting registration and other navigation laws

Five boaters caught using their vessels on the River Thames without valid registrations and one with inadequate sanitary appliances have been convicted by magistrates.

Paul Phillips of Victoria Mansions, Wilsden, London, was charged after an Environment Agency officer found the defendant’s vessel “Triton” moored against a derelict pontoon on Hurst Park below Garricks Aite without a valid licence.

Pig farm fined 14,000GBP

Z Munter (Farms) Ltd was fined £14,000 and ordered to pay £4,658 full costs after pleading guilty to polluting a stream which leads into the River Dove.

The grossly polluting pig slurry escaped from a drainage channel across a sloping yard and through holes in the bottom of a boundary wall designed to drain rainwater from the yard into the stream.

£10,000 fines for illegally storing waste

Clifford Nicholls pleaded guilty at Wolverhampton Magistrates’ Court to operating a regulated waste facility without a permit between 1 April and 30 April 2011; and failing to provide copies of waste transfer notes, on 2 April 2011.

The 53-year-old was fined £10,000, and ordered to pay £2597 in costs, along with a £15 victim surcharge. Mr Nicholls was also ordered to undertake 40 hours of unpaid work as the offence had been committed during a suspended sentence from a conviction back in January 2011.


Climate Week (12 – 18 March 2012)

Climate Week is the UK’s biggest climate change campaign, and aims to shine a spotlight on the positive solutions to climate change happening across the UK. Culminating in a week of activities, it showcases practical solutions from every sector of society. Organisations from businesses to schools and faith groups run events during Climate Week to showcase the work they are doing to tackle climate change. By providing a platform for organisations to share their solutions with others, Climate Week aims to inspire millions more people to take action.

The inaugural Climate Week took place in March 2011 and was a resounding success. Half a million people attended over 3,000 events around the country. These events ranged from pub quizzes to office workshops, sustainable fashion shows, film screenings, conferences and walk to work schemes. The range of events and the breadth of organisations involved made Climate Week a truly national occasion, with 28 per cent of all UK adults aware of Climate Week.

Climate Week is backed by individuals including the Prime Minister David Cameron, Sir Paul McCartney, Vivienne Westwood and Al Gore. Many organisations including the NHS, Girlguiding UK, the CBI, the Met Office and Manchester United Football Club are also supporting the campaign.

Climate Week is supported by Headline Partner, Tesco, and Supporting Partners Aviva, EDF Energy and SodaStream.

Kevin Steele – the man behind Climate WeekKevin Steele, the founder of Climate Week, said: “Our planet is fragile and the window of opportunity to act is short. We need to involve every sector of society if we are to create a secure future. And the good news is that, as a society, we have the solutions needed to solve this challenge. Climate Week shines a spotlight on all of the great work going on across society, and encourages many others to get involved in what’s happening in their sector, profession or neighbourhood. Then, together, we will raise our game.”

There are several ways in which people can take part in Climate Week.

Running a Climate Week event (www.climateweek.com/run-an-event) Climate Week acts as the platform for organisations to run an event that showcases the great work they are already doing. An event could be an exhibition, talk, workshop or any other kind of activity. Examples from last year’s Climate Week included an open-homes event run by a green insulation company, a masterclass in electric vehicles, the unveiling of one of the largest solar power installations, tree planting days and a free screening of the climate change film, ‘Age of Stupid’, at a cinema powered by cycling. Whether it is in a workplace, community, school or club, an event showcases the positive solutions that are taking place across the country and helps to spread the word about climate change. Together they create a national movement of change that offers a vivid picture of what low-carbon Britain could look like.

The Climate Week Challenge (www.climateweek.com/challenge) The Climate Week Challenge is Britain’s largest environmental competition. Last year, over 140,000 people participated. The challenge is only revealed at 9 o’clock on the first day of Climate Week and people have one day to come up with a creative idea to answer the challenge. Teams compete within age categories, with different levels of sophistication expected from the entries, but everyone from schoolchildren to business people will be given the same core challenge. The first Climate Week Challenge, “Save the planet, save the pounds”, was to come up with a green idea to save or make money.

The Challenge is a team activity, which comes in a One Day and a One Hour version. The One Day version is run as a national competition with a celebrity judging panel, which includes Autumnwatch’s Kate Humble, Spooks star Sophia Myles, BBC’s Bang Goes the Theory presenter Liz Bonnin and wildlife expert Michaela Strachan.

From hundreds of inspired entries last year, the winners of the 11-14 age category came up with a pioneering children’s toy that turns children’s kinetic energy from their fidgeting into electricity. This electricity can then be used to recharge personal gadgets such as iPods or mobile phones. The designers of the ‘Fidgit’, from Pool Business and Enterprise College, Cornwall, were able to see their idea turned into reality. At a workshop at the Arcola Energy Lab, north London, and under the guidance


of engineer and educator, Matt Venn, the girls produced a prototype, which successfully charged mobile phones batteries.

Chris Challis, a teacher at Pool Academy, said: “The Climate Week Challenge gave students the chance to see climate change from a new perspective. Rather than simply understanding the issue in terms of a far-off catastrophe, they were asked to identify an immediate opportunity that could help make or save people money. The strength of their ideas shows just how much they engaged with the brief. It was particularly impressive to see how they drew on their own experience – such as needing to constantly recharge personal gadgets - for inspiration, and to watch them think through the detail, such as creating the final product from recycled materials.”

Climate Week Cuisine (www.climateweek.com/eat-low-carbon) A new element to the 2012 campaign is Climate Week Cuisine, a national call to action to encourage people to eat a low carbon meal during Climate Week and be part of the solution to climate change. Climate Week Cuisine will show people how they can eat delicious food that costs less and is more environmentally friendly. A low carbon meal is defined as including at least one of the following three factors – it uses leftovers, less meat and/or dairy and locally-sourced produce.

The meal can be registered as a Climate Week event – for example a low-carbon office lunch, or a low-carbon family meal at home both count. Everyone has the opportunity to participate in Climate Week, at home and at work.

To provide inspiration and encourage consumers to get involved, celebrity chefs including Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, Angela Hartnett, Prue Leith, Levi Roots and Brian Turner, have submitted their own low carbon recipes in support of the initiative.

Climate Week Awards (www.climateweek.com/awards) Climate Week celebrates and recognises the outstanding and innovative achievements of organisations and individuals and their efforts to combat climate change through its prestigious Climate Week Awards. Entry for the Awards has now closed and the winners of the 14 categories will be announced on 12 March, following a judging process by an eminent panel of judges. The 2012 panel includes Bianca Jagger, the former CEO of Greenpeace International Paul Gilding, environmentalist Tony Juniper and the former President of Ireland Mary Robinson.

