For those of you who may not know, Rackspace is an international web hosting company, with offices across the globe including the US, UK, Netherlands, Hong-Kong and Australia. You may be checking them out and wondering whether it is worth the money to go with Rackspace? After all they have many large clients, a serious commitment to 24/7 customer service, a claim of 100% up-time (when most companies can only manage 99%) but is the hosting worth the money charged? From our recent experience – absolutely yes – and here’s why.

EcoSwitch were a client of Rackspace until last year when we thought it would be a good idea to see if we could reduce costs by moving to another hosting provider. Unfortunately it turned out to be a false economy – although the service was cheaper, the old adage applies ‘you get what you pay for’. Only a short time after switching our site to a new hosting provider, it went completely off-line. We clicked the ‘on-line’ customer service button but no-one answered, even when it was listed as being ‘online’. We sent e-mails with screenshots of our non-existent website alerting them to our site being offline, but even those fell on deaf ears. We then phoned their offices and the call was forwarded to a personal Orange Mobile answerphone with no subsequent returned call. You can make up your own mind about the level of (non-existent) customer service. The new hosting company did eventually get back in touch and apologized profusely (hence we don’t feel the need to now name and shame them), but by this time we had already decided enough was enough.

We had, by this time told Rackspace that we were moving back to them as soon as possible. Being an on-line social enterprise ourselves, the cost of the site being down for many days was substantial and something we could ill-afford.

BACKGROUND OF RACKSPACE MANAGED GREEN HOSTING AND WHY THEY WERE CHOSEN

EcoSwitch initially migrated its website to Rackspace in 2008 to trial their new ‘green hosting’. As an ethical, green lifestyle guide, we wanted to ‘walk the talk’ and make sure that our hosting was as green as possible. A lot of companies like to be ‘seen to be green’ but Rackspace have introduced a number of initiatives over several years that have helped keep them ahead of their competition. So what exactly is ‘green’ about Rackspace’s hosting? Below is a review of some of their initiatives:

REVIEW OF RACKSPACE’S GREEN HOSTING CREDENTIALS (WELL WORTH THE MONEY!):

In terms of Rackspace’s green credentials, they have introduced a number of measures:

1. Reduced energy consumption

Rackspace have installed the latest power efficient hardware including dual-core Dell AMD Opteron low voltage processors and Intel Xeon servers. These have SFF hard drives and DDR2 memory which means that they consume considerably less power.  Reducing energy consumption is a key component of any ‘green’  hosting data-centre and is the most important criteria in our opinion. With less energy consumption, there is obviously going to be less waste of our finite energy resources and consequently less pollution.

2. Creation of energy efficient facilities

Their new data centre in Slough comprises of 55,000 square feet of net technical space and been purpose built to ensure the efficient use of energy through the use of ambient cooling technology.  This power efficient cooling technology utilises the cooler outside air temperature where possible.

3. Carbon offsetting through Tree Planting

For every new customer that takes out Green Hosting, Rackspace plants a tree to help absorb some of the Carbon Dioxide generated from the equipment used to host each new website. Rackspace have planted over 11,000 trees in the UK, filling two sites in Pembrokeshire, Wales and another in Chesham, Buckinghamshire. Their third site is not up and running where they are currently planting 1,000 trees per year. In 2011, Rackspace commenced the planting of 10,000 trees in Kenya – trees in the Tropics are particularly effective at absorbing CO2 due to their year round foliage and the ideal growing conditions.

4. Employee education and implementation of internal initiatives

Rackspace use green cleaning products, paper from sustainable sources and recycle their aluminium, paper, cardboard and plastic. They have contracted a firm called PaperRound  to make sure this happens and the local council assist with this. The success of the program led to 2,130 kg of paper and 185 kg of cans and plastic bottles being recycled saving the equivalent of 25 trees or 10,900kWh of energy!

RACKSPACE’S AWARD WINNING  GREEN HOSTING:

Rackspace don’t claim to have the total answer but their ‘green’ initiatives are in their words ‘designed to support its commitment to contributing towards the larger environmental solution’. Rackspace were in fact the first hosting company to introduce greener hosting and their plan is to continue working hard to be as green as possible by introducing more initiatives.

