SMEasure blog

Bloom box, H2-cabs and termites

Bloom box – video
The hot energy news this week is the Bloom box that uses a new kind of fuel cell, producing electricity by combining oxygen in the air with any fuel source (e.g. natural gas, bio-gas, and solar energy). A single fuel cell, the size of a floppy disk, can produce enough for a low-energy lightbulb, and a stack of cells the size of a brick will power an average home. A single Bloom box, a unit the size of a chest freezer and which contains several stacks of fuel cells, will produce enough energy to power 100 homes.
Watch the video

Hydrogen taxi cab by 2012
Hydrogen taxi cabs are to serve London by 2012 Olympics. These new taxis were developed by Lotus and Intelligent Energy and their hydrogen tanks can travel for 250 miles at up to 81mph. See here.

Can termite mounds inspire eco-cities?
Architects working on models of sustainable cities are turning to a new and rather unusual source of inspiration: termite mounds. More here.

That is all for this week!

Energy Management
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Find imeasure on twitter: imeasureou
For Work – www.smeasure.org.uk
Find SMEasure on twitter: smeasure

Your questions and comments are always helpful: http://help.smeasure.org.uk/discussion/new

Looking to Long Horizons

Top 10 green iPhone apps
From green living tips to eco tools, calculators and shopping guides, follow the link to get a pick of the best mobile applications for the environmentally conscious!

Long Horizons

‘It is in art that society finds its Long Horizons, its sweep of ages. Art dances a waltz with time: the three steps of past, present and future which can swing tomorrow into the arms of today, showing society where it is going, and can take a turn with yesterday to show society where has come from. With climate change, the far-seers of art are a requisite.’ By Jay Griffiths

Artists Jay Griffiths, Antony Gormley and KT Tunstall alongside scientists Prof. Diana Liverman and Prof. Tim Jackson share their personal perspectives on the importance of the arts in taking climate change action. Long Horizons was produced by Julie’s Bicycle (working to support the cultural sector’s response to climate change) and funded by the British Council.

To read what they have to say go here.

Energy-wise firms save £200,000
An energy saving scheme in Northern Ireland has cut business bills by more than £200,000, energy company Energia said.
For more information, see here.

BA to fly on ‘rubbish’ fuel
British Airways and the US bioenergy company Solena are to establish Europe’s first green jet fuel plant in the East End of London.
Go here.

That is all for this week!

Energy Management
For Work – www.smeasure.org.uk
Find SMEasure on twitter: smeasure
For Home – www.imeasure.org.uk
Find imeasure on twitter: imeasureou

Your questions and comments are always helpful: http://help.smeasure.org.uk/discussion/new

What’s your resource? Eco-schools and LCZ

Video: What’s your resource?
The London Community Resource Network supports community groups and SMEs in London to find ways of responsibly using resources. “Resource” is a vague word and this video shows what people associated with the word “resource”. Enjoy here!

Green schools for eco-town
Hot on the heels of the announcement of tougher targets for schools’ carbon emissions, government has said that the country’s planned ecotowns will be among the first communities to showcase zero carbon schools. More information here.

Low Carbon Zone launched in Ham and Petersham

The 4th of February saw the launch of the Ham and Petersham Low Carbon Zone (LCZ), a community-led approach to cutting CO2 emissions. SMEasure is supporting this initiative and will help the Ham and Petersham community to monitor their business building energy uses and carbon footprints. We are thrilled to have this new community joining into the SMEasure! See here.

That is all for this week!

Energy Management
For Home – www.imeasure.org.uk
Find imeasure on twitter: imeasureou
For Work – www.smeasure.org.uk
Find SMEasure on twitter: smeasure

Your questions and comments are always helpful: http://help.smeasure.org.uk/discussion/new

Mushrooms from coffee, Green IT and Biogas power

Video: Green business: mushrooms from coffee

Two University students in California gave up lucrative careers in finance to start a business based on sustainability. They grow gourmet mushrooms from used coffee grounds. The perfect green business model. Check it out here.
The greening of IT
Our ECI colleague Daniel Curtis researches how energy can be saved from switching off desktop computers. He estimates that switching off desktop computers when they are not in use, could save about 5 gigawatt-hours a year of electricity, which could be an annual savings of around half a million pound. Read more here.