The Climate Week Awards offer powerful illustrations of what can be achieved to make Britain a more sustainable and low-carbon society. The 14 Climate Week Awards categories are:

• MostInspirationalLeader• MostInspirationalYoungPerson• BestCommunityInitiative• BestEducationalInitiative• BestLocalInitiative• BestInitiativebyaSmallorMedium-SizedBusiness• BestInnovation• BestTechnologicalBreakthrough• BestNewProduct• BestInitiativebyaGovernmentalorStatutoryBody• BestInitiativebyaPublicorUniformedService• BestCampaign• BestEvent• BestArtisticResponse

Settle Hydro, the 2011 winner for Best Community Initiative, was a project conceived by two volunteers who wanted to harness the power of the River Ribble in Settle, North Yorkshire, to generate energy for their village. They raised £410,000 from grants, loans and investors (including Take That’s Jason Orange) and the project went live in December 2009. The electricity generated from the turbine is sold to the National Grid, with profits divided between shareholders and community projects. The scheme will save 3,200 tonnes of carbon and has now advised 300 other communities about similar projects.

Ann Harding, one of the volunteers who worked on Settle Hydro, said: “We won the Best Community Initiative award, and we are so pleased to show that people can take control of their own communities – they can do something for themselves.”

The Climate Week 2012 campaign is expected to be bigger and better than ever. Kevin said: “All across society, there are people developing new solutions to create a world which is cleaner, greener, more sustainable and healthier, and that can deliver economic prosperity. The aim of Climate Week, as a national occasion, is to annually renew our confidence and ambition to combat climate change.”

For more information about Climate Week, visit www.climateweek.com


The introduction of offshore wind farms in UK waters has introduced a potential threat to seabirds and their environment. Statutory authorities therefore require wind farm developers to assess the potential risk to wildlife prior to granting consent for the development. This assessment normally takes the form of an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA). Traditionally, such assessments of birds were accomplished by surveys performed by human observation aboard a boat or low level aircraft.

For health and safety reasons low altitude aerial surveys are no longer performed in the wind farm areas. Thus, data collected before and after the erection of an offshore wind farm cannot be compared directly. An innovative method to survey bird distributions was therefore necessary. Blom UK, leading provider of aerial photography and mapping solutions, teamed up with Aarhus University, Department of Bioscience in Denmark, to develop new methods using the very latest

high resolution digital cameras. These methods are not only proving very efficient but are also providing a host of associated benefits.

In 2010 DONG Energy, one of the leading offshore wind farm developers in the UK, were assessing the development of the Walney Extension wind farm located off the coast of Cumbria in the Irish Sea. One of the early requirements was the mandatory Environmental Impact Assessment of the site. It was decided that AU, Department of Bioscience, who undertake scientific consultancy work, such as the monitoring of nature and the environment as well as applied and strategic research, combined with Blom’s expertise in capturing aerial photography, would provide the ideal partnership to monitor the impact of the proposed site. DONG Energy commissioned 24 transect surveys over a two year period.

To instigate the capture of aerial imagery, Blom utilised a twin-engine aircraft equipped with a Vexcel UltraCam

How innovative use of high resolution aerial imagery helps to map bird habitats around off-shore wind farms.Andy Fleetwood - Sales and Business Development Executive, Blom UK & Ib Krag Petersen - Department of Bioscience, Aarhus University


XP digital survey camera featuring FMC (Forward Motion Compensation) capability. This would photograph sea birds present within a 519 metre wide band along the transect lines in 3cm GSD (Ground Sample Distance) imagery. The survey area is typically flown in a transect formation to achieve a 10% data coverage result. Figure 2 below shows a typical transect approach to capture of a survey polygon. AU, Department of Bioscience then analyse the resulting images using a combination of human observers and automated extraction tools that enables a description of bird distributions and total abundance estimates within the study site. Whilst this technology is still in its infancy it is important that these results are independently checked, verified and reported.

AU, Dept. of Bioscience begins the data extraction process by preparing the images for analysis in the eCognition software. By creating an image mosaic database, the individual images are batch processed to create an easy reference library of the location of every bird identified by eCognition. This process involves the masking of areas within each image affected by sun glare, removal of areas affected by vignetting and finally the removal of a small “boundary” section to ensure that no birds are double counted.

Each tile is then processed by eCognition to map possible birds. Each bird that is identified is recorded in a database linked to the imagery, so it can be found quickly by the human observer during QC. The database also records other attributes such as coordinate, behaviour, flight direction, sex and age.

Following the preparation of the image masks, an initial analysis is performed using eCognition. This initial “sweep” is designed to remove areas where the software has not detected anything that is likely to be a bird and reduce subsequent computation time at the next stage. The software will tile the area within the mask

based on the abundance of possible bird “hits”.

No aerial survey technique can identify 100% of birds 100% of the time, but the Blom/AU technique removes many of the inconsistencies and subjective decisions that are present when the human eye is relied upon for extraction of bird data across thousands of images and frames.

It is important to note that development and use of the

algorithms is an open process so, every time a survey is completed, the algorithms will be refined and improved allowing for increasing levels of successful species identification. Separation of certain very similar bird species can be very challenging for the traditional as well as for this novel method.

Grey gulls and Fulmars sitting on the water can be difficult to separate, but flying Fulmars, Kittiwakes, Great Black-backed Gulls and Herring Gulls will be readily identifiable. Gannets, Common Scoters and Eiders are easily identified. Our previous experience showed that it can be difficult to distinguish between Razorbill and Guillemot, but Puffins can normally be identified.

These methods are proving less subjective than data deriving from human observers. They provide a documentation of what the “observer” interpreted, as, for instance a Gannet, and it provides data with a hugely enhanced geographical accuracy, which is important in the process of comparing pre- and post-construction distributions of bird species. At the same time this innovative survey method provides data for the environmental impact assessment with minimal disturbance to wildlife.

Figure 1 – Photo montage of a Cessna 404 Twin-engine survey aircraft

over Walney Wind Farm .

Figure 2 – Transect survey lines over the Walney Extension site.


Like many working in property, energy assessors took a knock during the recession. But thanks to the forthcoming Green Deal, their future now looks brighter. Energy assessors and energy advisors will be the pivotal first points of contact for property owners wanting to make their homes or offices more energy efficient under the policy. Sarah Bentley, Chief Executive Designate of Asset Skills, explains how the assessor and advisor workforce could significantly benefit from the expected surge in demand.

Our work with energy assessors began several years ago when European legislation brought in new rules on energy use in properties. As the sector skills council representing property, Asset Skills helped carve out the new role of energy assessor, setting occupational

standards and developing training under the European Performance of Buildings Directive 2007. This legislation required all EU countries to introduce energy certification schemes for buildings. In the UK, where a quarter of all emissions comes from the energy we use in homes and a similar amount from our businesses, industry and workplaces, the EPBD was an important first step towards cutting carbon. Energy assessors were trained to carry out Energy Performance Certificates (EPCs), legal documents that grade properties on their energy efficiency. They are now routinely carried out by energy assessors whenever homes or commercial premises are sold or rented. The EPBD legislation was then extended to include buildings with a high volume of public use like hospitals

A joined up appro

ach to skills

improvement for the energy

assessment workforce

By Sarah Bentley,

Chief Executive o

f Asset Skills


or libraries, which were required to show Display Energy Certificates (DECs) that record the amount of energy used against a set of nationally recognised benchmarks.

