Green TV

green.tv is the first website to bring together films from a whole range of environmental organisations and independent filmmakers and make them available to anyone anywhere.

You'll need a broadband connection to take full advantage of the green.tv website, but if you do have, then it is well worth a visit.

It is currently still in beta, but the film quality is excellent and the information invaluable.

If you want to keep abreast of the environmental news worldwide, and prefer to 'watch' instead of read, then this site is really is the business.

UK company wins award

Press release

Solarcentury's integrated solar photovoltaic tile, C21e wins the coveted 'Best Sustainable Product Award' at Ireland's Construct Building Exhibition.

Last week solarcentury won Best Sustainable Product Award for their C21e solarelectric fully integrated roofing tile at Construct, Northern Ireland's major construction show. Following Secretary of State, Peter Hain's recent
announcementof £59 million for the promotion of renewable energy in Northern
Ireland, this product's accolade will provide the construction market with an
opportunity to embrace Northern Ireland's renewables revolution without
compromising the aesthetics of their development.

This latest award builds on a host of accolades for C21e including Best Exterior Product atInterbuild 2004 and Building Magazine's award for Innovation in their2005 sustainability awards.

C21e is the most efficient (21.5%), easy to install and cost effective solar tile on the market. The latest iteration of the C21e tile blends unnoticeably withconventional concrete tiles. solarcentury's advanced C21e design has been developed with aesthetics and efficiency as the primary concern. The cells are all black incolour with electronic contacts positioned behind a black tedlar backing. This completely eliminates solar reflection, maximising energy production within the given tile area, thereby requiring less than 10 square metres of C21e to generate a quarter of an average 3 bedroom homes electricity requirements. The application of these discrete solar photovoltaic tiles provides all the benefits of a 'bolt-on' solar systems, used in eco-home schemes such as BedZED, without affecting the 'rooflines' or appearance of the development.

Major housing developers including St James and Barratts are now testing
this new technology on their show houses as part of their drive to deliver more
sustainable homes.

Policies such as The Merton Rule (see http://www.themertonrule.org/) are encouraging a massive uptake in renewable technology as over 80 councils are in the process of implementing pro-renewable planning guidelines.

The thermal version of solarcentury's C21 tile (C21t) will make it's debut at Interbuild 2006 (April 23-27th 2006) providing a fully integrated 'Complete SolarRoofTM'. The combination of the two tiles (C21e & C21t) will deliver renewably generated heat and electricity to homeowners at a time when rising fuel prices are causing major panic in the energy industry.

The C21 product range 'future proofs' a home against such rises by fixing the prices that householders will pay for fuel over the 50 year lifetime of the product.

Eco-friendly Electricity

So, you want to do your bit for the environment and use renewable energy, but you can't afford to install solar, wind, or other means of green power in your home - what can you do?

Well, there is something you can do, you can do it right now, and you can make a difference!

With the deregulation of the UK's energy market you can choose who supplies your electricity, and make your voice heard with your money.

"The other thing that not many people realise is that we can now all choose who supplies our electricity, and therefore how it's made, so wherever you live in the country you can actually choose to have your home or business supplied by clean energy. The funny thing is switching takes about five minutes but it's the biggest single step you can take to reduce your emissions and protect the environment."

There are several green suppliers about, but only one that stands out for value AND their future plans, and that company is Ecotricity. Why Ecotricity you may ask?
Well, Ecotricity was formed in 1996, and have so far (Q4 2005) invested in and constructed 11 windfarms with more at planning stage and construction starting on several other projects.
Just click the previous link and take a look! (link opens in new window).

"Wind is an abundant source of energy that will never run out. It's also the world's fastest growing energy source and in the UK we're lucky enough to have around 40%of Europe's wind resource, potentially enough to power the country 3 or 4 times over".

There are other 'green' suppliers including; Green Energy UK, and Good Energy, but both of these companies have 'bought into' the green energy market by purchasing existing renewable sources including wind and hydro (water) from other companies. Their actual investment in new projects has so far been zero. An interesting comparison of green and traditional suppliers (including their 'green' efforts) can be found at www.whichgreen.org.

