greenfutures

No.83 January 2012

Fair play? What are the odds on sustainable gambling?

Meet Paul Polman, the man who wants to reinvent consumption It’s 2032: print some energy and drink the sea Jeremy Rifkin: imagine the internet, only for energy About Us greenfutures

Green Futures is the leading international partners the opportunity to place themselves Published by magazine on environmental solutions at the heart of the debate. They enjoy and sustainable futures. It was founded privileged access to the expertise of the by Jonathon Porritt in 1996 to showcase Green Futures team and Forum for the examples of practical and desirable change, Future as a whole, as well as targeted free Editor in Chief MARTIN WRIGHT and is published by Forum for the Future. subscriptions and advertising opportunities. Our readership includes key decision- Managing Editor makers and opinion-formers in business, If you’d like to join us as a partner, please ANNA SIMPSON government, education and non-profit contact Katie Shaw: 020 7324 3660; Editorial and Marketing Coordinator organisations. [email protected] KATIE SHAW We work with a select group of partners who demonstrate a strong commitment Read Green Futures online: Design THE URBAN ANT LTD to sustainable development. In return www.greenfutures.org.uk “Hope and optimism – in spite of present difficulties.” for a contribution towards the cost of This old African saying, made famous by Namibian artist John Muafangejo, seems Founder producing Green Futures, we offer our @GreenFutures pretty apt just now. Even those of us who resolutely see the glass as half full only have JONATHON PORRITT to glance at the news to wonder if, after all, we’re pretty much down to the dregs. Green Futures would like to thank: Economies in atrophy… a damp squib at Durban… not to mention the wilful abdication Tom Forster, Fiona Underhill and Mike of anything approaching scientific literacy by swathes of the mainstream media. You’d Zimonyi (interns) be forgiven for imagining there’s some perverse law of journalism in operation: one Helius (proofreading) Our Partners Shelley Hannan (web) which dictates that informed coverage of climate change shrinks in inverse proportion to mounting evidence that, yes: it’s here, it’s happening, and it’s our fault. Editorial AMEC Ecover Marine Stewardship TUI Travel plc (Incidentally, if you’re looking for a quick and dirty response to your friendly Overseas House,19-23 Ironmonger Row, Francesco Corsi, Mick Bremans, Council (MSC) Jane Ashton, London, EC1V 3QN 0191 272 6128 +32 3 309 2500 James Simpson, 020 7811 3315 01293 645911 neighbourhood climate sceptic, try this: “Every single one of the world’s major national Tel: 020 7324 3660 amec.com/ukenvironment www.ecover.com www.msc.org www.tuitravel.com/ scientific academies continues to endorse the consensus on anthropogenic climate Email: [email protected] sustainabledevelopment change. So if you don’t agree with them, is it because you know something they don’t? Subscriptions Arjowiggins Graphic Energy Saving Trust Pureprint Group Or you think they’re all conspirators in some collective climategate scam? Because it AASM, Unit 8 Earlstrees Court, Shannan Hodgson, 020 7227 0398 Richard Owers, Unilever plc has to be one or the other. Or both.”) Earlstrees Road, Corby, NN17 4AX [email protected] www.energysavingtrust.org.uk 01825 768811 Helen Fenwick, But, as usual, I digress. Faced with all these gloomy symptoms, you might imagine Tel: 01536 273543 www.recycled-papers.co.uk www.pureprint.com 01372 945000 that any serious business will have shoved sustainability firmly onto the back burner. If Email: [email protected] Food and Drink Federation www.unilever.com so, this issue should be something of an antidote. Ashden Nicki Hunt. RWE npower Green Futures is published by Take our interview with Paul Polman, CEO of Unilever [p20], where he explains just Forum for the Future Jane Howarth, 020 7410 7023 020 7420 7132 Anita Longley, 01793 892716 WWF why he’s committed the company to green goals that put most governments to shame Registered Charity Number: 1040519 www.ashden.org www.fdf.org.uk www.RWEnpower.com Dax Lovegrove, ISSN No: 1366-4417 01483 412395 with their scale and ambition. (And, yes, I know Pot Noodle is rarely seen as an icon of BT plc Hewlett-Packard Skanska www.wwf.org.uk sustainability, but he manages to come up with an answer to that, too.) The contrast The opinions expressed in the magazine Environment Unit, Nancy Keith Kelly Jennifer Clark, 01923 776666 between his rock solid commitment on the one hand, and the wavering signals sent out are not necessarily those of Forum for the Future, nor any of its associates. 0800 731 2403 www.hp.com www.skanska.com by the British Government on the other, couldn’t be more striking. Or take gambling: hardly a green standard bearer for sustainability, you’d have © Forum for the Future 2012. Bupa Ingersoll Rand Target thought. But as Anna Simpson discovers [p16], this least likely of industries is starting to www.bupa.com www.ingersollrand.com www.target.com take its responsibilities more seriously – and not just by putting solar on the casino roofs, Our environmental impact although that’s happening too. Delhaize Group Marks and Spencer plc Triodos Bank At Green Futures, we strive to produce a Or take Majora Carter [p30]: a black woman hailing from the South Bronx – hardly gorgeous, glossy magazine whilst maintaining Megan Hellstedt, Rowland Hill, William Ferguson, the natural habitat of granola-munching greenies – who has built a powerful personal the highest environmental standards. We are [email protected] 020 8718 6885 0117 980 9770 brand on the back of sustainability. printed by Pureprint, using their environmental www.delhaizegroup.com [email protected] www.triodos.co.uk print technology and vegetable based inks, And if this isn’t enough, you might take heart from the gloriously unbounded developed back in 1990. Since then, Pureprint optimism of veteran economist Jeremy Rifkin [p26] – credited, among other things, with has gone on to win numerous awards for their persuading Chancellor Merkel to set her face against nuclear power. He’s supremely environmental achievements, including the 2010 Environmental Printer of the Year award. confident that we’re on the threshold of a third industrial revolution, based on an ‘energy internet’, which is poised to make fossil fuels as redundant as a fax machine. We print Green Futures on 100% recycled and greengreenfutures I’m writing this in London on the darkest afternoon of the year – literally and, it feels, FSC certified Cocoon Silk paper, supplied by Subscribe to Green Futures greenfutures Arjowiggins Graphic. futuresNo.82 October 2011 metaphorically, too. But the forecast for tomorrow is sunshine, and by the time you read Subscribe now, and we’ll deliver the quarterly magazine and all special No.82 October 2011 this, (assuming you’re north of the equator) the days are getting longer. We may not be

editions to an address of your choice. You can also buy a subscription No.82 October 2011 awash right now with reasons to be cheerful, but there’s plenty for scope for hope and as a gift for a friend. optimism – in spite of present difficulties.

Prices start at £24 for a personal subscription. Call: +44 (0) 1536 273543 To make sure that the magazine reaches Email: [email protected] you in pristine condition, we mail them to Visit: www.greenfutures.org.uk/subscribe you in a d2w degradable polythene film, which is recyclable, and non-toxic in landfill. Write to: AASM, Unit 8 Earlstrees Court, Earlstrees Road, MaterialMaterialMaterial world worldworld Martin Wright Corby, NN17 4AX What will we use to build the future? WhatWhat will will we we use use to to build build the the future? future? Editor in Chief

Big brother gone green: can surveillance save the planet? BigBig brother brother gone gone green: green: cancan surveillancesurveillance savesave thethe planet?planet? [email protected] ShoppedShopped out: out: a a world world of of difference difference for for tomorrow’s tomorrow’s consumer consumer BouncingShopped ideas: out: a theworld creative of difference power offor warm tomorrow’s bodies consumerin a room Forum for the Future is certified to the Subscribe to the future you want to live in. BouncingBouncing ideas: the creative power of warm bodies inin aa roomroom Photos: xxxxx Front cover: kryczka / istock @MartinFutures ISO 14001 standard.

2 Green Futures January 2012 www.greenfutures.org.uk www.greenfutures.org.uk Green Futures January 2012 1 Contents Number 83, January 2012 16 8 41 44

00 00 32 26

21 24 30

Features Briefings Regulars Partner viewpoints

16 Fair play? 30 Rocket from the Bronx The latest in green innovation, including: 4   The future in context 41 Nature nurture 44 Cleansing agents Is there such a thing as a sustainable Carl Frankel meets Majora Carter, Peter Madden Why business loves butterflies Clothes that clean the air we breathe flutter? Or is gambling by definition a America’s environmental justice 5   A glutton for oil The Food and Drink Federation Ecover disastrous bet? Anna Simpson weighs campaigner-turned-entrepreneur. Simple sponge soaks up pollution 24 A thousand words up the odds. The perils and potential of 42 The heart of banking 45 Of mud and maps 32 It’s 2032: print some energy and 6   Next generation DIY a networked world Why the world needs finance Business and the Environment 20 The Green Futures Interview drink the sea 3D printers for the home on a human scale Awards profiled Martin Wright meets Paul Polman, Twenty years ago, few foresaw the 35 Forum update Triodos Bank Pureprint Group CEO, Unilever. transformative power of the internet 8   Space part exchange Jeremy Darroch learns from future and mobile phones. So what similarly Harvesting scrap from satellites leaders; a new league of ethical 43 Nudging for values 26 The future is lateral massive surprises lie just around the agents; and Sally Uren: can luxury Turning consumer preferences Jeremy Rifkin tells Martin Wright why corner? We poll the future gazers. 10 Groundscraper be sustainable? into purchases we’re on the cusp of a third industrial Deep ambitions for sustainable living Marine Stewardship Council revolution, where an ‘energy internet’ 46 Feedback will make fossil fuels redundant. 13 Enzyme electrics Readers respond online and in print Biological fuel cells come closer 48 Jonathon Porritt 14 UK “could be 60% renewable” Abnormal times need Ambitious energy targets “are feasible” abnormal people…

2 Green Futures January 2012 www.greenfutures.org.uk www.greenfutures.org.uk Green Futures January 2012 3 Peter Madden Briefings The future in context Wireless motoring pads closer

World’s first large-scale wireless charging trial to start in London

Reinventing four wheels If you think it’s strange to plug your car into called inductive charging to ‘refill’ EVs The trial is backed by the Government, the mains overnight, then how about this without any electrical sockets. the Mayor of London and the capital’s Cars are finally taking a new direction for something even weirder: a recharge It works like this. Current passing transport authority, Transport for London, that’s completely wireless. Just park over a through a charging pad in the ground all of whom hope that wireless charging special pad, and your electric car’s batteries generates an electromagnetic field that could increase the popularity of EVs. “It’s In the not-too-distant i series) but some – like Renault and BMW – start to charge. induces a current in a receiving unit fitted attractive for public charging points because future, we’ll sit back are even beginning to experiment with mobility The technology has been developing to the base of the car and connected to the it saves space and minimises visual impact”, and relax as our cars services, too. rapidly in the last few years [see ‘Surface battery. Many electrical toothbrushes are commented Ed Metcalfe, Institute for drive themselves, So, what are the sustainability impacts of charge’, GF79, p15]. Now it’s being piloted charged in exactly the same way. The charge Sustainability. automatically selecting rethinking the car? Clearly, the best outcomes in London, with 50 ‘wireless-enabled’ electric time is the same as for a standard charge Overcoming public suspicion of the the quickest route to of all for the environment would be reducing the vehicles (EVs) let loose on the city’s streets. point and is 97% efficient. Similar systems novelty of EVs will be crucial to their success. avoid congestion and cut pollution. need to travel, or promoting zero-carbon modes The Wireless Electric Vehicle Charging are also being developed by WiTricity in the A technology which does away with the need Not that these cars will – strictly speaking – of transport, such as walking and cycling. (WEVC) trial will test technology made by US, although nothing on the scale of the for charging posts and trailing wires could be ours. Who would want the hassle and high-cost But there are certainly enormous sustainability Qualcomm that exploits a phenomenon WEVC trial has ever been attempted so far. play a part in that. – Hywel Curtis of ownership, when we can choose the style of gains to be had from lower-emission cars, more vehicle we need for our particular journey (a single- passengers per vehicle, and a new economics person micro-car for a meeting in town or a four- of car ownership and use. wheel drive for a trip to the countryside) and pick Questions, of course, remain. Will we move “I’ve driven electric cars and they’re fantastic – it up at a convenient spot with a wave of our smart to these green alternatives quickly enough? phone? Drop them off, and their electric motors And will the fast-growing populations of the the silence is really enjoyable, it’s like cycling, you can hear recharge automatically – and wirelessly – as they developing world, who still aspire to conventional await their next commander... models of car ownership, have to go through the everything else going on, it’s a totally different experience.” That’s the vision. But why should we expect same phases as we did before they fall out of love something that has hardly changed at all over the with the automobile? – Damon Hill, Formula One World Champion last 100 years – a four-wheeled metal box, with an internal combustion engine, which we use for multiple purposes – to undergo such a dramatic transformation over the next decade? There are some powerful trends pushing A glutton for oil such changes. Rising petrol prices are biting hard, while low-carbon policies are gaining Peter Madden is Chief Executive, Meet the nemesis of water pollutants teeth. Increased connectivity makes alternatives Forum for the Future. to traditional car ownership more attractive.

And more and more of us are living in cities, Photos: Brand X Pictures / thinkstock It’s often said that oil and water don’t mix – from water and over 90% of poisonous where space is at a premium, and where we are but all too often they do, like in the Gulf of volatile organic compounds. starting to see a layering of costs and obstacles Mexico. Now, a high-tech chemical sponge ABSMaterials is on a fast track towards to car use, driven by concerns about congestion Who needs a chauffeur? has been developed that soaks up oil and success. It was recently listed by Forbes and pollution. other pollutants, separating them from water. as one of the most promising companies However, the thing which will really Marketed by ABSMaterials as Osorb, in the US, ranking 67/100. Investment has accelerate change is that some in the auto this organically modified silica attracts small been raised to the tune of $15 million, and industry are at last realising that the model organic toxins into its matrix, swelling up to the product is already selling into the US, of the past is doomed; that they must evolve eight times its initial size – but repels water. Canada, the EU, Korea and India. or face extinction. It can be cleaned for re-use up to 100 times, Needless to say, challenges remain. The There are signals of change already out and generates no solid waste. Chemist Paul main ones, according to Taylor Lamborn, used in drilling and mining for oil and gas. there. Surveys show that young people today Edmiston, who created Osorb and founded Head of Marketing at ABS, are getting the These are enormous global markets: an aspire to own the latest smartphone more than ABS, has been known to prove its efficacy commercial price right and developing estimated $80 billion or more, according a car. Schemes that allow access to car-mobility by spiking a glass of water with oil, adding machinery compatible with a radical to ABS. Smaller-scale solutions include a for short periods, such as Zipcar and Buzzcar, Osorb, and then drinking the water. material. But the potential is massive. The soil blend that can capture and break down are mushrooming. And big manufacturers are The US Department of Energy carried most promising applications for Osorb are common pollutants in stormwater runoff, not only launching ever greener vehicles (such out field tests and declared it highly effective, environmental remediation (following an oil such as pesticides and harsh fertilisers.

as the Nissan Leaf and the forthcoming BMW Photos: iStockphoto / thinkstock removing more than 99% of oil and grease spill, for instance), and cleaning up water – Carl Frankel

4 Green Futures January 2012 www.greenfutures.org.uk www.greenfutures.org.uk Green Futures January 2012 5 PV power lifts airship hopes Bag reinvented

Canadian company proposes hybrid dirigibles with solar electric motors Compostable carrier goes to market

It follows the US military’s investment places, should cope with a 750kg payload, Plastic bags get such a bad rap that of it are discarded each year as a waste by- in low-carbon fuel-efficient hybrids, land on a 50-100 metre airstrip, and cover you begin to wonder if they’re just the product of the food and paper industries. designed to combine the advantages of 2,500km at up to 120kph. The Chui will be sustainability scapegoat, or if they actually “By using a waste stream, we can offer airship buoyancy and conventional aircraft three times as big and go twice as far, while deserve it. But with between 500 billion retailers a product that is comparable in propulsion [see ‘Heirs to the air?’, GF81, the Nanuq is intended as a large freight and a trillion consumed worldwide every price to conventional plastic products”, p5]. The Solar Ships are, in a sense, carrier that can shift 30 tonnes with an year (around 100 per person), it’s fair to say says Nhiem Cao, President and CEO Time to bring it back to earth hybrids as well. While they are helium-filled, intercontinental range. that they do. Local initiatives to ban them of Cyclewood. The Xylobag, he claims, they use an aerodynamic wing shape to Solar Ship’s pitch is a powerful (from Modbury in Devon, to San Francisco) biodegrades in 150 days, following exposure provide more than half their lift. Solar Ship combination, offering transport without are all very well, but behaviour is a slow- to bacteria or fungus. It costs $0.015/bag, do quite the same job: they may release Slow path to the sun says there are big advantages in making fossil fuels, roads or runways. So far, moving bus… only slightly more than the average cost carbon and methane as they decompose, them heavier rather than lighter than air. though, showing off the reality of solar flight So the commercial development of an to a retailer of a standard bag made from and can’t be thrown onto the compost They don’t have to be so bulky to fly, they is still the preserve of pioneer planes such affordable, compostable replacement is polyethylene ($0.012). heap as a useful resource. New concepts keep coming out to boost won’t need mooring to stop them floating as Solar Impulse [see ‘Sun plane conquers good news. Start-up Cyclewood Solutions Ramani Narayan, professor in The new business was awarded a faith in the future of airships. The latest sees away while you are loading, and they’ll the night’, GF78, p10]. Solar Ship has built has licensed a technology developed by chemical engineering and materials $10,000 prize in the Austin Technology Canadian company Solar Ship touting a cope better with wind. a working prototype of its revolutionary the University of Minnesota for a bag made science at Michigan State University, says Incubator regional Cleantech Open, which proposed new range with electric motors, The company is proposing a range of ‘dirigible blimp’ – but, for the moment, it from lignin. This is one of the most abundant Cyclewood will face competition from aims to recognise big business ideas that and a wing surface covered with solar three sizes. The little Caracal, intended for needs an internal combustion engine to fly. polymers on the planet, naturally occurring other biodegradable bags already on tackle “urgent energy, environmental and photovoltaic arrays to charge their batteries. reconnaissance and getting into remote – Roger East in wood and plant stems. Millions of tonnes the market. But these competitors don’t economic challenges”. – Nick Huber

Next generation DIY Steel gas takes to the sky

Will 3D printers see the end of consumerism? Virgin converts steel mill emissions into ethanol for aviation fuel