In recognition of their efforts towards the environment, the prestigious Green IT Magazine awarded Rackspace ‘Green IT Operator of the Year’ award in 2010 and the Green ‘Team of the Year’ award in 2011. These awards provide a benchmark by which IT companies are measured in terms of their environmental performance. They reward companies that run energy efficient operations or are particularly good at sustainability communications – for example, making staff, customers and the supply chain more aware about green issues, initiatives, products and lifestyle products. Readers selected Rackspace from some 75 different entries.

WHAT OTHER FACTORS DID ECOSWITCH LOOK FOR IN A HOSTING COMPANY?

1. A DEDICATED SERVER – MORE SECURE AND 100% UP-TIME

Back in 2008, EcoSwitch asked for a dedicated server to ensure that we had 100% up-time and didn’t share with anyone else (apparently more secure). Both of these factors were very important to us. Even 1% downtime would cost EcoSwitch a fortune with customers being unable to switch to greener products and services.

The reason Rackspace are able to guarantee 100% uptime is because they have back up power generation in the event of power cuts. Similarly, they have informed us that they have never had a breach of security on any of their client’s websites since they commenced hosting operations. This is due to their formidable team of security specialists and their list of high profile clients whose privacy can not be compromised under any circumstances.

2. REPUTATION, TESTIMONIALS AND CLIENTS

It goes without saying that it is important to get client testimonials before switching to a new hosting provider. Rackspace have plenty – 170,000 customers globally to be exact as well as an impressive list of large corporate clients and organisations including Domino’s Pizza, the MOD, GoCompare and the  consumer ‘Which?’ Magazine.

3. A HIGH LEVEL OF CUSTOMER SERVICE

Enjoy customer service teams that can help you with any technical query 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days per year. As a Rackspace customer, you can go onto their website and chat with a live assistant at any time, you can raise a ticket online and they will answer your query without delay, you can get through to them on the phone anytime and can always email them if required. There are no long queues and they pride themselves on a the best service possible.

From experience, when an individual’s work depends upon the website and the internet, there is nothing worse than a website going down, being unable to send e-mails and being unable to get in touch with the website hosting provider to resolve the issue. Rackspace have got the service thing sorted. Just check out their website! They certainly give a strong sense that they truly care about their customers.

4. THE COST OF RACKSPACE CLOUD AND MANAGED HOSTING PACKAGES:

Rackspace’s ‘cloud’ hosting package is immensely popular with prices starting from £65 per month (prices as at 02/03/2012) the last time we checked (should be very affordable for small business) but if you are a medium to larger sized business or just want the best quality hosting you can get, go for their dedicated managed servers which are the Rolls-Royce of green hosting products starting from £598 per month.

There are other companies out there like Heart Internet, Fasthosts, the EcoHost and a few others that we researched, but they aren’t backed by the same quality or level of customer service, uptime and reliability as our friends at Rackspace. Thank goodness our website is back in safe hands and we recommend them highly to you and so do two other comparison services – the Which? magazine and Go Compare.

To enquire about Cloud Hosting products, visit Rackspace’s green hosting in the cloud.

To enquire about Managed Hosting, visit Rackspace’s managed green hosting page.

To enquire about Dedicated Green Server Hosting, visit Rackspace’s dedicated server hosting page.

Posted under Articles, Computer & Internet

Part of Kingfisher PLC, B&Q have trained staff members to be in-store ‘Eco-advisors’, have launched in store ‘Energy-Saving Centres’ whilst sourcing 100% of their timber from sustainable forests. This all sounds very good, but does this make them a green DIY store?

According to Newsweek, B&Q are ranked 116th in their 2011 Green Rankings from the 500 largest publicly traded companies by revenue, market capitalization and the number of employees. Kingfisher PLC also featured as the 6th highest green retailer overall in the U.K, meeting the ranking ‘Green Score’ criteria comprising of three aspects; environmental impact, management and disclosure.

Concentrating on the areas where home improvements effect the environment, schemes and practices were then implemented by the Kingfisher ‘future homes strategy’ throughout the group which includes B&Q.

What are some of the key initiatives B&Q have implemented to become a Green DIY store?

