Lifestyle Green 2008

After a massive success with their first environmental focused exhibition at the Kings Hall in Belfast in September 2007, LifeStyleGreen will be back for their second environmental show on Saturday and Sunday the 13th and 14th September 2008 at Castle Espie, Comber, County Down. Exhibition space is limited, and already some big local brands have signed up, some returning for the second year. Exhibition space is available from £20/m2, for the two day event.

I Bought a New Bike

After indecisiveness over buying a new bike for a while, and looking on the past indiscretions of David Cameron as seen in last week's Daily Mirror, I have eventually splashed out £750 on a brand new zero emission bike. I do admit this was after checking alot of things, firstly after the news of DC was that of bikes and the law, if DC can't stay legal on a bike, then how could I manage. On my searches I found this great article by bikes for all, outlining Cycling and the Law.


After I reassured myself that I wasn't going to be convicted of "furious cycling" anytime soon, my next issue was which bike to buy, if you are overcome and confused by choice, the bicycle market is full of many choices, but there is lots of information out there on what to choose. I decided on a BeOne WoodBumble Plus 2006, at £750, down from the original RRP of £1600, when the bike was "in season", and purchased on impulse today at 10am

Before buying you should check if your employer operates the Bike to Work Scheme, as part of the ‘Green Transport Plan’ introduced by the UK government. This scheme allows an employee to save income tax, national insurance and VAT up to 50% on the cost of a new bicycle to be used for commuting. My employer didn't have this scheme implemented and I didn't want to wait for them to, so I purchased at full price immediately.

Lastly was insurance, as I may be riding the bike to work and leaving it unattended, in an undesirable location, I wanted to make sure I could have the bike covered. Cycle Guard offer an insurance service throughout the UK. My bike would be covered for an annual fee of £69. Make sure you check the coverage and approved lock list, to ensure your bike is fully covered at all times.

I am eagerly awaiting my new bike to hit the road quite literally and try out cycling again.

How Much are You Paying for Electricity or Gas?

New research out yesterday revealed that 80% of people do not know how much they are paying for their electricity or gas. In addition to this the survey of more than 1200 people across the UK contacted by telephone in January 2008 by Drummond Madell, the majority believed that energy bills were the most difficult to understand.

The findings suggest that smart meters, may be able to reduce our energy usage and reduce CO2 emissions. Basic visual displays will be available free on request from energy suppliers from April.

Smart meters have been trialled in countries ranging from Sweden to the US but are not widely available in the UK yet. These trials have shown that householders who use smart meters can reduce their energy bills by between five and 10 per cent.

Based on savings of five per cent the Energy Saving Trust estimates that if everyone in the UK switched to smart meters British householders could save £1.2bn a year and the equivalent of 7.4 million tonnes of CO2.

"While the Energy White Paper outlined the need for energy suppliers to make better displays available to households free of charge on request, we would like to see the Government act more boldly and offer the support necessary to enable smart meters to be rolled out across the UK.

Smart meters are better than clip-ons because they offer two-way connectivity with the energy supplier - not only for electricity but also gas too; this means that the energy cost displayed would exactly match what you owed the energy supplier. You would also know the carbon cost of what you are doing.

In addition, smart meters offer the opportunity to track usage over a set period of time, meaning householders could identify when consumption is highest and therefore where energy savings are possible. And the energy supplier would also be able to see this information and offer solutions."

Philip Sellwood, Chief Executive, Energy Saving Trust

Other smart meter benefits identified in the Energy Saving Trust's report include:

• Frequent data on energy consumption (both gas and electric).
• Time of use data; historical use data.
• Differential tariffs based on time of use.
• Greater control over peak demand.
• Ability for the energy suppliers to send energy saving tips to consumers based on their usage.
• They monitor the energy renewable energy sources installed in the home, such as solar panels and wind turbines, are using and producing.
• The ability to switch between credit and pre-payment functions.

You can download the Green Barometer IV report here.

