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Brixton Energy Solar 1

Richard Lemmer | 30.03.12

There’s something new under the Brixton sun, and it’s a UK first. Today, Southern Solar is to turn on the UK’s first community owned, inner city solar PV system. The project, named Brixton Energy Solar 1, has used local volunteers from the Brixton Energy Group and staff from Southern Solar to fit solar panels to the top of the Loughborough Estate. These panels will provide the area with over 33,000kWh of energy. That’s enough energy to keep 1,833 televisions running per hour, saving roughly 17,000Kg of CO2.

And it’s not just sustainable - it’s profitable as well. Thanks to the feed-in tariff scheme, the project will see a 2% return on the original investment made by the Community Energy Efficiency Fund. This fund is tied to the Repower South London initiative, who have a further ten projects in the pipeline. So Brixton could see more shiny panels glinting on top of its high-rise rooftops.

Agamemnon Otero, artist, green community leader and founder of Repower South London, has high hopes for the project and others like it.

“This is a true a community project that has been possible through co-operation, hard work and dedication. We want to make Brixton Energy a shining example of inner city community resilience for the next 25 years.”

Projects like Brixton Energy Solar 1 are reliant on businesses like Southern Solar to ensure their green plans can become sustainable realities. Southern Solar is providing 60 people with green jobs in offices across the country and was voted by Which? As the top UK solar installation company in the south of England.

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The Ecologist’s guide to greening Christmas

Greta Jonyniate | 23.12.11

We just love this brilliant guide to greening Christmas from the Ecologist. From food to fun and great tips on how to make this year's festivities the greenest ever.

With just a few days to go until December 25th we are all wrapping our last minute Christmas presents, filling up fridges with delicous food and waiting to see the whole family around the dinner table. But the annual festive jamboree is seriously bad news for the planet with the week long celebrations producing around 5.5 per cent of the UK’s total annual carbon emissions. And it isn’t just emissions that are a problem. Royal Mail will deliver 150 million cards every day over the Christmas period – the equivalent of 17 for every man, woman and child in the country – but up to a billion will end up in landfill. 50,000 trees will be cut down to produce the 8,000 tonnes of wrapping paper needed to brighten up the gifts we hand out to our family and friends.

The average Christmas dinner, says the Soil Association, involves 49,0000 extra food miles, while of the 10 million turkeys reared for the Christmas dinner table, 90 per cent come from intensive units. And it isn’t just the planet that pays either. This year the average British adult will spend approximately £813 on festive celebrations – down £55 on last year – and will wolf down a staggering 7,000 calories on the big day itself. Like Halloween and Easter, Christmas is a gift for children but not so much fun for the planet, your bank balance or your health. But it doesn’t have to be consumption central; there are plenty of ways to make the festive season green for everyone.

Christmas Present: Cut down on cards

One of the biggest sources of additional (and unnecessary) waste over the Christmas period; paper cards are sent in their millions and end up in landfill in their millions too. The FAO (Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations) estimates that 10.4 million hectares of tropical forest are permanently destroyed each year, which is the equivalent of almost 80,000 acres a day, so the last thing the planet’s beleaguered forests need is another reason to chop them down. Instead of buying box-fresh cards, try sending an e-card or making your own from recycled paper. Use old-fashioned potato stamps and poster paint to brighten them up or get creative with stencils. Ebay has thousands in a huge range of designs with prices starting at as little as 99p. If you really don’t have time to make your own, choose recycled cards picked up from a charity. Make sure you save any cards you receive – you’ll need them next year.

