Undercover leisure venue has high green IQ
by David MastersThe biggest undercover entertainment venue in Europe is to incorporate 'intelligent building' technology that will give feedback on its environmental performance. Rotherham Borough Council recently granted planning permission for the £300 million 'YES!' project, which is to be built on a 327 acre greenbelt site in South Yorkshire. The 1.2 million sq ft centre will include hotels, restaurants, bars, conference rooms, and other leisure facilities, leading to 2,700 jobs for the local ...
Expert panel to offer eco-town advice
by David MastersThe UK Government has announced the appointment of 12 experts to advise on its eco-town project. The green building experts have been called upon to advise the government on the environmental credentials of both the proposed eco-town sites and the developers plans. The panel includes an eclectic mix of TV presenters, environmental activists, planning experts, architects, and designers. Issues to be examined by the panel include resources efficiency, public transport links, and the ...
Italy feels the pressure over buffalo cheese scare
by Rachel ThomasYesterday the EU put further pressure on Italy to provide information regarding the scale of a potential crisis over a possible correlation between cancer and cheese. Brussels warned Italy of a potential banning of buffalo mozzarella over the EU. Italian authorities were encouraged to provide detail about carcinogenic dioxins found in buffalo mozzarella produced in the Naples area. The European commission set the Italian government a deadline, which expired ...
Afghanistan’s eco-friendly reconstruction
by David MastersHomes in war-torn Afghanistan are being rebuilt using bricks made from compressed earth. The earth bricks are eco-friendly because they are low carbon, use local materials, and need far less energy than kiln-fired bricks. As an added bonus, they are cheap, easy to make, and easy to build with. The bricks are made using soil and a little cement or lime. The machine used to make the bricks is ...
New guidance for brownfield developers
by David MastersGuidance for companies wishing to clean up contaminated brownfield sites has been published this week by English Partnerships. The government agency for national regeneration has published tips for companies wishing to calculate Contamination and Dereliction Remediation Costs. In the budget announced last week, companies who are regenerating brownfield sites will receive extra tax relief. This is good news for developers, who often find themselves facing hidden costs when regeneration sites that ...
300 builders earn eco-construction award
by David Masters300 of the UK's top environmental construction workers have had their eco-credentials recognised by an official body. 300 members of The Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB), a trade association of construction managers, have been awarded Chartered Environmentalist status. The CIOB have been granted permission to do this by the Society for the Environment. The group hopes that this will give customers the ability to choose builders who use environmentally friendly techniques. The ...
Fairtrade really so ‘fair’ after all?
by Rachel ThomasLeading thinktank, the Adam Smith Institute (ASI), today proclaimed the fair trade movement as barely more than marketing hype, benefiting a marginal amount of farmers in developing countries at the expense of others. The critical report by the ASI was released to coincide with the beginning of the annual Fairtrade Fortnight. The report warns that fair trade seems to be a type of marketing that aims at continuing fair trade’s ...
UK heads research on climate change, and the poor.
by Alan HartenThe UK has pledged to increase research regarding how climate change worldwide, will impact the world's poor, and the possibilities of global warming causing increased poverty, and worldwide conflict. Douglas Alexander said in a statement that, his department (International development) is slated to invest £20 million every year, for a period of five years. This represents an increase of 1000% on previous spending, on this research. The aim is to try ...
EU told to do more on sustainable building
by David MastersA report from the European Energy Network (ENR) chastises EU member states for being "disappointingly slow" in implementing legislation on energy efficient building. The report - released during the EU's Sustainable Energy Week - outlines the results of ENR's survey of compliance with the EU's Energy Performance in Buildings Directive. The survey focused on new builds and existing buildings in residential, public, and commercial sectors, and found that European governments have a ...
Graffiti Comes Clean!
by Rachael Grant
Activists against the expansion of Heathrow Airport took to the streets in protest, using a new method to get their message across - 'clean graffiti'. Clean (or reverse) graffiti works using high-pressure steam to imprint messages on dirty walls and pavements. The activists used this 'friendly' form of protest on exposed locations such as Victoria station, Parliament Square, and a flight centre in Chiswick. The protests join an increasing number on ...
Hypersonic Mach 5, Hydrogen powered plane.
by Alan HartenToday's airliners area huge contributor to greenhouse gas emissions, and a major burner of oil based fuels. In the not too distant future, new airliners will be green, non-polluting, and incredibly fast. One concept aircraft that will probably soon receive massive funding is the A2, this new hypersonic jet airliner, capable of reaching 3,400Mph, a speed known as Mach5, and carrying up to 300 people, is being developed by a company ...
Innovation for sustainability - can we meet the challenge?
by Grant Draper
Mallen Baker needs to consider the toughest question, with the business environment changing so dramatically. Poverty, along with climate change, shapes the market, something which cannot be changed. Adapting to circumstances and using innovation to fuel success seems to be the corporate response to such problems. Three key elements are to be highlighted, when discussing innovation in companies to approach sustainability: • Boardroom commitment to sustainability helps build a framework for robust corporate governance. • Investors are ...