There are disruptive technologies, and then domestic gods are dipping towards “It’s a radical notion that has at its heart Within three years, Virgin Atlantic could be aimed at producing a next-generation, viable proposition for the airline. Second, there are insanely disruptive technologies. affordability, with the Thing-o-Matic from a bracing vision of people as creators, not powering some of its aircraft with a new type low-carbon aviation fuel which is a major because it is made from an industrial waste Without much fanfare, one of the latter is US-based startup Makerbot on the market consumers. No more marching in lockstep of low-carbon biofuel derived from waste step towards radically reducing our carbon stream, the new fuel has none of the land use coming down the road, and it could be as for $1,299. It’ll print anything from a chess to buy stuff at Wal-Mart!” Instead they’ll be gases from steel mills. footprint. We are excited about the savings concerns associated with biofuels derived transformative as, oh, the personal computer. set to a model Gothic cathedral, with all the asking, ‘Can I Makerbot it…?’ The airline has announced a tie-up with that this technology could help us achieve.” from agricultural products. And finally, it is The technology is 3D printing, which detail of its intricate interior. The Thing-o- Next up? Researches are taking home- the industrial bio-commodities technology There are several attractive features also hugely scalable, with the world’s steel is exactly what it sounds like. Imagine Matic uses thin threads of plastic as its printing to scale with building fabrication. provider LanzaTech to produce the new fuel for the airline. First, the price of the fuel will mills capable of producing some 15 billion your standard printer placing one layer of raw material, including polylactic acid: a The California Center for Rapid Automated in India, a country which is one of the world’s be similar to the kerosene currently used gallons a year – not much less than the total material on top of another, according to a compostable, corn-based polymer. The Fabrication Technologies hopes to 3D-print largest steel producers. to power aircraft, making it a commercially consumed by US airlines. – Andrew Collier strict template, leaving you with complete material is heated and then deposited in a custom-designed house, in no more than The new ethanol-based resource is

objects – mouse traps, shower curtains, neat rows, according to instructions from a a day. – Carl Frankel Photos: Hemera / thinkstock; David Neff claimed to have half the carbon footprint of whatever you were just about to add to that template on a USB cable or memory card. traditional fossil fuel. A demonstration flight Made of aluminium – endless list… Almost any product can now be scanned should take place within 18 months, with flies on steel? It’s an idea that has sparked scientists’ and transformed into a template using free Virgin’s flights from Delhi and Shanghai to imagination since 1986, when Charles opensource software from Meshlab. London Heathrow using the biofuel by 2014. Hull patented the first apparatus for The environmental implications The LanzaTech process captures ‘stereolithography’ (his name for it). Today, are considerable. Today’s consumer gases – specifically carbon monoxide it’s almost a case of, ‘you name it: they’ve economy is premised on mass remote (CO) – which would otherwise have been printed it’. MIT has designed a ready meal manufacturing. In terms of energy and emitted directly into the atmosphere. printer for waste-free gastronomy, giving resource consumption, the efficiencies of Then, it converts them into ethanol-based you the perfect balance of taste, texture scale rarely justify the waste it generates. fuel. The CO is dispersed into liquid and and aesthetics every time; the Forgacslab, Then there’s the fuel required to ship consumed by microbes before being University of Missouri, has printed human the products across the world, and the recovered from the fermentation broth. cells layer upon layer to give the first packaging to make sure they arrive on Further technology developed by the artificial vein [see ‘Body builder’, GF76, p7]; the shelf in one piece, and the marketing Stockholm-based company Swedish and German company EOS printed the to persuade the consumer that, yes, they Biofuels will then convert the ethanol into body of a violin from an industrial polymer really did need a fancy new cheese grater – viable jet fuel. that looks (and, more crucially, sounds) like or, even worse, a set of two… Virgin Atlantic believes that the project good old wood. According to CEO and co-founder will take it well beyond its pledge to reduce Now, 3D printing is set to take Bre Pettis, Makerbot has a “profoundly carbon dioxide per passenger kilometre by manufacturing out of the factory and into subversise” mission: to democratise the 30% by 2020. Virgin’s President, Richard

your living room. Price levels for these manufacture of goods. Photos: iStockphoto / thinkstock; Virgin Atlantic Branson, explained: “This partnership is

6 Green Futures January 2012 www.greenfutures.org.uk www.greenfutures.org.uk Green Futures January 2012 7 The sun in a bottle

Green light Better than trees? Future forest?

Miracle water bottle brings light Innovators aim for cost-effective removal of carbon emissions from air into the slums

Within six or seven years, could we be seeing at source in power plants and industrial ‘Appropriate’ technologies such as ‘artificial trees’ in use to combat climate processes. If achievable, this would make the wind-up radio are all about clever change directly, soaking up carbon dioxide air capture from so-called ‘distributed devices that use less energy than their from the ambient air? That’s the hope held emissions’, including cars and planes, a hi-tech equivalents, with the added out by Klaus Lackner, whose brainchild plausible carbon control strategy. The cost of benefits of being controlled by local invention was the star of the recent Air capture would also provide a rational ceiling people and easily replicable. Capture Week at the Institution of Mechanical price for the carbon emitted by such polluters It’s incredibly rare to find examples Engineers (ImechE) in London. in the first place. of technologies that go further and Lackner’s ‘trees’ are actually towers Lackner points out that storage of the such as power stations. It tackles the thorny negate the need for power altogether. designed to hold out arrays of sorbent CO2 after capture need not be an additional problem of satisfying its own operational But in the slums of Manila a device called chemicals, which, he says, can capture a cost, if it can be put to positive use in energy needs by utilising the low-grade heat the ‘Liter of Light’ [sic] is doing just that. thousand times more CO2 than real trees of agriculture or other industrial processes. This which those industrial processes would The design – popularised by a YouTube comparable size. And he refutes the recent kind of ‘closed-loop’ approach also typifies otherwise just disperse though their cooling video – is so brilliant in its simplicity it calculation by the American Physical Society the work of two other Columbia professors, systems. And it looks to put the captured makes you gasp. shacks, where slum dwellers live in as much light as a 50 watt bulb. At just (APS) that the costs would be exorbitant. Graciela Chichilnisky and Peter Eisenberger, CO2 to good use, too. The Liter of Light uses discarded near darkness. It’s a highly appropriate £2, it takes an hour to install. The device Lackner, a Columbia University professor whose Global Thermostat start-up company One possible route is combining plastic drink bottles to bring light into technology for a country like the was pioneered by the charity, MyShelter of geophysics who also heads the Lenfest is among those vying with Lackner for CO2 with hydrogen to make synthetic dark slum homes, without the need Philippines, where electricity supply is in Foundation, which trains residents on Center for Renewable Technology, suggests leadership in the air capture field. hydrocarbon fuels [see ‘Air supply’, GF76, for a single watt of electricity. The bottles many areas either unavailable, unreliable how to make them, and the City of Manila that it could be brought as low as $30 per Their process, using sieve-like structures p32]. Another, which Global Thermostat are filled with water and a few spoonfuls or prohibitively expensive. government supported the scheme. The ton of CO2. That’s a mere fraction of the APS and sorbent chemicals, is, however, designed is exploring with a start-up called Algae of chlorine (to deter algae), and are The bottle doesn’t only let light in, aim is to light up a million homes in the estimate of $430, and comparable with for use alongside industrial processes where Systems, is to feed it to the algae engaged cut into the corrugated iron roofs of but refracts it; on a sunny day, it provides Philippines by 2012. – Charlotte Sankey low-end estimates for carbon capture CO2 is emitted in greater concentration, in producing algal biofuels. – Roger East

Space part exchange Fish scale

US plans to reuse old satellite equipment still in orbit New ways to feed the 5,000

in the sky that can be equipped with the tools to strip antennae At current rates, there won’t always be in sustainable aquaculture. AquaChile’s close proximity. So, nutrients excreted by ‘mined’ for spares. and other things off defunct satellites (with more fish in the sea: the UN estimates yeast-fed salmon are also reared in more farmed fish are taken up by algae, which are Why bother? the owners’ permission) and couple them up that we will need to farm almost half the spacious pens, to reduce the risk of disease then eaten by shellfish. The algae can be Because all those with satlets to make new working systems. fish we’ll want to eat in 2020. Aquaculture and the need for antibiotics. harvested for biofuels, diversifying income abandoned solar Simple to describe, hard to do, robotically, in production is already higher than These developments come at a cost for the farmer. It’s just one benefit pointed arrays, antennae zero gravity, but that’s the basic idea. wild-caught fish, and growing. But the to the consumer, though: the fillets retail at out by Dr Piers Hart, Aquaculture Policy and other comms Whose idea? It’s a US military initiative, challenge is producing the greatest yield $16.99/lb – around twice the standard price. Officer at WWF. equipment originally but the Defense Advanced Research without damaging marine life. A wave of So who’s prepared to pay? WWF hopes that “Marine aquaculture gets around many cost $300 billion or Projects Agency (DARPA) wants “active innovations could make it possible. a new label will win consumer confidence, environmental problems in the food system, so, and a lot of it participation from the international and non- In the US, salmon reared on a new, and persuade them to fork out. It is such as conflicts over land use, chemical would still work. And traditional space communities involved in more sustainable diet came on sale in establishing the Aquaculture Stewardship fertilisers and greenhouse gas emissions”, putting new payloads vital technical areas”. Sectors that stand to September 2011. The trick is a yeast-based Council to set and oversee standards for says Hart. “If we get it right from the outset, into orbit costs around benefit include micro-electronics, robotics; feed which is rich in fatty acids, and so responsible seafood farming. it offers a much more responsible way to $20,000 per kilo. Re- imaging; connectivity; manufacturing; and reduces by 75% the quantities of feed made But the hunt for sustainable practice feed ourselves.” – Charlotte Owen use in situ could be a memory and data storage. from wild-caught fish which are needed. is a wide one. The Research Council of whole lot cheaper. The space junk industry is not (yet) fully The new feed is packed with long-chain Norway first looked into the future of marine When? How? A focused on recycling. NASA has projects for omega-3 fatty acids, a good substitute for fishing in 2003. Now, a new programme Recycling and re-use are novel notions first Phoenix mission is planned for 2015, zapping debris with earth-based lasers, or fish oils. Normally, to produce 1kg of healthy aims to make Norway ‘the world’s leading for space programmes. Enough old junk demonstrating the concept of re-use in sending specialised solar-powered satellites farmed salmon, you would need to nourish aquaculture nation’. One focus of the has been left orbiting the Earth to create space by taking a satellite aperture off its on specific clean-up missions. There could them with 4kg of fish: with this diet, just one research is keeping farmed fish healthy, a real collision hazard for expensive new defunct ‘host’ satellite while in orbit, using be mileage, too, in a ‘simpler’ mobile repair kilo is enough. developing medicines and vaccines to satellites, but the planned new Phoenix robotic grappling tools controlled from earth, station, just to get failing comms satellites This technique, developed by tackle the problem of sea lice, for instance. mission isn’t about cleaning up the and reconfiguring it to fly independently. back on the road. So Phoenix isn’t the only commercial science company DuPont, This in turn improves the health of wild fish, skies by bringing it all back home – or Thereafter, the plan is to develop new tiny game in town – but it could be the most has been implemented in AquaChile’s as infestations of sea lice can easily spread minimising the threat of big lumps falling ‘satlets’ to send up in a kind of pod as creative, and spur the development of commercial farms in Patagonia, Chile. from farms to open sea. on us. Instead, it represents the realisation part of the payload of an ‘ordinary’ satellite the most technological solutions. Geo- The partnership came out of the Salmon Another promising solution is that geostationary orbit has become a launch. This would link up with an orbiting engineers, for certain, will be watching Aquaculture Dialogue, part of a wider project ‘integrated multi-trophic aquaculture’,

kind of celestial breaker’s yard, a spoil tip tender on the Phoenix ‘mother ship’, closely. – Roger East Photos: MyShelter Foundation; Paul Fleet / shutterstock; Simpa Networks Photos: Institution of Mechanical Engineers ; Klaus Lackner 2009; iStockphoto / thinkstock by WWF to seek out the leading innovations where complementary stocks are farmed in

8 Green Futures January 2012 www.greenfutures.org.uk www.greenfutures.org.uk Green Futures January 2012 9 with local authorities and businesses to transfer knowledge via the Green Roof Ground Experimental Research Facility at Barking Riverside – an area of east London where scraper redevelopment plans envisage green roofs on 40% of the buildings. Several London Deep ambition for sustainable boroughs and other local authorities now living space officially back the use of green roofs, which are specifically encouraged by the 2008 London Plan. For many, skyscrapers are what make a UK-wide sharing of expertise in this city skyline. These impressive structures area should get a fresh boost from the indicate wealth, power and the heights to Green Infrastructure Partnership, launched which human command over technology and in October 2011 under the new government resources can reach. But what if this were white paper on the natural environment. inverted, with sustainability as a stimulus? Green roofs are, of course, more Designer Matthew Fromboluti has expensive than the traditional tiled variety, turned our conventional perception of the and likely to remain so for a while yet. But skyscraper on its head with his entry into there’s more at stake than natural amenity the eVolo Skyscraper Competition. With hot desert environment. A ‘solar chimney’ Fromboluti describes it as “a patch that As these and other award-winning and biodiversity. Green roofs can be very ‘Above/Below’, Fromboluti proposes an – with pipes jutting through the dome fixes the environment [and] conveniently Green on top buildings boost their profile, green roofs energy efficient, keeping buildings cool ‘underground skyscraper’ to fill the 900- “like a gigantic metal cactus” – provides makes a useful space for people are increasingly recognised as neither in summer and warm in winter. They help foot deep, 300-acre wide crater, left by the a natural ventilation system: the sun heats underneath”. His aim is to make up for wacky nor whimsical. Their environmental, combat urban heat island effects, absorb Lavender Pit Mine in Arizona. The cone- the air at surface-level, causing it to rise, the former decimation of the landscape by Architectural prizes and knowledge social and economic credentials are also carbon dioxide and other pollutants, shaped inverted tower offers a space where drawing cooler air up through vents at finding new ways to harvest the energy transfer initiatives can help bring alerting a wider audience that they can be provide good sound insulation and enable humans can live, work and ‘grow their own’, the bottom. The current passes through that went into excavating the mine. ‘living roofs’ into mainstream use a smart solution even for the most modest the recycling of secondary waste as at the core of a vast cavern with lakes and wind turbines at the top of the chimney, Though purely conceptual for the schemes. New build or retrofit, sheds, aggregate. They are even compatible with recreational space, sheltered from the sun by generating electricity. time being, Fromboluti’s vision suggests home extensions, houses, schools, and all solar photovoltaic panels: by providing a green dome. Sunlight streams through skylights in that construction no longer needs to be A ‘living roof’ can make a vivid green kinds of public and commercial buildings some shade and minor water runoff, the The concept building is designed to the dome to growing terraces spaciously flashy, or even visible, to have an impact statement. The 1,700 square metres of are starting to show the benefits. panels could, at least in theory, enhance maintain a comfortable temperature, thanks stacked in the hollow surrounding the cone- on our imagination and the way we live. living, breathing greenery on two long In Germany, the early establishment biodiversity. And the vegetation could to a series of passive systems suited to a shaped ‘skyscraper’. – Fiona Underhill sweeping slopes of roof are the crowning of a technical standard for green roofs even help maximise panel efficiency by glory, for instance, of the ‘8 house’ in emboldened the construction industry to keeping them relatively cool – thanks to Copenhagen’s Oerestad district. This roll them out with growing confidence; evapotranspiration – on hot days. mixed-use development, combining encouraged by planning policies, they Even more striking are the benefits offices and 540 dwellings, has just won now feature on one new building in ten. for water management, which a joint the housing category in the 2011 World The UK has been more cautious, feeling project between Thames Water and the The vertical Architecture Festival Awards. It’s also the lack of adequate evidence on costs, Greater London Authority aims to quantify. been designated the ‘best green roof in benefits and techniques, says Stuart London’s need for a ‘super-sewer’ could forests of Scandinavia’. This is high praise indeed, Connop at the University of East London’s be much reduced by integrating it with since Germany and Scandinavia pretty environmental research group. But he green infrastructure, says Connop. Built-in well lead the field in this fast-growing sees this slower start as an opportunity to water storage capacity in green roofs Milan contribution to more sustainable cities. do it better. To maximise the potential of takes pressure off both urban drains and New York’s equivalent, the Via Verde green roofs, he says, we need to evaluate reservoirs and aquifers, and their capacity Ambitious ‘green wall’ scheme for (Green Way) social housing project due different designs and techniques whose to absorb rain ‘slows the flow’ greatly Italy’s industrial heartland to open in early 2012 (pictured above), suitability will vary with circumstances, during sudden downpours, reducing the offers another beacon for sustainable rather than just applying one standard flooding associated with the spread of urban renewal, bringing rooftop gardens to model in a ‘cookie cutter’ approach. ‘hard catchment’ in urban areas. In Milan, a forest will soon be planted in the the heart of the South Bronx. That’s why his university has partnered – Roger East sky. Building works for a pair of skyscrapers that will become home to the world’s first Viable green future – or unsustainable fantasy? vertical forest is underway. The brainchild of architect Stefano Boeri, the €65 million ‘Bosco Verticale’ is already under construction. • reducing noise pollution to with schemes in Chicago and Suwon, When complete, the skyscrapers will contain the building South Korea [see GF82, p11]. luxury apartments, each one equipped with • improving the microclimate Alexander Felson, Director of the Urban “We believe that in the next a copious balcony specially designed to hold • saving energy by sheltering the building Ecology and Design Laboratory at Yale three to five years you’ll be around 900 small trees and other plants. If from solar radiation in summer University, agrees that “there will potentially 2016 planted on the ground the total vegetation • reducing rainwater run-off so be microclimate and air particulate removal would cover an area of 10,000 square metres. curbing flooding. benefits”, but warns that the “overall energy The date by which wind electricity able to get power cheaper As well as providing green outdoors And all this, claims Brogi, for a premium of required to construct a building that would space for residents, and providing the city just 5% on the cost of normal high rises. support both trees and the wet weight of will be fully competitive with from the roof of your house with some much needed green views, On the surface, it is a simple idea – with soil” places some serious question marks natural gas, according to the project should have a range of other growing populations requiring land use over its overall sustainability. He favours a Bloomberg New Energy Finance than from the grid.” benefits, including: for lodgings, why not plant our greenery more modest approach focusing on green • filtering pollution upwards, rather than outwards? It is roofs [see ‘Green on top’, p11]. – Catherine – David Crane, CEO, NRG – one of America’s largest electricity utilities

• absorbing CO2 and dust particles certainly becoming increasingly popular, de Lange Photos: Matthew Fromboluti Photo: Phipps / Rose Dattner Grimshaw

10 Green Futures January 2012 www.greenfutures.org.uk www.greenfutures.org.uk Green Futures January 2012 11 Concentrating the Pay-as-you-go solar Saharan sun New business model for off-grid renewables could revolutionise India’s energy sector

