Climate & weather - and not losing our balance

One of the joys of working in environment is the comments we get when it snows. Lower than average temperatures anywhere in the UK at any time are taken as proof positive that climate change isn't real. I can understand why people would like to dismiss the whole concept. If climate change is real and the effects on our children and grandchildren are as predicted then we all ought to do something about it. To make a real difference we are going to have to make large changes. It's so much easier if we can deny it. Unfortunately the science points to climate change being real and mostly our responsibility.

People tend to forget that there is a difference between weather and climate. Weather is what we get day to day. It is variable and difficult to predict accurately. Will it rain on 3rd July? We don't know in January. Climate is the big picture and is more predictable. We can be fairly sure that it will be warmer on 3rd July than it is today. In the UK our climate is temperate maritime which means it is generally mild and damp and subject to a lot of weather. Oscar Wilde said, 'Conversation about the weather is the last refuge of the unimaginative.' In the UK it is one of the safest conversational subjects, suitable for all, especially at the moment when it is the second winter to be unusually cold following a prolonged run of mild winters. During last year's winter a taxi driver in Sheffield (font of all knowledge) commented that there was a whole generation of drivers who had little experience of driving on ice.

What we should remember is that weather is local and climate change is global. As you can see in NASA's temperature map below whilst November was unusually cold in the UK and northern Europe there are whole areas surrounding us that are very much warmer then normal. The other thing we might consider is that climate destabilisation can have a marked effect on our local weather.

I have been saying for quite some time now, in my entirely unscientific way, that continuing arctic ice melt can only result in strange weather. That huge amount of ice at the top of the world, covering the sea and reflecting sunlight must have a large effect on the weather we experience in the UK. The gardening book I am reading at the moment, 'The Resilient Gardener' puts it very nicely:

'Climatic changes cause irregularities in the patterns of ocean currents and winds. The local effects of those changes are huge compared with the few degrees cited as likely increases in average global climate in the next few decades. A change in wind patterns that brings Arctic inland air masses to you instead of mild ocean air will matter much more than a few degrees higher average global temperature.'

This may be what is happening at the moment. Arctic sea ice is lower than usual, as can be seen on the Arctic Sea Ice News website. Scientists are already at work looking at the potential effects of lower sea-ice. The Oslo Science Conference website, reporting Dr James Overland's comments summarised, 'a warmer Arctic climate is influencing the air pressure at the North Pole and shifting wind patterns on our planet. We can expect more cold and snowy winters in Europe, eastern Asia and eastern North America'. Recently Vladimir Petoukhov and Vladimir Semenov have issued a press release based on a paper in the Journal of Geophysical Research (JGR) arguing that Global Warming could cool down winter temperatures over Europe, and a reduced sea-ice extent could increase the chance of getting cold winters.

Whenever I come across any climate related news I head straight for Real Climate, a blog about 'Climate science from climate scientists'. I have to concentrate really hard to remember my physics and occasionally do background reading to fully understand what they are talking about but it's worth the effort. They didn't let me down with these stories which are discussed in a recent blog posting. They critique the JGR paper and suggest that further work needs to be done before the link they describe is confirmed but conclude, 'It is nevertheless no contradiction between a global warming and cold winters in regions like Europe. Rather, recent analysis suggest that the global mean temperature is marching towards higher values, and Petoukhov and Semenov argue that the cold winter should be an expected consequence of a global warming.'

NB The temperature anomaly map is for November 2010, the most up-to-date at the time of writing.

Snow & Ice - and staying on our feet

Last week was cold here. It snowed lightly on Friday and the light dusting turned very quickly to ice making the roads treacherous. On Saturday night it started to properly snow and we had several inches.

Despite that, on Monday I set off for Manchester to deliver a training course. Luckily it was an afternoon course and I'd given myself plenty of time to get there. I set out at ten and arrived at 13.30 to find the room not set up, no flip chart and only four delegates. By the time I'd sorted out the room the delegate numbers were up to just a couple short of the expected numbers and we made an enthusiastic start.

To be fair, I had quite a pleasant day. There was a long wait at Sheffield Station as I'd allowed plenty of time for the bus to be delayed, which it wasn't, although the train was over half an hour late. In the new world of high-tech connectivity I didn't waste that time. I bought a coffee in order to be allowed to sit and work at a table and got on with all my outstanding stuff. The trip over the Pennines was spectacular - at this time of year I rarely see it, it being dark for both the outward and return trips. By the time we got into Manchester Piccadilly we were running so late that they turfed us off and set off back to Cleethorpes leaving us to scurry along and catch the local train to the airport.

