Circular economy: bringing ‘closed loop’ into the boardroom…with a bit of help from Dame Ellen
Elllen MacArthur is aiming to get 100 businesses to sign up to Circular Economy alliance Having done a lot of sailing myself, I am unsurprised by former sailor Ellen MacArthur’s Damascean conversion to the environmental cause. The ‘Dame celebre’ recently announced that she was well on her way to getting 100 business leaders to sign up to her Foundation’s Circular Economy alliance (CE100) which promotes, as the name suggests, regenerative system... Read More
Wave energy: why we need a fresh approach to harnessing the power of our seas
Western Isles (Picture: Neil Kenhead) Stand on a beach in the Western Isles looking out at the Atlantic and it’s easy to see why for over a century people have dreamed of harnessing the power of our seas. The wave energy here is some of the most intense in the world, with the potential to provide the UK with 40 terrawatt hours (TWh) of electricity each year – over 10 per cent of current demand. Given such a spectacular natural resource, alongside... Read More
Cleantech: is it time to wave goodbye to the Severn Barrage scheme?
The first Severn Barrage was proposed almost a century ago It is nearly a century since the first proposal to build a barrage across the Severn to generate power from the tides. Since then we have developed our National Grid, embarked on a dash-for-gas and built a fleet of nuclear power stations. Yet, still there is no Severn Barrage. And now the fate of the latest proposal – led by private consortia Hafren Power – hangs in the balance.... Read More
Green Investment Bank: funding the parts that other banks won’t reach?
With its new and well-respected CEO at the helm – Shaun Kingsbury – the Green Investment Bank (GIB) is up-and-running, announcing its first batch of investments. Wind, energy efficiency and energy from waste projects are the lucky recipients of cash to help their development journey. The stated priority sectors are offshore wind, Green Deal, non-domestic energy-efficiency and waste. Just another state-owned bank? The GIB will follow banking... Read More
Fantastic without the plastic: turning plastic waste into eco friendly initiatives
The amount of plastic bottles and cans generated globally that ends up in landfill is estimated to be around 340 billion. That is a lot of bottles. We’ve been working with SodaStream to raise awareness of the environmental impacts of plastic bottles. We’ve found communities in the world who have turned this plastic waste mountain into eco-friendly initiatives. Some of the examples were too good not to share: 1. The house that plastic built Meet... Read More
Inspiring, green and innovative: why I came away impressed by RegenSW’s Renewable Energy Marketplace
What do an electric four-wheel vehicle you can peddle, unobtrusive secondary glazing and a bit of brass piping that makes it less expensive to run a combi boiler have in common? They all originate from the southwest and they were all being showcased at RegenSW’s Renewable Energy Marketplace (REM) this week. Attending the show at Exeter’s Westpoint not only made a refreshing change to London for me (my last show was Ecobuild at the Excel),... Read More
Green marketing: should we do away with eco labels?
A few weeks ago Ramon Arratia, European Sustainability director at InterfaceFLOR launched his book, ‘Full Product Transparency: Cutting the Fluff Out of Sustainability’. In the short paperback (you can read it in 90 minutes according to the publisher), Arratia argues that a decade down the corporate sustainability journey, we’ve ended up with “lorry loads of corporate reports, and a plethora of green labels and marketing claims”, but failed... Read More
Energy and water: our utility companies are failing us but we can take action
We’ve all felt the pain of crippling increases in our energy bills. And this week, it was the turn of the water companies to announce that they were hiking up their prices – those rises due to come in April will average around 3.5 per cent in England and Wales. So why are we paying more for our water? Talk to the water companies and they will tell you they are having to invest billions of pounds in improvements. But these are privately-owned... Read More
A compelling success story to demystify social media
Few executives understand how social media drives sales. According to McKinsey Quarterly ‘s most read article of 2012 ”most executives know what social media is… but very few of them have a deep understanding of exactly how social media interacts with consumers to expand product and brand recognition, drive sales and profitability, and engender loyalty.” The biggest challenge with social media This echoes our own observations... Read More
How can SMEs unlock the UK’s £500bn retrofit market?
With less than two months to go before the launch of the Government’s Green Deal, it won’t be long before real opportunities begin to open up for businesses looking to unlock the huge potential of the UK’s domestic retrofit market. But if you are a small to medium-sized business, the chances are you are still trying to figure out how you can win a share of this emerging market. We’re already blogging regularly about SMEs and how they... Read More
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