Resource use
We recognise the inequity of our current consumption patterns in which we are using up a greater share of the planet’s resources and that the poor are most vulnerable to climatic change.
Failing to feel the heat in Durban
by Helen Burley
16 December 2011
The UN climate talks in Durban, South Africa – where I’ve been for the last two weeks – seemed a long way away from Bristol’s real-world endeavours to green the way we live and work as a city.
Given the weaknesses of the deal agreed in Durban, this distance is perhaps a good thing. Politicians in Durban may have failed to agree on the kind of emissions cuts needed to keep global warming within the supposedly safe limit of 2 degrees, but we still need to shift to a low carbon economy – in Bristol and around the world.
Indeed the urgency for that shift is increasingly apparent, not least on the African continent where the UN talks took place.
Parts of Africa have seen severe drought, floods and famine in the last year alone. A Ghanaian delegate told me how parts of the village where he grew up are now under water as a result of sea level rise.
As the African Group spokesman Seyni Nafo told media at the start of the conference: “We have contributed the least to this problem and we are paying the greatest price.”
There is no doubt that Africa will be hit hard by climate change. Studies suggest that even a 1.5 degree rise in temperature will severely affect harvests in Africa. At the moment the world is on course for a rise of 4 degrees. The impacts for Africa are too horrifying to imagine.
“We cannot compromise on the lives of millions who are already threatened, who are already dying from climate change,” Mr Nafo urged. But in reality not compromising didn’t even seem to be on the agenda.
A protester outside the UN climate talks
The politics at play in Durban were never going to result in ambitious targets from all the players at the table – and indeed the deal agreed in the early hours of Sunday morning did not increase global ambition to cut emissions beyond what was agreed in Cancun last year. That means that the a gap between where we need to be and where we are likely to be in 2020 of 6-11 gigatonnes, according to UNEP.
While a global deal with more ambitious targets would have provided a clear sign to business as the need to change gear, there are some who argue that we are reaching a tipping point where green technology will lead the way where politicians have failed.
Have we got there yet? I am not sure. Some parts of industry in Europe have proved an effective block to more ambitious action. The economics of energy use still favour fossil fuels. But it is a challenge we need to meet.
There are other signs for hope. This week Forum for the Future highlighted efforts by business not just to change their own behaviour, but to change the behaviour of their customer base. This is the kind of thing is part of the solution – changing the way we live our everyday lives.
The Durban Platform did deliver the promise of future action, a loosely worded commitment to do a bigger better deal further down the line…
It might not sound like a lot, and it completely ignores the urgency of the situation we are in, but there were some watching the talks who feared that the whole process could collapse. And that would have truly spelt disaster – for the UN process, for multilateralism, for the poorest countries and our global future.
Bristol’s Tidal Energy Growth Continues
by Paul Rainger
01 December 2011
Bristol City Council, in partnership with Regen South West, the south west of England’s renewable energy body, have launched a new Tidal Energy Forum at Bristol Port Company’s offices at Avonmouth, to further enhance Bristol’s position as a UK centre for tidal energy research and technology development.
“Bristol has a growing international reputation as a base for the renewable energy sector, attracting companies such as Vestas and LICenergy over the last year” says Bristol City Council Leader Barbara Janke. “We have the expertise, the natural resources and the ambitions to make Bristol and the South West the hub for offshore renewable energy in the UK.”
Merlin Hyman, Chief Executive of RegenSW commented: “Renewable energy is one of the fastest growing sectors of the economy creating huge opportunities for business. This new partnership will enable us to work with Bristol City Council on our mission to support pioneering renewable energy projects with thriving local supply chains.”
As well as hearing about the huge potential energy resources which could be harnessed in the Bristol channel, industry delegates heard presentations from leading technology developers and industry experts including; Tidal Energy Limited, Pulse Tidal, Marine Current Turbines, Parsons Brinkerhoff, Bristol University and Garrad Hassan. Highlights included the very exciting plans outlined by Martin Murphy, MD of Tidal Energy Limited, to deploy a 1.2 MW demonstration tidal turbine at a high energy site in Ramsey Sound, and the equally ambitions plans to deploy Pulse Tidal’s latest technology at a test site off North Devon.
Overall the forum concluded that while Bristol is already recognised as a centre for technology development, more could be done to promote the commercialisation of the industry. The call for action included support for collaborative research, identifying demonstration and early deployment sites for tidal technologies and crucially working together with other regional partners in Wales, Cornwall and across the South West.
