shopping money sex - Forum for the Future

Transcription

greenfutures
No.78 Oct 2010
COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE THROUGH ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY
Optimisation today &
transformation tomorrow:
Competitive wins in a new economy
SHOPPING
MONEY
SEX
10TH NOVEMBER 2010
DEXTER HOUSE, TOWER HILL, LONDON, EC3N 4QN
Now in its fourth year, Green Strategy has become
the pivotal event to advance business performance and
innovation in unlocking the commercial value of the
green agenda. This year´s event will feature high profile
contributions from a number of business executives
and opinion leaders, including Yvo de Boer; CEOs and
executives from GE, Boeing, Timberland, Shell, TUI Travel,
Pepsi, Lafarge and Dow Chemicals.
Transforming a few
of our favourite things...
Multiple
delegate
discounts
available
Please reserve your place at
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SPEAKERS INCLUDE
Gregory Barker MP Dermot Blastland
Minister of State CEO
for Energy and
Tui Travel
Climate Change
DECC
Sir Roger Bone
President
Boeing UK Ltd
Neil Carson
Chief Executive
Johnson Matthey
Yvo de Boer
Seamus Keating
Special Global
Chief Financial
Advisor, Climate
Officer Logica &
Change and
Green Investment
Sustainability
Bank
KPMG International
Horst-Tore Land
Director
Ecomagination
GE International
Richard O´Rourke
Group VP
& MD
Timberland
+ OTHER SPEAKERS FROM
Akzo Nobel, Dow Chemicals, Nokia Siemens, CCC, Mitie, Boots, Shell, Lafarge, ASDA, Pepsi
MEDIA SPONSORS
Ethical sex: contradiction in terms – or the new frontier?
Something ventured: surfing the next wave with the cleantech VCs
Brands and behaviour, nudge nudge… plus Terry Leahy – consumer revolutionary?
About Us
Contributors to this issue include:
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Enjoyed a fairly traded lapdance lately? Or watched some ethically certified
porn? No, me neither. And not just because that kind of thing doesn’t really float my boat.
With a few notable exceptions – a Coco de Mer Fairtrade, handcrafted leather paddle
anyone? – you just can’t buy sustainable sex.
Why? Because the ‘adult entertainment’ sector has been left blissfully untouched by
the world of sustainability and CSR. Many a consultant who happily trumpets their ‘positive
engagement’ with oil, arms or even tobacco companies, would shrink from the thought of
cosying up to the sex trade.
And they wouldn’t be alone. For many people, the very idea of engaging with
something of such dubious moral, let along legal standing, would be a sick joke. But as
Anna Simpson points out (p16), this is one of the world’s oldest, largest and most ubiquitous
professions – and, however much some might wish, it’s not about to go away. In ‘Sex: the
next ethical industry?’, she makes a courageous and compelling case for the sustainability
profession to enfold it in a “warmer embrace”.
Plenty of environmentalists wish that Tesco, too, would just go away. But love it or
loathe it, it’s a fantastically successful company which has undeniable power to shift the
whole economy down a more sustainable track – if it chooses to do so. In an exclusive
interview (p31), CEO Terry Leahy reveals why he’s decided to set his sights on a zero-carbon
future – and put his faith in a consumer revolution.
There’s no mistaking the power of brands like Tesco and other iconic market leaders to
shift individual behaviour, too – a very topical concern. With everyone from Downing Street
downwards in search of the perfect nudge, it’s timely to ask just how brands can do so for
maximum sustainability benefit. In ‘Fire brands’ (p26), we find some answers. And in ‘Clean
horizons’ (p20), we spot some promising candidates for the iconic brands of tomorrow (my
bet’s on Better Place), as thrown up by the latest wave of cleantech venture capital.
If that all feels too breathlessly businesslike, you can always take refuge in the promise
of Slow Money. As Judith Schwartz reports (p28), the unlikely combination of high-tech
crowdsourcing and a strong sense of community is opening up whole new investment
models. As yet, it’s small-scale, slightly quaint stuff: a farm here, a village shop there. But it’s
already demonstrated that there’s more than one breed of savvy green investor: VCs are not
the only suits...
So, from sex to Tesco to a slow money farm… this issue’s definitely a case
(as Mao would surely say if he were with us today), of letting a hundred business models
bloom. A positively polygamous approach to saving the world, in other words. It could even
be quite sexy.
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greenfutures
Editor in Chief
MARTIN WRIGHT
Deputy Editor
ANNA SIMPSON
Editorial and Marketing
Coordinator
KATIE SHAW
Contributing Editor
BEN TUXWORTH
Design
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Design and Production:
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2
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© Forum for the Future 2010.
Green Futures October 2010
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Anna Simpson
worked as a
journalist and editor
in Delhi and London
before joining
Green Futures
in 2009. She
graduated with a
First in English and
French from Oxford and an MA in Gender and
Development from SOAS. In less intellectual
moments, she runs marathons, plays first violin
in Fulham Symphony Orchestra and bribes
colleagues with cakes.
David Eagleman
is something of
a 21st century
polymath. A
highly respected
neuroscientist
specialising in
perception, he’s
also the author of a
fictional bestseller. Sum: Forty Tales from the
Afterlives was lauded by critics as having “the
unaccountable, jaw-dropping quality of genius”
and as “teeming, writhing with imagination”.
For more of the same, see p44.
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Front cover: Heath’s Creative
BT plc
Environment Unit, 0800 731 2403
Terry Leahy
spent his school
holidays stacking
shelves in Tesco.
It obviously didn’t
put him off for
life. Thirty years
later he became
CEO, overseeing
the supermarket’s dizzying growth from
third to first place in the UK rankings – an
achievement yet to be matched by his
beloved Everton FC – and earning him the
dubious accolade from The Guardian of
“most influential non-elected person
in Britain”.
Judith Schwartz
“lives, works,
gardens, and
contemplates
a green future
with her family in
Southern Vermont”,
writing about
economics and the
environment for Time, Yes! and the Christian
Science Monitor. She’s also published a
“cautionary tale” of her experience of training in
psychotherapy – The Therapist’s New Clothes.
Contents
Number 78 October 2010
16
13
20
28
8
31
34
Features
16 Sex:
the next ethical industry?
Few sectors rival the global economic
importance of sex, but so far sustainability
professionals have left it completely
untouched. Anna Simpson makes the
case for a warmer embrace.
20 C
lean horizons
After the shock of the credit crunch,
venture capitalists are once again pouring
funds into clean technology. So what
does it mean for green innovation? Martin
Wright takes the pulse of leading VCs.
26 Fire brands
Can labels lead a shift to sustainable
behaviour? Anna Simpson reports on a
new spirit of brand activism that’s reigniting
the debate around green consumption.
2
41
12
28 S
low money – smart money?
As crowdsourcing comes to the world of
finance, Judith Schwartz tracks a trend
that could transform the way individuals
and communities invest for the future.
31 I nterview: Terry Leahy
The CEO of Tesco talks to Martin Wright
about zero-emission supermarkets,
carbon as currency, and the search for a
consumer revolution.
44 “If Pompei had the internet”…
From Minoa to the Mayans, successive
societies have risen and flourished, only
to collapse. Are we next? No, says David
Eagleman – because we have a safety net.
Briefings
Regulars
Partner viewpoints
Dispatches from the front line of green
innovation, including:
4 Weak Signals
Peter Madden on wired wealth
plus sensory cities, shared insurance
and LED walls
41 Limited edition
Digital print takes us back to the future
Pureprint Group
42 Waste not…
Food is for eating, not sending to landfill
6 Good vibrations
The return of the dynamo – AAA sized
8 Spain snares the sun
CSP in Europe set to soar
24A thousand words
Whitewashing the peaks of Peru
11The bill not to drill
Ecuador leaves its oil in the soil
12 Plastic land rises from the waves
Ocean waste offers new habitat
13 The hanging gardens of Japan
Greening the roof, walls and all
34 In the know
Anne MacCraig, CEO, Café Direct
35 Forum update
Sustainable cities, positive deviance
and a greener choice of phone
47 Feedback
Readers respond online and in print
15 The juice
Latest electric vehicle breakthroughs
48 Jonathon Porritt
Learning to love natural limits
43 Don’t know what you got
till it’s gone
The business case for biodiversity
WWF
3
Briefings
WeakSignals
‘Weak signals’ are ideas, trends and
technologies that are as yet unrecognised
by mainstream society. They might have a big
impact or they might disappear. Monitoring
them helps challenge assumptions about
the future, navigate risk and seize new
opportunities. Forum for the Future’s blog
tracks weak signals from the future:
www.forumforthefuture.org/weak-signals
Nervous system
In-share
Spontaneous space
A network of sensors planted throughout a city
and connected to a central ‘brain’ keep energy
and water use to an all-time low. More sensitive
than a granny to a draught, they see the weather
coming and send a message to adjust the
thermostat or close the windows. And when a
dry spell’s on the way, they trigger the wastewater
harvesting systems under your sink and on the
roof. It sounds like science fiction, but it’s planned
for Parades, near the Portuguese city of Porto.
What’s yours is mine, and what’s mine’s my
own – the Yorkshire saying goes. But, however
little some like to share, private ownership is
becoming passé. California’s set the precedent,
with new legislation to make car insurance
transferable. So, next time your friend plans a
grand day out in your car, an apologetic shrug
about the risk of a scrape may not be enough
to deter her. Still, maybe she’ll take you along
for the ride, knowing you’re both fully covered.
Now open plan comes with options. Interior
designers no longer scratch their goatees and
soliloquise about the shape and scope of a
given space. They simply flick a switch and
ribbons of LED light send a soft glow through
translucent fibres, creating an instant partition
between you and the next room. The goingson of the other side are as thinly veiled or
darkly masked as you deem appropriate in this
day and age. – Anna Simpson
Green Futures brings you snapshots of the
latest innovations in design and technology
for a sustainable world – from developments
in clean energy, food and transport to
trends in fashion and tourism.
Concept island reservoir offers clean
energy on demand
Wired wealth
4
Plughole power
Peter Madden is CEO, Forum for the Future.
Photo: Gottlieb Paludan Architects; wheatley / shutterstock
In a couple of decades’ time, money as
we know it may no longer exist. Banks and
bills could be a distant memory; national
currencies may no longer hold sway; and
bartering – of products, services and time –
may be back in fashion.
Hard cash is already giving way to digital
credit. One sure sign is the steady closure of
bank branches on our high streets. Pop into
for credit-crunched companies? Or will the
exchange of old wares and private services
wean us off our love of shopping?
These new transaction trends could prove
impossible to regulate, their future dependent
on our readiness to take a leap of faith.
But given the behaviour of major financial
players over recent years – and their seeming
inability to learn from mistakes – people may
well opt to place their trust in other forms of
exchange.
Photo: Thecreativeeyes / istock
Peter Madden tracks our future
transactions
a pub for a pint these days, and you’ll find
another: regulars flashing credit cards, not
tenners, at the busy bar staff. Meanwhile in
Japan, you only have to wave your mobile at
a vending machine to get your favourite can
of fizz.
Digital payment systems might start
to pawn virtual currencies, independent of
dollars, euros or pounds. The seeds are
already being sewn. Who needs cash when
you can spend credits from cyber schemes
like Beenz and I-points, use your air miles,
or trade in your loyalty bonuses? Just how
long before Amex or eBay issue their own
currencies?
We are already seeing a boom in
bartering, thanks to peer-to-peer sites like
Swaptree, where you can exchange books
and CDs, and Swop2Shop for clothes.
So what does virtual money mean for
sustainability? Will it pave the way for more
local currencies – taking the lead from towns
like Totnes? Will it loosen up some liquid
Island clusters – from the Florida Keys, to
the archipelago of Bahrain, to Denmark – are
being eyed up as prime sites for an ambitious
grid-connected green energy generation and
storage plan.
The idea is to make the islands home to
significant renewable power plants – such as
wind farms and concentrated solar power
(CSP). During periods of low demand, the
energy will be used to pump seawater into
an elevated central reservoir. At times of high
demand, when more electricity is needed,
the water will be released, driving turbines on
its way back to the sea. Once demand falls,
the wind or solar power will be used to pump
water back into the high reservoir.
Danish architectural firm Gottlieb Paludan
calls its island scheme “a blue battery for
green energy”: a way to ensure a constant
stream of renewable energy to the grid,
despite the intermittency of sources such as
wind and solar.
Gottlieb Paludan has designed a concept
island near the city of Tampa, Florida, featuring
a 9.4 square kilometre reservoir, capable
of generating up to 7.8GWh of electricity –
enough to meet the domestic consumption
of Tampa city over a 48-hour period. The
reservoir not only stores the energy but offers
a site for eight large floating CSP plants,
which, coupled with 33 wind turbines, give the
island a total installed capacity of 253MW.
The plan echoes proposals to combine a
major wind farm with pumped hydro storage
on the west coast of Ireland (see GF77, p8).
George Aggidis, a pumped hydro expert
at Lancaster University, says the idea has
considerable potential, but that finding a
location to tick all the boxes could be tricky.
“Obviously, finances would need to be looked
at in detail to ensure it is feasible and viable,”
he adds.
Gottlieb Paludan is currently seeking
funding for an international project with Dutch
energy company KEMA and consulting
engineers Lievense. – Emily Braham
Graduate puts turbines in drainpipes
It worked for Archimedes – and now for
young designer Tom Broadbent. The graduate
of De Montfort University, Leicester, had his
‘Eureka!’ moment while watching bathwater
rush down the plughole in a high-rise hotel.
“It seemed logical that this energy should
be harnessed in some way to generate
electricity,” says Broadbent, 23, who went
on to develop a prototype water turbine
dubbed HighDro Power. Designed to sit in the
wastewater pipes of tall buildings, the fourblade turbine would harvest the force of falling
water from every bath, shower and flush.
Broadbent claims that a single unit installed in
a drainpipe in a seven-storey building, typically
serving two flats per floor, could generate
electricity to the value of £900 a year. This
would allow the cost of installation to be
recouped within the first year of operation.
The bathroom brainwave has impressed
architect Bill Gething of the Royal Institute of
British Architects’ sustainability group. “It is a
great example of someone exploring another
aspect of our conspicuous consumption
to see where there’s waste and how it can
economically be reduced or eliminated,”
he says.
Broadbent plans to improve his prototype
with a view to patenting the product for
commercial use. – Julian Rollins
Wastewater to save energy
5
Good vibrations
Japanese replace standard battery
with dynamo
The simple coil and magnet dynamo is
stepping up to rival the sophistication
of piezoelectronics (generating energy
through motion – see GF77, p9). Japanese
company Brother Industries has taken the
technology – first developed in 1832 and
commonly used to power bicycle lights – and
repackaged it (quite literally) as a battery
replacement by fitting the coil into standard
AA and AAA casings.
The prototype Vibration Energy Cell,
unveiled at the Tokyo technology exhibition
in July, can be used to power a range of
low-energy devices that do not require a
constant stream of electricity, such as an
LED torch or a television remote control.
Shaking the Cell causes the magnet to
slide through the coil and back, inducing an
alternating current. According to Brother,
ten shakes of the unit installed in a remote
control would generate enough electricity for
up to 30 channel changes. Inevitably, it has
also raised the prospect of harnessing all
the cut and thrust motions of Wii games to
produce something useful. By replacing the
need for batteries, it could lead to significant
resource savings, Brother claims.
This battery-alternative could be a
“significant breakthrough”, according to
electronics business analyst Carl Telford, of
Strategic Business Insights. “It’s a fantastic
use of packaging and opens up all sorts
of interesting possibilities if they can get it
right,” he says, adding that the challenge will
be to make the moving parts robust enough
for long-term use.
The project is still in its trial phase and
Brother has not yet confirmed plans for
commercialisation. – Julian Rollins
This is the largest
transformative
development since
industrialisation;
what we have to do over
the next 40 years
is much more dramatic
and more exciting than
what we have done to
move into the position
we are in today.
Science indicates that
yes, we can achieve a
prosperous future within
a safe operating space if
we [collaborate] at a
global level.
“Shake it like a Polaroid picture...”
Clocked up
Johan Rockstrom, Executive Director,
Stockholm Environment Institute and the
Stockholm Resilience Centre
Smart design best for domestic
behaviour change
When a group of Swedish designers looked
into the failure of some energy monitors to
cut householders’ energy use, they deduced
that – with all their figures and graphs – they
are just too complicated. So they came up
with a simple, stylish ‘Energy Aware Clock’
which uses attractive patterns to convey
real-time consumption levels.
It’s a design principle that’s catching
on, if the touring Visual Voltage Exhibition is
anything to go by. Power-conscious cables
illuminate to point out any appliances left on
standby when the lights go out for the night.
And a Flower Lamp uncurls its petals and
blooms when domestic energy usage is low,
but closes into a tight cylinder – plunging
the householder into (relative) darkness – as
consumption increases. – Lorna Howarth
6
Photo: Grimshaw / Wind Power Ltd
A new data centre in Helsinki is using the
waste heat from its machines to warm
the local community. The site, installed for
Finnish company Academica and based
in an empty bomb shelter, uses the cool
waters of the Baltic Sea to regulate the
temperatures of its 2MW server. The water,
heated by its passage through the centre,
is then fed into an existing district heating
system and circulated around up to 1,000
neighbouring homes. The system saves
Academica around €150,000 a year in
temperature regulation costs.
Data centres are traditionally the energyintensive flipside of internet communications
– and as ever more computing activity goes
online, the impact of central information
stores is rising. As James Taplin, an expert
in sustainable ICT at Forum for the Future,
explains, “ICT now accounts for around 2%
of global emissions, making it as significant
as air travel, and companies realise they
have to do more.”
The Helsinki site joins a growing number
of purpose-built centres looking to shed
the stigma. Other smart centres include the
award-winning Intel building in Haifa, Israel,
which captures the heat from its servers,
saving the company $235,000 a year in
energy costs, and the server of Indiana’s
University of Notre Dame, purposefully
situated to provide heat to a historic
botany centre, saving around $35,000 a
year. – Alex Johnson
Three green bottles
UV bottle gives clean water on the go
A wind-up bottle that uses ultraviolet (UV) light
to sterilise water for human consumption could
spell the end for chlorine and iodine tablets.
