Category Archives: Carbon Footprint

The Carbon Footprint of Thatch

Environmental Impact Thatch

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 […]

The Kyoto Protocol: Climate Change Success or Global Warming Failure?

Climate change and global warming

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 […]

New Scope 2 Guidance Launched for Organisational Carbon Footprinting

The Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Protocol has launched new guidance for organisations to measure emissions from purchased electricity, which typically forms the majority of a company’s Scope 2 emissions. This is the first major update to the GHG Protocol’s  Corporate Standard, one of the world’s most widely used standards for organisational carbon footprinting. The new Scope […]

Cowspiracy: The Environmental Footprint of Farming

On Thursday 22 January, Net Impact Bristol is hosting a screening of the film “Cowspiracy: The Sustainability Secret”, a documentary about the environmental footprint of farming and food. Following the film, Dr Stephen Allen of Circular Ecology will sit on a panel to discuss the film with the audience, and the practical ways in which […]

Sustainable Clothing Supply Chains: A Coherent Strategy is Essential

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 […]

Circular Economy: Recycling is Not the Benefit

In less than 1 year 95% of the aluminium in a drink can will be permanently lost to landfill.

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 […]

Sustainable Clothing Business Leaders’ Round Table: Update

The European Commission estimates that clothing represents the fourth largest environmental footprint of EU consumption and that its impacts are significant over a range of environmental issues. So reducing the impacts of production, use and disposal of clothing is vital for tackling key environmental challenges, including climate change and freshwater scarcity and pollution. Dr Stephen […]

Carbon capture and storage (CCS) electricity revealed to be high environmental impact

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 […]

Double or triple glazing? All pane and no gain?

Whether you are designing a new building, completing an extensive refurbishment or just looking to replace the windows in your home with more energy efficient windows then you will be offered the choice of double glazing or triple glazing. But is this a good environmental choice? Intuition tells us that triple glazing should have a […]

IPCC: Energy demand in the building sector to double

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has been working hard to release their fifth assessment reports on climate change (AR5). Their report on “Mitigation of Climate Change” revealed that in 2010 the world’s man-made greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs) were 181% of 1970 levels. In fact, emissions over this 40 year period were responsible for […]