By the time I arrived back to the airport station on my way home, one minute after the scheduled departure time, they were back to running strictly to time and I had another 55 minutes to catch up with outstanding stuff. I must say that although public transport was disrupted by the snow I never for an instant though about trying to drive to Manchester which involves either the Snake or Woodhead Passes (often closed by this sort of weather and amazingly slow even when not) or the M62, a long way round and probably carrying the burden of the traffic from the other routes.

On Tuesday morning I checked National Rail Enquiries to find that the train to Leeds was running on time. Walking through fresh snow, even down my scary steep hill, was fairly pleasant so I caught my bus, then the train all bang on time. At Leeds the train to Garforth was delayed so, following a problem the week before with the taxi company (during Eid there are very few taxi drivers available in Garforth), I took the opportunity to call ahead and ask for a taxi to be waiting for me. At this point, standing in the snow on a frigid platform, I learned that none of the drivers were prepared to drive from the station to the training venue. Hmm. Luckily one of the delegates was already there and quite happy to brave the snow and pick me up. He had a front wheel drive car and so had rather more control than the posh BMW sitting in the car park, revving but going nowhere. It was a good training course and a lovely day in Garforth where it was cold but sunny all day long. Back in Sheffield though, the difference of forty miles was clear. Whilst it had been bright and biting in Garforth it had snowed all day in Sheffield. I was tremendously grateful that the taxi driver at Sheffield Station was prepared to risk taking me towards home. He wasn't prepared to chance going off the bus route because even that was a couple of inches thick with snow. Off this the roads were about six inches deep.

By Wednesday, when the snowman was built, the snow was fifteen inches deep and we reluctantly postponed the course in Birmingham scheduled for Thursday. There was only a light dusting there and the trains were running less than 30 minutes late but there was no safe way to get to the station in Sheffield carrying a laptop and all the paperwork or, more importantly, back to my house in the evening. I worked at home Wednesday and Friday and, given that it was -10C last night, the pavements and roads are icy, and I don't fall gracefully, I am working at home today, hence the catch up. Tomorrow I'll attempt getting to Birmingham. Because there is only so much stuff that is outstanding.

CLP Regulation

Here's a post from Catherine:

1st December this year will see the first registration deadline under REACH for those manufacturers/importers supplying a substance above 1,000 tonnes/year. Perhaps slightly less well publicised but equally important is the coming into force of key provisions of European Regulation (EC) No 1272/2008 on Classification, Labelling and Packaging of Substances and Mixtures, otherwise known as the CLP Regulation. This Regulation is the method by which the EU has adopted the agreement on a Globally Harmonised System (GHS) on the classicisation, labelling and packaging of chemicals. Changes to the system include terminology changes such as ‘hazardous’ replaced by ‘dangerous’, ‘risk phrases’ replaced by ‘hazard codes and statements’, ‘safety phrases’ replaced by ‘precautionary statements’ and ‘warnings’ (irritant, corrosive etc.) replaced by ‘signal words’ (warning, danger etc.). Although the legislation was approved in January 2009, it won’t come fully into force until June 2015, and the transitional period coincides with some of the key REACH deadlines. However, the CLP Regulation is going to have a much wider impact than just REACH as much national legislation is based on the existing CLP system. For example, the classification of hazardous waste is partly based on risk phrases, so will the Hazardous Waste Regulations have to be overhauled? It will be interesting to see how the knock-on effects of the CLP Regulation will be dealt with in the UK. The transitional period will also mean an overlap between the new and old systems, so some downstream users of chemicals will receive data sheets from one supplier using the old system and some from a different supplier using the new system! Interesting times…

Civil Sanctions for the Environment Agency

Here are a few words from Alison about the new powers for the Environment Agency.

The use of civil sanctions by the Environment Agency came into force in September 2010. This adds to the EA's 'toolbox' of powers to fine for and remediate environmental damage. Some would say this is a good thing. It may help to reduce lengthy and costly court battles in some cases where a civil sanction and fine is more appropriate. The key powers include:

- Fixed monetary penalties: up to £300 for a minor non compliance causing little or no environmental harm. An example of this may be paperwork related to waste legislation. It will not result in a criminal record.

- Variable monetary penalty - this is the biggest change. It provides for the EA to fine up to £250,000 and will be set by the EA dependent on each case. Fines will be awarded for more significant damage to the environment but which do not necessarily need to lead to prosecution. An example may be a packaging waste or a water pollution offence.