B&Q now acquire timber from sustainably sourced forests – although over 81% of their parent company source timber from proven well-managed forests or recycled sources in 2010/11 B&Q have, since February 2011, only sourced wood that is traceable and 100% sustainably sourced. This measure is key for a green DIY store – in fact, B&Q are the first retailer to do so, having a massive hand in the implementation of sourcing such wood by becoming a founding partner of the FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) back in the 1990s. Given that 92% of B&Q customers said they’d purchase sustainably sourced timber providing there was no premium price to pay, B&Q made their sustainably sourced wood available without the dreaded extra charge.

Adding to B&Q’s list of pro-eco-activities, B&Q are implementing green DIY store ‘Energy-Saving Centres’ to facilitate the customer experience and introduce affordable solutions for home and business. The first ‘Energy-Saving Centre’ was launched in Liffey Valley, Dublin in March 2011 to assist customers in reducing their energy consumption and energy bills by introducing solar thermal water heating, insulation and boiler refits.  A similar project by the name of ‘Eco Shop’ is also taking place in two of the leading stores of New Malden and Sutton; this is testing waters in the field of market opportunity and the surveying of local customer’s views on the environmental issues.

So far 1,250 B&Q staff members have been trained to be in-store green DIY Advisers, able to advise on the 5,500 B&Q eco-product range called ‘One Planet Home’. With a key green DIY course as part of the ‘You Can Do It Classes’, the course has helped customers with the installation of these products.

B&Q are working with other organisations such as The Forest Trust in order to help producers receive the FSC certification, so they’re actively endorsing the practice. To round up their initiatives, the Kingfisher Group itself have now invested more than £1.5m into charities and community projects in 2010/11 showing a resounding effort into local initiatives within the Kingfisher operating areas.

In 2012, the Kingfisher Group aims to be the best place to shop for sustainable products and their strategy is working with more than 10% of their total retail sales in 2010/11 coming from the green product range. B&Q, as part of the Kingfisher Group, is being actively utilised to help improve upon this figure and it would be fair to say that B&Q are making genuine efforts to be one of the leading green DIY stores in the UK.

If you have tried an Eco Product from B&Q and wish to share your experiences, or if you wish to comment on their initiatives, feel free to do so in the section below.

For further information, you can visit B&Q’s website and see some of their green DIY store products.

Posted under Articles, Corporate

We have teamed up with the charity Healthy Planet to continue our work in making people more aware of our impacts on the environment and what we can do to make it a greener and healthier place to live.

What is the Healthy Planet Organisation?

A registered charity set-up in 2008, their innovative projects inform children and adults alike about the issues that concern both the health and wealth of the planet and the individual.  Founded by Shaylesh Patel, who, as a father of two, was concerned about the following:

1.         The health of the planet and the environment was in question and

2.         For the first time in history our children were predicted to have a shorter life-span than their parents.

This motivated him to set-up a charity to address these two pressing issues, and Healthy Planet was born.   Its vision is a world where every person and organization can make a difference locally and globally to the health and welfare of the planet and its people.  Even the smallest of actions , if put together can make a big difference.

Healthy Planet has three main projects:

1. Healthy Planet Empty Spaces

The Empty Spaces initiative acts as a link between commercial landlords and under-represented charities which need a base.  Working in partnership with commercial landlords that have empty units, Healthy Planet invites like-minded organisations to collaborate with them and occupy one of the spaces, rent free, thus making a difference to their local communities.

Since all of the organisations that use these spaces share the same ethos this network makes a real difference by informing, inspiring and enabling people to make the planet healthier.  By bringing these empty spaces back into use it improves the local area and the quality of life – the high street is enhanced and can stop further environmental and economic decay.

2. Healthy Planet Books for Free

This initiative rescues unwanted and unsellable books that would otherwise be pulped or go to landfill.  These books are given away for free throughout communities via ‘Books for Free’ stores nationwide. This is a valuable community service,  giving people access to books who might not otherwise have the means to obtain them, as well as giving local people a unique volunteering opportunity.  All of the stores are run by volunteers.  Any donations for books in-store are used to help towards the running costs of funding volunteers who work for free.  Any excess is used by Healthy Planet to fund other initiatives such as giving grants to green charities and supporting conservation projects.  Healthy Planet receives no government funding.

By doing this, the amount of waste that would otherwise go to landfill each year is reduced, and a valuable resource is recycled.  People are also encouraged to donate their own unwanted books.  As of July 2011 55 tonnes of books had been saved.  Pulping one tonne of books equates to nearly 7000 kwh, enough to power a TV for 24 years!

