The American Department of Energy has announced funding for a variety of energy-efficient building technologies and training courses to create skilled environmental jobs and workers.

There will be a $76m fund that will be divided between 45 companies developing technologies to upgrade the environmental credentials of America’s buildings, there will also be 13 training courses to ensure people will be qualified to build and install them in commercial properties.

“These projects will help the United States lead the world in advancing energy-efficient technologies,” said Energy Secretary Steven Chu.

“Energy-efficient commercial buildings will help our country cut its carbon emissions and energy costs while the training programs will upgrade the skills of the current workforce and attract the next generation to careers in the emerging clean-energy economy.”

39% of the USA’s total greenhouse gas emissions, 50% of its sulphur dioxide and 18% of its NOx emissions are released by domestic and commercial buildings.

There is a wide variety of technologies being funded; from analytic tools to building components, more insulation and better ventilation will all help lower the environmental impact.

10:10 campaigners believes that if we set our clocks to 1 hour ahead of GMT in the winter and 2 hours ahead of GMT in the summer can save almost 500,000 tonnes of carbon.

It would only require a slight change in clock as currently, the United Kingdom sets clocks to Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) in winter and adds an hour in the summer.

A spokesman said: “We would still put our clocks forward in spring and back in autumn, but the sun would rise and set one hour later throughout the year, which would mean that more people are up and around when there is daylight.”

“This timekeeping regime is known as Single Double Summer Time or SDST and yes, we find that name confusing too.”

If successful the campaigners believe it could save ‘at least’ 447,000 tonnes of C02 pollution – equivalent to more than 50,000 cars driving all the way around the world – each year.

We would also benefit from the lowering of electricity bill by maximising daylight hours and reducing peak power demand.

There has been a 25 year global ban on commercial whaling, which may be about to come to an end. In Agadir, Morocco a meeting that finishes today which will judge whether or not to they will allow Norway, Iceland and Japan to legally hunt whales around Antarctica and elsewhere for 10 years in exchange for a slow decline of the numbers killed.

88 countries who are members of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) will have the final say on whether the proposal will be approved or not.

The EU, led by Britain, is united with their opposition to rule against the ban being lifted, the US on the other hand strongly backs the proposal if certain guidelines are followed.

Australia and the Latin American countries appear to be setting a higher bar for approving the deal than other anti-whaling nations such as the US and New Zealand.

South Korea, meanwhile, may vote against anything that doesn’t give it similar whaling rights to Japan, while the positions of nations such as China and Russia are hard to gauge.

Greenpeace, WWF and Pew Environment Group, which are three of the world’s largest international non-government groups, raised a few eye brows over their stance; they say they are prepared to see the commercial whaling ban lifted if 6 conditions were met, they are;

• An end to hunting in the Southern Ocean whale sanctuary
• No international trading of whale meat
• IWC science must be used to set limits
• No hunting of endangered species
• An end to use of the scientific whaling regulation
• If there is a majority, all governments must agree not to lodge an objection

Well to be honest I’m well out of my comfort zone with this topic, I’m by no way a vegetarian, so for me to pass judgement on another who wants to eat a different animal would make me hypocritical. With that said Japan Iceland and Norway bon appetit.

Here is the first blog written by one of our newest emlpoyees Ash Forshaw, he’s only been here 6 weeks and he continues to progress and gain more confidence, we would be greatful for your feedback on Ash’s first blog, thanks.

In the broad expanse of the Northern Pacific Ocean there exists the northern Pacific Subtropical Gyre, a slowly moving, clockwise spiral of currents created by a high pressure system of air currents. The area is like a oceanic desert, filled with tiny phytoplankton but few big fish or mammals. Due to a lack of large fish and light breezes, it is not a hot spot for fishermen or sailors, so they rarely travel through the Gyre. But there is something besides plankton that lurks the pacific: TRASH, millions of pounds of it, most of it plastic. It’s the largest landfill in the world, and it floats in the middle of the ocean.

The Gyre has actually formed two large masses of ever-accumulating trash, known as the Western and Eastern Pacific Garbage Patches, sometimes collectively called the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. The Eastern Garbage patch floats between Hawaii and California: scientists estimate its size as two times bigger than Texas other scientists say it is 700,000 square kilometers (270,000 sq mi). The Western Garbage Patch forms east of Japan and west of Hawaii. Each swirling mass of refuse is massive and accumulates trash from all over the world. The patches are connected by a thin 6,000 mile long current called the Subtropical Convergence Zone. Research flights showed that significant amounts of trash also accumulate in the Convergence Zone.