Green deal energy assessors and advisors.

The forthcoming Green Deal will push up demand for energy assessors and create a new role, that of energy advisor. While assessors produce EPCs when a building is constructed, sold or let in line with the EPBD, energy advisors establish what improvements are available under Green Deal finance based on the EPC, and will produce an occupancy report that assesses the building’s use.

Energy assessors are trained to look at the physical aspects of a building that affect its thermal properties such as how thick the walls are; how it is constructed and insulated; its heating system and controls. Energy advisors will build on these findings to include a person’s use of the property: do they use the controls appropriately and efficiently? The house may be well-insulated but if there are inefficient appliances, energy use will not necessarily be any less. An advisor’s job is about achieving these improvements through encouraging people to think and act differently.

To help prepare this workforce for the Green Deal, Asset Skills has developed a range of training resources in energy assessment for domestic and commercial properties. These programmes give a greater understanding of where energy is used in buildings and demonstrate how introducing changes to the way we use energy can make a significant difference to our fuel bills and help reduce carbon emissions at the same time.

We have seen huge numbers of energy assessors and advisors attending our Green Deal Connections roadshow, held with CITB-ConstructionSkills and SummitSkills as part of the Green Deal Skills Alliance (GDSA). These events aim to raise awareness of the new training and qualifications energy assessors, advisors and installers will need in order to secure work under the Green Deal’s banner. The success of the Green Deal, which launches this October, relies on having a skilled and competent workforce to implement it. This is a crucial time to establish to the built environment workforce everything they need to know to take advantage of the expected demand for home improvements. The recession and subsequent housing slump meant many energy assessors were forced out of business. The Green Deal presents a new opportunity and there is real momentum that it will create more work.

For more on the Green Deal Skills Alliance, visit the green skills section at assetskills.org.

To register for a Green Deal Connections information event, visit www.assetskills.org/GreenSkills/GreenDealConnections.aspx

The Build Up Skills project

The GDSA partnership is already proving to be a catalyst for greater collaborations among the sector skills councils addressing green skills issues in the built environment. A European-backed programme is bringing together representatives of the building industry, public authorities and the vocational training sectors of 21 European countries under the Build Up Skills initiative. This funding opportunity runs until 2013 under the Intelligent Energy Europe programme to provide energy training for the building workforce.

Asset Skills is leading a consortium of SSCs - Construction, Summit and Energy & Utility Skills – as part of the Build Up Skills programme which aims to ensure that UK employers in the built environment have staff with the right skills and know-how to meet the 20-20-20 targets set by the EU in 2010. The 20-20-20 targets are benchmarked against 1990 levels and aim to ensure that by 2020 the EU will have cut energy consumption by 20%, reduced greenhouse gas emissions by 20%, and ensured 20% of energy needs are met through renewable resources.

The Build Up Skills consortium will establish a national platform to determine skills needs and training gaps for the built environment workforce and provide strategic recommendations for qualification measures in national roadmaps. It will identify and quantify all relevant professions and skills levels, discuss possible changes to the current system and bring in concrete measures to boost training if needed. This research will produce a 2020 Low Carbon Skills Roadmap and the first phase will be completed by March 2013.

We are at the start of what will be truly high-impact alliances, focused on outcomes and addressing practical environmental issues that affect everyone. Energy efficiency is now firmly in the public consciousness; there is greater awareness of energy use not least because of increasing fuel costs. Our joined up, collaborative approach on improving green skills in a wide and varying workforce makes sense if we are to gain a better understanding of efficient but effective energy use. It is in all our interests.


It’s clear the Government is determined that the Green Deal will be the vehicle that drives a step-change in the energy efficiency of the UK’s homes and businesses. At SummitSkills, together with our partners in the Green Deal Skills Alliance, we see this as a huge opportunity for skilled and competent operatives. It is vital the public can be sure of an engineer’s competence to fit solar panels and other environmental technologies in their homes, to ensure the devices are working correctly and remain in good condition, and to ensure our sector maintains a reputation for high quality work.

Our sector will lead the way in the design and installation of energy efficient heating, lighting, ventilation, plumbing, refrigeration and air conditioning systems. Building services engineers are also at the forefront of installing other environmental systems that harvest rainfall, or recycle water from wash hand basins that can be used for flushing toilets and many other eco-friendly innovations. Electricians, plumbers, heating and ventilating engineers, air conditioning and refrigeration engineers: more than anyone else, it is those working in our sector (collectively referred to as building services engineering) who have a foundation of skills, experience and technical know-how which can be built upon to extend their services into environmental technologies. However, there is a significant amount that still needs to be done to up-skill the BSE sector to meet that potential demand. SummitSkills carried out a series of interviews with training providers in the sector, complemented by work with employers. We found that industries in our sector are eager to progress their environmental offering, but need to develop new core competencies.

And while the full guidance for industry is not expected until the Government has considered all responses to its Green Deal consultation and legislation has been implemented in Parliament in the spring, our sector cannot afford to put off the training and preparation it will need to effectively manage the changes the Green Deal will bring.

Our sector is made up of a very large proportion of microbusinesses, with just a few employees. Many of these businesses are struggling to stay afloat in the current economic climate, but are attracted by predicted growth in demand for renewable energy. What they need now is help to make the right choices from the inevitable training bonanza resulting from the Green Deal - some of which is provided by rogue trainers. For example, our own research published last year showed that a concerning significant minority of training providers surveyed were unaware of the Microgeneration Certification Scheme (MCS), the company quality assurance scheme for low or zero carbon products and installers which is set to play a central role in maintaining high standards under the Green Deal. This could leave learners unable to apply for MCS registration, putting them at a disadvantage in the marketplace over those other registered suppliers who are able to provide their customers with access to Green Deal financial incentives. We are urging Government, employers and learners alike to be aware of the dangers of jumping into environmental training without the proper checks and planning. They need to be aware of what qualifies as approved training for these technologies. At the training level, environmental technology training providers need to be more selective about entry level learners. All students should have an industry-

GEARING UP THE BULDING SERVICES ENGINEERING SECTOR FOR GREEN DEAL: SUMMITSKILLS


recognised apprenticeship or equivalent qualifications before they move into learning these new technologies.

The recommendations outlined in the Government’s Microgeneration Strategy launched in summer last year were a step towards defining the skills required by those working in this area in the BSE industries for years to come. As Government commitment to microgeneration progressed, we recognised the importance of contributing on behalf of the BSE sector and ensuring the associated action plan met the needs of the public while providing the guidance the sector needs. Recognising its significance, SummitSkills took a lead role in pulling together the skills action plan and ensuring the views and experiences of employers were involved from the beginning.

We continue to work with Government and other leading industry bodies to provide the sector with the support it needs to grow and expand recognised environmental training and qualifications. We are developing the industry-recognised standards which will provide businesses with a way to ensure their staff are fully qualified, minimising potential problems and ensuring the public gets the professional services that are needed.

