New Food Bank in Oxford

A new food bank called Re-plenish has started taking food from two supermarkets which would otherwise be thrown away. The produce, which is past its sell by date but not past its use by date, is used to help people in need. Sounds like a great way to reduce the mammoth amount of food wasted by supermarkets.

Read more at the BBC website.

REVIEW - Green Living Guide 2nd Edition

I have not read the 1st Edition of this publication (called ‘Go Green the Easy Way’) but was impressed with this latest publication. It is divided into six chapters which include Home & Garden, Work & Office, Food & Drink and Transport & Motoring. These sections allow the reader to browse through sections of particular interest rather than having to read the publication from cover to cover to find the information s/he is looking for. There is also a useful directory of the companies featured in the publication at the end, which makes it easy to remind yourself of those businesses you are interested in finding out more about.

Read the full review here.

REVIEW - Mudpuppy Stainless Steel Water Bottle

From a consumer point of view the Mudpuppy Stainless Steel Water Bottles undoubtedly, in my opinion, have aesthetic appeal. They look funky, don’t leave the aftertaste you sometimes experience with plastic bottles and are lightweight yet robust. The bottle was also easy to clean although the painted versions and caps, other than the sports cap, should not be washed in a dishwasher. The choice of interchangeable lids is also a great feature, allowing you to mix and match according to your requirements. The sports lid we tried worked well and had a cap for over the mouthpiece; handy for keeping it clean. The loop cap with carabiner is ideal if you are out hiking as you can attach the bottle easily to a rucksack.

Read the full review here.

Why Buying Organic Food Doesn’t Have to Break the Bank

UK Energy Saving have published an article entitled 'Why Buying Organic Food Doesn’t Have to Break the Bank'. You can read the article by following the links below.

UK Energy Saving
Ezine

Related UK Energy Saving Pages:
Organic Products
Organic Food

Related blog posts:
Organic Statistics

REVIEW - Current Cost ENVI CC128 Energy Saving Monitor

We received the monitor and found it fairly simple to install using the instructions provided....

The display on the monitor is clear and easy to follow. At any given time you can see how much energy is being used and the cost of this (based on the default tariff or one you have entered) over a month should that level be maintained. It also indicates if there has been a drop or rise in usage which is a useful indicator of the amount of energy your appliances use....Your usage over the last day, week and 30 days is also provided as is the time and temperature.

I really liked the Current Cost ENVI CC128 Energy Saving Monitor as a great way to raise my awareness of how much energy different appliances use....

Read the full review here.

Linkedin and Cooltribe

UK Energy Saving and Hayley Jones (me!) can now be found on the LinkedIn and cooltribe social networking sites. As a reader of this blog you probably have an interest in green living so why not look us up on these sites?

New Carbon Footprint Calculator

UK Energy Saving has introduced a carbon footprint calculator. This will allow visitors to calculate their footprint based on details of their home energy and transport usage. The energy saving calculator is then a great way to find out how much carbon could be saved by implementing energy saving measures.

Try out the carbon footprint calculator now to see how your footprint compares to the UK and worldwide averages.

Read more in the press release on one of the sites below:
UK Energy Saving
PRLog
Pressbox
PRNewsDistribution

Learn how to generate your own electricity at workshops

Good Energy have announced the following event:

"We have the technology - all we have to do is use it.

On 31st October 2009 from 1.30pm to 8pm Good Energy, the 100% renewable electricity supplier, is hosting at its wind farm in Delabole, North Cornwall. 'Power from the People: How to Generate Renewable Energy' a day of master classes dedicated to helping everyone from homeowners to landowners to get a renewable energy project up and running.

Calling on the expertise of Good Energy's team, our partners and our generators, we will be delivering two sets of seminars:

The Microgeneration seminars - will deliver detailed information to people looking to produce energy on a domestic or small commercial scale on how to plan and successfully complete their project, get paid for their energy and minimise their energy costs.