Most of the trash floating in the pacific is plastic.  To be exact 90% of trash floating in the world’s oceans is plastic. The United Nations Environment Programme estimated in 2006 that every square mile of ocean hosts 46,000 pieces of floating plastic. In some areas, the amount of plastic outweighs the amount of plankton by a ratio of six to one. Of the more than 200 billion pounds of plastic the world produces each year, 10 percent ends up in the ocean. Seventy percent of that eventually sinks, damaging life on the ocean floor. The rest floats, much of it ends up in the Gyres and the massive garbage patches that form there, with some plastic eventually washing up on a distant shore.

This obviously has an effect on the wildlife some of these long-lasting plastics end up in the stomachs of marine birds and animals, and their young, including sea tutles, and the black-footed albatross. Besides the particles danger to wildlife, the floating debris can absorb organic pollutants from the seawater, including PCBs, DDT, and PAHs. Aside from toxic effects, when ingested, some of these are mistaken by the endocrine system as estradiol, causing hormone disruption in the affected animals. These toxin-containing plastic pieces are also eaten by jellyfish, which are then eaten by larger fish. Many of these fish are then consumed by humans, resulting in their ingestion of toxic chemicals. Marine plastics also facilitate the spread of invasive species that attach to floating plastics in one region and draft long distances to colonize other ecosystems. Research has shown that this plastic marine debris affects at least 267 species worldwide and a few of the 267 species reside in the North Pacific Gyre.

Personally I think this should have been dealt with earlier instead of letting it escalate into an environmental disaster. They only started the cleanup in 2008 where they were able to gather 6.8 million tonnes of trash, mostly from inland waterways, in 104 countries which just shows how many countries this is affecting.

LET’S TAKE ACTION NOW

The government has approved £1.4bn worth of health and transport projects despite cutbacks and delays to construction schemes announced this week.

The largest health project to emerge unharmed from the review was the £400m Royal Liverpool University Hospital, while the £250m Tyne and Wear Metro was also given the go ahead.

The total for health and transport projects which have been cancelled amounts to £1.4bn of work.

St Helier Hospital in Surrey, estimated at £220m, was also approved and so was the £80m redevelopment of the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital in Middlesex.

There is also £700m of transport work re-confirmed by the treasury which are:

- Luton-Dunstable Busway – £89m

- A130/A13 Sadlers Farm Junction (Essex) – £63m

- Tees Valley Bus Network Improvements (Tees Valley LAs) – £62.4m

- Metrolink Extension – Ashton – E Didsbury (Greater Manchester)

- Edge Lane / Eastern Approaches (Liverpool) – £20m

- Bidston Moss Viaduct (M53 J1) Maintenance (Merseyside) – £89m

- Poole Bridge (Poole) – £37m

- A41 Expressway (Sandwell) – £23m

- A65 QBC (Leeds) – £19m

- Silver Jubilee Bridge Maintenance (Halton)  – £19m

- Tyne and Wear Metro – £250m

- M1 J19 Catthorpe Viaduct Replacement – up to £25m

The North West is bracing itself for a drought this summer. Usually one of the wettest parts of the country, it has seen less rainfall in the past five months than in the past couple of decades.

Reservoir water stocks are beginning to run low however it’s a long way before the taps run dry. John Sanders from United Utilities which provides most of the regions water has urged for the public to use water sparingly but offered reassurances that there is no imminent drought worries.

“We are certainly not applying for drought permits – nor are we about to introduce a hosepipe ban,” he said.

“[But] if this dry weather continues we have strategies in place to maintain essential supplies to customers.”

“We are following our normal plans for dry weather conditions, which include making use of our highly integrated supply network to balance supply and demand across the region.”

“We will also make use of reserve groundwater sources to augment supplies if required.”

“While we’re taking action to manage supplies, it is a good time to remind our customers that water is a precious resource.”

The water company has taken a couple of precautions for example they are offering free water saving packs and a water-use calculator to help customers cut their water use.

Clive Gaskell, The Environment Agency’s water manager added: “We are working closely with United Utilities to protect the region’s water supplies in both the short and long term whilst protecting the environment and wildlife.

“We all need to use less water and if everyone makes little changes to reduce the amount of water they use it all adds up to a huge amount of water being saved.”

Wind energy will be increased by 13% by the end of 2010 according to new figures.

The European Wind Energy Association (EWEA) predicts that 10GW of new wind power to be introduced across Europe this year, taking the capacity to almost 85GW.

Christian Kjaer, chief executive of EWEA said, “We predict another strong year for wind turbine installations in Europe, repeating the high level achieved in 2009, what is encouraging is that, unlike in 2009, the 2010 results consist of orders placed after the start of the financial crisis. This shows continued and strong investor confidence in the technology.”

