April 20, 2012

Supermarket chain Sainsbury’s is launching a new line in loo roll. The cardboard tube inside is having its diameter reduced from 123mm to 112mm, but the number of sheets on the roll will remain the same at 240 and both the cardboard and the paper are Forest Stewardship Council certified, meaning that they are coming from sustainably managed sources. The impact of the new slimline rolls is a big reduction in CO2 emissions, which is achieved by using less cardboard, less packaging and through reduced transportation costs. More of the slimline rolls will fit on a truck, so less HGV journeys will be needed to transport them.

April 19, 2012

Some great news today for the environment. Sales of low emission cars are growing in the UK. In fact, almost 47% of new cars sold in 2011 emitted less than 130 grams of carbon dioxide per kilometre travelled. To give an idea of how much of an improvement that is, in 2007 just 10.6% of new cars sold emitted less than 130g CO2.

April 18, 2012

There has been a trend in recent years to outsource certain elements of UK businesses to operations overseas. Customer call centres are perhaps the most notorious example. Worryingly, it seems that UK consumers have been doing the same, but with the things they buy and the result has been that our carbon dioxide emissions are effectively being outsourced too.

April 17, 2012

It would seem that fracking (the hydraulic fracture of shale rock to recover shale gas) is to be permitted in the countryside near Blackpool in the northwest of England after all. A review of the fracking operations, which caused two earthquakes in Lancashire of Magnitudes 2.3 and 1.5 has concluded that further earthquakes are quite likely, but that they will be of a magnitude too small to cause damage on the surface and would be very unlikley to produce an earthquake in excess of Magnitude 3. If I were living in that area, I don’t think I’d find that expert assessment particularly reassuring.

April 12, 2012

Did you know that the Young People’s Trust for the Environment had its 30th birthday a couple of days ago? We were so busy we nearly forgot! That’s 30 years of inspiring young people to look after our world and take an active role in protecting our planet for the future.

April 11, 2012

Last week, Edinburgh Zoo’s giant pandas, who are, on loan from China failed to mate, despite or perhaps because of much anticipation and interest from the UK’s media. Yang Guang (male) and Tian Tian (female) showed only a passing interest in each other when they were put into the same enclosure, despite the fact that Tian Tian was on heat.

August 30, 2011

The noise from our cars, factories, shops and services is drowning out some important singing in the bird world, a new study shows. We often hear bird song when we’re outdoors, sometimes those birds are telling others to keep off their patch, but sometimes they’re just looking for a new partner - something that is becoming quite a challenge in urban areas!