Interestingly I note that those in Northern Ireland, which is serviced by only one electricity supplier, were substainially less interested in having a smart meter installed, and the benefits of this were of little interest. The highest proportion of people who found it uneasy to understand their energy bill also came from this region, and likewise the least people knew which energy tariff and the price they pay for electricity.

As NIE are one of the contributors to the Energy Saving Trust, Im sure they have been informed of the report. It would be interesting to see if they will implement changes to try to rectify these issues. However, being an NIE customer, I find my bill easy to understand, and know the unit price and tariff that I am on.

What Ever Happened to the Great British Holiday?

Walkers Crisps recently started a promotion on their crisp packets called Walkers Brit Trips, you simply collect "e-points" from packets by entering the individual code online. The range of trips is extensive with entry to theme parks, 2 for 1 on many adventure pursuits and discounts on short breaks.

The main reason I was encouraged by this promotion was that, more often than not we holiday in foreign countries, and failing to even consider UK locations as an acceptable getaway spot. I too am guilty of this, failing to have even seen some of the local tourist hubs in Northern Ireland and Great Britain. In actual fact I have been to London airports many more times than being in London.

So what happened to the great British holiday?

From the most recent UK Tourism Survey figures, we did take 79.2 million domestic holidays in the UK in 2006, spending £13.6 billion. In addition to these overnight trips, there were almost 270 million day visits made to the British coast, generating a further £3.1 billion spend. On average each trip was of 3.9 hours with an average party size of 3.5 people.

UK Top Ten Cities for Domestic Trips;

1. London
2. Manchester
3. Birmingham
4. Bristol
5. Blackpool
6. Leeds
7. Scarborough
8. Newcastle
9. Liverpool
10. York

In 2005, the UKTS found that we took 86.6m domestic holidays. These figures have been continually decreasing year-on-year. Changes in UKTS methodology make direct comparisons with the figures for previous years difficult.

UK Top Ten Cities for Business Trips;

1. London
2. Birmingham
3. Manchester
4. Leeds
5. Bristol
6. Nottingham
7. Liverpool
8. Newcastle
9. York
10. Hull

The growth of low-cost airlines have somewhat contributed to the demise of the domestic holiday, as more often than not, an airline ticket to Paris is cheaper than a rail ticket to London from Birmingham. Cost is an imminent factor and overall you can travel to pretty much anywhere in Europe for the same price (or even sometimes less) as travelling within the UK. Obviously this price differeniation does little to promote UK interests.

This means that we are travelling further by air, year on year, we don't need to even see the figures, just the constant news that UK airports are planning expansions, with additional terminals and runways to meet current existing and future demand.

Holidaying is a bit of an exact science, as to which is more environmentally sound way to travel. For example, London to Paris with EasyJet emits 56kg of CO2, not including additional travel to and from the airports. Eurostar emits only 5.5kg of CO2 per person. The driving distance, is about 289 miles, including using the train to cross the channel, depending on your car and the number of passengers, you could be looking at anything from 51kg of CO2 for the smallest car with one passenger, to 210kg for the most inefficient car. With more passengers this will obviously decrease. But if you were to drive to Brighton alone, you would emit more emissions than travelling to Paris by eurostar.

Green journeys not only matter to and from the local supermarket, but when we travel to the other side of the globe, but not only is travelling green difficult to calculate its nightmare over huge distances, with connections and stop overs, and in today's society time is a highly important factor in transport costs, especially for business, and individuals with limited holiday time.

Green travel is tough but if you can do it I applaude you, I am thinking of my next planned trip, Belfast > Bristol > London > Paris, in less than five days, and of course back again. With such little time I may have to hypocritically fly part of the journey.

If you want information on how to travel anywhere by train, check out the Man in Seat Sixty One, the link is in our blogroll.

Darling, It's Too Little Too Late

Chancellor Alistair Darling unveiled his first budget yesterday, however, many environmental groups have called on the inadequacy for environmental protection contained within the announcement.