Kjaer added that it’s too early to say whether, for a third year running, there will be more wind energy capacity installed than any other electricity generating technology, but it is clear that wind energy will be competing for the top spot with new gas power plants. This year up to 1 GW increased capacity is to be installed during the year which is a big increase on the 577 MW installed in 2009.

EWEA expects France and Italy to install around 1 GW each in 2010. Spain are expected not increase their capacity but it will be more than compensated for by the doubling of installation in the new member states – led by Romania and Bulgaria and the massive growth in the UK, particular offshore wind farms. German is expected to be the leader in the market, with the UK a close second.

Caroline Spelman the Environment Secretary has announced a complete review of how rubbish is disposed of in Britain, she promised a “zero waste economy”

She also went on to speak about how biodegradable waste, like food could no longer be allowed to just rot in landfill. This move could will most likely lead to councils introducing some sort of slop bucket for waste food to be collected separately.

Mrs Spelman also went on to say that aluminium, glass and paper can not be allowed to landfill if we are to reach our goals.

“We need a new approach to waste,” she said as she announced the review yesterday. “We cannot keep putting recyclable and biodegradable material into landfill.”

Doretta Cocks of the Campaign for Weekly Waste Collection said that many households did not want slop buckets because of the odour and the danger of attracting wildlife.

Wrap, the Government’s waste watchdog, said that in areas where separate food collections have already been introduced — roughly half the councils in England — people have reported a high level of satisfaction.

There has been a huge step forward in creating a zero carbon business park, with an initial planning nod from the local council and its being backed officially by the Environment Agency. The park will be situated near Truro, in Cornwall.

Zero carbon will be achieved by the inclusion of a wind turbine, two small-scale hydro-power schemes, geothermal heating, a biomass plant and a photovoltaic solar farm, according to Bernard Ballard the director of marketing and property for the project.

This week Cornwall County Council granted planning consent for a mast to monitor whether a planned wind turbine on the Baldhu site would be effective.

Mr Ballard said: “The monitoring mast is a temporary structure to gather data as part of the wind energy investigation on the site.”

“Our work on the green energy plan as a whole is also progressing well, the site could be self-sufficient in its energy demands and will be able to export any surplus power to the national grid.”

“The development will also include a number of zero carbon workshops and office buildings.”

“A key aspect of the project is to capitalise on the site’s natural resources to generate its energy needs.”

He added that the hydropower scheme will be powered by an old waste water stream using the flow of water from the mine treatment plant at Wheal Jane, which is operated by the Environment Agency.

Mark Pilcher, of the Environment Agency who backed the scheme, said: “By supporting development of these renewable energy projects, we are helping to limit and adapt to the effects of climate change.”

“Operating the mine water de-pollution plant at Wheal Jane is energy intensive – often using seven large electric pumps running for 24 hours a day.”

“By diverting the treated water discharge through a hydropower system, the lost energy can be recovered.”

“This will create more green electricity to feed in to the national grid, reducing the amount of fossil fuel derived power which needs to be produced.”

Virgin racing and tyre recyclers Carbon Green have united in a move that could see top level motor racing becoming a little bit more environmentally friendly.

Both companies have announced the plans June 13 following Lewis Hamilton’s victory in the Canadian formula one race.

Carbon Green which is based in Canada, will become a sponsor of Virgin racing and Sir Richard Branson has declared it the ‘first truly green highly relevant’ deal in the sport.

The recycling firm transforms old tyres into useful products and Sir Richard hope the deal with make Virgin Racing more environmentally friendly.

Carbon Green has also opened its first tyre recycling plant in Canada, in south Ontario over the weekend.

Virgin Racing boss, Sir Richard, said: “I am delighted Virgin Racing is partnering with Carbon Green at their home country GP here in Montreal.

“I want Virgin Racing to drive the introduction of green technology into F1 and Carbon Green’s tire recycling company is, I believe, the first truly green and highly relevant sponsor in the sport and I hope only the first of many.

“I also want to congratulate Carbon Green on the announcement of their first production plant here in Canada.”

President of Carbon Green, John Novak, said: “We are thrilled to be in Montreal with our partner Virgin Racing, to witness the return of Formula one to Canada and Virgin’s inaugural race on Canadian soil.

“We have identified Canada as a world leader with very high standards of environmental practices which fits with our expansion plans for our unique proprietary technology that 100% recycles used tires into high grade commodities.

“We are therefore pleased to announce that we have chosen the southern Ontario region as the first location to launch our standardized plant roll-out in North America.”