Many Britons are suffering from "eco-fatigue", with more than a quarter tired of the attention green issues are receiving, according to a new survey.
An ICM report for the Ideal Home Show also found nearly a quarter of people (23%) admitted they were bored of "eco news" and nearly a fifth (18%) exaggerated their environmental behaviour because it is fashionable.
While more than half (57%) believed a difference could be made to the environment if everyone did their bit, nearly four fifths of those questioned (78%) think not everybody is making the effort.
But people rated their own green performance quite highly, with 83% saying they acted in an environmentally friendly way, the research found.
Men are more cynical about the difference they can make, with nearly a fifth (19%) believing small changes won't have any effect, compared to 11% of women, the survey of 2,000 UK adults revealed.
As a result, women were more likely to make the changes round the house to be more green - except for eco-friendly detergents which slightly more men than women use.
Overall, 80% of respondents said they used energy-saving light bulbs, 90% filled the kettle with the right amount of water, 83% recycled paper, glass and plastic and 82% took old clothes to charity shops.
But three quarters did not use eco-friendly detergents, 81% did not check wooden items were from sustainable sources, nearly half (44%) tended to turn up the heating instead of putting on more clothes, 22% left mobile phone chargers plugged in and 32% left the TV on standby.
There was also cynicism about green energy suppliers and almost half (48%) of those questioned did not know what the energy performance certificate for homes was.
Oliver Heath, of the Ideal Home Show, said: "People should have more confidence in the measures we're all making."
Copyright (c) Press Association Ltd. 2007, All Rights Reserved.
full article
Sunday, 28 October 2007
SOLAR HOME TAX’ ON WAY
GORDON Brown is planning to penalise eco-friendly homes and businesses, the Tories claimed last night.
Teams of valuation “spies” are already assessing properties with solar panels and wind turbines, which may put them into higher council-tax bands.
A family that converts its home into a “zero carbon” property could save between £114 and £359 a year on energy bills.
But, warned Eric Pickles, Shadow Secretary of State for Local Government last night, green improvements will push a property into a higher council tax band, forcing owners to pay yet another stealth tax.
“Moving from Band D to Band E would add £293 a year to the average council tax
bill, potentially wiping out the savings,” said Mr Pickles.
“Gordon Brown is more interested in picking money from people’s pockets than tackling the challenge of climate change and protecting the environment,” he added.
full article
Teams of valuation “spies” are already assessing properties with solar panels and wind turbines, which may put them into higher council-tax bands.
A family that converts its home into a “zero carbon” property could save between £114 and £359 a year on energy bills.
But, warned Eric Pickles, Shadow Secretary of State for Local Government last night, green improvements will push a property into a higher council tax band, forcing owners to pay yet another stealth tax.
“Moving from Band D to Band E would add £293 a year to the average council tax
bill, potentially wiping out the savings,” said Mr Pickles.
“Gordon Brown is more interested in picking money from people’s pockets than tackling the challenge of climate change and protecting the environment,” he added.
full article
Thursday, 25 October 2007
Who's really going green?
Despite all the hot air being emitted by the Government and the house builders, there is still a dearth of new environmentally-sensitive housing in London.
In February, the building industry grandly launched the UK Green Building Council (UKGBC), to promote green homes in the UK. A month later, Gordon Brown trumpeted the birth of eco-villages, and declared that all new homes would be carbon neutral by 2016.
Yet there are still only a handful of developers building green homes. A spokesman for the UKGBC says: "There aren't that many 'deep green' new homes being built in volume yet. There are a few small-scale projects, but no big ones."
While many developers are keen to flag up gimmicky add-ons such as bird boxes or low flush loos, most new homes are still struggling to meet minimum energy efficiency standards. Green architect Bill Dunster blames the poor standards of new homes on the building industry's need to make vast profits to pay for the land they have bought.
Andrew Warren, director of the Association for the Conservation of Energy, says that not only are minimum standards too low, but that the Government is refusing to let local authorities insist on higher standards because of their drive to build huge quantities of new homes.
"You either get cheap, quick and dirty, or you go slower and get it right. At the moment the need for volume is taking precedence over energy efficiency."
In solar power, too, we are lagging way behind our European counterparts. In many European countries, people who generate their own electricity via solar panels and feed it back into the national grid are remunerated at four times the market rate.
In Britain micro-generators only get the standard rate, meaning that the payback time for installing panels is about 25-30 years here compared with less than 10 in countries such as Germany.
full article
In February, the building industry grandly launched the UK Green Building Council (UKGBC), to promote green homes in the UK. A month later, Gordon Brown trumpeted the birth of eco-villages, and declared that all new homes would be carbon neutral by 2016.
Yet there are still only a handful of developers building green homes. A spokesman for the UKGBC says: "There aren't that many 'deep green' new homes being built in volume yet. There are a few small-scale projects, but no big ones."
While many developers are keen to flag up gimmicky add-ons such as bird boxes or low flush loos, most new homes are still struggling to meet minimum energy efficiency standards. Green architect Bill Dunster blames the poor standards of new homes on the building industry's need to make vast profits to pay for the land they have bought.
Andrew Warren, director of the Association for the Conservation of Energy, says that not only are minimum standards too low, but that the Government is refusing to let local authorities insist on higher standards because of their drive to build huge quantities of new homes.
"You either get cheap, quick and dirty, or you go slower and get it right. At the moment the need for volume is taking precedence over energy efficiency."
In solar power, too, we are lagging way behind our European counterparts. In many European countries, people who generate their own electricity via solar panels and feed it back into the national grid are remunerated at four times the market rate.
In Britain micro-generators only get the standard rate, meaning that the payback time for installing panels is about 25-30 years here compared with less than 10 in countries such as Germany.
full article
Wednesday, 24 October 2007
The hydrogen-powered motorbike
High-powered motorbikes, or the bikers who ride them, are hardly known for their green credentials.
But a new, and unlikely, partnership between Japanese superbike firm Suzuki and a British technology company has produced the world's first serious "green" motorbike.
The Crosscage concept bike, due to be unveiled at the Tokyo Motorshow later this week, runs in complete silence and is powered by fuel cells developed by Loughborough-based technology firm Intelligent Energy.
Intelligent Energy has provided the battery and electric propulsion system for the new motorbike, and the small hydrogen tank is located where the engine would normally be, underneath the rider.
While details of the new concept bike have been kept strictly under wraps by Suzuki, the fact that the firm has chosen Intelligent Energy to develop its fuel cell engine gives some clues as to how the bike may work.
In 2005 Intelligent Energy unveiled the world's first fuel-cell powered motorbike, the so-called ENV (Emissions Neutral Vehicle) bike.
The bike was powered by a Proton Exchange Membrane (PEM) type fuel cell – one of five different fuel cell types, all of which have different attributes in terms of size, robustness and ability to work at high temperatures.
Each fuel cell is a multi-layered sandwich of plates and electrodes which use a chemical reaction to produce water and electricity from hydrogen and oxygen.
Tokyo Motor Show is expected to be packed with concepts like the Crosscage which combine styling and performance with green credentials.
full article
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