The Commercial Generation seminars - will provide farmers, landowners and communities planning to begin a commercial scale renewable energy project with expert advice on project planning, project financing and securing contracts for their power.

At the event there is also opportunity to visit the Delabole wind farm, get inside the existing turbines and learn about the repowering project that is currently taking place. And after the event there will be a reception for all the event goers to meet and to network with the experts, enjoy a glass of wine and a buffet of organic produce.

We'd love you to join us:
The Gaia Centre, Good Energy Wind Farm, Delabole, North Cornwall
Saturday 31st October 2009
1.30pm-8.00pm

Tickets for Good Energy's Power from the People event are now on sale for £20. Benefit from a 25% discount by booking before 15th October.

Call our events team today on 0870 043 3929 or email goodenergy@rem-events.com to book you tickets."

REVIEW - Pocket Idiot's Guide to Your Carbon Footprint

The Pocket Idiot’s Guide to Your Carbon Footprint does contain some useful information which makes the reader realise the impact that our everyday lives can have on the planet, and there are handy tips, such as how to be an eco friendly driver, which could be helpful. As a UK reader, however, there are many aspects of the book which relate more specifically to an American market. Whilst the basics of reducing a carbon footprint remain the same, the examples and suggestions are not always completely relevant to the UK consumer......

.....Overall, I would suggest that this book is useful in terms of understanding what is meant by a carbon footprint and the areas of our lives which feed into this, but, from a UK perspective, the American focus isn’t ideal and there are areas which could do with greater levels of information.

Read the full review here.

IBM's Smarter Cities

"The expanding world: IBM is helping cities become smarter to prepare for the challenges ahead as seven New Yorks are added to the world each year"

Supporting statistics (provided by IBM):
Last year for the first time in history, according to the Department of Economic and Social Affairs of the United Nations, the majority of the world’s people lived in cities. By 2050 70 percent of the world’s population will live in cities.

Growth of cities:
• Seven out of ten human beings are expected to live in urban areas by 2050 (i)
• We are adding the equivalent of seven New Yorks to the planet every year (ii)
• An estimated 60 million people are moving to cities each year – over one million every week(iii)
• In 2008, the majority of the world’s population lived in cities for the first time (iv)
• In many developing countries, cities are growing two to three times faster than the overall population (v)
• In the UK, 80 percent of the population live in urban areas (vi)

Cities’ demand on world’s resources:
• Global CO2 emissions are expected to have increase by more than 45 percent between 1990 and 2010, driven largely by the growth of cities (vii)
• 60 percent of the world’s water is consumed in cities (viii)

Impact:
Without a doubt, this is one of the greatest issues of our lifetime. This unprecedented urbanisation is putting a huge strain on the planet's resources. It is placing greater demands on the city infrastructures that deliver our vital core services such as energy, transport, healthcare, water, education and public safety.

The need for a Smarter Planet:
Thankfully, help is at hand. Around the world, greater intelligence is being infused into the way our growing cities work, transforming the limited resources available.

By this, we mean using recent advances in technology to digitise and connect the systems of our core services, so they can sense, analyse and integrate data, providing a real-time integrated view of complex city systems. This will enable city administrators to monitor operations, improve performance and respond to the needs of their jurisdictions each day, making them smarter and more efficient.

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Notes to Editors
Sources for the statistics used above are as follows:
i) United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division, “World population prospects: The 2007 revision”
ii) Webecoist.com, “15 Mind-Boggling Green Facts & Enviro-Stats”
iii) Peopleandplanet.net, “The World Comes To Town”, 6 January 2008
iv) United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division, “World population prospects: The 2008 revision.”
v) Peopleandplanet.net, “The World Comes To Town”, 6 January 2008
vi) National Statistics Online, People & Migration, Urban Areas
vii) IBM Institute for Business Value, “A Vision of Smarter Cities”,
viii) United States Agency for International Development, “Urbanization and the Global Water Crisis”, 2009.