The forum was the first in a programme of activities designed to raise Bristol’s profile in the booming offshore renewable energy sector.
Carlsberg don’t do carbon reduction guides for SMEs, but if they did….
by Paul Rainger
11 November 2011
Bristol’s West of England Carbon Challenge have produced a Carbon Starter Pack step by step guide for businesses that want to cut their company’s carbon footprint, but don’t know where to start.
We at Forum for the Future think it’s one of the best we’ve seen…. probably the best in the world?
The West of England Carbon Challenge have drawn on the knowledge and experience of their 100 member businesses to produce this handy “how to” guide.
You can download their Starter Pack guide here.
The Pack takes you step by step through the process of setting a target (a collective 10% reduction by 2013 for West of England Carbon Challenge members) to implementing those all important changes. It also contains loads of great tips and links to resources (both general and industry specific) that businesses can take advantage of.
Using this Pack, once you have a handle on your energy data and you have identified the areas where you can make improvements, you can put your plan into action. Whether you are looking for immediate energy cost savings, assistance or more long term solutions, this new West of England Carbon Challenge guide for business can help you.
Cooking Oil Power Sorted
by Paul Rainger
05 October 2011
South Gloucestershire residents, in the north of the UK’s Bristol city-region, can now recycle their waste cooking oil, helping to supply safe, clean, renewable electricity to the National Grid.
Across the UK, taxpayers foot an annual bill of around £15 million for cleaning up drains and watercourses damaged by household cooking oil that is often poured down sinks. YouGov research found that the most common way to dispose of oil is down the drain, causing Water companies to spend around £15m per annum clearing up 170,000 tonnes of used cooking oil put down the drain.
But now in South Gloucestershire all waste cooking oil can be recycled at four special “SORT IT!” centres in Yate, Thornbury, Mangotsfield and Stoke Gifford to be converted to clean electricity by green energy firm Living Fuels.
Normal biodiesel needs relatively high chemical and energy inputs, but Living Fuels use natural settling and filtering processes to produce a more sustainable bioliquid that is the first to have been granted ‘end of waste’ status by the Environment Agency.
South Gloucestershire Councillor, James Hunt, executive member for communities says of the scheme: “Many residents have been in touch with us to ask for a way to make good use of their used cooking oil, so I am delighted that this initiative, working with Living Fuels and our recycling contractor SITA UK, is now in place for the benefit of residents.”
Rob Murphy, Operations Director of Living Fuels adds: “Just one litre of used cooking oil that we collect generates enough renewable electricity through our chemical-free processing to make 240 cups of tea. Since we started out three years ago, we have collected enough waste oil to power 5,000 UK homes for a year. But we can still do much, much more so I’m delighted that environmentally conscious residents in South Gloucestershire can now recycle their used cooking oil easily and help the fight against dangerous climate change”.
The four South Gloucestershire waste cooking oil “SORT IT!” centres have been installed at:
• Stoke Gifford - Station Road, Little Stoke, BS34 6HP
• Mangotsfield - Carsons Road, BS16 9LL
• Thornbury - Short Way, Thornbury Industrial Estate, BS35 3UT
• Yate - Collett Way, BS37 5NL
How to cut your environmental impact while growing your business
by Paul Rainger
26 September 2011
Many old fashioned business leaders seem scared of making a commitment to reducing their environmental impact while their business is growing. They see the two goals as contradictory. But increasingly pioneering businesses are proving that this is simply wrong.
One such pioneering business leader, the co-founder of Commercial Group Simone Hindmarch-Bye, is speaking to businesses in Bristol this week at a West of England Carbon Challenge and Bristol Green Capital joint event. Simone will telling her success story of how to embed green practice into your company, reducing carbon emissions while growing the business.
Commercial Group is a Cheltenham based firm who provide business services. The company maintains strong ethical values and is considered a leading example in the use of environmentally sound business practice. The business grew by 25% last year, while reducing its environmental impact and carbon emissions by 15%. The firm has won a number of accolades for its environmental leadership in recent years, including highest newcomer in the Sunday Times Green List 2011.
So what have Commercial done to be regarded as such a sustainability pioneer?
- Become CarbonNeutral by embarking on their own Carbon Reduction programme and offsetting any remaining emissions by investing in gold standard projects.
- Introduced sustainable biodiesel and an award winning Dynamic Routing System that has enabled them to reduce carbon emissions from vans by over 78%.
- Introduced a waste reduction programme that focuses on reuse and so has reduced waste to landfill by 92%.