Additionally through the Joint Investment Programme, we are helping employers in England reduce the costs of relevant development opportunities for employees already trained to NVQ Level 3. Last year, SummitSkills and the Joint Investment Programme provided 900 opportunities to acquire new skills and expand their knowledge in environmental technologies. This year there are more than 1,800 training opportunities and the

offer runs to July 2012, open to employers in England. To qualify, trainees must already have reached NVQ Level 2 for plumbing or NVQ Level 3 for electrical installations. For those just entering our sector, all of our apprenticeship frameworks now also include an element of environmental technologies. Get in touch with us to find out more about any of these initiatives.

The National Skills Academy for Environmental Technologies, launched in 2011 on behalf of the sector by SummitSkills, now provides a countrywide network of accredited renewables training provision including solar thermal, photovoltaics, heat pumps and water harvesting and recycling. The Skills Academy is already helping employers to find the right training in convenient locations and additional technologies such as biofuels and micro-CHP will soon be available too. For further information go to www.nsaet.org.uk.

As well being part of the Green Deal Skills Alliance ‘Connections’ roadshows, we’ve also been attending events around the country over the last few months to promote all of the work we’ve been doing, helping building services engineering professionals to get to grips with what the Green Deal could mean for them – and how to prepare.

The BSE sector has the potential to make a crucial and significant contribution to helping the Government address its low carbon agenda and reap the benefits, but only if it adapts quickly and professionally to embrace the new technologies.


The winds of change are blowing through the UK construction industry as the UK gets ready for a future where we are going to have to use less energy and produce less carbon.

By enshrining the Climate Change Act 2011 into law, the Government has set the country stringent carbon dioxide reduction targets; as a nation we must reduce our CO2 output by 34% overall by 2020 according to the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC).

Since nearly half of all CO2 output is connected to the built environment – including houses, offices, power stations, and transport infrastructure - a seismic shift in the way the construction industry approaches the development of new buildings and infrastructure will be required to help meet the new targets.

This still leaves the issue of the existing building stock. Constructed before the arrival of high-tech insulation much of it is old, draughty and unable to retain heat - it will have to be retrofitted with energy saving materials.

To tackle this formidable task the Government has taken the lead and fired the first shots of the ‘Green Revolution’ from its Carbon Plan by unveiling the Green Deal scheme. The details of the scheme are currently being finalised by the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) which has recently finished consulting the industry on the proposals.

Under the Green Deal, householders and businesses will be able to borrow funds that will be paid back through the savings on fuel bills resulting from the installation of the energy saving measures, in effect taking out a home improvement loan that your home pays for.

The ambitious plan aims to improve the energy efficiency of 14m UK homes by 2020. This will mainly involve retrofitting them with energy saving technology such as wall, loft and roof insulation, to stop the drafts and fill

in the gaps. This has the overall aim of improving air-tightness and reducing fuel consumption.

Climate Change Minister Greg Barker recently stated that the opportunities under the Green Deal will be considerable, and he has estimated that the scheme will inject £15bn of private capital investment and create up to 250,000 job opportunities over its lifetime.

Meanwhile, according to DECC projections, as many as 65,000 trained and qualified construction workers will be needed to meet the demand the scheme is anticipated to generate.

We have heard of concerns from small and medium sized (SME) contractors, who are worried that larger organisations, such as high street DIY stores and the major energy companies, will dominate the market.

We believe, however, that SMEs will be vital to the delivery of the Green Deal because of the householder’s preference for tried and trusted tradesmen referred by family or friends, to work in their homes.

To highlight the extent of the opportunities available to SME contractors who are equipped to meet clients’ low carbon requirements, we commissioned research which found 84% of public sector, main contractor and corporate end user construction clients consider it essential or very important that the SME contractors they work with are able to deliver to their low carbon requirements.

Yet, separate CITB-ConstructionSkills research has shown that approximately three builders in 10 state they have a poor understanding of the Low Carbon Agenda. With the national media expressing growing concern about a potential influx of ‘Cowboy Builders’, the ability to demonstrate the relevant skills and qualifications is now more important than ever.

Energy and Climate Change Minister Greg Barker has admitted that given the size of the current skill base, the industry faces a major challenge to prepare with qualifications and skills in time for the launch of the scheme in October.

Indeed, the drive to cut carbon in UK homes and businesses is already creating opportunities for work such as improving insulation, installing efficient energy sources and refurbishing to green standards. SME companies such as Carbon Zero UK, a Specialist Renewable Energy and Energy Saving Company in Wales, are leading the way and offering a full low carbon retrofit design, supply and installation service for homeowners.

While it is clear the scheme will present significant opportunities

An air-tight deal…?CITB-ConstructionSkills Chief Executive Mark Farrar, explains the challenge the construction industry is facing in preparing for the Green Deal and how the organisation is helping the industry to prepare.


for businesses, ventures similar to the Green Deal have failed before. In Australia, for example, the low carbon retrofit programme struggled after the Government there failed to set up a robust framework to ensure tradespeople were well qualified to retrofit to the required standard.

In an effort to avoid a similar failure here, the coalition Government is taking precautions. It is putting together a framework to protect the consumer and this safety net includes: a Green Deal Code of Practice, a specification of requirements that Green Deal installers will have to meet to gain work called PAS 2030, Green Deal authorisation bodies to authorise the individual workers and a Green Deal oversight body.

All of this means that construction workers who want to carry out work under the Green Deal will have to be qualified and authorised so homeowners can check that they possess a Green Deal badge indicating they are qualified to carry out the work, much like the GasSafe scheme.

As the Sector Skills Council responsible for ensuring the UK has a skilled and trained construction workforce, CITB-ConstructionSkills is taking the lead in preparing the industry for the arrival of the Green Deal in October 2012.

To help SMEs make the most of the scheme, we have launched the ‘Cut the Carbon’ campaign in association with our partners at the National Specialist Contractors Council and the Federation of Master Builders.

This information based campaign is sign posting the smaller construction firms, which make up 94 per cent of the organisations in the industry, with information

about where to go and how to prepare for the Green Deal.

What’s more, we have listened to the industry’s views on the Green Deal

and shared them with the Government, and along

with our Sector Skills Council partners,

Asset Skills and Summit Skills, we

have formed the

Green Deal Skills Alliance (GDSA) which is tasked with preparing the workforce for the arrival of the Green Deal.

The GDSA is currently developing a Green Deal Competency Framework. This comprises a portfolio of standards and qualifications that will ensure those wanting to carry out work under the scheme are qualified to do so and that they have the right knowledge to deliver the work to a high standard.

Areas covered include: knowledge of the Green Deal, whole property energy efficiency, application of skills and build processes under the Green Deal, on-site integration of Green Deal trades and customer service.

We are also working on training Provider Manuals aimed at promoting consistency in the delivery of training relating to ‘Green Deal’ trades.