This may lead to more enforcement and penalties and could have a commercial impact on all organizations that fall under the scrutiny of the EA. Let's hope everyone views it as an even better reason for the prevention of pollution through good procedures and risk management systems.

If you have any queries regarding environmental legislation at your organisation, do not hesitate to contact our consultants.

Our new admin person

We've got a fab new administrator; willing, good with computers, helpful and generally nice to have around. The brooding photo was provided by Catherine and as he hasn't made another available, that's what we'll have to go with. I'll let him introduce himself.

I’m Chris, ECUS’ brand new Administration Assistant. My job basically entails sorting, coding and filing (both physically and electronically) financial things such as invoices and purchase orders, printing off and binding reports and other bits and pieces for the other members of staff, and producing stunning cups of tea and coffee for any clients who might visit the office. I also spend my time doing little jobs for the rest of the ECUS staff- anything from clearing dusty old files out of the attic to tweaking Powerpoint presentations so that they’re all in the right format. Basically, I do anything that the rest of the staff feel is beneath them!

As well as all that, I’m responsible for dealing with the majority of telephone queries, so I’m usually the first person you’ll speak to when you call the ECUS office to ask about the bats nesting in your barn- or anything else!

Outside of work, I lead a healthy and fulfilling life as a ‘creative type’ (musician, writer, occasional artist) and spend a lot of my time either writing music, playing videogames or on stage with Northern Oak, Sheffield’s premier purveyors of folk music and nature-inspired progressive heavy metal. (Coincidentally, my arrival at ECUS means that two members of the band now work here- that’s almost an official endorsement!) I also have a particularly voracious interest in history, as evidenced by a BA in History from the University of Sheffield (hopefully soon to be followed by an MA in Medieval History, also from Sheffield Uni) which manifests itself in a tendency to get annoyed at the glaring historical inaccuracies in most of the films that I watch.

Refurbishing our tired & leaky old houses

A new post from Alison:

Yvonne and I went on a very interesting training course at the Building Research Establishment (BRE) the other day on Sustainable Refurbishment. It really made us think not just about the implications on the clients that we work with (particularly those that do refurbishment of social housing), but also about the refurbishment of our own houses.

We both live in houses that are at least 100 years old and as such they are pretty energy inefficient however tight we both are with the use of our heating! They are basically like sieves in terms of the heat and carbon emissions that leak from them! There were 3 main things that I took away with me from the course that we thought may be useful to share:

1. the Building Regulations apply to ALL properties undergoing refurbishment - the implications of this are potentially huge, although it became apparent that local authority building control teams do not always have the resources and understanding to police this. That is a real shame - the regulations are changing again next month and the requirements for energy efficiency (i.e. air tightness and use of A-rated equipment) are increasing - it is only through encouragement (e.g. grants and incentives) and policing that we can actually help implement the new requirements which will ultimately reduce real carbon emissions from the significant older housing stock we have in the UK

2. it costs money - refurbishing housing to meet Decent Homes standards costs money. Refurbishing them to Decent Homes standard + getting them to a point where they are energy efficient costs lots more.

3. but the technology is readily available to help improve the energy efficiency of older homes. What is missing are the skills and information to use and know about the new technology. Aerogel, external and internal insulation, photovoltaic panels, phase-changing materials....the list goes on. The new technology is really exciting. But we do not yet have a construction industry that has the knowledge and skills to implement it. This will of course change over time.

Maybe this is a classic case of demand and supply. Until the demand for new technologies is there on a large scale then the supply of them will remain expensive. It may be that the private sector moves quickly on this itself, or it may require Government intervention to help things happen more quickly. Either way it's exciting (if not challenging) times ahead.

Expanding the team

I'm very pleased to say that we've been expanding the team at ECUS. We are very pleased to welcome our new batworker and, finally we have an archaeology and heritage department all of our very own which is terribly exciting. I'm hoping to be able to talk them into introducing themselves to you but, in the meantime, I have managed to get Environmental Management's new consultant to write a little piece. When we advertised for the post we received over 300 applications and interviewed ten people over two days. The candidates were very strong and I only wished we could take more of them but Amanda proved to be everything we were looking for. Here she is:

I am an assistant environmental consultant with ECUS. I have experience in environmental management, environmental accreditation schemes, green procurement, and energy auditing. I have a background in producer responsibility having previously worked for the Environment Agency’s Producer Responsibility Regulatory Service in dealing with the packaging waste, battery, and waste electronic and electrical equipment (WEEE) regulations.