Present power

Not only are gifts among the main Christmas polluters, they are also the biggest expense. Plastic toys, cheap clothes and mass market beauty products are among the most popular presents, with an annual $4.6 million spent during the Christmas period on cosmetics alone. Along with the tonnes of plastic and toxic chemicals used to make many Christmas presents, packaging – toy boxes and so on – put even more pressure on overstretched forests. Most recently, Mattel – the makers of Barbie – fell foul of Greenpeace for their use of controversial paper supplier Asia Pulp and Paper's products in their packaging, although APP has disputed the claim. Minimise the problem by searching around for eco-friendly alternatives such as handmade wooden toys made from sustainably sourced wood, cushions and clothes made from local or recycled textiles and organic beauty products. Particularly good is the wonderful French perfume brand Honoré des Prés, which has just launched ‘Les Verrines’ – a range of perfumes (£49 each at Selfridges) that come in recycled glass jars and are 100 per cent organic. Also worth looking at are charity gifts, most of which come with a cuddly toy to keep the children happy, and give back to the world as well as to the recipient. Top picks include polar bear adoption with the WWF, puppy sponsorship for Guide Dogs for the Blind and tree planting plus some yummy Fairtrade chocolates with Tree Aid. See www.charity-gifts.org for a comprehensive list of options. Alternatively, two online shops have teamed up with Friends of the Earth, so head to the Natural Collection for beautiful, eco-friendly fashion, beauty and home gifts. Friends of the Earth will receive a donation of 10 per cent of your order. For bookworms, the Book Depository donates five per cent of every sale to Friends of the Earth.

Eat local

If growing your own isn’t an option, shop local and organic. By the end of December, the British Brussels sprout season will be in full swing while beetroots, parsnips, leeks, swedes and turnips are also on the menu. In the hedgerows, you’ll find a free feast of chestnuts (no need for imported Brazil nuts), walnuts and mushrooms, and there’s also plenty of game – including rabbit and wood pigeon – around. Local fruit is a bit thin on the ground, with only stored apples and pears available, so try organic if you really can’t bear to miss out on a festive satsuma. There’s also plenty of seasonal fish to be had in place of salmon – most of which has been doctored with a chemical food colouring called astaxanthin. Without this artificial pigmentation farmed salmon would look drab grey since farmed salmon’s diet doesn’t include the crustaceans that gives them that natural pink colour in the wild. If you must eat salmon, choose line caught, wild Scottish salmon – it’s more expensive but it’s better for both you and the planet. Better still, choose line caught mackerel, turbot, pollack or crab; all of which are in season and not endangered by over fishing. Finally, choose locally made English sauces to accompany your festive feast. According to a Manchester University study, the average Christmas dinner for eight generates around 20kg of CO2 – well over half of which comes from imported cranberry sauce.

Power down

Since the average Christmas fairy light display produces enough CO2 to fill two double decker buses and can cost up to £100 to run depending on how long you leave them on, cutting down on the sparkle is good for both the planet and your bank balance. Instead, try putting vegetable wax tea lights in brightly painted old jars around your front door and on your windowsill for a festively green glow. If all 26 million UK homes swapped one string of standard fairy lights for the LED version during the 12 days of Christmas alone, collectively they would save enough carbon dioxide to fill 188,000 double-decker buses (over 26,000 tonnes of CO2). Financially, it would save nearly £9.7m – that’s enough to pay the weekly energy bills for 400,000 homes. Try Eco Creations solar powered fairy lights, £41.99 for 100, either outside or on your tree. Speaking of trees, choose a real one and turn it into compost when festivities are over. According to the Carbon Trust, the average six foot fake fir creates a whopping 40kg of CO2 during its lifetime from production to landfill. A real tree on the other hand, creates a relatively small 3.5kg if it’s chipped and composted properly.

Christmas Future: what to do now, for next year

Two days isn’t long enough to start organising a totally home grown Christmas but the 12 months between now and Christmas 2012 is plenty of time. Start with your tree, which you can buy ready potted for this year. Once the festive season ends, find a suitable spot in your garden and bed it in with plenty of organic compost and water. You can leave it in the pot when you plant it for easy access next year but you’ll need to keep an eye on growth to avoid ending up with an eight footer in 12 months time. If growing space is going to be a real issue, choose a dwarf variety such as a Balsam Fir, which has a maximum height of one metre and smells wonderful to boot. Use any leftover space to create raised beds on which to grow your own Christmas vegetables. You’ll need to plan ahead as most winter veg needs to be planted in June and July, although some species can be planted as late as October. Make September and October your main foraging months, and take advantage of the berry glut by bottling some for a Christmas treat and freezing the rest for berry-based deserts. Also worth picking are sloes, which you can use to make homemade gin that should be ready by late December if you make it by the end of August. Topped up with organic British champagne, it’s the perfect Christmas morning tipple.

