Sustainable is cheaper than you might think

The cost of building energy efficent and otherwise sustainable buildings are not as expensive as many think. Many constructors think 17% of total cost, true value is closer to a third of that...

The UK Department of Transport has launched a site to make it easier to compare CO2 emissions from cars: Act on CO2. Browse through class, fuel and gear style. Also, suggestions for better fuel economy and lower CO2 emissions just by better driving.

Compare these transports

In DN.se today is an article about greening flights. They also mention a comparison of the greenhouse gas emission caused by a number of transportations in kg CO2 equivalents per person going between Stockholm and Malmö, ie ca 600km:

Plane: 132
Car: 96
Bus: 18
Train: 2

Time to cover 600 kms in hours (estimate from google maps, SJ.se and flynordic.com)
Train: 4.5 (X2000)
Car: 6.5 hrs plus resting highway - (11 hours with the scenic route - national roads)
Bus: Roughly same time as by car but more waiting at bus stops etc and waiting for connecting buses.
Plane: 1.2 hrs plus transport to and from the airports and delay for check-in and picking up luggage. Say 2.5 hrs.

Train is nice because you can also get internet access and a "decent" table and its more uninterupted compared to all others. From city centre to city centre.

Normal, light and zero

Apparently one cannot sell a soft drink called light to men, it has be called something else, like zero. Normal Coca Cola contains sugar, caffeine, the secret ingredient, E338 and E150d, the sugar free version light and zero both contain E950, E951, E952, zero also contains E331 while light instead contains E330 and E221.

Common ingredients stated as E:
E338 - phosphoric acid - gives a tangy taste - can lead to lower bone density and can be used to remove rust
E150d - Sulphite ammonia caramel - colouring agent

Sweeteners:
E950 - Acesulfam K
E951 - Aspartam - could be carcinogenic upon sustained long time exposure
E952 - cyclamate

Preservatives specific to the sweetened versions:
E331 - sodium citrate - preservative and gives sour flavour
E330 - citric acid - preservative and gives sour flavour
E221 - sodium sulphate - preservative

Btw:
One of the current commercials for CC zero very much looks inspired by Michael Jackson's music videos. It is ok for a man to be androgyn or metrosexual?

Vattenfall and CO2 emissions

The Swedish energy "producer" Vattenfall has created a campaign site Moving towards a low carbon society. Their CEO has gone out strong with things that can be done to decrease human society´s impact on global warming.

But WWF in their top 30 list Dirty Thirty - Europe’s dirtiest power stations" put four of Vattenfall´s carbon power plants on the list (place 5, 11, 16 and 19). This makes Vattenfall one of the worst environmental crooks in Europe!!!

In a recent report by NyTeknik it is noted that Vattenfall only puts 0.04% of their turn-over (2006) into research and development of renewable energy ...

So when will the words of Lars Josefssons come into real action???

A reflection over performance and cap-and-trade

In Jornal de Negocios2007-01-05 Franquelim Alves claim that cap and trade of CO2 emission will delay EUs development of alternative energy sources. That is a bit odd because it is aimed at encouraging companies to straighten up their or at least decrease their fossil fuel dependence.

He uses a graph in which the increase in CO2 emissions in the US has increased less in the US than in EU during 2000-2004. Has he missed that the eco-foot print per capita of the US is twice as large as in the EU? Between 1990-1995 there was actually a decrease in CO2 emissions in EU15. I wonder what we did right then? At the same time US increased its emissions by little over 6%.

He continues to say that encouragement rather than restrictions are vital to foster innovations in sustainable energy systems. He is at least half right. I say why not use both?! Cap and trade is an American invention that first was implemented in the EU. Nowadays there also exist voluntary cap and trade in the USA. Also, plenty of states and towns in the US have started to implement their own regulations and laws to meet the requirements in the Kyoto Protocol. Notably, a group of large energy "producers" in the US has recently confronted President Bush to implement the Kyoto Protocol on federal level. I don´t know if if is out of environmental concern or that different rules in all states will make it more difficult to compete on national level in the US (and of course having to comply with up to 50 sets of rules does not anyone happy).