The ‘Pure’ bottle, brainchild of
Loughborough University graduate Timothy
Whitehead, uses UV rays to kill 99.9% of
bacteria, making water potable in just two
minutes. And, unlike the chemical sterilisation
tablets, it leaves no unsavoury flavour
behind. The bottle won the UK round of the
James Dyson Award for design that solves
a problem. It features an internal plunger to
filter out debris and sediment particles as
small as four micrometers. An integrated
wind-up lamp sterilises the filtered water,
destroying the DNA of 99.9% of bacteria or
viruses with short-wave UV rays. The whole
process takes just 90 seconds.
The challenge, according to Dax
Lovegrove of WWF, “is to ensure these
innovations are affordable and accessible to
the poor and that they are ecologically sound
in their design – avoiding petrochemicalbased plastics and enabling end-of-life
recycling. Such design would be a true
game-changer.” – Sam Jones
Out of the trees, into the wind
Photo: Interactive Institute; Aleksi Markku / Shutterstock
Seawater cools servers, warms homes
Pure invention
Sycamore turbine defies gravity,
promises power
Strolling down a breezy autumnal lane,
you’re sure to spot sycamore seeds spiralling
groundwards. Wind power engineers have
noticed them too. The result? A biomimetic
turbine design based on the sycamore
principal which could revolutionise the UK’s
offshore wind industry.
The Aerogenerator X is designed
to circumvent the weight constraints of
conventional wind turbines, which experience
high fatigue loads on each rotation cycle. With
a vertical axis turbine mounted at the base,
the design comprises two slim arms forming
a wide-angle ‘V’, with rigid sails mounted at
each tip to catch the wind, causing the whole
structure to rotate. It is approximately half the
weight of a standard turbine. With a tip-to-tip
span of over 270m, the turbine would only
execute a full turn three times a minute, but
could generate up to 10MW of electricity –
enough to power 5,000-10,000 homes. In
short, a 100-strong cluster of Aerogenerators
set in the North Sea could outperform the sum
of the UK’s current operational wind farms.
And future designs could be larger
still, perhaps even doubling the turbine’s
current capacity. As yet, it’s only at prototype
stage, but research and development for a
commercial version is underway at Cranfield
University, with support from Eden Project
architects Grimshaw and funding from industry
heavyweights BP, Shell, Rolls Royce and Arup.
A working offshore model is expected by
2013. – Sam Jones
7
Spain snares the sun
Made from concentrate
CSP gets bigger, smarter
While schemes to tap the power of the
Saharan sun attract increasing interest
(see GF76, p26), it’s worth noting that two
industrialised countries, Spain and the US,
are the current world leaders in concentrated
solar power (CSP). Spain’s latest installation,
the 550,000 square metre La Florida plant at
Alvarado, Badajoz, can generate 50MW. This
takes the country’s solar generating capacity
to 432MW – just a shade more than the US
can claim at present.
This national total, for CSP and
photovoltaics combined, is currently only
broadly equivalent to the output of one nuclear
power station, but it is growing fast. Spain’s
solar industry association Protermosolar
projects a six-fold increase over the next three
years, a growth rate far outstripping other
modes. La Florida’s plant uses sun-tracking
trough-shaped parabolic mirrors to focus
reflected sunlight on to a central tube. The fluid
in the tube heats up, turning water into steam
to drive the turbines.
Over in Italy, meanwhile, a new CSP
plant claims to be the first in the world to use
molten salt as its heat transfer fluid. Sicily’s
Archimede plant, recently opened by energy
company Enel, is little more than a twentieth
of the size of La Florida, and can generate
only 5MW of electricity. But its technology has
attracted attention because the mixture of
sodium nitrates and potassium is particularly
good at retaining heat. The ability to ‘store’
solar power in this way, and deliver it outside
peak sunshine hours, would give CSP the
added value of flexibility. Another ‘first’ for
the Archimede plant is its integration with
the adjacent gas-fired power station, where
the solar-powered steam shares the task of
turning the turbines with steam heated by
fossil fuel.
Feed-in tariffs (FiTs) have been the force
behind solar installation in Spain and Italy,
with both countries now reducing the initial
generous subsidies. The US has yet to
implement a national incentive for renewables,
but progressive states like California are
leading the way, with a new FiT for small-scale
solar introduced this year to complement
its renewable portfolio standard. The UK’s
newly introduced FiT, meanwhile, has yet to
reach its potential, but initial signs are that it’s
encouraging rapid growth in solar PV. A report
by PricewaterhouseCoopers published in June,
two months after the scheme was introduced,
predicted a 30-fold increase in capacity to a
total of 1GW by 2015. – Roger East
Battery park
Turbines going in Seine?
8
producing up to 1kW of hydrokinetic power.
Deniz Erkan, Li Jiang and Ned Stuart-Smith
claim their turbine would work even in a river
flowing as slowly as one metre per second.
The students are marketing the prototype
as best suited to off-grid applications such
as home lighting in developing countries,
as it requires no special equipment or skills
to install. But a year’s work is required
to improve the turbine’s efficiency before
commercialisation. – Roger East
Flywheel to store New York’s excess
Stephentown, New York, is set to become
home to the world’s first grid-scale flywheel
energy storage plant, after Beacon Power
Corporation secured the final $43 million
needed to complete the project.
The 20MW plant is currently under
construction. It is expected to provide
approximately 10% of New York’s total
frequency regulation capacity on a typical day,
storing energy when there is too much in the
grid and releasing it when demand rises.
The flywheel will draw electricity from
the grid and stores it as rotational energy, by
accelerating a cylinder to speeds as great
as 16,000rpm. The cylinder sits in a vacuum
to minimise energy loss from friction. When
demand on the grid is high, the motor is
switched into generator mode: the cylinder
drives a turbine, creating electricity that is then
fed back into the grid.
The US Treasury’s Federal Financing
Bank has put up the $43 million loan, which
covers 62.5% of the plant’s estimated $69
million cost. Beacon Power has invested the
remaining $29 million.
The flywheel has obvious environmental
advantages over the conventional coal or
gas power stations typically used to maintain
the ‘spinning reserve’ required for frequency
regulation.
Ian Welch, National Grid’s Head of
Research and Development Strategy, has
seen Beacon Power’s flywheel demonstration
technology in action. He calls it “a unique
low-carbon solution for good short-term – as
in seconds and minutes – frequency control”.
“However,” he adds, “in the longer term
[hours], we require other [high capacity]
solutions.” One suggestion is pumped hydro
storage, where electricity is used to pump
water to a high reservoir; when the grid
requires more power, the water is released to
drive turbines. – Flemmich Webb
25,000
The number of electric vehicle (EV) charging stations Shanghai plans to install by 2012,
according to an investment plan worth 30 billion yuan ($4.47 billion). The city is aiming to
establish itself as one of the world’s largest hubs for EVs, producing “100,000 new energy
vehicles every year” by 2012, according to government official Wang Zhe. An HSBC report
predicts that the global market for low-carbon vehicles, including EVs and hybrids, will be
worth $678 billion by 2020 – up from $113 million in 2009.
Photo: Beacon Power
Could Parisians be getting power out of the
Seine by next spring? As part of the city’s
2020 Climate Plan, the Mayor’s office wants
to raise awareness of all possible sources
of renewable energy. So, while no one’s
thinking of damming the iconic river for hydro,
a call has gone out for proposals to install
eight small underwater ‘hydroliennes’, or
hydrokinetic turbines, in its flow. Quite what
they’d power is still a moot point, though
Deputy Mayor Denis Baupin freely admits that
“we’re not expecting the moon and the stars”
– more likely just a few street lights, sceptics
say. The identification of possible sites, under
four of the city’s famous bridges, has helped
raise the scheme’s profile.
Not unlike mini wind turbines in shape,
hydrokinetic turbines need their support
structures tethered to the river bed; the water
flows through, turning the blades to generate
power. The technology is in its infancy, and
nobody’s making any money out of it yet,
though US company Free Flow Power has
ambitions for commercial-scale hydrokinetic
river turbines. Its plan for a 1.6GW power
scheme involves hundreds of thousands of
turbine units at 59 sites in the Mississippi.
The application of similar principles for
underwater tidal turbines is becoming a bit
more familiar. In the US, tidal power company
Verdant has been running a 5MW pilot project
in New York City’s East River since 2007, and
there are plans to run a similar project beneath
the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco.
Meanwhile, three students used
Cambridge University’s Manufacturing
Engineering Design Show this summer to
exhibit their FloDrive Turbine, a ‘portable’
device they say would be capable of
Photo: HGE; Pronone / istock
River flow could be a source of
hydrokinetic power
Big Apple, big wheel
9
Introducing rainwater harvesting systems
alongside ground source heat pumps (GSHP)
can drastically reduce carbon emissions
and running costs. That’s the finding of
a practical new study by the Sustainable
Drainage Applied Research Group at Coventry
University. In one trial, the car park of a
three-storey office in Bedford was fitted with
a permeable pavement system (PPS) to
harvest rainwater. The water is directed into
five 130kW GSHP which warm (or cool) the
An idea full of holes
building to comfortable levels. The reduction in
heating, cooling and water from off-site led to
a 50% reduction in utility bills, and a 70% fall in
the building’s carbon emissions.
Combining rainwater harvesting and
ground source heat pumps can also cut
installation costs. One of the obstacles to the
take-up of GSHP is the cost of drilling deep
boreholes to install heat exchanger loops.
But, according to a paper by the Chartered
Institution of Building Services Engineers,
using rainwater storage tanks as a source
of heat can cut out the need for these loops
altogether. Where a PPS system is already
in place, the extra cost of installing electric
pumps to form a GSHP system could be as
little as £1,000. Commercial systems would
be able to partially finance such a system
through the Government’s Enhanced Capital
Allowances scheme, making them eligible
for 100% tax relief on the purchase and
installation.
The UK lags behind Europe when it comes
to rainwater harvesting, with just 400 systems
installed each year compared to 100,000 on
the Continent. Germany is leading the way,
with grants of £1,000 towards installation
costs helping create a £280 million industry,
employing over 5,000 people. The beauty of
the system lies in its simplicity. As Elizabeth
Khaka, a rainwater harvesting expert at the
UN Environment Programme, notes, “PPS
rainwater harvesting is viable with any paved
surface”; something the West has in no short
supply. – Sam Jones
Sun plane conquers
the night
Diverting waste from landfill yields
impressive savings
Businesses could save an average of 4-5%
of their turnover through avoided landfill
costs, according to the UK’s environmental
regulations advisor NetRegs. Among those
quick to cash in on the savings have been
United Biscuits, PepsiCo and InterfaceFLOR,
using techniques such as recycling,
composting and waste-to-energy incineration.
Leading snacks manufacturer, United
Biscuits, achieved its target of zero food waste
to landfill in 2009, and in the same year cut
non-food waste to landfill by 44%, on track
to cut out landfill altogether by 2012. There’s
no single magic bullet: rather a mix of tactics
including improving recycling facilities across
all sites, making packaging out of recyclable
materials, printing boxes in house according
to demand, as opposed to buying them in
pre-printed and quickly out-dated bulk, and
working closely with suppliers to eliminate
inefficiencies right down the chain.
PepsiCo’s Walkers factory in Leicester, the
largest crisps and snacks manufacturing site
in the world, now sends zero waste to landfill.
Any non-recyclable waste is incinerated and
recovered as useable energy.
Carpet tile manufacturers InterfaceFLOR,
meanwhile, has achieved an 80% reduction
in waste to landfill since 1996, contributing
towards a saving of US $433 million in
avoided waste costs. Its latest trick is to use
thermoplastic technology to weave fibres from
waste into the carpets themselves.
Carrots aside, the UK’s landfill tax offers a
sturdy stick to drive the change, with planned
increases of £8 per tonne each year until
2013, from the current rate of £48 per tonne.
– Katie Shaw
Leaving out the jet plane
‘Perpetual flight’ shows off solar
energy potential
The Swiss pioneers who set out to prove that
solar planes are possible recently logged a
26-hour flight for designer Bertrand Piccard’s
innovative Solar Impulse.
They’d already got the inspirational
idea off the ground (see GF74, p8), but this
time pilot Andre Borschberg took it up to
8,700 metres and got more than enough
of a charge from 12,000 solar cells to keep
running on battery power until sunrise.
10
Theoretically, then, there’s nothing to stop
it staying in the air indefinitely – though the
pilot might feel differently. But as a plane, it’s
scarcely practical, needing a wingspan the
size of an Airbus to transport a single person
at average speeds of little over 40km an
hour. Piccard continues to stress that the real
point of the project is less to do with aviation,
more to do with showing what new energyefficient technologies can achieve. He does
not see solar as a real rival to conventional
jet-powered aviation, although others will
doubtless be alert to the possible commercial
and military attractions of ‘perpetual’
solar flight.
Meanwhile, this project won’t be
grounded. Design work has begun on a
second plane. The wing, with its solar cells,
may stay the same, but for the next planned
flight across the Atlantic, and a round-theworld bid in 2013, they’ll be improving the
aerodynamics. They are also planning to give
the pilot a cockpit better suited to five days
in the air, and install sufficiently sophisticated
gear to be able to land anywhere in the world.
– Roger East
Ecuador extracts funding to leave its
oil in the soil
Ecuador may have set an important
precedent in rainforest conservation by
signing an agreement not to exploit the oil
reserves of the Ishpingo Tambococha Tiputini
(ITT) field in the Yasuní National Park.
The 2.5 million acre park, one of the most
bio-diverse regions on earth, sits on an
estimated 846 barrels of heavy crude. But the
Ecuadorian Government is to issue certified
guarantees not to exploit the reserve in
exchange for financial contributions – from
governments, private and public entities,
NGOs and individuals – to a trust fund,
administered by the UNDP. Each contributor
will receive a Yasuní Guarantee Certificate
showing the quantity of avoided CO2
emissions, in metric tonnes, as a direct result
of the donation, according to the Leipzig
Carbon Market.
Critics question whether any emissions
will in fact be avoided as a result of the
scheme. The certificates do not prevent
Ecuador from drilling for oil elsewhere, and
it’s possible that demand for the Yasuni oil will
simply be met elsewhere.
Simon Counsell, Executive Director of the
Rainforest Foundation, is among the skeptics:
“Yasuní is very important, but there are vast
areas of rainforest elsewhere that could be
protected much more cheaply than this. Also,
one wonders how long it will be before all the
major oil producers start demanding money
to keep their oil in the ground.”
However, if the scheme does prove the
value of doing so, it could set an important
precedent for governments looking to move
away from a fossil-fuelled economy. Already,
Guatemala and Nigeria are said to have
asked Ecuador for advice on how to follow
its lead.
Ecuador, which depends on oil for more
than half its export earnings, expects to
receive at least US $3.6 billion as a result of
the agreement – roughly half the sum it will
be forgoing in profits. Some $1.5 billion has
allegedly been promised to the Yasuní ITT
Trust Fund already, including a “concrete
offer” of €650 million over 13 years from the
German Government. The Fund will support
reforestation initiatives, the development of
renewable energies, social programmes and
scientific research. – Huw Spanner
Money grows on Ethiopian trees
Local economy boosted by reforestation
projects in Ethiopia
Photo: Robert Brown / photolibrary
Rainfall feeds heat pumps,
slashes costs
Less trash,
Photo: Solar Impulse EPFL; Christopher Elwell / Shutterstock
Just add rainwater
The promise of potential income is driving a
reforestation programme in Ethiopia, after the
Government granted ownership of the land
to cooperative groups. Locals have planted
cash crops such as Spanish apple seeds
for orchards and fast-growing Australian
eucalyptus for wood and fuel – alongside
native species – in an attempt to replace lost
forests in the southern state of Oromia.
Oromia had been the site of an intensive
forestation programme in the late 1980s
as part of the communist junta’s regime.
The scheme obliged locals to plant trees in
exchange for food – a top-down approach
to land management that caused many
locals to see reforestation as a punishment,
as opposed to an opportunity. Mass
deforestation in the region for short-term
economic gain followed the overthrow of
the regime.
The success of the present cooperative
effort, managed by the Environment
Development Society, is as much about
empowering people to improve their
long-term economic fortunes as it is about
environmental conservation. The Government
Nursery slopes
handed control of the land to a new body, the
Farmers Forestry Development Corporation,
with each member given 2.5 acres of land on
which to plant trees.
According to farmer Ade Zaude of the
Development Corporation, members have
seen their incomes rise: “We now have
a lot of resources... We have trees in our
compounds, a lot of money in our savings
account, and other farmers are coming to us
to seek the knowledge.”
The programme not only encourages
increased tree-planting, but has enabled
those involved to attract investment in pigand poultry-raising projects and beekeeping.
Ethiopia has been hailed by the United
Nations Environment Programme as the
world’s top tree-planting country, with 1.4
billion saplings springing up as part of its
Billion Tree Campaign. – Sam Jones
11
From wasteland to wetland in Iraq
Innovative irrigation techniques restore
the lost marshes of Mesopotamia
“Stars reflected in dark water, the croaking
of frogs, canoes coming home at evening,
peace and continuity, the stillness of a world
that never knew an engine. Once again I
experienced the longing to share this life,”
wrote Wilfred Thesiger, documenting the
years he spent among the ‘Marsh Arabs’ of
southern Iraq in the 1950s.
The way of life he describes was
almost completely wiped out in the early
1990s, when the Mesopotamian marshes
– which dwarfed the Florida Everglades
at their peak – were drained under
Saddam Hussein. Considered a refuge for
insurgents, they were reduced to just 5% of
their original size; villages were burnt down,
the water poisoned.
As soon as Saddam fell, local
communities breached the dikes to restore
the wetlands. And now, a series of innovative
conservation efforts by Nature Iraq are having
remarkable results. Techniques include a
cyclical irrigation channel whereby water is
diverted back to rivers for reuse. Meltwater is
stored upstream and then released to create
controlled floods that flush through and
desalinate the marshes each spring. Waste
Hanging gardens of Japan
Bird of good omen
PV-powered tablet set
for sale at just $35
agricultural water from the central Euphrates
region is also reused.
These stringent efficiency measures
are not without good cause, with Turkish
dams upstream diminishing water flow. “The
marshes receive as little as 12 billion cubic
meters of water annually, compared to 60
billion before regulation upstream,” says
Azzam Alwash, CEO of Nature Iraq. “But with
the measures in place, our models predict
Fukuoka sets the bar high for green
roofs, walls and terraces
we can recover up to 75% of the original
marshes.”
The displaced people are now returning
to grow rice and dates, raise water buffalo
and fish – creating important economic
opportunities for the nation. The region’s
biodiversity is also being restored, as
populations of Sacred Ibis, Basra Reed
Warblers and Iraq Babblers return and
thrive. – Sam Jones
If you require a little inspiration of the green
roof kind, stop ogling the neighbour’s sedumtopped shed and start Google Earthing the
ACROS building in Fukuoka, Japan, instead.