Minimal paper

Avoiding paper altogether over Christmas is a tough call but with a bit of planning ahead, you can find ways to minimise the amount you use. First stop should be making this year’s Christmas cards into next year’s by covering up the text inside with some brightly coloured recycled cardboard. Alternatively, get creative and make cards with a mixture of old newspapers, recycled card and last year’s Christmas cards. Brighten them up with some non-toxic glitter (£2.50 per pot) from Jane Asher, which come in a rainbow of colours. Abandon wrapping paper – it’s expensive, can be hard to recycle and is a huge 10,000-ton burden in landfill every year. Instead wrap presents in fabric, wallpaper, posters or recycled wrapping paper. You can also put old newspapers to work by decorating it with potato stamps and poster paint, or a dusting of glitter. Once it’s dry, use it like regular wrapping paper and finish with a reusable silk ribbon. Post festivities, salvage anything that can be reused and compost the rest.

Adopt a new Christmas tradition

Many of the UK’s modern Christmas traditions are American-influenced and revolve around consumption. Instead of the usual Secret Santa, entertain yourself, your family and your colleagues by borrowing a greener tradition from elsewhere. Germany has an entertaining hunt the pickle on the Christmas tree game, while Denmark has the beautiful St Lucy festival mid December that involves eating lots of homemade cinnamon buns with your family. In Mexico, Christmas coincides with El Festival de los Rabanos (Festival of the Radishes) – a whole day dedicated to the humble radish that includes carving them into pretty decorations. Keep some of your summer glut in the freezer and hand responsibility for carving to the younger generation. Not only will you get some unusual decorations, it will keep them occupied for hours. If you don’t fancy looking as far away as Mexico for your new tradition, try reviving an old British one – wassail. Based on the Saxon wæs hæil toast to good health, wassailing was intended to ensure a good cider apple crop in the following year but in practice usually means imbibing lots of cider or real ale punch with friends and family. Particularly lovely is ‘Lamb’s Wool’ – a type of mulled ale simmered with baked apples, sugar and spices.

Make your own gifts

Producing gifts at home doesn’t have to mean foisting lumpy sweaters on your nearest and dearest (although you can if you really want). Instead, create organic hampers containing the chutneys, jams and pickles you made over the summer. Sloe gin, homemade biscuits and some cheese from the local deli also go down a treat, and you can jazz it up by presenting it all in a natural wicker box. CandiGifts.co.uk has them in a huge range of colours and sizes. Put anything that needs bagging up in homemade fabric containers made from old shirts. Any offcuts can be turned into pretty jam jar covers. You can also try your hand at creating homemade beauty products, candles and, of course, hand knitted scarves, gloves and hats.

Six green Christmas tips from the Carbon Trust

• Buy real Christmas trees, not fake ones. When you take it down, chip it or burn it rather than throwing it in the bin.
• Put the lid on your spuds and sprouts. Covering pans during cooking cuts the carbon footprint by almost half because the water reaches boiling point more quickly.
• Recycling empty bottles from your Christmas drinks party can reduce the carbon footprint of all that alcohol by up to 40 per cent.
• Plan your food shopping carefully to cut down on waste. For example we waste seven per cent of the milk that we buy. Instead of buying two pints today, buy one now and one later. Not only will the extra walk do you good but you’ll waste less too.
• Eat up your leftovers. Most food ends up as waste in landfill where it decomposes and produces methane gas, which is 25 times worse than CO2.
• Wash your Christmas jumper on a cool cycle. A quarter of the carbon footprint of your clothes comes from washing, drying and ironing them at home. Turning the temperature down from 40 to 30 degrees will save 160g of carbon dioxide emissions per wash making a real difference to the impact of your winter woollies.

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Cafedirect at COP 17

Greta Jonyniate | 14.12.11

Cafedirect have recently written an excellent article on the new hot topic in the agricultural sector - 'Climate-smart agriculture'. In simple terms, this is the process of producing food in a way that is good for the climate. We love the work that Cafedirect are doing, and hope that their presence at the UN Climate Change Conference in Durban has gone some way to help countries come to an agreement regarding this important matter. For more great articles, go to www.cafedirect.co.uk and check out their blog page!