Ecotricity promise to match the price of every regional supplier, so therefore it should cost you no more than you currently pay, they also promise to invest the profits from you back into renewable resources, therefore increasing the amount of UK energy produced by environmentally friendly means.

So make a difference now - change your electricity supplier to Ecotricity and you know you are not only making a difference, but your money is also being invested in all our futures.

Further interesting facts and figures regarding electricity and wind power can be downloaded from here . ( in PDF format - Free Adobe Acrobat Reader required: www.adobe.com )

Homebuilding & Renovating Show

The Homebuilding and Renovating Show is being held at the National Exhibition Center (NEC), from the 2nd to the 5th March 2006, and includes The Green Village.

In the words of the shows organisers:

"Make your ultimate dream home a reality now. Whether you are building a home from scratch, extending or improving your existing home or taking on a conversion or renovation development - The National Homebuilding & Renovating Show is the perfect place to source the right products, services and advice you’ll need to get your project underway!"

The reason for posting this event is that there are two features that make this event worthy of note - as well as the usual plotfinder
stands, and other useful resources, the one is the range of seminars, which will surely interest anyone thinking or planning to build their
own eco-friendly home, some examples of which are below:

• A beginner’s guide to building your dream home


• Finding and assessing land and renovation opportunities


• Modern heating plumbing and ventilation/climate control


• How to design your dream home - the fundamentals of good house design


• A guide to ecological home design and sustainable construction

The other thing that stood out about this exhibition is an area within the main exhibition called The Green Village:

"Discover how you can create a sustainable and eco-friendly home. See over 30 companies representing eco-friendly and fair traded products and services such as: solar heating, alternative heating systems, wood burning stoves, timber log frame, natural paints, insulation, thatching, recycled materials, UFH, rainwater systems, waste systems, windows, skylights, books and many more. For anyone renovating or building a new home, the Green Village will provide you with all your ecological building solutions."

So, get yourself off to the Homebuilding and Renovating Show at the NEC, Birmingham (UK) and see if there is anything in the Green Village, that you can utilise in your own home to make a more sustainable and/or greener future for yourself - or go the whole hog and build something from scratch!

Tickets are £8.00 each and can be booked in advance from the NEC box office.

Building for a Future

Building for a Future (Winter 2005/6 Edition) is a quarterly magazine that provides information to help you create healthy and ecological homes and buildings, or as the magazine states on its cover, it's:

"the independent journal for 'green building' professionals and
enthusiasts".

I have always had a 'green' outlook and understanding, yet am relatively new to much of this applied specifically to homes and buildings, so this publication was quite an eye opener for me.

First Impressions

The review copy of the magazine arrived in a large brown envelope - but I am assured that the regular subscriptions are mailed wrapped in recycled content film. The publication itself had a heavy matt full colour cover, containing pages of equal quality on a lighter medium, and yes, it is printed on 100% recycled paper by Cambrian Printers - who themselves seem to have a very ethical approach to their trade which is reassuring.

Although the information within would be your reason for acquiring Building for a Future, it's presentation, manufacture and composition are always of interest to me, as this is where some organisations fall over with their use of new paper stocks or choice of packaging.

I can gladly say that Building for a Future came through as a shining light in this regard, with the 'green' attitude maintained throughout. This demonstrates to me a high degree of care and belief in their subject matter, right down to the attention paid to its overall production.

Contents

Obviously, the real interest is the contents, and this too does not disappoint. On first glance I was intrigued by the word 'interactive' on the cover, half expecting a CD ROM or similar to drop from its pages, but on closer inspection the term 'interactive' refers to the fact that every article has a corresponding thread on the Building for a Future forum. This is a fantastic idea, and one that I hadn't encountered before. It gives the readers the opportunity to give feedback to the authors of the various articles, or perhaps ask questions and for the authors to respond. This makes it truly interactive, and in a very useful way.