Finally to ensure the industry is fully informed we are working to deliver Labour Market Intelligence research that will give a unique insight on the industry experts’ views on the green deal and the skills and training they think their workforce will need to deliver it.

The time to prepare for the ‘green’ future is now and I would urge construction

firms to visit our web-portal www.cskills.org/cutcarbon to find

out how you can make the most of the new low carbon opportunities.


CASE STUDY

KAWNEER SYSTEMS HELP SHEFFIELD ON THE SUSTAINABILITY SCALEA trio of architectural aluminium systems from leading UK supplier Kawneer proved a “key element” to the redevelopment of a city college (www.kawneer.co.uk/pr/scc) for a multitude of reasons including sustainability, robustness and aesthetics.

Kawneer’s AA®110 curtain walling was used on the student refectory that provides panoramic views of Sheffield as well as the walls of the flagship atrium. Glazed strip sections were also used on the atrium’s curved roof, complemented elsewhere by AA®601 top/side-hung casement and AA®602 pivot windows and series 190 heavy-duty commercial entrance doors.

Winner of a regional award for outstanding contribution to improving air quality, the £60 million Sheffield City College is home to 6,000 students, 600 staff and a host of sustainable features including a trio of roof-mounted 15m-high wind turbines, the first of their kind to grace the city skyline.

As well as these, the iconic purpose-built college also features photovoltaic panels, a rainwater recycling system, green sedum roofs, a balancing pond to channel water for re-use, natural ventilation of all rooms, high-efficiency light fittings and an additional turbine at ground level.

The three-year project was completed in four phases by main contractor JF Finnegan – the first being a nursery, the second a three-storey catering wing, and the third the atrium building and seven-storey tower containing 50 teaching rooms including the National Enterprise and Health and Social Care Academies. In addition, there is an aviation wing, training salons, dental and science laboratories, learning resource centre, spa and restaurant.

The final phase included a sports hall, outdoor sports pitches, landscaping and new college entrance, with students moving into each new phase to allow demolition of the old buildings.

Architects Jefferson Sheard have used Kawneer before, on numerous education and transport projects. In the case of Sheffield City College, where the Kawneer systems were installed by specialist sub-contractor Drawn Metal, theirs was a performance specification that also had a contractor design element.

Architect Mike Hall said: “We did work closely with Kawneer and produced our details in accordance with the Kawneer system as we have used Kawneer products in the past with great success and Kawneer were extremely pro-active in helping us produce the details and input into the spec. We had no issues in accepting the Kawneer product as a contractor’s proposal.”

He added: “The Kawneer systems are a key element, providing natural light into the atrium space and integrating smoke vents, providing a fantastic panoramic view of the city from the refectory.

“The college, with its use of sustainable building techniques and renewable energy technologies, is high on the sustainability agenda and it was extremely important that the building materials were reflective of this. The use of an aluminium system with high recyclable properties was important.

“The Kawneer system complied with the aesthetic and performance requirements of the project extremely well, providing a robust yet elegant solution.”

He added: “The interface details were developed in conjunction with Kawneer, ourselves and the contractor and interfaced extremely well with the adjacent standing seam, rainscreen cladding and composite cladding elements.”

Sheffield City College principal Julie Byrne said: “We are incredibly proud of our inspirational new building and its green credentials and would like to thank all the partners involved for doing such a fantastic job.”


CASE STUDY

Whales are an important part of the culture of Norway and were chosen as the design theme for a new seating project in Sarpsborg Square in the centre of the city.

As a tribute to the whales found in the area, the project design required benches shaped as whales. The structure of the bench was made out of a grey metallic material, which took on perfectly the shapes of the cetacean mammal. The seating needed another material, more comfortable for people to sit on but robust enough to stay outside in the year round extremes of Scandinavian weather.

Only the natural beauty and versatility of wood could create the desired effect. The most durable wood possible, Accoya, was chosen for the seating area due to its high performance especially for outdoor applications. A total of 1280 individual pieces of Accoya wood, supplied by Norwegian Distributor, Profftre, were used to recreate the effect of whalebones on the bench. To bring some colour to the square and attract passers-by, a red coating was applied.

Accoya wood is set to become the material of choice for many outdoor uses and is guaranteed for 50 years for above ground use. Accoya matches or exceeds the durability, stability and aesthetics of the very best tropical hardwoods. Sustainably sourced and manufactured using a proprietary non-toxic wood modification process it performs very well in demanding conditions. Additionally, the coating performance of the Accoya wood was a huge factor in the development of the Sarpsborg Square seating project. Built for outdoor purpose, the structure required a wood easy to coat but also Class 1 durability.

”The impact of the greater stability characteristics of Accoya have been clearly demonstrated in a recent set of severe coating exposure trials in the sense that the coating system used had remained functional and of good appearance over the 42 months of the trial with this substrate, compared to complete loss of functionality and appearance on Scots pine and Siberian larch”, said Justin Peckham, Sales Manager for Scandinavia at Accsys Technologies. To ensure the longevity of the new

seating which is also at risk of vandalism, the project was finished with an anti-graffiti coating.

“Durability is key for outdoor construction and Accoya wood was the only wood suitable for this application”, said Robert Braaten, Partner and Managing Director Profftre. “We supplied a large amount of Accoya wood in different size pieces to recreate the whalebones and also provide good comfortable seating. This unique and distinctive project stands out on the old and popular Square of Sarpsborg.”

Accoya® Wood Used on New Seating Area Inspired by Nature in Sarpsborg Square, Norway


CASE STUDYCASE STUDYMusketeers Group:-Japanese Knotweed: A way forward for Homeowners, Mortgage Lenders, Surveyors, and Estate Agents!Client: UK Home Owners UK

Mortgage Providers

Project: Japanese Knotweed: A way forward for mortgage lenders, surveyors, homeowners and estate agents.

Value: £ 100 Million +

Programme: Q1:-2012

Client’s Requirements:-The UK Housing Market required changes to the policies and procedures of the UK’s mortgage providers to enable mortgage lending on properties contaminated with Japanese Knotweed.

The UK’s mortgage providers had to be satisfied that the risks posed to property by Japanese Knotweed are assessed accurately and correctly following initial identification by the Surveyors and Valuers at the time of Mortgage Valuation / Survey and if required to be ina position to have the risk accurately assessed by a recognised industry specialist.

The above procedure will allow homeowners across theUK to buy and sell with confidence.

Q1 2010:- Musketeers:-Receive 30 calls per week from embattled home owners across the UK, all with similar cries “I can’t sell my house. The surveyor has foundJapanese Knotweed in my garden, and the garden of an adjoining property”.

This alarming trend sets Musketeers initially on an information gathering mission. Musketeers quickly established that many home owners and the majority of the UK’s major mortgage providers were effectively under

siege, when trying to transact on residential properties classified as contaminated with Japanese Knotweed.The siege was being imposed as a consequence of the myths associated with Japanese Knotweed. Many of theUK’s mortgage providers phobias and prohibitions on lending, on property contaminated with JapaneseKnotweed, were based on incorrect information and incorrect risk assessment based on historic guidance.

