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June 6, 2010

Freegle — even better than recycling

Posted by efreak under Britain, community, environment, green, recycling, society, technology, waste | Tags: , , , , , , |
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A couple of days ago, a man with a tousled mop of hair, a paunch and a beard knocked on my door. I had never met him before, but without any questions I handed Manu — for that was his name — a perfectly functional Freeview box that the efreaks no longer needed. He smiled, thanked me and headed off into the night…

No, I said Freegle

This was my first experience of Freegling. Using Freegle is beautifully simple. If you have something you are keen to get rid of but don’t want to dump it at the tip, you pop the details on a website. Other people who live near you see it online and, if they want it, drop you an email and arrange to pick it up. I had 20 emails within two days for the Freeview box (remote control included). Alan wanted it for more channel choice during the World Cup. Kati wanted it because her’s had broken down and the kids were pestering her to watch TV during half term. Rowan definitely wanted it, although he wasn’t sure how it worked. In the end, I plumped for Manu simply because he was the first person to email me (about an hour after I posted it) — but apparently in Freegle etiquette, you can choose whoever you like to give it to.

We have an increasing problem with waste in the UK, as landfills are filling up fast. Of course, the best thing to do to help is stop buying stuff you don’t need. But before you throw away the 18th candlestick holder you got as an engagement present, think about whether some poor sucker who (more…)

 

May 18, 2010

In praise of the humble energy monitor

Posted by efreak under behaviour, carbon, efficiency, energy, environment, green, society, technology | Tags: , , , , , , |
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The two most common questions people ask when they discover I am interested in the environment:

1. So you think we should ruin the countryside by planting wind farms everywhere, do you? (Answer: Only where you live.)

2. What things can I do to make a difference?

A lot of people feel bombarded when they think about environmental problems, if they think about them at all. Newspaper reports of a coming apocalypse and images of flash floods yanking daughters from the safe clutches of their fathers promote a sense of hopelessness. What can one person do when faced with the scale of the horror?

Saviour of the planet

I actually like to think of ‘green living’ not as a sudden, dramatic shift in lifestyle but as a series of small steps. It is a bit like a nervous first-time gardener — you cannot grow elaborate floral displays in your first season, you are better off starting with a pot of parsley. So, the first thing I suggest is working out is how much energy you actually use in your home.

Most people just pay their electricity and gas bills. They have no idea what a kilowatt hour is. The bill always seems a bit steep, but they do not remember wasting much electricity. Anyway, they only get bills every quarter (and often pay automatically, based on estimates), so how can they relate the final number to that time they left the heating on when they went away for a long weekend.

Earlier this year, Mrs efreak and I switched electricity supplier to Southern Electric, and their better plan plan (it is so environmentally-friendly they don’t even use capital letters). Apart from (more…)

 

May 12, 2010

Stormy weather ahead for offshore wind?

Posted by efreak under Britain, carbon, development, energy, environment, green, offshore, Politics, technology, wind | Tags: , , , , , , |
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There remain few industries in which Britain leads the world — arms-selling, high-end motor sport, queuing… One that does not get much attention is offshore wind. Obviously, we do not design any of the turbines ourselves, we leave that to those clever Germans and Danes. But after a flurry of activity in recent years, Britain now generates more electricity from wind turbines plonked in our seas than anywhere else in the world.

How much?

A combination of very strong winds and arch-Nimbyism means that if we want to meet our aggressive targets to increase the amount of electricity from renewable sources (wind, solar, etc) we need an enormous increase in offshore wind over the next 15 years, from 1GW of current capacity to about 29GW (producing at least a sixth of the UK’s electricity needs). This means putting up a new giant turbine in tricky waters every day between now and 2016 (over the last six years, we have erected one every 11 days. Lazy).

Unsurprisingly, offshore wind is more expensive than onshore wind. But while you generally expect new technologies to get cheaper as they mature (think how cheap DVD players are now), new (more…)

 

March 18, 2009

China wants importers to pay its emissions bill

Posted by efreak under business, carbon, China, efficiency, Politics, pollution, technology | Tags: , , , , , , |
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Why are the world’s IPods, Matalan t-thirts and sex toys made in China? In addition to paying workers in congee, the factories have in the past been able to keep costs low by avoiding the stringent environmental standards that have become prevalent in the developed world. You know, the crazy fringe stuff that is murdering western competitiveness, like making sure people do not handle mercury every day (see “mad as a hatter“).

You want the tat, you breath the air

You want the tat? You breath the air

Of course, one extra cost that has also been exported to China is that of the carbon. The greenhouses gases and other crud spewed out by southern China’s factory belt are enormous, one of the major reasons why the country can now proudly promote itself as the world’s largest carbon dioxide emitter (and why HKers cannot see Kowloon from Central). So it is hardly surprising that a senior negotiator for China at the Copenhagen climate talks, Li Gao, said in Washington this week that he thinks the consumers of the tat — ie the west — should cough up some cash to pay for the emissions:

As one of the developing countries, we are at the low end of the production line for the global economy. We produce products and these products are consumed by other countries… This share of emissions should be taken by the consumers, not the producers.

In response, negotiators from those western countries and Japan spluttered on about regulating the emissions within your own country not worrying about anyone else, which is a little disingenuous as carbon dioxide does not carry a passport and said negotiators are about to try and plan a hugely complex system of telling other countries how they should reduce their emissions.

(more…)

 

January 16, 2009

How green is my building? Hong Kong’s moves to efficiency

Posted by efreak under architecture, carbon, efficiency, energy, environment, technology | Tags: , , , , , |
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There can be few more exciting book titles on offer than “Building Energy Efficiency: Why Green Buildings are Key to Asia’s Future.” JK Rowling must befuriously bashing out the 8th Harry Potter just to compete… But despite the colon-rich title beloved of academics and thinktanks, the book is an important examination of how economies around the region are dealing with the crucial challenge of reducing energy efficiency. Judging from the ceaseless blast of air conditioning in Central Plaza no matter what the conditions outside are, we are not performing that well…

For those of you who are not part of the no-doubt imminent stampede to Dymocks to grab a copy of BEEWGBAKTAF, as I have pointlessly dubbed it, here is the summary.

9-central-plaza

Central Plaza. A needle in the eye for efficiency

Unsurprisingly for a heading-toward-post-industrial economy (only achieved, of course, by shipping the 55,000 crud-spewing factories over the border), more than 50 percent of Hong Kong’s energy consumption comes through buildings and that percentage is growing rapidly. The other major chunks are transport and the few remaining factories. So it seems pretty obvious where all the effort should be focused: cutting costs in buildings.And the government are making some noises about it (Sir Bowtie said he would legislate for compliance with building coded ‘as soon as possible’).

(more…)

 

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