The Green Village News for the ‘Companies and Organisations’ Category
Thursday, October 1st, 2009
At the annual ‘celebrating staff success’ event held by Staffordshire University, a new category for this year’s event saw staff being presented with awards for sustainability. The ceremony, which is about recognising the achievements of employees in the University over the past 12 months, included two awards highlighting commitments by members of staff to sustainability within the University, both on-site and in the curriculum, and outside the workplace.
Chrissie Pinner, the Postal Services Manager at the Stoke Campus of the University received the ‘Beyond the Workplace’ award for her commitment to addressing the problem of domestic waste littering the streets in the area around the campus and in the roads and streets in Shelton. Her commitment to this in her own time has led to improvements in the surrounding area which are benefiting the whole local community by not only improving the environment by addressing waste collection problems but have also contributed to a healthier environment for local residents and students as a result.
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Tags: environmental issues, green award, professor, renewable energy, staffordshire university, sustainability awards
Posted in Companies and Organisations, Green Planet, Sustainable Development | 1 Comment
Saturday, September 26th, 2009
A report compiled by the Environment Agency has revealed that despite improvements in quality over the past 20 years, three quarters of the rivers in the UK are not up to new EU water quality standards. The report assesses the biological and chemical quality of the rivers and has surveyed 6000 rivers across England and Wales, identifying only five as ‘pristine’.
Officials are pleased with the progress made over the past 20 years, with continued improvements having a positive impact on wildlife living in and around the UK’s waterways. Some species were believed to be in terminal decline but these findings have proven that with more work and commitments to reduce pollution and improve water quality across the rivers of Great Britain, more wildlife can be attracted to the waterside and current numbers and species’ futures secured.
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Tags: biodiversity, chemical run-off, environment agency, EU, pollution, river quality, rivers, water, water quality, WWF
Posted in Companies and Organisations, Conservation and Wildlife, Environmental Impact, Green Planet | No Comments
Sunday, September 6th, 2009
An increase in commercial recycling scheme costs has forced Richmond Council’s largest client to find a cheaper alternative. After annual costs for recycling collections rocketed by twenty thousand pounds from £54k to £74k Richmond Riverside Estates felt they had little alternative considering the current economic climate other than to seek an alternative service from another provider.
Despite argument from a council cabinet minister that the costs for their recycling service are still cheaper than sending waste to landfill, one member of management at Richmond Riverside Estates, Malcolm Kealy, believes this could be the first of many companies switching to more cost effective recycling companies.
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Tags: council recycling scheme, recycling, richmond, richmond council, richmond riverside estates
Posted in Companies and Organisations, Environmental Politics, Green Planet, Recycling and Waste | No Comments
Saturday, September 5th, 2009
The electric car market is due to get another boost following an agreement between Japanese car manufacturer Mitsubishi, and French owned Peugeot. The new electric car, which will be based on the i-MieV built by Mitsubishi, will be sold to the European market and will be available under both Peugeot and Citroen brands.
The agreement, signed yesterday (4th September) in Paris by the CEO of Mitsubishi, Osamu Masuko, and the CEO of PSA Peugeot Citroen, Philippe Varin, is a significant step in demonstrating their partnership concerning the development of electric vehicles. The new electric car will add to the current portfolio of lower emission vehicles offered by Peugeot/Citroen, which will be further added to when their new hybrid diesel models are released in 2011.
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Tags: citroen, electric cars, EVs, hybrid technology, mitsubishi, peugeot, renewable energy, sustainable transport
Posted in Companies and Organisations, Ethical shopping, Green Living, Green Planet, Science and Technology, Transport and Travel | No Comments
Thursday, September 3rd, 2009
The Centre for Alternative Technology (CAT), based in Machynlleth, in Wales has pioneered a new way of delivering energy to local communities via the UK’s first micro-grid.
CAT has been working towards solutions for sustainability for the past 35 years and this micro-grid technology is the latest of their developments. The mirco-grid draws its power from renewable energy sources as they are available (i.e when the wind is blowing or the sun shining) or from the national grid when they are not.
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Tags: centre for alternative technology, energy distribution, micro-grid, national grid, renewable energy
Posted in Companies and Organisations, Energy and Resources, Green Planet, Science and Technology, Sustainable Development | No Comments
Monday, August 31st, 2009
A new study conducted by WRAP, Waste & Resources Action Programme, published on 28th August 2009, has identified that demand for waste wood will outstrip supply in the next few years. The report, ‘Wood Waste Market in the UK’, provides both a detailed analysis of how the situation with waste wood product availability is likely to develop over the coming years, and also looks at the origins of waste wood products.