- Launched its Green Ambassadors Scheme, which encourages staff and supports them to become more environmentally responsible at home.
- Hosts an annual CSR day for a platform for sharing environmental concerns.
- Works with customers and suppliers on over 250 projects to help them reduce their environmental impact.
- Made improvements on the building fabric of its Head Office in Cheltenham, including working with a UK lighting supplier to develop active lighting that reduces electricity consumption by over 78%.
- Implemented an environmental management system and become ISO 14001 certified to encourage continual improvement.
Like many of the success stories seen within Bristol’s West of England Carbon Challenge members, Commercial Group has triumphed by emphasising a key element in sustainable business practice – staff engagement. Simone will talk about the Group’s Green Angels programme, which maintains enthusiasm and momentum by harnessing the energy of the workforce. The Green Angels are a small group of staff from different parts of the business with different levels of seniority who work together for a short period of time on a project. They are tasked to deliver two things – communication and business transformation and aim to get everyone actively involved by fulfilling the company’s 10 commitments:
Be carbon positive
Report openly
Reduce carbon significantly
Reduce waste to landfill significantly
Help customers reduce their footprint
Reduce the footprint of our supply chain
Help our local communities
Care for those less fortunate
Look after one another
Influence the big picture
The Green Angels programme is a model dedicated to transforming the way that business is carried out so that it is responsible, innovative, sustainable and fun. Commercial Group is keen that the Green Angels concept be shared and encourages others to take it up, hopefully transforming society to make a more sustainable world. Check out the Green Angels in action!
To hear Simone talk about Commercial Group’s successes and how they could be applicable to your business come along to the event which will be held at At-Bristol on the 28th of September from 4-6.30pm. To sign up, register here.
Keeping Bristol firms at the forefront of the green economy
by Simon Billing
12 August 2011
The Bristol Evening Post featured Forum for the Future on its business pages this week, with a look at our West of England Carbon Challenge, which is now engaging one fifth of the total workforce across the Bristol city-region.
The Carbon Challenge is saving local firms money, as they improve their energy efficiency and cut carbon, and forms part of Bristol’s wider Green Capital Pledge for businesses at the forefront of the green economy.
Two of the new Carbon Challenge members have written recently about their experiences engaging their staff and cutting their carbon.
You can read how Mott MacDonald have started by engaging their workforce here.
And you can read what Bristol Arts venue, Spike Island, have done to cut 10% off their carbon footprint over the last year here.
You can read the full Bristol Evening Post article below.
Forum for the Future's West of England Carbon Challenge featured in the business pages of the Bristol Evening Post on 10th August 2011.
Top Tips from Energy Experts
by Maddie Goodey
29 June 2011
Businesses in the West of England Carbon Challenge came together in June to quiz energy experts (from Business Link, the Carbon Trust and Encore Electrical) on the key issues of Staff Engagement, Lighting and Voltage Optimisation.
Here’s their top tips for cutting energy use:
The event went on to produce a range of top tips on Staff Engagement, Lighting and Voltage Optimisation, put into a short ten page guide by Forum for the Future to help businesses getting started on energy efficiency which you can download for free here.
Industry in the face of future resource scarcity
by Paul Rainger
18 May 2011
The Bristol based Schumacher Institute is spearheading European research into the impacts on industry and business of future resource scarcity. The CONVERGE research project includes a series of Rethinking Globalisation seminars.
The first seminar launching this series will be on May 25th in Bristol (13:00 – 16:00) with a keynote session from Harald Sverdrup - professor of Chemical engineering at Lund University in Sweden - on the latest research into resource burn-off rates, and how they may affect industry in Europe.
The seminar will look at how some resources may be substituted and look at some examples of companies who have dealt with changes to their access to resources. The seminar will end with a discussion session on the impacts this could have on industry here in Bristol in the future and on opportunities for partnership and further research.
Schumacher hope this seminar will start a Bristol-wide conversation on the impacts of resource scarcity on our city through the lens of convergence (equity within planetary limits) with a focus on using systems science to explore potential for future proofing the vitality of industry in this city-region.
The CONVERGE project is an interdisciplinary research project funded by the European Union, that recognises that resources are not equally distributed, and that the annual draw-down of many resources exceeds the capacity of the planet to supply them. The project is exploring the concept of equity in the light of biological planetary limits – with regards to the various sustainability challenges and positive sustainability initiatives the world is witnessing.
Space at the launch Bristol seminar is limited so please email julia@schumacherinstitute.org.uk to reserve a free place.