The key announcements contained in the budget are;

Environment

• 2p increase in fuel duty is postponed until October this year, and rise by 0.5p per litre in real terms in 2010
  
• £950 "showroom" tax from April 2010 for the most polluting vehicles
• £800 million environment fund to work with the United States, Japan and other countries as well as the World Bank to fund clean technologies in developing countries
• First Carbon budgets to 2022 will be announced alongside the Budget next year
• Energy Bill will allow the tripling of renewable electricity by 2015
• Introduce legislation to impose a charge on single-use plastic bags, if we have not seen sufficient progress on a voluntary basis. Legislation would come into force in 2009 and based on other countries' experience, it could lead to a 90 percent reduction, with around 12 billion fewer plastic bags in circulation. The money raised should go to environmental charities
• Cavity wall insulation for nearly three million homes. Loft insulation, more energy efficient appliances and light bulbs
• £26 million funding next year for a Green Homes Service to help people cut their carbon emissions and their fuel bills
• Smart meters to medium and large companies over the next five years
• Non-domestic buildings will become zero-carbon from 2019
• Biofuel duty differential will be replaced by the Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation
• Reforming capital allowances for business cars to increase the incentive to move to lower emitting cars
• Air passenger duty scrapped in favour of flight tax

Energy

• Increase in Social Energy Tariff from Energy Companies to £150m, up from £50m
• 5m Customers on PrePay Meters to be given fairer Energy Pricing
• Increase in Winter fuel payment for over 60s from £200 to £250 and for the over 80s from £300 to £400

Whilst some of the efforts of the chancellor are certainly welcomed, it is a disappointment that he has not chosen to implement these changes immediately, with some measures not being introduced for over two years.

The additional resources for improving energy efficiency in homes and business and increased revenue for the Green Homes Service provided by the Energy Saving Trust will also assist reduce energy use. However with the assistance provided to those on social energy tariffs and Winter fuel payments, energy use may increase. I believe that to ensure that these are paid or reductions given to the householder, they must have had a free home energy inspection. This will highlight the need for loft and / or cavity wall insulation or other energy saving methods, those who meet specific criteria should (as already happens) have these installed for free, those that do not fall into these categories should have the measures installed for free in place of the fuel payment.

I hope the threat to impose charges on plastic bags is followed through as this is what is needed to dissuade their use to levels which otherwise through voluntary methods would be unattainable.

What do you think about the budget?

Translink Increase Passenger Fares

Bus and Train fares in Northern Ireland fares are set to rise from the 31 March by 3% for Metro, 4% for Ulsterbus and 5% for Northern Ireland Railways. Unaffected will be the price of most day tickets, Metro multi-journey tickets and rail weekly and monthly tickets would remain unchanged.

In a time when government are alledgedly encouraging people from their cars, an increase in cost of public transport whilst justified by rising fuel costs is unfortunately pressing those existing users and decreasing the financial incentive to switch. Northern Ireland has one of the lowest usages of public transport, at half the UK average, and with that one of the highest rates of car dependancy. This was also a factor in why Northern Ireland council areas were rated so poorly in the Green Barometer III report in November 2007.

However, Translink have (even with past fare rises), seen a considerable rise in passenger numbers and journeys over the past few years with a growth of 20% on Metro since 2005, over 20% on Goldline since 2004 and a massive 40% on NI Railways since 2002.

In other news, they have joined forces with the new £400 million Victoria Square Complex in Belfast to offer employees an opportunity to travel for free. Through Translink’s Corporate Commuter Initiative (CCI) Victoria Square employees issued with travel passes to encourage them to commute to and from work by public transport. This award-winning and incentivised scheme is aimed at increasing awareness and the use of Translink services by businesses across Northern Ireland.

“Our objective is to identify and work in partnership with employers that wish to be environmentally responsible. Together we ensured all personnel had access to timetables and our on site surgeries provided staff with travel information particular to their individual needs. By encouraging staff to trial the bus or train our goal is to persuade many to use public transport regularly to get to and from work. The new Victoria Square will provide over 3,000 jobs and currently have no provision for staff parking therefore we are delighted to work with them in this way to support our ongoing, intensive environmental awareness campaign. Indeed, we welcome the opportunity to work with any local businesses that are committed to developing green travel plans for their staff whether they are new organisations or those relocating staff to new premises,”
Carol Marsden, Brand Manager, Translink

Picture: Wind & Waves Batter UK

High winds of up to 85mph caused by the Atlantic weather front moving eastward, have caused substantial damage to property across the country, and caused travel woes for many others.

