Sportswear firm Puma says it has become the first major corporation to fully cost its impact on the environment.
The German-based company has costed its greenhouse gas emissions, water and land use, air pollution and waste in 2010 at 145m euros ($196m; £124m).
This includes the activities of Puma itself and those of its suppliers.
Read full article: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-15756080
In the line at the store, the cashier told the older woman that she should bring her own grocery bag because plastic bags weren’t good for the environment.
The woman apologized to him and explained, “We didn’t have the green thing back in my day.”
The clerk responded, “That’s our problem today. The former generation did not care enough to save our environment.” She was right, that generation didn’t have the green thing in its day.
Back then, they returned their milk bottles, pop bottles and beer bottles to the store. The store sent them back to the plant to be washed and sterilized and refilled, so it could use the same bottles over and over. So they really were recycled. But they didn’t have the green thing back in that customer’s day.
In her day, they walked up stairs, because they didn’t have an escalator in every store and office building. They walked to the grocery store and didn’t climb into a 300-horsepower machine every time they had to go down the street to the local shop.
But she was right. They didn’t have the green thing in her day.
Back then, they washed the baby’s nappies because they didn’t have the throw-away kind. They dried clothes on a line, not in an energy gobbling machine burning up 220 volts – wind and solar power really did dry the clothes! Kids got hand-me-down clothes from their brothers or sisters, not always brand-new clothing. But that old lady is right; they didn’t have the green thing back in her day. Back then, they had one TV, or radio, in the house – not a TV in every room. And the TV had a small screen the size of a handkerchief, not a screen the size of Milton Keynes. In the kitchen, they blended and stirred by hand because they didn’t have electric machines to do everything for you. When they packaged a fragile item to send in the mail, they used a wadded up old newspaper to cushion it, not Styrofoam or plastic bubble wrap.Back then, they didn’t fire up an engine and burn petrol just to cut the lawn. They used a push mower that ran on human power. They exercised by working so they didn’t need to go to a health club to run on treadmills that operate on electricity.
But she’s right; they didn’t have the green thing back then.
They drank from a fountain when they were thirsty instead of using a cup or a plastic bottle every time they had a drink of water. They refilled their writing pens with ink instead of buying a new pen, and they replaced the razor blades in a razor instead of throwing away the whole razor just because the blade got dull.
But they didn’t have the green thing back then. Back then, people took the bus and kids rode their bikes to school or rode the school bus instead of turning their parents into a 24-hour taxi service. They had one electrical outlet in a room, not an entire bank of sockets to power a dozen appliances. And they didn’t need a computerized gadget to receive a signal beamed from satellites 2,000 miles out in space in order to find the nearest pizza joint.
Now you can see how wasteful the previous generations were!
To say that Britain is unique is not just a bit of patriotic jingoism brought on by April’s royal wedding; when it comes to attacking climate change the UK is now the ONLY country in the world to have legally binding targets for reducing our greenhouse gases emissions (GHG) beyond 2020. On May 17th the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change Chris Huhne made a statement to the House in which he announced that Government would accept the Committee’s recommendations on the 4th Carbon Budget (2023-2027) in full.
This means there will be legislation to cut UK emissions 50% on 1990 levels by 2025 and will put the UK on track to meeting the 2050 target of an 80% reduction in emissions.
As you might imagine, the move was broadly welcomed by activists but each and every one of them pointed out that plans (even laws) are not the same as achievements and the real test will come when the practicalities are addressed. The Committee on Climate Change are making their 3rd Progress report on June 30th, which will give an indication on whether all the good intentions are making headway. It is good timing as the parliament current has an Energy Bill that seeks to provide for a step change in the provision of energy efficiency measures to homes and businesses. Critics have said it is good on intention but falls short on the practical side and are urging MP’s to support a Warm Homes amendment. Stop Climate Chaos are co-ordinating a campaign to lobby for it. Please join in.
Read more: http://www.hksuperh.com/Newsletter
Please take a look at the following video – interesting, intriguing, worrying but worth an investment of just under 17 minutes of your life!
A team of scientists from the UK are to fit sat-nav censors to Greenland’s icecap in a bid to decipher how icebergs are formed. The researchers will fly helicopters over the country’s rapidly decreasing glaciers and drop off the low-power wi-fi transmitters so the path and shape of the ice can be tracked.
The forming of icebergs has traditionally be hard to measure as the nodes usually stop working or get misplaced as the ice crumbles away. These transceivers will however continue to work, even if part of the ice sheet they are on breaks away.
Glaciers in Greenland are thought to be particularly sensitive to climate change, especially those on the southeast edge of the ice sheet. Deep crevasses have however previously made it hard to fit the terrain with anything substantial enough to collate accurate data.
The work is being funded by the Natural Environ
Read more: http://www.recycle.co.uk/news/2798000.html
A new study by the Environment Agency has concluded that plastic bags are not as bad for the environment as previously thought. The organisation, which is charged with improving the green credentials of England and Wales, found that depending on how many times they are reused, different types of bags have different impacts on the environment.
As well as typical high-density polyethylene (HDPE) bags, the research also looked at low-density polyethylene (LDPE) products – often called “bags for life”- as well as non woven cotton bags made of polypropylene (PP).
The agency concluded that if a HDPE bag is reused for shopping, it will only have to be reused a few times to lessen its impact on the environment. The bags can also redeem themselves further if they then go on to be used for other purposes such as lining bins.
A paper bag, however, must be reused three times and a LDPE bag four times in order to have a lesser impact that a HDPE bag which is not reused. The study also found that a cotton bag must be reused a shocking 131 times and a non-woven PP bag 11 times to reach the same status. These figures go up further if the HDPE bag is used as a bin liner.
The British Royal Family is officially taking a leaf out of the green book by making a conscious effort to reduce the impact of its travel arrangements on the environment. An advert went up this week on the monarchy website for a new Head of Travel, who would come up with a plan to reduce the carbon footprint of the UK’s most frequent flyers.
The job, which is advertised at paying between £55,000 and £75,000 a year, would however be a tricky act to manage. The Royals are looking to reduce both the cost and the environmental impact of their trips away, without compromising on duration, safety or quality.
An average of 3,000 official visits are taken by the royal household as a whole every year, with the bill always footed by the current government under a grant-in-aid scheme. Last year, it totalled no less than £7 million, an expense which the Royals claim they are keen to reduce.
Read more: http://www.recycle.co.uk/news/2795000.html
Thousands of tons of recycling carefully sorted by families in Britain is being dumped illegally in the Third World.
A three-year investigation by the Environment Agency has uncovered a multi-million pound trade in shipping waste out of the country.
Investigators are now bringing prosecutions against 30 criminal gangs, with five cases already going through the courts.
A new survey has revealed that some councils are making residents sort their rubbish into as many of nine different bins in a bid to boost recycling. The average number of bins and caddies across the country is however four, according to the Taxpayers’ Alliance research.
The pressure group named and shamed Newcastle-under-Lyme as the council which insisted on the most bins. Householders in that part of the country are given a waste food caddie for the kitchen and another for kerbside collections, as well as separate containers for rubbish, cans, textiles, garden waste, glass, paper, cardboard and plastic.
Read more: http://www.recycle.co.uk/news/2791000.html
