/green

water fountains

Wed, 11 Jun 2008 14:09:01 +0000

Heard on the radio the other day that London Underground are going to install water fountains on there stations to provide free tap water to thirsty commuters and travellers. Sounds a great idea to me, especially if you'll be able to fill your own water bottles from them. So well done Transport for London. Just need to roll that out for every train, bus station, airport an shopping centre in the UK and we'll not doubt chip away at our shared carbon footprint, as well as reducing some litter to.

water, water everywhere?

Wed, 07 May 2008 06:51:46 +0000

I got an email out of the blue the other day from a guy I used to surf with at Uni. Anyway turns out his wife runs a bottled water business, but one with a big difference. It's called Frank Water ( www.frankwater.com ) and essentially donates all its profits to providing drinking water for developing countries. You'll have probably heard the adverts that Volvic (the French mineral water guys) have been running about their water for African water campaign. I'd like to think that it's the Frank Water guys who've kicked the Volvic guys into action, although they only promise 10 litres of water for Africa for every litre purchased, whereas the Frank Water guys provide 200 litres for every one litre purchased. This seems a very interesting model, where we the "haves" can indulge ourselves with the likes of bottled water and do something constructive for the so many "have nots" around the globe. It will be interesting to see if this spurs any of the other water brands into similar action. Perhaps in these times of credit squeeze and tightening family budgets bottled water will be perceived as an unnecessary luxury and people will just revert to the tap and a reusable water bottle you can buy from ay sports shop for £2 or so.

Didn't water used to come in bottles?

Thu, 17 Apr 2008 07:16:12 +0000

Will (King) was telling me yesterday about a dinner he had up in town earlier this week (at some cool eatery no doubt). He's a regular there and said how he's noticed the demise of bottled water on the tables, so much so that when he was there earlier this week there wasn't a single bottle of water in sight, just glasses of tap water. Maybe restaurants should start calling it "eau de robinet" (French for tap water), to make it sound a little more sophisticated. So what's brought about this change, is it everyone's realised that £4.50 for a £0.80 bottle of water is just crazy, especially in these times of credit crisis. Or is that people are seeing that sometimes bottled water just doesn't make sense. Well let's hope so. Certainly when I was young bottled water was something you drunk when abroad, as the foreign tap water just couldn't be trusted. Whereas back home or tap water was second to none. I still drink tap water, although I must confess I have had an inline filter fitted (it stops the kettle scaling up honest!). However, I did still have a penchant for carbonated water (mixed with Apple juice, very refreshing) and so did have 'bottled water' lurking in my fridge. Anyway, I'm pleased to say those days are now over as I've ordered myself a soda siphon from John Lewis (who have a huge range of them). When I was a kid and used to go and stay with my grandparents, my granddad used to have one and as a special treat I got to use a whole cylinder of gas up during my visit, which at the time was fantastic as it certainly made orange squash a lot more exciting. So I'm looking forward to it arriving, albeit with a twist of nostalgia.

Friends of the Earth

Thu, 13 Mar 2008 07:58:45 +0000

I signed up at the friends of the Earth Website last year http://www.foe.co.uk/ for their daily tips. These are sent through from Rita (who I'd like to think is a real person). My reasons for signing up were two fold; 1) as I hoped to learn something and 2) as I was intrigued on what they'd send through as producing that volume of tips can't be an easy task. As I've only been signed up a few months I don't know if the tips eventually repeat or not. Anyway, so far I've learnt a thing or two, which is no bad thing. My two recent highlights were about keeping the coil on the back of your fridge clean as this helps it be much more efficient. I've never before (probably like you) really looked at the back of my fridge, but when I did it was somewhat dusty. Needless to say it isn't now and I'll try and keep it that way (obviously without pulling it out to clean on a weekly basis, but certainly a few times a year). The second was about milk versus organic milk, which again I found illuminating. "Buy organic milk A litre of milk takes over three times as much energy to produce than a litre of organic milk. Much of this extra energy is used in the production of fertiliser. So next time you're at the shops, opt for organic. Best Wishes, Rita @ Friends of the Earth" Obviously they are going to put their FOE twist on the info they send through, but as we're all reasonably intelligent people we can probably sort the wheat from the chaff. So why not sign up.