Biogas will arrive in the UK this year
The first biogas supply is due to be delivered to the UK this year by green energy company Ecotricity. A highly effective low-carbon energy alterative, biogas is produced from biodegradable waste such as sewage, food and wood which release emissions known as biomethane as they decay. See here for more information.

That is all for this week!

Energy Management
For Home – www.imeasure.org.uk
Find imeasure on twitter: imeasureou
For Work – www.smeasure.org.uk
Find SMEasure on twitter: smeasure

Your questions and comments are always helpful: http://help.smeasure.org.uk/discussion/new

Electrifying rural Ghana, Geoengineering podcast and Funding

Electrifying clinics in rural Ghana

Two ECI colleagues, Daniel Curtis and Dr Christian N. Jardine, led a project that helped clinics in rural Ghana get a sustainable access to clean electricity using photo-voltaic modules. This research has positive impacts for the local communities, such as reducing energy poverty and improving health services. See the project report here.

Podcast: Geoengineering: a brave new world? Panel Discussion

Placing giant mirrors in space to reflect sunlight and fertilising the oceans with nutrients in order to produce more phytoplankton to soak up atmospheric carbon dioxide are among possible geoengineering interventions to reduce atmospheric GHG concentrations. To be up to the beat with the latest developments and debates on geoengineering, check this link.

Funding for London businesses to go green

Funding of £300m is on offer to London businesses to help them go green by reducing their waste and carbon footprint. See here.

That is all for this week!

Energy Management
For Home – www.imeasure.org.uk
For Work – www.smeasure.org.uk

Your questions and comments are always helpful: http://help.smeasure.org.uk/discussion/new

Until next week!

Thanks,
The SMEasure team

New SMEasure feedback, Haiti and COP

New results! SMEasure gives you an indication of your building’s energy overuse/underuse and overspend/underspend for the year based on our knowledge of your building’s weekly energy performance. This information will also be displayed for the past week, month and quarter. Please let us now what you think – we are in testing mode for what and how to display results to you so want to ensure we are giving you the information you’d find most valuable. Find out more here.
In the coming couple of months we will be improving our treatment of tariffs, which at the moment is very basic. To do this we need to know more about business energy tariff rates and other cost structures. We would greatly appreciate if you could provide us some information about how your utility company charges you – to find out what information we are most interested in please go here.
Yup – we have done it, we have joined the Twitter bandwagon! Our username is – smeasure (shocker!). You can follow us to links to the weekly news. This could be of interest to colleagues interested in our news items, but not needing to receive this meter reading reminder

Helping Build a Green Haiti
It is almost unbearable to watch and hear the news coverage about Haiti. A nation that has lost so much in the last 2 weeks & needs to full support of the international community. It has been amazing to see so many donate to help with relief efforts and to rebuild the communities of Haiti. The US Green Building Council has pledged to help Haiti build environmentally sound structures. Learn more here.

Copenhagen COP15: What happened and what next?
Post COP15, you might ask what happens now? Did governments fail? What have we learnt? What next? Listen to ECI experts and journalists for their reflections on COP and its implications for future climate negotiations. For the Podcast go here.

Energy Management

For Home – www.imeasure.org.uk
For Work – www.smeasure.org.uk

42% carbon cut by 2020, Wind turbines up for grab, Environmental performance reporting, Green business awards, Europe’s renewable energy supergrid, New roof tiles featuring hair gel, CO2-absorbing paint

UK should cut carbon by 42% by 2020
Government is on the right track when it comes to cutting carbon but needs to be prepared to make far bigger reductions than are currently thought politically possible. See here for more on this story.

Anyone want an old turbine? Wind farm revamp leads to offer
Plans to replace turbines from Britain’s first commercial wind farm with new, more efficient models have left ten ageing but perfectly operational turbines up for grabs. More here.

Reporting your environmental performance
The Institute of Chartered Accountants for England and Wales (ICAEW) in association with the Environment Agency has launched a new guide on environmental reporting in financial statements. More details from here.

Green business awards
The Green Business Awards – celebrate excellence in green practice, strategy and products. They seek out and scrutinize the most innovative, ambitious and effective initiatives by UK business for achieving environmental sustainability, and implementing smart business practice. They are the “Green Globes”. Why not enter your business for next year’s awards?

Europe unites to build renewable energy ’supergrid’
Europe’s first electricity grid dedicated to renewable energy is one step closer to reality as policymakers in nine countries look to progress plans to link clean-energy projects from around the North Sea. More on this here.