Lenders back Moroccan solar, with wider regional aims in view People with unreliable access to electricity electricity but it’s a smoky health hazard at best, and none at worst, will soon with a disproportionately high environmental Morocco is pushing ahead with an The funding for this first phase, be able to pay for off-grid solar energy impact. Pay-as-you-go (PAYG) solar ambitious drive to expand solar power. announced in November 2011, ‘as they go’ – if trials of an innovative addresses both these concerns. Backed by international lenders to the involves seven international agencies microcredit scheme in India meet with “It breaks down the barriers of asking tune of over $1.4 billion, work is about including the World Bank and the success. The ‘Progressive Purchase’ very low-income communities to pay large to start on a 160MW concentrated solar Clean Technology Fund. model enables customers to make a upfront costs”, says Caroline Howe, who has power (CSP) project at Ouarzazate in Morocco’s sally into the solar spotlight low-cost down payment for a solar worked extensively in India with UNICEF and the Sahara. is not just for domestic consumption. The photovoltaic system, which is then topped the Climate Solutions Project. Developments at this and four other export potential of renewable energy is a Just focus... up in installments using a mobile phone Mobile phone money systems are Top up to turn it on major sites will be central to the country’s further factor, potentially linking intensely and locally purchased scratchcards. becoming the payment method of choice in $9 billion plan to build 2GW of solar sunny Saharan sources with European It works much like putting a coin in several emerging markets. Not only is PAYG (CSP and photovoltaic) generating grids. So far, Morocco is the only North the Middle East and North Africa. The aim the meter – or its modern equivalent: a system many are already comfortable billion global opportunity for small-scale capacity by 2020 [see ‘The light at the African country with an electric connection is to export enough electricity to Europe top-up mobile phone tariffs. Users can with, but it’s relatively cheap to implement, distributed energy solutions, with no clear end of the desert’, GF76, p26]. Solar to Europe, in the form of two undersea to meet 15% of the continent’s needs by determine each payment according to their and mobile ownership is widespread. It is market leader.” and wind energy, both seen as crucial cables that could soon need upgrading. 2050 – as well as supplying all the power means, and each goes towards the total estimated that almost 500 million people The Indian Government has set a target in a country with negligible oil and But further connections are in the for the (African) region itself. purchase price of the solar home system, have mobile phones, but no access to a grid. for solar capacity of 20,000MW by 2020, but gas, would then account for some pipeline. In 2010, a French-led consortium EU energy commissioner Günther transforming energy expenditure into an The potential for PAYG to revolutionise audit group KPMG believes that breakthrough 40% of Morocco’s power production. launched the Medgrid scheme, which Öttinger hails the collaboration as giving asset purchase over time. the off-grid energy sector is clear. Simpa technologies could help it to exceed this by The Ouarzazate site alone is intended plans to build five such interconnections “a truly European dimension” to the In many emerging markets, the poorest Networks, a venture-backed technology more than three times, reaching 67,000MW to contribute a quarter of the solar with North Africa. Now, Medgrid has prospect of “solar and wind energy being are spending up to 30% of their income company based in Bangalore, is working to by 2022. In a country with a huge electricity total, with a second CSP plant there, joined forces with the German-led produced for the joint benefit of European on inefficient energy sources, particularly develop the incremental energy payment gap and continuing population growth, the and extensive photovoltaics, adding to Desertec Industrial Initiative [GF76, p26] and North African and Middle Eastern kerosene for lighting. Kerosene is not only plan in low-income countries – and vying demand for reliable, inexpensive energy has the 160MW parabolic trough project. to create a huge network of solar plants in citizens and markets”. – Roger East expensive relative to standard on-grid to lead the market: “There is likely a $100 never been greater. – Tess Riley

Isle alone Totally wired Enzyme electrics

The Isle of Wight shoots for self-sufficiency Metabolism offers biological alternative to chemical fuel cells

The Isle of Wight could become a net water, fuel and waste – enabling the Eco Island CIC is planning to become action of enzymes within the body to keep future medical uses still depend on making energy exporter, if the Eco Island project community to take its destiny back a global centre for innovation in smart grid the current flowing without a battery? enzymatic electrodes more stable, warns runs to plan. into its own hands”. technology, working with IBM, Toshiba It’s not a new idea. Back in 2007 Sony Bob Slade at the University of Surrey: there’s Eco Island is an attempt, community- The island currently draws 600GWh and others. Cable&Wireless Worldwide announced a ‘bio-battery’ prototype that no point using them in complex operations led and bolstered by business, to build a year from the mainland, but Green and Silver Spring Networks are working to could power small, portable speakers when they break down in days or weeks. a resilient green economy on the Isle of believes it could be energy self-sufficient link all domestic renewable installations, drawing on glucose from grape juice. Now, Slade leads a consortium of researchers Wight, with energy security at its heart. by 2020. A £25 million project to install drawing on current communications a team at the University of Grenoble led at eight UK universities, funded by the The driving force behind the project photovoltaic panels on 3,500 social infrastructure and wireless mesh networks. by Serge Cosnier has made the possibility Engineering and Physical Sciences is David Green, founder and CEO of the houses, and install over 500 air-source Energy aside, Eco Island CIC plans of medical applications more plausible Research Council under the Supergen Eco Island Community Interest Company, heat pumps, is already underway. Further to stimulate a green economy through a by running a tiny biofuel cell for 40 days project. The consortium also works on which has already secured £200 million plans include a waste-to-energy plant, and number of schemes. Islanders can already in a laboratory rat. Encouraged by this the other main branch of biofuel cell of private funding. Green’s aim is to “use research into wind, tidal and geothermal apply for the GreenBack discount card successful proof of concept, the team is research: harnessing microbes to drive the the island’s natural resources to make it has begun, with the ultimate goal of which will reward customers for buying scaling up to an implant in a cow, with electron transfer process by their action self-sufficient in terms of energy, food, making the island a net energy exporter. from local, responsible businesses – with enough wattage to transmit live information on organic material (outside the body). 65 to choose from so far. Research is Experiments with biological fuel cells are out. Ultimately, even power-hungry implants These microbial biofuel cells may also also underway into low-carbon transport, bringing researchers tantalisingly close to like artificial kidneys and other prosthetic ultimately be developed successfully as an including bikes, electric cars and harnessing useful electrical energy inside units could become a practical proposition. alternative to batteries, Slade explains, but hydrogen vans, and the CIC is working the human body. Enzymes create chemical In this biological fuel cell, the anode is a they aren’t going to be a way of delivering with Southern Water to improve water reactions that release energy, by bringing specialised enzyme that can strip electrons power to the grid: the potential is more for efficiency and supply. The list goes on. other organisms together. We know it as from freely available glucose, and the self-powering low-energy devices. There Chris Huhne, Secretary of State for metabolism, and fuel cells that recreate cathode is another enzyme that combines are, for instance, attractive prospects for Energy and Climate Change, has stated it – using enzymes or bacteria – are a lively those electrons with oxygen. It could all MFCs to drive environmental sensors and he is watching the project very closely to area of scientific research. Could future be made more efficient, researchers say, waste and water treatment processes, see what the Government can learn from generations of heart pacemakers run by finding a better performing enzyme taking their energy from organic matter in

the Isle of Wight. – Tom Forster Photos: David Nunuk / Science Photo Library; Jason Hawkes / Corbis Photos: Oxford Molecular Biophysics Laboratory / Science Photo Library indefinitely off such cells, exploiting the for the cathode end of the process. And the sewage itself. – Roger East

12 Green Futures January 2012 www.greenfutures.org.uk www.greenfutures.org.uk Green Futures January 2012 13 Wight cliffs, green island Kenya’s Mount Meru: on the From sump to pump? Kenyan kick-start frontline of climate change

Scottish company raises the bar on waste oil re-refining World’s first cleantech business support centre to open in Nairobi

Strict control of waste incineration – that’s a in Scotland wants it any more. Now, the The Kenyan capital is set to play host to challenges into market opportunities”. good thing, right? And the recycling of old installation of a new vacuum distillation the first of a global network of Climate The Nairobi centre has a goal of sump oil – that’s good too, isn’t it? But what unit, a first for Scotland, enables NIS to Innovation Centres (CICs). These will creating 70 businesses and 4,600 jobs if the one gets in the way of the other? You re-refine waste lubricant into a processed provide targeted financing, as well as over the first five years of its operation. need a solution – which is where vacuum fuel oil (PRO) instead. The process avoids technical and marketing assistance, to Kenya already faces growing distillation comes in. the danger of pollutants escaping to the help entrepreneurs scale up innovative challenges of drought and energy scarcity, Scottish recyclers Northern Industrial air. And it yields a cleaner product with a cleantech solutions to meet local needs and these are expected to be exacerbated Services (NIS) handle 80% of Scotland’s higher spec – meaning, crucially, that it’s and create jobs. by global warming. Over 60% of the waste oil at its Coatbridge plant, and collects no longer classed as waste, and there’s a The initiative springs from the World country’s electricity comes from hydro over 25,000 tonnes of used lubricant every much wider market for it. Bank’s InfoDev programme, and should power, which has resulted in frequent year. De-watered and cleaned up, this used Operating at lower temperatures than eventually amount to a 30-strong network shortages and blackouts when water to be sold as recycled fuel oil (RFO). other treatments, vacuum distillation uses of CICs, mostly in developing countries levels are insufficient to drive the turbines. The RFO market pretty much dried up, less energy and emits less carbon. It’s also at the frontline of climate change. But on the plus side, it is well placed to however, when its classification as a waste cheap enough to be economically viable. All The Bank’s Special Envoy for Climate harvest both solar and wind energy, and In Scotland, they product was followed by tighter rules that in all, it’s an eminently more sensible solution Change, Andrew Steer, said the centres small-scale biogas and biomass schemes even distil the oil banned power stations and others from than exporting used sump oil from Scotland would “harness the creative spark of are also playing a growing role in meeting burning it without special licence. Nobody to England or Germany. – Roger East entrepreneurs to transform climate rural people’s needs. – Gitonga Njeru

Britain “could get 60% An ambitious horizon Carpet comeback of electricity from Remanufacturing old floor tiles into new saves resources, carbon and money renewables by 2030” One of Europe’s biggest carpet tile (principally the yarn and the backing) Arratia, InterfaceFLOR’s Sustainability manufacturers has launched an and remanufactures them into new tiles. Director. “So we go to them and say: New report sets out ‘viable’ goal for green power ambitious recovery and recycling The initiative should help to reduce ‘this is a cost to you, and we’re offering scheme as part of its plan to eliminate the estimated 30 million square metres to take it off your hands at the same all negative impacts on the environment of tiles sent to landfill or incinerated price, and you’ll know that it is It’s 2030, and the UK is a world leader in report estimates that an investment of over onshore wind farm developments, and by 2020. as waste every year. To maximise its contributing to a solution, not going green energy, sourcing more than 60% of £130 billion will be required to install the increases in the cost of offshore wind power The scheme, known as ReEntry 2.0, reach, InterfaceFLOR has signed a to waste’.” its electricity from renewables. Given that 29GW outlined for 2030 in the Government’s due to currency fluctuations and rises in is a project of InterfaceFLOR, a retailer pan-European agreement with SITA, Recycling has huge environmental the 2010 figure was just 7%, this may seem Renewable Energy Roadmap. However, commodity prices. of modular flooring, which has long the waste management specialists. benefits, he says, with emissions on an unlikely scenario. Not so, says WWF, this does not take into account the potential The UK is unlikely to be a lead country had a commitment to recovering its In doing so, the company is not only production almost halved recently from in a new report. Positive Energy argues benefits through new revenue streams and in solar power because the technology is own worn tiles. ReEntry 2.0 takes this securing a new stream of raw material – 10kg of CO2 per square metre of tile that it is within the technical potential of job growth, and – the report argues – it “relatively mature and has been deployed much further. It takes back carpet tiles it’s also providing a cost-effective service. to 5.7kg. “That’s a big deal,” he adds, renewables to meet between 60 and 90% of could be significantly reduced by cutting our elsewhere”, said Jenny Banks, an energy from any source at the end of their life, “Everyone by law has to pay a price “but we’re also looking at more radical the UK’s electricity demand by 2030 – if the demand for energy. and climate change policy officer at WWF, separates out the component parts to get rid of old carpet”, says Ramon options to cut emissions further.” These Government takes the right action now. “It is time we faced up to the plethora adding that wave and tidal are at relatively include using 100% recycled nylon [which So what action is that? First off, the of hidden and unsustainable social, early stages of development, and are likely can be from sources as unexpected as Reinyarnation: report recommends that the Government environmental and economic costs of shale to be 10-15 years behind offshore wind in fishing nets], while cutting tile weight by nylon pellets should make ‘60% by 2030’ its new target, gas and nuclear which divert us from the deployment. The two marine power sources half thanks to improved design. Together sending a strong signal to investors that long-term safe, secure and affordable energy have huge potential, however. these would cut carbon emissions by a renewables will remain a priority post-2020. provided by substantial renewables scale But the biggest obstacle facing further 50%. This needs to be backed by giving the Green up”, says Dax Lovegrove, Head of Business renewable energy is political rather than Meanwhile, “this (ReEntry 2.0) Investment Bank power to borrow before at WWF-UK. “Not only that, but we should technical, added Banks. Changes to technology has the potential to solve the 2015. Further recommendations include also recognise it is in the UK’s interests to subsidies – such as the Government’s [waste] problem for the whole industry”, absolute targets for reducing electricity position ourselves as exporters of clean roll-back of support for domestic solar says Arratia, adding that InterfaceFLOR demand, complemented by efficiency technology and know-how ahead of the installations – unsettle investors, who may is now exploring the best business model incentives such as the Green Deal [see inevitable international clamour for such take their money elsewhere. But if the money for expanding it. The company opened ‘Domestic goddess?’, GF81, p30]. The UK services. Greening can only be good for can be persuaded to stay, there is huge a new plant in 2011, with the capacity to should also improve its connection with our economy.” economic potential. The global renewable recycle up to 600,000 square metres of European grids, says the report, allowing it to The bulk of renewable energy is set to energy market is expected to be worth tiles per year, though this will increase in export any surplus electricity and to import come from wind. By 2020, this is expected $331 billion by 2015, according to BCC the future. It will roll out in the Netherlands offshore wind, solar and geothermal sources to account for 69% of Britain’s renewable Research. And in the UK, the Carbon Trust before being expanded across Europe, the generated elsewhere. energy portfolio. But two things could slow has estimated that the industry could create Middle East and Africa within 18 months.

And what about the capital costs? The its growth, says the report: resistance to about 70,000 jobs by 2020. – Nick Huber Photos: Comstock / thinkstock; iStockphoto thinkstock Photos: Martin Wright; InterfaceFLOR – Andrew Collier and Martin Wright

14 Green Futures January 2012 www.greenfutures.org.uk www.greenfutures.org.uk Green Futures January 2012 15 Fair play?

Gambling companies are aiming for responsible industry. Is it possible to gamble within our means – Then there are lotteries, which draw the most From Las Vegas, to your social, economic and environmental? players but make up only 3% of the market. They local arcade, to your practice, but is there such a thing as a sustainable bet? The idea of responsible gambling is growing bask in the high profile of the positive initiatives laptop – gambling is a up against the backdrop of widespread indignation they fund, alongside the odd rags-to-riches tale. pervasive fact of 21st Anna Simpson weighs up the odds. against ‘casino bankers’. Public awareness of the Camelot’s National Lottery gives 28p in every century life. risk embedded in our financial system has risen pound to ‘good causes’ – with 50p going to steeply in the last few years. We know that the the winners, 12p in tax, and the rest on sales “To err is human. So is to gamble”, writes John the Australian Government, which faces one of the bankers went too far, and we’d certainly like to see commissions and overheads. But many critics Adams, Emeritus Professor at University College highest rates of problem gambling in the world: 10% tighter regulation in the future. But we also know that would rather folk enticed by the feelgood factor London, in his influential book, ‘Risk’. Very few among regular gamblers, compared to 0.5-2% in taking a risk can leave us better off... Where’s that simply popped their £1 directly in the donations of us like to lose, he argues, but many do like to Europe – ascribed by many to the omnipresence of happy balance, we wonder? box. A rival ‘health’ lottery set up by Richard gamble. We’ve all felt the thrill of different possible ‘pokies’ (slot machines) in pubs and clubs. Let’s take a closer look at the balance sheet. Desmond of Express Newspapers, which will We’re talking outcomes as the dice roll across the table, or the With so much at stake, is ‘sustainable gambling’ We know we’re talking big money. According to donate only 20p in every pound, has been big money. ball nears the goalposts. The more we care about an oxymoron? It’s hardly an industry with social data from H2 Gambling Capital, the gross revenue rejected as “deeply unhelpful” by Stephen Globally, this is the result, of course, the greater the thrill – and for objectives at its heart, or even basic needs. Indeed, of the global gambling industry was over €260 billion Bubb of the Association of Chief Executives some, putting money on it is a simple way to feel its very success rests on the fact that the house in 2010, and this is expected to grow to €340 billion of Voluntary Organisations. a €260 billion more involved in the game. usually wins… by 2015. This charitable veneer means little to any industry But at what cost? For those who casually pick But, in recent years, some gambling companies For national economies it’s a net gain, even investment fund with an ethical tinge. They lock up a lottery ticket or pop into the betting shop before have shown an increasing interest in sustainability. In factoring in the expense of lost work days and gambling firmly away in that pantheon of social evils, ‘Match of the Day’, the answer is, relatively little. 2005, Bwin, one of Europe’s largest online providers, problem-related demands on health services. along with arms, alcohol and drugs. Even those that They risk what they can afford to lose, and feel that entered into a research partnership with Harvard Deloitte estimates the total contribution to the British profit from it do so with a defiant shrug: take the the chance of winning is worth the hole that (more Medical School’s Division on Addiction, with the economy from the betting industry at 0.5% GDP Dallas-based Vice Fund, which invests in alcohol, often than not) is left in their pocket. aim of developing a “gaming line-up that is as safe and 0.3% total employment, including a relatively tobacco, gaming and defence, and brands itself as All very well. But when someone develops a as it is entertaining…based on empirical evidence”. high number of unskilled jobs. Providers are also ‘socially irresponsible’. (Incidentally, the Vice Fund does problem with gambling – spending much more than Since 2009, Betfair – another large online gambling obliged to make returns through levies: an estimated well enough, with returns a couple of points ahead they can afford – they pay a high price. It can be the provider – has set up a Corporate Responsibility £1.5 billion a year is paid in gambling taxes in the of the S&P Index. But ethical funds, such as the top respect of a partner, the security of a job, the basic Committee, and won Carbon Trust Standard UK – although many see this as a regressive tax, in 100 in the Newsweek Green Rankings, do better still,

comfort of a bed at night. And the ripples spread to certification for its CO2 reduction plans. which the poor punter pays much more, relative to outperforming the S&P by nearly 7% in 2010.) family, friends and colleagues, too. The actions of Before we sweep these efforts aside (…green their takings, than their wealthy counterpart. It comes as no surprise that neither the Green one problem gambler typically impact the lives of wash, clean wash, call it what you will…), it’s worth Currently, betting shops account for over 50% Party nor Greenpeace is offering its support to

between five and ten others. That’s the estimate of asking what ‘sustainability’ could mean for this Photo: Kushch Dmitry / shutterstock Photo: Thinkstock of the UK market value, followed by casinos (14%). Green Bet, an online bookmaker that channels all its