WRAP’s research anticipates a 14% decrease in the amount of waste wood compared to before the recession, a figure which could take up to 5 years to return to pre-recession levels. Director of Market Development, Marcus Gover, advises that WRAP are keen to offer support to recycling and reprocessing businesses across the UK in light of the problems that this shortfall could cause.
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Tags: CHP plant, fossil fuels, landfill, recycling, waste wood, wood fired power station, WRAP
Posted in Companies and Organisations, Energy and Resources, Green Planet, Recycling and Waste | 1 Comment
Wednesday, August 19th, 2009
The NHS has the biggest carbon footprint of the whole UK public sector, emitting over 18 million tonnes of CO2 per year. In an effort to help reduce costs, save lives and help reduce the carbon emissions of the organisation, a handbook providing guidance to key decision-makers in the NHS has been issued along with a letter from the President of UK Faculty of Public Health, Professor Alan Maryon-Davis, the Director of the NHS Sustainable Development Unit, David Pencheon, the Chief Executive of the NHS, David Nicholson, and the Chief Executive of the NHS Confederation, Steve Barnett.
The handbook, ‘Sustaining a Healthy Future – Taking action on climate change (with a special focus on the NHS)’ outlines a number of motives for the health authority to put measures in place to reduce the huge levels of greenhouse gases emitted every year. As well as making a significant contribution towards the government’s targets for reduced levels of carbon emissions by 2020, the organisation is also facing up to their responsibility to act to prevent serious effects of climate change caused by global warming that would inevitably affect the world’s poorest nations with most impact.
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Tags: carbon emissions, carbon footprint, climate change, nhs
Posted in Companies and Organisations, Environmental Impact, Green Living, Green Planet, Health and Wellbeing | No Comments
Thursday, August 6th, 2009
Britain’s declining bee numbers have been cause for concern but the new beehive by Omlet could be the answer for boosting bee populations. The beehaus, backed by Natural England, is being dubbed as the urban beehive and has been designed to make it easy to keep bees in a garden or on a rooftop, helping ensure pollination of fruit and vegetables and providing up to 50 jars of honey over the summer.
Recently there have been concerns about the effects of poor weather, varroa mites and even pesticide use having detrimental effects on the bee populations of the UK, effects which are also being felt around the world. Bees are crucial for pollinating food crops and the honey market, and although more people are becoming aware of the downturn in numbers and taking action such as planting wildlife gardens with plants that attract bees such as rosemary and lavender, more still needs to be done to secure their future and the important role they play. The beehaus could be one answer to this, making urban beekeeping an option.
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Tags: bee hive, beehaus, beekeeping, bees, honey, natural england, omlet, pollination, urban beekeeping, varroa mite
Posted in Companies and Organisations, Conservation and Wildlife, Green Living, Green Planet, Grow Your Own, Self-Sufficiency | No Comments
Tuesday, August 4th, 2009
Last week the shocking news that the threat of an injunction against the Big Green Gathering 2009 forced directors to cancel the event 3 days before it was due to begin shocked the green community. All is not lost however, as ticket holders have a number of options available following the cancellation.
A number of other festivals that will be taking place during the summer and early in 2010 have come to the rescue and have agreed to accept tickets for the Big Green Gathering to enable people to still enjoy some summer festivities. Although all the details have not yet been finalised, they should be available within the next week with ticket swap options including the Family Yoga Camp and The Big Chill which starts on Thursday for a £20 upgrade; an event that is usually sold out before the event begins.
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Tags: big green gathering, big green gathering 2009, festival, green festival, mendip district council, tickets
Posted in Companies and Organisations, Events and Courses, Green Family, Green Leisure and Tourism, Green Living, Green Planet | 1 Comment
Tuesday, August 4th, 2009
Master Brewers, Stella Artois have teamed up with the Tree Council to fund traditional hedgelaying throughout the UK. Over the next two years, Stella Artois will market promotional multi-packs of lager and for each pack, will donate funds to grow and plant hedge saplings.
It is hoped that the scheme will replenish hedgerows up and down the country with the company pledging to provide up to 365,000 hedgerow saplings and more than 8,500 hedgerow trees. Both the Tree Council and the National Hedgelaying Society will be responsible for organising and laying the hedges and environmentalist and television star Ben Fogle will be the face of the campaign.
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Tags: alcohol, carbon footprint, hedgelaying, hedges, national hedgelaying society, stella artois, tree council, WRAP
Posted in Companies and Organisations, Crafts and Skills, Ethical shopping, Green Living, Green Planet, Recycling and Waste | No Comments