In the past I have also worked with the Peak District National Park Authority (PDNPA) where I worked closely with the Environmental Quality Mark (EQM). During my time on this scheme I worked with a number of small rural businesses, primarily within the tourism & hospitality industry, to improve their resource efficiency.

Prior to my work at the Park I completed my MSc in environmental management. However, I actually initially started out studying Spanish at University and subsequently spent a prolonged period in both Central and Latin America working as an English teacher. As a result, I now have a great interest in Hispanic culture, literature and cinema but sadly failed to master how to Salsa. Other than that, in my spare time I enjoy running, walking and doing pretty much anything active in the great outdoors.

Alison goes for a little stroll...

Sometimes the people of ECUS stop working and do something for charity! This time it was my turn. The three peak challenge - up and down Ben Nevis in Scotland, Scafell in Cumbria and Snowden in Wales in 24 hours.

Most of us at ECUS love the outdoors and I will happily spend hours outdoors in my free time - but usually it's for fun! My husband and I have walked Snowden and Scafell on separate occasions, but this time it was much tougher - we always thought Snowden was not that tricky but after no sleep for 36 hours and two other mountains it proved equally as challenging. The beer and snickers at the top in the sunset was well worth the wait. However I would recommend the challenge to anyone - the sense of achievement is immense and my body is aching but my mind is content this morning!

The hardest part is travelling between all three mountains in the time allocated and staying awake enough to get up when you arrive at the next mountain and put your walking boots back on blistered and tired feet!

So thanks to everyone who sponsored me - you helped to raise about £300 for the Bluebell Wood Children's Hospice (http://www.bluebellwood.org/) which I know will be greatly appreciated.

Reporting the environment

I recently came across an interesting report on the Register. It's a fabulous example of bad reporting, drawing conclusions that are unwarranted from the information.

The piece is titled, 'People have NO BLOODY IDEA about saving energy' and subtitled, 'Those keenest to be green are most ignorant - survey.' I guess they provide fair warning in their titling that this is not an objective report. It is, however, based on a fairly interesting piece of scientific research and the Register were good enough to provide a link to the original paper.

Having read both the Register's article and the original paper, 'Public perceptions of energy consumption and savings', I can agree what the Register reported was not incorrect but the spin they had imparted to a sober little paper was so strenuous it is probably still reeling.

What the original article says is that people are not fully aware of the energy used by their various activities, appliances or embodied in the products they use. From the information presented this is true.

I will even admit, sheepishly, that the contrasting embodied energy costs for glass and aluminium surprised me. I hadn't really thought about it but it seems fairly obvious that this would be the case once I had given it some thought. The melting point of aluminium is around 660C, for glass it is at least 1400C, depending on constituents. From this the Register concludes that 'as a true eco-person, you shouldn't be recycling glass, you ought not to be using it at all.' Well, yes. And no. Unfortunately, at present I am unable to find the sort of wine I want to drink in aluminium cans. Given that I am unlikely to stop drinking wine in the immediate future it is still better for me to send my glass bottles for recycling than not*.

The article continues, 'Again, when asked what the single most effective thing they could do to save energy, the most popular response in the survey was to turn off lights. In fact lighting accounts for a relatively small proportion of the average person's energy use and almost all of us could save far more juice (and carbon) in other ways - for instance by turning the heating down as little as a single degree, something which many extremely keen lightswitch nazis** refuse to do.'

I have an issue with this paragraph. I am not disputing that turning the heating down will save more energy than turning off lights, but there is also no reason not to turn lights off in a room not being used. The Register seems very keen on either/or choices. It might surprise them but it is quite possible to turn the heating down by one degree and turn lights off in unused rooms.

They go on to quote the original paper that states 'participants estimated that line drying saves more energy than changing the washer's settings (the reverse is true)'. My concern with this statement is twofold. One is that I always wonder when I hear such loose phrasing. 'Changing the washer's settings' could mean anything from reducing the temperature by 10 degrees to reducing it from 90C to 30C or more. Looking at the paper's Figure 1 it is quite possible that, depending on what that phrase means, line drying may be a better saver. Difficult to tell; the graph is small with a logarithmic scale. My other concern again is, what does it matter? Both of these are potentially high energy saving. Change the washer settings and line dry.

Never mind though, the Register goes on from this paragraph to state, 'Perhaps the killer revelation from the survey is that it is, in fact, the very people who are keenest and most active about reducing their energy consumption who are the most ignorant.' Despite the exaggeration and emotive language this is, in fact, the conclusion of the paper. People are optimistic that what they are doing is having a positive effect. Their perceptions are not as accurate as they could be. This is a problem if for example, you comfort yourself that the impact of your flight to Australia will be offset by turning the lights out and recycling your wine bottles. It may also be a problem if, as a Register reader, you can only take one action at a time so rather than turn your thermostat down, line dry your clothes, boil only as much water as you need and cycle to work you unplug your phone charger.

