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.

The meaning of the blog!

So, a quick play with a piece of software (Tagxedo) reveals our preoccupations. I may try this again in a month or so and see if they change.

Paper towels vs air dryers!

A few weeks ago my colleague, Alison, identified the question, 'are paper towels or air dryers better for the environment?' as one of the most frequent queries she encounters. I don't have a scientific answer for you yet, just another link from the Guardian where Leo Hickman reports 'Dyson and Kimberly Clark in hand to hand combat over paper towels'. This is fascinating and well worth a read, not least because here in full view is a wonderful example of why you should be careful when looking at environmental claims. Essentially Kimberly Clark (KC), a major producer of paper towels (and tissues, loo-rolls, feminine hygiene products and nappies) has published research claiming that warm air and air jet dryers increase the hygiene risks. Dyson, the manufacturer of the Airblade, has responded by saying that their dryers have independent hygienic credentials and have a carbon footprint 70% lower than paper towels. I haven't studied any of the studies used to make these claims and you really need to in order to properly assess the validity of the conclusions drawn about the environmental claims. Dyson compares its environmental performance against 'virgin paper towels' whilst KC remarks that paper towels can be recycled once used. Both of these comments are valid but will affect carbon footprint calculations. Obviously both companies will choose the framing conditions to suit their products. How does an Airblade compare with use of recycled paper towels? How often do KC's paper towels get recycled?

The main point of issue, the hygiene performance, is also worth a look. The comments to Leo's article were very sensible (I haven't read all of them) and pointed out a number of things. One is that our hands are always covered on bacteria. Washing does not remove all bacteria. There is an interesting post here which tells you how to wash your hands and comments, 'the surfactant action of soap helps the running water flush the germs away. That's how it works. It's purely mechanical'. So, as someone in comments to Leo pointed out, the minute you touch the door handle on the way out your hand will be contaminated with whatever was on the last person's hand. Not everyone washes their hands effectively. Not everyone washes! This is not to say that the hygiene of the drying method is not important but that it is not the controlling factor for how clean your hands are when you get back to your desk. The differences in hygiene reported are immaterial in risk terms.

For what it's worth, my preference is to use an airjet, followed by one paper towel, followed by wiping my hands on my clothes, followed by a warm air blower. The clothes option only works when I'm wearing jeans and I haven't had the hygiene risks assessed.

Amusing carbon calculation

My lovely colleague, Catherine, forwarded a link to me showing that the carbon saved by the airline industry closing down for a week was more than that emitted into the atmosphere by the Icelandic volcano. Have a look here. I assume the calculation doesn't take into account the additional rental car and ferry miles for those who were abroad on business and desperate to get home.

The Glorious Leader has left. Long live the Glorious Leader

So, Danielle Taylor has left us, heading for an undoubtedly illustrious career as Sustainability Manager for South Yorkshire Police. As the head of the Environmental Management Department she did an excellent job and we all loved the ‘chocolate and bubblebath bonus’ method of management (hint). We’ll know that she has changed the world when the uniform becomes locally sourced, environmentally sound and pink! In the meantime I’m expecting that she will help the local police focus with the sustainability of all their operations and will do a grand job for them. We gave her a jolly good send off, as can be seen in the photo of Danielle looking sad, and all the team and many of the company blubbed copiously.

Sad though we are that Danielle has left, we are thrilled that Alison Fanshawe has taken on the role. Ali is a very good manager and, having come from a financial background, has a solid grasp of the financial bottom line section of the triple bottom line of sustainability. She is a talented trainer, very organised and we, the team, are very pleased that she has agreed to be our new Glorious Leader. I have asked her to write a little something about herself but in the meantime, here are her (summarised) thoughts on sustainability. There will be more information on each topic over the next few weeks.

Introducing Catherine

I’d like to introduce you to my colleague, Catherine. She started at ECUS nearly four years ago now as the admin assistant whilst working on her LLM in Environmental Law. Now, of course, she is a key part of our Environmental Management team. We are all very impressed as she dashes off after work to practice with her salsa band, her folk metal band and her ladies recorder group or to various of her gigs. She even finds time to go to see other bands play.

We love Catherine. She is rather quiet when she’s not whistling complicated classical tunes but she is great fun to be around with a wicked sense of humour, an addiction to strong tea and a wonderful ability to make sense of environmental legislation. Even better, she is a completer/finisher. Nothing pleases her more than putting the final touches to a report, PDFing it and sending it off. She’ll even QA my reports for the joy of another piece of work completed. And she looks lovely in turquoise. What’s not to love?

I don’t want to paint too rosy a picture though. Catherine is a music snob. She finds the ‘music’ I listen to offensively banal. I will admit to finding her taste a little too hardcore for my middle-aged ear. When we travel together we tend to compromise on Classic FM.

Anyway, at the end of a very busy week she has promised me that she will write a short piece about the new Environmental Permitting (England and Wales)(Amendment)(No.2) Regulations. How exciting!

(Catherine grumbles that saying she finds my music offensively banal is a little harsh. It's just, she says, not to her taste.

Best seatbelt advert ever!

Not an environmental issue at all but a stunningly good 'wear your seatbelt' advert that I came across recently. So much better then the peach and hammer adverts of my youth. Have a look here. From the Sussex Safer Roads Partnership.

Why blog?

I've been thinking about this for a little while and at my recent appraisal with our Glorious Leader I suggested that a blog might be a good idea. Our website is fine but it is relatively static and I'd like to have the ability to get information out to clients more quickly than we can using that. I also rather like our newsletter but it tends to take a little while to get it together and there is really rather limited space on a two sided A4 newsletter that goes out quarterly. With my short memory and limited filing ability I was looking for a way to comment quickly whilst an issue was on my mind and before it got lost in the mists of time.

I read blogs. It is my addiction of choice. Other people watch the x-factor. I catch up on the end of the world as we know it (and the cartoons) before getting out of bed in the morning. I had assumed that these fascinating glimpses into other worlds were published by geniuses gifted with an understanding of esoteric software. That turns out not to be the case. Anyone can scrawl their thoughts in a very tiny corner of the internet with absolutely minimal ability. So here I am, scrawling. Of course, no-one has to come look at them. This is the joy of our modern world.

So, in short, I have the go ahead to communicate my thoughts as long as they are informative, mildly entertaining and have an environmental flavour. I intend to use this format to pass on the fascinating links that I find, introduce the rest of the team, write the occasional opinion piece and have a certain amount of fun. Not too much, of course. But some.