While the ‘elegant urban façade’ of the
building’s northern face has a formal entrance
opening out onto bustling city streets, its
southern side is altogether earthier. Lush green
vegetation extends from ground level over
multiple one-storey terraces, right to the very
top. And under the building’s 14 terraces is
more than one million square feet of space.
When designing a building to be located in
the city’s only remaining park, architect Emilio
Ambasz knew what he must do. “A plaza was
taken away and I wanted to give them a plaza
back,” he says. Using a range of local species
Plastic land rises from the waves
12
Enzyme could catalyse fumes into fuel
Photo: Emilio Ambasz
An ambitious new scheme has been
launched to turn islands of rubbish into useful
new living space. Recycled Island is a project
with a triple mission: to clear the ocean of
plastic waste, create new land and construct
a ‘sustainable habitat’.
The concept was born two years ago.
“I was flying over the ocean, looking out at
the huge sea surface and at the same time
reading an article about plastic pollution,”
says Ramon Knoester, founder of WHIM
Exhaust potential
Photo: Mudhafar Salim, Nature Iraq; WHIM architecture
‘Recycled Island’ turns ocean waste
into new habitat
architecture. “It was that combination which
made me come up with the idea.”
With the project still in its research phase,
the priority is deciding how the plastic will be
gathered. One promising proposal, Knoester
says, is to use an electrostatic charge to sift
the plastics from other organisms and debris.
The plastic would be recycled on location.
“You take a recycling factory and put it on
top of a ship,” says Knoester. “Then you go
to the areas with the biggest concentrations
of plastic and start to gather and recycle it.
Once you have a building block, you can put it
straight into the water and then make the next.
Finally, you bind them all together.”
Knoester insists that an island would be
buoyant enough to support a population and
infrastructure, complete with solar and wave
power, seaweed cultivation and compost
toilets “to make the island fertile”.
Financial support for the project has yet to
be confirmed, but Knoester believes it offers
the best solution for locations such as the
North Pacific Gyre, where underwater currents
whip up a ‘plastic soup’ that stretches from
the Californian coast almost to Japan. The
American oceanographer Charles Moore, who
dubbed it the ‘Great Pacific Garbage Patch’,
estimates that the region contains 100 million
tons of flotsam. – Claire Baylis
– short-trunked to withstand typhoons – he
began work on the green roof as soon as the
shell of the building was finished, and well
before anyone moved in.
The roof is irrigated using a traditional
dripping system, with blackwater recycling at
times of drought. “Otherwise the plants just
prosper like any plant under the sky,” says
Ambasz. “It’s very simple.”
In addition to the environmental benefits of
replacing lost green space, there are aesthetic
ones – with panoramic views of the bay from
the top – and commercial ones, with all space
rented out in advance of completion.
Ultimately, says Ambasz, ACROS
demonstrates that: “You can have the building
and the garden, not just the building in the
garden.” – Claire Baylis
The iPad may be dominating the headlines
and billboards, but a different kind of
touchscreen tablet might prove more
revolutionary in the longer term. Backed by the
Indian Government, the $35 solar-powered
Sakshat could bring affordable computing to
Indian schools and villages across the country.
Scheduled for roll-out to higher education
institutions in 2011, the Sakshat runs on the
open-source software Linux, freeing it from the
shackles of high-spec computer systems and
driving down cost. It includes all the standard
basic applications, including word processing,
web browsing and video conferencing.
Designing it to be powered by a PV panel
ensures it’s viable for use in rural communities
miles from the electricity grid, so helping
connect them to the global economy without
the need for larger infrastructure.
The Sakshat was developed by the Indian
Institute of Science and the Indian Institute
of Technology as part of a government
programme aimed at supplying all of the
country’s 25,000 colleges and 500 universities
with a broadband connection. At $35, it’s
already much cheaper than the $100 XO-1
device by One Laptop Per Child, first unveiled
at the World Summit on the Information
Society in 2005. The long-term aim is to sell
the Sakshat at just $10 – with competition
Scientists have found an enzyme that could be
used to catalyse the conversion of polluted air
to create synthetic fuels, according to a report
published in the journal Science.
Researchers at the University of California,
Irvine, isolated a particular enzyme, vanadium
nitrogenase, in the bacteria, Azotobacter
vinelandii, commonly found in soil. Markus
Ribbe and his team found that the enzyme –
which converts nitrogen into ammonia to build
some of life’s essentials, such as DNA and
proteins – can also convert carbon monoxide
(CO) into short chains of carbon two or three
atoms long, such as propane – the blue-flamed
gas used in kitchen stoves.
Research is ongoing, with the long-term
goal of refining the process for industrial
applications, such as the production of fuel
from polluted air, Ribbe told Green Futures.
The challenge is to convert CO into the longer
chains of carbon atoms that make up petrol.
The development builds on a reaction
known as the Fischer-Tropsch process, first
developed in the 1920s to produce liquid fuel
from coal. Concerns over peak oil have seen
a revival of interest in the technology (see ‘Air
Supply’, GF76, p32).
But despite a long history of interest in
the conversion process, commercial viability
remains some way off. Chris Goodall, author
and Carbon Commentary blogger, cautions:
“This technology is right on the edge. There
are lots of people at the moment looking at
different ways to turn short carbon molecules
into long ones and exploit the energy gain,
but we are 10-15 years away from this being
achieved.” – Flemmich Webb
anticipated from the XO-3, a tablet expected
to retail at $75.
The market for it is unquestionable; PC
sales in India are expected to exceed 100
million a year in 2013. However, Harish Hande,
energy and development expert and CEO of
solar entrepreneurs Selco, has doubts about
its efficacy as an educational tool. “It needs
to have the right applications, providing good
education content to students in an attractive
way. If they don’t get this right, it will just be a
toy.” – Sam Jones
13
The
juice:
the latest on EVs
House
proud
Green plant low down
The east London plant will process
500,000 tonnes of waste biomass a year,
yielding 16 million gallons of liquid biofuel.
Gas, a by-product of the conversion, will
be sold back to the grid, or used in a
district heating system.
Flying junk
Biodiversity and
the health of
ecosystems is neither
an abstract scientific
concept nor the
pet project of a
green elite.
[They] are the
vital underpinnings of
human society.
Edward Norton, actor and UN goodwill
ambassador for biodiversity
14
Racing ahead
The love of speed is driving technological
advances for electric vehicles (EVs), just as it
has for fuel-powered cars. The KleenSpeed
WX10, a Formula One car with 1,600 lithium
batteries on board and a 200-horsepower
engine, set a new road record for EVs by
averaging 94 miles per hour at time trials this
summer in Monterey, California.
WX10 wirelessly transmits pertinent driving
information to, for example, the pit, allowing
engineers to continually monitor and tweak
performance. KleenSpeed’s CEO Tim
Collins said the company is using its
experience with the WX10 to design a
consumer car for market.
Meanwhile, the Buckeye Bullet 2.5 broke a
record for off-road speed, by an EV, on Utah’s
Bonneville Salt Flats, reaching 307mph in
an August run. The vehicle’s designers, from
Ohio State University’s Center for Automotive
Research, now hope to set a new record of
400mph with version 3.5.
Smooth landing
Navigation technology brings planes
in on less fuel
Under constant pressure to cut carbon – and
fuel costs – the aviation industry won’t have
missed the significance of a recent ‘smart
flying’ test.
Alaska Airlines is setting an industry first
by equipping its entire fleet with a new flight
guidance technology which, it claims, has
enabled it to bring a plane into Seattle airport
with a 35% reduction in carbon emissions, as
compared with a standard landing.
The Required Navigation Profile (RNP)
technology allows the engines to idle for more of
the time during a smoothly graduated reduction
in altitude. The landing is also quieter than
traditional step-by-step trajectories which use
the engines in repeated bursts. The system first
entered the company’s repertoire as an aid to
landing at tricky sites, but is now seen as its
smart route to greenhouse gas emission cuts of
some 22,000 tonnes a year.
American low-cost flight provider Southwest
Airlines has followed suit, with a $175 million
investment to equip its airports with RNP.
Jeff Martin, Senior Director-Flight Operations,
explained the business case for the changes at
Washington’s Eco-Aviation Conference: “With
RNP/NextGen procedures designed at 13 of our
airports, we project savings of $16 million a year
once we begin flying RNP in January 2011.” The
airline anticipates a 100% return on investment
in fewer than ten years. – Roger East
Photo: kleen-speed; Buckeye Bullet
Aviation’s thirst for low-carbon fuel has created
a market opportunity for waste processing
in east London. US-based biomass energy
company Solena plans to have its first facility
up and running by 2014, producing synthetic
fuel gas for planes from municipal waste.
Significantly, the company has had no
problem with finding customers. British
Airways has signed a ten-year agreement to
buy all Solena can produce at a pre-agreed
(but undisclosed) price. Mindful of its pledge
to halve its carbon dioxide emissions by 2050,
the airline has also put a call out to other
suppliers of possible alternatives to kerosene,
either neat or as a blend, for a joint programme
of lab, test rig and full engine tests with Rolls
Royce. But it is counting on Solena to deliver
at least as much fuel as it needs for a 50-50
mix with standard aviation kerosene, to power
all its flights out of nearby London City airport.
But will the new fuel achieve the carbon
A spark in the desert: Buckeye Bullet on the Utah Flats
Photo: Alaska Airlines; Llja Masik / Shutterstock
British Airways buys jet fuel from
biomass waste
reductions that BA is looking for? David
Fulford, renewables expert and Ashden
Awards judge, is hesitant: “Energy from
waste is definitely attractive, as it saves
on landfill. Whether the process reduces
carbon emissions is another matter.” It partly
depends on the composition of the waste,
he explains. If it’s made up of plastics from
oil, the system recovers the carbon dioxide
locked in the plastics, but then releases it as
a fuel. Biomass waste also releases CO2 back
to the atmosphere. Rupert Fausset, transport
expert at Forum for the Future, agrees: “BA will
have to be completely open about where this
‘waste’ comes from, if it is to show that it is
making real, additional emissions cuts.”
Solena and British Airways used this
year’s Farnborough International Air Show to
publicise their new fuel initiative. The final site
choice for the planned east London plant,
dubbed ‘GreenSky’ by the partners, is to be
announced soon. – Roger East
One minute miracle
EV infrastructure company Better Place is
extending the trial of its battery swap scheme
in Tokyo after initial data revealed an average
switch time of just 59.1 seconds over more
than 2,000 exchanges. (The idea behind
Better Place is to avoid the need for lengthy
recharging by offering a ‘hot swap’ battery
service, roughly equivalent to stopping at a
filling station for refuelling. This should help
overcome one of the main obstacles to
wider EV take-up: that of limited range – see
GF73, p31). The company hopes to gain
further insights into battery performance and
consumer behaviour in preparation for the
commercial launch of schemes in Israel and
Denmark next year.
Renault has developed the first vehicle to be
fully compatible with both the Better Place
battery swap scheme and conventional
plug-in charge systems. It expects to sell
100,000 Fluence Z.Es in Denmark and Israel
before 2016.
Better Place looks set to become a global
phenomenon, with another EV infrastructure
scheme to launch in Canberra, Australia, and
a memorandum of understanding signed with
China’s largest independent auto producer,
Chery. Better Place and Chery will co-create
switchable-battery EV prototypes, with the
goal of securing regional government funding
for pilot projects.
The group plans to convert 30 phone
cabins by the end of this year, with more
dependent on public take-up of EVs.
Somewhat ironically, drivers can use their
mobile to switch on the juice at the new
stations, by sending a coded text message.
Charging takes between six to eight hours for
a full-sized EV, and is free during this initial trial
period, though expected to cost a single-digit
euro sum once the scheme is rolled out.
Takasago-go-go
Meanwhile, Takasago, a subsidiary of
Japanese IT group NEC, has developed a
Rapid Charging Station capable of taking a
lithium-ion EV battery from flat to 80% in less
than half an hour. Portland General Electric,
Oregon, has snapped one up for public testing
in the garage of the Portland World Trade
Center. The station is currently free to use, but
drivers pay for parking.
“Quick-charging stations are an exciting
advancement in our effort to bring electric
vehicles to Oregon,” said Governor Ted
Kulongoski. “By making charging convenient
and available for public use, we are telling car
manufacturers that Oregon is ready for the
next generation of electric vehicles.”
The Takasago station far outstrips the
charge times of other new models, such
as General Electric’s attractive WattStation
(below), and Frog Design’s Blink, both of which
take four to eight hours. – April Streeter
Phone charger
The once ubiquitous public phone box has
been quietly disappearing from your average
urban landscape. But it could be about
to make a come-back. Telekom Austria is
converting some of the 13,500 cabins still
standing in Austrian cities to electric charging
stations for bikes and cars.
15
Few sectors rival the global economic importance of sex, but so far
sustainability professionals have left it completely untouched. Can they
really afford to? Anna Simpson makes the case for a warmer embrace.
“
Is there really
any fundamental
moral difference
between paying
for food in a
restaurant and
paying for sex,
freely sold?
”
16
Charlotte gently closes the door and slips into the
adjoining room, where her colleagues are having
a giggle over a cup of tea. She flicks on her phone
and scans her account. All the tabs are green:
earnings high, health risks low, working hours
reasonable, carbon footprint tiny, client feedback
off the scale…
All that’s left for her to do is rate her own wellbeing.
She thinks of the baths, massages, cuddles and
caresses she’s given that week; the sweet, serene
expressions breaking through from behind weary
frowns – and gives herself a discreet pat on the
back: she’s a do-gooder, and it makes her
feel great.
It’s a far cry from the view most people have of
sex work. According to the more familiar narrative,
it is the industry which dare not speak its name,
consigned to dark streets and seedy districts; rarely
regulated, often criminalised. Women of low means
and lower self esteem shrink under its stigma. Their
clients are aggressive and abusive, and they’re
desperate for a way out. Any job would be better,
wouldn’t it?
There’s certainly an ugly side to the sex industry.
Exploitation and trafficking play a part – but
evidence suggests to a much lesser extent than
is widely thought. “Horror stories happen”, says
Catherine Stephens of the International Union of
Sex Workers, “but they are a minority. Some people
take a very strong ideological view around this,
seeing all prostitution as violence against women.
The implication is that a sex worker’s consent is
fundamentally invalid.”
The latest evidence challenges the view that
brothels are full of trafficked women living in fear of
violent pimps. A study by the UK Human Trafficking
Centre in 2009 found that the largest police raid
to date on brothels, flats and massage parlours
failed to find a single case of forced prostitution. It’s
not only inaccurate to suggest that the majority of
sex workers do not choose their profession, says
Stephens: it’s patronising and disempowering.
“Neither having sex nor getting paid is inherently
dangerous or degrading.”
According to stereotype, men who pay for sex
are on some power trip. But in the vast majority
of cases, says Belinda Brooks-Gordon, Reader in
Psychology and Social Policy at Birkbeck College
and author of The Price of sex: Prostitution, policy
and society, the reality is very different. She asserts
that, for many punters, “mutuality is part of the
attraction… Sex workers [actually] get bored by
constant interrogation [from clients] about their
wellbeing”.
Meanwhile, the public mood appears to be
shifting. A recent BBC poll found 71% in favour of
greater social acceptance of prostitution.
Individuals selling sex to others is, of course,
just a small part of the sex economy. Far from being
underground or taboo, many aspects are legal, even
glorified (think high class courtesans or beautifully
crafted lingerie). It’s a trillion dollar cross-sector
industry spanning live entertainment, pornography,
pharmaceutical products, clothes and accessories.
And, as hackneyed clichés about the ‘oldest
profession’ remind us, it’s been here forever.
It’s certainly proved almost impossible to
regulate out of existence. Though that hasn’t
stopped us trying. Laws against selling sex litter
the statute books of almost every country down
the ages. There have been countless endeavours
to keep erotica out of sight – from the Vatican’s
Index Librorum Prohibitorum, to the prosecution of
Penguin for publishing Lady Chatterley’s Lover in
1960, to the X-rating for sexually explicit films.
Today, the web makes a nonsense of any
attempt to restrict who sees what. The number
of people with access to porn has rocketed.
(Ironically, the porn industry effectively encouraged
a whole range of innovations now part and parcel
of everyday internet use – from online payment
systems to chat rooms to video streaming.) A quick
Google search cuts out altogether the need for
embarrassing trips to the pharmacist, sex shop or
red light district. It’s easier than ever before to buy
sex. Demand remains stubbornly high, despite the
Photo: Krivenko / Shutterstock
Sex: the next
ethical industry?
17
”
18
It all begins to sound rather obvious. We already
have organic food, low-carbon transport, fair trade
clothes and renewable energy. Why not apply the same
logic to all basic human needs and desires? Is there
really any fundamental moral difference between paying
for food in a restaurant and paying for sex, freely sold?
If we’re really honest, we all pay for sex already.
Take advertising. There’s the woman on the billboard
with creamy yoghurt slipping over her tongue; the
classic car with the 1950s model, all lipstick, cleavage
and polka dots; the man rubbing foam gel over his
rippling muscles in the shower… “Advertising promotes
the sex industry all the time,” says Sam Roddick,
founder of London’s high end sex shop, Coco de Mer.
“But it’s the one industry where all our standards go
out of the window. I’d like to see people selling sex
at a genuine level – rather than using it to sell
something else.”
Of course, engaging with this particular sector
isn’t as simple as a board-level partnership with Tesco
or Shell. I’m not suggesting we call up the World’s
Chief Pimp and ask for a meeting. But, in many
instances, the same broad principles can apply, says
Sally Uren. “A sustainability framework would allow
an honest evaluation of social, environmental and
economic impacts, and perhaps find new ways of
tackling old issues.”
So if we shake off the stigma of selling – and
buying – sex, how does it rate in sustainability terms?
Sara Parkin, Founder Director of Forum for the Future,
suggests a ‘Five Capitals’ analysis of the natural,
social, financial, manufactured and human value of sex.
What would that look like?
As far as natural capital is concerned, sex is an
admirably low-carbon, low-impact activity. (“Probably
more sustainable than a trip to your local National
Trust property”, chuckles Sue Miller, Liberal Democrat
member of the House of Lords.) On the social side,
our desire for intimacy is so great – and mental and
physical closeness so good for us – that some argue
sex should be regarded as a human right. Tuppy
Owens, Chair of the Sexual Freedom Coalition, cites
countless instances in which disabled people have
benefited from sexual services – from a stroke survivor
left unable to speak in need of close non-verbal
companionship, to a tetraplegic man enjoying sensual
head massage from a tantric specialist.