The lesson the Register takes from the information contained within the paper is, 'In other words, ignore that earnest friend of yours who recycles religiously, turns off the lights all the time, and unplugs the telly every night... They quite literally have no idea what they are talking about.' Well no, that's not what the paper said. The original paper suggested that better and more accurate information would help to reduce emissions and public information campaigns should focus on behaviours that could have a greater effect - forget the phone chargers and turn down the heating. They conclude, 'It is therefore vital that public communications about climate change also address misconceptions about energy consumption and savings, so that people can make better decisions for their pocketbooks and the planet.' The Register, on the other hand, concludes that we should 'ignore the many worth organisations - for instance the Energy Saving Trust here in the UK, which you pay for through your taxes - which have made us all so ignorant.' I took a quick look at the EST website. The top ten tips did indeed include the admonition, 'Don't leave appliances on stand-by and remember not to leave laptops and mobile phones on charge unnecessarily'. It also, however, suggested sorting out dripping hot water taps, fully loading our washing machines, boiling only as much water as needed, changing to low energy bulbs, turning lights off, closing curtains at dusk and draught proofing, turning your water thermostat down (also reduces the risk of scalding small children) and turning your central heating thermostat down. The information on the site would be improved if each tactic was rated on energy saving effectiveness but the tips given were all generally good and do not seem to me to be making us ignorant. The worst that could be said is that it is not as informative as it could be.

I wonder what the Register gains by subverting a worthy piece of research. It makes no sense to me.

*Ideally glass bottles should be reused. My milkman very kindly takes my glass milk bottles back for reuse. It doesn't need vastly more energy to take them back because he was coming to my house to deliver anyway.


**As a rule of thumb, use of the word nazi in an article not talking about the german fascist movement of the mid 20th century is an indicator of a lack of objectivity.

Really useful link

This is a BBC website (beta at present) showing the comparative size of things centred over whatever postcode you enter. I particularly like the environmental disaster section. Wow! The Gulf oil spill, the toxic cloud from Bhopal, the radioactive cloud from Chernobyl and, very worryingly, the Eastern Pacific garbage patch. Go have a look!

Thoughts from a motorway service station

Some interesting thoughts from Alison:

It was a hot and sticky August day and the threat of rain was in the air. We pulled off the M40 on the way back from another carbon-intensive wedding in London to fill up our (reasonably fuel efficient) car. My husband dealt with the fuel payment (can it really cost £70 to fill up a 1.9 litre engine car these days?!) and I walked back to the actual services to buy some lunch.

The services resembled a cross between Alton Towers during the holidays and that old favourite TV programme ‘Supermarket Sweep’. There was a hideous queue for the ladies, every seat (inside and outside) was taken with families on their way to or on their way back from holiday destinations and people were literally throwing themselves on food wherever they could grab it from.

But quite aside from the enochlophobia that suddenly came over me I was completely overwhelmed by the sheer quantity of consumption that was going on in those 50 metres squared. Cappucinos, fast food, packaged sandwiches, sweets, crisps, fruit (not much), canned drinks. I stopped and looked around me and could not see one single person without their mouths open stuffing food and drink into it.

I freely admit that on this occasion I joined them. I usually try and make our own lunch/dinner in the car, not because I’m an eco-warrior, but because I refuse to dish out for the extortionate prices they charge you at the service stations (talk about a closed market). I paid £10 for two lots of sandwiches and two bags of crisps – ouch.

If this much consumption of food and drink and this much waste was being generated at this one small service station off the M40 at that precise moment in time (which probably accounted for 0.00001% of the UK’s population), how much was being consumed and wasted around the world at that moment? A scary thought.

So what can we do? Make our own sandwiches? Well yes, but that may not be the long-term, universal solution of choice. Somehow we have to wake people up to the reality of having a finite amount of space and resources on this earth. Organisations and the culture therein can play a big part in this – what type of culture do you advocate at your organization? Do you have a Green Travel Plan but your Directors still turn up to work in their 3 litre engine sports cars? Do you order in food for meetings from local companies but then always thrown half of it away?

We have to learn to complete the sentences which we are beginning to start. “We have a Green Travel Plan…..and everyone in our company from the top to the bottom is committed to trying to uphold the plan and reduce carbon emissions”. “We order food locally…….and have implemented a system to ensure that we do not over-order and that leftovers are distributed to staff”.