16 Green Futures January 2012 www.greenfutures.org.uk www.greenfutures.org.uk Green Futures January 2012 17 environmental accolades for changes to its Las Gambling provider Bwin has made anonymous Vegas venues, with awards such as Green Apple, activity data generated by over 40,000 users Golden Pinecone and Water Hero recognising available to researchers, so that they can study progress on several fronts. These include water- playing patterns. saving solutions (from laundry to landscaping), Meanwhile, other solutions seek to help players low-energy lighting, extensive recycling and even understand their own behaviour. Ten years ago, a tree planted for every bill presented to diners when internet gambling first took off, behavioural at its restaurants. tracking tools were introduced to get more money I bet some greens were gritting their teeth as out of regular players. Griffiths saw potential to put they cheered. ‘It’s still gambling, right? The economy this software to better use. He has been involved in and the environment may do ok, but it can’t be worth the development of several responsible gambling the social cost, can it…?’ tools, such as Playscan, which is designed to So, down to the nitty gritty. What is it that help people anticipate problems before they arise. distinguishes relatively benign gambling activities It works by asking the player questions about from those which ruin lives? And can anything be their technique and habits, and comparing their done to minimise the harm? responses to data generated as they play. If the There’s a common assumption that some forms software concludes that their play is safe, it gives of gambling are more problematic than others: the them a green light, whereas a yellow or red light slot machines more than the dogs, say, and the dogs alerts them to a problem. more than the lottery. For Mark Griffiths, a chartered It’s a voluntary tool, but – because it also gives psychologist and Professor of Gambling Studies at the player tips and recommendations to help them Nottingham Trent, the reality is more complex. win – it’s an attractive one. Betfair is planning to “It’s not about sectors”, he asserts. “I could integrate such software into its games. design you a lottery that would be the most addictive “We want people to make an informed choice game on the planet. The structural characteristics [about how they play]”, explains Malcolm Bruce, of the activity – such as event frequency, the Head of Corporate Responsibility at the company, probability of a win and the sensation of ‘near- and former Director of the Responsibility in miss’ – have a huge part to play [in whether a Gambling Trust. He wants to support regular player develops a problem].” gamblers to play within their means for a sustained The most potent factor, Griffiths argues, is the period, without running into debt or going bankrupt. prospect of reward. The more often you might win, “If they do burn up, that’s not in our interest. We the more engrossed you will be. want customers for life, not for two weeks.” “On slot machines you can potentially win 12 But do consumers actually want such a tool? times a minute; on the internet it’s even higher: 30 or Yes, says Bruce: “I expected them to be fairly 40 times a minute! If the rewards aren’t that frequent, indifferent, but I was completely wrong. Out of you can’t become addicted. I’ve never met anybody 400 customers surveyed, 70% said this was really who is genuinely addicted to a bi-weekly national important. They probably don’t see themselves as lottery: the reason being that there are only two problem gamblers, but they want to ensure that chances a week to find out the result.” there would be help for anyone who might need it.” One way forward, says Griffiths, would be to Jonathan Parke, a Senior Lecturer in gambling modify the design of games to minimise risk, but behaviour at Salford Business School, is keen further research is needed to prove that this would to see more solutions that empower the player, be effective. It would also depend on regulation to without limiting the appeal of the game. enforce its implementation: it’s unlikely a player will “Many online providers now offer statements opt for the safe machine, if it gives fewer kicks… to tell the player exactly how much they’ve spent”, The game is one thing. The gambler is another. he says, by way of example. “But there’s no However engrossing a game, not everyone will consistency in how these pages are set up. In some develop a problem. And for the problem gambler, cases, they are extremely ambiguous and hard to it’s not normally just about the one game, but a find. Betfair is an example of good practice: the What are the odds it profits to environmental causes or renewable energy combination of a scratch card here, a bet or two player’s net expenditure statement is clearly visible, on one site, and then try another game offered by The more chances there lands on green? investments. But then, why shouldn’t the gambling there, a few hours on the web when the bookies in the top left hand corner of the screen.” another operator, with nothing to hold you back. The are to win, the greater industry align itself with the green agenda? Surely close… So might it be possible to spot a problem Another ‘empowering’ tool already on offer best solution would be a self-limiting facility shared the risk. a little bet has a lower carbon footprint than, say, a player before the habit becomes a hazard? is the option to limit your own expenditure. So, across operators – but data protection is a hurdle. shopping spree or a weekend break? There’s no stock type, says Professor Leighton a player could look at their monthly budget and The crux of the matter is that none of these Well, yes and no. If you’re betting at the races, Vaughan Williams, Director of the Betting Research decide they are happy to spend, say, £200, and no solutions can be effective without common there’s a whole infrastructure to take into account: Unit, Nottingham. “Problem gambling can affect more. They could then modify their account so that enforcement. Further research is needed to find everything from maintaining the track, to food and anybody, at any age, or of any sex. It’s not about it refuses play beyond this point. out just what will work, but Parke would like to see travel for every man and his dog. And take Las income, either.” He cites Premier League footballer “That’s great”, says Parke, “but a monthly legislation and agreement across the EU, and he has Vegas. It’s the epitome of excess: gawdy neons and John Hartson, who used to earn thousands a week, deposit limit can be changed. In some cases, all some support from the industry. flashy fountains consuming vast amounts of energy but admitted to The Sun that he once owed over you have to do is contact the provider, and they “No one provider can be sustainable on its own”, and ravaging scarce water resources in the Mojave £300,000 to bookmakers. Nor is there any evidence will change it for you within 24 hours… The devil concurs Bruce at Betfair. “Good governance of Desert. You won’t find natural light in those casinos, that people turn to gambling because of poverty, or is in the detail”, he adds. “It comes down to things gambling requires good regulation. We want to work there’s no sun to tell the time by as the days and in an economic downturn. like whether you have to phone the company within a regulated environment.” dollars slip away… But where demographics can’t help, a better to limit your budget or self-exclude – which is Of course Betfair does: no one wants to be the But its reputation may be set to change. In understanding of how people play might. This is embarrassing for you [and so may put you off] – or goody-two-shoes while the bad boys have all the fun. the last couple of years, casino company Caesars the goal of the Transparency Project, the joint whether you can just click a button.

Entertainment Corporation has scooped up several endeavour of Bwin and the Harvard Medical School. Photo: Hemera / thinkstock Photos: Hemera / thinkstock ; Ladbrooks Of course, it’s possible to limit your budget Anna Simpson is Managing Editor, Green Futures.

18 Green Futures January 2012 www.greenfutures.org.uk www.greenfutures.org.uk Green Futures January 2012 19 Gamble and, more recently, Nestlé, he became Chief Executive one year later. I meet him in the rooftop offices at Unilever House, overlooking the Thames. Below us, builders at Blackfriars station are starting work on the world’s “We have the largest solar bridge; across the river, London’s latest, tallest skyscraper, The Shard, pierces the skyline. There must be something in the air on this stretch of the river which encourages bold ambition… First impressions of Polman are of a very tall, unstuffy man, without a hint of the overbearing CEO opportunity I was half expecting. Then he sits back, stretches out his legs – and imposes himself on the conversation with the passion of an activist. Polman’s words come in a fluent torrent, with just enough quirks in accent and phrasing to betray his Dutch homeland. I don’t think I’ve ever met a more talkative CEO – or one harder to interrupt once he’s warmed to his theme… to reinvent I start by asking him about the experience of setting that 2020 target…

MW: It must have ruffled a few feathers when you were discussing it internally. How easy was it to get everyone on board? consumption” PP: Well, it wasn’t the easiest target to set! It is audacious, and, yes, it makes people feel a little bit uncomfortable. But if you don’t start with Martin Wright meets Paul Polman, CEO, Unilever. something uncomfortable, I don’t think you’re moving the needle far enough… We live in a world where resources are scarce, and we cannot keep For years, Unilever has enjoyed a reputation stealing [them] from our children and grandchildren. 200 million on Twitter and growing fast. And they’re Reaching out over a cup as the quiet giant of sustainable business. So the biggest thing the world needs right now is increasingly aware of their connectivity and the of tea: India is a growing Trying to do the right thing, in a cautious, unflashy courage to do the right thing – at a political and power that brings. We’ve already had the first market for fast-moving manner. Diligent, if a touch dull. The kind of business level. internet revolution [in the form of the Arab Spring]. consumer goods business you could take home to meet your Mum… But at the end of the day we have to convince Sure, there were food price increases, there was When it did put its head above the parapet, it our investors that it’s also a good business model for corruption, youth unemployment – but frankly all made sure it was in good company. Initiatives such growth. That’s why I always emphasise that we’re that had been there for a long time. Why now, and as the Marine Stewardship Council [see p43] or doubling our business, otherwise it doesn’t work. why so fast? It can really be traced back to a few the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil [GF82, p9] [And then I point out] that by decoupling growth people on the net. Now, if they can bring down were object lessons in careful consensus-building. from environmental impact, we actually accelerate a government in weeks, they can bring down a This was not a company in danger of suffering from our innovations and so we grow faster. And because company in seconds… tall poppy syndrome. we set our standards higher and build them into But on the other hand, if we can harness that If you don’t But in the last two years, something has happened our business plans, we look at our cost structures power, we are in an ideal position to be a force for start with that very few expected. Unilever’s broken cover. It differently. To give one example: the yield from good. Unilever has two billion consumers using our has trumpeted some extraordinarily bold targets, sustainably sourced palm oil is three times higher products every day. No nation state can reach that something notably that of doubling the size of the business by than that from [palm oil from illegally deforestated many people! uncomfortable, 2020 – while reducing environmental impact by half. land], so we get better sourcing at lower costs. I don’t think That’s the kind of target which would, assuming they But we can’t make the changes we need to on MW: Talking of your products, let’s take Pot took it seriously, have most CEOs waking up in a our own. Say we hit all our own targets, but nothing Noodle: a very popular, very successful Unilever you’re moving cold sweat. And it’s not the only one. Other flagship else has changed around us, then we’ll have failed. brand, and the butt of a lot of jokes, too! Are you the needle goals included in the company’s Sustainable Living In our own factories, we’re responsible for around really reaching the consumers of Pot Noodle with a far enough Plan [see box] include commitments to bring clean three million tonnes of CO2. But if we add in suppliers sustainability message? water to half a billion people, and ensure every one of and consumers, it’s around 300 million. Now, we’re the thousands of ingredients used in its products is [on track to] reduce our own emissions by 50-60%, PP: Increasingly so. But if I may, I will not take sustainably sourced. but if we take the whole value chain and achieve cuts Pot Noodle as the best example, but rather If Unilever hits these targets, then such is its size of just 10%, that adds up to ten times what we can Ben and Jerry’s… and influence that it will have done more than any do ourselves. So we have to galvanise change right other company, ever, to shift the world economy to across industry, and right down the value chain, and MW: Yes, but that’s the easy one! Everyone knows a more sustainable footing. we really have to involve consumers. Ben and Jerry’s as the ethical ice cream brand… If it misses them, it will not only be pilloried with cries of “I told you so”: it will also provoke a surge of MW: You’ve talked a lot about the growing clout of PP: Yes, but I’m using that as the example because cynicism over the potential of business to do good. consumers – is this really making a difference? that [embodies] the high standard of ethics we No one embodies the company’s new-found want to achieve across all our brands. Each should passion for public commitments more than CEO PP: Definitely. Today’s consumers have tremendous have a social mission, a product mission and an Paul Polman. Joining Unilever in 2008, after a power. There are 750 million people on Facebook, economic mission – and they should [complement

professional lifetime with arch rivals Proctor and / Corbis Photo: Thierry Tronnel Photo: Digital Vision / thinkstock making it the third biggest ‘nation’ in the world; and support] each other… [The most important

20 Green Futures January 2012 www.greenfutures.org.uk www.greenfutures.org.uk Green Futures January 2012 21 unique opportunity to reinvent consumption; to bring it made people look again at what I call the ‘real about what we could call ‘mindful consumption’. economy’, which includes our very humble sector of We’re looking for what you could call a ‘virtuous growing some materials, putting them into packages cycle’ of growth. We have a target to bring 500,000 and selling them under the Knorr brand or the Lipton smallholder farmers and small-scale distributors brand, etc. It actually increased people’s interest in into our supply chain by 2020. This will not only working in sectors like ours. help them improve their livelihoods, and address Secondly, it galvanised some change in the the issue of food security and malnutrition, but it financial sector. The 2008 crisis was partly a crisis will also create micro communities that are then of short-termism. (This is equally true in politics, increasingly buying our other products. In Indonesia, incidentally. The election cycles mean short-term I visited a group of 7,000 smallholders, and I got issues are always the dominant ones. I saw a quote tears in my eyes listening to their testimonies about once from the Luxembourg finance minister, who the opportunities that we gave them. And it’s not said: “Every politician knows what is right, but just food. We have programmes there like ‘trashion’, equally knows that if you do what is right you won’t where we help [train local women as entrepreneurs get re-elected.”) making bags and shoes from recycled packaging]. Now our business model is a long-term one. And not surprisingly, these people feel loyal to It takes longer than three or six months to get Unilever, and that means they are more likely to buy results. So we’ve stopped doing quarterly [financial] our products. So we are creating a market through reporting, we’re focusing on communicating our our suppliers. That’s the virtuous cycle of growth we long-term goals much more clearly, and we’ve Every politician are after. found our investor base increasingly understands knows what Now when it comes to the governments of them – and indeed, that they want a longer term places like India and China, we are very clear that model of value creation. And that doesn’t have to is right, but they need to take a bolder stance on sustainable involve a compromise in business success. We’ve equally knows sourcing. They cannot keep importing tremendous seen a re-rating in the Unilever share price. We are that if you do amounts of palm oil from deforested sources, for out-performing the market and our competitors. So example. They are mature enough to extend their these things don’t have to be trade-offs. what is right influence beyond their own boundaries. And we I think this is a great time for brands which can you won’t get need them to do so, especially as we see some provide a beacon of trust for consumers. These re-elected Pot Noodle: future icon of the Western countries shrinking or becoming days, CEOs don’t just get judged by how well their of sustainability? preoccupied with their own issues. With size comes share prices are doing, but by what impact they are responsibility. This is true for Unilever, but it’s also having on society. No CEO will ever be remembered true for some of these emerging countries. That’s for the market share during their tenure. But if you aspects for consumers] are price and performance, Indian, even the emerging middle class, and they’ll exactly the discussion we have in Indonesia or in can have an impact which touches the broader but increasingly we are able to get other benefits tell you what drought means to them. Farmers will China and India. society, it’s not only energising for people that work through to them, too. Let’s take the whole Knorr tell you what falling water tables mean. They may here, but your life has just that little more meaning. brand [including] Pot Noodle. Consumers are telling not dress it up in triple bottom line language, but MW: How do governments there respond to you Of course, there’s still an awful lot of cynicism us that sustainably sourced vegetables and fruits they know what is happening to them – more so saying that? You must meet some resistance… and scepticism out there, among the press, the translates as better taste. It is the same with Lipton than most people realise. ‘thought leaders’. They don’t understand what Tea: when we achieved the Rainforest Alliance So we have to address that. I talk to many Indian PP: It’s not the response in meetings that I’m worried companies like ours are trying to do. certification, we saw our business growing in all people who say, “I can only shampoo once a week; I about, it is the actions that result. On a rational level, But I always say to the sceptics, “What’s your the countries in which we did it, and consumers would like to do it more often for my own dignity, but people broadly agree with everything that we are alternative?” And if it’s better than what we’re feeding back that the tea tastes better. I just simply don’t have the water.” That’s why we trying to achieve. When it comes to implementation, currently doing, we’ll be the first to listen. This introduced the [Suave brand] waterless shampoo… it’s harder. There are often different interest groups... is a book that still has to be written, and we are MW: Most people only know these as individual And in Indonesia, one of our big fabric softeners [But] I was with the President of Indonesia last educating ourselves very fast. You talk to brands. They don’t identify them as Unilever products; is Molto, which cuts the number of rinse [cycles] week, and we were talking about deforestation. He’s any Indian, it still isn’t exactly a household name. So will the word needed from three to one. Consumers there might concerned about the image of Indonesia as one Martin Wright is Editor in Chief of Green Futures. ‘Unilever’ ever feature more prominently? not [describe this feature as] sustainable, but, boy, of the world’s biggest carbon emitters [because of and they’ll do they understand the benefits of it. forest loss]. So support from industry actually helps tell you what PP: Yes, I think that by 2020, people will be saying, Now interestingly, in these parts of the world, him to move faster [on tackling it]. drought means “I’m not only buying into what the individual brands people have a higher expectation that companies, Interestingly, the 2008 financial crisis had a big stand for, but what the company stands for”. So not governments, will provide solutions. Because for impact in China and India, from governments to The Unilever Sustainable Living Plan yes, that’s the Unilever brand I’m talking about. many years, they have had governments that were consumers. [For years] they had been taught by either corrupt, autocratic or simply not delivering. the IMF and others to mimic the Western model of Comprises 50 targets to be achieved by 2020, with the overall aim to: MW: Let’s talk a bit about India. You’ve got So, they are not so cynical about the role of business capitalism. But the crisis really made them question • help more than one billion people improve their health and wellbeing some great initiatives there, like Shakti Amma as people here can be. it, and ask what wealth creation actually is. • halve the environmental impact of our products [which fosters a network of village-level women • source 100% of our agricultural raw materials sustainably. entrepreneurs]. But how do you find the experience MW: All the same, there’s a lot of pretty MW: Sounds like a classic case of crisis of promoting the whole sustainability agenda in unconstrained growth happening in such places, bringing opportunity… It goes far beyond conventional corporate goals, including targets on India – or any developing countries, come to that – too. Can it really be sustainable? “halving the water associated with the consumer use of our products”, compared to the more environmentally-aware West? PP: Well, there’s nothing better than a burning bringing 500,000 small farmers and distributors into the Unilever PP: Well, there’s incredible consumer demand platform to galvanise change! I have always said that supply chain, and making affordable water purification kits available to PP: I’m not so sure we are more ‘environmentally coming onstream from countries like China, India, it was as much an ethical crisis as it was a financial 500 million people. aware’! If everyone consumed like Europeans, we Indonesia, Brazil – partly because of population one. I think it’s very clear that any system where the would need three planets. We may be very good at growth, partly because of rising standards of living. benefits of risk accrue to just a few people, but the www.sustainable-living.unilever.com verbalising [sustainability], but we’re not very good Now, if it’s mindless consumption like we see in the costs are borne by the whole of society, is just not

at living it. So be very careful there! You talk to any West, it’s not going to be very pretty. So we have a Photo: Stockbyte / thinkstock sustainable. Overall, I think it did two things: first,

