Europeans overwhelmingly consider the environmental impact of products they buy

Four out of five Europeans say that they consider the environmental impact of the products they buy reveals a Eurobarometer survey published today. Environmental consideration was highest in Greece where more than 9 in 10 of those surveyed said the impact of a product on the environment plays an important aspect in their purchasing decisions. In the same survey Europeans were evenly divided about claims by producers on the environmental performance of their products while nearly half thought that a combination of increased taxes on environmentally-damaging products and decreased taxes on environmentally-friendly products would best promote eco-friendly products. There was also strong support for retailers to play a role in promoting environmentally-friendly products and for mandatory carbon labelling.

EU Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas said: "The battle against climate change must be fought on all fronts and everyone must contribute. It is not only the remit of companies and governments; consumers also have their part to play. By purchasing environmentally and climate-friendly products individual customers send the right signal to producers who respond in turn by producing more eco-friendly products."

Impact of products on the environment important

In the Eurobarometer survey published today on Europeans' attitude towards sustainable consumption and production, an overwhelming majority of Europeans (83%) said the impact of a product on the environment plays an important aspect in their purchasing decisions. With 92% in favour Greeks were more likely to consider the environmental impact of the products they buy while the Czechs were the least likely (62%).

Mixed views on claims by companies on the environmental performance of their products

Europeans surveyed were evenly divided about claims by producers about the environmental performance of their products with 49% trusting the claims and 48% not trusting such claims. The Dutch were more likely to trust these claims (78%) while Bulgarians were the least likely (26%).

Higher taxes on environmentally-damaging products and lower taxes on environmentally-friendly products

Some 46% of EU citizens also thought that the best way to promote environmentally-friendly products would be to increase taxes on environmentally-damaging products and decrease taxes on environmentally-friendly products. Britons were most in favour of such a double taxation system while the Maltese much less so (28%) preferring instead reducing taxes on environmentally-friendly products only.

The important role of retailers in promoting environmentally-friendly products

Those surveyed were strongly in favour of retailers promoting environmentally-friendly products. Approximately half of EU citizens (49%) thought that they should increase the visibility of such products on their shelves or have a dedicated green corner in their store. A third (31%) of Europeans said that the best way for retailers to promote green products is for them to provide better information to consumers.
Strong support for carbon footprint labels

Despite just under half of Europeans saying that ecolabels play an important role in their purchasing decisions and only 1 in 10 saying the total amount of greenhouse gas emissions created by a product should feature on environmental labels, some 72% of EU citizens thought that a label indicating a product's carbon footprint should be mandatory in the future. Attitudes on the subject varied widely between Member States with the Czechs the least in favour of such labelling (47%) and Greeks wholeheartedly behind the idea with 90% in favour.

A carbon footprint label would show the total amount of greenhouse gases – including carbon dioxide – emitted during its lifetime, from production to disposal. At present no such scheme exists Europe-wide, but at the December 2008 Environment Council ministers invited the Commission to study the introduction of carbon footprint labelling.


More information Sustainable consumption and production web pages: http://ec.europa.eu/environment/eussd/escp_en.htm

Xeros washing machine that uses just one cup of water

Researchers at the University of Leeds have developed a new way of cleaning clothes using less than 2% of the water and energy of a conventional washing machine. The revolutionary technology will provide alternatives to both domestic washing and dry cleaning, heralding the world’s first “virtually waterless” washing system.

Xeros, a University of Leeds spin-out, is commercialising the technology with some of the biggest names in the washing and dry-cleaning industries.

The process is based on the use of plastic granules (or chips) which are tumbled with the clothes to remove stains. A range of tests, carried out according to worldwide industry protocols to prove the technology performs to the high standards expected in the cleaning industry, show the process can remove virtually all types of everyday stains as effectively as existing processes whilst leaving clothes as fresh as normal washing. In addition, the clothes emerge from the process almost dry, reducing the need for tumble-dryers.

Xeros' technology uses as little as a cup of water in each wash cycle and could also bring benefits to other industrial processes such as wastewater treatment and metal degreasing.

According to Waterwise, a UK NGO focused on decreasing water wastage in the UK, washing machine use has risen by 23% in the past 15 years, up from 3 times a week in 1990 to an average of 4 times a week per household today. The average UK household uses almost 21 litres of water each day on clothes washing - 13% of daily household water consumption. This accounts for approximately 455 million litres of water daily, enough water to fill 145 Olympic size swimming pools.

Tests are currently underway in the dry-cleaning market with a view to replacing certain solvents that are currently used in dry-cleaning. Some of these solvents are potentially harmful, having been linked with certain types of cancer and some are now facing a ban in various states in the USA. The company believes that its new proprietary technology would eradicate the need for these solvents from dry-cleaning providing safety and monetary incentives for the dry cleaning industry.