Planning for a windy day

Mon, 10 Mar 2008 08:40:14 +0000

It was certainly windy last night and this morning in my neck of the woods. Monday also happens to be our recycling collection day, so most people dutifully put their boxes out on the street the night before. Our local council supplies open boxes (i.e. no lids), which obviously don't stop the contents (especially lightweight items like empty plastic bottles) from blowing all over the streets, which is just what had happened this morning. I'm expect in the short term that retro fitting lids onto the boxes would be cost prohibitive, so in the meantime it relies on householders to sort their own solution, which given the time it took for people to take recycling more seriously won't be fast in coming. To me this indicative of poor planning at a council level, exacerbated due to the need to get a solution in place very quickly, no doubt to meet the demands of central government policy at the time, which in turn was probably driven by European targets. It was on the same journey to work this morning listening to Radio 4 (I find listening to politicians getting some verbal abuse for avoiding the question etc. raises my spirits on the journey into work). Lord Turner (pic below) was discussing the climate report he's pulling together (for Dec? I think) and the fact that building coal fired power stations maybe ok, as we can retro fit carbon capture technology when it's a) proven at scale and b) proven we want to afford it. No doubt retro fitting to existing power plants will by that time probably cost more than to build a new plant. Just goes to show that doing some proper planning from the 'get go' is probably is cheaper in the long run and gets you where you want to be first time around (maybe 2nd time, but certainly not 5th or 6th). So today I'll try and practice what I preach and ensure we get our planning into order. Lord Turner

Plastic is Fantastic !?

Fri, 07 Mar 2008 12:13:30 +0000

I received my climbing mag in the post yesterday and saw it had been wrapped in Oxidegradable plastic, which to be honest is not something I'd heard of. Gave it a quick Google and got nothing, but on closer inspection there's a website in the logo that's just legible (see link below). It's got an alarming number to represent the number of bags we've consumed globally this year. The number increases very quickly as you watch it, which is quite sobering to look at and makes me feel quite pleased with my New Years resolution to try and avoid carrier bags at all costs and try to only use the reusable ones. Apparently this plastic can be recycled or land filled and will biodegrade harmlessly within 90 days or up to 6 years depending on the grade you use. I guess there's a cost issue as to why it's not being used more, especially for food packaging, which is so hard to recycle (my local council doesn't like the stuff). Sadly the little logo I saw was printed not on the plastic, but on a sheet of paper inside (with my address on etc.), which didn't seem to be recycled or made from a renewable source, so some room for improvement, but still a step in a positive direction. http://www.degradable.net/

Water Footprint

Tue, 19 Feb 2008 08:28:41 +0000

We've all heard of a carbon footprint, but if you think about it many commodities could have a 'water footprint' assigned to them, i.e. the amount of fresh water required to produce something. With water shortages in many parts of the world, even here in the UK, this poster made me stop and think. You can order a copy for yourself here.

Recycle it or burn it

Thu, 11 Oct 2007 07:52:03 +0000

When pulling my wheelie bin out to the front of my house earlier this week it occurred to me how light it was and in fact how light it always is these days. So much so it almost seems worth opting out of the weekly collections to let it fill up a bit more so it’s worth the council collecting it. Especially as it doesn’t seem to get that smelly (as we compost most stuff and have a waste disposal unit or any cooked food waste and no nappies to deal with yet) even in Summer or should a I say that mildly warm and damp period we’ve just had where there should have a been a summer.

Anyhow I looked up and down the street at all the wheelie bins and the plastic recycling boxes. Our council provides us with two; one for paper/cardboard and one for plastic bottles, metals cans and glass. I’ve always wondered how they deal with all the broken glass when they sort it (as it all seems to get collected in a compactor lorry so must get crushed). When you look at all the boxes in just one street it looks like a lot of recycling (which must be good), but also an awful lot of sorting and once sorted it must have to be shipped to different plants for processing, which must mean a lot of lorry miles, a lot of carbon fuel burnt and a lot of CO² produced.

I mentioned this to one of our plastic bottle suppliers who told me he’d been to visit a state of the art incinerator on the Isle of Man, where they clean burn all their rubbish as opposed to recycling it. So this lead to a Google search and the Sita EfW (Energy from Waste) website.

It’s worth a quick read as it’s pretty interesting and certainly worthy of a part in the larger debate. It does appear to create CO² emissions, but I haven’t as yet worked out of it creates more CO² than gas fired generation per say, or more than that generated moving recycled stuff around the UK (and/or globe!).

