INTRODUCTION FROM THE EDITOR
So welcome to 2011 and a happy new year, at least it would be if the government hadn’t just screwed us for the last of our pocket change. Somewhere in the halls of Westminster they have a great listening device which is tuned to hear the jingle of change in the pocket; upon detecting this sound it notifies ministers who then adjust taxes accordingly. Obviously any spare change we may have is too much and it needs to be collected by the Treasury. The government fiscal policy seems to be based upon the Sherriff of Nottingham’s model in Robin Hood.
For me, so far this year has barely registered; on the 29th of December my daughter Tabitha Maude Stacey was born at 2:20am, weighing in at 7lb 3oz, so I have barely slept since then (and as such this introduction may not be coherent). Becoming a dad for the first time is an amazing experience and has utterly changed my life, everyone told me it would, but I just thought they meant the superficial stereotypical things like lack of sleep or having no time to do anything or changing nappies; but it is none of those things at all, it is like someone flicked on a switch in my head, kind of like turning on a light on a dull day, everything is still the same but at the same time things are brighter more colourful, just better.
Before I wrote this introduction I looked up what the carbon cost of a baby was; how much would it increase my carbon footprint – I felt it would be quite apt as the cover focus in this issue is carbon and we have some great editorials discussing CRC, carbon counting, carbon reduction and energy efficiency, from Rob Hine from BSI, David Mole from Landmark UK, Sarah Royse from RES Group and Annie Westaway from carbon reduction company Sustain. It is obvious that a baby will increase your environmental impact but there is very little you can do in life that wont; what was interesting was finding in the search results the number of people who are refraining from having children, some have even had themselves sterilized to save the planet . I am baffled by environmental purists who insist on inaction and technological regression to preserve the planet. The only way to prevent humans from affecting the environment would be to eliminate them completely; despite being impractical, I am sure there would also be an environmental cost from seven billion rotting corpses. Even in extinction the humans would damage the environment. So we are here to stay.
I firmly believe that we have the capacity as a human society to resolve our conflicts with the environment; it seems, however, that due to arbitrary lines on a map and invisible men in the sky, we can barely resolve our conflicts with each other at the moment. But I remain hopeful that ultimately we will see eye to eye and start working together.
In 2009 in Hong Kong I saw photovoltaic glass developed to be used in curtain walls of high rise buildings, making the entire building into an energy generator. I am sure it will be 20 years before this technology reaches this country but
Tabitha
imagine how much power we could produce if every glass building was clad in this product. Then in March last year I was in Canada and I witnessed one of the most innovative waste management solutions I have ever seen: a credible zero waste to landfill solution (case study on page ......) and yet nearly twelve months on we are still filling big holes in the ground with our waste.
What is needed is an organisation whose role is to find new technologies and services from home and abroad and to test that they actually work, then facilitate their use and expedite safe passage through all the red tape and bureaucracy. There are hundreds of amazing eco products which would dramatically reduce our environmental impact but it is not cost effective to utilise them because architects, planners and building inspectors have not been introduced to them and there are no preset standards or rules for them to be evaluated against. A database of approved technologies could be available to both specifiers and inspectors and as new technologies are introduced to the database, people are informed of these emerging technologies and given a benchmark for their implementation.
I do not believe that the human race is prepared to regress and stop flying and driving and living with the comforts afforded by modern technologies, but I do believe that through research and innovation we can reduce our impact on the planet and with increased funding and diminished bureaucracy we can solve the environmental problems we are facing.
I consider myself lucky because in my role as editor of Environment Industry Magazine I have access to environmental innovations and technologies which most people do not even know exist, let alone have the knowledge to specify and then put them into action. If you want to change the world you need to respond to the ignorance and apathy of the people first.
Alex Stacey Managing Editor
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