In manufactured capital, Parkin playfully points out,
the heat generated can help keep the electric blankets
off... And sex products, from online porn to toys and
clothes, all lend themselves to thoroughly sustainable
production (and consumption) methods.
As for finance, Catherine Stephens argues that
one great benefit of the sex industry is that it “puts
money in women’s pockets”. It arguably puts money
in the pockets of lots of men too – but some at least
of this could be channelled to meet other needs. Take
the Berlin-based non-profit group, Fuck for Forest. It
sells access to erotic photos and films – all made by
unpaid volunteers and fans – and donates virtually all
the proceeds to conservation. Since 2004, it has raised
over €180,000 for a range of causes, notably rainforest
protection projects in Ecuador and Brazil.
And when it comes to human capital, it’s hard to
imagine an industry meeting a more universal, basic
human need – or at least, desire.
Photo: The Trustees of the British Museum
“
Buying the
right sort of
porn, as
opposed to
downloading
it for free,
could even
be an act of
solidarity
best educational efforts of everyone from Christian
fundamentalists to feminist activists. Like it or not, this
is an industry that’s here to stay.
Attempts at regulating it, from licensed brothels
to ‘toleration zones’, have proved patchy at best.
The most effective framework, says Stephens, is
New Zealand’s – precisely because it’s extremely
light. But, as we know, regulation isn’t the only way
to make things better. The whole basis of corporate
responsibility is that businesses don’t need laws to
make them behave. For the most part, they want
to have sustainable supply chains and minimal
environmental and social impact because it makes
business sense, and it’s what their customers want.
Recent years have seen huge improvements in
the way we consume food, fashion and travel – partly
thanks to positive engagement from sustainability
professionals. But, as Solitaire Townsend, Chair of
sustainable communications consultancy, Futerra,
puts it: “Whenever people talk about sex, they seem to
forget what they know about sustainability.”
It’s a theme echoed by Sally Uren, Deputy Director
of Forum for the Future. “Even some unsavoury
sectors, from arms to tobacco, have been given the
CSR treatment”, she says, “but the sex industry has
slipped under the sustainability radar. Yet, guns and
smoking kill – and if we can have sustainable bullets,
surely there can be sustainable sex?!” So why isn’t
there? Is it because we’re embarrassed by it, ashamed
even? Is it because we feel we have nothing to add?
More likely, perhaps, that we have difficulty imagining
what a sustainable sex industry would look like – or
have never even tried... So let’s have a go.
Feel like watching the latest Fairtrade-certified
porn film? The actors all enjoy decent pay, health
insurance and pensions. The carbon impact of the set
lighting and travel is offset through investment in clean,
efficient cookstoves sold at affordable prices to women
in rural Africa.
Perhaps you’d rather a spot of ethical
lap-dancing? You can be sure the performers are all
willing and well-paid: it’s certified by Care & Consent,
the highly reputable international certification body for
ethical sex. You tip generously, knowing that 50% of
the profits are covenanted to the local women’s
community centre.
Or, maybe best of all, you opt for an evening in
with your sweetheart. You’ve got everything you need:
condoms made from rubber tapped sustainably in
Brazil (see Sol e Sombra, p31), hand carved FSCcertified sex toys, delicious fair trade dark chocolate
body paint (70% cocoa solids, 100% lust)...
Tempted? You’re not alone. Brooks-Gordon’s
research has convinced her that there is huge latent
demand for an ethical sex industry. Not only do most
clients want to feel wanted, she says; many would be
hugely relieved to know that the sex workers starring
in their favourite porn film, on stage at their club, or
on offer through their escort agency, are there by
consent, paid a decent wage, and have access to
services that promote health and welfare. Potentially,
she says, it offers a pretty progressive working model:
“Self-employment, flexible working hours, the option of
working from home – what more could you want?” If
you’re after a vision of a really sustainable job, sex isn’t
a bad place to start.
We might conclude that sex is, potentially,
eminently sustainable. And yet, “CSR professionals
aren’t exactly queuing up to work in one of the biggest
industries on the planet,” says Townsend. Part of the
problem, she acknowledges, is that the criminalisation
of organised prostitution makes it impossible to
set up the necessary mechanisms for traceability
and accountability – something of a catch-22. But,
Townsend argues, we could start by engaging
with mainstream porn. “I’d love to see integrated
environmental reporting by a porn company…”
Sam Roddick agrees. “The porn industry has to
be challenged: it’s so formulaic, it’s not even funny. It’s
gagging for something creative. We need to challenge
its content, distribution channels and monopolies.
We need to make sure that those who create new
content are abiding by laws, and are traceable.
Everyone needs clear and good boundaries within
which to work.”
This is one sector where consumers have more
influence over the supply chain than they sometimes
care to admit. As long as people are prepared to pay
for erotica, there is a degree of accountability that
can be leveraged. Certification schemes – monitoring
anything from condom use to consent – are viable
as long as people pay to peep. Buying the right sort
of porn – as opposed to downloading it for free –
could even become an act of solidarity. There are no
shortages of parallels here with the music industry’s
faltering embrace of an online model.
Meanwhile, it’s not just about making the best of
a bad egg. Porn is perhaps the most effective vehicle
out there when it comes to promoting safe sex. As
Anne Philpott, founder of sexual health campaign ‘The
Pleasure Project’, puts it: “We have to put ‘sexy’ back
into sex education”.
Which is where, in theory, Government might come
in. Sam Roddick thinks it’s about time it did. “We need
to challenge the Government to support [sex workers]
with the same mechanisms that any industry has:
healthcare, pension schemes, and so on. It’s really
basic stuff, but it would legitimise the business, first Japan: no false modesty behind
the fan
of all, and then we could challenge it.”
Tapping
into new
markets:
mobiles bring cash as well as conversation
For Syon Khan,
an escort
based
in Birmingham,
it’s a simple quid pro quo. “I pay income tax on the
sex work I do, so I should be entitled to the same
benefits as any other tax-paying professional.”
But any politician seeking to take on such a
cause wouldn’t exactly be trampled in the rush. As
Baroness Miller ruefully admits, MPs tend to avoid
sex like an expense scandal. “Very few MPs are
even willing to debate the issue… It doesn’t exactly
play well with your electorate”. Interestingly, there
is much more ready discussion around drugs –
which can pose far greater risks to our mental and
physical wellbeing than (safe) sex, and cause far
more disruption and distress up the supply chain…
So why is the sex industry so difficult to
discuss? Why do so many of us in the sustainability
world feel we would be tarnished by association?
Some cite the subordination of women, others the
21st century’s weird mix of prurience and prudery.
Philosopher Antony Grayling traces it back all
the way to the Judaeo-Christian obsession with
increasing the flock. “So anything that doesn’t
result in reproduction is regarded as aberrant.” The
shame of Onan has a lot to answer for… Other
civilisations don’t share the same anxieties, Grayling
argues, citing Japan as an example. Sure enough,
in Japanese art you’ll find prostitutes are depicted
with as much dignity as aristocrats. Take Kitagawa
Utamaro’s kimono-clad beauty gracefully concealing
her sex with a painted fan. Now try imagining a giltframed portrait of an elegant whore in action on the
wall of one of England’s stately homes...
Whatever the reasons behind it, our reluctance
to engage with the sex industry is doing no one any
favours. If we refuse to recognise the value that sex
brings to our society, environment and economy, we
certainly can’t add anything to it.
Anna Simpson is Deputy Editor, Green Futures.
19
Where
Warren Buffet
ventures, others
are sure to
follow
20
For a few heady years in the mid-zeros, clean
technology was the new dot com. Venture
capitalists (VCs) poured funds into everything from
solar power to smart IT. Growth rates were positively
vertiginous. During 2003-07, solar investments made
by firms trading in the City of London alone grew at an
annual average of 250%...
And then came the crunch. Investments stuttered,
confidence waned. There were inevitable comments
about bubbles, and unflattering comparisons with the
worst excesses of the dot com frenzy. But just as that
proved to be the birth, rather than the death pangs, of
the digital revolution, so the cleantech surge might just
be the start of something truly transformational.
The first six months of 2010 saw VC investments
into cleantech hit new highs [see box, ‘Follow the
money’]. As recoveries go, this bouncing cat is very
much alive. And it’s lapping up a growing share of
all VC funding. This is hardly surprising, says Alice
Chapple, who as Director of Sustainable Financial
Markets at Forum for the Future has been tracking
this trend for a while. “Cleantech investment is [not
just] an environmental imperative. It is … vital for future
competitiveness.” Others are positively bullish. “Cities,
regions, provinces and countries are now … competing
to brand themselves as hubs of clean growth”, writes
Cleantech Group Chairman Nicholas Parker. “It’s no
longer about trading our way out of the carbon crisis: it’s
about inventing new industries. [This]”, he concludes,
“[is] the new space race.”
It’s a race which will be fuelled by rising resource
prices – in metals, food and oil – as economies emerge
from recession. But this in turn will trigger growing
competition for cleantech’s feedstocks. Like oil before it,
the raw materials of the new economy will enrich some
states, while feeding geopolitical tensions, too. In South
America, the ‘Lithium ABCs’ (Argentina, Bolivia and
Chile) are already cashing in on the spiralling demand
for this essential constituent of electric car batteries.
And anyone concerned about China’s growing clout
won’t sleep easier knowing that it controls 95% of
the rare earth elements used in a wide range of clean
technologies.
So the race will be anything but a smooth ride.
Meanwhile, though, a close look at where the
money’s going reveals a lot about the direction it will take
Photo: Better Place
Clean horizons
“
”
Photo: Ace create / istock
After the shock of the crunch, venture
capitalists are once again pouring funds
into cleantech. So who’s going to reap the fruits
of their largesse? Martin Wright takes the
pulse of some leading VCs.
in the coming years. Some of it is familiar territory. Take
solar. After a year or two in the doldrums, it’s enjoying a
resurgence. Boosted by government support schemes
such as feed-in tariffs (FiTs), it attracted over $1 billion
in VC funding during the first half of 2010. According to
George Coelho, MD of venture capital partnership Good
Energies, FiTs have spawned a wave of investment in
PV panels and accessories too, like inverters. (These
transform the DC current produced by the panel to the
AC widely used in domestic appliances). Even if some
cash-strapped governments follow Spain’s lead and
roll back on the more generous subsidies, he says, the
market’s unlikely to cool overnight.
There’s growing interest, too, in distributed
generation, particularly in developing countries, says
Steve Mahon, Chief Investment Officer at Low Carbon
Investors and fund manager for AIM-listed Low Carbon
Accelerator Ltd. He is launching a fund for Asia aimed at
mini-grids of 5MW and under, typically provided by
a mix of wind, solar or hydro: meeting local needs
without all the expense and inefficiencies of a large
transmission network. Along with other VCs, he
sees considerable potential in combining small-scale
renewable with sophisticated IT to run local energy
service companies (ESCOs).
But it’s electric vehicles (EVs) which are for now the
fastest growing cleantech sector – pulling in $704 million
in the first three months of 2010 alone. If EVs have a
pin-up boy, it’s Shai Agassi. His Better Place start-up
(see GF71, p12) is promising to revolutionise electric
motoring, by enabling batteries to be ‘hot swapped’ in
less time than it takes to fill up with petrol. He’s attracted
the largest single slug of VC funding – over $550 million
– so far this year.
Legendary financier Warren Buffet, too, has
joined the EV party, piling in to China’s BYD carmaker
(see GF73, p22). Intriguingly, he’s also a large-scale
investor in railway firm Burlington Northern Santa Fe
– anticipating a modal shift in freight transport, from
road to rail. And where Buffet ventures, others are sure
to follow. His substantial presence reassures potential
investors, says Parker, and makes cleantech look less
like a leap in the dark. Indeed, some of the big players’
investment arms, including Intel Capital, GE Capital,
Shell, Alstom and Cargill Ventures, have all been involved
in 2010’s major deals, while George Soros and Richard
Branson, too, are dipping their toes into the market.
Meanwhile, Parker sees the rush to EVs pure and
simple as being succeeded by city-wide ‘smart mobility’.
This will rely on sophisticated IT systems to optimise the
way people and goods move around urban centres.
Not everything’s going electric, though. Biofuel crops
may have wilted in a storm of bad press lately, but
there’s renewed excitement in so-called third generation
versions, such as fuels derived from crop waste or algae.
Food security issues are also sparking VCs’ interest,
especially around sustainable aquaculture. Concerns
about over-fishing and unsustainable fish farms are
driving a lot of “new thinking and technologies”, says
Parker. ”Areas such as Hawaii and Oman are emerging
as hubs of acquacultural innovation. The Scripps
Institute in California, for instance, and corporations such
as Unilever are doing important work in the area. It’s
poised to become a real breakout agriculture category”,
he concludes.
But the best contender for the Next Big Thing is
boring old energy efficiency. Long seen as relatively
unsexy compared to the glamour of renewables, this
An app for a better place? Shai
Agassi’s hot swap solution is
pulling in the cleantech millions
is finally attracting serious attention from VCs. It’s not
surprising: since being more efficient usually saves money,
it has an obvious attraction to companies at crunch time.
“I was talking to a guy recently”, Woods recalls, “who
developed a product that controls energy usage in fridges
[which he’d sold to Coca Cola]. The payback time is
around eight months, so it makes complete economic
sense for Coke. I saw him a year ago, he was turning over
$15 million; when I met him a couple of weeks ago he
was turning over $30 million…” Boring old efficiency gets
a lot more interesting when you look at the bottom line,
says Woods.
On the same theme, Mahon sees a shift away from
large capital-intensive projects such as wind and solar
schemes, to smart energy management. He’s particularly
interested in ‘grid-balancing’ technologies, which can
even out the peaks and troughs of supply and demand
– essential if a greater proportion of electricity is going
to be generated from intermittent sources such as wind.
This includes sophisticated demand-side management
controls on everything from fridges and air conditioning
to lighting. “It’s about putting enough intelligence into
the system to make it really efficient”, says Mahon. “It’s
not too capital-intensive, and you can scale it up very
quickly. It’s the really high-growth area of the next few
years.” Rob Wylie of WHEB Ventures agrees. “Remote
sensing, monitoring and control approaches will take off”,
he says. And it’s a perfect example of the way in which
21
Martin Wright is Editor in Chief of Green Futures.
22
Follow the money
Cleantech cleans up
Sexy sectors
• Cleantech investments by VCs hit record levels
in the first half of 2010 – $4.04 billion, narrowly
beating the previous high of $4.02 billion in 2008.
Four top cleantech investments by VCs after the crunch:
• Smart energy management and ICT
• Electric vehicles and associated transport
• Solar power
• Biofuels
• 43% of all new VC investments are now targeted
at cleantech.
Picking winners
Leading recipients of VC funding in 2010 include:
• Investments in cleantech industrial products and
services – mainly in electric vehicles – grew by
490% year on year to Q1 2010.
Better Place – Shai Agassi’s ‘battery hot swap’ EV
venture: $550 million
Solyndra – Californian-based thin-film solar pv
specialists: $175 million
• Solar PV investment – boosted by government
support schemes such as FiTs – rose by 233% in
the same period.
• Californian investors accounted for 50% of the
world’s total VC cleantech activity in the first half of
2010 – but China is the fastest growing source of
new investment in the area.
Landis+Gyr – Swiss-based smart metering
company: $165 million (and $100 million in 2009)
Fisker Automotive – Californian EV company:
$55 million
Nualight – Irish LED company, specializing in
low-energy lighting for retail fridges: $11.4 million
Sources: The Cleantech Group; New Energy World Network; Clean Edge Report
Photo: Bravajulia / istock
if less spectacular, ‘later-stage’ investments. In the past,
many such profitable, growing companies would have
gone to their bank to fund expansion. Now that bank
lending has been squeezed almost to extinction, says
Wylie, VCs are starting to fill the gap – getting into some
promising, profitable ventures “at what is actually a quite
reasonable valuation”.
The shift away from start-ups may take some of
the dot com-style glamour out of cleantech venturing, but
that could also be seen as a mark of maturity – replacing
the “irrational exuberance”, as Douglas Lloyd, Chief
Executive of VB/Research, calls it, of a few years back.
Some still see a danger of over-optimism, among them
Vinod Khosla of Khosla Ventures. He worries that too
many companies “under the green banner” would go
public, “[raise] expectations [and then] miss them”.
Jim Woods agrees: “I see a lot of parallels with the
[worst excesses] of dot com, when investors piled in and
lost huge amounts of money… They were just desperate
to get in there; it was all about market share, doesn’t
matter if it’s profitable. [But as] the likes of Warren Buffet
said at the time, you can’t throw conventional business
models out of the window, just because there’s been a
paradigm shift.”
The old rules still apply, in other words – no matter
how revolutionary the technology. And that means
something as unglamorous as basic functionality and
cost-saving should be to the fore, says Wylie. “A classic
example is Via Optronics, in Germany. They’ve addressed
one of the great problems that you have with mobile
phones or your laptop, [which] is that you can’t see
what’s on the screen in sunlight. They’ve found a way of
overcoming that problem whereby you get total clarity
even in bright sunshine. It answers another problem
as well – that of energy loss through the screen –
which means longer battery life. So you’ve actually
answered two questions in one technology: you’re
solving a consumer problem and reducing energy use.
And of course, you’re saving money. It really is as simple
as that.”
“I was at a Green Monday [networking] event in
London the other day”, Wylie goes on, “and the audience
were mainly sustainability managers. So I asked them:
‘How many of you have ‘cost reduction’ in your job
description? Because surely that’s what it should be.’
And very few put their hands up. Which is really quite
odd, because one could argue that in times of a credit
crunch [sustainability] is one of the few areas where you
should be investing – because you’re actually saving
people money.”
But you need the courage to look at the long
term, he adds. “There was a parallel back in the 90s,
when the German chemical industry was faced with
very tight EU legislation on air emissions. It threw up its
hands up in horror and said: ‘It’s going to cost so much
money, we’re going to go off to Asia where it’s much
cheaper and we don’t have all these [regulations]’. What
actually happened, of course, is that none of them went
off to Asia. They looked at their internal processes and
became incredibly efficient, and that put them in a very
competitive position later on.”
“Hard times”, concludes Wylie, “can actually mean
an opportunity to invest, as long as you choose carefully.
And when big institutions aren’t investing, that could be a
signal that now is absolutely the right time [for the venture
capitalist] to do so.”
