The research team compared environment impact in terms of carbon footprint of online and regular shopping for items such as CDs, books, cameras and household goods. It was found that a typical home delivery by courier produced 181g of CO2, however making your own journey by car to the shops produces 4,274g of CO2.
The team looked into other form of transportation shoppers us such as public transport like a bus, it was found that an average shopper who travel by bus produced 1,265g of CO2. The finding was also summarised as follows:  If a consumer drives to the shop and buy fever than 24 small items per trip or travels by bus and buys fewer than 7 items,then home delivery is more environment friendly.

There has been anecdotal evidence that shopping online is more environment friendly than trips to supermarkets or high street. Last year, there was a significant reduction in consumers driving to shop when petrol was extremely, most of them shop online on go to the high street by public transport. Driving to the shops could also be as environment friendly as shopping online if you buy a large number of items so that when carbon footprint it distributed per item bought, it could end up being the same as or even lover than shopping online.

Its true folks! It takes a lot of power to run servers, to cool them with energy hungry air conditioners. Most web hosting companies are aware of this issue but only 3% of them are actively doing something about reducing their business environment impact.

Though a lot of companies are making noises about being socially responsible, very few of them are actively doing something to address the issues. Web hosting industry is very lucrative and equally extremely competitive making over 95% of web hosting companies shun the steps required to make their operation kinder to the environment

A handful of web hosting company pioneer a new niche called Green Web Hosting, this number is increasing gradually. The use various methods to offset their carbon footprint, some of the methods they use includes purchasing Renewable Energy Certificates, generating their own power in house using solar, wind or other green power generating technologies, joining carbon offsetting scheme, getting their staff to telecommute, cycle or walk to work and other hosts of green initiatives.

The 3% of web hosting companies world wide that can be considered green includes a Canadian company called Bounceweb. In partnership with a 3rd party environment impact reduction company called 3Degrees, Bounceweb have managed to reduce their web hosting process to zero. Bounceweb claimed not to have only offset their carbon footprint but reduced it to zero with clean wind power energy.

The carbon offsetting program Bouceeweb implemented to make hosting greener is said to have added an average of 31% more to their overheads when compared with hosting companies that do not use green energy technology.
If you want to put a site online or you have a website online already, considering green hosting company is one of the way to reduce your environmental impact.

As can be expected, the opposition was quick to condemn Mr Brown green budget.  Shadow energy and climate change secretary, Greg Clark said: “Now that the governor of the Bank of England has aborted Gordon Brown’s plans for a ruinous new debt-funded fiscal stimulus, the prime minister is desperate for something to say in the forthcoming budget.

With an existing policy of sourcing work wear and safety clothing from a moral and low eco impact supply chain we were happy we were doing “our bit”

The events that took place in July 2007 (Tewkesbury Floods) changed our lives for ever and we realise doing “a bit” is not enough. With out a big change in how we live, consume, emit and waste, this unprecedented event is just a small taste of our future.

We believe the work wear and equipment, protecting our safety and comfort in the workplace, should not compromise the safety and wellbeing of the workers and communities that manufacture them.

We only supply products that satisfy the highest ethical and environmental standards throughout the supply chain.

From manufacturers ethical workwear insist on:
• The highest ethical standards within the workplace.
• Fair wages.
• The Protection of workers health and human rights
• An open door inspection policy
• No child labour

From  Products ethical workwear demand:
• The lowest possible impact on the environment
• Recyclable
• Reduced or reused packaging.
• Highest quality and durability.
• A transparent supply chain.

You can find out more about ethical workwear at their website: http://www.ethicalworkwear.co.uk/

Different cooling gases has been introduce into fridge making, some are said to do not damage to the ozone layer, other are said to be more environment friendly than the CFC gases used in fridges before the damage it does to the environment was known.

A new fridge specifically designed for camping and other outdoor uses went on sale recently, the Eskimo 50lt 3 way fridge. The Ice Cold 50 Litre fridge is an ideal large family fridge, and can hold enough food for the whole family and most important plenty of beer for our very hot summer climate this camping season

The Eskimo 50lt has a unique refrigeration system which has no CF Cs,so it is very environmental friendly which is great in helping to save our planet.

the Eskimo 3 way fridge dose exactly what it says on the tin It has a built in connection for 12V DC, 240VAC and can be run on any LPG gas .

It also has a electronic thermostat so you can set the temperature to your exact needs when on mains. It comes with a full two year warranty (when you send in the warranty card ) this fridge is ideal for campers and caravaners and can be used at home for that extra fridge space you might need at party’s etc

Main features on the Eskimo 50lt fridge
12 VOLT
230V MAINS
GAS
Net volume 50lt
power input; AC:90W DC:90W LP GAS 15G/HR
temperature range, 0~10c (10~32c ) AMBIENT
refrigerant, ammonia (NH3,R717 )
isolation, C-PENTANE (CFC-FREE )
gross weight. 25kg/28kg
unit dimensions, W500 x D490 x H507mm
packed dimensions. W550 x D530 x H570mm

You can find more information about the Eskimo fridge at specialist outdoor and camping equipment retailers.

This post is not about Heathrow parse, the summary of the above argument is just to illustrate interesting and varied arguments and claims of environment friendliness being made from many quarters. A camping equipment website called camping online argued that buying equipment from its website and camping in UK is a much more environment friendly holiday that some of the so called green holidays that are being promoted. The argument for holidaying in Britain rather than abroad is quite clear, how camping as oppose to saying in a hotel is a more environment friendly way to take your holiday is one argument that does not sound too convincing.

Transport for London will lose £70million per year in income from the scheme. All profits were invested in the transport network and fares are likely to rise to pay for the shortfall.

The extension, covering Kensington and Chelsea and part of Westminster, will not be removed until Spring 2010 while Mr Johnson undertakes the legal process of rescinding the scheme.

Today Mr Johnson announced the results of a public consultation which showed that 67 per cent of the 28,000 individual responses were in favour of scrapping the scheme.

(reported by times)

Do you think Boris Johnson decision is the best thing for London?

Collection companies and councils are running out of space to store paper, plastic bottles and steel cans because prices are so low that the materials cannot be shifted. Collections of mixed plastics, mixed paper and steel reached record levels in the summer but the “bottom fell out of the market” and they are now worthless. The plunge in prices was caused by a sudden fall in demand for recycled materials, especially from China, as manufacturers reduced their output in line with the global economc downturn.

source/full story

The new technique involves coating glass with a specific mixture of transparent dyes which redirect light to photovoltaic cells in the frame.It was outlined in the journal Science. This technology which is expected to  be in production withing about three years can turn glass buildings into huge renewable energy plants.