What’s the new buzzword around climate change for the agricultural sector? No, you won’t guess – its ‘Climate-smart agriculture’! That’s what was on everyone’s lips during my days at COP17, the UN Climate Change Conference in Durban, South Africa. The conference was about two things:

• How to get countries to agree to legally binding emission reductions so our planet doesn’t go up in “flames” due to global warming
• How to set up and finance a Green Climate Fund that should support developing countries to become greener economies and allow them to better adapt to negative impacts of climate change.

I was on the panel of a learning event with our partner IFAD – the UN’s International Fund for Agricultural Development – talking about our joint project with cocoa smallholders in São Tomé & Príncipe, a small island state off the West African coast, and makers of the cocoa for our add-water hot chocolate. The lively discussion was part of the Agricultural and Rural Development Day 2011; a side- event of COP17 to get agriculture fully onto the climate change agenda. Agriculture is a huge contributor of greenhouse gas emissions and millions of vulnerable smallholder farmers in developing countries, are already feeling the negative impacts of climate change. You can read more about the discussions on IFAD’s Social Reporting Blog.

So what is climate-smart agriculture? Simply put, it is to produce food in a way that is good for the climate ie. emits less greenhouse gases, is more resilient, more efficient, and strengthens adaptive capacity. It’s not as complicated as it sounds because a lot of smallholder farmers, especially the coffee and cocoa farmers we work with, already apply many agricultural practices that deliver on climate-smart agriculture. For example, by applying organic farming their greenhouse gas emissions are lower compared to industrial, high input agriculture on plantations. By inter-cropping with other food crops like bananas, beans, cassava etc. and establishing shade trees on their plot of land, its resilience is strengthened. Not to mention the benefits to biodiversity.

Climate change is a very important and strategic issue for us, as it goes across all parts of our business: from securing future supply chains to our principles of doing business in a fairer and pioneering way for grower communities to ensure they have a livelihood in the future.

It is likely that small agreements to keep discussing these issues will be the main outcomes of the COP17 meetings, due to end today, and whilst it is vital to get legally-binding international agreements signed, for us at Cafedirect it’s all about action. From pushing the whole adaptation agenda for smallholder farmers early on in 2007 during our pioneering AdapCC project to continuous support for initiatives at individual producer organisation level via our Producer Partnership Programme, right up to pre-financing and championing innovative adaptation mechanisms like our project with coffee partner Cepicafe in northern Peru.

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Moving Planet is almost here!

Greta Jonyniate | 23.09.11

Moving Planet is almost here! There are just three things you need to know:

1) It's going to be absolutely huge, and you don’t want to miss it -- there will be thousands of events this weekend, from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe and just about everywhere in between. There will be rallies and marches and teach-ins and protests of all kinds. If you don't know which event is closest to you on Saturday, click here to search the map.

2) It's vitally important. The truth is, we've got lots of work to do to solve the climate crisis: big polluters are doing everything in their power to delay real climate action, and they are spending huge amounts of money to distort the truth and block progress. But this weekend's events can show the world that a vibrant movement is coming to life -- and that people everywhere are ready to do whatever it takes to move the world beyond fossil fuels.

3) It's about to begin! At the easternmost part of the earth, Moving Planet Day is about to dawn. That means there's not much time left to spread the word to all your networks -- on Facebook, on Twitter, and everywhere else.

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Why community solar matters

Matilda Lee | 09.06.11

When Howard Johns tried to set up a community energy company fourteen years ago, people thought he was a complete loony.

Today, all that has changed, when Howard was ‘blown away’ by the huge response to a share offer to invest in the first community solar power station in Lewes. Almost all the people who invested were Lewes locals – contributing from as little as £250 to a maximum £20,000 each –and within a few weeks of the launch, the £307,000 target was reached.

Community energy – a thing of the past or the future?

People liked the idea of being part of a local community energy generation project. Countless numbers in the community donated time, effort and resources to make the Ouse Valley Energy Services Company (OVESCo) happen. The first solar panels will be installed on the roof of a much-loved brewery in Lewes and it will generate 92,000 kilowatt hours of green electricity per year.

For Howard, a former environmental campaigner who set up his own solar company to promote solar and contribute a positive impact on the environment, as well as being Chairman of the Solar Trade Association, this should have been an amazing moment.