Photo: Better Place
“
”
Never
invest
in a business
which
requires
government
support
ICT companies are, as Forum for the Future calls it,
“gatecrashing the energy sector” (see p36).
Coelho, too, is an enthusiast. Like Mahon, he’s
looking at everything from LEDs to control systems, and
even improved ways of ‘harvesting daylight’ via advanced
versions of sun pipes and similar technologies. “The key
is to provide just the right amount of light precisely where
and when required.”
All of this activity isn’t just the product of a free
market red (or green) in tooth and claw, of course.
Governments trying to spend their way out of recession
have played their part too, dangling carrots as part
of the various ‘green deal’ stimulus packages. As
analysts Gigaom Pro put it: “Perhaps more than any
other industry, cleantech has the American Recovery
and Reinvestment Act to thank [for coming through the
recession relatively unscathed].” In Britain, Alice Chapple
sees huge potential in the planned Green Investment
Bank. “It’s not yet clear just how it will be deployed to
support venture capital”, she says, but if the Government
gets it right, it could “be a massive opportunity for the
public sector to catalyse greater investment … by sharing
some of the risk.”
Not all policy initiatives necessarily deliver, of
course. But as Jim Woods of Malthus Capital points out:
“We’re getting to the point now where [there’s been a lot
of experimentation in different countries], so we know
which sort of policies work, and which don’t. We know
for example that Renewables Obligation Certificates don’t
work, but FiTs do.”
Rob Wylie sounds a cautionary note. “Never
invest in a business which requires government support”
to survive, he warns. “You love it when it’s there, but
you’re left high and dry if it suddenly disappears – and
politicians do change their minds!” Maurice Gunderson,
Senior Partner at CMEA Capital, draws a fine distinction
between businesses “that are propped up by
[government funding] … and those that are incubated
by it”. If the funding ends, the former will fold, the
latter survive.
There’s one striking difference between pre- and
post-crunch ventures. Today, a much greater share of
overall VC funds is going to companies which are already
established, such as major solar or electronics firms,
and in need of fresh funds to expand. It’s come at the
expense of ‘early stage’ investment in start-ups, which
is lagging well behind pre-crunch levels. This is partly a
sign of a maturing market, but also a sign of the times.
“It’s been the worst fundraising environment for VCs for
ten years”, says Rob Wylie, “so investors [are tending] to
conserve the cash they’ve got, to support their existing
portfolio… [Our] natural investors are institutions like
pension funds and so forth, and they’ve become very risk
averse.” Hence the preference for what are seen as safer,
Landscape artist
Imagine painting a mountain white, to reflect the sun’s
rays, and so slow global warming. Sounds absurd? Not
for Eduardo Gold – or the World Bank. One of 26 winners
of the Bank’s “100 Ideas to Save the Planet” competition,
Gold and four assistants have set out to whitewash three
Peruvian peaks with a mix of lime, industrial egg white and
water. It won’t quite look as grand as this natural version,
but perhaps it’s a start. Albeit a very strange one.
Photo: John Berry/photolibrary
Fire brands
Can labels spark a shift to sustainable behaviour? Anna Simpson reports on a new
spirit of brand activism that’s reigniting the debate around green consumption.
Take Ariel’s ‘Turn to 30’ campaign. By telling
people about one tiny change to their weekly washing
routine, Ariel helped its customers save money, feel
informed, and gave them the warm glow of getting
something right. Of course they went back for more.
Saving 60,000 tonnes of carbon over five years was
almost beside the point.
Another example was Sainsbury’s waste-cutting
initiative, ‘Love your leftovers’. Shoppers were handed
a Tupperware box and recipe card to give them ideas
on how to serve up food that they might otherwise have
thrown away.
It all makes for a stronger relationship between
consumer and brand. The brand is no longer just
a name: it’s a mentor, a helping hand, someone
with your wellbeing in mind. It’s a key reason – says
Andrew Jenkins, Sustainable Development Manager
at Boots – that his company survives in the face of
tough competition on both range and price from
supermarkets. Customers already go to Boots for
healthcare and beauty advice,
so the brand’s
better placed
than most
“
”
“
”
You don’t wake
up one morning
and say, ‘Life
would be better
with an aloe
vera loo roll’
Everyone
knows a
brand is out
to make money.
That clarity
of intent
wins trust
Photo: Berekin / istock
Brands create desire. That’s how they work.
Not just the desire to have and to hold that soft leather
handbag or slick shiny laptop – but to be the swish lady
or creative type in the ad. But can they make us desire
a more sustainable world? Can they make us want to
be the person in that picture?
For Sally Uren, Deputy Director at Forum for
the Future, we absolutely need them to do just that.
“It’s naïve to believe that mainstream consumers will
suddenly start demanding sustainable products” off
their own bat, she says. “They don’t wake up one
morning and decide that they need to integrate their
camera with their phone, or that life will be better
with aloe vera loo roll.” If anyone can make using less
energy, or even buying less stuff, appealing to the
mainstream (and not just the bean-munching, hempclad few), it’s brands. But why would they want to?
Because it’s a great excuse to engage with
consumers, says Uren. When brands talk about
sustainability, they don’t just talk about their own future.
They talk about the consumer’s future: what they do
when they leave the store, how they take care of the
things they buy, how they take care of themselves.
Effectively, it’s a chance to go home with them...
26
to offer information about sustainability. “But it’s not
something we can shout about,” says Jenkins: “They
expect us to be doing it already. People aren’t interested
in corporate messages,” he explains. “They want advice
on what they can do themselves.”
More brands are taking up this mentoring role.
Dorothy MacKenzie of Dragon Rouge cites the US cereal
company, Nature’s Path. It offers The Ultimate Eat Well
Do Good Resource Library – with links to books, films,
consumer guides, information on how to grow your
own, and the contact details of various organic farms
and certification schemes. It’s far more effective than
assurances about the quality and sources of its grains –
and it makes the consumer feel part of a wider movement
towards the same goal.
According to Annie Longsworth, Managing Director
at the global PR company Cohn & Wolfe, consumers
are more willing to trust brands than government.
“Republicans and Democrats meet at the checkout,” she
argues. And it’s not just in the US. “Consumers tend not
to trust what government is saying,” says Jenkins: “They
think it has another agenda.” And the same goes for
non-profits. “People resist moralising statements”, says
MacKenzie. “But everyone knows a brand is out to make
money – and that clarity of intent wins trust.”
But what makes brands really effective vehicles
for change, she adds, is their “power to normalise”
new trends and ways of doing things. Consumers are
suspicious of change. Take tablet computers. However
easy they are to use, it’s hard to imagine that anyone
other than Apple could have got away with being the first
to drop the keyboard. Without the backing of a trusted
brand, your average shopper wouldn’t take the risk. But
within the safe space of their reputation and established
aesthetics, novelty is more palatable.
Of course, the most direct way for a brand to
create change is to build it into their products, without
asking the consumer to do anything at all. So, instead of
prompting people to adjust the dials in their fridge, sell
them a more efficient model. Rather than explain how
this particular TV will save so much money over so many
months, take the other sets off the shelf.
That’s just what eight major UK retailers did.
With the support of the Energy Saving Trust and the
Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, they
ditched the least efficient TVs (see GF77, p13). More
brands are editing the choice available to us. Think of
B&Q’s decision to end their entire line of patio heaters
(see GF76, p36). But, Uren insists, the language around
such ‘choice-editing’ has to change. “Retailers go
into a cold sweat if you talk about offering less choice!
That’s not the point,” she says. “It’s about promoting the
sustainable option.”
The question begs: what can a brand do when
the really sustainable option is a shift away from sales
altogether? “If we take a serious look at sustainable
consumption,” says MacKenzie, “we have to look at
radical innovation, including the fundamental shift from
products to services.”
For brands, leasing a product or offering a service
makes the consumer much more likely to come back for
more. It’s a major new business trend, and one that could
send profit margins through the roof. Imagine. Instead
of spending time, money and sweat on making more
stuff, offer consumers the same product again and again.
Service-based brands are cropping up in every sector,
from media (LOVEFiLM, iTunes) to transport (Streetcar).
Start-ups like WhipCar are even encouraging consumers
to put their own vehicle up for rental. It’s a significant shift,
and one that threatens to outmanoeuvre brands that cling
to more traditional models.
“I’m still waiting for a major brand to have a serious
conversation – with its consumers – about limits to
consumption,” says Uren. “There’s no point holding back
on this. Timidity never built trust.”
Anna Simpson is Deputy Editor, Green Futures.
Smart consumption
Forum for the Future is working with leading
businesses, including as M&S, Unilever, Sainsbury’s
and PepsiCo, to promote a future where:
•
•
•
•
Sustainable products and services are mainstream, not niche.
People want to buy these products, as they are both affordable and desirable.
The retail sector contributes positively to wellbeing.
New business models deliver both commercial success and wider sustainability.
27
Slow money smart money?
“
”
Money zips
around the
globe so
quickly it
hardly
touches
the ground
28
Imagine your investment portfolio, a decade
or two from now. A solid tracker fund, perhaps; a
sober pension plan, no doubt. But you might also have
substantial shares in a nearby restaurant, along with the
farms which supply it; a bondholding in a neighbourhood
solar plant; and a clutch of other investments in a wide
range of local enterprises. Each of them run by people
you know, or who come strongly recommended by a
network of friends, colleagues and experts steeped in
the area. Each contributing to a thriving, resilient local
economy – helping create a sustainable future from the
ground up.
Such is the vision painted by a loose alliance
of enthusiasts gathering under the banner of ‘Slow
Money’. The name is a deliberate echo of the Slow
Food movement, and shares the conviction that real
value lies in the local and the long term, rather than the
global and ephemeral.
Sounds a little naïve? Then consider the alternative.
Money now zips around the globe so quickly it hardly
touches the ground: more than 95% of currency shuttles
from screen to screen in short-term speculation and
never sees the inside of a pocket. “Today’s transactions
are complex, opaque and anonymous, based on
short-term outcomes”, says Slow Money enthusiast
Don Shaffer, CEO of San Francisco-based RSF Social
Finance. “Better [for them to be] direct, transparent and
based on long-term [personal] relationships.”
If Slow Money has a founding father, it’s Woody
Tasch, former Chairman of Investors’ Circle, a network
of ‘angels’ backing social enterprises, from farms to IT
companies, across the US. Tasch’s book, Inquiries into
the Nature of Slow Money: Investing as if Food, Farms,
and Fertility Mattered, serves as a kind of manifesto for
the movement. It’s at once a critique of how capital flows
over the world, and an incubator for strategies to drive
funds to sustainable, socially responsible businesses.
It’s spawned an organisation – the Slow Money
Alliance – whose initial goal is to have one million people
invest 1% of their assets in local food systems within ten
years. That may sound a modest sum in individual terms,
says the Alliance’s first Executive Director, Ari Derfel, but
“cumulatively, we’re talking billions”. The money would be
used to fund community-based food entrepreneurs – the
farmers, butchers, and bakers striving to bring healthy
goods to the community, but who can’t offer the quick,
high returns that appeal to conventional investors.
A realistic return for investment in such enterprises
may be somewhere between 1-5% per annum, says
Derfel. A paltry sum in a Wall Street context, but those
affiliated with Slow Money emphasise the words realistic
and sustainable. The era of soaring stock indices with
high returns year after year is over, says Tasch. “Yet our
belief system hasn’t caught up. The investor part of
ourselves is still waiting for those days to come back.”
Many are not willing to wait. “Last year [the Slow
Money Principles] had 400 signatories”, says Tasch.
“Now 11,000 have signed. We’ve had a steady stream
of people sending $1,000 over the internet for the
start-up NGO, 50 to 60 within the last six months.” It’s
still early days, but regional initiatives have sprung up in
cities throughout the US, including New York, Vermont,
Santa Fe, Seattle and Madison. Slow Money Texas,
with five chapters throughout the state, has started a
‘greenhouse’ programme to provide mentoring from
lawyers, accountants and other professionals to help
Photo: Zsolt Biczo / Shutterstock
As crowdsourcing comes to the financial world,
Judith Schwartz reports on a trend that could
transform the way we invest for the future.
prepare entrepreneurs to present to investors. The Slow
Money Project in Pittsboro, North Carolina, has raised
nearly $30,000 from local people to offer low-interest
loans to two small food businesses.
And it’s not just happening in the States. Slow
Money initiatives are emerging right across Europe,
too. In the UK, Exeter Local Food Ltd is well on the
way to raising £135,000 from around 200 people to
set up a ‘Real Food’ store, bakery and café in the city,
sourcing produce from local farms. It’s one of several
such schemes emerging from the Transition Towns
movement, a grassroots campaign aimed at helping
local economies prepare for a low-carbon, post-oil
future (see GF70, p26).
Just how Slow Money investments will work in
practice is a much debated area. Ari Derfel says that
“we are exploring the myriad forms money can take:
guarantees, co-investment, loans, ownership, and so
on”, working with the likes of Calvert, Mission Markets
and Portfolio 21, as well as RSF. He conjures up a vision
in which Slow Money groups will identify parts of their
local food economy which need fixing, and convene
entrepreneurs and potential investors with a view to
arranging partnerships in everything from farms and
delivery networks to retail outlets and restaurants. The
Slow Money Alliance could weigh in as a co-investor
or loan guarantor, he adds, to give other investors the
confidence to chip in without feeling they’re taking
an undue risk. It is already developing wholly new
investment products, including “Slow Munis” [sic],
which will function like municipal bonds, but specifically
support the local agricultural infrastructure. Other ideas
bubbling around include mutual fund-style equities,
fund-to-fund lending and even local stock exchanges.
The rise of Slow Money comes against a
backdrop of growing interest in ethical investments in
general – and it’s not just driven by philanthropy, either.
“There’s a sense that the era of being able to trust the
[large financial] institutions is over,” says Alice Chapple,
Forum for the Future’s Director of Sustainable Financial
Markets. For most people, she says, the reaction stops
at “‘Oh my gosh, what am I going to do?’, as opposed
to actually moving their investments”.
But a growing number are doing just that. James
Niven, Programme Director of the Global Alliance for
Banking on Values (GABV), which groups 11 of the
world’s leading ethical banks (see GF77, p39), reports
“a marked increase in the take-up of sustainable
savings and investments”, among its members, “from
Europe to South Asia … large numbers of individuals
have moved away from the high street names in search
of an approach to using their money that’s transparent,
straightforward and whose benefits for people and the
environment they can see and understand easily”.
That’s not quite the same as investing in a
business directly, on the Slow Food model. But there
are signs of a convergence underway. Triodos Bank,
one of the GABV members, has launched a ‘Know
Where Your Money Goes’ tool that allows customers to
track how and where their investments are allocated.
And in an echo of Woody Tasch’s rhetoric, Triodos’s Will
Ferguson writes: “Fast money, like fast food, is full of
empty calories. It takes little time or thought to opt for
the highest interest rate, but in the long term it could
harm both you and the planet, leaving an unpleasant
taste in your mouth.”
“
”
It’s
funding
farmers,
butchers,
bakers…
29
“Make it easy…
make it desirable”
The Green Futures Interview: Terry Leahy, CEO of Tesco, talks to Martin Wright.
Fighting talk – but even with the recent wobble
in big banks’ confidence, isn’t there a danger this
will stay trapped in a niche inhabited by all the usual
well-meaning suspects? Ari Derfel is defiant. This isn’t
“liberal, leftist, head-in-the-clouds” stuff, he says. “This
movement is beyond political ideology: it’s attracted
an incredibly diverse following ... far beyond the usual
grouping of people.” It’s deeply practical, he insists.
“Too many of us have worked for too many years in
these fields to waste our time with unrealistic dreams. It
truly is not a question of ‘if’ this will happen. It is simply
a matter of ‘how’ and ‘when’. We have the experience
to figure out these solutions and we will only take yes for
an answer!”
Judith Schwartz writes about economics and the
environment for a variety of publications, including Time
and Christian Science Monitor.
Mention Tesco to your average
environmentalist, and then watch them blow
a fuse. In the last few years alone, it’s been accused
of everything from destroying local shops and stifling
diversity to trashing the climate. It even has its very own
anti-fan club – Tescopoly – to rail against its power and
influence. For some critics, it epitomises everything that’s
wrong with corporate power in Britain today.
So here I am in the lair of the Prince of Darkness.
Though to be honest, sat in a seventies office block in a
nondescript business park in the quiet London suburb of
Cheshunt, it doesn’t exactly feel like Global Megalopolis
plc. Some corporate HQs these days – all primary
colours and chill-out corners – look like a cross between
a daycare nursery and a yoga retreat. Tesco’s looks like
an office.
Additional material by Martin Wright.
Think local, act global
Hugh Knowles tracks a new trend in crowdsource finance
30
they had received $200,000. That seems an awful
lot of money to give to four unknown programmers
without much of a guarantee that they will deliver, and
it is unlikely they would have raised that money from
traditional sources. Yet thanks to crowdsourcing, they
were able to raise 10 times their initial target. Over
6,000 people worldwide invested an average of $33
each. While not exactly negligible, this is the sort of
sum which many of us would be willing to risk to back
a venture we’re keen to see succeed. If it works, we’ll
be delighted to have been a part of making it happen.
That can be enough motivation in itself, even without
the prospect of a financial return. If it fails, well, we
haven’t exactly bet the farm…
What is fascinating about these examples is
that they require a high level of trust, but that this
trust is distributed throughout all the donors. So,
as a donor, I had to trust that at least some other
members of the community would know enough
about programming to detect a scam – and would be
quick to publicise it. This would severely damage the
reputation of the founders – making it much less likely
that they’d try to pull a fast one! So crowdsourcing
not only makes it possible to accumulate a significant
investment from large numbers of small donors, but
also offers those donors a degree of security which
simply wouldn’t have been available before the net.
Hugh Knowles is Principal Sustainability Advisor at
Forum for the Future.
Photos: BanksPhotos / istock
In the last six months I have backed a rooftop
farm in Brooklyn (brooklyngrangefarm.com), an
open source alternative to Facebook (joindiaspora.
com) and a renewable energy pilot in Malawi
(unreasonableinstitute.org/ventures). I have joined
thousands of people giving money to projects that do
not have charitable status and, unlike peer-to-peer
microfinance initiatives such as Kiva.org, don’t offer
a guaranteed return. I also have no certainty that my
money will be well spent either. What is happening?
The idea that people will use the internet to
develop new methods of collaboration is not new.