The new technology could be on the UK market as early as 2009. Xeros has recently received funding of £500,000 from the University’s commercialisation partner, IP Group, subject to certain milestones being met.

Xeros was established in February 2007 to exploit a new patented washing method invented and developed in the School of Design at the University of Leeds. Company founder, Professor Stephen Burkinshaw, is an internationally-recognised expert in the science of textiles and dyeing.

Professor Burkinshaw, Professor of Textile Chemistry and director of Xeros, said: “The performance of the Xeros process in cleaning clothes has been quite astonishing. We’ve shown that it can remove all sorts of everyday stains including coffee and lipstick whilst using a tiny fraction of the water used by conventional washing machines. The investment from IP Group will help us to accelerate the commercialisation of the technology and I look forward to seeing new washing and dry-cleaning machines that use the Xeros technology.”

A typical washing machine uses about 35kg of water for every kg of clothes that are washed - as well as large amounts of energy to heat the water and to dry the clothes afterwards. With environmental concerns becoming increasingly urgent and water becoming an increasingly scarce resource, there is an urgent need to reduce the amount of water and energy used for washing clothes.

Dr Rob Rule, Managing Director of Techtran Ltd, IP Group’s Leeds business, and a director of Xeros, said: “This is one of the most surprising and remarkable technologies I've encountered in recent years. Xeros has the ability to save billions of litres of water per year and, we believe, the potential to revolutionise the global laundry market. ”

The potential revenues for machines based on the Xeros technology are considerable. There are more than two million washing machines sold in the UK annually, valuing the UK market alone at around £1bn.

Richest 10% create bigger ecological footprint

The richest 10 percent of Canadians create a bigger ecological footprint – a whopping 66 percent higher – than the average Canadian household, says a new study by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA).

The study, Size Matters: Canada’s Ecological Footprint, By Income, is the first Canadian study to link national income and consumption patterns with global warming.

“When we look at where the environmental impact of human activity comes from, we see that size really does matter,” says Hugh Mackenzie, CCPA research associate. “Higher-income Canadians create a much bigger footprint than poorer Canadians.”

Among the study’s findings:

The richest 10% of Canadian households create an ecological footprint of 12.4 hectares per capita – nearly two-and-a-half times that of the poorest 10%.
While the size of an individual’s ecological footprint increases as household income increases, the real jump is at that top 10% level. When it comes to environmental impact, it really is a case of the rich and the rest of us.

The bottom 60% of Canadian households’ ecological footprint is below the national average but even the lowest-income Canadians create an ecological footprint that is several times the average for those in poorer nations.

“All Canadians share responsibility for global warming,” says co-author Rick Smith, executive director of Environmental Defence. “But wealthier Canadians are leaving behind a disproportionately larger footprint – and should be expected to make a disproportionate contribution to its reduction.”

Mackenzie says the study contains lessons for policy makers: “Clearly ecological impact is stongly related to income. Greenhouse gas emissions policies should reflect that reality or risk being less effective and unfair to low- and middle-class Canadians.”

Greendex, a sustainable consumption index

You've read the news—everyone wants to be green now. But do you really know how your personal choices are adding up? What about the choices of your fellow citizens? How well are people around the globe adopting behaviors that can make the world a more environmentally sustainable place?

National Geographic and the international polling firm GlobeScan have just conducted a study measuring and monitoring consumer progress toward environmentally sustainable consumption in 14 countries around the world.

Why? We wanted to give people a better idea of how consumers in different countries are doing in taking action to preserve our planet by tracking, reporting, and promoting environmentally sustainable consumption and citizen behavior.

This quantitative consumer study of 14,000 consumers in a total of 14 countries asked about such behavior as energy use and conservation, transportation choices, food sources, the relative use of green products versus traditional products, attitudes towards the environment and sustainability, and knowledge of environmental issues. A group of international experts helped us determine the behaviors that were most critical to investigate.

The result: the National Geographic/GlobeScan "Consumer Greendex," a scientifically derived sustainable consumption index of actual consumer behavior and material lifestyles across 14 countries. The Greendex will be tracked over time and will be comparable across the selection of countries representing both the developed and developing world.

To provide context for the Greendex results, we developed a "Market Basket," an index of actual consumption in four areas important to environmentally sustainable behavior—energy, transportation, travel, and consumer goods. A Market Basket for each country was assembled using a set of independently collected macroeconomic indicators, gathered by the Economist Intelligence Unit, which mirror, in part, the consumer behavior measured by the Greendex survey. The purpose of the Market Basket is to provide an external estimate of the results of changes in consumer behavior over time. The Greendex, for example, measures things consumers are doing to save energy in a country; the Market Basket measures whether total energy consumption in the country is actually going up or down. The Market Basket will also establish a framework for comparing the relative environmental impact of each country's size and rate of growth, over time.