3. Healthy Planet Adopt a Plot

Using the latest web technology, through Healthy Planet, people can adopt a plot of land in a protected area and engage in its conservation from their own homes.  By visiting the Healthy Planet website  people can chose a local or global conservation project to support and donate online.  At least 90% of the donation is spent on the project.

So, if you would like further information on any of these amazing projects you can contact Healthy Planet direct by through their website, or by contacting their Head Office on 0203 405 2485.

Posted under Articles, Environmental News

Under the EU directive on landfill, Britain must bring the amount of biodegradable waste going to landfill to 50% of 1993 levels by 2013.  Whilst most EU member states have reached their target a year early Britain is at risk of failing to meet its target according to the National Audit Office – resulting in huge fines which will be passed on to local authorities – and given the present contraction in local council spending this is not something they could afford to bear.

Food waste sent to landfill rots, producing methane (CH4 ) which is up to 21 times worse than carbon dioxide in its effects on global warming.

Leading supermarkets are now addressing the issue of their food waste – tons of food which has passed its use by date and simply gets binned every day.

Sainsbury’s has announced that by the end of this year all of its food waste will now be processed by anaerobic digestion (AD), the process which releases biogas to produce electricity.  By 2009 Asda was sending 25,000 tons of its food waste for AD and Waitrose is aiming for zero waste to landfill by 2013.

There is increasing investment in AD plants, and under the Renewable Energy Scheme for every unit of electricity produced they receive twice as much as would other sources of renewable energy.

However, realistically the amount of energy recovered through AD is far less than the energy used to produce the food in the first place.  In contrast it would be far better for the environment (up to 500 times better!) if used as animal feed rather than importing soya from South America (around 40m tonnes per annum to Europe) and whose cultivation leads to deforestation.

Under EU law it is illegal to feed catering or domestic food waste to pigs. However, supermarkets can send bread, dairy, fruit and vegetable waste for livestock feed. Some are beginning to do this as they can sell their old food to farmers for around £20 a tonne, instead of paying an AD plant up to £60 or more for disposal.

What can we do to reduce our individual waste going to landfill?

Domestic food waste (that’s you and me!) accounted for 7.2 million tonnes in 2010 in the UK. Encouragingly, this is down by around 1.1 million tonnes against an estimated 8.3 million tonnes in 2006/07.

It would seem not only do we need to think about reducing our carbon emissions through becoming more energy efficient,  but we need to be aware of our impact on global warming by being seduced on our weekly shop for those ‘buy one get one free’ offers that end up as landfill and are far more harmful to the environment. You can get more information at the following link on reducing waste to landfill.

Posted under Articles

A report published this week by the International Energy Agency (IEA) – World Energy Outlook 2011 – made it clear that urgent action is needed now to address what appears to be a forgone conclusion,  that world temperatures are set to rise by 2C (4F) if we don’t stop our reliance on fossil fuels and begin to reduce the levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. This is currently 390 parts per million (ppm), with 450ppm being the point of no return.  As domestic energy consumption accounts for 33% of carbon emissions it seems that switching to a green energy tariff is now the single most important contribution you can make!

Those of us not lucky enough to have a suitable south facing roof for solar pv – and even this is being made less cost effective with the Department for Climate Change (DECC) recently announcing the amount paid for electricity generated by home owners is to be reduced – a green energy tariff is the easiest way for people to ditch fossil fuels and make a difference.

With world reliance on oil, coal and gas showing no signs of decreasing any time soon and Government’s making all the right noises and simply going through the motions, it looks like it’s up to the consumer to take up the challenge and address the problem.

The more people who choose a green energy tariff, the more the ‘Big 6’ energy suppliers will have to sit up and take notice and actually meet the Government’s UK’s target for 15% of energy supplied coming from renewable sources by 2020.  At the moment only three companies meet the current Government UK target of 10% renewable energy by 2010.

There are plenty of people ‘doing their bit’ using energy saving light bulbs, not leaving stuff on standby and switching off lights – but in reality although in the grand scheme of things every action counts – nothing counts more than getting hooked-up to renewable energy to reduce your carbon emissions.

So what’s stopping you?  At the end of the day you could get a tariff that price matches your current supplier’s standard tariff (or could even cost you less), and with all the ‘Big 6’ suppliers hiking their prices again just in time for Winter why not check out a comparison of the suppliers green energy tariffs and see what’s out there.