Phase 1 Q2 - 2010:- Musketeers identified the cause of the phobia and prohibition with the UK’s mortgage providers when considering lending on property contaminated with Japanese Knotweed i.e. the myths associated with Japanese Knotweed and its widely published abilities.

Phase 2 Q2 - 2010:- Musketeers establish the reality of the risk posed by Japanese Knotweed in the majority of typical cases to the home owner, and the mortgage providers.

Phase 3 Q2 - 2010:- Musketeers established who is affected, where, why and how.

Phase 4:- Q3 - 2010:-Musketeers established links with the UKs main Mortgage Providers and their stake holders, listened to their concerns. Musketeers then commenced a hearts and minds initiative to educate, informed and galvanized the UK's main Mortgage Providers and their stake holders as to the realities of the actual risks posed by Japanese Knotweed to home owners and mortgage providers in the majority of typical cases.

Phase 5:- Q4 -2010:- Musketeers established links with the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors and theCouncil of Mortgage Lenders and led workshops across the UK to educate and inform the stake holders of the actual risks posed to home owners and mortgage lenders by Japanese Knotweed in the majority of typical cases.


CASE STUDY

Phase 6:- Q1 - 2011-Musketeers forged a strategic alliance and professional understanding with JapaneseKnotweed Remediation Contractors and Consultants across the UK. The purpose of the alliance is for theJapanese Knotweed industry to work with the RICS and CML to establish standardisation in the JapaneseKnotweed remediation industry, relative to the risk assessment and treatment of Japanese Knotweed when identified on a residential property by a Surveyor or Valuer.

Phase 7 Q1/2011 :- Musketeers brought together at a working party the stake holders from across the UK: TheRICS, The Japanese Knotweed Remediation Contractors and Consultants, the CML and the Building SocietiesAssociation (BSA).The working party was tasked to develop an assessment and advisory strategy to feed into the UKs banks and building societies on how best to deal with the actual threat posed by Japanese Knotweed in the majority of typical cases.

Phase 8:- Q2/Q3 - 2011:- Musketeers played a key roll in keeping the Project on track with attendance and invaluable contributions at The Working Party meetings by maintaining full involvement in this UK wide,Musketeers Iinitiated project.

Phase 9:- Q4 - 2011:- Musketeers and the working party developed clear protocols for Surveyors and Valuers to assess the actual risks posed to a residential property on behalf of the home owner and mortgage provider, whenJapanese Knotweed is identified on or adjacent to the property at the time of the survey.

Q4 2011:- Phase 10:- The Working Party agreed evaluation and remediation protocols for Japanese Knotweed in the residential environment for recommendation to the RICS /CML / Mortgage Providers. The Working Party agreed on the need for the formation of a recognised industry body for Japanese Knotweed Specialists, acceptable to the UKs mortgage providers, with the specialists working to recognised standards for the remediation of Japanese Knotweed.

Making the difference: Across the UK

Q1 - 2012:- The WAY Forward.Musketeers believe the initiative we started in 2010 will provide the opportunity to bring significant changes to theUKs mortgage lending landscape.

As a consequence of the Musketeers led initiative, theUK’s mortgage providers will be confident that the risks posed by Japanese Knotweed have been assessed correctly and accurately from the off, by recognised industry specialists. Consequently, the UK’s mortgage providers will be in a position to consider lending with confidence on properties contaminated with JapaneseKnotweed.

Musketeers believe this fundamental change in approach to the assessment of the risks posed by JapaneseKnotweed to residential property and remediation treatments, acceptable to the UK’s mortgage providers, will allow homeowners across the UK to buy and sell with confidence when Japanese Knotweed is identified on a residential property.


CASE STUDY

Sky believes in a better environment

Demag crane system for biomass heat and power generation plant

Sky opens Europe’s most sustainable broadcasting facility

Banbury, December 2011.Demag Cranes has installed a fully automated crane system at Sky’s combined cooling, heating and power (CCHP) plant, as part of Sky’s new studio complex in Osterley, West London. Sky’s state-of-the-art development, Sky Studios, provides 23,000 sq m of floor space for studios, offices, post production and technical facilities, housing the broadcaster’s flagship entertainment and sports channels. The building incorporates a range of initiatives to minimise environmental impact, making it the most sustainable broadcasting facility in Europe.

Combined cooling, heating and power is provided by a renewable energy plant, designed and built by industrial and commercial bioenergy specialist, Clearpower. The CCHP plant uses wood chip biomass, from broken down wooden pallets, generating electricity and heat for Sky Studios. The plant processes 10,000 t of wood chip per year, generating 1 MW of electricity and 5 MW of heat.

Wood chip is delivered to the CCHP plant by vehicles and tipped into a sunken input area. When sensors indicate that biomass levels require replenishment, the Demag Cranes’ system automatically lifts biomass from the input area and deposits it into the silo store. The wood chip is then fed into the furnace, by a conveyor system, according to demand.

To meet the requirements of the CCHP application, Demag Cranes installed a 7.8 m span overhead travelling crane, incorporating a DR-Pro electric wire rope hoist, rated at 6.3 t SWL. Suspended from the hoist is a specialist 4.5 cu m capacity clam shell grab, with teeth and side knives, for optimum handling of the wood chip.


CASE STUDY

The crane has long travel speeds of 1.5 – 40 m/min, cross travel speeds of 1.5 – 20 m/min and hoisting speeds of 1 – 16 m/min for fast and efficient load handling. It features frequency inverter controlled drives, which ensure precision load positioning and minimise load sway, reducing the possibility of contact between the bucket grab and the walls of the storage area. The system also includes long travel and cross travel limits. The wire rope hoist features include a special heavy duty rope guide, specifically designed to counteract side pull, fail safe bottom block operated hoist limit, slack rope detection and electronic overload protection, whilst the crab is fitted with anti-derailment protection. All motors incorporate IP55 rated enclosures to eliminate the ingress of dust in the arduous environment. Radio remote control is also available for use during maintenance.

Clearpower’s CEO, John Heffernan, stated that the automatic nature of the crane system offers several advantages over alternative materials handling equipment, not least 24 hour unmanned and uninterrupted operation. He added: “Demag Cranes has engineered the most appropriate and competitively priced solution for this application. The crane system has also helped us overcome the difficulties associated with the limited space available for the development of the CCHP facility.”


CASE STUDY

SECTOR: SPORTCLIENT: WILMSLOW HIGH SCHOOLSOLUTION: TARAFLEX™ SPORT M PERFORMANCE

Gerflor provides the ideal solution for a Specialist Sports CollegeThe Taraflex™ Sport M Performance has been down a year now and looks fantastic. It’s remarkably easy to clean and comes up looking like new every time. Stuart Dodds, Assistant Head Teacher, Wilmslow High School.