Patagonia is First to Track Environmental and Social Impact of Its Products

'The Footprint Chronicles' Website Launches with Unprecedented Corporate Transparency

Patagonia is the first major apparel manufacturer to track and expose the social and environmental impact of specific garments through The Footprint Chronicles, an interactive website that reveals to consumers the good and the bad involved in manufacturing outdoor clothing such as Synchilla fleece vests and rain shells. In a bold move that might make most companies nervous, Patagonia is determined to be candid and forthright about its impact on the environment and created the site to encourage dialog with its customers who are concerned about the environment.

"We believe that to avoid complacency, we must constantly examine our internal processes to improve upon the positive and mitigate the negative," said Casey Sheahan, president and CEO of Patagonia. "The Footprint Chronicles allows us to do this publicly -- sort of learning out loud." He points out that the idea behind the website is to encourage thought and discussion. Each season the site will examine new products, so that the more that is exposed, the more harmful practices the company can change. Five new products will be added on Earth Day, 2008.

"Our customers are scientists, activists, professors, doctors and more -- they have the collective experience and knowledge we're looking for," said Sheahan. "We're highlighting exactly what happens in the manufacturing process and asking customers for their suggestions and help in efforts to find solutions to our less sustainable practices. It's a unique dialogue to engage in -- but one that will ultimately allow us to cause less harm to the planet."

According to Jill Dumain, Patagonia's director of environmental programs, the research involved in developing the Chronicles has proved to actually drive major business decisions at Patagonia.

"The Chronicles revealed that transportation makes up only about 1 percent of our overall energy use," said Dumain. "Had we listened to the current media buzz touting transportation as the largest factor in energy consumption, we might have greatly misplaced our efforts by making strides to geographically shorten our supply chain -- which would have massively impacted our business financially, logistically and perhaps even effected product quality -- and we would only have reduced our energy savings by 1 percent. Instead, we are focusing our energy on areas where we can truly make a difference -- right in the heart of the manufacturing process."

The launch of The Footprint Chronicles puts into practice a prototype that they hope will inspire other companies to increase their transparency, and at the very least, raise awareness.

"We've been in business long enough to know that if we can reduce or eliminate a harm, other businesses will be eager to follow suit," said Sheahan. "Many companies will be pleasantly surprised that when they delve into their manufacturing processes, they will be able to present a balanced expose of their practices. Customers will appreciate their honesty and reward them for it."

The Footprint Chronicles includes more than 35 filmed interviews and slideshows of factory workers, farmers, owners, designers and third-party auditors to provide an unprecedented level of transparency both internally and externally -- from the factories and manufacturing partners that create its products, to the end of the product's lifespan.

About Patagonia

Patagonia, with sales last year of over $280M, is noted internationally for its commitment to product quality and environmental activism. Incorporating environmental responsibility in to product development, the company has, since 1996, used only organically grown cotton in its clothing line. With its most recent launch of synthetic fiber-to-fiber recycling -- Patagonia is taking back worn-out polyester and nylon clothing and reincarnating it as new products, forever capturing the raw materials used in making virgin fiber.

CSRwire

Madrid: "Air Trees" for an ecoboulevard

In Madrid the first of three unique buildings has been built: the “Air Tree,” designed to act as a social center and to green the environment.








This first air tree is the result of 16 hemicycles arranged in a circle, covered with a thermal fabric and supported by a lightweight, easily assembled frame, which is identical for the three large “dynamos”. In terms of energy these theatrical scaffoldings are self-sufficient, relying on a system of photovoltaic solar collection. It also produces oxygen like a tree. It completes its social function by being a public and pleasant gathering place creating activity in a suburban site.












The goal of this project is to create an atmosphere that invites and promotes activity in an urban public space that is “sick” due to “bad planning”.

Ericsson's Tower Tube: innovative cellphone stations

The Ericsson Tower Tube is an innovative construction that houses base stations and antennas, fully encapsulating them in an aesthetic, energy-efficient and environmentally friendly tower. It employs cutting-edge design and building materials, and can be built in a variety of shapes and sizes, with customized finishes that make it a natural fit for any landscape.

The Tower Tube replaces conventional telecommunication sites with a sleek, architecturally designed, aesthetically pleasing tower. It can be regarded as a feature of any landscape.

It employs modular concrete construction that allows the structure to be deployed quickly and easily. The tower can be erected in a variety of heights, shapes and styles. The exterior’s color, pattern and finish can also be adapted to help it fit into rural or urban settings, and win public acceptance for a new site.

The tower is a self-contained site. It safely houses all equipment within its slim design (about 5m in diameter), reducing the need for more land.