But we now have the functionality to make it happen
swiftly and seamlessly, with secure payment systems,
like PayPal, and geolocative technology which
enablines you to ‘see’ where your money goes. The
key elements in all this, of course, are trust and risk.
And this is where crowdsourcing seems to come into
its own. Take the Diaspora example.
In April this year, four young programmers from
New York University’s Courant Institute announced
that they wanted to build an alternative to Facebook.
Concerned by privacy standards and ownership
of personal data, they suggested building an open
source version with encrypted data and a distributed
hosting model. They put the project up on
Kickstarter.com, a website that helps people
crowdsource money for interesting ideas, and asked
for $20,000 to cover their time and expenses as they
programmed over the summer. Barely a fortnight later,
It fits well with Sir (not that he calls himself that) Terry.
A down-to-earth Scouser – Liverpool born and bred,
with accent intact – he’s hardly your typical celeb CEO,
partying on down with the catwalk models. He’s on the
board of his beloved Everton FC, but prefers to sit with
the fans rather than in the directors’ box. One day each
week, he turns up unannounced for a low-key visit to a
Tesco store (less than 600 of them when he took over,
nearly 2,500 now). It’s fair to say that for much of his
career he enjoyed a reputation for self-effacement.
Until, that is, he stuck his head way above the
parapet at a Forum for the Future event in 2007, when
he announced that Tesco would become a zero-carbon
company by 2050, with a series of stretch targets en
route, starting immediately [see box]. And all without a
single tonne of carbon offset.
Ambitious stuff. So what brought this on? “We’d
been doing our bit on environmental issues for a while,
enough for some, not enough for others. But climate
change felt very different. When science showed
incontrovertibly that the world was warming up, that it
was due to man’s activities, and that if it carried on it
would have disastrous consequences – well, that was
pretty terrifying.”
In effect, Leahy says, it put a great big question
mark over everything Tesco was about. “Mass
consumption, of which I am very proud – because it has
made life for ordinary families in the West immeasurably
better – is built on fossil fuels… And we used them.
Which is fine, until you find out that they have this huge
externality which is potentially catastrophic.”
For many staff, he goes on, this produced an
awkward dissonance. “People come here and work
incredibly hard every day, whether it is to fill up the
shelves or drive the lorries or serve on the checkouts.
And when they help people it puts a smile on their face...
But how could you do all that”, he continues, putting
himself in their shoes, “and then have hanging over you
the prospect that your work is actually doing far more
harm to those people, or to their children, than all the
good that you had ever done? How could you do it? You
just can’t walk away from that.”
“After I made that speech, a lot of people [within
Tesco] came up and said, ‘My god, you are actually
doing something about it!’ They were delighted, because
[privately] they knew something had to be done… but
were waiting for someone to take the lead.”
Unsurprisingly, there were some sceptical voices.
After all, Tesco wouldn’t exactly be the first company
31
“
”
Climate
change is
terrifying...
You just
can’t walk
away from
that
32
to succeed at market domination only to take an
embarrassing tumble over some high-profile green
ambitions. Leahy acknowledges that achieving total
carbon neutrality will need innovation on a massive
scale. “Obviously you ask yourself, is this going to
distract you completely from the main purpose of the
business? Will it just become an unaffordable cost?...
But I am a big believer in the audacious goal. It gets the
best out of individuals and organisations. As a piece of
management, it works.”
In an effort to convince any doubters, he brought
in Nicholas Stern to talk to senior colleagues. But one
of his greatest allies in winning the argument internally
was the price of oil. “Most of our [business] model has
been built on $20 per barrel”, he says. “$20 that was
headed for $12.” Conveniently enough, the price was
rising sharply to around $70 at the time Leahy made
his climatic cri de coeur. “This made it much easier”, he
acknowledges, citing the new zero-carbon store which
opened in Cambridgeshire earlier this year. “It cost 30%
more to build, but it uses 50% less energy. With oil at
$70 a barrel, that’s a business case in itself.” It’s one
which will see Tesco become “a big user, buyer and
generator” of renewable energy in coming years – and,
via its £100 million green fund, an investor in it, too.
Only the most implacable of Tesco’s enemies
would dismiss its environmental goals out of hand. But
anyone hoping that Leahy’s Damascene conversion on
climate would extend to questioning the environmental
impact of consumption itself will be disappointed. “The
one thing I have come to understand is that people
have this universal desire for a better life, and you are
not going to stop that. The only chance we have got is
to let people fulfil that desire, but in a sustainable way...
You have got to work with the grain of human nature.”
And that, he says, means using carrots, not sticks. “We
must make green easy, fashionable, affordable and
desirable.”
It’s Leahy’s running theme. Trust the consumer,
educate and incentivise them, take them along with
you. In some respects, it makes Leahy himself sound
rather unfashionable. Take carbon labelling. Many
question whether the average shopper actually bothers
to read product labels about anything, let alone carbon.
Leahy is adamant that it’s the way forward, anticipating
the day when every product in the store is labelled, and
people automatically consider the carbon footprint of
everything they buy, or do. He believes carbon should
be seen and eventually used as a currency,
and suggests customers could trade in it via their
Tesco Clubcards.
Nothing epitomises his views better, perhaps,
than the war on the humble plastic carrier bag. Some
retailers discourage use by charging for them; Tesco,
by contrast, offers bonus Clubcard points for shoppers
who do without. “It’s far better to incentivise people”,
argues Leahy, “because then you’ve got them actively
engaged; it is a decision they have made. Whereas if
you tax them they are passive, they have not changed
anything out of their own choice, and they’re potentially
resentful.” It seems to be working: carrier bag use has
dropped by 50%.
Leahy’s also deeply sceptical about choice editing,
where retailers act to remove unsustainable options from
the shelves. “It’s a rather loaded phrase, which at the
extreme end means, ‘People have got to learn to deal
with less’. I fundamentally don’t believe that.” Take light
bulbs. It’s fine for Government to set a date for phasing
out inefficient varieties, says Leahy: that’s its job. But
business should work on solutions. “When you look at
why people weren’t buying low-energy bulbs, you find
that it’s because they were too expensive, and they
didn’t actually fit the lights people had in their homes.
[For example], every home in Britain had gone through a
love affair with spot lamps, but there were no low-energy
versions… [So] we worked with suppliers [to develop
one], we set a price to make it affordable, provided
information to customers. And in that way we made
dramatic progress.”
Helping consumers be sustainable by choice,
rather than imposing it on them, actually does
politicians a favour, Leahy argues, because “it mandates
Government to take difficult decisions… Politicians are
surprisingly tentative at doing so, because they’re always
worried about the next election.” Tesco doesn’t have to
be elected – and that, says Leahy, has allowed it to be
“far more bold than most politicians.” The single most
thing helpful Government can do, he says, is create
certainty by saying: ‘This is what we have to do as a
society, and we are not going to divert from that’. The
more Government can create frameworks to encourage
that, such as carbon pricing and [green fiscal reform],
the better. Because then everyone can invest against
that certainty.”
Meanwhile, Leahy’s initiatives are starting to pay
dividends in terms of reputation. A recent Brand Green
poll listed Tesco alongside Marks and Spencer, the Co-operative and
British Gas as the leading UK brands in tackling climate change. He
insists that there’s no question that successor Philip Clarke will take his
foot off the green pedal – the business logic is overwhelming.
For some, though, Tesco will always be seen as environmental
enemy number one. So how does it feel to be head of an organisation
which draws such flak? “Well, it is inevitable that some people won’t like
what you do… Even if we keep 95% of people in Britain happy – which is
more than any political party achieves – that’s still three million who don’t
like us… But remember, our customers are citizens too, they’re members
of communities. They want us to do the right thing.” Leahy talks of work
with councils to introduce stores into ‘food deserts’ (deprived areas
where no one’s willing to open a shop) and of other ‘good neighbour’
initiatives. But he’s impatient with the argument that Tesco’s relentless
expansion epitomises the worst aspects of globalisation.
“We sometimes gets caught up in that, as other successful
companies do”, he said in an earlier interview. “But you can’t get your
iPod made in the local village; Toyota don’t manufacture their hybrid just
down the street. And I’m afraid the IT system wasn’t bashed up in the
local car mechanic’s yard ... You can’t have it both ways. You can’t have
safe little village England where nothing has changed for 50 years, but
also expect to be a society that leads the world in science and medicine
and everything else.”
Leahy steps down in March 2011, after which… well, he’s been
touted as everything from Chairman of the Football Association to an
enterprise ‘Tsar’. It’s one subject on which he won’t be drawn. As far
as environmental issues are concerned, Tesco has put £25 million into
a new Sustainable Consumption Institute at Manchester University –
Leahy’s alma mater – and he says he hopes to “make a contribution” to
the debate through that.
But couldn’t he wield more clout on behalf of sustainability in a
higher-profile role? He hesitates, then says: “I don’t think I will have a
high-profile role in anything, to be honest. I have had a very good career
here, and that’s high profile enough for me.”
Martin Wright is Editor in Chief of Green Futures.
Big, hairy,
audacious...
Tesco’s green goals include:
•
•
•
•
•
Zero-carbon business by 2050
Reducing emissions of products sold by 30% by 2020
Helping customers reduce their carbon footprint by
50% by 2020
Stores built between 2007 and 2020 to have half the average carbon footprint of one built in 2006
Reducing use of plastic carrier bags by 70% between 2006 and end-2010
Meanwhile, it’s:
•
•
•
Investing £100 million in green businesses
Launching domestic solar water heating and
electricity offers
Replaced ‘Buy One Get One Free’ deals with
‘Buy One Get One Later’
Zero carbon superstore
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Opened in February 2010 in Ramsey, Cambridgeshire
Intended as a model for future stores
Powered by CHP plant burning renewable biofuels such as vegetable oil, exporting surplus to the grid
Timber framed
Sun pipes and roof lights for natural lighting
Rainwater harvesting for toilets and car wash
Hydrocarbon refrigerants for chill cabinets and air con
Solar-powered LED lighting for car park
Cost 30% more than standard store to build
Consumes 50% less energy
Tesco under Leahy
Stores
Pre-tax profits
Market share (groceries)
1997
568
£750m
20% 2010
2,482
£3,176m
30%
Curriculum Vitae
•
•
•
•
•
Born: Feb 28, 1956
Educated: St Edward’s College, Liverpool, and UMIST –
the first member of his family to stay at school after 16
Stacked shelves at Tesco in his summer holidays, and applied to the company after university, only to be rejected and work for the Co-op instead
Finally joined as marketing executive 1979; appointed to the Board 1992; CEO 1997
Will hand reins over to Philip Clarke in March 2011
33
Intheknow
Forumupdate
City scape
Anne MacCraig, CEO Café Direct
Newcastle scoops top slot in latest Sustainable Cities Index
“
”
I can
just pick
up the phone
to Kenya and
ask, ‘What’s
happening at
your end?’
34
It all started with the world coffee crisis.
There had been a global agreement which provided a
sustainable level of income for coffee growers, and in
1991 it collapsed. Suddenly, small-scale growers were
in deep trouble, experiencing extreme volatility and low
prices. So a group of organisations, including Oxfam,
got together and started to sell coffee in church halls
and markets. That was before anyone had heard of fair
trade, but it was out of this that the movement grew,
three or four years down the line.
Rather than being a niche, ‘open-toed sandal’
kind of business, we expanded. When we
became sizeable, a number of larger businesses
started to notice us – even the likes of Starbucks. They
saw that we had something which they didn’t, and
that was a real understanding of natural resources,
combined with direct access to people up the supply
chain. For instance, I can just pick up the phone
to somebody in Kenya or Peru and ask, “What’s
happening at your end? Why is the price of coffee
going up or down?”
I went to one village in Kenya, and the women
tied me up in rope. They wanted to show me how
much wood they used to carry every day to meet basic
needs. I’m talking about a community that’s right on
the frontline when it comes to climate change: their tea
productivity has declined by 30-40%. But there’s also
some great innovation going on. These women had
been involved in building and selling over 2,000
energy-saving stoves, and have a new income stream
as a result.
“
”
So what’s
Toon Town
got right?
For a start,
it’s got
ambition
Back in the UK, the big trend is ‘grow your
own’. The demand for allotments has shot up:
everything from gastropubs to celebrity chefs has
created an interest around it. Even Tesco has started
providing allotment-type services. I’m all for it, because
people who know that home-grown vegetables taste
great are probably going to be more interested in the
kind of brand Café Direct is, and choose it above
producers that don’t know who their growers are. And
the reality is that you’re going to find it pretty difficult to
grow tea and coffee in the UK, so there’s no threat!
At the end of the day, ethical consumption can
only drive so much. Businesses are good at picking
the low-hanging fruit, like energy efficiency: anything
that cuts costs. But the Government has to put the
resources and infrastructure in place to make it easy
for people to do the right thing – setting carbon prices,
for example.
Anne MacCraig was in conversation with Anna Simpson.
Photo: Sirimo / istock
When I was growing up, I had this weekend
job in a shop in Bristol. What fascinated me was
the way all the different chocolate brands would fight
for space on the shelf. I started to learn about brands
and people: how consumers work, what they choose.
People are becoming more and more aware of their
impact on the world around them, and looking to make
small changes through what they buy.
In the UK, around nine in ten people live
in towns and cities, drawn to their vibrant
lifestyles and dynamic economies.
But cities face growing challenges, too: ageing
housing stock, clogged-up transport systems, not to
mention the need to ‘future proof’ themselves against a
changing climate. And all this at a time of a prolonged
spending squeeze…
So how are they measuring up? Forum for
the Future’s fourth annual Sustainable Cities Index,
sponsored by GE, takes the pulse of Britain’s 20 largest
urban centres, charting their performance against key
social, economic and environmental indicators. And for
the second year running, Newcastle has taken the top
slot, ahead of rivals Leicester, Brighton, Bristol
and London.
So what’s Toon Town getting right? For a start,
it’s got ambition. It has placed itself at the centre of a
growing cleantech industry, aiming to become a world
class hub of science and innovation. With 580 electric
vehicle charging points in the pipeline, it’s on the way
to becoming the UK’s EV capital. And it’s backed the
local economy right through the recession, supporting
start-ups and investing in infrastructure.
Peter Madden, the Forum’s Chief Executive,
wants to see others follow its lead. “Cities are having
to count every penny, so it’s essential that they invest
wisely for long-term success.”
London is top of the table when it comes to
future-proofing, with strong plans to reduce emissions
and adapt to climate change. It also boasts the highest
level of business start-ups. But it falls down on air
quality and has one of the fattest ecological footprints.
So, given the variety of ingredients that go into
healthy lifestyles and happy communities, what’s the
best strategy for our urban leaders? The key, says Tony
Gale, General Manager GE City Infrastructure, is to
de-couple quality of life from high levels of consumption
and waste, and that – he concludes – should be “a
fantastic opportunity”. – Anna Simpson
Top cities
The British cities best dressed for the future:
Newcastle
Leicester
Brighton
Bristol
London
2010
1
2
3
4
5
2009
1
4
3
2
5
2008
4
8
2
1
9
2007
8
14
1
3
10
New partners
Since the last issue of Green Futures, eBay,
Hannaford and Rexam PLC have joined Forum for the
Future as partners.
www.forumforthefuture.org
35
Which phone’s greenest?
Tomorrow’s leaders
Since 1996, Forum for the Future’s Masters in Leadership for Sustainable Development
has been training the sustainability leaders of the future. Each issue, we track the career
of a Forum alumnus.
Fiona Parry
Class of: 2003-2004
Currently: Community Development Manager,
Lend Lease Europe
Why I chose the MProf
I graduated in Geography, which qualifies you for everything
and nothing! It wasn’t just the topic [sustainability] that I
found appealing. It was the work-based learning – the
opportunity to sample all these different sectors within the
space of a year. And then there’s the alumni network. It’s
hugely important and valuable.
What I learnt
The first thing I learnt was how connected everything is.
This helped me to realise that I wanted to work in the built
environment. There are challenges in all the sectors, but
for me the obvious starting point is the actual place where
people live and work. Focusing on a geographical location
gives you real scope for holistic thinking. You can bring all the
different parts together.
Career to date
My first job after the course was with the consultancy
Upstream, which was founded by Forum alumni (including
Julie Hirigoyen – see GF77, p36). During my two and a half
years there, it was clear that sustainability was becoming
a big focus at board level – and there were many property
Ilka Weissbrod reports on a new eco rating scheme for mobiles.
Whatever it may be – your calendar, camera,
road map, sports watch, portable stereo or
news portal – it’s unlikely to be just your
phone. As more of us look to our mobiles for information,
entertainment and advice, choosing the right handset
gets trickier. Alongside something stylish, user-friendly
and at the cutting edge of smart technology, we want
something to fit our values and priorities.
Now British buyers can add green credentials
to their handset checklist. Forum for the Future has
partnered with Telefónica O2 UK to develop the country’s
first sustainable rating scheme for mobile phones.
‘Eco rating’ was launched this summer in O2
stores across the UK, and Telefónica is working on plans
for roll out across the group. It scores handsets on a
scale of one to five, according to three criteria:
companies that wanted to know how to report it, measure
it and make a strong case for it. After Upstream I went to
work in Dubai on the sustainability framework for property
company Nakheel – the people behind the Palm Deira and
Palm Jumeirah islands. It was a huge challenge to find ways
to make sustainability count in a context seemingly without
limits. Of course, since the financial crisis this would be very
different and it will be interesting to see how this will influence
future development. I left consultancy in 2007 to work for
leading property developer Lend Lease.
What I plan to do next
At the moment I’m working on community development
for a large residential project in East London. I’m really
enjoying working in the social side of sustainability, and being
based on site means I see the project taking shape every
day. Having worked on this since the planning stages, I’ve
learned that it’s never too early to think about sustainability,
so I hope in the future I will be able to bring this experience to
other regeneration projects.
•
•
•
Advice for future leaders
It’s important to know what it is you want to change. During
the course, we constantly had to take a step back and
reflect on what our goals were. Often, when you do this, you
realise just how far you’ve come.
With over a billion handsets sold worldwide each year,
the phone industry is rife with creative competition. Eco
rating will, its developers hope, drive up standards in
design and manufacture, encouraging the industry to
see itself as a creator of sustainable solutions. It’s a great
example of how a robust measurement approach can
promote the development of more sustainable products
and services.
Fiona Parry was in conversation with Katie Shaw.
Gatecrashing energy
36
Ilka Weissbrod leads Forum for the Future’s engagement
in the Eco rating project.