Make reducing your carbon emissions a New Year’s resolution you can keep!

Posted under Articles, Environmental News, News

Cleaning the Atmosphere Through Bio-Synthetic Technology

Founded in 2003, Amyris Biotech is a company dedicated to bringing renewable diesel fuel to the public. Hoping to go public by 2011-12, Amyris Biotech deals in lower carbon-content, lab-created carbon fuels. By applying man-made molecular sciences to products and services, Amyris Biotech (headed by CEO John Melo) hopes to bring a renewable and much-needed solution to a few of the world’s biggest problems.

Amyris has already had some significant success in the work that they have done in reducing the cost of curing malaria – a disease that kills around 781,000 people a year, a figure equating to 2.23% of all annual deaths worldwide. Amyris is helping to produce cheaper and more effective synthetic pyridoxal-amino acid adducts – an artificial way of trapping the malaria parasites by injection into the system without harming the human body.

Of course, the main thing that we are interested in is the renewable diesel fuel! We all know that the fuel we use is a finite resource – whether it is petrol or gasoline (which are running out the world over and steadily rising in price) or diesel. Biodiesel is a man-made product, but one which uses alternative methods of production that do not involve fossil fuels. Rather, the preferable choice du jour seems to be to use biogas to create the liquid diesel. Biogas mainly comes from landfill – thus making new fuel from our rubbish dumps. This synthetic, non-petroleum based diesel is low in sulphur contents – a very good idea because while it is true that emissions from a diesel-powered engine are inherently bad for your health, with a diesel particulate filter these risks are almost completely negated.

Amyris is concentrating on replicating the hydrocarbons that are found in petroleum. By replicating rather than introducing a completely new product, Amyris ensures that companies will be able to keep to the same outlay costs as they currently have because their equipment would not have to be changed to deal with a differently-shaped element.

John Melo has gone from being president of U.S. fuels for BP to searching for a renewable solution to our problems. Not only that, but he has also focused his company’s efforts into curing malaria – a disease that everyone has heard of and most think is incurable. It is clear that Amyris Biotech is going to be a company to watch over the next couple of years.

Posted under Articles, Companies, Corporate, Product Innovations, Renewable Energy

Two days of fun, information and more exhibitors than you can shake an eco-friendly stick at! The UK AWARE 2011 exhibitions are always among the best in the UK for the environmentally conscious and this year is going to be no exception. Not only are EcoSwitch exhibiting for the third year in a row, but a ton of other businesses as well. We are exhibiting at UK AWARE 2011, which runs on the 25th and 26th of March at Kensington Olympia from 10am to 6pm.

UK AWARE 2011 bills itself as being “Britain’s largest, longest running and best-loved sustainable lifestyle exhibition” – and that’s no exaggeration! Last year 133 exhibitors attended – a serious number in an economic climate that, let’s face it, could have been doing better. This year, 73 exhibitors have already signed up and there’ll be lots more by the time UK AWARE 2011 actually starts. And, not only that, but UK AWARE 2011 is a key highlight of Climate Week 2011. So the exhibition is truly unmissable, whichever way you look at it.

What is UK AWARE 2011?

It’s a Home and Lifestyle show for the environmentally aware, for those interested in sustainable living and for those who just maybe want to save a bit of money and look awesome at the same time. UK AWARE 2011 is not just for businesses or just for individual members of the general public – it is for everyone out there. There is even a kids interactive area to keep the little ones amused and two clothes swapping sessions each day – enabling you to re-vamp your wardrobe for nothing. With an ethical fashion show where ‘green’ is officially the new black, practical workshops where you can get all ‘hands on’ and free entry to seminars hosted by top notch speakers, there truly is something for everyone and everything for someone. There is an exciting food area where you can take a break and sample tasty nibbles – or perhaps something a little more substantial.

Especially of note is the test-drive area – it is indoors, there is a host of electric and low-carbon options and you get to have fun pretending that you are at Brands Hatch or taking part in Formula 1. What more could a car-lover (or, indeed, a motorbike-lover) want?

