In yesterday's Guardian a reader asked "Watching those pictures of water being pumped out of flood-stricken areas got me thinking: how much energy does it take to produce all our mains water?" It's a good question, and one that Leo Hickman answered after some serious calculations. Everyday in the UK we use 19 billion litres of tap water, and in one year the figure is seven cubic kilometres! Between 2% and 3% of the UK's electricity is used to process and 'deliver' this water to us in our homes, and this creates 0.5% of our carbon emissions. Hickman's conclusion was that a litre of water has a footprint of 0.298 grammes, and said "even if you had one very full bath - about 150 litres - every day for a year, overall it would represent just 15kg of greenhouse gas emissions. That's about what the average car produces over 80 kilometres."
[via The Guardian]
The sun made a very welcome appearance across the UK this weekend, which was especially good news for Ben & Jerry's. The environmentally-concerned ice-cream experts staged their climate neutral Sundae on the Common festival on Saturday and Sunday, and boy was it a great day out. Like many, I vowed afterwards to never touch another scoop of ice-cream again, but I suspect this will soon pass.
So what did this little jolly on the common do for the environment you might well ask? Well, in keeping with Ben & Jerry's green agenda, the event was made carbon neutral, with ticket sales supporting a solar panel project in India. On the day, the Climate Ambassadors were out in force, teaching the hungry revelers important nuggets of information as they earned their free ice cream.
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The Soil Association have hit out at Scottish Power over their recent announcement of intentions to "contract Scottish farmers to produce 250,000 tonnes of energy crops to be burned at Scotland’s two coal fired power stations". Their main concern is that the moves would result in over 12 percent of Scotland's total agricultural land being used for something other than food production, and this would likely have huge repercussions on a country which already produces too few food crops.
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The government has asked local authorities and developers to bid for money towards building five new housing settlements around the country. The new developments will consist of between 5,000 and 20,000 carbon neutral homes. The new towns will be designed to ensure schools and shopping facilities are within walking distance from the houses to reduce car journeys. The houses will have the latest energy saving technology built into them. There is already an eco-town being built at the moment in Northstowe near Cambridge. Gordon Brown has said that all new houses will be carbon neutral by 2016.
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This hand powered chainsaw from Green Mountain Products really is for the hard core green gardener! Obviously you wouldn't take on a huge project with it, but for small jobs in the garden it really is perfect. It uses no fossil fuel, no electricity, just good old elbow grease. It's basically a couple of bits of sturdy rope with a carbon chainsaw 'blade' in the middle, and a little weight bag on one side which allows you to throw the rope over a branch so you can start cutting it. The main problem with the system seems to be that you have to stand under the branch you're trying to cut down, which is not the most sensible place to be! If you do get the hang of it I'm sure it's a very satisfying feeling, and certainly much quieter than traditional chainsaws!
Related: Low-pollution lawn mowers
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Yes, we all go on about M&S being green as green can be, but it’s true. Here is a little guide to what to look out for when you shop at Marks and Sparks.
1. Many garments carry the new ‘Think Climate’ label, designed to encourage customers to lower their washing temperature to 30˚C. This will save around 40% energy per wash. Marks say independent tests show that around 70% of their clothes can be effectively washed at 30˚C without any significant reduction in cleanliness. Apparently, if all of M&S customers moved to washing at 30˚C, it would save enough energy to light every street lamp in the UK for 10 months.
Related stories: M & S announce eco plans | Flown-in food can be greener
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A Formula One race is probably not the first place you would expect to find serious talk about climate change. But, the sport (which could be seen as the least green in the world) is taking climate change seriously.
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