Positively deviant
Sara Parkin seeks leadership in a perverse world
Sparks fly with smart IT
An overwhelming 96% of UN Global Compact
company chief executives believe sustainability
should be integrated into strategies and
operations, according to the latest survey.
But nearly half of this ostensibly committed group says
the complexity of putting it into practice is the biggest barrier
to actually doing it. More immediate pressures from turbulent
markets make it hard for them to behave, day to day, as if
they were managing their businesses for the long term.
When one senior executive complained after a course
that she “still didn’t know what to do differently on Monday”,
I could only agree with growing criticism of leadership training
in general, and MBAs in particular.
It doesn’t help that there are precious few reinforcing
mechanisms for anyone who does put sustainability first,
with the rules of the game for business, governance and
life in general perversely stacked against sustainability
Photo: Fishwork / istock; lisegagne / istock
Current favourites include a community-based
smart grid (why wait for utilities to roll out smart
meters?), how electric vehicles could be used for
load-balancing and a shared, web-based resource to
help community-owned energy projects, like Tresco and
Ovesco, get off the ground.
The five most promising ideas will be developed by
project teams in the next stage, and then submitted to
an expert judging panel. The winner – to be announced
in January – will be awarded £4,000 to spur its
development. – Ruth Harwood
Photo: Dizzo / istock
As history shows, significant change rarely
comes from those winning out in the current
system. Now, with climate change and security
concerns, we need a radical shift in how we generate,
distribute, store and use energy.
So Forum for the Future has launched a project
to shake it all up from the outside. ‘Gatecrashing the
energy sector’ offers support to fresh thinking that could
set the UK energy system on a more sustainable path.
The project kicked off in September with a call for
people to submit ideas at a series of events and through
an online crowdsourcing platform.
environmental impact throughout the whole life cycle
how the handset can encourage
sustainable behaviour
the ethical performance of the manufacturer.
Sony Ericsson’s Elm tops the rankings, with a score
of 4.3; a further nine handsets score above four. But
none have yet merited a full five points. “It’s an honest
reflection of the fact that there is no truly sustainable
handset on the market,” says James Taplin, Forum for
the Future’s telecommunications expert. “Despite the
technology and know-how we have today, creating the
first sustainable phone remains a challenge. Hopefully,
the prospect of achieving the highest Eco rating will
spur developers to up their game.”
Smart phones are credited with facilitating
sustainable lifestyle choices – encouraging the user to
walk more, for example, with GPS to guard against the
stress of getting lost. But whether such applications can
outweigh the environmental impact of the handset, from
manufacture through consumer use to disposal, is up for
debate. Eco rating is the first industry-wide initiative to
reflect this trade-off.
O2 is already looking ahead to the 2011
assessment process, preparing to convene an advisory
panel. And future rounds of Eco rating are expected
to reach across a wider product range. Research in
Motion (RIM) – the Blackberry manufacturer – didn’t feel
ready to participate in the first launch of Eco rating, but
is fully committed to doing so in the future. O2 is keen
to support RIM to make this happen, an example of
how sustainability schemes like Eco rating can instigate
closer working relationships between industry players.
outcomes. My new book, The Positive Deviant: Sustainability
leadership in a perverse world, addresses these widely
echoed laments. It shows you how to recognise
unsustainable development, and sets you off on a journey to
become the sort of leader who can create the change
we need.
The title reflects the sad fact that, for now, the only
practical strategy is to do the right thing for sustainability
despite the obstacles. This is what positive deviants do.
They work around perverse policies and rules, bringing
others along with them. And they are out there. Forum
scholars have even identified a few at work in their
placement organisations!
Sara Parkin is Founder Director, Forum for the Future.
Order The Positive Deviant at a 20% discount from:
www.forumforthefuture.org/positive-deviant-offer
37
Advantage West Midlands
Tom Anderson, 0121 380 3500
The Co-operative Group
Chris Shearlock, www.co-operative.coop
AkzoNobel
Elizabeth Stokes, 01928 511695
Ecotricity
Matt Thomas, 01453 756111
Alliance Boots
Andrew Jenkins, 0115 968 6766
Ecover
Mick Bremans, +32 3 309 2500
Arup
Chris Trott, 020 7636 1531
EDF Energy
David Ferguson, 07875 119978
Ashden Awards for
Sustainable Energy
Jane Howarth, 020 7410 7023
Energy Saving Trust
020 7227 0398,
www.energysavingtrust.org.uk
Aviva Investors
Steve Waygood, 020 7809 6000
Entec UK Ltd
Francesco Corsi, 0191 272 6128
AXA Insurance
Truska Angel, 07974 833109
The Environment Agency
Brian Francis,
brian.francis@environment-agency.gov.uk
Balfour Beatty
Jonathan Garrett, 020 7216 6837
Bank of America Merrill Lynch
Matt Hale, 020 7996 2054
Benchmark Software
Simon Harvey, 01458 444010
BCME
Ailbhe O’Reilly
ailbheo@onechocolatecomms.co.uk
Eurostar
Louisa Bell, 020 7922 2442
Fife Council
Neil Gateley, 08451 555555
Finlays
Michael Pennant-Jones, 020 7802 3239
Firmenich SA
Neil McFarlane, +41 227802435
Birmingham City Council
Sandy Taylor, 0121 303 1111
FirstGroup
Terri Vogt, 07799 885171
Bottletop
Cameron Saul, cameron@bottletop.org
Julian Hunt, 020 7420 7125
British Council
www.britishcouncil.org
Sandra Latner, 08452 683135
British Waterways
Jim Stirling
jim.stirling@britishwaterways.co.uk
BT
Environment Unit, 0800 731 2403
Friends Provident
GSH Group
Maxwell Segal, 01782 200400
Halcrow Group
Nick Murry, murrynja@halcrow.com
Knowsley Metropolitan
Borough Council
Phil Monaghan, www.knowsley.gov.uk
Kraft Foods
Jonathan Horrell, 01242 236101
Leeds City Council
Tom Knowland, 0113 395 0643
London Borough of Croydon
Peter McDonald, 020 8760 5791
Marine Stewardship Council (MSC)
James Simpson, 020 7811 3315
www.msc.org
Marks & Spencer
Rowland Hill, 020 8718 6885
Morrison Construction
Guy Wilson, guy.wilson@
morrisonconstruction.co.uk
Natural England
Julian Lloyd, 0300 060 0243
www.naturalengland.org.uk
NHS Bristol
Angela Raffle
angela.raffle@bristolpct.nhs.uk
Pureprint Group
Richard Owers, 01825 768811
EW
N
TUI Travel
Jane Ashton, 01293 645911
Unilever UK
Helen Fenwick, 01372 945000
Vodafone Group
InterfaceFLOR
Ramon Arratia, 020 7490 3960
Royal Dutch Shell
Elfrida Hughes, +31610974798
Cargill Europe
Fiona Cubitt, 01932 861916
Interserve
www.interserveplc.co.uk
Carillion
Louise Perry, 01902 316258
Jaguar Land Rover
Fran Leedham,
fleedham@jaguarlandrover.com
Time Warner
www.timewarner.com/corp
VisitEngland
Jason Freezer, 020 8563 3180
Capgemini
James Robey, 0870 904 5761
38
Thomson Reuters
Julia Fuller
julia.fuller@thomsonreuters.com
Prudential
Fay Hogg, 020 7548 3581
Rexam
Claire Jenkins, 020 7227 4100
Kingfisher
Jamie Lawrence
Jamie.Lawrence@kingfisher.com
Thames Water Utilities
Helen Newman, 0118 373 8343
United Nations Environment
Programme
Niclas Svenningsen, +33 144 37 14 33
IGD
Dr James Northen, 01923 851919
Colors Fruit
Julian Fisher, julian@colorsfruit.co.uk
Tetra Pak
Rupert Maitland-Titterton,
0870 442 6000
Pret A Manger
Nicki Fisher, 020 7827 8888
Cafédirect
Whitney Kakos, 020 7490 9540
JT Group
John Pontin, 01275 373393
Tesco
Ruth Girardet, 01992 644053
Triodos Bank
William Ferguson, 0117 9809770
Powys County Council
Heather Delonnette, 01597 827481
Royal Mail Group
Martin Blake, 01252 528681
RSA
Paul Pritchard, 020 7337 5712
RWE npower
Anita Longley, 01793 892716
Sainsbury’s Supermarkets
Jack Cunningham
jack.cunningham@sainsburys.co.uk
SC Johnson
Chris Lambert, 01784 484100
Severn Trent
Will Anyan
William.Anyan@severntrent.co.uk
F O R B R E AT H TA K I N G C O L O U R S
Tata Global Beverages
Sara Howe, 020 8338 4590
PepsiCo UK & Ireland
Andrew Slight,
Andrew.Slight@pepsico.com
Rail Safety and Standards Board
Joanna Gilligan, 020 7904 7655
City of London
Simon Mills, 020 7332 1431
Sustainability West Midlands
Simon Slater
sustainabilitywestmidlands.org.uk
Transport for London
Jeanette Baartman, 020 7126 3432
Heineken UK
Richard Heathcote, 01432 345277
Johnson Matthey
Sean Axon, 020 7269 8400
South West Tourism
Neil Warren, 01392 353234
Panasonic
Simon Eves, 01344 853325
Cadbury
Alison Ward, 01895 615568
Chi Group
www.chilondon.com
Sony Ericsson
Fortuné Alexander, 020 8762 5857
TJX Europe
Jo Murphy, 01923 473089
Hannaford
Megan Hellstedt, +1 207-885-2148
mhellstedt@hannaford.com
John Lewis Partnership
Gemma Lacey, 020 7592 4412
Skanska
Jennifer Clark, 01923 776666
O2
Simon Davis, simon.davis@O2.com
Bupa
Andrew Smith, 020 7656 2343
Carmarthenshire County Council
www.carmarthenshire.gov.uk
PE IMP
RF R
OR OV
MA ED
NC
E
Forum for the Future works in partnership with over 100 leading organisations,
mainly from the public and private sectors, to find practical ways to deliver a
sustainable future. For more information, visit www.forumforthefuture.org
Chris Burgess, 01635 677932
Volac
Andy Richardson, 01223 208021
Warburtons
Sarah Miskell, 01204 556600
Welsh Assembly Government
Victoria Thomas, 029 2082 1667
Wessex Water
Dan Green, 01225 526000
Willmott Dixon
George Martin, 01932 584700
Wm Morrison Supermarkets
Gillian Hall
gillian.hall@morrisonsplc.co.uk
WWF-UK
Dax Lovegrove, 01483 412395
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NATURE
Digital print brings new meaning to targeted communications.
Limited edition
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iption
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when you swit
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to Ecotricity
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greener outcome
F
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2 year subscr
Long before tinned beans, the printing
press was responding to demand for
mass production. Everyone wanted to
read from the same page – whether it was
the news, the novel or the gospel. Today, we
take the cost and energy economies of mass
production for granted, and yet still find an
irresistible charm in the idea of something
unique: the carefully crafted one-off. Think of
the particular appeal of the limited edition, the
signed copy… What we really want is to have
it both ways. Impossible? Far from it.
Digital (as opposed to traditional litho)
printing technology means you can mass
produce a page while incorporating small
changes into each copy. The result is highly
targeted communications, with significant
savings in energy, resources and cost.
As Richard Owers, Development
Director at Pureprint Group explains,
customers typically order more (litho) printed
material than they need, to cash in on the
immediate savings of a lower cost per
unit. But this can be a false economy, with
payouts further down the line to store and
dispose of unread copies. It’s estimated that
20-30% of the average print run goes from
store room to recycling plant, without ever
having reached a reader.
Digital print technology, on the other
hand, does not require fast and furious print
runs to drive costs down. Instead, you just
print the quantity you require, with additional
copies updated and reordered at any time.
The University for the Creative Arts (UCA)
is one convert. Each year, it puts together a
prospectus to attract the brightest and best
postgraduates. It used to be 168 pages: a
comprehensive introduction to every course.
Any student with a fair idea of their interests
would lug it around with just a couple of page
corners overturned.
UCA recognised how wasteful this
process was, and consulted Pureprint, who
offered smaller digital print runs as a solution.
Now, students select the sections that interest
them online, and request a bespoke copy –
typically 60-80 pages. The savings on paper,
ink, postage and energy use are significant,
with the original print run cut by 80%. And the
result is a made-to-measure marketing tool.
“The ability to amend details as and when
necessary is essential in ensuring we provide
the most up-to-date and targeted information
to our prospective students,” says Eleanor
Shotton, Marketing Services Manager at UCA.
“It has streamlined our processes.”
Oxfam found similar benefits in offering
a personalised gift and card service. As Owers
puts it: “Digital technology has turned printing
from a mass commodity product into a much
more effective communication tool. Our clients
can use information they have collected about
consumers and then target their individual
needs and consumption habits.”
Savings are also made at the print
preparation stage. Last year, 24% of paper
bought by Pureprint – for use in litho printing –
did not reach the end-client, used instead for
checking print quality, plate registration and
machine start-ups. That compares to around
8% used to set up digital print runs.
Change was in the air at this year’s IPEX,
the global technology trade exhibition for print,
publishing and media. For the first time, Xerox,
HP and Kodak – all leaders in digital print
technology – occupied the biggest stands.
Digital print is unlikely to ever completely
replace litho, which remains the most efficient
way to produce large quantities of identical
material. But, argues Owers, with social media
driving change in how messages are produced
and consumed, printers must be ready to
adapt. “They will need different technical skills,
and they will need to speak to their customers
in a different way. With both UCE and Oxfam,
we played the role of advisers, helping them
find a solution.” – Flemmich Webb
Pureprint Group is a Forum for the Future
partner.
www.pureprint.com
41
Don’t know what you got
till it’s gone...
Andrew Kuyk reports on a new initiative to divert surplus
food from landfill to the plates of those who need it most.
Waste not...
42
The Food and Drink Federation is a Forum for the
Future partner.
www.fdf.org.uk
As a new UN report puts a high price on biodiversity,
Dax Lovegrove asks how we can best value nature.
Photo: Sara Winter / istock
during transit to retail outlets, or exceed requirements due
to late changes to orders of short shelf life products, such
as dairy. Given the sheer volumes of food manufactured,
even a tiny percentage can equate to a lot of potential
waste. One fruit juice producer, for example, has
succeeded in diverting to FareShare its entire surplus
production. Although this is only 0.04% of its total output,
that still equates to 300,000 litres of fruit juice per year –
as the company’s annual production is 800 million litres.
FareShare’s message is simple: “no good food
should be wasted”. That chimes with the aims of
the FDF. Under its Five-fold Environmental Ambition,
launched in 2007, its members – comprising many of
the UK’s major food manufacturers – aspire to send
zero food and packaging waste to landfill from 2015.
Partnerships with FareShare are helping them reach
that goal. For example, the charity has helped Nestlé
to reduce the amount of its product entering the waste
stream by over 90%, slashing its waste costs. The
company has now adopted FareShare as a lead charity
partner, funding projects such as FareShare 1st. This
is a new a social enterprise, set up to help make the
charity more self-financing. It will provide the food and
drink industry with a ‘one stop shop’ for handling surplus
(at a competitive but commercial rate). This will then be
provided to local community organisations in return for an
annual membership fee.
It’s part of an ambitious plan to double the
number of people receiving food each day to 60,000,
and increase the meals provided each year to 14
million. To date, FairShare is working in partnership with
14 FDF members, and the organisation’s Director of
Communications, Julian Hunt, sits on the charity’s board.
Though as an industry we cannot dictate what
consumers do in their homes, our members are
committed to finding ways to help them reduce the
amount of food that goes to waste. At FDF we strongly
believe that good food, well made, deserves to be eaten
and enjoyed, not left to rot in landfill.
Photo: Fertnig / istock
It doesn’t take an environmental guru to work
out that sending any kind of food into landfill is the
worst possible sustainability outcome on all counts –
environmental, economic and social. Recent research
by WRAP (the Waste Resources Action Programme)
estimates that UK households throw away 8.3 million
tonnes of food every year. Food redistribution charity
FareShare estimates that at least 10% of this is ‘fit
for purpose’ – in date and edible. So we are wasting
over 800,000 tonnes of perfectly good food. On
environmental grounds alone, this produces a double
whammy of impacts.
First, it wastes all the considerable resources,
including energy, that went into producing, protecting,
distributing, storing and preparing it. Second, as food
decomposes, it produces methane – a greenhouse gas
25 times more potent than CO2.
From a purely business perspective, it simply does
not make sense to invest in raw materials to create edible
food just to see it thrown away – especially at a time
when commodity prices are volatile and businesses are
recovering from the recession. And that’s not to mention
the morality of wasting food when many people don’t
have enough to eat. I was struck recently by a comment
from a Food and Drink Federation (FDF) colleague, who
had spent an eye-opening day volunteering at FareShare.
He was amazed by the sheer amount and range of
different foods, all of them perfectly fit to eat, sitting in
its distribution depot. Although in the industry we are
constantly made aware of the waste issue, seeing it in real
life really brought home to him the relationship between
the food we manufacture, and where far too much of it
ultimately ends up.
FareShare helps provide a solution. Everything
from sandwiches and chocolates to bread and fruit juice,
which are close to their ‘use-by’ dates – all deemed as
‘waste’ and unsuitable for sale in the food chain – are
sent to FareShare’s depots around the country. Here, they
are packed up in lorries and distributed to community
organisations such as shelters, hostels and breakfast
clubs, helping feed around 29,000 people each day.
No company wants to waste food. But some
‘surplus’ is almost unavoidable. Food can be damaged
Can Pavan Sukhdev do for biodiversity
what Nicholas Stern did for climate
change? The Deutsche Bank economist
is leading a UN-backed study on ‘The
Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity’ –
TEEB for short. And its first report has already
sent ripples through both the policy and
business worlds.
Simply put, TEEB warns that we are
failing to factor in the value of vital services –
from flood protection to crop fertility – which are
currently provided free by nature. That failure
could prove extremely costly. Speaking at the
Global Business of Biodiversity symposium,
Pavan gave a couple of chilling examples.
In Honduras, it had seemed good
business sense to convert ‘unproductive’
mangroves to shrimp farms, so creating jobs
and boosting the local economy. But that
ignored the essential role mangroves play in
preventing floods and saline intrusion, and
feeding nutrients into food chains. Far from
being unproductive, these and other vital
services are provided free by the mangrove
belt – and so their overall value to the local
economy is far greater than the transient
profits from shrimp farms.
Insect pollination is another vital service.