But does ‘green’ really mean that a business or a user is ‘green’? There are a lot of companies and people out there who call themselves ‘green’ and ‘eco-friendly’, but how do you know which ones are telling the truth…and which ones are fudging the details and blurring the edges a little bit? Come to UK AWARE 2011 and see who’s attending this year – it’s as easy as that.

This year’s top exhibitors include:

Cheeks and Cherries – for all those “gorgeously green babies” out there.

The Woodland Trust – “The UK’s leading woodland conservation charity.”

Triodos Bank – “More green. Less greed.”

The Ecologist Magazine – “Setting the environmental agenda since 1970.”

And, of course, EcoSwitch Ltd. We’ll be there and we hope to see you as well – just come up and give us a wave. We’re friendly, honest!

If you’d like to find out more information about this prestigious event, please visit the site of UK AWARE 2011.

Posted under Climate, Events, House & Home, Lifestyle & Fashion

It is vibrant and exciting. Jam-packed with must-see stands and must-attend seminars. And it’s back. First founded in 1908 by the Daily Mail (as the ‘Ideal Home Exhibition’) and now sponsored by Anglian Home Improvements and owned by Media 10, the IDEAL HOME SHOW is an opportunity to view the latest gadgets and get caught up with all the new ideas and revolutions in thought and industry that are relevant to all our needs and our daily life.

The show has been running from 11th of March and it will be finishing on the 27th of March – that is five more days to go and explore! The IDEAL HOME SHOW is a true adventure. Meet celebrity actors from TV and film, famous chefs and TV presenters and find answers for all of those pesky little questions. With the cost of living and energy on the rise, the IDEAL HOME SHOW is definitely a not-to-be-missed event that should be marked on your calendar. After all, where else could you take a tour of #1 Coronation Street, get Darth Vader’s autograph, learn how to turn your back garden into “that extra room” all of us so desperately need, sit and watch world-class chefs do their thing and then have afternoon tea in the Central Marina, all in one day?

There is a crèche open every day from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., run by the award-winning Nipperbout Active Childcare with fun activities for the little ones so that the adults can tour the show without worrying. There is a free Beauty Bar offering manicures and massages and the Swap-a-Rama where you can de-clutter and update your wardrobe all at once. But if makeovers and fashion are not quite your thing, how about the Celebrity Chef Theatre? Sponsored by Siemans Home Appliances, it features a whole host of chefs – including Aldo Zilli, Henrietta Green, Paul Rankin and Gennaro Contaldo. Chef Jean Christophe Novelli will also be attending, working in conjunction with Ziganof Knives and giving demonstrations of world-class knives favoured by the top chefs that Ziganof have been able to make available and affordable to the general public.

And the attractions do not stop there. There is the Ideal Gadgets section – where Suzi Perry from Channel  5′s ‘The Gadget Show’ will be announcing the Ideal Inventor of the Year and where you can find out about the latest in plasma screen TVs, hoovers, Aerogardens, cameras, laptops and eco-friendly vehicles. In the Show Homes Village, you can tour a copy of a house from Coronation Street – Britain’s best-loved and longest running soap – that has been retrofitted with all the latest in eco-friendly and energy-saving appliances in a modern twist on the well-known idea of the ‘two-up, two-down’ terraced property, sponsored by B&Q, as well as explore just what the Prince of Wales believes is the answer to eco-living in the Prince’s House.

To get tickets please go to the IDEAL HOME SHOW. As an extra incentive, 50p per ticket is directly donated to the Ideal Homes for Heroes Appeal. So buy one, two or more tickets and you know that you are doing something special. And for all those late-risers, ‘Late-night Thursday’ means that tickets are only £5 after 5 p.m.

Posted under Articles, Events, Gardening & Outdoors, House & Home, Lifestyle & Fashion

Airborne pollution may not be at the top of everyone’s concerns right now but it is a killer that sits just under our noses. A new report has recently revealed that air pollution in the country’s capital is killing over 4,000 annually.

The report released by Boris Johnson’s office charted the severity of pollution levels throughout London’s wards, detailing that those living in central areas of the capital are most at risk due to their constant exposure to high pollution areas.

Among the poorest of European cities, London’s air quality has high trace levels of the matter known as PM2.5 and can be correlated to mortality rates in the capital. This is far from a revelation amongst most Londoners who seem to have grown accustomed to the escalating combustion levels over the past decades. However, twinned with a report by the House of Commons environmental audit committee, Johnson’s office have made comment that their target is to take measurable action against airborne pollution with immediate response.