We are still thinking one dimensionally about resource efficiency and consumption – it is time we stopped leaving things unsaid.

ECUS BBQ

We had a barbecue after work on Friday. Follwing a sunny intervals kind of week, Friday had a glowering look. Inevitably, as packing up time approached, the drizzle settled in. Cunningly I had failed to finish my presentation (BREEAM* awareness and rather a struggle) so I let the more efficient people faff. As the rain intensified and the light levels diminished (heading for dreach) a flurry of emails drifted into the right hand corner of my screen. Should we cancel? I hacked away at my presentation, reducing the 187 slides to 80 (still too many I know), whilst the bodging began. When I finally left the post-operative remnants of my presentation the building was eerily empty but there was a substantial jolly racket outside. The double doors of the garage had been opened and a huge blue tarpaulin stretched over the yard, held in place by straining bungee cords. Two barbecues were tended by the inevitable men; Tom, one of our ecologists sported a woman in underwear and stockings type of apron (sartorial elegance for BBQs) and John, Shona's chap, was togged out most attractively in a red and white spotty pinny with layers of ruffles. At the back of the garage, among the accumulated rubbish, a tiny MP3 player was attached to a set of speakers and pumped cheerful music out into the gloom whilst geoscience's coolboxes, only slightly grubby from carrying soil samples, had been filled with ice and beer.


You can probably imagine the rest. Billows of smoke, burnt sausages, toddlers splashing in the puddles, increasingly loud chatter, intensifying rainfall, darkness gathering and a huge amount of fun. Oh, and someone, usually Catherine, occasionally emptying the accumulated rainfall off the tarp to avoid collapse. The beginning of the break-up came as toddlers got increasingly grumpy and were carted off to their beds. We stacked chairs, let barbecues cool, finished up all the open bottles and wandered off into the night. Ed and Ali kindly gave Sally and me a lift home through the deluge. The young ecologists set off for the pub and then probably the clubs.


Would it have been so much fun if it had been a sunny evening? Well yes, probably. But the adversity was fun too. We're quite good at that.


* BREEAM - building research establishment environmental assessment method


Now with additional apron photo - sorry about the blurriness - it was taken on Catherine's phone.

Caring about biodiversity

I don't write about ecology often enough, especially given that our Ecology Department is the biggest part of the company. I spend all my time thinking about management systems and waste disposal options and somehow forget the bigger picture.

The bigger picture is that ecology and biodiversity are central to our quality of life and, in some cases, much more than that. In the light of this I was fascinated to read George Monbiots blog this morning about 'Naming the Nameless'. His contention was that people generally do not connect or sympathise with the plight of a species whose name they cannot pronounce or remember. He suggested a competition to name some endangered species currently labouring under the burden of latin names alone. As he points out, latin names are essential for scientific purposes but common names are more meaningful to those of us not steeped in binomial nomenclature. Following this competition the obscure Stenus longitarsis, a beetle that escapes predators using natural 'jet skis' receives the rather spiffy and appropriate common name of skeetle. The full list of these new names can be found on the Natural England website here. Have a look.

Water. Too little, too much.

I've been thinking about water a lot recently. There have been a number of reasons for this. I have been working with a couple of organisations that have recently realised that managing their water use could save money, and we've been working with a water company to provide environmental training. I guess that we tend to forget water, both use and pollution, as an issue because we don't see where it comes from or where the sewage goes to. It doesn't cost nearly as much as energy and the Government is not running an advertising campaign to remind you all the time.

Where I live we've had a a lovely warm dry spring and summer and recently my water butt reached completely empty. I had to (briefly) use tap water to keep my poor wilting plants alive in my garden, with all the inconvenience and cost that implies.

My boyfriend lives in Scotland and scoffs when I do my bit to save water. He notes that his water is not metered and anyway, Scotland has more water than it knows what to do with; it is resource rich. And then he lets the water run as he cleans his teeth! Are you regarding me strangely? Do you fail to see why that winds me up? I'll try to analyse it on a personal level and then look at it from the point of view of a large organisation.

Water is essential to life. It's also something that is aesthetically pleasing to most of us. Unpolluted water, that is. There are two main environmental impacts linked to water use; water use and water pollution.

