My LED Lighting Saga (Mar13)
Remember the joke about how many men are needed to change a light bulb. The answer is generally a joke about the number of people standing around watching. But my experience with LED bulbs has become a joke – it’s taken me over a year now and I still haven’t succeeded in replacing all the […]
Challenging Sainsbury’s on environmental standards (Feb13)
Justin King, CEO of Sainsburys I wrote the blog below for the Food Ethics Council before the horse meat scandal blew up. I think it’s even more relevant now. When I challenged Justin King, CEO of Sainsbury’s about not applying the same environmental standards across all the products sold through his stores, he replied that […]
Raw Foundation Making Waves about Waste (Jan13)
I was rather impressed by the Environment Agencies initiatives to reduce waste – as relayed to an audience pulled together by the Raw Foundation, at Bristol’s Create Centre. Did you know that the government organisation used to drive as many miles as the AA? Now they’ve reduced this by 21 million miles a year, as […]
E-Waste Poem – with help from Dr Seuss (Dec12)
I’ve always been a fan of Dr Seuss’s books. Green Eggs and Ham, Hortense the Elephant and The Sneetches are just some of his gems. And they all have a message – often quite subtle. The most environmental of his stories is the Lorax – ‘I am the Lorax, and I speak for the trees, which you seem to chopping […]
10 tonnes of e-waste an hour at SWEEEP (Dec12)
The huge grabber hand plunged into the pile of e-waste waiting below. You could see irons, toasters, kettles, hairdryers – all sorts of household electrical detritus on its way to oblivion. Or perhaps I should say reincarnation. Almost all of it is recycled in one form or another. The sorting process separates as much of […]
Meeting Giraffe (Nov12)
80% of all product related environmental impacts happen at the design phase. That’s key to Giraffe’s work. Melinda Watson and I, with our E for Good hats on, went to talk to Rob Holdway and Celena Fernandez about e-waste issues. We discovered that we had a lot in common. Rob was involved in creating the […]
Speaking in Istanbul (Oct12)
My second speaking engagement in Istanbul. I was invited to speak at Green Business Turkey 2012. The brilliant thing about this is that the event showed that many Turkish businesses are showing a real interest in sustainability issues. With over 500 delegates it was an ambitious event, aiming to help the audience understand what environmental […]
Second Nature Advisory Board (Oct12)
I sit on the Advisory board of Second Nature – their mission is making sustainability ‘second nature’ for the organisations they work with. Charles Perry and Mark Griffiths are the company’s founders – and they have a lot of experience between them, with particular emphasis on business strategy and expertise in energy, built-environment, clean tech […]
Biomimicry – sustainable solutions (Sept12)
I’m a great fan of Michael Pawlyn – from Exploration Architecture. I love his ideas and thinking. And so was keen to attend his Lignacite lecture at the Royal College of Physicians. Michael’s key theme is ‘biomimicry’ and his most recent book is ‘Biomimicry in Architecture‘ . And his speech was full of examples of […]
Haller news (Sept12)
Rene Haller was in London for the September board meeting. After the board meeting we visited British Airways who have made Haller one of their favourite charities – with on-board films and other sponsorship activities. They were very enthusiastic about what Rene had to say. The visit coincided with Louise Piper stepping down as the […]
Women in Action (Sep12)
Melinda Watson and I travelled to Corby, not knowing what to expect for the Women in Action event, organised by Planet Aid. We arrived to music and a fashion show – promoting recycled clothes. Melinda was the first to take the platform. She talked about the illegal export of e-waste and its impact on developing […]
Which? on plastic bags (Aug12)
I’ve done a lot of speaking and writing about plastic bags! I’ve even written a poem on the subject, for one speech I made. Which? asked me to give them an expert view for an article in entitled ‘Plastic bags at breaking point‘. As well as being interviewed on the topic, I wrote a […]