Judged as ‘outstanding’ by Ofsted in 2011, Wilmslow High School in Cheshire is classed as a Specialist Sports College so, when it was decided to build a new sports hall, there was a determination to specify the building to the highest standards and install the best flooring possible. Gerflor’s Taraflex™ Sport M Performance was quickly identified as the natural choice due to its high levels of comfort, performance and safety, combined with its durability, easy maintenance andmulti-sports capability.

Gerflor and Wilmslow High SchoolWilmslow High School has nearly 2,000 pupils aged from 11 to 18, and the belief that physical education and sport can enrich people’s lives is fundamental to its ethos. The school is one of East Cheshire centres of excellence, for badminton and cricket along with a strong netball tradition. The new hall, known as the ‘Olympic Hall’, was designed to provide four badminton courts, a full basketball court, plus practice basketball courts, cricket nets and volleyball courts, along with plenty of run-off space around them. Additional facilities include changing rooms, a PE classroom, disabled facilities, office space and storage facilities.

Meeting the challengeBuilt to a tight schedule, Gerflor worked in partnership with the building contractors and other players in the project support team to ensure that the court markings were correctly aligned with the overhead lighting together with the basketball and netball posts and sockets.

The SolutionWhen it came to installing the floor, Gerflor’s Dry-Tex System was utilised as it allowed the Taraflex™ Sport M Performance to be laid even though the concrete slab was still damp. This meant there was minimum delay to the build programme and that there was no need for additional moisture barriers (DPMs), saving both labour and material costs. The way the flooring was

laid, in sheets with welded seams, was seen as a great advantage over a wet pour floor, due to the speed and efficiency of the installation.

Taraflex™ Sport M Performance is the result of more than 60 years of research and development investment and experience by Gerflor. The flooring is categorised as a point elastic floor complying with the EN 14904Standard for indoor sports surfaces. This means that it compresses around the point of impact to absorb the force of the shock or impact. At the same time, its cushioned surface means it is comfortable to run or walk on. A P2 category flooring, it offers 35 - 45% shock absorption and is 9mm thick.

TestimonialsStuart Dodds, Assistant Head Teacher at Wilmslow High School, comments: “We wanted a flooring product which complemented the quality of the hall’s structure. The contractor who laid the floor recommended Gerflor and we have had no reason to doubt our choice. The Taraflex™ Sport M Performance has been down a year now and looks fantastic. It’s remarkably easy to clean and comes up looking like new every time.

“Gerflor offered a huge amount of advice, brought in samples and were able to show us examples of their work that we could visit. Everything they did confirmed what we already knew, that this was the right type of flooring; what’s more we were able to match the colour we wanted. They gave us total confidence to do it.”

A great successA measure of the Olympic Hall’s success is that it is in use from 7.30am through to 10pm every weekday and is also used at weekends. As well as pre-school training sessions, the hall is let out in the evenings through High Leisure, the bookings and facilities management business for the school.


CASE STUDY

The new Englebert Strauss workwear store

in Hockenheim, Germany, has undergone a major refurbishment

using Accoya® wood as a key element in the design. Englebert Strauss, the leading

European mail-order company for workwear and protective equipment, wanted to use a material

that was ultra durable and therefore reflected and complemented their brand image. Accoya® wood, used as

screening for the building, illustrates to perfection the hard-wearing and practical elements of this workwear brand.

Roggemann, the German and Polish distributor of Accoya®, supplied 500m2 of this high technology wood for the project. The wood was additionally coated with a transparent stain to highlight its natural beauty and this, combined with the understated structure of the building, provides the perfect mixture of modernity and practicality.

The Englebert Strauss workwear store also required a design that would be strong enough to withstand exposure to the elements on a long-term basis. Once again, the outstanding properties of Accoya® wood made it the ideal material for this outdoor use. Accoya® is an extremely durable wood and is particularly suited to exterior applications where performance and appearance are valued. Unlike most tropical and European hardwoods, its colour does not degrade when exposed to ultraviolet light; independent studies have also proven that the shrink and swell cycle with Accoya® wood is reduced by 70-80% subjecting film-forming coatings to less severe stretch and shrink; and of course Accoya® wood carries a 50-year above-ground and 25-year below-ground warranty against rot and decay.

Accoya® wood was used in two parts of the store; the main building and also the Englebert Strauss high tower which welcomes customers at the entrance and is easily recognizable from a distance. The use of Accoya® on the two separate structures creates symmetry in the design and contributes to the modernity of the architecture.

Product Manager, Jorg Neben, said “Accoya® wood is the perfect material for this construction. Its dimensional stability, durability and UV resistance will allow the building to last for a long time and keep its good visual appearance and therefore properly represent the name of Englebert Strauss.”

Tradition Meets Modernity with Accoya® at the Englebert Strauss Workwear Store in Hockenheim Roggemann supplies

Accoya® wood for unique new store design


The American Hardwood Export Council (AHEC) launched the first Wood Stock Design Competition at Maison & Objet in Paris recently. Thousands of visitors admired the 15 shortlisted entries which were manufactured into prototypes or scale models in American hardwood. The quality of the entries was exceptionally high and the jury members were extremely impressed by the talent of the young designers and architects from France and Belgium.

AHEC launched the Wood Stock Design Competition to encourage young professionals and graduates to explore the use of American hardwoods in design. As natural and sustainable materials, hardwoods have many different physical and mechanical properties, so understanding wood as a material is crucial in order to use it to its maximum potential in design.

In May 2011, the jury selected 15 projects to be manufactured into prototypes or scale models. Over the summer, the entrants worked with the selected manufacturer (La Fabrique) and model maker (Ray Winder), to develop their designs and the final work was exhibited at Maison & Objet recently. The jury was chaired by Christian Liaigre, interior designer and CEO of Maison Liaigre, whose elegant designs have made his company one of the top French luxury brands at export level. He was joined by leading architect Philippe Chaix, designer Guillaume Delvigne, deputy chief editor of the architectural magazine AMC Catherine Pierre, and French organisations in the timber industry CNDB and FCBA.

On 23rd January, the jury spent many hours deliberating over the entries and finally agreed on the winning projects: Category 1 – Stand Alone: This first category, open only to student applicants, focussed on stand-alone product or furniture design. Students were given a brief of ‘urban design’ which could link to communication tools such as mobile phones and laptops, but this was just a starting point and not obligatory. The judges looked in particular for creativity and innovative design. The designs needed to be usable, both aesthetically and technically, and the students were expected to consider how easily the product could be manufactured, taking eco-design considerations into account.

Wood Stock Design Competition Results: inspiring design in American hardwood


Category 2 – Interior Design: The second category challenged students and graduates to design a functional interior structure which provides spatial organisation. The judges were looking for a creative approach to this open brief. The space must be comfortable and practical and should take advantage of the decorative quality of American hardwoods. The design should be adaptable for use in different environments.

