Roger East

Something made me read it. I know most junk mail’s a shocking waste of time as well as paper, but when you’re pressed for time there’s something perversely luxurious about squandering a bit of it.

Burning bio

Launch of bioethanol in UK offers alternative road fuel option

Corporate carbon caution

Survey of businesses says carbon cutting could require coercion

Greenhouse gain

Industry/horticulture partnership puts waste steam and CO2 to use

Infrared green vision

Thermal survey spotlights energy action points for Birmingham

Priming the pump for microgen

UK government announces its latest funding scheme to encourage renewable energy

Slim City

Ben Willis walks into an urban war on obesity.

Boosting the bioenergy

UK and EU press action buttons on renewable heat and bio-oil

PV becomes a power player

Portuguese project takes solar into the big league

Degrees of separation

As universities go global, Polly Curtis and Roger East ask who gains.

Living down the carbon

Massive conversion aims for luxury lifestyle with zero emissions

Hearts of oak

Ancient woodland revival is placed at heart of forest policy for England

Fuel cell at the sluice

Cutting-edge power is harnessed to manage a Norfolk river’s water levels

Acton action

Apartment project seeks carbon neutrality via

Heed the Swede lead?

Scandinavians divided on nuclear future as Swedish plant closes

The changing face of Chinese energy

Wind farming boosted by global emissions-cutting fund and national renewables law

Masterclass - Twenty-four hour turnaround

Roger East on Jonathon Porritt’s 24-hour challenge to inspire change.

Learning joined-up

We’re going to need a civil service that’s

Chewing it over

Proposed gum tax epitomises challenge of how to change behaviour

Harvesting change

Farm earnings from new non-agricultural business are at record levels

Passengers hold the key

Busy motorways may keep clear lanes for cars carrying passengers

Five years on

What happens to projects that feature in Green Futures.

Supping with a long spoon

Should I stay or should I go? Tough ethical choices on constructive engagement.

Smart carb quota

Roger East explores the personal carbon rationing route to emissions control.

Blowing away the myths

Stand up for wind power. Roger East says why.

Five years on

What happens to projects that feature in Green Futures

Taking the Measure - A better way to score

Are we making progress?

Five years on

What happens to projects that feature in Green Futures

Exchange of Fire: Should CO2 go underground?

Should CO2 go underground? Paul Johnston and Andrew Chadwick don’t see eye to eye.

Where Mayors mean most

Polly Ghazi and Roger East pick out prime movers and city shapers around the world.

The countryside that serves us right

Roger East hears the hopes, fears and forecasts of a diverse panel.

Five years on

What happens to projects that feature in Green Futures?

Designed for life

How are we making products better by design? Martin Wright, Roger East and Hannah Bullock.

Just values

Searching questions on morals in the boardroom.

Sun, wind and fire

Winning community renewables across the globe.

Stirring up trouble?

Getting to the bottom of those hydrogen myths.

Power and the glory

The low-down on hydrogen gizmos and gadgets, and the basics behind the science.

Follow the leader

Roger East tells us where hydrogen’s happening first.

How green is my city?

A Green Futures survey of urban movers and shakers.

Slowly does it...

Roger East discovers the joys of slow living.

White papers and fighting talk

Oiling the wheels

Awards money helps green the grass roots - National Grid

Bigger fish to fry

The tuna test for sustainable fisheries - Sainsbury's

Faith in the City

Roger East gets the word from Brian Pearce on the scope for promoting sustainable finance under the London Principles.

Woolsworth

The future is a fleece: Roger East meets the woman turning sheep into warmth.

Sticking plaster or smoke signal

Making local food miles easier

Asset approach to ocean management

Leaner greener Aussie six-pack

Resizing the holiday footprint

Californian cachet for clean sports ute

Global ambition for sustainable plastic giant

What price intelligence on EU energy?

Shell out for big renewable stake

Giant step for earth observation?

