Usually, the thought of going to Bracknell to test drive a Volvo wouldn't fill me with that much excitement.

Fortunately this invite was a little different because it was to check out a car that to all intents and purposes looks and feels like a petrol car, only gets its power from the electricity mains.

At a time when most energy efficient cars are either 'hybrid' vehicles like the Toyota Prius using a mixture of electricity and petrol, or smaller electric cars like the G-Whizz, the Volvo C30 Electric stands out for being, well, a normal Volvo C30 family car - at least at first glance. Of course there are lots of differences that the boffins from Gothenburg could bore you stupid about over a pint of overpriced Swedish beer.

Open up the bonnet, for example, and rather than a big oily engine you are greeted with what can only be described as a giant fuse box with lots of neat orange cables. And running through the centre of the car under the floor is a big heavy Lithium Ion battery, like you find in a laptop or in a mobile phone, only much, much bigger.

This provides the charge for the car. Volvo claims the C30 Electric car can currently has a range of 150 Km and needs to be charged for around 8 hours using conventional AC power mains (there is a 1 hour quick charging point on the car but as yet there aren't any places where this could be used.)

As you might expect from a brand so closely with safety, Volvo has done a lot of safety checks already. You only have to type 'Lithium Ion Battery Explode' into YouTube to see the dangers of using electricity which means that a lot of work has gone into ensuring that if the car is hit that the battery doesn't go up in flames. Always an added bonus!

This means, for example, ensuring that the passenger seats aren't pushed into the middle of the vehicle where the battery is situated if it's hit from the side. So far 11 vehicles have been crash tested but there are bound to be many more before the vehicle goes into mass production in 2014.

So how does the Volvo perform? Rather well I thought. The weirdest thing about it was it was so quiet that I hadn't even realised I had turned the engine on. (Pedestrians will definitely have to learn to look for cars when crossing the road rather than just listening out for them if they want to avoid being bounced over the bonnet of an electric car.)

The automatic vehicle handled rather well considering the extra weight of the battery and added safety features and I managed to get the car up to around 100Km/h (62 miles per hour) on a test track designed to look and feel like a normal single carriageway road without even noticing.

Volvo claims that top speed is around 130Km/h and it can go 0-62 miles per hour in 11 seconds. Obviously that doesn't make it the quickest car in the world, but it does offer much better performance than today's electric cars. Volvo reckons its performance is roughly similar to a 1.6 litre diesel engine car which sounds about right.

The first batch of production models will be available from next year, but with the Lithum Ion battery alone currently costing $80,000 I'm guessing the Volvo C30 Electric won't be exactly cheap though official prices have yet to be announced. For the rest of us mere mortals without money to burn I think it will be at least a three year wait before this particular electric dream becomes a reality.

So would I buy one? Well yeah, providing it is affordable (ie. not considerably more expensive than a petrol car) and easy to fill up. After all one of the biggest challenges will be providing enough points where you can charge the vehicle.

Those with their own garages will be able to use their own home's mains power but for those who have their cars parked on the street it's simply not practical to have cables running across the pavement! For electric cars to really represent the future a lot of work has to go into building the infrastructure first.

Below check out our rough cut YouTube videos from the test driving day.

Volvo

Internationally acclaimed sand artist Sudarsan Pattnaik creates a sand sculpture to deliver a global appeal to 'Go Green to Save Earth' at Puri beach on World Earth Day.

For more information on World Earth Day check out this article in The Guardian which explains why we should all go vegan to save the planet.

Apparently a totally vegetarian diet can be produced with only 1,100 litres of water per day, while producing a diet that includes meat requires more than 15,000 litres of water per day.

Some activists will be showering in the street today behind a curtain that reads, "1kg of meat = 1 year of showers. Clean your conscience: go vegan".

Flights may be grounded at present because of volcanic ash from Iceland, but this didn't stop a new 'airport development' appearing along the M5 near Bristol this morning.

The giant 70 metre-long mural in a field next to the motorway between junctions 14 and 15 with PLANNING APPROVED stamped across it is the latest stunt to raise awareness for the need for greater local consultation in the planning process.

It's the idea of Beautiful Britain magazine which is concerned that the wishes of local communities are being ignored by central government in an attempt to meet national infrastructure targets. Last month the magazine surveyed over 5,000 British people, revealing that eight out of ten feel that not enough is being done to protect the places that they love.

Says Rob Yarham, Editor of Beautiful Britain magazine which commissioned the mural: "With this mural, we want to highlight the threat to those environments posed by ill-considered and rushed planning decisions. We chose a runway because many of these involve transport infrastructure but there are other types of project putting our landscape at risk, including energy and housing developments.

"We want planning policy to be at the heart of election debates. Were concerned that the Infrastructure Planning Commission may fast-track large developments without giving local people enough input into projects that will affect them for years to come."