22 Green Futures January 2012 www.greenfutures.org.uk www.greenfutures.org.uk Green Futures January 2012 23 Motion picture Don’t be fooled by the green: those emerald swathes aren’t forests seen from space, but roads joining rural hamlets (too small to be seen here) with urban constellations. The luminous threads trace our flights, and the lonely course of ships across the oceans. This freeze frame of global traffic is a staggering reminder of our desire to move, whether for trade or tourism or the touch of a loved one… But how we fuel this desire will determine how connected we are in years to come. Could these blue lines mark the routes of silent airships? Will the oceans’ algae power those liners? Image: ‘A cartography of the Anthropocene’, Felix Pharand-Deschenes/ Globaia/Science Photo Library Photos: xxxxx Photos: xxxxx

24 Green Futures January 2012 www.greenfutures.org.uk www.greenfutures.org.uk Green Futures January 2012 25 It happened in the 19th century, he argues, they’re essential to get us started, but they are a tiny when steam power helped bring printing costs part of this revolution and you cannot run the world on down, enabling the spread of the written word as [them]. It can’t be done.” never before, while railways unified nations and Instead, he wants us to zoom in on “the number continents. It meant we could “introduce public one cause of energy use, the number one cause The future is lateral [ie state] schools, and create a literate workforce of climate change: buildings. We have 191 million to manage steam and coal power. We couldn’t buildings in the EU. That’s our [energy] infrastructure: have done it with an illiterate work-force; it needed homes, offices and factories. The goal is to convert that communications revolution.” every single building so everyone has their own green Then in the 20th century, electricity and oil micro power plant. So you get solar off your roof, combined to trigger a mass-consuming, car wind off your walls, geothermal heat [from] under driving society, managed and marketed by radio, your ground, energy from your garbage anaerobically TV, the telephone… digested, ocean tides if you’re on the coast etc, etc.” Now, says Rifkin, we’re on the cusp of revolution Once you’ve got the power, though, you have to number three – one that will sweep away our existing store it. As Rifkin puts it: “The sun isn’t always shining, energy infrastructure. It will replace the “elitist, the wind isn’t always blowing; they are intermittent centralised, top-down” model of fossil fuel plants energies. So I’m in favour of every kind of storage: with an ‘energy internet’, where individual power pumped, flow batteries, fly wheels, capacitors – but suppliers and consumers seamlessly swap and I’m putting most of the emphasis on hydrogen. Why? trade electricity, as and how they need it, across a Because it’s the basic element of the universe, it’s Europe-wide smart grid. Essentially, energy will move the lightest element, it’s modular. You can put it in a as information increasingly does now – to and from home or a big utility. So, when the sun hits the roof of millions of sources and consumers. your factory or home, you generate electricity. When Fighting talk – so how do we get there? you have a bit of electricity you don’t need, you put Entrepreneurs will play their part, says Rifkin: they will it in water like in high school chemistry [to produce gatecrash the energy sector with the same élan that hydrogen]. When you need [power] you just convert saw the internet start-ups rip apart the complacency it back. It’s a tiny thermodynamic loss compared of the old computing and music industry giants. to bringing [power produced by] oil, gas, coal and Energy will But, unlike some cornucopian optimists, he doesn’t nuclear to us.” move as believe the free market alone will whisk us into a Electric vehicles play their part too. They act resilient future: good old-fashioned dirigisme has a as mini storage facilities in their own right, taking information role, too. electricity from the grid to run, and feeding it back increasingly Rifkin’s revolution rests on five key ‘pillars’. when not needed. First, a commitment from governments to drive “Now, here’s the key”, Rifkin concludes. “These does now: renewable energy (as expressed in the EU’s 20% five pillars together are an infrastructure. They are a to and from by 2020 target). Second, a massive expansion in mega-technology platform, they are a nervous system millions of distributed energy, with every building transformed for a completely new economic era – they are power Jeremy Rifkin believes we’re on the cusp of a third industrial into a renewable-power plant. Third, finding a to the people. Distributive capitalism, if you will.” sources and solution to the problem of storing energy – with It’s persuasive, heady stuff. It has certainly consumers revolution, where fossil fuel giants adapt or die in the face of a Rifkin favouring hydrogen as the most practical persuaded many EU leaders. Rifkin is that rare storage medium. Fourth, creating a smart grid, and American: an unashamed Europhile. He’s kept the bright new energy economy. He tells Martin Wright why this fifth, using electric vehicles as a two-way power faith even as gloom has descended over the continent, source come storage ‘tank’. recently remarking that, if the Eurozone splits up, could make the debate over climate change irrelevant – and So far, how revolutionary? If much of that “we’re into a dark age.” sounds familiar, it’s hardly surprising. Rifkin shares One of his recent books bore the subtitle ‘How trigger a new form of capitalism. a lot of common ground with the new wave of Europe’s vision of the future is quietly eclipsing the green optimists who enthuse over the potential of a American dream’. And the compliment has been growing convergence of IT and energy [see GF81, returned. The European Parliament endorsed the Imagine the internet, only for energy. surprising, because the vision he paints is a pretty p26]. And it has to be said, a future in which cheaper, principles of the ‘Third Industrial Revolution’, and many Imagine that, as well as tens of millions of compelling one. In it, the Facebook generation more efficient renewables power an all-electric car see Rifkin’s fingerprints all over the EU’s ambitious personal computers all linked together, exchanging seizes the initiative, tearing up conventional fleet, and combine with smart grids to transform energy and climate targets. He’s served as adviser to information this way and that, you had tens of thinking about where energy comes from and how energy networks is hardly a novel idea. successive holders of the Presidency, whose names millions of personal power stations, pumping it’s delivered. They apply all their nous in sharing So where will the juice actually come from? he drops with an easy familiarity: “When Romano electricity to and fro. information and building seamless networks to “Everywhere!”, he replies – then adds an interesting Prodi was there, I told him we had to get this moving, Imagine if, working together, they made fossil create a new, resilient energy economy in its place, qualification. “My first inclination was, we’ll go to the so we put in €2 billion for R&D. Then, under Manuel fuels redundant, resolved all our fears about energy powered entirely by renewables – solar, wind, water Mediterranean for the sun; the Irish have the wind, Barroso, we put in €8 billion as a public/private roll out. security, and kickstarted a new era of peer-to-peer and tidal, biomass and more besides. This will be the Norwegians have the hydro, and so on… So, When Chancellor Merkel came in, I said: ‘You’ve got power sharing. Oh, and made a decisive impact on nothing short of a new industrial revolution, says we’ll concentrate it, put it in a high voltage line and to let Germany lead.’ She put in €500 million…” Some climate change, too… Rifkin, and its impacts will be as dramatic and ship it. Then, I realised we were using 20th century credit Rifkin with playing a key role in influencing the Then you’re imagining the sort of future laid out sweeping as any that have gone before. thinking! If renewables are distributed and found German decision to abandon nuclear power. by Jeremy Rifkin, maverick economist and adviser “Great economic revolutions happen”, he says, everywhere, why are we only collecting them in [a His confidence in EU institutions as a springboard to German Chancellor Angela Merkel and a clutch “when new energy regimes emerge that facilitate few places]?” for progress might ring a little hollow to European Rifkin: energy is of EU leaders. more complex civilisations and more energy flow. So, no glittering arrays of concentrated Saharan ears just now, but some leading businesses are everywhere I meet Rifkin for coffee in London’s Langham In turn, they require communication revolutions to sun? No vast swathes of North Sea turbines? What also on board, with IBM, Cisco, Philips, Bouygues hotel, during a flying visit to promote his new book. manage them. And when communication and energy about all that Icelandic geothermal [see GF82, p5]…? and Acciona all in conversation with Rifkin. And He’s affable, relaxed – but speaks with the air of a revolutions come together, historically, they change “Look, concentrated solar, wind, geothermal parks beyond the EU, Rifkin is advising the UN’s Industrial

man who is used to being listened to. And it’s hardly the economic footprint.” Photos: Jason Hawkes; Ulf Andersen / Getty are all right”, responds Rifkin. “But they’re transitional: Development Organisation, and starting work with the

26 Green Futures January 2012 www.greenfutures.org.uk www.greenfutures.org.uk Green Futures January 2012 27 Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce, too. to legislate, then they put in encryptions, then they Petro-optimists, of course, will point to shale gas, Rifkin’s influence is hardly surprising, because collapsed.” But as important as the obvious potential tar sands and the recent mega discoveries of oil off his confidence is infectious. Yet when he pauses for is the fact that we simply don’t have a choice, Rifkin Latin America, which have shaken some of the more breath, you can’t help but find yourself wondering if it’s believes. Unless we seize this moment to crack our simplistic claims of the ‘peakists’. For Rifkin, they all a touch Panglossian. Are we really going to be able dependency on the fossil stuff, we’re going to be merely exacerbate problems: “They’re dirty, they emit

to create this best of all possible energy economies? trapped on a vicious rollercoaster ride. CO2 [and in the case of shale gas] there are huge Are millions of micro power plants going to provide all “When fuel costs rise, all the other prices across issues of water contamination”. the heavy lifting we need for industries such as steel, the supply chain go through the roof, because And what about nuclear? Rifkin is dismissive. paper and cement? After all, it’s one thing to see a everything’s made out of fossil fuels: fertilisers, “I don’t even spend time on nuclear energy; it’s a surge of potential for distributed power; quite another pesticides, pharmaceuticals, construction materials, waste of my time.” But wait a minute, what about to imagine the whole of our fossil-fuelled infrastructure synthetic fibres, power, transport, heat and light. So, the arguments put forward by a growing number of crumbling in the face of the energy equivalent of a when oil went over $80/barrel in 2007, everything else environmentalists such as Mark Lynas or George bunch of geeks in their garages. With the EU ( – the went up. At $100 a barrel, the speculators came in Monbiot, who’ve come to see it as the least worst EU!) as nursemaid… to gain the market. At $120/barrel we had food riots option in a warming world? Rifkin brushes off such scepticism with a practised in 22 countries because [the prices of] wheat, rice, “Look, nuclear was dead in the water after hand. “That old way of thinking doesn’t address the barley and rye were doubling or trebling. We had one Chernobyl”, responds Rifkin. “Its only come-back fact that these [distributed renewable] energies are billion people in harm’s way, according to the UN. At strategy was: ‘We could be the saviour on climate The fossil fuel found everywhere [and] the technology is going to get $147/barrel, it shut down. Prices were so prohibitive, change.’ Well, we’ve got 400 nuclear power plants giants are cheaper and cheaper. It’s following the same curve as consumers stopped buying. That was the economic in the world. They’re old, they’re going to be mobile phones and desktop computers from the late earthquake. The collapse of the financial market decommissioned, and they only make up 6% of the roughly where 70s to 2010. They became so cheap they gave them 60 days later was an aftershock.” energy mix. Our climate scientists tell us that, for the music away: now you buy the service, not the product. The He insists there’s no way out for oil. “Every time them to have a minimum impact on climate change, off time laid down by his publisher. At 65, Rifkin’s Generation lateral business was same is happening on this curve right now: we’re just we try to re-grow the global economy at the same which would be the whole reason for them coming impressively energetic. He claims to be tired after in the early adoption stages. Solar, wind, geothermal, rate we were growing before July 2008, all the [fuel] back, they’d have to be 20% of the mix. That means his flight, but it hardly shows, and he politely waves a decade or heat pumps, bio-converters – they are all going to prices shoot up, all the other prices for everything we’d have to have 2,000 nuclear power plants. We’d away the hovering PR with a smile, “It’s OK, we’re so ago get cheaper and cheaper. And once the technology else go up, purchasing power goes down and we have to replace the existing 400, and build [some] enjoying ourselves…” becomes cheap, the sun is free, the wind is free, the collapse. And this is exactly what’s happening right 1,500 more: that means three power plants every 30 Then he winds up the interview with a heat underground is free, and your garbage is free. now. In 2009, oil was at $30 a barrel because the days for the next half a century at a cost of trillions of characteristically optimistic flourish. “Try to imagine, When millions and millions of players are collecting economy had stopped around the world. As soon dollars. Can we really afford that? in 2050, you’ll have had three generations growing even a little bit of surplus, it just overwhelms any kind as we started replenishing inventories in 2010, oil “Second, we still can’t get rid of the nuclear up on lateral power and the internet. Are they going of energy you can imagine from these little centralised goes up, all the other prices are going up, purchasing waste. We’re 60 years in, and we don’t have an to allow themselves to be surrounded by these nuclear and coal-fired power plants. It’s just like power is going down and the economy is collapsing answer. Third, we face [serious] uranium deficits by centralised 20th century ideas? Come on, the kids All this – nuclear, desktop computers: when you connect millions of again. These are four-year intervals. Every time 2035, just with the existing 400 plants. We could are going to wipe this out!” them they wipe out anything you can get from the we try to restart the engine and start replenishing recycle uranium to plutonium, but do we really want shale gas, centralised super computer.” inventories, prices rise, and at around $125-150/ plutonium all over the world in an age of uncertainty? Martin Wright is Editor in Chief, Green Futures. whatever – is The fossil fuel giants are roughly where the barrel, the engine shuts down. I don’t think you “Finally, we don’t have enough water. That’s the centralised music business was a decade or so ago, he argues. can get through this four year cycle of growth and big one. Over 40% of all the fresh water in France The Third Industrial Revolution: How Lateral Power Is “When millions of kids started file sharing, [the music collapse. It’s very dangerous, it’s an endgame. And is used to cool nuclear reactors. When it goes back Transforming Energy, the Economy, and the World is thinking; it’s the companies] first thought it was a pain in the ass, if there is a way to get through this wall, somebody it’s heated and it’s dehydrating ecosystems for published by Palgrave Macmillan. old guard, it’s over and then they thought it was a joke, then they tried needs to tell me what it is.” agriculture.” (During the 2003 European drought, water shortages forced many of France’s nuclear reactors to shut down or operate below capacity.) But you don’t have to use fresh water… “Yes, you could build salt water plants but then you have Essential Rifkin the possibility of more violent weather conditions.” So when you put it together I would be shocked if • Born: Denver, Colorado, 1945 from the business point of view we replaced half of the 400 plants we have now, and that would get us to • Prize-winning economics student, underwent a political awakening 2% [of our] energy.” in 1966, on seeing “my frat friends beating the living daylights” out of And nuclear fusion? “Fusion is one of those pipe Vietnam war protestors. dreams. It’s always sometime in the future.” • Became peace activist and environmentalist. Staged ‘Boston Oil Party’ “But the real point”, says Rifkin, “is that all of in 1973, on 200th anniversary of Boston Tea Party, dumping empty oil this – nuclear, shale gas, whatever – is centralised barrels in the harbour. thinking. It’s the old guard. The real question is: How • Launched Foundation for Economic Trends (www.foet.org), which works do you regrow any economy in the world based on on a range of economic, environmental and climate change issues. an industrial revolution that is over? Answer: You • Variously described as “a social and ethical prophet” (New York Times) can’t do it.” and “the most dangerous man in science” (Time Magazine). Then he turns the question on me: “Where do you want to be in 20 years from now? Do you • Advisor to European Parliament and several EU presidents and heads want to be in the sunset of a dying 20th century of state, including Angela Merkel (Germany). Principles of the ‘Third infrastructure, or in the sunrise technologies of Industrial Revolution’ adopted by the Parliament, influences EU energy an emerging third industrial revolution?” Its great and climate policy. strength, he argues, its resilience, lies in the fact that • Books include Entropy: A New World View (1980); The Hydrogen Economy the future of power is lateral. “If you’re of an older (2002); and The European Dream: How Europe’s Vision of the Future is generation, like us, you think of power as top-down, Quietly Eclipsing the American Dream (2004). Millions of micro power but the kids think of it as side-by-side.”

plants a revolution make Photo: iStockphoto / thinkstock Photo: iStockphoto / thinkstock We’ve talked for over an hour, well past the cut

28 Green Futures January 2012 www.greenfutures.org.uk www.greenfutures.org.uk Green Futures January 2012 29 All, a national green jobs initiative. In 2010, her public radio programme, The Promised Land, won a Peabody Award for its “deep, eye-opening conversations about the environment and justice”. Carter also created a buzz with her 2006 Rocket from TED talk, which included a public upbraiding of former Vice President Al Gore, who was sitting in the audience, and enjoying a wave of popularity following the release of his film, An Inconvenient Truth. “When I spoke to Mr Gore the other day”, she declared toward the end of her speech, “I asked him the Bronx how environmental justice advocates were going to be included in his new marketing strategy. His response was a grant programme. I don’t think he Carl Frankel meets Majora Carter, America’s environmental understood that I wasn’t asking for funding. I was making him an offer.” justice campaigner turned entrepreneur. “It wasn’t fun to challenge Al”, says Carter, a congenial interview subject who seems as comfortable talking about her inner life as her public New York City’s “And she became very knowledgeable activities. “But I had to do it. He had dismissed an South Bronx is about things.” environmental justice component that needed to a district with a Carter went on to found her own non-profit be part of the conversation. I burst into tears when reputation. “environmental justice solutions” organisation, I realised I would have to be the one to address it. Gangs, drugs, Sustainable South Bronx. It helped galvanise local But you have to seize the moment.” The speech violence, you name it. people to restore the waterfront area, provided earned her national kudos (tech guru Guy Kawasaki Every inner city cliché some with training in environmental skills, and called her presentation skills “every bit as good in the book has stuck even planted one of the city’s first green roofs as Steve Jobs”), and it was chosen as one of six to this particular part on its office building. Majora seemed set to be a presentations to launch TED’s popular website. of town, making it a successful community activist, albeit on a small In 2008, she used her new-found celebrity strong contender for scale. But when she picked a fight with New York’s to launch a for-profit consultancy, The Majora one of the country’s controversial Republican Mayor, Rudy Giuliani, her Carter Group. “I was tired of watching consulting will require healthy doses of intelligent commercial Planting the talk: most notorious ghettos. reputation rocketed. contracts go to firms that didn’t have talent, or development along with mixed-income and mixed- a green roof for Bronx But that’s not the The Mayor’s office wanted to site a large waste the working knowledge of [communities like the use housing and the kind of urban amenities that Haven High School whole story. It has also transfer plant in the South Bronx. The project South Bronx]”, she says. “I decided to establish a financially comfortable people have come to expect. quietly won a reputation was not, to put it gently, community-friendly. The for-profit consulting firm, because the non-profit “People want to be able to go to a farmer’s market, as home to some area already had more than its fair share of waste ones are not perceived as seriously, even if they or walk to a café for a cappuccino.” bold environmental treatment plants, a common plight for impoverished deliver the same recommendations.” That’s still a long way from happening. “We have experiments – and communities whose residents lack the political Her latest project involves the creation of a to be patient”, Carter says. “When you’re trying to the launch pad for one clout to effectively resist the powers that be. national brand of urban-grown produce. “When I do something that deviates dramatically from the of America’s fastest The new transfer plant would have brought fresh was introduced to urban agriculture a few years status quo, the naysayers will be all over you if you rising green activists, battalions of noisy, pollution-belching garbage ago,” she recounts, “I was struck by its potential don’t come out of the box with a winner. We’ll get Majora Carter. trucks to the area while also denying residents to create accessible jobs – and healthy food – for one opportunity to do this right.” This journalist access to the waterfront. inner-city residents. Looking more deeply, however, I Are these visions realistic? Hugh Hogan, first heard rumblings Working with other local groups, Carter found that the sector was more or less a community Executive Director of the North Star Fund, a New about Carter in her persuaded local government officials to let them garden movement, with little to no emphasis on York City community foundation that supports pre-glory days, from grassroots sustainability “get in and tinker with the city’s larger solid waste profitability, attracting no outside capital of any grassroots groups, views them as “entirely possible”, activists working north of New York City who spoke management plan,” says James Chase, Carter’s kind, or marketing. I’ve been working with [brand but cautions that “the devil will be in the details”. admiringly of a dynamic young black woman who spokesperson (and husband). This led to plans for specialists] Wolff Olins on a strategy that combines Over the years, Carter has been criticised was doing amazing things in – of all places – the the mega-facility being abandoned and replaced in the value of local with a unifying national impact. I for taking credit for achievements that were not South Bronx. She was galvanising locals into the South Bronx by elegant alternatives: a park on believe this initiative will create jobs in places where hers alone, and for projects not yet completed. Unlike some sprucing up a local park, and mobilising coalitions the site of a former concrete plant, public waterfront none exist now.” The programme will be launched How much these charges have merit isn’t easily She’s a proud activists who to clean up the Bronx River and its waterfront. access where the shore had been littered with under the Majora Carter Group brand, with the determined. The popular narrative – “Carter made all black woman Unlike some activists who ‘parachute in’ to a industrial scrap, and cadres of local people trained longer-term goal of building out the business under a this happen” – is definitely an over simplification: no ‘parachute’ deprived community, Carter was born and raised to protect and maintain the restored environment. franchise licensing model à la McDonald’s. community is transformed single-handedly. who spoke up. into a deprived in the South Bronx, the youngest of 10 children in In the process, Carter was bringing a Carter also wants to implement innovative But the significance of Carter’s role as a This doesn’t community, a working-class family. She shone at school, went much-needed jolt of civic pride to one of the real-estate approaches that, in her words, “reverse hands-on community organiser and inspirational win you lots to university in Connecticut, and could easily have most economically and emotionally depressed the unintended consequences of integration”. The leader can’t be denied. She has star power, Carter was ended up leaving the Bronx far behind – a common communities in the country. But it wasn’t only her Civil Rights Movement, she explains, “enabled and stars are a magnet for detractors. As Hugh of friends born and trajectory for anyone from the area who makes a home community that found new hope thanks to her blacks to leave the multi-class, racially segregated Hogan tells the story: “Majora came back to her raised in success in life. work. To all those trying to bring positive change to neighborhoods they’d grown up in and move to neighbourhood, saw that her community was getting But she moved back in with her parents troubled areas, Carter’s message was: if you can do affluent white communities. This left generations shut out from good things that were happening in the Bronx when she won a place at New York University to it in the South Bronx, you can do it anywhere. of people who equate success with leaving. Those other parts of the city, and said, ‘This is not okay.’ pursue a master’s degree in creative writing – and Her achievements attracted widespread who can’t leave often feel like failures in some She’s a proud black woman who spoke up. This started volunteering at a community development attention. In 2005, Carter won a MacArthur regard, and act accordingly.” She wants to transform doesn’t win you lots of friends.” organisation known as The Point. “She went out Foundation “genius” fellowship. A national platform these depressed places into updated, greened- and did her research”, Maria Torres, President and followed. In 2007, she joined forces with another up, ethnically diverse versions of the multi-class Carl Frankel is a US-based writer on