Tracking trends on UK emissions

Historic first for Lambeth rebuild

Fishing in the ethical jobs pool

Energy review closes few doors

Congestion charge looms closer

Brand new chemistry set

Roger East looks at Sainsbury's strategy to cut out the chemicals - Sainsbury's

Stockholm seeks the sustainable city

Breeding boost for Robben Island penguin population

Mixed message on the ozone layer

Sanity fare

Sanity fare: bringing fair trade from the niche to the aisles - Sainsbury’s

Healthy building syndrome

Surrey’s healthy building syndrome - Canon

Emissions trading rises worldwide...and across the company

The future is a banana

A deal to save Caribbean banana farmers - Sainsburys

UK plc ‘missing out on green wave’

After California, the future should be smaller

Roger East looks at the possibilities of small scale power generation

Fair wind in the generation game

A powerful wind down the aisles - Sainsbury's

In favour of local flavour

local produce on the shelves - Sainsbury's

Can the South become climate-resilient?

From solar power and mobile phones to hydroponics and GPS, low-carbon technologies are transforming the economic prospects of people in the global South. Martin Wright asks whether low-income countries are on a fast track to low-carbon prosperity.

Soil sequestration hotspots mapped

When and where is it really smart to use farmland for energy crops? A UK research team is identifying the best UK locations for biomass crops.

EV batteries: zero to 80% in just 15 minutes

Fast-charge stations developed by the Tokyo Electric Power Company can boost an EV battery back up to 80% capacity from flat in just 15 minutes.

Electric car start-up applies for IPO

Tesla Motors has registered for a $100 initial public offering. A rare opportunity to bet on a car.

Europe's capitals warm up to EVs

Easy to use, easy to find infrastructure will be the key to success for electric cars. London and Amsterdam commit to the challenge.

New law orders green growth for South Korea

Over $3 billion in cleantech investment expected to follow South Korea's renewable portfolio standard

Ten to sign up for North Sea's supergrid

A new grid could unleash the power of offshore wind to meet Europe’s growing electricity demands. Thousands of miles of undersea cable will link farms with a combined capacity of over 68GW.

Downloading the sun in Suruacá

Internet access is improving education and healthcare in remote parts of Brazil, thanks to solar PV.

Hydro brings independence to remote farmers

In the deep south of Brazil, small-scale hydro plants are bringing robust, reliable supplies of power to farming communities.

Second life for EV batteries

The economics of electric vehicles (EV) has been strengthened by a battery re-use deal, as Nissan sells their lithium-ion batteries to Japanese trading company Sumitomo.

US invests in transformative technologies

Federal stimulus seeks out the green energies of tomorrow, boosting carbon capture and geothermal technologies.

New turbine design to take wind off the radar

The UK could add a further 5GW of wind power capacity if a new project succeeds in resolving one of the main objections to wind power: that turbines clutter up the radar.

Can aviation go green?

With the spotlight hovering over airline emissions, Roger East explores the possibilities of zero-emission aviation.

Biogas: from bad smells to big bucks

After years in the wilderness, biogas is set to play a major role in powering the future.

Up to £347 billion in untapped rural potential, says CRC

A new, holistic model of investment could help rural areas reap the fruits of a green economic revival, says the Commission for Rural Communities.

Intermittency “no obstacle to wind power success”

Wind farm developers everywhere will be heartened by three UK reports this summer addressing ‘intermittency’ – and assuring us that it’s much less of a problem than is sometimes claimed.

UK wind power industry set to boom

Britain’s offshore potential gets most of the attention paid to wind in the Government’s latest renewable energy strategy, in an attempt to get one gigawatt of new schemes up and running.

What to look forward to in the Low Carbon Transition

The UK has published details of its Low Carbon Transition Plan, setting a mandatory carbon budget to limit each Government department in their use of both carbon and cash.

Long-range solar flight planned

If efficiency savings and biofuels are the step-by-step path to greener aviation, the Solar Impulse project is a leap of faith. It’s “a paradox, almost a provocation”, in the words of its pilot, Swiss adventurer and round-the-world balloonist Betrand Piccard.

All UK homes to get smart meters by 2020

How best to replace the nation’s 48 million electricity and gas meters currently lurking in hallways and dusty cupboards with something more prominent in our daily lives? That’s what the Government’s smart metering is looking to answer, fulfilling a promise it made back in October 2008.

Airlines “want global cap and trade”

The aviation industry proposes a worldwide carbon emissions trading system in the approach to 2013, when aviation is to be included in the EU Emissions Trading Scheme.