Cut carbon, or lose work, businesses warned
by Thomas Ashfold
04 March 2011
Forward thinking businesses in the South West are in prime position to gain a slice of BT’s £12 billion annual spend.
Telecoms giant BT launched a demanding new procurement policy this week that will require all suppliers to produce a formal climate change policy, report on their annual greenhouse gas emissions, and demonstrate ‘challenging’ emission reduction targets.
As pioneers in carbon footprinting, nearly 100 businesses in the West of England Carbon Challenge, the first regional initiative of its kind, are well placed to grab a slice of BT’s £12 billion annual procurement contracts.
The scheme founded by leading sustainable development NGO Forum for the Future includes leading businesses from Atkins to Burges Salmon through to Wessex Water.
Carbon Challenge members commit to measuring their emissions and to annual reductions in line with government targets, in what can best be described as a carbon fitness club. Organisations receive support to measure and manage their CO2 emissions, including the free use of a web based environmental performance tool.
Simon Billing, Sustainability Advisor at Forum for the Future, says:
“In making this announcement, BT joins other corporate heavyweights like M&S in engaging with its suppliers to reduce carbon emissions. It demonstrates that an environmental policy alone is not good enough anymore and that being serious about measuring CO2 emissions and setting stretching carbon reduction targets are fast becoming norm for businesses looking to supply the big players. Luckily, for those organisations who have already started out on this journey, they will be well prepared for future demands. If you haven’t started yet, there has never been a better time to get to grips with your carbon footprint and join other local businesses in the West of England Carbon Challenge.”
Promoting Success in Cutting Carbon
by Laurence Copleston
23 February 2011
Are you working hard at reducing your environmental impact as an organisation? Have you thought about how to communicate your success and stand out from the crowd?
Representatives of Benchmark Software, Bristol Zoo and Avon & Wiltshire Mental Health Trust (NHS) pitched their challenges around promoting successes in carbon reduction to a panel of leading communications experts in the city.
The panel included Ed Gillespie (Futerra), Leander Clarke (Bray Leino) and Matt Golding (Team Rubber), and was chaired by Paul Appleby of Bristol Media.
So what are the stories so far?
These organisations introduced the background to their own carbon reduction measures, and it was then followed by a panel-led discussion on recommendations (THINK).
Benchmark Software:
1) They are developing sustainability software for clients to report emissions data and sustainability activities, i.e. carbon accounting;
2) One of the first SME’s in the country to be awarded the Carbon Trust Standard;
3) Seeking best practice in promoting energy efficiency and carbon accounting to its clients.
THINK:
- In 5-10 years time, carbon reduction will be legislative and energy-cost driven, energy prices are not going to go down;
- Clients can gain competitive advantage;
- Focus on ‘loss over gain’ i.e. the immediate energy waste, rather than efficiency gains.
Bristol Zoo:
1) The zoo is benchmarked as a tourist attraction, which means it faces direct competition from other tourist venues for environmental awards, e.g. hotels, who have a greater ability to reduce their energy consumption;
2) They are an educational charity, but are not focused on changing customer behaviour;
3) They are achieving a great deal, e.g. ISO 14001, biomass energy generation etc.
THINK:
- Why do you want to communicate it?
- Align what you deliver with how you behave; set out a vision;
- You need to stand out from the crowd (everyone is claiming green credentials).
Avon & Wiltshire Mental Health Trust (NHS):
1) The trust has established a network of smart cars and electric bikes for the use of staff;
2) Now looking to establish a social business model, and expand the approach across the city in the public sector.
THINK:
- Focus on the benefits to the audience, i.e. access, efficiency and cost savings;
- Think about your immediate audience and your wider audience;
- Work to self-interest: ensure that the business model is going to work.
Following a discussion, the panel indentified 3 questions to keep in mind when communicating your green message:
Don’t forget – 3 things to leave with:
1) Who’s your audience? And what are the benefits to them?
2) What do you want to gain? If it’s just for fame, is the effort worth it?
3) Who says you are the best? Rather than self-proclaiming it, get someone else to say it!
West of England Carbon Challenge
The West of England Carbon Challenge supports organisations in the region to reduce their emissions in line with national targets.Mayday Pledge
The West of England Carbon Challenge also provides local support for people signed up to the Prince's MayDay pledge with Business in the Community (BITC).Centre for Sustainable Energy
The Centre for Sustainable Energy (CSE) helps people and organisations from the public, private and voluntary sectors meet the twin challenges of rising energy costs and climate change.