co-founder of The Point, told The New York Times. black eco-leader, Van Jones, to launch Green for Photos: James Burling Chase Photos: Sustainable South Bronx segregated communities of yore. In her view, this sustainability issues.

30 Green Futures January 2012 www.greenfutures.org.uk www.greenfutures.org.uk Green Futures January 2012 31 trees’, p9] could become routine. Stevenson has plans for “carbon neutral petrol stations” which

would “take CO2 out of the air, stick it through some genetically engineered bacteria, and turn it into gasoline”. It’s all part of reframing the way we view It’s 2032: carbon, he says. “It is not a pollutant, it’s a resource. It’s Mother Nature’s preferred building block for just about everything. This is stuff that makes diamonds, graphene… This is a revenue stream that we’re just throwing into the sky! How stupid is that?!” Sooner or later, says Knowles, someone will print some energy stumble on the holy grail of long-lasting, effective energy storage. “Ultracapacitors that charge instantaneously and hold the charge for a long time could change everything.” Together, such technologies could make today’s worries over energy security fade like mist in the electrifying sun… As Stevenson puts it, “We don’t and drink the sea have an energy crisis: we have an energy conversion crisis. The sun is waving this massive energy paycheck in our face every second, and we’re not If the internet took you by surprise, imagine what might be banking it. So we go into our savings account, and that’s fossil fuels. Unfortunately, we’ve been raiding it around the corner… like some credit card crazed junkie.”

Empathy enough Whatever you want, print it out for you? 2012 is already sure to go down as the year when 3D printing comes out of the lab and into the home Extrapolation can get you down. consumption – of today’s methods. “This could take [see p6]. Fast forward into the future, and we could Reasons to be cheerful? How often do you hear sentences beginning with water wars off the table”, says Mark Stevenson, not only be printing everything from shower heads the dreaded phrase, “On present trends…” followed by author of An Optimist’s Tour of the Future. Meanwhile, to homes, but cars, computers – and even skin. So is time to stop worrying and embrace the future? some gloomy prediction of diminishing reserves of this, a filter made of nanofibres and based on a teabag Such “additive manufacturing” uses readily available As befits someone who’s just founded a ‘League of soaring prices of that…? could do the same for pollution. “Stick it on top of a materials, explains Cascio. “So rather than shipping Pragmatic Optimists’, Mark Stevenson dismisses fears So at times like these, it’s worth remembering bottle, and it turns a river full of pathogens into clean aluminium halfway across the world, you make use that we’re headed for a Malthusian crunch. “If we stick that present trends rarely stay that way: surprises water for less than a penny.” of carbon nanotubes, carbon fibres… In the most with the technologies we have now, Malthus is right. Stick this on always lurk around the corner – and they’re not always full-blown scenario”, he continues, “it becomes But when have we ever done that? We are at the top of a bottle, nasty ones. Cast your minds back a generation. Who vanishingly cheap to produce things that were stage where we can engineer ourselves past this, would have predicted in 1985, say, the extraordinary Too cheap to meter? previously very expensive. If it costs the same to if we want to.” and it makes transformations brought about by the internet and Nanotech could help make clean energy affordable, print a laptop as it does a shoe, this leads us to a Ruben Nelson of Foresight Canada is less We don’t have dirty water mobile phones? And who but the most resolute of too. Researchers are already exploring a range of very different economy. [It also implies] an entirely sanguine. “Technology in itself is not sufficient. We an energy Luddites would deny the enormous benefits – in terms ‘organic’ solar technologies, using carbon instead distributed manufacturing system, a heavily localised may have grossly over-estimated the amount of time drinkable for of connectivity, and access to information, markets, of silicon, which has the potential to be mass system. But it’s not local specialisation; everyone is we have in which to adapt. We need new levels of crisis: we have less than even power – we’ve drawn from them? produced at a fraction of the cost of today’s a generalist.” meta-reflection and meta-insight. Most people are an energy a penny So cast your mind forward two or three decades. modules. Combined with the latest 3D printing hopelessly trapped in Newtonian models…” conversion What might we be looking back on in 2035, which is technology [see below], this could result in a thin Jack Jacometti, formerly of Shell, agrees. “As now just a glint in the eye, but which will have had a film combining “a solar PV material on top, a Designed for life Einstein put it, ‘No problem can be solved from the crisis similar impact? battery in the middle, and some LED printed lights Personalised medicine and health advice could same level of consciousness that created it’. The Green Futures polled the opinions of some leading underneath”. And the sun wouldn’t even have to be become commonplace as the costs of genome human species has to raise its game, and move future thinkers. shining… New materials could capture infrared rays sequencing plummet. Stevenson predicts that towards intelligent living.” He warns that we could be (from ambient heat) on the bottom, and ultraviolet “the $1 genome” is not far off. Expect “drugs heading for a ‘great disruption’ of the sort envisaged on the top. designed to work with a particular genetic code”, by Paul Gilding [see GF81, p22]: things will get Nanotech: the very small Jamais Cascio, research fellow at the Institute says Cascio. And – more controversially perhaps – worse before they get better. gets very big of the Future, cautions that while solar remains drugs that allow people “to think more clearly and Jamais Cascio remains cautiously optimistic. “disgustingly inefficient” there will still be a role feel more empathy”. “All these technological developments give It’s some years since nanotech was front page for other energy sources – including small, stable And if drug-induced empathy is a disturbing us a greater capacity to deal with large-scale news – usually accompanied by dire warnings of thorium reactors, which could revolutionise people’s notion, other trends are likely to instil it in more environmental problems. They mean we reduce self-replicating nanobots taking over the world in a perceptions of nuclear power. And some still hold a organic ways. Take collaborative consumption, one our carbon footprint, and increase our ability to use tide of grey goo. But it hasn’t gone away. Quite the candle for nuclear fusion – which has been predicted of the internet’s surprising byproducts. “This not renewable energy and smart materials. They help contrary: it’s present in thousands of products, from as lying 30-odd years in the future for the last, um, only allows you to make money from things you create a smarter world. So I think we have a real skincare to showers to bicycle parts, but its impact 30 years or so. Hugh Knowles of Forum for the already have” [as with AirBnB or WhipCar], says potential to meet the resilience and sustainability may be greatest at a much more basic level of Future points to the investment in ITER (International Stephanie Jacometti of futures strategists Jacometti demands we’ll be facing by the mid-point in the human need: water. Thermonuclear Experminetal Reactor) and the hype Associates. “It also takes people right back into their century – but it’s in no way guaranteed. That’s where Nano-engineered desalination, based on surrounding the E-Cat cold fusion energy catalyst communities. Suddenly they’re enjoying talking to the challenge lies.” superstrong, highly efficient membrane technology, reactor, “which is probably nonsense, but always fun new people, meeting new people, rather than living could turn the sea into something fresh enough to keep an eye on the big outside bets”. alone in a lonely box. And environment-friendliness Compiled by Martin Wright, Editor in Chief,

to drink at a fraction of the cost – and energy Air capture of carbon dioxide [see ‘Better than Photo: Thomas Northcut / thinkstock Photo: Pixland / thinkstock comes as a by-product.” Green Futures.

32 Green Futures January 2012 www.greenfutures.org.uk www.greenfutures.org.uk Green Futures January 2012 33 Investment Forumupdate opportunities don’t get much bigger than this. The Find out what on earth you should be investing in. sustainable generation

Jeremy Darroch, Chief Executive of Sky, learns from future leaders.

While we hear a lot from chief executives ready to rise to the challenge, so that our companies will succeed, about sustainability, much less is known and go on contributing to society for many years to come. about what the business leaders of tomorrow Guide to Climate Change think. That’s why we undertook the Sky Future BSkyB is a Forum for the Future partner. To read the report, visit: and Ethical Investing Leaders Study. We wanted to better understand their www.corporate.sky.com/media/publications_and_reports/2011.htm attitudes to some of the key issues, including how they The Guide features over 120 climate change and think business today is performing on sustainability, ethical funds, articles from leading fund managers, whether they feel they’re being equipped with the including Pictet, Sarasin, Henderson, Cheviot, skills and knowledge they will need, and what they Future leader viewpoints Impax, Meteor, Osmosis, Quadris, Goldfield themselves would do differently in the future. Partners, Terra Global and Future Capital Partners, It’s highly encouraging to see that tomorrow’s The Sky Future Leaders Study interviewed 750 corporate graduate plus the unique Holden Runes Ratings. business leaders are already engaged with trainees, high-potential middle managers and MBA students, and sustainability and have a huge appetite for it to be found that: Request your FREE copy at part of their careers. They have coined the phrase • 96% see themselves getting involved in sustainability in their careers www.holden-partners.co.uk/guide ‘the sustainable generation’ as a way of describing • 79% cite the vision and values of a company as an important factor themselves, which seems both apt and accurate to me. when looking at potential employers or call 01603 763 850 One of the biggest challenges they’ll face is dealing • more than two thirds (69%) believe that a company’s values and with the long-term impact of the economic downturn. ethics are essential in building personal trust in a business. So it’s also encouraging that they see sustainability as a priority, even in tough operating conditions. “Marking yourself out as someone who’s interested in sustainability is holden But something that concerns me – and it should important in terms of your progression.” – MBA student & partners concern everyone involved in business today – is that too many companies aren’t effectively communicating “Sustainability is a growth area, and I think there will be growing demand their motives for acting sustainably. For businesses to for people with relevant experience and expertise in it.” – Graduate trainee Peter R T Holden & Partners LLP maintain their relationships with existing customers, are authorised and regulated by the and attract new ones, they need to improve “The initial work to establish sustainability as something worth tackling Financial Services Authority communications around their values. This study shows has already been done. My role will be to expand what my company that, by integrating sustainability into how businesses does.” – Middle manager

Photo: iStockphoto / thinkstock operate today, we can ensure our future leaders are

Holden Ad34 Concept Green 257x86.indd Futures 1 January 2012 8/23/2011 11:36:57 AM www.greenfutures.org.uk www.greenfutures.org.uk Green Futures January 2012 35 have been around for decades, and have Tomorrow’s leaders helped sustain local economies and local Since 1996, Forum for the Future’s Masters in Leadership for Sustainable SallyUren jobs over that time. What’s left of the UK’s Development has been training the sustainability leaders of the future. real economy actually has a big luxury Each issue, we track the career of a Forum alumnus. flavour to it. But, on balance, luxury isn’t very sustainable – yet. It could be, with values them. I came across the Forum Masters, What I plan to do next such as sound provenance, longevity, and it just seemed like the obvious I’d like to stay at Coca-Cola and use what low-impact use and recyclability at its way forward. the Olympics have catalysed there to drive heart – as well as desirability. Imagine the the sustainability of their operations further beautiful garment, made from synthetic What I learnt forward. I think if you can positively change materials with zero embedded carbon Before the Masters, I was probably quite a big corporation by just 1%, you’re making Can luxury be and water; using state of the art zero- naïve and idealistic in my attitudes towards a far bigger difference than some of the emissions technology, brought to market using smart logistics. It’s big businesses – thinking, ‘Gosh, I would lovely, small charities I’ve worked at before. I sustainable? cherished for more than a season, then either freecycled or recycled… never work for that kind of company’. But believe I’m working in a company that wants Or a sleek car, more like a Tesla than a humble Nissan Leaf (which that changed as a result of going on the to do the right thing – it’s in their interest Can luxury be sustainable? Surely it’s an irrelevant question, given boasts equally low emissions, but has zero sex appeal…). work placements and understanding the to, both from a business and a reputational another record leap in levels of global carbon dioxide? The luxury sector, on the whole, has been immune to sustainability Forum way of thinking. Now, I find it’s best perspective. If they want to be around in Think again. One of the biggest drivers of carbon emissions is for too long. While it has been busy growing in emerging markets Olivia Knight-Adams to work with big business to make change, 10 years’ time, they have to look after the consumption, and a key driver of consumption is the desire for social in particular, it has taken its eye off the big environmental and social rather than constantly fighting against it – resources on which they depend. status. Right now, owning luxury products equals status for many trends that many other brands have taken on board. It’s high time for Class of: 2007 – 08 although you do need the whole spectrum, people across the globe. And as entire economies lift themselves out of luxury brands to inject their high-growth business models with some of Currently: Sustainable Games Project the activists as well as the collaborators. Advice for future leaders poverty and aspire to the lifestyles of the West, the demand for luxury the best sustainability thinking from the fast-moving consumer goods Coordinator at Coca-Cola If there’s one thing I’ve learnt, it’s this: don’t goods and services is rocketing. Luxury may not make us healthier or world – the pioneering practice of retailers such as Marks & Spencer Career to date ever stop thinking of things from someone happier, but at least we can show off. and manufacturers such as Unilever. Why I chose the MProf After the Masters, I got a job working as else’s perspective. It puts you in a much Back to the question then. On the face of it, there’s nothing very This would be a great step forward. But, if luxury goods and I had been working for Quest Overseas a Sustainability Advisor for the Olympic better position to influence them if you do. sustainable about luxury. From cars (think urban 4x4s), to handbags services are to have a role in a sustainable future, they have to deliver for about four years, organising voluntary Delivery Authority, which was fascinating, (crocodile skin, anyone?), to spa experiences (high on energy and a wider social value. Simply perpetuating our wish to show off isn’t a conservation and community projects and then worked on a behaviour change Olivia Knight-Adams was in conversation water), luxury can often be shorthand for excessive consumption. long-term solution. in South America. It was a very small project with universities across the country, with Katie Shaw. On the other hand, luxury products are often built to last. That organisation and I was at the top, so funded by the Department for Environment, designer handbag can have a long and fulfilling life, often adorning the Sally Uren is Deputy Chief Executive at Forum for the Future. there wasn’t any room for me to progress. Food and Rural Affairs. It was quite a Look out for the Green Futures Special arm of multiple owners. Many luxury brands, from Burberry to Jaguar, @sallyuren When I started looking for other jobs, contrast moving to a big corporate like Edition on the 2012 Games, Olympic

I didn’t quite have what it took to get Coca-Cola after that, but I love it. Opportunity later this year. Photos: Jupiterimages / thinkstock; Haygrove Heaven Ltd

developing world producers earn a secure, dignified New to the Forum Network living by acting as an intermediary that assists the flow of information, training, skills and/or the goods Ship shape Since the last issue of Green Futures, BSkyB Ethical agents themselves between the producer and the retailer. has joined Forum for the Future as a Partner, The result? At Haygrove, the fields tended The Sustainable Shipping Initiative and Prudential and Technology Will Save Us New enterprises channel valuable by its ‘Bright Futures’ entrepreneurs (including have become Members. Charlie, pictured left) have given a greater yield. The sets sail resources across supply chains. programme has taught employees critical skills, from better production methods, to driving and reading. CottonConnect has trained 20,000 farmers in Three great challenges face the shipping • reducing the life-cycle impact of ship What do these initiatives have in common? sustainable production methods, and has a target to industry: rising oil prices, structural shifts materials A raspberry farm in South Africa called Haygrove train 100,000 more, and impact 500,000 livelihoods, in world trade, and growing scrutiny of • setting standards and creating a governance Heaven, which transforms its labourers into small- by 2015. And entrepreneurs in southern and the industry’s social and environmental structure to manage them. scale entrepreneurs. CottonConnect, a one-stop- eastern Africa are supplying six major retailers and performance. Forum for the Future’s Sustainable “We are in business for the long-term and shop to help retailers and brands trace where their manufacturers across Europe and Australia, through Shipping Initiative (SSI) has been working with therefore take an active role in defining the future cotton comes from and solve problems across the Better Trading Company. WWF and 15 global giants from across the supply we want to be part of”, said Maersk Line Chief all stages of production. And The Better Trading Now, Forum for the Future and the Shell chain, to plan how the industry can contribute to a Operating Officer, Morten Engelstoft, at the launch Company, which connects small-scale producers Foundation are working together to hone the process sustainable future, and thrive in it. of the Vision last October. “Delivering on a joint from the developing world with Western retailers, of creating ethical intermediaries like these, and The SSI’s ‘Vision for 2040’ describes the vision for our industry will help drive a much- bringing them closer to the market and putting new, find out what key factors make them successful. changes its members would like to bring about, needed change in operating models – thereby exotic products on store shelves. But the next stage is the most important: scaling up backed up with commitment to action, and signed allowing economies to grow, trade to develop and For one, they are all successful sustainable and replicating these initiatives in different contexts. by their CEOs and board representatives. These social wealth to spread.” enterprises. But each one has also been co- We are looking to start conversations with partners actions include: The SSI now invites progressive companies developed and co-funded by the Shell Foundation. who are interested in replicating elements of these • developing new finance mechanisms to roll with an interest in these goals to join us in Marking it out from traditional corporate business models. If you want to engage more directly out new technologies more quickly achieving them. philanthropy, the Shell Foundation has decided with your supply chain, then get in touch. • identifying and overcoming key non-financial to stop disbursing money to disparate causes, barriers to the uptake of low-carbon and Sam Kimmins leads the Sustainable Shipping and start acting more like an ‘angel investor’. It Ivana Gazibara is a Principal Sustainability Advisor at

energy-efficient technologies Initiative at Forum for the Future. Photo: Maersk has created ‘ethical agents’: companies that help Forum for the Future. [email protected]