Wind power “could provide total US electricity needs”

Federal renewables rules look set to drive fresh surge in wind power on- and offshore

US Interior Secretary Ken Salazar is decidedly bullish about the potential for wind power. His department’s latest assessment of the scope for oil, gas and renewables on the outer continental shelf reckons the potential in the wind off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts is more than enough to meet the whole country’s current electricity demand.

Bird-spotters convert to wind power

The new wind turbine at Rainham Marshes could have special significance in the story of UK renewables. It's nothing unusual in technical terms, nor in scale – it's just big enough to help power a visitor centre. The point is that it's a flagship visitor centre of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds. As such, it's symbolically signalling that bird protection and wind power don't belong in opposing camps.

First UK power plant captures carbon emissions

The UK’s second biggest coal-fired power station made headlines in May as the first in the country to start capturing its carbon dioxide emissions, putting ScottishPower at the forefront of a technology widely seen as crucial for the future of coal – and the climate.

Downturn spurs on green agenda

Governments around the world have been spurred on by the downturn to do more, not less, to combat climate change. That’s the powerful conclusion for the ‘green economy’ agenda which emerges from a report by specialist asset managers at Deutsche Bank (DB).

Green lite budget for UK

The UK's most critical – and controversial – budget of recent times got a mixed reception for its green merits and shortcomings.

UK seas ideal for massive wind power expansion

There’s plenty of room for wind power offshore. Massive expansion, essential if the UK is to meet its renewable energy goals for 2020, should not bhe scuppered by environmental objections. That's the headline message from a major study of the marine environment recently put out for public consultation by the Department of Energy and Climate Change.

Swedes do it greener

New EU scheme chooses its Green Capital cities for 2010 and 2011

If you want to see the best that Europe has to offer in sustainable urban living, head for Stockholm. The European Union has just chosen the Swedish capital to be its exemplar city for 2010, and first holder of the title of European Green Capital.

UK action lags far behind US, China, Korea

The stormy passage through the US Congress of the Obama administration’s American Recovery and Reinvestment Act hogged most of the ‘green stimulus’ headlines in the Western media for weeks.

Sparking a green revolution

San Francisco bids for ‘electric car capital’ with recharging infrastructure

Convulsions among the dinosaurs of the motor industry are so severe that it’s hard to pick likely survivors, let alone winners. But R&D on innovative lower-carbon models looks like money well spent.

Feed-in gets in on the Act

UK adopts incentive pricing to encourage microgen

Millions of UK homes could become green mini power stations, rather than emissions-heavy drains on the grid.

Climate initiatives set to disappoint?

Mixed signals from London, Brussels, Poznan

Welcome, to the statute book, the UK Climate Change Act. No major country has a more ambitious target – an 80% reduction in carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 compared with 1990.

Electric roll out

Battery powered cars to hit the streets

The UK government is putting “up to £10 million” into a competition to get “up to 100” new electric cars out there around the country.

What does cheap oil mean for renewables?

Inside views from the green energy sector on oil price volatility

Oil up at nearly $150 a barrel? Just half a year ago that was the new reality. It surely spelled death for the gas-guzzler – and a place in the sun for alternative energy supplies.

No turning back

Heritage organisations look to lower carbon future

Our historic buildings need not be unsustainable. What’s more, we can still learn a lot from their many examples of innovative technology, says a new report.

Landmark for straw

Two-storey semi a first for UK

At Ralegh’s Cross in Somerset, they’re building a two-storey semi out of straw bale – hitting the spot both economically and environmentally

Cities of light

As Forum for the Future unveils its latest Sustainable Cities Index, Roger East asks just what makes a city sustainable – and how do we begin to achieve it in the here and now?

Best of a bad lot?

Scorecard ranks G8 industrialised countries on emissions performance and policy

The UK comes out best, and Canada and the US rank even worse than Russia, in an assessment of how and what they are actually doing to limit their climate change impact.

Editorial

Pulling out of Cambridge station, the London train passes a building site. It’s all quiet on that front – the time of the morning, or the state of the housing market?

Green house effect

Will new homes meet the zero-carbon test by 2016? Terry Slavin and Roger East investigate.