As part of its campaign, Beautiful Britain has created an e-petition to ask the government to enhance local democracy in the planning process, along with a simple guide about what to do if anyone is concerned about a particular development.

More information about the e-petition can be found at www.beautifulbritain.net

Doffed caps to Debbie Callender and her bloke Ray O'Neill, who between them have come up with a really superb new veggie cooking blog Fiver Food. Debbie is a real natural in front of the camera and the videos (and indeed the choice of recipies) are first class.

They will apparently be uploading two new videos each week. Anyhow here's the vid for Veggi Chow Mein.

What do adults do when try as they might, they can't come up with a solution to a seemingly intractable problem? A popular solution is seeking an answer through the mouths of babes, and when the issue is as pressing and as controversial as the environment, why not seek the ideas of those untainted by the million and one problems and prejudices that plague adult pundits?

That's what Persil figured, and they've enlisted Phillippa Forrester to help prise out those planet-saving solutions. In this video, you can see just a few of the bright ideas they've already managed to glean from young minds up and down the country.

I most know Natalia Imbruglia for being a singer (and sometimes an actress) but it seems she's also a campaigner for environamental issues! She's teamed up with Ecover to make the film below about the importance of water cycles.

Natalie said: "There's often an abundance of water in the UK, so it's easy to forget the very real issues of water shortage and pollution in other parts of the world. The video is a great way to learn more and offers some really simple tips on how we can all make a difference."

Please visit Natalie's guest spot on Water Aid's site, where you can also order a free watercare pack to find out how hard your money can work to solve problems of safe water and sanitation in Ethiopia

I had to share this video clip that was brought to my attention today that might just scoop the award for 'most offensive commercial video clip ever' if such a thing were to exist. The premise seems to be a bunch of BK stooges showing up in various remote parts of the world as yet untainted by fast food and handing out free burgers in order to see how 'BK virgins' react to being given the nutritionally-dubious snacks. Patronising much?

Wrapping paper has got to be one of the most blatant displays of waste that Christmas subjects us to, and the number of trees that have given their lives to conceal our presents at Christmas alone has been estimated to be as high as 50,000. You can help the situation by re-using old paper, or buying only recycled giftwrap. But an even better solution is using fabric that can be re-used to make your own beautifully wrapped gifts.

In the video below, Recycle Now takes you through one option: the Japanese art of fabric-wrapping: Furoshiki.

Furoshiki gift wrapping from RecycleNow on Vimeo.

Related: Make your own eco-friendly Christmas wrapping paper | Dreaming of a green Christmas (but can't afford it)?

He's got a meteorology degree! He re-uses bags! He switches stuff off! But can you guess where Tech Digest's Duncan Geere will fall down on the eco living front? Watch the video to find out.

Related: GG/GG #1: Isabelle | GG/GG #2: Zara | GG/GG #3: Susi

I've been banging on about Asus's trend-setting bamboo laptop for ages now, but it wasn't until this week that Shiny Towers finally got to play host to this long-awaited PC.

Tech Digest's Duncan had a play, and gives his views in the video below.

Tech Digest's Gary Cutlack is talking lightbulbs today, and yes, we're talking the modern, energy saving sort as opposed to the old-fashioned, coal-powered ones, of course. Sit back for another installment of unique insights into the greener life!

In the video above, Lucy takes us through Asus's all-new, very green, energy-saving Bamboo laptop. It's made almost entirely of recycled materials, and everything in it can be recycled after the laptop becomes obsolete. [Via Shiny Shiny]

Related: Asus' bamboo laptop hits the shop shelves

Viropop is a site that should interest anyone of a green persuasion. Billing itself as "a green video network", it collects environment-related video content from a range of angles, from sustainability projects to how-to guides for getting more mileage out of your wardrobe.

I'm unsure how many of the videos on the site are produced by the Viropop folk themselves, but they're definitely behind the site's flagship show, Zaproot. Zaproot is a regular digest of environment-related news, and as its zingy name suggests, it's a rather self-consciously funky affair. But once you get used to the zippy editing it is very watchable, with easy-on-the-eye host Jessica Williamson providing an irreverent and engaging look at "the fast changing world of the modern Green Revolution".

Click over to check out the latest edition, which includes what Zaproot would like to see new U.S. President Barack Obama tackle over the next few years.

As editor of Shiny Shiny, Susi's carbon footprint is legendary. But word has it she has a greener side that is getting stronger every day. Watch the video to find out what a gadget-loving girl's gotta do to go green.

Related: Green gloat/green guilt: Zara confesses | Green gloat/green guilt: Is Isabelle as green as we thought?

Here I am again, prying into my colleagues' lives to find out who is the greenest of them all. When I asked beauty editor Zara to take part, she warned me that she most certainly would not be claiming that title any time soon. But is her lifestyle as bad as she thinks? Watch the video to find out...