Green News
Planning to move house? It seems that Bradford is the place to go for the green minded individual. The city was revealed to have the lowest environmental impact of any British city, in spite of its undeniably large role in the Industrial Revolution. Contrary to popular belief, Bradford's rivers were not polluted beyond redemption during this period in its history, and the streams surrounding the city are now a veritable haven of wildlife! Bradford also boasts large areas of green space, and has a number of successful recycling schemes in place. You can read more about Bradford's environmental initiatives - from their 'real nappy' scheme to the Forest of Bradford project, which aims to extend areas of woodland in Bradford - at the Bradford Environmental Action Trust.
Liverpool was voted the least sustainable place to live, with poor water quality and a lack of evidence that it is working towards a more sustainable future dragging it to the bottom of the list.
The survey of cities was carried out by charity Forum for the Future.
Green News
British Telecom today unveiled plans to meet a quarter of its electricity needs using wind turbines by the year 2016. BT already reduced its carbon emissions by 60 per cent between 1996 and 2006, and it is estimated that the use of turbines will cut BT's C02 emissions by a further 500,000 tonnes. The project is set to be the largest corporate wind power initiative outside the energy sector. The cost of the project will be in the region of £250 million.
BT has applied for planning permission to build test masts at Goonhilly Satellite Earth Station in Cornwall, Wideford Hill Radio Station in Orkney and Scousburgh Radio Station in Shetland. It is hoped that 100MW of energy will already be being produced by turbines by 2012.
Related: Turbulence for home wind turbines | Visit a wind farm | Wind turbines in your back yard | How to build a wind turbine | Renewable energy versus the environment
Green News
We tend to think of solar panels as being shiny, flat and all looking much the same, but a Japanese company called Kyosemi is working hard to change our preconceptions about solar panels. In fact, its new flexible, spherical panels could be a lot more efficient at trapping light than the conventional sort.
Apart from the fact that they look futuristic and cool, spherical panels are more effective than flat ones because they can absorb sunlight at any angle. They optimize the use of direct and indirect light and convert energy with nearly 20% accuracy, far ahead any flat photovoltaic technologies.
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Green News
In what is believed to be the first move of this kind taken by a local council, St Albans City and District council have transformed a 1950s semi-detached house into an ecohome and opened it to visitors. The house's impressive range of energy-saving features includes a 1 kw wind turbine, solar thermal roof panels and a 4,700-litre rainwater-recycling tank.
The project has been awarded the Green Apple award for Environmental Best Practise by The Green Organisation. The Green Organisation is an independent company which seeks to recognise and confirm environmentally-aware practices in business and government. They state their aim as being to provide a service which operates not as an 'environmental watchdog' scheme, as so many other organisations do, but rather as a more positively focused, reward scheme system.
The contractor, Borras, also won a Considerate Constructor award for its successful use of so many recycled demolition materials in the creation of the house.
Arts & information
Professor Chris Ripley, new director of the Science Museum, has revealed plans for a £6 million exhibit showing people exactly how global warming has already affected the planet, and what implications it could hold for the future. Ripley is at pains to stress that the purpose of the exhibition is not to promote a particular course of action, but to allow people to "come to their own conclusions" about which policies should be put in place in response to global warming.
The exhibition is not due to open until 2009, but, in the meantime, a small trial run exhibition opens next week in the Science museum's Wellcome wing, focussing in particular on the role of biofuels in cutting levels of carbon emission.
Love film, politics and the environment? Then keep an eye out for the Groovy Movie Picture House. The world’s first solar powered, touring cinema is soon to be famous for bringing cutting edge, environmentally-focused, uncompromising, inspiring and of course creative films to all corners of the UK. This travelling cinema is often found at festivals (of the film and music variety) and is hosting this year’s Green Screen Independent Film Festival.
The Groovy Movie Picture House is powered by eight large solar panels, which turn sunlight into electricity to fuel state of the art projectors, amplifiers and lighting. On the film side of things: Groovy Movie prides itself in showing short and feature films by independent and radical, professional and non-professional film makers.
If you fancy yourself a bit of a film maker, then the guys at Groovy Movie would love to hear from you. Or, if you are more like me and just like to sit and watch, then check out the website for when and where Groovy Movie will be screening near you.
Related: Big Chill to feature pedal powered movies
Green News
M&S continues to be one of the greenest places to shop on the high street, as it has been announced that two of its new branches are set to be powered entirely by renewable energy. The two branches will be located in Glasgow and Galashiels, with their energy provided by a wind turbine in Aberdeenshire. Both branches are due to open in October.
In addition to this initiative — which, Marks and Spencer claim, will reduce carbon emissions from the stores by 95% — these stores also hope to adopt a policy of collecting rainwater for use in flushing the stores' toilets. Marks and Spencer say they hope to be a completely carbon neutral company by 2012.
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