It looks pretty funky, which is I’m sure very relevant if it forms part of the view from your house, given the general not in my backyard view on these sorts of things.

brew your own

Wed, 26 Sep 2007 09:01:32 +0000

Apparently the government (in their infinite generosity) are allowing us to avoid duty on diesel if you make our own biodiesel. You can make up to 2500 litres a year for personal use (about 20K miles worth in your average diesel car). You can get a recipes here. The website says "Anybody can make biodiesel. It's easy, you can make it in your kitchen -- and it's BETTER than the petro-diesel fuel the big oil companies sell you. Your diesel motor will run better and last longer on your home-made fuel, and it's much cleaner -- better for the environment and better for health." Sadly my vehicle (a VW) says NO biodiesel on the filler cap, so I won't be starting right away. I will however, be asking VW why not.

www.freecycle.org

Mon, 24 Sep 2007 09:22:05 +0000

Our head of design Simon told me aout this site. Seems like a really neat idea as I've got rid of stuff in the past that still worked, looked ok and just needed a home. Anyhow, I'll give it a go and see if it works or me. The slightly cynical part of me is suspicous that the stuff ends up on ebay aftwerwards, but I guess good luck to them if it does, better than landfilling it!

Dame Anita Roddick - The Queen of Green

Tue, 11 Sep 2007 06:55:22 +0000

Very, very sad to hear of the death of Dame Anita Roddick this morning at the age of 64. She was certainly one of, if not the green and ethical thinking pioneers of her day. A couple of years back I heard an interview with her on radio 4 where she was talking about the early days of her business. One comment she made that particularly stuck with me was "... when there is no money the creativity really flows..." . Something she really proved by building a business from virtually nothing in a sector that didn't previously exist in a truly commercial format, yet remaining true to her beliefs until the end.

The Corona physical

Fri, 31 Aug 2007 13:32:28 +0000

Strolling down memory lane again. To those a bit younger than I Corona is a Mexican beer. To me means lemonade, cream soda and Dandelion and Burdock and those crazy adverts with the talking bubbles working out in the gym. When I was a kid we used to collect discarded Corona bottles and take them back for the refunds that were on them. A simple system, but one that seemed to work i.e. you encourage people to recycle, you have to give them incentives. Still works in Europe, but much like the Milk float it's virtually gone from the UK. However, recycling is only going to work if its v easy to do, or there's something in it for someone (ideally the customer).

"Ernie he drove the fastest milkcart in the west"

Fri, 31 Aug 2007 08:19:27 +0000

If you're of a similar vintage to (or older) than me you'll remember how milk came in glass bottles in the early hours of the morning onboard a milk float (and probably Benny Hill's Ernie song, what a classic?!). I guess these guys were really ahead of their time, not just recycling the glass, but re-using it, delivering it on electric vehicles, along with many other household suppliers (yoghurt, OJ, spuds etc). Interesting that the bottles and floats are all but gone and we buy milk in single use plastic bottles and in relative terms it's cheaper than ever. Although essentially it's our council tax money that pays for the recycling collections to take the plastic milk bottles (but not the lids!!!) away for recycling, so the milk probably does cost more in the end.

water coolers

Wed, 15 Aug 2007 08:20:22 +0000

Our office manager Janey has just had a new water cooler installed. We've had a traditional one for years, the regular sort with the big plastic bottle on top. As with most businesses the well being of our team is important to us and we all know that drinking water is essential element of a healthy lifestyle. The water cooler really seemed to get people's water consumption up and fizzy pop and coffee consumption down, so it made sense. However, shipping great big bottles of water around the countryside in lorries did seem a bit wasteful to us (even though they reuse the bottles). Our new water cooler runs off mains water, it just treats and cools it with no need to truck bottles all over the countryside. I guess we could have just reverted to drinking from the tap, but those days I fear are long gone. Anyway, well done Janey

early adopters

Wed, 15 Aug 2007 07:28:04 +0000

I’d say King of Shaves was definitely an early adopter on the green front as our very first product (King of Shaves Original Shaving oil) ticked a lot of green boxes when compared to more traditional steel or aluminium canned products:

It uses much less packaging materials (by weight and volume)
It uses a lot less energy to produce.
The product itself comes primarily from a grown crop
This crop requires only limited processing into the finished product
The way it works means you only use a small amount of product each time, so you’re not washing a lot of product down the drain for someone else to deal with
It’s naturally derived and biodegradable
It’s small and lightweight so its transportation impact is minimal.

We launched this back in 1993 when green was far from the being the new black, but the thinking although more vogue today was just as relevant back then.

However, it's not yet a perfect solution and we are always reviewing the way we send it to market, how much packaging we use and what is / is not appropriate. Obviously there's always a tension between using the minimum packaging and getting something noticed on the shelves. Striking this balance is never that starightforward.