36 Green Futures January 2012 www.greenfutures.org.uk www.greenfutures.org.uk Green Futures January 2012 37 Forum for the Future’s Network brings together business and government to create a sustainable future; inspiring new thinking, building creative partnerships RE-ENERGIZE AT NEMEX and developing practical innovations to change our world. We aim to transform 30 years as the leading energy, procurement and renewables exhibition, the critical systems that we all depend on, such as food, energy and finance, help write a new chapter at NEMEX to make them fit for the challenges of the 21st century. For more information, visit www.forumforthefuture.org HIGHLIGHTS OF 2011 ABN AMRO David Lloyd Leisure Jaguar Land Rover RSA Insurance plc www.abnamro.com www.davidlloyd.co.uk Fran Leedham, Paul Pritchard, 020 7337 5712 “Thought this year was excellent, it’s [email protected] 5,081 visitors interested in energy 37% increase in NEMEX visitors over AECOM Delhaize Group RWE npower the last 2 years getting better and better. A must attend Daniel Hobbs, [email protected] Ben Davies, [email protected] John Lewis Partnership Anita Longley, 01793 892716 products and services www.aecom.com Moira Thomas, 0207 592 4413 event on the annual calendar for any Delphis Eco Sainsbury’s Supermarkets Ltd The Environment and Energy environmental/energy professional.” AkzoNobel Mark Jankovich, 020 3397 0096, Johnson Matthey Jack Cunningham, Over 100 leading energy industry Elizabeth Stokes, 01928 511695 www.delphisworld.com Sean Axon, 020 7269 8400 [email protected] Awards celebrated a 40% increase Gareth Williams, Energy Solutions www.aksonobel.com speakers in attendees DSME Kingfisher SC Johnson Ltd Manager, Northern Rail Alliance Boots Ltd www.dsme.co.kr/en Becky Coffin, [email protected] Chris Lambert, 01784 484100 Andrew Jenkins, 0115 968 6766 Ecover Kraft Foods and Cadbury Skanska AMEC Mick Bremans, +32 3 309 2500 Jonathan Horrell, 01242 236101 Jennifer Clark, 01923 776666 Francesco Corsi, 0191 272 6128 www.ecover.com www.skanska.com www.amec.com/ukenvironment Kyocera Mita UK Ltd NEMEX provides the ideal platform for you to showcase your EDF Energy Tracey Rawling, Small World Arjowiggins Graphic Darren Towers, 07875 110 289, [email protected] Henry Rawson, +852 2799 3998 Shannan Hodgson, [email protected] www.interiorsourcing.com [email protected] Lafarge UK energy solutions to over 9,000* attendees. Ella’s Kitchen Emma Hines, www.lafarge.co.uk Sony Ericsson * Sustainabilitylive! ABC fi gures 2011 Ashden Alison Lindley, Gustaf Brusewitz, Jane Howarth, 020 7410 7023 [email protected] Leeds City Council [email protected] www.leeds.gov.uk/ Aviva Investors Energy Saving Trust Sony Europe Steve Waygood, 020 7809 6000 020 7227 0398 London Borough of Croydon www.sony-europe.com www.energysavingtrust.org.uk Bob Fiddik, [email protected] Balfour Beatty plc Swire – China Navigation Co Jonathan Garrett, 020 7216 6837 The Environment Agency Lloyd’s Register www.swireos.com Brian Francis, www.lr.org Bank of America Merrill Lynch [email protected] Target (US) Matt Hale, 020 7996 2054 Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) www.target.com Fife City Council James Simpson, 020 7811 3315 Benchmark Software www.fifedirect.org.uk www.msc.org Tata Global Beverages Simon Harvey, 01458 444010 Ria Kearney +44 (0)20 8338 4596 Finlays Marks & Spencer plc Birmingham City Council Michael Pennant-Jones, Rowland Hill, 020 8718 6885 Tesco Ltd Sandy Taylor, 0121 303 4026 020 7802 3239 Ruth Girardet, 01992 644053 Maersk Line Bottletop Firmenich SA www.maersk.com Technology Will Save Us Cameron Saul, [email protected] Neil McFarlane, +41 227802435 www.technologywillsaveus.org Mars Drinks BP Shipping FirstGroup plc www.marsdrinks.co.uk Tetra Pak international www.bp.com/shipping Terri Vogt, 07799 885171 Rupert Maitland-Titterton, 0870 442 6000 National Grid BSkyB Food and Drink Federation Mike Elmer, [email protected] Thames Water Utilities ltd Daniella Vega, Nicki Hunt, 020 7420 7132 Helen Newman, 0118 373 8343 [email protected] www.fdf.org.uk O2 plc Simon Davis, [email protected] Thomson Reuters BT plc Friends Life Julia Fuller, Richard Spencer, 0773 663 6882 Sandra Latner, 08452 683135 Panasonic UK Ltd [email protected] [email protected] Simon Eves, 01344 853325 GallifordTry Infrastructure Triodos Bank Bunge Guy Wilson, PepsiCo UK & Ireland William Ferguson, 0117 980 9770 www.bunge.com [email protected] Andrew Slight, [email protected] www.triodos.co.uk

Bupa Gearbulk Powys County Council Tsakos Andrew Smith, 020 7656 2343 www.gearbulk.com Heather Delonnette, 01597 827481 www.tsakos.net www.bupa.com GSH Group Pret A Manger ltd TUI Travel plc Cafédirect Lee Price, 01782 200 497 Nicki Fisher, 020 7827 8888 Jane Ashton, 01293 645911 Whitney Kakos, 0207 033 6022 www.gshgroup.com www.tuitravel.com/sustainabledevelopment Pureprint Group Capgemini Ltd Heineken UK Richard Owers, 01825 768811 Unilever UK James Robey, 0870 904 5761 Richard Heathcote, 01432 345277 www.pureprint.com Helen Fenwick, 01372 945000

Cargill Hewlett-Packard Prudential UK & Europe United Utilities Fiona Cubitt, 01932 861916 Scott Nyulassy, www.hp.com [email protected] Gary Adkins, [email protected]

Carillion plc The Highways Agency Quintain Estates and Development Plc Vodafone Group Louise Perry, 01902 316258 Dean Kerwick-Chrisp, Louise Ellison, 020 7478 3430 Joel Roxburgh, www.vodafone.com [email protected]. [email protected] Carnival gov.ukhttp Volac “The level of support that we received from the NEMEX team www.carnival.com www.highways.gov.uk/ RAC Foundation Andy Richardson, 01223 208021 Elizabeth Box, was really helpful and the exhibition proved to be a really great Certis Europe IGD [email protected] Warburtons success. The show delivered exactly the customer base and www.certiseurope.co.uk Dr James Northen, 01923 851919 www.racfoundation.org Sarah Miskell, 01204 556600 decision makers that we wanted to engage with. We walked Chi Group IBM Rail Safety and Standards Board Wärtsilä www.chilondon.com John Rushton, Shamit Gaiger, 020 3142 5380 www.wartsila.com 22-24 May 2012 NEC Birmingham, UK away with over 230 very hot prospects and have signed up for [email protected] part of Sustainabilitylive! next year.” City of London Rexam Plc Wessex Water plc Simon Mills, 020 7332 1431 Ingersoll Rand [email protected], Dan Green, 01225 526000 www.nemex.co.uk www.ingersollrand.com www.rexam.com Paul Greenwood, Managing Director, LEDi Solutions Ltd The Co-operative Group Willmott Dixon Ltd Co-located with Chris Shearlock, Innovia Films Rio Tinto George Martin, 07814 003046 www.co-operative.coop Lucy Cowton, 01697 342281 www.marine.riotinto.com 22-24 MAY 2012 Wm Morrison Supermarkets plc HALLS 3 & 3A NEC, BIRMINGHAM The Converging World InterfaceFLOR Europe Ltd Royal Dutch Shell plc Steven Butts, For more information on exhibiting or the range of sponsorship options Wendy Stephenson Ramon Arratia, 020 7490 3960 Elfrida Hughes, +31610974798 [email protected] For more information on exhibiting [email protected] available please contact Interserve Constuction Ltd Royal Mail Group WWF-UK or the range of sponsorship options Danone Chris Williams, James Kokiet, Dax Lovegrove, 01483 412395 Paul Fitzgerald on 0151 334 6763 or email paul.fi [email protected] www.danone.com [email protected] [email protected] www.wwf.org.uk Photos: xxxxx available please contact Donna Bushell on 020 8651 7112 or emailPaul [email protected] Fitzgerald on 0151 334 6763. paul.fi [email protected] 38 Green Futures January 2012 www.greenfutures.org.uk GETwww.greenfutures.org.uk INVOLVED TODAY! Visit www.nemex.co.uk Green Futures January 2012 39 A new name for a sustainable future Nature nurture Last year, Green Futures partner Entec joined AMEC, one of the world’s leading engineering, With seven billion mouths to feed, the food project management and consultancy companies. industry can’t be fussed about biodiversity. Having integrated Entec with AMEC’s existing UK environmental business, we’ve now changed Think again, says Andrew Kuyk. our name and look forward to the future as AMEC Environment & Infrastructure UK, Why should the number of other species on a challenge. Not only do market mechanisms currently building on existing strengths while maximising the planet be an issue for food manufacturers? fail to capture the costs of environmental impacts: After all, the fossil record tells us that there have been they often appear to incentivise habitat destruction, by the benefi t of being part of a strong and vibrant five previous waves of mass extinction, including the rewarding an increase in cultivable land, or the overuse worldwide business. dinosaurs – and if it wasn’t for these wipe-outs, we of chemicals to increase yields. might never have evolved! So why worry now, if a few Buying from certified sustainable sources Sustainability is a guiding principle, central to birds and insects are going the same way…? frequently involves a price premium, reflecting not only Because the habitats and resources around us the more limited pool of supply, but also the additional our values as a business. If you’d like to discuss are ultimately as vital to our survival as they are to that costs of segregation and identity preservation. For how AMEC can help shape your sustainable of many other species currently under threat. And many global commodities, the impacts will vary We have future alongside ours, call us on 0800 371733 or because that threat is largely the result of our own enormously according to where, when and how they actions. To some extent, we can use technology to are grown and what the alternative land uses might be. no way of email [email protected], your insulate ourselves – and other life-forms – from the It’s an issue the Food and Drink Federation (FDF) knowing which Green Futures partner contact. more immediate consequences of our behaviour. recently addressed in a workshop in collaboration with species we We can pollinate plants without the aid of insects, Forum for the Future, which looked at the practical remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere without implications for sourcing wheat. This followed another can ‘afford’ rainforests, and purify water without healthy soils… workshop with WWF, which set out the rationale to squander But we won’t be able to stand in for all of these for food manufacturers to act on supply chain and ‘ecosystem services’. They rely on the interaction of biodiversity issues. myriad plants, animals and micro-organisms: it’s not The supply chain has been a key focus for FDF a one-man job. And without them, our food system in the past year, following a review of our Five-fold will become less diverse and less resilient. As climate Environmental Ambition, which has also been effective conditions change, it’s increasingly important that we in cutting waste and reducing the emissions of UK have a biodiverse world: a sort of genetic reserve on food manufacturers. which we will almost certainly need to draw to cope Now, we are working on guidance for our with the challenges ahead. members to ensure their environmental performance The problem is that we have no way of knowing continues to improve, so that they can feed those now which species we can ‘afford’ to squander, or seven billion, and counting… what the unintended consequences might be of allowing small but vital parts of larger systems to be Andrew Kuyk is Director of Sustainability and lost. In the words of Joni Mitchell, “You don’t know Competitiveness, Food and Drink Federation. what you’ve got till it’s gone”. Or, as John Beddington, Chief Scientific Advisor to the UK Government, put it Food and Drink Federation is a Forum for in the Foresight Report: “The implications of failing to the Future partner. act [to protect biodiversity] are grave and potentially www.fdf.org.uk irreversible, not least for the global food system”. This is why food manufacturers should take the question of biodiversity seriously, and consider it Supply chain in flight integral to the food security debate. Cereal company Jordans is a great example of a business that has fully incorporated its commitment to biodiversity into its operations. For over 25 years, it has worked only with grain farmers who dedicate 10% of their land to wildlife habitats. On a much smaller scale, Nestlé’s award-winning Acting personally, butterfly meadow at Fawden, Newcastle Upon Tyne, demonstrates how to raise awareness and engage employees. The meadow aims to encourage thinking globally, indigenous wildlife, including Large White and Red Admiral butterflies, to an area where there had been delivering locally little focus on natural habitat.

Photos: xxxxx Photo: John Brackenbury / Science Photo Library However, translating awareness into wider action is amec.com/ukenvironment

40 Green Futures January 2012 www.greenfutures.org.uk www.greenfutures.org.uk Green Futures January 2012 41 The heart of Nudging for values How can we persuade consumers to put their banking money where their mouth is, asks Andrew Purvis.

For the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) Carrefour and seafood brands Findus, Connétable It’s time to rethink the role of banks in society, says Bevis Watts. and, by default, for fish, 2011 was a good year. and Labeyrie. Known as Les Jours Bleus (Blue Days), The number of fisheries in the MSC programme the French campaign features evocative images grew by a third, and products certified as made from of abundant marine life and colourful front-of-store bank should play a role in helping society. Two sustainably sourced fish passed the 12,000 mark. displays of MSC products. “The in-store campaigns thirds (64%) wanted to see more investment in Meanwhile, research across the major countries we run in partnership with retailers and brands around communities. Just 3% of savers feel banks are where MSC-certified products are on sale showed the world remind consumers of values that are very transparent about what happens to their money. that nearly one in four adults (23%) now recognises important to them”, says Edwards, “at the point of a We can guess why. At present, only a fraction of the the label, up from 9% in 2008. Recognition is purchasing decision.” money lent and invested by the main banks is used highest in Germany, at 52% of the populace. France `The campaigns seem to be working. Les Jours Shoppers want to bring about positive change. Clearly the banks’ comes in at 22%, Britain at 18%, and Japan was Bleus – which Carrefour will host for the third time in a badge of customers do not think this is good enough. It’s a call least aware at 16%. “The growth in awareness is 2012 – had a significant effect on sales in 2010. During to action for policy-makers, shareholders, and bank incredible. While Japan is currently behind other the 10-day campaign, Connétable sold 10 times more trust saying executives: they have to ensure the banking sector countries we are tracking, the awareness there has MSC products than in a typical year. Findus reported someone gives more back to society, rather than just taking. doubled since 2008,” says Simon Edwards, global a 47% increase in sales of MSC-labelled unbreaded else has done A compelling alternative would see a shift towards head of communications and marketing at the MSC. products. For Stephanie Mathey, Sustainability smaller banks, and more of them. This would deliver “The level of support we are seeing in Japan from Manager at Carrefour, sales are not the only function the work benefits to society while limiting the financial sector’s retailers, fisheries and the young middle class perfectly of Les Jours Bleus: “It’s more an institutional mission, potential to harm it. These smaller banks could illustrates the growing value consumers place on something that enhances Carrefour’s image and makes operate on a human scale. They could specialise, seafood sustainability across the globe.” us stand out. It also raises consumer awareness of and pass expertise onto their customers. The more However, recognising a label isn’t the same as responsible fishing.” focused they can remain on the direct impacts of the understanding it. The MSC tests whether consumers So is this the way forward? Chris Sherwin is Times Square: The combination of activists occupying finance they provide, the more emphasis they can can accurately describe what its ecolabel signifies impressed by the results, but cautions that raising Triodos replaces stock streets across the globe, and the pull of an place on its environmental and social advantages. when all the text has been removed. In Britain, only awareness alone may not be enough. And he sets out market information ever worsening economy, is brewing up the The Global Alliance for Banking on Values is an 3% of people could describe the MSC ‘fish tick’ as a challenge for the next stage of MSC’s campaign. with social messages perfect storm for banking. With liquidity pricing independent network of banks which aims to use a mark for sustainable seafood, compared with 17% “Our recommendation to nearly every brand is that at its highest since the fall of Lehman Brothers, it finance to deliver sustainable development for people, in Germany. In an ideal world, they would be more ethical issues must be a support to a primary benefit. could well get a lot worse. But, despite this, the communities and the environment. It demonstrates informed. But, as Chris Sherwin, a sustainability The big question for the MSC is what is the primary fundamental role of banks in society still isn’t how a new model made up of smaller, interconnected consultant with brand development agency Dragon benefit that a good fisheries standard supports? It’s got receiving the attention it deserves. banks can work. While they serve very different Rouge, points out, “a label is a short cut. Consumers to be about a direct benefit such as health, quality or Perhaps as a society we’ve become so blind to communities, from urban San Francisco to rural don’t have to know the detail, the intricacies of whether taste. Only by addressing that will sustainable seafood banking’s potential for good that, while we express Mongolia, they learn from each other, sharing ideas a standard is the right one. They’re looking for a badge become mainstream.” frustration at the unacceptable behaviour of banks, on long-term sustainable thinking, new forms of of trust saying someone else has done the work.” We need we can’t actually imagine them doing anything else. ownership and economic cooperation. Edwards concedes there is also a gulf of difference Andrew Purvis is a freelance journalist specialising in smaller banks, But it doesn’t have to be this way. The role of banks Crucially, scaled-down banks would be small between recognising a brand and buying it. “With food, travel and sustainability. is no longer an academic exercise, but a timely and enough to fail. One of the cruellest ironies of the all products that have a price premium, including and more fundamental question. financial crisis has been that banks – which often environmentally and socially responsible products, The Marine Stewardship Council is a Forum for of them Picture society as a human body. If money is its act as judge, jury and executioner for struggling you have to establish the value of it to overcome any the Future Partner. lifeblood, then banks should act as society’s heart, businesses – have not been forced to play by their barrier to purchase.” For the MSC, this involves a lot www.msc.org pumping it around as needed. If the heart is healthy, own rules. Arguably, smaller banks would not benefit of communications activity to build awareness with the body will be able to access the resources it needs from the economies of scale enjoyed by today’s consumers that their purchasing decision rewards to remain healthy. But without a conscious approach banking behemoths. But, while it’s questionable sustainable fisheries. to the flow of money, the malaise in the society will whether these savings are passed on to the The latest survey certainly points to a public feed back to the banks and infect them. The financial consumer, there’s no doubt what the cost of their appetite for this, with 44% claiming to be “very crisis has proven that, when the banks fail, the whole failure has been. concerned” about seafood sustainability, and agreeing of society suffers. And, after bringing the economy to The banking industry owes an awful lot to society. that buying eco-labelled products made a difference. its knees, it’s morally and practically right that banks A little open heart surgery is exactly what it needs to Yet MSC-labelled products still only account for 6% take an active role in helping to build it back up again. start making repayments. of the seafood market. Why? In part, of course, it’s So what should the future of banking look like? due to supply constraints, but research shows that We believe that banks should act as enablers of Bevis Watts is Head of Business Banking, consumers can all too easily forget their values in positive change, focusing more on the real economy Triodos Bank. a retail environment where there are so many other and supporting its future, rather than short-term choices on their minds. shareholder returns. Research commissioned by Triodos Bank is a Forum for the Future partner. Hence the MSC’s new tool: joint marketing Supermarkets sway Triodos shows that five in six people believe their www.triodos.co.uk campaigns in store, notably with French retail giant shoppers, says the MSC