The tower’s concrete exterior protects equipment effectively from the elements and provides a stable internal environment. Indoor equipment can be used and antennas are protected by a radome, or weatherproof enclosure. The robust concrete membrane provides additional protection from vandalism and lightning.

Radio base stations (RBS) are enclosed within the tower. They are initially installed at the bottom of the tower and then raised to the top by an elevator. By positioning a RBS at height, there is very low feeder loss, which allows improved network coverage and capacity

Biofuels Costing the Earth?

Increasing amounts of biofuels (substitutes for petrol or diesel made from crops such as sugar cane, beet, maize, wheat, oilseed rape and oil palm) are being produced to reduce the carbon dioxide impact of transport. But the World Land Trust argues this requires vast areas of land and is not the best way of using land to mitigate climate change. The WLT would like us all to consider the knock on effects of the increase in demand for Biofules which they feel are not currently being acknowledged. As we produce more and more rape seed here in the UK to cope with demand we leave the third world to produce our fruit and cereals which in turn forces them to clear more endangered habitat at the same time as significantly clocking up the UK's food miles. And let's not forget how the elephants of India or orangutans of Borneo who suffer in our race to find a so called 'green fuel'.

Renton Righelato of the World Land Trust and Dominick Spracklen of the University of Leeds show that much more carbon dioxide emissions can be avoided by protecting the remaining forest we have and restoring forest on arable land that is not needed for food production (Science, 17th August 2007). They argue that policy-makers would be better advised to focus on increasing the efficiency of fossil fuel use and developing carbon-free transport fuels to replace fossil hydrocarbons. Existing forests and savannahs should be conserved and natural forest and grassland habitats restored. In addition to reducing net carbon dioxide flux to the atmosphere, conversion of large areas of land back to secondary forest provides other environmental services (such as prevention of desertification, provision of forest products, maintenance of biological diversity and regional climate regulation), whereas conversion of large areas of land to make biofuels will place additional strains on the environment.

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New Jersey governor signed the toughest U.S. global warming law

Governor Jon Corzine made New Jersey the first state to call for strict greenhouse gas reductions by 2050 in an effort to fight global warming and climate change. Corzine signed the Global Warming Response Act that mandates greenhouse gas emissions in New Jersey to be cut by 16 percent by 2020 and 80 percent by 2050.

The new law also sends a message to the Bush administration, who opposes mandatory emission cuts, preferring voluntary goals instead. But that, Corzine says, is not enough. "We want to send a message to Washington. Wake up, get with the program and start doing something about greenhouse gasses," the Democratic governor told reporters.

Other states have introduced their own measures since the federal government has yet to require mandatory emission regulations. California also passed a greenhouse gas law recently that mandates emission cuts. And while it has a long term goal of cutting emissions by 80 percent in 2050, it is merely a target, and not enforceable like that of the New Jersey law.

Hitachi to launch Super Eco-factory

On June 25, 2007, Hitachi Group announced its new "Super Eco-factory" standards for environment-conscious plants and the first nine Super Eco-factories. The group aims to reduce CO2 emission by 7% by FY2010 compared with FY1990.

The Hitachi Group has proposed "emission neutral" status, in which the "direct loads" including energy used in production activities such as the acquisition of basic materials and processing and refining of components, greenhouse gases emitted from factories and energy used for transportation, and the reduction of "social loads" referring to the electricity consumed by products and energy used for recycling end-of-life products are balanced out.

Hitachi is striving to implement this status by FY2015. In accordance with this goal, the above-mentioned Super Eco-factory certificate has been formulated since FY2006.

The Hitachi Group defines Super Eco-factories as "environmentally friendly facilities that further promote energy conservation, reduce chemical substance emissions and implement advanced resource recycling measures."

Super Eco-factories are required to be six times more energy efficient than the lowest standard applied by Japan's energy saving laws. The Hitachi Group looks to certify 30 Super Eco-factories out of about 300 factories generating heavy environmental loads by 2010.

The group has already started "Super Eco-product" standards for products that have achieved more than 10 times higher "environmental efficiency," an index that represents "how much product or service value is generated, while lowering environmental loads and resource consumption," compared with relevant products manufactured in around 2000, and authorized 40 Super Eco-products by the end of March 2006.

The group has also authorized 1,012 Eco-products as of the end of fiscal 2006 and aims to increase sales of Super Eco-products to 30% of total Eco-product sales.

In FY2007, the Hitachi Group is moving forward to authorize more Super Eco-factories and about three times more Super Eco-products than 2006 toward the goal of emission neutral status in 2015. Through these measures, the group plans to reduce CO2 emissions by 850,000 t combining direct loads and social loads from the FY2006 level.

via Tech-On