Many businesses are now working hard to reduce the impacts of their operations, their services and/or their products. As part of this, every employee has an important role to play. Even if your company isn’t taking action to reduce their environmental impacts, to cut their carbon footprints or to improve their resource efficiency there are […]
Category Archives: Blog
27
Aug
Aug
Blog by Dr Stephen Allen In the UK, we appear to have significantly reduced our impact on the climate since 1990, with our reported annual greenhouse gas emissions falling by 25% (2012). But this isn’t a complete picture of our contribution to climate change, because it ignores the embodied carbon of all the stuff we import. […]
Blog, Buildings, Carbon Footprint, Construction, Embodied Carbon, Energy, News, Sustainability
The Environmental Sustainability of Existing Buildings: Refurbish or Replace?
19
May
May
There comes a time in the life of every building where extensive refurbishment is required. For many a building this seems to bring with it thoughts of starting again – essentially to demolish and ‘rebuild’. The normal practice in modern times seems to be the preference to demolish and replace. Whereas conservationists naturally prefer to […]
Blog, Buildings, Carbon Footprint, Construction, Embodied Carbon, Energy, Sustainability
The Carbon Footprint of Thatch
17
Mar
Mar
On Saturday 21 March Dr Stephen Allen of Circular Ecology is giving a talk on the embodied carbon of building materials to the annual conference of the National Society of Master Thatchers. Steve will give an overview of carbon footprinting and what it can be used for, and illustrate this through the results of an […]
Blog, Carbon Footprint, Energy, News, Sustainability
The Kyoto Protocol: Climate Change Success or Global Warming Failure?
04
Feb
Feb
In 1997 the Kyoto Protocol was born. It was the first international agreement of its kind, a revelation that would stabilise greenhouse gas concentrations in the climate to “prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system”. Flash floods, rising sea levels, record droughts and extreme weather would all to be resigned to the books of […]
16
Dec
Dec
Blog by Dr Stephen Allen, Circular Ecology and Elanor Swan, LRS Consultancy We recently spent a fascinating morning at the RSA with a group of business leaders from the clothing industry talking about creating sustainable clothing supply chains. Our discussions showed that, whilst the industry is taking action to become more sustainable, levels of progress […]
30
Oct
Oct
Water, water – water everywhere. Such an essential resource and yet one that is so massively undervalued. So much so that water is considered cheap and dispensable, whereas gas, oil and electricity are considered expensive and valuable. But let’s ask this one simple question: “Would you prefer to go a month without a gas supply […]
Blog, Carbon Footprint, Circular Economy, Embodied Carbon, Energy, News, Sustainability, Uncategorized
Circular Economy: Recycling is Not the Benefit
24
Jun
Jun
It’s that day of the week again. For the last 7 days you’ve recovered some of your plastic bottles, metal cans and glass jars, ready for the recycling man to take away. In fact, each and every year we recycle or compost over 200 kg of waste per person in the EU. So clearly recycling […]
The UK is legally committed to reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 80% between 1990 and 2050. This is a considerable challenge and all sectors have a valuable part to play. To be achieved the electricity sector is expected to have an almost complete decarbonisation and it’s clear to see why. Electricity generation contributes around […]
Blog, Buildings, Construction, Embodied Carbon, Sustainability
Is embodied carbon getting the attention it deserves?
31
Mar
Mar
Embodied carbon has slowly been gaining attention, but it still lacks the recognition that it arguably deserves. It has been a poor understudy to operational carbon emissions, which traditionally grabs the headlines. But could this be about to change? Perhaps. April 7th to 11th is UK Green Building Council (UK GBC) ‘Embodied Carbon Week’, where […]