42 Green Futures January 2012 www.greenfutures.org.uk www.greenfutures.org.uk Green Futures January 2012 43 Cleaning agents Of mud Can a simple laundry additive take pollution off the streets? and maps Tony Ryan of the University of Sheffield, a specialist in polymer nanotechnology, and designer Helen Storey, currently Professor of Fashion and Science at the London School of Fashion. She designed the first ever ‘purifying dress’, displayed as an art installation entitled ‘Herself’, with the aim of allowing us “to breathe more beautifully”. Subsequently, she came up with a ‘Field of Jeans’ – a multitude of denims strung on lines. From waterproofs to smooth landings: Designing a pollution-eating dress is one thing; taking it to scale is another. You can’t realistically there’s always a better way to do business. (or sustainably) expect people to invest in a whole new photocatalytic wardrobe! So Storey and Ryan approached Ecover, with a view to seeing if the chemical would work as a laundry additive. It’s not about what you do, but how you do it. the first air traffic controller in the world to work out

It had immediate resonance with the company’s Which is why a boot wax company shared the podium the amount of CO2 emitted by planes as they travel high ecological standards, explains Tom Domen, with air traffic control at the inaugural Business and through the 2.5 million square miles of airspace it international products manager. Research is now the Environment Best Practice Awards, presented by controls: 70,000 tonnes a year. And it was the first

under way to see just how the TiO2 will perform in RT Media, chartered architects Scott Brownrigg, and to set a target to reduce it – by an average 10% per practice; in particular, how long it will last after being DECISION magazine. flight, against a 2006 baseline, by 2020. applied to clothes. At first, researchers considered Nikwax is one of those enviable businesses that One carbon-cutting solution NATS promotes is simply adding it to detergent, but decided it wasn’t managed to get quite a lot right from the outset. It was a better flight profile to optimise fuel consumption. Street cleaners in action? Imagine you’re walking down a busy city necessary to apply it in each washing cycle. So the set up by Nick Brown, who’d grown up trekking in the It teamed up with British Airways and BAA to run a street. And as you walk, the air around you focus now is on an additive, to be used in the regular Derbyshire Peaks with his dad, and then discovered commercial trial flight from Edinburgh to Heathrow, becomes cleaner. Not because the mere sight of wash every now and then. the wets and the wilds of Scotland. You don’t get very demonstrating potential carbon savings of 10%, by you stops people swearing. The air is literally being Inevitably, there will be unease among some at far up there without a good pair of waterproofed boots, cutting 0.35 tonnes of fuel. cleansed of pollutants, thanks to you. Or rather, the thought of adding anything ‘nano’ to their wash, but Brown found that traditional sprays would soften The company estimates that cutting the your clothes. although it wouldn’t be the first time that nanoscale the leather. No rambler wants to choose between dry carbon footprint of flights under its control by just Cutting carbon Because your jeans, your top – any fabric you’re TiO2 has been worn close to the skin. As Dolmen feet and firmly gripped ankles, so he came up with his 1% today would save the airlines £45 million a year: of flights wearing – are coated in a certain nanoparticulate: points out, it’s already present in a wide range of own boot wax. It gets round the softening problem by not a bad way to encourage change in an intensely titanium dioxide (TiO2) to be precise. This acts as a applications, notably suncream, toothpaste and coating the fibres with an elastic polymer, which has competitive field. under NATS’s photocatalyst, using energy from sunlight to break bright white paint. (The line markings on Wimbledon similar properties to a boot sole: it’s flexible and resists “NATS don’t operate the airports, and they control by just down various pollutants, notably nitrogen oxides tennis courts, for example, contain TiO2.) But to allay tear, but draws the fibres back to their original position. don’t own or fly the planes”, observes Larry Dilner, 1% would save The aim is to from car exhausts – a key constituent of today’s fears, Ecover is planning on having open discussions This was the early 80s, when the hole in the ozone Publisher of DECISION magazine, and a judge for allow us to rising quantities of urban smog. The process with NGOs such as Greenpeace, “to help assure layer was just beginning to hit headlines. Brown took the Business and Environment Best Practice Awards. airlines £45 converts NOx to nitric acid, which in turn reacts with people”, in Dolmen’s words, “that we’re not just note, replacing traditional solvents with a non-aerosol So why are they doing it? “NATS will tell you it’s million a year ‘breathe more calcium carbonate, locking the gases up in calcium replacing one pollutant with another”. applied water-based emulsion. But what marks his about leadership”, explains Dilner – and this is what beautifully’ nitrate, while also releasing (very small) quantities of It’s early days yet, but Domen is confident business out now from other 80s start-ups is that impressed the jury. CO2 and water. that neither technology nor price will be a major Brown also looked at all its potential impacts: from the Other ‘world firsts’ to be recognised by the Awards It’s a well-established, proven process, obstacle. “The biggest challenge”, he says, “is how raw ingredients (preferring vegetable oil or wax-based included overall winner IBM: the first company ever increasingly used on a number of buildings [see we persuade people that they want to have this. water repellents to fluoro-chemical ones) to the waste to publish an environmental policy, some 40 years GF82, p16] and there are experiments underway to After all, we’re asking them to do something which, stream – all of which is recycled or converted into ago. By 2013, it will require all its 28,000 suppliers incorporate it in road surfaces too. while completely harmless to them, won’t actually be fertiliser. He’s exploring ways to cut carbon relative to to do the same; some of them, representing 80% of If it were applied to clothes, though, it would bringing them any direct personal benefits. Rather, turnover, and has teamed up with the World Land Trust its $37.4 billion annual spend, already do, measuring massively increase its pollution-cleaning impact. they will be a bringing a benefit to the community.” to offset unavoidable emissions. It’s a business with a their performance and publicly disclosing the results. Studies have shown that the cleaning properties of Time will tell whether people will be prepared pretty sound overall aim, too: making sturdy outdoor Pureprint also received an award, as the first printers

TiO2 on buildings only extend to a range of around to pay for this – and if so, how much. It raises the clothing that will last a long time so that you don’t need to become carbon neutral and early adopters of 25cm or so or so from the wall. People, on the tantalising question as to whether there’s a business to buy a new pair of hiking boots every time you head waterless and alcohol-free printing. other hand, could act as mobile cleansing agents, model in altruism. But it would be nice to think that for the highlands. So, good news for those having a green epiphany. covering an area far larger than anything possible some people at least will be prepared to pay to help If you’re handing out prizes to green business, You don’t have to change your day job: just do it with a (static) building as they go about their others “breathe more beautifully”. – Martin Wright you’re likely to spot a friendly firm like Nikwax before differently. – Anna Simpson business around town. you get to NATS, an air traffic control company which The idea of incorporating photocatalysts in Ecover is a Forum for the Future Partner handles 2 million flights a year from 15 airports in the Pureprint Group is a Forum for the Future partner.

clothes sprang from discussions between Professor www.ecover.com Photo: iStockphoto / thinkstock Photo: iStockphoto / thinkstock UK. But the thinking at NATS is no less bold. It was www.pureprint.com

44 Green Futures January 2012 www.greenfutures.org.uk www.greenfutures.org.uk Green Futures January 2012 45 Join the debate www.greenfutures.org.uk [email protected] Feedback @GreenFutures Comments may be edited for publication. Masters in Materials and methods a huge infrastructure? Why are we not concentrating on ‘true’ sustainability, greengreenfutures As Skanska has recognised [‘Prize supplies’, whereby cars can recharge themselves futuresNo.82 October 2011 GF82, p42], it is incredibly hard to identify on the go, using self-generating No.82 October 2011 and then weigh up the sustainability features energy technology? Leadership of innovative products. It might be recycled, Whilst I appreciate that products have but is it low on embedded water? It could be an evolutionary nature, which means that low-carbon, but does it provide the amenity they grow in sophistication as time goes on, value required? Buyers who understand that the electric charge point debate has been for Sustainable sustainability is an interdependent web of running for some time. Given the fact that features are constantly faced with questions politicians are notorious for having short- like this. term mindsets, I fear that what looks like MaterialMaterial world world What will we use to build the future? Now the Environment Agency, British a good idea now will be redundant in five- What will we use to build the future? Development Big brother gone green: can surveillance save the planet? Waterways, Halcrow, Interserve and ten years’ time. Paul Big brother gone green: can surveill Shopped out: a world of difference for tomorrow’s consumer Shopped out: a world of difference for tomorrow’ Bouncing ideas: the creative power of warm bodies in a room Bouncing ideas: the creative po ance save the planet? GallifordTry Infrastructure have been wer of warm bodiess consumer in a room working together to build a methodology Stuart Brennan, Ecotricity, replies: that robustly assesses the sustainability Most of the infrastructure requirements credentials of a given material. We’re hoping in terms of power supplies already exist; Missed opportunities this method will be made available across all you need is a post in the service in the carbon market the industry, once it has been piloted fully by station grounds. We supply electricity the EA, BW and their supply chains. from our windmills, so it has a relatively It is great that the board of the Clean You can see updates on the project – small carbon footprint. As to [running] Development Mechanism (CDM) is making including the criteria groups we’re proposing costs, electric cars cost about 2p per mile it easier for pro-poor technologies [such – at: http://www.forumforthefuture.org/ compared to a small petrol car that costs as clean cookstoves] to get funding project/engineers-21st-century/more/sus. about 14p per mile. [see ‘Funding boost for small-scale Anna Warrington, Senior Sustainability On the question of whether cars could renewables, GF82, p7]. Advisor, Forum for the Future recharge themselves “on the go using self- Unfortunately the price for CDM generating energy technology”, I’m pretty credits is headed south, and unless Beyond the peepoor sure this would contravene the second law political leaders take clear action to of thermodynamics. Apply now for 2012-13 protect and grow the carbon market, Whilst the peepoo bag [‘When plastic bags great opportunities will be missed. save lives’, GF82, p7] might be useful for Correction Deadline: Weds 14th March 2012 Europe needs to strengthen its emergency relief work, it can only ever be In ‘City break out’ [GF82, p40], you state: “A Emissions Trading Scheme by tightening a short-term solution. It’s no substitute fast top-up [at the electric recharging point] Course dates: Sept 2012 – July 2013 the cap on emissions (so reducing the for people having access to clean water can take around 20 minutes, which can get supply of carbon permits), and climate and safe sanitation which is a far more some modern batteries up to 80%...” For more details and to download the application form please visit: negotiators need to make real progress sustainable outcome – and far better for This is incorrect. We’ve always been fairly forumforthefuture.org/masters-course on climate finance and the long-term people’s health. Julie vague about how much energy you could get future of a global deal. in 20 minutes, mainly because there is much In a few short years – despite variation between vehicle types, between Experiential, work teething problems and controversy – Electric uncertainties different batteries and between the same Do you see your future in a leadership role, transforming the carbon market has demonstrated With regard to ‘City break out’ [GF82, p40], types of batteries depending on their age. the systems that currently prevent individuals and based learning has been its ability get things done. We must build I would like to know whether anyone has A more accurate line would be: “A top- organisations from behaving sustainably? Then this on that progress, not throw it away. actually provided – or indeed seen – any real up using fast charge can take around 20 one of the fundamental Michael Buick, ClimateCare data or calculations which demonstrate that minutes, or there’s a full charge available if is the course for you. “cornerstones of this year.

electric vehicles using charge points will: you’ve got two hours, a more likely option for I do not think I have Recession rider • have a beneficial impact on the those enjoying a lazy lunch.” The Forum Masters programme gives 12 recent graduates the

planet, for example in terms of carbon Stuart Brennan, Ecotricity opportunity to develop their theoretical understanding of sustainability, ever learnt so much, from

There’s logic in Sally Uren’s argument footprint, infrastructure requirement [‘How to ride high through a double dip’, affecting the landscape, etc as well as gaining practical experience through work placements so many extraordinary

Paris moves “ GF82, p37]. Realistically, though, it’s • be any cheaper than fossil fuels for with Forum for the Future’s partner organisations. Students receive experiences, and people, hard to imagine that most people will the end consumer Glorious photograph, and beautifully tuition from a diverse group of experts, including Jonathon Porritt, take her advice. Instead, it seems likely • will not end up being taxed in exactly written, thought-provoking article in such a short space that attention to green issues and the the same manner as fossil fuels are about a forward-looking debate Sara Parkin, Ian Christie and Paul Ekins. take-up of green solutions will decline at the moment. [greenfutures. org.uk/articles/paris-move]. of time further, as the economic climate Why are we still focusing on Thank you for sharing. I enjoyed watching This MA programme is run jointly by Middlesex University and

continues to suffer. Matt constantly recharging equipment via the TV version too. Joyce Simpson Photos: xxxxx the sustainability non-profit Forum for the Future. Celia Cole, 2009-10

46 Green Futures January 2012 www.greenfutures.org.uk www.greenfutures.org.uk Green Futures January 2012 47

Masters_Ad_REPRO.indd 1 12/12/11 17:02:36 JonathonPorritt

I normally kick off of jobs in energy efficiency, renewables, retrofitting with the good news. our built environment, smart grids, electric vehicles, This time, let me start with storage technologies and so on. Indeed, this is the a bit of the bad. In fact, only way we can both sort out the economic mess and quite a lot of bad news. simultaneously start building the foundations for the

The official CO2 figures for genuinely sustainable economy of the future. 2010 tell us that overall Back in November, Forum for the Future teamed emissions increased by up with the Energy Institute at UCL and investment 6%, at a time when half company WHEB Partners to launch Jeremy Rifkin’s the world’s economies new book, ‘The Third Industrial Revolution’ [see ‘The were flat-lining in terms of future is lateral’, p26]. And here comes the good news. economic growth. China Many of the most creative people we’re working and India were of course with at the Forum can barely contain their enthusiasm responsible for much for innovation in almost all areas of cleantech. The of that increase – no Briefings section in each issue of Green Futures offers flat-lining there. just a glimpse of that pipeline. And many of the most Did any world leader, on hearing this news, creative minds in ICT are equally excited about the even twitch? Make a speech? Press a panic button? contribution they can make in a low-carbon world, Not one. through smart meters and grids, local area networks, We do need Welcome to the ‘new normal’. I nicked that distributed energy systems, and so on. growth. But we phrase from Vice-President Al Gore, who I heard give This is the synergy that underpins Rifkin’s case that a cracking talk back in October. He did something we’re on the cusp of the Third Industrial Revolution. absolutely don’t I’ve not heard anyone do before, by concentrating Efficiency, renewables, storage and smart grids will add need heedless purely on the weather-related data from the first eight up to an energy revolution. All the constituent parts are growth months of 2011. During that time, 387 million people already out there, or ‘in emergence’. But, Rifkin argues, were affected by drought. More than 2,000 US cities the full impact will only be felt when the whole system experienced their highest ever temperatures. More is transformed into a new kind of “energy internet”, than a dozen countries experienced the ir worst ever through peer-to-peer networks. flooding – which doesn’t include Pakistan, by the This is the easy bit! Unfortunately, getting way, because the 2011 floods in Pakistan displaced a politicians to start thinking strategically about this kind mere 10 million people, in comparison to the 20 million of transition remains a nightmare. Jeremy Rifkin has displaced in 2010. Massive media coverage in 2010. built up good political contacts in Europe, particularly in Come 2011, however, we heard next to nothing from Germany, but I don’t share his optimism that this is an that devastated country. Welcome to the new normal. agenda that has already seized hold of the majority of The worse the news gets, the more adept people politicians. There’s certainly no sign of it here in the UK. become in letting it bounce straight back off them. As Our Treasury-dominated Coalition Government US political scientist George Lakoff puts it: “We may be would appear to have no intention of doing more than presented with facts, but for us to make sense of them, the bare minimum on the Green Economy, let alone on they have to fit what is already in the synapses of the some new industrial revolution. As George Osborne so brain. Otherwise, facts go in and then they come right witheringly put it, when explaining the Government’s back out. They are not heard, or they are not accepted new strategy: “We’re not going to save the planet by as facts, or they simply mystify us.” putting our country out of business”. Global leaders are presiding more or less helplessly There you have it: that’s what ‘leadership’ looks like over another massive economic crisis. To which the here in the UK. And the US. And, to be blunt about it, standard response is: grow, grow and grow again. It most other countries, with Germany the exception to doesn’t matter if this growth drives up emissions of the rule of mediocrity. greenhouse gases, exacerbates inequalities, creates Which explains why so much of the drive new commodity bubbles, erodes life-support systems, and creativity around the low-carbon agenda can and leaves billions of people even more vulnerable to be seen in small cleantech start-ups and social water shortages, rising food prices, and diminishing enterprises. These are the real ‘revolutionaries’, cursing quality of life. Growth at any cost is better than no dysfunctional politicians and rejecting any sense of ‘the growth at all… new normal’ out of hand. The uncomfortable reality is that we do need Abnormal times summon forth abnormal people. growth, but we absolutely don’t need this kind of heedless growth. We need growth that drives billions Jonathon Porritt is Founder Director of Forum for

of dollars of new investment and creates millions the Future. www.jonathonporritt.com Photos: xxxxx

48 Green Futures January 2012 www.greenfutures.org.uk www.greenfutures.org.uk Green Futures January 2012 49