Water use requires that we abstract water from the environment. The more we take the less remains. In a very soggy area, of course, there may still be plenty of water left in the environment and over-abstraction may not be an issue, but there are still reasons to minimise use of this valuable resource. One is that turning raw water into potable (drinking) water requires the use of energy and some dangerous chemicals. Even if the basic resource will not be affected by excessive use, wasting energy and chemicals (with their own embodied energy) should be avoided. The other is that all the excessive water going down the drain needs to be treated before sending the cleaned water back into the environment, with more use of energy and somewhat less noxious chemicals. And then, of course, there's the energy required to move all this water around. Some is moved by gravity but a great deal needs to be pumped. More energy use! To be quite honest, though, it just offends my puritan soul to waste anything.

The other issue is water pollution. To some extent, again, my feelings about this are aesthetic as much as economic. I hate to see an ecosystem or an amenity vandalised thoughtlessly and this is really how I regard water pollution; as vandalism. As a child I spent many hours paddling in our local brook, finding sticklebacks, water boatmen and caddisfly larvae. Streams and ponds act like a magnet to children, full of fascinating life and wonder. The very few species that live in oxygen depleted water may be interesting in their own right but paddling though stagnant water is not so much fun. So what causes water pollution? Sewage, oils, chemicals, excess nutrients (run-off from over fertilised fields), litter and even heat and invasive species can all result in depleted ecosystems and a general degradation of the environment. Related to this is that water is a very mobile pollution pathway. Water can move quantities of noxious emissions many miles to where they can do harm, even if your facility is located far away from sensitive receptors. Also, that your facility is nowhere near a watercourse doesn't mean that your emissions will cause no harm as surface water drains will feed, sooner or later, into a watercourse.

Personally I am more concerned about my water use rather than the water pollution I cause. For many years I lived with a septic tank and I developed the habit of being very careful about what went down the drains. If your sewage works is in your back garden you do your best to keep it as healthy as possible or it stinks. Once you've done that for 15 years you've got out of the habit of pouring pollution into the sewer. Similarly, if your septic tank has a limited capacity you develop habits of minimising water use because otherwise you end up with a boggy sewage contaminated area in the garden. Now that I live in an urban terrace, as well as my embedded good habits, I have a water meter. It's cut my monthly bill from over £30 to £12 but it does mean that I've got to keep my eye on things so that usage doesn't suddenly increase. My habit of only turning the tap on to rinse my toothbrush at the end or turning the tap off whilst I soap my hands stands me in good stead for minimising water use but I also save the water discharged as my shower warms up and use it to water my indoor tomato plants. Care with water is not embedded in modern UK culture and people tend to think I am rather strange to do what I do. It would be easier if I could retrofit grey-water use into my home but it would be expensive and, whilst I am careful, probably not really worth it. I've contented myself with fitting water saving fittings in my kitchen and bathroom and buying a washing machine with low water use.

Some sectors in the UK have already looked seriously at water minimisation. As you can imagine, I stay in hotels often and these have really spent a lot of money on water minimisation. I can only guess that this is because it makes good economic sense. Many hotels seem to have dispensed with baths altogether and use aerators on taps and shower heads. This is not just new-builds but refurbishments too, and in both economy hotels and more expensive ones.

Other organisations have not looked at this opportunity closely yet. From industry to local authorities, there are savings to be made. Old fashioned toilets and urinals abound and although it is unlikely that anyone is going to be spending quantities of money replacing these with modern units at the moment there are many cheap fixes available from Hippos to urinal water managers. There is a lot of help available. WRAP are providing Rippleffect, a free water efficiency initiatives for all businesses. It's well worth having a look at the site to see if you could benefit. The registration deadline is 15th October 2010 and will run from October to December. If you don't want to sign up to something, water tools can be found at this page.

I must just say that my water butt could have refilled five times over with the weather we've had this last fortnight, which is great, but I'm thinking about where I can fit another water butt. It's the storage that's the problem. At this time of year two or three weeks without rain means that I'm running short again.

Cool tech

I'm always interested in advances in technology which minimise environmental impact. There is an interesting new piece of air conditioning technology reported at engadget. Not only is it 90% more efficient but doesn't use f-gases with their high global warming potential, instead using a salt solution as a refrigerant. I tend to think that much of the UK could do without aircon but there are places in the world that are almost unliveable without cooling. Speaking of uninhabitable areas, there is another story that Nevada is set to become the Saudi Arabia of geothermal power. These two technologies are made for each other. Las Vegas, one of the least sustainable cities on earth, can now be a little bit greener! Finally, in the realms of greentech, a potato powered battery has been developed. This technology s being made freely available to the developing world.