Lending light

‘Library’ scheme lets public get real feel of low-energy bulbs

People do still harbour suspicions about compact fluorescent lightbulbs. Must they be an ugly shape – or too cumbersome, their glow too dim, their light too cold? Will they fit their fittings – and work with their dimmer switches?

Victorian home of the future

Camden showcases ‘heritage-friendly’ low-carbon refurb

Yes, it is possible – to cut the climate change impact of a typical 150-year-old English home dramatically without ruining its character.

Hybrids by retro-fit

UK company's makeover approach could "convert conventional cars"

Can your current car boast the green credentials – and fuel economy – of a fuel/electric hybrid? If not, there may be a solution on the horizon, if a new conversion system lives up to its promise.

Coffin makers carry it off

Awards fete UK's greenest companies

Another sign of the interest in ‘green exemplars’ – the new Sunday Times Best Green Companies awards.

The national distrust

Environmental messaging bedevilled by 'greenwash'

“Only 10% of US and UK consumers trust green messages from businesses”. That was a year ago – and it’s getting worse...

Seagen tidecatcher makes its debut

Largest tidal stream power device in the world ready to launch

The innovative tide-harnessing turbine known as SeaGen is securely in place, linked up to the grid, and almost ready to start turning the rapid ebbs and flows of Northern Ireland’s Strangford Lough into green electricity.

Tomorrow's house today

Volume housebuilder showcases the zero carbon home

The ‘zero carbon home’ has become concrete reality. The Barratt Green House is the first new home built by a mainstream housebuilder which measures up to the strict sustainability criteria they’ll all have to meet by 2016.

Editorial

There aren’t many subjects on which I prefer Harry S Truman’s words to those of Oscar Wilde. But the former US president’s prosaic definitions – “a pessimist is one who makes difficulties of his opportunities, while an optimist makes opportunities of his difficulties” seem more helpful in these crunch times than the poet’s cry, “the basis of optimism is pure terror”.

Do try this at home

Raising the banner for lower carbon by example

The governing principle

Supportive sounds from Caroline Flint – so what is the government’s stance so far?

Getting there

Are we setting the right standards for existing homes – and how do we know if they can measure up?

Wind among the Jewels

Crown Estate reaches Round Three

Although Shell shocked the renewables industry by pulling out of the massive London Array project, a big future still beckons for offshore wind in the UK. The Crown Estate (which owns the seabed within UK territorial waters) has now launched Round Three of its site-leasing programme.

Editorial

The issue is rising up the nation’s consciousness. Some of the major players have announced pioneering initiatives. The Budget promises imminent government action. And personally, I’m glad to say, I rank close to the angels on this one. I refer, of course, to the challenge of combating… free plastic carrier bags.

Gallic twists on tomorrow’s transport

Newsreel

The biggest green stories in government - in bite-sized chunks

Two wheels better

Heartening signs for cyclists and pedestrians

Hot on the heels of Sustrans’s success in winning
£50 million of lottery money for its Connect2 cyclepaths scheme comes the announcement of a £140 million three-year plan at the Department for Transport to boost cycle training for children, connect more schools to the National Cycle Network, and help towns run cycling pilot projects.

Editorial

If you are reading this at work, imbued with fresh resolve for meeting the goals and challenges that the new year brings, be warned: this message comes to you from the other side.

Changing gear in China

When the motoring world chooses China for its international events, it’s a clear sign that this is the market that matters to them most. Encouraging, then, that Shanghai got to host last November’s Challenge Bibendum.

Petit point

New French point-of-sale taxes favour smaller, cleaner cars

France’s new ‘no-nonsense’ Sarkozy regime is rewarding low-carbon virtue in the country’s car showrooms, with a refreshingly direct approach to boosting the sale of lower emission models.

Critical report

UN scientists settle the argument on climate change

The evidence is “unequivocal”. It’s mostly
our fault, the situation is getting worse, and
the consequences are potentially devastating. There is still a lot we can do to stop climate change getting out of hand, but that means reversing the upward trend in greenhouse gas emissions within a decade or so.

Turbine-driven telecoms

BT builds up its own green power

Showing a lead to business, BT is investing in zero carbon electricity generation – with plans to put a hefty £250 million into its own suite of wind farms. The company plans to have 125 up and running by 2016, providing a quarter of its electricity needs.

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