New roof tiles to battle climate change
Scientists in the US are working on new roof tiles featuring hair gel that could reduce the impact of global warming.
New ’smart paint’ absorbs CO2
The latest development in carbon neutral housing is a paint which could absorb harmful carbon emissions.
Energy Management
For Home – www.imeasure.org.uk
For Work – www.smeasure.org.uk

Your questions and comments are always helpful: http://help.smeasure.org.uk/discussion/new

Top ten green buildings trends for 2010, London big build, French carbon tax, Eco-LED streetlights

Top ten green building trends for 2010, selected by Earth Advantage Institute

Earth Advantage Institute, a leading non-profit green building resource that has certified more than 11,000 sustainable homes, announced at the beginning of January its selections for top ten green building trends to watch in 2010. See here for more details.

London big build cutting carbon by third

Big development projects in the capital are going well beyond the energy efficiency measures required of them by building regulations, according to City Hall. More on this story here.

Big French firms to pay variable carbon tax from July

New legislation on a carbon tax that was supposed to take effect on Jan. 1 will come into force in July and will also apply to France’s biggest polluters, senior government officials said last week. Get more information here.

E.ON introduces eco-LED streetlights

A low-carbon streetlight, which consumes up to 70% less energy than standard lamps, has been unveiled by electricity and gas company E.ON. See here.

Energy Management

For Home – www.imeasure.org.uk

For Work – www.smeasure.org.uk

Your questions and comments are always helpful: http://help.smeasure.org.uk/discussion/new

Partnership for green technologies, UK wind energy programme, A new source of rubber, Glowing wallpaper

Green technology to be used by top firms to overhaul UK homes
Some of Britain’s leading firms are partnering top academic institutions to develop projects that will overhaul household energy, water, transport and waste provision to drastically cut carbon emissions.
See here.

Gordon Brown to launch £100bn wind energy programme
Gordon Brown will this week launch a £100bn programme to build thousands of offshore wind turbines that could power most of Britain’s households during strong winds and are crucial to meeting the country’s renewable targets.
See here for more information.

The tyres of the future may be made from dandelions
One species of dandelion, a Russian variety called Taraxacum kok-saghyz (TKS), produces molecules of rubber in its sap and if two research programmes, one going on in Germany and one in America, come to fruition, it could supplement—or even replace—the traditional rubber tree, Hevea brasiliensis. More on this here.

Glowing wallpaper to replace lightbulbs?
Glowing wallpaper could replace lamps for lighting homes and offices, according to the government-backed Carbon Trust.
See here for further details.

Energy Management
For Home – www.imeasure.org.uk
For Work – www.smeasure.org.uk

Your questions and comments are always helpful: http://help.smeasure.org.uk/discussion/new

Copenhagen latest updates, Low-carbon economy, Heat count, Climate change art

Copenhagen latest updates

If you are interested in keeping up-to-date with the latest developments at the Climate Change Conference currently taking place in Copenhagen, have a look at this good general website.

For more “insider” views on the conference, I also recommend the 2 following blogs, which are updated daily with lively, funny and very interesting news about COP, by people attending the conference:
- the lowcarbonara blog
- the Oxford University Environmental Change Institute blog.

Lastly, if you want to show your vote to the world leaders at the COP15 UN climate summit in Copenhagen, telling them to seal a fair and effective climate deal, then follow this link.

Nicholas Stern: “Low carbon economy is the only real choice”
Economist Nicholas Stern, author of the well-known Stern report, said that if we continued along the ‘business as usual’ path then by the end of the century we would be looking at climate change that ‘could only be described as catastrophic’ and that would re-write the map of where people could live and cause extended, widespread conflict.
See Lord Stern’s full briefing here.

Heat count
Programs that help businesses cut greenhouse gases are proliferating. While governments argue over emissions cuts, many firms have already started cleaning up their act, or at least preparing to do so—prompting more and more software firms to offer tools to help.
See here for more information.
The rise of climate-change art
Artists are waking up to climate change. But what good can they do – and how green is their work? Cornelia Parker, Gary Hume and Keith Tyson reveal how they’re dealing with the threat of catastrophe. See here for the article.

Energy Management
For Home – www.imeasure.org.uk
For Work – www.smeasure.org.uk