Ecofamilies

Quercus has made a study called Ecofamilias on 30 families with altogether 82 members. They measured energy consumption for 8 months. From that data they recommended some alterations, mainly turn off things on stand by, switching to low energy bulbs and choosing a better payment scheme from the electricity distributor.

As have been stated over and over again the first two very small switches can decrease the consumed energy quite amazingly in comparison to how simple it is.

Quercus will increase the study to 225 all over 9 climatic zones on continental Portugal during 2007-2008.

Notably most of the families in the first phase around Lissabon almost all had single walled unisolated houses...

PeakPhosphorous and topten.pt

In this article it is proposed that we will be running out of phosphorous fairly soon if we do not start using a bit intelligently. Time to talk about PeakPhosphorous just as one talk about PeakOil? They estimate 60-80 years of cheap mineral phosphorous. So we should start making use of all the shit and piss we "produce" all the time!

Quercus and EDP has just launched a new site called topten.pt. Aiming to be a Portuguese search tool to find the best sustainable choices of light bults, washing machines, cars, you name it...

IKEA is one of the worst in Portugal in 2006

The Portuguese environment NGO Quercus has assigned IKEA as a worst case on their annual list of best and worst events in 2006. The list (In Portuguese). Or rather construction of a Swedwood factor in a environmentally protected area. Declassified by state or local government without much analysis, or so it seems.

The snippet which includes IKEA:
"Avanço de obras públicas e privadas em áreas classificadas
Ao longo de 2006 inúmeros foram os projectos públicos e privados viabilizados em áreas classificadas. Fazendo uso de instrumentos como as declarações de imprescindível utilidade pública e as classificações como projectos PIN (Potencial Interesse Nacional), o governo revelou ter como orientação base a viabilização de qualquer investimento mesmo que localizado em zona classificada como Reserva Ecológica Nacional (REN), Reserva Agrícola Nacional (RAN), povoamento de sobreiros e azinheiras ou Rede Natura 2000, sem olhar à existência de alternativas de localização.

Este tem sido o caso do IC9 (sublanço Carregueiros/Tomar), da fábrica do IKEA em Paços de Ferreira, das plataformas logísticas e da barragem do Sabor."

In short:
The Portuguese government has been very eager to classify many projects as being of national importance thus aiming to override several area protections such as "national ecological reserves", "national agricultural reserve" and Natura 2000 without even looking at alternatives (such as building on other sites). Natura 2000 is a very strict EU classification that usually has strong impact on making nearby large installations and has to be considered when making an Environmental Impact Assessment.

One of these instances is the construction of a Swedwood factory in Paços de Ferreira between Braga and Porto. Swedwood is a subsidy of IKEA.

IKEA is starting to build an image as being environmentally benign, but by this decision one can always wonder how serious about this they really are...