Cookstown Heating their Swimming Pool with Willow

As energy prices continue to rise, the dilemma facing Cookstown Council to keep it's leisure services in full has been greatly affected. Costs for heating their pools at the local leisure centre notched up a fuel bill in excess of £100 000, until they teamed up with five local farmers in a bid not only to keep a vital community facility but also to reduce their CO2 emissions (after ranking 429 out of 434 council areas for CO2 emissions in the Green Barometer III report from the Energy Saving Trust) and of course, energy costs.

The unlikely partnership has seen the five local farmers growing willow, a long grass, which has become known as an energy crop, for its fast growth and reasonably high carbon sequestration rate. Grown locally the crop is then transported to the leisure centre and with the use of a wood-chip burner, used to help heat the swimming pools. The partnership has seen the energy bill at the facility fall by £1 100 per week. Reducing the burden on the Council and those of the 12 000 households in the council area.

Drink Tap Water!

Government departments have been told to stop serving bottled water at meetings and switch to more environmentally friendly tap water instead by top civil servant Sir Gus O'Donnell. DEFRA is among departments that have already done so - it had been using more than 1,000 bottles a month. According to the Cabinet Office tap water uses only 0.3% of the energy required by the equivalent bottled water.

Hospital Wind Turbine Makes Profit

The 40 metre high 660 kW Vestas V47 wind turbine, the largest at any hospital in the UK, has been fully operational since February 7th 2005. Providing all the power required at night and two -thirds of daytime use the turbine generates 1.2m kWh annually, providing a large majority of the £90 000 annual electricity bill.

Since it's launch just over three years ago the turbine has made a £56 000 profit, and reduced CO2 emissions by 1 085t.

The turbine cost £497,000, of which 80% was a grant from the Government Central Energy Efficiency Fund. Without a grant it would take five years for the initial cost to be repaid. The wind turbine has been a success and other hospitals across the UK are taking an interest in replicating what has been achieved at Antrim.

"The money freed up by not having to pay electricity bills and the profit gained from selling electricity back to the national grid can now be spent on patients and service. This turbine is not only good for the environment but it is good for the local people too."
Thomas Burns, South Antrim, MLA

With the use of favourable grants, and a short payback period, Antrim Area Hospital has used their location to make a sound business and environmental decision which has decreased their substantial energy bill, enabling them to use the profit to reinvest in primary care. The turbine will continue to generate electricity for many years to come, reducing their overall impact on the environment by 350t of CO2 per annum. Strategic planning similar to this, where it is feasible to implement will be vital to enacting a low carbon economy for the future.

Zero Emission Vehicles Can Be Fun to Drive

The Morgan LifeCar is a concept car due to be launched at the Geneva Show in March 2008. The LifeCar’s purpose is to demonstrate that a zero emission vehicle can also be fun to drive. The combination of performance, range and fuel economy will allow a sporting driver of the future to demonstrate a concern for the environment.

Going far beyond the incremental adaptation of traditional car designs as seen in current hybrid vehicles, it will demonstrate that a new step in vehicle architecture is enabled by the use of a fuel cell hybrid power train.

The approach is one of whole system design in which the architecture is generated from the characteristics of the fuel cell, in a light-weight vehicle coupled with a high hybridization level. This combination will minimise the fuel cell cost and provide the fuel economy for a 200 mile range. An objective of the project is to lower the entry barriers for a vehicle powered by a hydrogen fuel cell.

Core to the success of the project will be collaboration between partners to achieve system-level innovation in the design. The collaborators are Oscar Automotive, Cranfield University, QinetiQ, Oxford University, Linde AG and Morgan Motor Company.