We take it for granted, Pavan warned, until we
discover it’s no longer there. This happened
in the Chinese province of Sichuan, where
excessive applications of pesticides have
wiped out pollinating insects. As a result, food
crops have to be pollinated manually –
a hugely costly and cumbersome operation.
Such examples impressed the
audience at the symposium, which included
a number of CEOs and government
ministers, among them the UK Environment
Secretary, Caroline Spelman.
The challenge is to tip this kind of
thinking into the mainstream. It’s something
in which WWF is very much involved, not
least through its One Planet Economy work,
which emphasises the economic and financial
case for acting on biodiversity loss and
climate change.
Efforts to tackle biodiversity loss have
one clear advantage over climate negotiations:
the local benefits of doing so – as in Honduras
and Sichuan – are often very clear. Now that
the economic costs of inaction have been
so starkly demonstrated by the TEEB study,
positive action to protect natural services
might happen faster, and go further, than that
around climate change.
Of course, it’s not a question of “either/
or”. Take forest destruction. When you burn
a rainforest, you not only lose its vital role in
sustaining the water cycle and preventing
soil erosion. You also release a huge amount
of carbon – deforestation is responsible
for more than 20% of CO2 emissions. And
climate change in turn increases the likelihood
and severity of forest fires. So action on
biodiversity and climate change have to go
hand in hand.
They also have to happen at both local
and international levels. The production and
consumption of goods in different countries
depends on a complex web of natural
resource use and ecosystem services which
stretches across the globe. All of which makes
for complex discussions when deciding
who benefits most from such services – and
so who should pay for them. They include
everything from local pollination by insects,
to regional water purification by wetlands, to
global carbon sequestration by rainforests.
The wider question of how exactly we
value nature also came up at the symposium.
An economic framework is clearly essential for
business leaders and policymakers, helping
them ‘future-proof’ current decisions. But as
one speaker commented, it was hard to put
an economic value on the way in which his
holidays were vastly enhanced by nature’s
beauty. Many of us inspired by natural
wonders, whether in distant landscapes or
our own gardens, would share this essentially
emotional, even spiritual, motivation for action.
Others reject a utilitarian approach completely,
arguing that safeguarding nature is paramount
regardless of whether there is an economic or
emotional benefit for humans.
This is the juggling act environmental
advocates face. At WWF, we make use of all
the available drivers in our search for a One
Planet Future, where nature is protected while
society flourishes. These include economic
thinking, local and global political instruments,
green game-changing business innovations
(see wwf.org.uk/innovation) – and the
inspiring, emotive stories we can bring from
the field.
One thing is certain. Whether nature is
cost-effective or priceless, we need it more
than it needs us.
Dax Lovegrove is Head of Business and
Industry Relations at WWF-UK.
WWF-UK is a Forum for the Future partner.
www.wwf.org.uk
43
From Minoa to the Mayans, successive societies have risen
and flourished, only to collapse. It will be different this time,
argues David Eagleman, because we have the technology
to save us...
“If Pompei had the internet...”
celebrity mansions, so Californians changed their tack: they
uploaded geotagged cellphone pictures, updated Facebook
statuses, and tweeted. And the balance tipped: the internet
carried news about the fire more quickly and accurately than
any news station could.
In this grassroots, decentralised scheme, there were
embedded reporters on every neighbourhood block, and
the news shockwave kept ahead of the firefront. In the
right circumstances, this headstart could provide the extra
hours that save us. If the Pompeians had the internet
in 79CE, I calculate they could have easily marched ten
kilometres to safety, well ahead of the pyroclastic flow
from Mount Vesuvius.
1. Epidemics can be deflected by telepresence
One of our more dire prospects for collapse is an infectious
disease epidemic. Viral and bacterial epidemics precipitated
the fall of the Golden Age of Athens, the Roman Empire,
and most of the empires of the Native Americans. The
internet can be our key to survival, thanks to our ability to
work remotely – or ‘telepresently’. This can inhibit microbial
transmission by reducing human-to-human contact. In the
face of an otherwise devastating epidemic, businesses can
keep supply chains running with the maximum number of
employees working from home.
This won’t keep everyone off the streets, but it can
reduce host density below the tipping point required
for an epidemic. If we are well-prepared when such
an epidemic arrives, we can fluidly shift into a selfquarantined society in which microbes fail due to host
sparseness. Whatever the social ills of isolation, they bode
worse for the microbes than for us.
3. Discoveries are retained and shared
Historically, critical information has required constant
rediscovery. Collections of learning – from the Library
at Alexandria to the Mayan corpus of literature to the
entire Minoan civilisation – have fallen to the bonfires
of invaders or the wrecking ball of natural disasters.
Knowledge is hard won but easily lost.
Moreover, information that survives often does not
spread. Consider smallpox inoculation: this practice
was underway in India, China and Africa for hundreds of
years before it made its way to Europe. By the time the
idea reached North America, the native civilisations who
needed the knowledge had already collapsed.
The internet addresses the problem of knowledgesharing better than any technology we’ve had. New
discoveries latch on immediately: the information
spreads widely and the redundancy prevents erasure.
In this way, societies can optimally ratchet up, using the
latest bricks of knowledge in their fortification against
existential threats.
2. News can outpace danger
We are witnessing the downfall of slow central control in
the media: news stories are increasingly becoming usergenerated nets of up-to-the-minute information. During the
recent California wildfires, locals watched their televisions to
learn whether their neighbourhoods were in danger. But the
news stations appeared most concerned with the fate of
44
4. Tyranny is mitigated
Censorship of ideas has been a familiar spectre in the
last century, with state-approved news outlets ruling the
press, airwaves, and copying machines in the former
USSR, Romania, Cuba, China, Iraq, and elsewhere.
In all these cases, censorship hobbled the society and
fomented revolutions. And in many cases, such as
Lysenko’s agricultural despotism in the USSR, it directly
contributed to the collapse of the nation.
Historically, a more successful strategy has been to
confront free speech with free speech – and the internet
allows this in a natural way. It democratises the flow
of information by offering access to the newspapers
of the world, the photographers of every nation, the
bloggers of every political stripe. Some postings are
full of doctoring and dishonesty, while others strive for
independence and impartiality – but all are available for
the end-user to sift through for reasoned consideration. Given the vigorous attempt by some governments
to build nationwide firewalls, it is clear that this benefit of
the internet will require constant vigilance.
Photo: Angelafoto / istock
“
”
Knowledge is
hard won but
easily lost
Many great civilisations have fallen, leaving
nothing but cracked ruins and scattered genetics.
Although the number of collapsed nations is high, the
underlying problems which provoke their demise tend to fall
into only a handful of categories: disease, natural disasters,
poor information flow, political corruption, economic
meltdown or resource depletion.
We arguably face similar threats today. But we are
luckier than our predecessors, because we command
a technology that no one else possessed: a rapid
communication network that finds its highest expression
in the internet. I propose there are six ways in which the
internet has vastly reduced the threat of societal collapse.
5. Human capital is vastly increased
Crowd-sourcing brings together massive groups of
people to solve problems. While this method has proven
itself fruitful, far less than 1% of the world’s population
is ever involved in such projects. We need to expand
human capital if we want to be prepared against a future
of existential threats.
The problem is that most of the world does not
have access to the education afforded to a small
minority. For every Albert Einstein, Yo-Yo Ma or Barack
Obama who has the opportunity for education, there are
uncountable others who never get the chance. This vast
squandering of talent translates directly into reduced
economic output and a smaller pool of problem-solvers.
The internet opens the gates of education to
anyone who can get her hands on a computer. This is
not always a trivial task, but the mere feasibility redefines the playing field. A motivated teen anywhere
on the planet can walk through the world’s knowledge
– from the webs of Wikipedia to the curriculum of MIT’s
Open Course Ware.
We are finally in a position to actualise the brains
available in our worldwide population.
6. Energy expenditure is reduced
Societal collapse can often be understood in terms of
an energy budget: when energy expenditure begins to
outweigh energy return, collapse ensues. Historically,
this has taken the form of deforestation or soil erosion;
currently, the worry involves fossil fuel depletion.
The internet addresses the energy problem with
a kind of natural ease. Consider the massive energy
savings inherent in the shift from paper to electrons – as
seen in the transition from the postal system to email. Or
to take another example, consider the way e-commerce
reduces the need to drive long distances to browse and
purchase products.
Surprisingly, delivery trucks are more eco-friendly
than individuals driving around, not least because of tight
packaging and optimisation algorithms for driving routes.
Of course, there are energy costs to the banks of
computers that underpin the internet – but these costs are
less than the forests and coal beds and oil deposits that
would be spent for the same quantity of information flow.
The tangle of events that trigger societal collapse can
be complex, and there are several existential threats the
internet does not address. Nonetheless, it appears that
vast, networked communication can serve as an antidote
to several of the most fatal diseases of civilisation.
Almost by accident, we now command the capacity
for self-quarantining, retaining knowledge, speeding
information flow, reducing censorship, actualizing human
capital, and saving energy resources.
So the next time your co-worker laments about
internet addiction, the banality of tweeting, or the decline of
face-to-face conversation, you may want to suggest that
the internet – even with all its flashy wastefulness – may just
be the technology that saves us.
If they’d told him in time, he
could have got away.
David Eagleman is Assistant Professor, Neuroscience,
Baylor College of Medicine, and bestselling author of Sum:
Forty Tales from the Afterlives
www.eagleman.com
45
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21/8/09 16:39:49
Renewable Google
While I whole-heartedly support renewable
energy and laud Google’s wind farm initiative
(see ‘Winds of change for Google’, GF77,
p6), I would rather see them invest in the
smart grid, which we need to distribute
energy more efficiently from renewable
resources. Tossing up a bunch of wind farms
will do no good unless we have the proper
infrastructure in place to get the electricity to
homes and businesses. This infrastructure
currently does not exist. What we really need
is to start at the beginning and revamp the
North American grid to handle renewable
sources, something it currently cannot. We’re
moving too fast without considering our past
(which is still haunting us), and that past is
our antiquated electrical grid. Alien Alda
Backyard biochar
In ‘Buried treasure’ (GF77, p10), you write
about sequestering carbon in the soil. I
should point out that this can be done at the
household and community level even in the
UK. Backyard ‘Biochar BBQs’ will soon be
available that will allow people to use their
yard trimmings to cook a meal, while making
modest amounts of biochar that they can
then put onto their garden to improve the soil.
There have already been a number of trials
of these types of stoves in many developing
countries [Editor’s note: see ‘Burn the trees
to save the world’, GF72, p26], but there is
no reason why they can’t also be used in the
developed world, too. Lloyd Helferty
Pregnant pause
Thanks to Sara Parkin for her excellent article
on population (‘Pregnant pause’, GF77, p35).
I believe there may be a case for restricting
child tax credits on population grounds. A
report from Bristol University, Does Welfare
Reform Affect Fertility?, found that their
availability was related to a 15% rise in birth
rate among recipients. Can the UK do welfare
without accidental pronatalism? At the least,
limiting child-related benefits to the first two
offspring would help. John McKeown
There are too many homo sapiens. It is that
simple. You can produce as many academic
reports as you want, but there are too many
humans and not enough Earth… The only
way to change others’ behaviour is to change
your own, and that means setting a good
example: reduce your carbon footprint and
have no children (or one child at most). We
made a conscious decision not to have
children for this reason; it also liberates one
from the excuses not to achieve your dreams
and make a real difference. creekwhore
Join the debate
letters@greenfutures.org.uk
Letters and comments posted on our
website may be edited for publication.
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This is the future, but they don’t have to be
architectural masterpieces. Old multi-storey
car parks and tower blocks could easily and
quickly be adapted. Huge commercial vertical
farms could also be designed to produce oil
from rapeseed or even genetically modified
algae. They would have the added benefit of
conditioning the air, reducing carbon dioxide
and providing biosecurity and food security.
Vertical farms operated robotically and
situated in deserts could also make use of
unproductive land. bitterantwisted
It’s a quaint idea and one which I’m sure will
work a treat in Holland or somewhere similar:
09:43:22
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On the surface, vertical farms sound like a
good idea (see ‘High rise horticulture’, GF77,
p26). They minimise environmental impact,
and make for more efficient agriculture,
produced closer to the consumer. But
building high-rises, complete with all the
vast technological equipment needed,
will, I suspect, not come cheap. For a low
margin product like food, a huge increase
in production might be needed to justify the
investment. Higher prices for vertically-farmed
food are unlikely, since the additional benefit
for the consumer is minor. The breakthrough
will also be held back by the farmers’ lobby,
and the cost advantage of their subsidised
products. As soon as the first vertical farms
appear there will be wild accusations and
fake health concerns. You read it here first.
Robert Schuman
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44
5A
Farming on skyscrapers
urbanites getting their cool right-on food
grown right at the end of the street. Fine,
but meanwhile I really do think the problem
is just a little more far-reaching than this.
The world already produces enough food to
feed 12 billion people a year – double the
global population. It is all about distribution,
distribution, distribution. The sheer scale of
wasted, unused and discarded food is just
staggering – not to mention the excessive
technical requirements and sell-by-date
obsession that sees thousands of tonnes
of food being thrown away daily in Britain
alone. Centralised food distribution aided and
abetted by the IMF has wiped out local farm
production on a massive scale. Manipulation
of crop production around the world to cater
for futures markets just doesn’t bear thinking
about. And don’t get me started on farmers
forced to buy transgenic seeds produced
thousands of miles from the country where
they will be grown... Pescasalada
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47
JonathonPorritt
“
What is it
about the
concept of
limits that
induces such
cornucopianism?
Too strict a
childhood?
”
It’s a fair bet that someone who chooses
‘Ferraris for All’ as the title for their book is
going to be a bit of a wind-up merchant.
And I’m pretty sure that Daniel Ben-Ami (author of said
book) would be perfectly happy to be thought of in that
light. Indeed, if he wasn’t winding up people like me, I
am sure he would be crestfallen to have produced such
a literary failure.
Daniel Ben-Ami really hates environmentalists.
We’re not just risk-averse Enlightenment-deniers who
have lost faith in progress, but the principal source
of today’s prevailing scepticism (as he sees it) about
economic growth and material prosperity. Worse yet,
we’re people-hating elitists: “defenders of their privileged
lifestyles against what they see as the plague of popular
consumption”.
But if you have got the patience to steer round
the manufactured rage and somewhat juvenile polemic,
there’s a really interesting book trying to get out here.
Although he avoids any explicitly theological arguments,
Ben-Ami clearly subscribes to the view that humankind
stands at the pinnacle of creation, and that it is our
destiny to subjugate nature so that everyone can go
on getting richer indefinitely into the future. Within that
philosophical framework, the concept of physical limits is
seen as nothing less than heresy.
What is it about the concept of limits that
induces such extreme cornucopianism? Too strict
a childhood? Too many teachers telling us what
we can’t do rather than what we can do? Or
perhaps it’s our genetic inheritance? Having
survived hundreds of thousands of years of
wretched constraints at the hand of Nature,
no one is going to spoil today’s postscarcity party by re-introducing the
concept of limits by the back door.
In Ben-Ami’s surreal world,
resources remain largely limitless.
Technology will rescue us from any
temporary shortages or constraints
on economic progress, and as long
as we “more-effectively manage the
externalities”, there’s no reason why the
4 billion people who don’t enjoy our way
of life shouldn’t be able to do so in the
future. If not Ferraris for all, then Ferrariproxies for all!
If that sounds a bit bonkers, then
ask yourself why it is that Ben-Ami’s overall
philosophy still resonates so much more
powerfully with contemporary politicians than
any of our ‘sustainability stuff’. Indeed, I often
wonder where we would be (politically) without
the pressing threat of climate change. Nearly
40 years on from the publication of the Club of
Rome’s seminal report Limits to Growth, how
much of the rest of today’s sustainability thinking would
have any traction at all with mainstream politicians
around the world?
I’m afraid my own answer to that question is a
rather gloomy one: not a lot. I know I should be feeling
more upbeat than that, but it’s getting harder when the
single most important precept behind the very idea of
sustainability – that we have to learn to prosper within
nature’s limits, not beyond them – is still set aside by
almost all and sundry as an irritating irrelevance.
Even our politicians’ gathering concern about
climate change hasn’t entirely overcome that problem.
The Copenhagen Accord (which has now been signed
up to by more than 120 countries) commits those
countries to ensuring that average temperatures will not
increase by more than 2ºC by the end of the century.
This is a broad but explicit limit (from which all sorts of
other limits regarding the concentration of greenhouse
gases in the atmosphere, for instance, can then logically
be derived) – and we must be thankful for it. But as
of now, it has had near-zero impact on the way those
nations set about securing further economic growth.
The 2ºC isn’t yet a real lived limit. But at least we
know it’s out there, and that we’ll have to deal with it
someday soon. Which is more than can be said for
biodiversity. Here there is no simple number to guide us,
no hard and fast threshold to stay the right side of.
This probably explains the despair in the recent
words of Ahmed Djoghlaf, Secretary-General of
the UN Convention on Biological Diversity: “What
we’re seeing today is a total disaster. No country
has met its targets to protect nature. We are
losing biodiversity at an unprecedented rate,
amounting to a mass extinction of life.”
And with an estimated 150-200
species of plant, insect, bird or mammal
becoming extinct every 24 hours,
according to UNEP’s latest assessment,
you can sort of see what he is getting at.
Biodiversity is not mentioned once
in Ferraris for All. Nor is soil. Fresh water
merits a couple of tokenistic references.
And whilst climate change is hesitantly
accepted by Ben-Ami as a bit of a
problem, the answer to it is obvious:
more economic growth! There are none
so blind…
NIGHT
AT THE
MUSEUM
The global GREEN AWARDSTM are now taking bookings for tickets.
This year’s ceremony promises to be extra special as it will be held at the
magnificent Natural History Museum, London, on Thursday 2nd December.
Ticket prices start at £250 pp and can be purchased at www.greenawards.co.uk
Principal Sponsor
Jonathon Porritt is Founder Director of
Forum for the Future. Jonathon’s blog is
available as a podcast at:
www.jonathonporritt.com
Listen to Jonathon at:
ipadio.com/phlogs/jonathonporritt
Sponsors
Institutional Partners
Print Sponsor
Media Partners
GREENER TM
a fresh perspective
48
Green Awards, The Pyramid Building, Jubilee Yard, 31 Queen Elizabeth Street, London SE1 2LP Tel: 020 7939 3959 info@greenawards.co.uk www.greenawards.co.uk
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shopping money sex - Forum for the Future

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