Oil use statistics

There are some fascinating snippets around regarding the increasingly appalling disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. After the Exxon Valdez disaster Greenpeace ran an advert that said:

It wasn't the Exxon Valdez captain's driving that caused the Alaskan oil spill. It was yours. ~Greenpeace advertisement, New York Times, 25 February 1990

As always with major environmental incidents there appear to be a large number of contributing factors. The culture of the three companies involved in the drilling, the lack of adequate regulation and oversight, the drive to cut costs to maximise profit; all the usual culprits.

And now the blame allocation is well under way. I have occasionally said that any Quality Management System has a secret procedure, QP00 'Allocation of Blame'. In this disaster it is quite obvious that management systems have not been properly implemented. The blame allocation flow chart is flailing around, coating everyone in a slime of toxic sludge. I know that politically everyone wants to be teflon coated however I feel that right now the extreme effort could be more appropriately directed to stopping the flow and dealing with the pollution. What was learned from the Valdez? That sooner or later, if corners are cut there will be a disaster. Here we have just such another instance. Cutting edge technology occasionally falls over. The closer to the edge we are the more likely the fall over the ragged edge of disaster. The closer to the edge the more important that we have an effective plan in place for when it all goes wrong. Because it will.

So, whilst we are looking for someone to blame, BP's statistics have been published in the Guardian with a fascinating graphic showing which countries have the highest oil consumption and where the proven reserves are. Have a look. There is also an interesting opinion piece in the Washington Times which brings you and me into the blame target and comments that if we want to avoid this sort of thing we (the general public) need to learn to live with higher prices because safety costs money.

I admit I have a mild tendency to smugness in my assessment of my own environmental impact but in reality I, in common with most middle-class greenies in the UK, account for the use of a great deal of oil. But then it is so much easier to see the mote in someone else's eye!

Summertime but the living is far from easy

Again with the excuses. It's been a while since we have published regular posts. Life got hectic in May and June and there haven't been enough train journeys where we have had time to think and write. I'm glad to say that Alison had one of those yesterday when she travelled down to Birmingham and back to deliver talks familiar enough not to require a lot of preparation. Three hours on the train with minimal phone reception gave her enough time to catch up on some of her reading and write a piece for the blog, for which I'm very grateful.

I'm hoping that in July we'll get a bit of breathing space and get back to more regular postings. I've got a number of topics I'd like to hold forth on from the joys of public transport to the delights of auditing.

But for now there are presentations to be written, reports to be completed and admin to be done not to mention our Achilles audit to be prepared for when we're on the other end of the clipboard of questions.

Low Carbon & Construction - Top Ten Thoughts from Alison

How are the construction industry going to embrace the challenge of the Government’s plan to work towards a low carbon economy in the UK? That is a question that has been considered in the recent report issued by the Construction Innovation & Growth Team working group. It’s a really interesting report, and I thought it would be useful to paraphrase a few of the key facts, findings and recommendations that have come out of it. Alternatively you can access the report here.

1. The UK is committed by law to reduce carbon emissions (Climate Change Act) and due to the significant emissions from built infrastructure, the construction industry have a big part to play in working towards the carbon reduction targets
2. The Government’s ‘Low Carbon Transition Plan’ should be seen as a business plan for construction over the next 40 years
3. Whilst the construction industry has a lot to think about at the moment, the focus on carbon provides a simple and rigorous focus for action
4. For companies in the construction supply chain, their task is threefold:

• De-carbonise your own business

• Build energy efficient buildings

• Provide infrastructure for a low carbon economy.

5. To do this, each part of the construction supply chain (client, designer, buyer/surveyors, site team, final user) needs to understand and accept their responsibilities for creating a low carbon economy
6. To achieve this, we need skilled and enthusiastic people in the industry
7. Currently, there is no accurate understanding of the scale of change required to meet these challenges
8. Carbon presents 4 key opportunities for the construction industry:

• Lots of work – newbuild and refurbs to meet stricter carbon requirements

• Reform the structure and practice of the industry

• Export products, knowledge and skills

• Enthuse future generations to work in a forward-thinking and exciting industry

9. There are barriers that may hinder progress, including:

• Over-regulation and confusing support from Government

• Silo-ism and lack of collaboration and communication in the supply chain

• Up-skilling

• The gap between design and implementation in practice of low carbon buildings

• Focus on initial costs versus lifetime value

• Lack of drivers for change in customer demand, which leads to inertia on the supply side

10. The report has just ONE key recommendation to Government: employ a competent person to make sure we can actually implement the UK’s Low Carbon Action Plan in the construction sector.