By Luke Wreford - One Planet Economy team - WWF – November, 2012
Recent analysis has shown the growing importance of low-carbon and environmental industries to the UK economy: they now contribute 8% to GDP and employ almost a million people – more than the motor trade and telecoms combined.
It’s true that green sectors are doing well while others are struggling – but to accelerate momentum and fully realise the economic and environmental benefits, the government needs to take some crucial decisions over the next couple of months.
By Dr Aled Jones - Global Sustainability Institute – April, 2012
Unlocking a green economy requires a transformation in everything we do. The urgency of the challenge we face gets greater and greater with every new piece of evidence. Avoiding so called ‘tipping points’ in the Earth’s climate system or going beyond a point of recovery for parts of the bio-system gets closer scrutiny every day – even though, as pointed out by Jay Leno (below), the problem has been bad enough for decades and we have yet to transform our societies in any way that meets the challenge.
This year sees the launch of the UN Sustainable Energy for All initiative, with UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon creating a high-level group to mobilize action. We support the goals of this initiative but – like other observers – we feel it requires more ambition and focus. Key priorities should be reducing poverty through access to modern energy services, and ensuring equitable access to electricity and consumption of energy resources (such as gas, oil and biomass).
Biomimicry is inspiring a sustainable design revolution to address some of the more serious challenges we face today, including learning how creatures in arid ecosystems efficiently collect and distribute water from dew and rain.
The Coop is a Swiss cooperative which operates the second largest supermarket chain in Switzerland, operating 1,437 shops and employing over 48,000 people. According to Bio Suisse, the Swiss organic producers' association, Coop accounts for half of all the organic food sold in Switzerland. Coop's four primary organic brands are Coop Oecoplan, Coop Naturaline, Coop Naturaplan, and Max Havelaar.
An American company, Green Planet, has launched a new water brand in a 100% plant-based bottle that is toxin-free and carbon neutral, compared to popular plastic bottles containing petroleum and BPA. They are also reusable, recyclable and compostable in 80 days. For every 72 plant-based bottles produced, they save one gallon of oil. The bottles also use 65% less energy and fuel to produce.
Oregon has designed a Solar Highway, capable of producing 128,000 kWh of electricity per annum. The energy generated helps run the state’s transportation system by providing electricity for signals, illumination, buildings, ramp metering and more.
An eco-industrial park is an industrial park in which businesses cooperate with each other and with the local community in an attempt to reduce waste and pollution, to share resources, and to help achieve sustainable development, with the intention of increasing economic gains and improving environmental quality.
The plant oil stove is an initiative of Bosch and Siemens Home Appliances Group in collaboration with the Bellagio Forum. The ‘Protos’ technology allows the use of any type of available plant oil as cooking fuel, and has been designed primarily for communities in low income countries who still rely on expensive, hazardous and environmentally harmful cooking fuels.
Ghanais the largest per capita consumer of charcoal in West Africa. Cooking with charcoal contributes to carbon dioxide emissions and indoor air pollution. Many Ghanaians cannot afford to purchase a gas stove for their homes, making the switch to cleaner energy difficult.