Alves goes on to say that one shouldn´t indiscriminately put up wind power towers or start biofuel plantations everywhere because they may have negative impact on the local environment. I couldn´t agree more. If there are environmental concerns make an Environmental Impact Assessment! If not even those that claim to take environment concerns are able to do just that it would be really tragic ...

Things are moving, slowly

It is fairly easy to get the impression that Portugal is an underdeveloped country when it comes to environmental issues and understanding. But the things are starting to look better.

In a recent article in the daily economy newspaper Jornal de negocios a comparison was made beyween the relative evolution of GNP and two environmental indicators, CO2 and sulphur emissions. And looks like this for 1995 and 2004:



In relative terms a very weak improvement CO2 per GNP and a definitive improvement in sulphur emissions in relative terms although they were on the same level. Because of EU directives the sulphur content of fossil fuels have gone down leading to improvements in energy "production" but instead transport and constructions has decreased the environmental efficiency over this period. It only points to fact that it is not economy but technology and effective regulations that govern environmental impact (many neoliberal economist want to claim the opposite).

That constructions is not efficient is fairly evident, things take time, quite literally, and newly build houses are falling part only 10 years after completion. An EU directive on certification of the energy efficiency of houses (similar to the labelling of white wares) came into force a few weeks, but there is a lack of technicians to perform the certification (Metro National Portugal 2007-01-26). Not to mention the lack of know-how on how to build sustainable and energy efficient houses and other buildings ... or rather the know-how has not been translated to the persons that own construction companies and those that lead the constructions. I have a feeling that the workers do as they are told even if they know the boss is wrong.

In the same issue of JdN it says that by 2010 half government and other authority competitions for constructions and other procurements should include environmental aspects. Again, the biggest hurdle is building up buyer competence.

On a more positive note S Pedro de Moel has been chosen as the first site in Portugal for the evaluation of wave energy. Also, energy wasting light bulbs is expected to soon be subjected to a CO2 emission tax. In more general terms the current government seem to positive to the increase of biogas and innovative solar energy installations.

Even so Portugal has just abided by to EU directives that demand environmental assessment and public feedback on programmes and plans that will have considerable environmental impact. I am not sure where they draw the line.

So, things are slowly moving in the right direction for Portugal.
Boa!

Expresso and CO2 offsets

The Portuguese daily newspaper has set our impact on the environment as a theme for February 2007. Every saturday issue will include articles and interviews regarding global warming etc. Those 4 issues will also be carbon offset in collaboration with Carbono Zero. A project that lets you calculate your environmental impact in terms on home you heat your house, home garbage you produce and how and how much you travel to work. Then they calculate your CO2 emissions. Then give you the opportunity to buy carbon offets for purchasing trees in some (although unprotected) areas in Portugal.

Hopefully this will raise the awareness of the stakes at hand but buying offsets might be best way to deal with your own impact, although Portugal certainly has lost plenty of trees the last couple of years in the annual summer forest fires.

This also makes me wonder if Expresso have any idea where and how the trees than end in their newspaper are grown, and how the paper mass is produced?! As far as I know less than 5% of the forests in Portugal are certified. Also, I guess that most paper still are bleached with chlorine (sodium hypochlorite or chlorine gas). And certainly no recycle paper...

The Portuguese prime minister Socrates recently said that climate change is a global challenge and has thus proposed a package of measure to make sure that Portugal will be able to conform wth the Kyoto Protocol. Expresso 2007-01-27 mentions some examples of this package: 45% electricity from renewable sources in Portugal by 2010, 10% of public transport should use biofuels (no deadline mentioned) and to implement a system for taking environmental concerns in public procurements (again no deadline).

Also, the state energy company EDP (energias de portugal) has in a recent strategic meeting said that their investments until 2010 will be at least 50% on renewable energy sources.