Some of London’s worst wards – those with the highest proportion of negative or potentially damaging particulates – are perhaps the most unexpected. Hyde Park, the West End, and even Holborn and Covent Garden all feature in the 10 most polluted areas. This is partly due to their high levels of all-year tourism and surrounding combustion levels generated by twenty-four hour traffic.

Other areas which might be expected to home high levels of pollution include; King’s Cross; Marylebone High Street; and Bryanston and Dorset Square. Despite Johnson’s efforts, he has come under considerable criticism over his decision to postpone, by approximately two years, the third stage of the low emission zone. This was a strategy devised by the previous Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, which would have introduced further measures to reduce emissions this coming October.

Currently in place is an emissions standards regulation which focuses on combustion pollution generated from high-combustion vehicles such as buses and coaches – which could be charged up to £1,000 of daily fines. The third phase, delayed by Johnson, would target smaller vehicles and expect owners to meet standards and regulations covering the Greater London area.

This is becoming a growing concern for EU officials, whose scrutiny’s has been fixed on Britain failure to meet requisites and European standards which put them in breach of international agreements. For instance, Britain’s “bad air” monitoring record (Britain is allowed 35 “bad air” days pa) shows that they currently stand on the 36th day of dangerous and potentially harmful pollution levels.

What sees to be done will no doubt be topic for debate amongst MPs and government chambers over the oncoming weeks as the temperature rises and exhaust fumes become ever more apparent.

Posted under Climate

“Everybody’s a critic!” It might seem like an indeclinable form these days but criticism certainly comes with its inflections. Indeed, the various shades and application of criticism should be more than apparent to anybody who has a general outlook that they believe to be of particular importance. And since the explosion of a multitude of technologies that can sit quite happily in the palm of your hand (whilst at the same time rather nonchalantly open up doors to the rest of the world) everybody can certainly play the part of a critic at their own will – all be it a self taught one. But, unfortunately, what has grown alongside a general principle of unregulated access to information and its ‘brother-in-arms’ free speech is its more feral relative – untamed opinion.

Opinion, today, matters: there’s no doubt in that. Take the recently past election as an example; this, in fact, is a system of recording individual opinions in order to determine the single belief of the nation as a whole. And it shouldn’t take a political correspondent to outline the general sense of bemusement or indecision that still pervades a country that cannot make up its mind.

But isn’t this the status of the country in general? One that can’t make up its mind; a nation wracked with doubt and indecision? It is certainly the case in the ecological field of interest.

Consider any one thing that is proclaimed to be ‘Green’ or ecologically friendly – renewable energy, recycling, fair trade, ethical production, for instance – they’re all shrouded by doubt. Ask your neighbour whether or not they’d like to cut their carbon footprint, reduce their consumption levels or even generate some of their own power; nine times out of ten you’ll be met with “Of course I do!” That is, until it comes around to actually doing it.

And that’s not to say we’re a lazy or apathetic nation – not at all. It seems that a large part of the British sensibility just happens to be construed in the “proof is in the pudding”, “see it to believe it” schools of thought. Or in other words, what your average Briton requires is a working model.

Ecological Validity constitutes this very same feeling but instead dresses itself in a rather starchy lab-coat language. Essentially, for any one thing to have Ecological Validity it will need to have achieved results in the approximate “real-life” situation it will operate in. For instance, in order to get your neighbour to use microgenerational technologies such as Ground Source Heat Pumps (GSHP) or photovoltaic solar panels (PV cells) he might have to see it working in your very own back garden; then a strong dose of keeping up with the Jones’s may be in order. Or even if it is you yourself that needs the ounce of convincing, there are literally hundreds of ecological products and services which are not only cheaper, more sustainable alternatives to traditional models, but they are more than willing to exhibit themselves doing so. Click on the Ecotricity link to see how something as universal as power is being delivered to homes across the country.

Transparency is the key when there’s nothing to hide. So, could it be that a large portion of why as a nation we seem a little confused is simply an issue of clarity? Every body’s a critic, its true. But let’s try and put a more practical spin on things: the next time you feel doubtful, consider the ecological validity involved. It might just be that a ‘Green’ shade is the perfect colouring for any form of criticism.

Posted under Articles, Lifestyle & Fashion