Steve Grant looked at the plight of our fish stocks in his last column and urged us all to join the high profile Fish Fight Campaign (
www.fishfight. net) led by Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall of River Cottage fame. It's having an effect, because Princes, the UK's largest supplier of tinned tuna, have committed to cease reliance on the damaging purse seine method by 2014, and source from only pole and line or adapted nets which minimise damage to other species.
Sainsbury's, Marks and Spencer, Asda and Tesco have already made similar commitments, which isolates two major names: John West and surprisingly, Morrisons. The latter, who have received praise from the Marine Conservation Society for their overall approach to fish sourcing, say they are "assessing the impact on the limited fisheries to ensure that the change in method has a beneficial effect".
"Pole & line drastically reduces the bycatch of a range of species including sharks, dolphins and turtles. What’s to assess?" said Grant. Watch this space.
CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme Conference
The usual 'flog my stuff' style of corporate presentation was eschewed by Enersol Flomar CEO Richard Flinn at the CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme Conference held in London on March 16th. Addressing an audience overwhelmingly consisting of public sector professionals with direct responsibility and influence on policy and implementation, Flinn instead threw down three gauntlets.
He asked why, when the technologies, methods and expertise needed to meet Kyoto exist, is government and the public sector not leading the way with social housing and public building? Raising the spectres of acceptance, permissions and red tape, he asked the audience as individuals to think about what they could do to move things forward. "What is it YOU can do to open things up", challenged Flinn.
His second gauntlet was on the industrial front. He cited a company in Leicestershire with factories that use around 70% of all the gas consumed in the county. In comparison to individual insulation grants to tens of thousands of homes, merely making things easier for one organisation through initiatives such as deferred interest loans or even sharing in savings, phenomenal savings in resources and emissions could be achieved in one fell swoop. "Why doesn't it happen", asked Flinn.
He then turned to water, pointing out that it is a fast diminishing resource that we not only take for granted, but waste with jaw-dropping alacrity. Again, he described recycling and heat capturing technologies that have been with us for years and pointed out that we extract, clean, supply and heat water at ever increasing cost and then simply send it down the drain, carrying its precious energy with it. The energy and usage figures he was quoting drew some audible Anglo Saxon from the audience.
|10| ENVIRONMENT INDUSTRY MAGAZINE
In conclusion, he returned to his original premise and mentioned Enersol Flomar's boiler controls as an example of a 'quick win' – cost effective with immediate savings and a short ROL - almost in passing. He also touched on behavioural change and how straightforward it is to get staff and personnel on side with initiatives such as Cardigan Days.
It was a thought-provoking presentation and, whilst there were no immediate answers to his challenges, one had the feeling that his refreshingly direct approach may have had some effect.
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123 |
Page 124 |
Page 125 |
Page 126 |
Page 127 |
Page 128 |
Page 129 |
Page 130 |
Page 131 |
Page 132 |
Page 133 |
Page 134 |
Page 135 |
Page 136 |
Page 137 |
Page 138 |
Page 139 |
Page 140 |
Page 141 |
Page 142 |
Page 143 |
Page 144 |
Page 145 |
Page 146 |
Page 147 |
Page 148 |
Page 149 |
Page 150 |
Page 151 |
Page 152 |
Page 153 |
Page 154 |
Page 155 |
Page 156 |
Page 157 |
Page 158 |
Page 159 |
Page 160 |
Page 161 |
Page 162 |
Page 163 |
Page 164