Yet even as the solar array begins generating electricity at the end of this summer, Howard is troubled by the idea that, instead of becoming a blueprint example of community energy generation, something that could easily be replicated throughout the country, this sort of project will be one-of-a-kind.

The OVESCO project is made possible through a combination of the electricity sold back to the grid and the feed-in tariff (FIT), which helped guarantee a 3-4 per cent investor return per year, over 25 years.

The government’s recent about-face on FIT, reducing funding for projects over 50 kw to deter so-called 'vulture capitalists', has drastically deflated investor confidence and put a dent in countless number of fledgling community solar projects in both rural and urban areas.

Solar Potential for the UK

The solar industry could easily be generating more than a third of UK electricity demand per year. Those involved in solar energy in the UK are reeling at the decision which hit straight at the heart of projects involving schools, churches, retailers, councils and land owners - ironically the very groups at the heart of the government's oft-mentioned big society.

Wherefore ‘big society’?

Mary Walsh, founder of the Capital Community Energy Project (part of the London Sustainable Development Commission's London Leaders programme) has witnessed first-hand the impacts that these types of projects have on communities. ‘In the last year I’ve seen energy project move away from being “boutique” to actually being used as a force for change and mobilising local communities.

‘The difference in the last year has been enormous. I used to have one or two projects approaching me a month, and in the last year it’s been a constant stream. They are now even in urban environments. People are seeing it not just in terms of generating energy, but in terms of improving the local economy, improving the social structure, generating jobs, and generating income that can be reinvested back into the local community.’

'I don’t understand why they have changed it so radically and so quickly because the whole point of FIT was to roll out renewable energy projects and that was exactly what was happening,’ she says.

'In the same way that people like the Transition Town movement and like having their high street full of independent shops and like the local food movement, it’s one of those things that people are beginning to catch on to, going “this is quite a good idea”.'

Power to the People and Energy Democracy

For Howard it is about creating energy democracy. He says, ‘This is about distributing energy and energy security. It’s about going from six big companies who dominate energy policy and dictate terms to the rest of us, to maybe a million little ones. If you’re a generator, you’re a revolutionary.’
 

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A Climate Week Conundrum

Sally Hill | 24.03.11

The Royal Bank of Scotland and Tesco have been accused of green-washing over their sponsorship of the approaching Climate Week initiative. In many green and ethical circles these brands were difficult to like in the first place, but this is making them even harder to stomach.

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climate rush, climate week, rbs, tesco

UK Government Threatens Future of Solar in the UK

Sophie Rivett-Carnac | 14.02.11

The government has made a damaging decision to pull the plug on large scale solar feed-in-tariffs, threatening the growth of renewable energy in the UK.

This week, Chris Huhne, Britain’s Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, announced the government would start its first review of the feed-in-tariff scheme for small-scale, low-carbon electricity generation. This news comes earlier than expected and will lead to uncertainty within the UK renewable market, in particular for solar PV.

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renewable energy, solar power, feed-in tariff, carbon reduction commitment, government

THE FUTURE OF ENERGY IN BRITAIN – MEET TARGETS BY 2050

Sally Hill | 30.07.10

Launched by the DECC, the 2050 Pathways Analysis report illustrates six possible energy mixes to achieve secure and affordable energy supplies in the UK while still hitting the 2050 target of reducing emissions by 80 per cent on 1990 levels.

It is the government’s first comprehensive, long-term look at the UK’s energy supply and demand sectors and greenhouse gas emissions to 2050. The report tries to illustrate some of the energy choices and trade-offs to be made over the next 40 years.

2050 Pathways Calculator Tool

This is an online tool that allows users to explore different combinations of levels of change across the energy sectors to create pathways which successfully achieve an 80% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, while ensuring that energy supply meets demand.

The Calculator was created under the supervision / direction of David Mackay, chief scientific adviser at DECC. A description, in the words of Adam Vaughan:

"You get to play with two sets of sliders. One set affects energy consumption such as temperature within buildings, number of electric cars and so on. The other controls energy generation - you can choose how many wind turbines you want, go for nuclear, invest in bio-energy and ramp up solar. In other words, it's rather like the Guardian's very own "national carbon calculator", which we launched in April."

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wind energy, chris huhne, carbon, carbon calculator, energy, 2050, wind turbines