As stated above, I am reviewing the Winter 2005/6 edition here and the articles themselves cover quite a broad spectrum including:

• Timber build at the Eco Project
• Rooftop wind energy
• Continued existence of asbestos in our homes
• Converting tower blocks to sustainable energy
• Greener Plumbing
• Passivhaus system from Germany
  

There is much more besides, and each subject is given sufficient space to allow for a reasonably in depth analysis or review. I like this, as it means the topics aren't just skimmed over or given a fleeting glance, but have the room to give more information, images, facts, statistics, graphs and illustrations where they apply.

Accompanying the articles within Building For A Future are the website addresses of the various projects or organisations where they are available, giving you the opportunity to further explore or research any particular projects or topics that interest you.

A few of the articles in this edition were accompanied by various performance figures and accompanying graphs or statistics, which in a few cases were over my head. But it does go to show the depth of the magazine, and the scope which it covers. It is very suitable to for a professional in this field, but contained more than enough to interest and teach the casual observer or keen amateur alike. I'd say that I fall into the amateur enthusiast category, but I still thoroughly enjoyed reading it, coming away with a lot of useful and worthwhile information.

I did notice when reading through this issues forum postings, that the article Beware of the Blanket Approach quoted some insulation depths/thicknesses that were questioned by a reader. The author of the piece quickly replied with the fact that this was indeed an error and listed the correct values. This really shows the power and the value of the 'interactive' facet of this magazine. It gives the rare opportunity to question the author, to correct mistakes (which happen to us all on occasion), and to add of further information or links should the need arise - even after it has gone to press! This really adds value to the publication.

Another feature of the website, is being able to purchase back issues of the magazine from Autumn 2000 - as long as an issue still has copies remaining. If not, then no need to worry as you are able to download back issues of the magazine in PDF format (Adobe acrobat reader required). If you really want a taster of what this magazine has to offer, then download a back issue.

The magazine has its fair share of advertisements - as have all magazines, but not in such a way as to degrade or detract from its excellent content. All of the ads are related to the topic of the magazine, so many people will find them useful when the time comes to source materials, services, or contractors.

Conclusion

Overall, I must say it was a pleasure to read Building For A Future - it was clear and beautifully produced, had good editorial, nice imagery, not to mention informative with great web support.

Leading by Example?

David Cameron the new Conservative Party leader has commissioned eco-architect Alex Michaelis to give his new property in Notting Hill, London, an environmental makeover.

The re-design will include photovoltaic panels, solar water heating, additional insulation, rainwater and grey water harvesting, as well as a wind turbine and more efficient glass to be fitted.

This isn't a promotion for any political party, nor an indicator of my own political leanings, just a few thoughts about those that are supposed to be leading us here in the UK.

That aside, I think this is a very positive and encouraging move by David Cameron (such as often riding his bicycle to the House of Commons) which can only be a good thing. Obviously, not all people can afford to have these devices retro-fitted to their properties, but with a prominent politician leading the way, then surely more people will follow which will slowly bring the price of such installations down to a more acceptable level. Click on the title for more information.

What I do find quite refreshing is that instead of our polititions sitting back and telling us what to do, while sitting back in their very large houses or gas guzzling cars (2 jags Prescott?) and doing nothing, is that David Cameron is actually just getting on with it .. I hope this isn't just some kind of PR stunt and that it is a real act of concience.

The Woodland Trust

Happy New Year!

I hope you're all enjoying a happy and enjoyable holiday season.

It'll soon be time to take down those christmas cards and decorations, but what will YOU do with your old cards?

The Woodland Trust is an organisation dedicated to saving our UK woodlands and ancient trees. They are again running a scheme to collect and recycle all our old Christmas cards. Last year, they collected 58 million old cards, which is equal to about 1150 tonnes of rubbish, and approximately 19000 trees saved.

This year they hope to collect 60 million cards before the campaign ends on January 31st 2006.

You can take your cards to any high street branch of W.H.Smith, or to larger branches of Tesco, which means it shouldn't be too hard to find a branch near to you whereever you live.

This isn't generally the type of thing I post on this site, but for such a worthwhile cause I thought I'd let you all know. So, help them achieve this years target, recycle those old cards and save our ancient woodlands.