Winner: ‘The Contemporary Ornament’ by Audrey Yaacouli & Mélanie Saillard (Lycee La Martiniere, Lyon) A reception desk designed for a school, this entry was a perfect fit with the brief to organise a space. Reminiscent of work by Charles Rennie Mackintosh, the judges praised the repetitive use of squares and cut-outs creating shadows which indicate to the school students whether the reception was open or closed. The contrast of wood species chosen

Winner: ‘Tandem’ by Geoffrey Graven (Strate Collège Designers, Sèvre) The judges were extremely impressed by the commercial feasibility of this piece. Potentially available in different sizes and colours, ‘Tandem’ reflects today’s way of working on the move with portable devices. ‘Tandem’ would work well for instance in a home environment, but also in public places such as an airport lounge. This lively piece also won the public vote with 35% of votes. The piece designed in American white oak shows off the grain and texture of the wood with its solid top and revolving table. The base of the seat and the rims on which the shelf revolves are made in aluminium to provide the required strength whilst keeping the shelf lightweight and streamline.

The judges also highly commended ‘Claustra’ designed by Manon Malatray. An innovative piece, this design combines a coat stand with a room divider. ‘Claustra’ takes advantage of red oak’s excellent steam bending properties allowing a sharp curve in many of the elements.

creates interesting patterns with the light American tulipwood against dark American walnut.

The judges were also very impressed by ‘Hearth’, a project designed by Belgian students Pieter Vanderhenst and Mathias De Ferm. One of the modules of 'Hearth' was manufactured by the students and displayed at the exhibition. American white oak was specified so the piece would be suitable for exterior use. The judges were attracted to the Moroccan inspired design and liked the piece as an individual module as well as the shapes that the modules can collectively create.


Category 3 – Small extension or renovation: The third category tested the applicants’ architectural skills by asking them to design an extension or renovation to an existing building. Judges looked in particular for creativity, and for the relevance of the design to the existing building and its surroundings. Technically the choice of species was crucial for the design’s practicality, and entrants were asked to provide detailed drawings to demonstrate the long-term workability of the design.

Winner: ‘The Transition Cube’ by Mathilde Lanoë (Institut d’art visuels, Orléans) The innovative wooden cube structure is moveable creating an intimate and warm environment in the winter months, but can slide back to allow sunlight into the conservatory area in the summer months. The cladding in American ash is contrasted by the darker foldable seats in American gum. The judges were impressed by simplicity and workability of this very original design.

AHEC’s affiliation with design and architectural schools across Europe is stronger than ever. Students are the key decision makers in future design and architecture and AHEC is working to ensure the hardwood message is included in school curriculums. AHEC is currently investing in an extensive LCA (Life Cycle Analysis) Study for the U.S. hardwood industry, which puts science at the heart of the green building debate. With a growing trend towards ‘green’ design, it is essential that architects and designers are provided with peer reviewed data to allow them to make fair comparisons when specifying materials. AHEC will continue to invest in educative projects and competitions with students across Europe in 2012.


FAMOUS LAST WORDS

By John Bird, Founder and Editor-In-Chief,

The Big Issue

I try desperately hard to keep my head down and work away at homelessness, social justice, social equality, social mobility; you name it and I’m on it. I keep my head down pulling that old big thick heavy plough behind me, digging in there; yet, keep raising my head and seeing the sun. And seeing the trees and smell the sniff of the air.

And remember the joy I had as a boy shipped out of London, incarcerated in a boys place for wrongdoers. And remembering the cacophony and joyous badinage of birds in abundancy as I ran through the undergrowth on a cross country run in singlet and shorts. Wet feet as I badly negotiated the wet streams and bog of this strange world a million miles from the Gasworks cityscape of my local Fulham.

I try desperately hard to keep that focus and drive necessary to do ones work in bringing “a hand up not a hand out.” In exiting people out of broken lives. But still the memory of the bogs of Surrey, the abundant nature, the limp looking silver birch that were in fact as tough as old boots. And then get a little sick feeling in the back of my throat and my mind: that all of this is slowly being eroded from us, and from our children and their children. And that which I see in abundance may one day only be recorded and understood and provable in some video footage or as represented in some painting by a member of The Fontainebleau School. I think of the painter Corot, or even of some Gainsborough as the only ones who could represent that wet footed nature I fell for and lived and breathed in my 16th and 17th year. That is the crying shame of our times. That for all of our busy-ness we have the great shade of night facing us, an eternal night because mankind has over-cocked-up the world. And continues to over-cock-up this beautiful realm that we have come into. So you could say that I am always aware of the immensity of this terrible reality that hangs over us. But there is the problem:

The problem is that it is so immense, so threatening, so overwhelmingly painful to contemplate that you choose not to. You hide it in the back of your consciousness. You bury it under your other actions. You strive to make it but a bit of a backdrop to your life. You religiously separate the paper from the tea leaves so that they go into their respective bins. So that they are not contaminated for their great journey to the recycling truck, and then even further on to some machine that will turn them into unimaginable but good things.

Yes, our attitude to the environment is probably what it used to be like with sin. I imagine it is like being a pimp in an alehouse in some run down part of some medieval city in the middle ages. You are selling girls to travellers who you’ve bullied into working this way. Yet you know that one day, the great big moral axe will fall from the sky and you will be standing before your maker. And he will find you wanting and cast you down to keep the company of Satan for eternity.

Yes, hiding from the full impact of this gigantic piece of sludge making which is the modern world, is like hiding from sin in earlier times. And like in those times people continued to sin I still continue to make the environment that is a black pall that hangs about the horizon but which I try very hard, like billions of others, to ignore. Or keep at a safe distance from me.

The problem of the environment is added to by the zealots who carry it firm to their hearts. Who live and breath it and who by so doing make the environment the most ‘unsexy’ crisis in the world. Would you want to have a holiday with anyone who expressed more than a passing interest in the environment?

Once I knew a beautiful young couple, he like a giant of strength and good looks, and she like a meeting of all that is feminine beauty. But what a pair of bores they were when they opened their mouths about carbon foot printings and recyclable toast racks and sundry electrical goods. They tried to pull me into their fine, well


intentioned stuff, but I ran the other way whenever I saw their perfectly formed beings come anywhere near my office door.

Once I was asked at a Labour Party conference fringe meeting to talk about the environment. I got to the stage arriving late and listened to the other speakers. I was at a loss as to what to say. I looked at them and then realised how they had taken Mother Nature and stuffed it up some place dark. Real dark! And turned it into a poisonous stream of statistics so asinine that I fell asleep just as I was about to speak. They had to wake me up, which they did.

By falling asleep I found my subject: it was my two fellow speakers, one being the great and far seeing George Monbiot. With their patrician speech and their orotundity I could not see them appealing to the Pakistani woman on the third floor of a block of flats to get round to recycle.

I hide from the collapse of nature brought on by the steadfast rape of it by mankind. I hide with billions of others. You dear professionals must find a way of winkling us ‘sinful’ billions out. Or find a way of getting through to us.

But, please be rest assured: we all know you are doing the job that needs to be done. But please, give us some help here. Make the subject of the environment like a mixture of all that is good in the world. We need it; desperately. For we live a lie.


Documents

EIM Issue 18