The civil society groups advocating more locally owned wind and solar farms include some of the leading UK NGOs, including the Co-operative, the National Trust, the Church of England and the National Federation of Women’s Institutes. Patrick Begg, director of rural enterprise at the National Trust: “Many other European countries are way ahead of the UK, as we found out when visiting German communities last year. Germany produces over 20% of its electricity from renewable sources, with communities generating about a quarter of this. In the UK, less than 1% is generated by our communities.”
Solarcentury
The company I founded in 1998 to design and supply solar energy solutions for the built environment. Solarcentury
Solar Aid
The charity I founded in 2006, with a 5% contribution of Solarcentury profits, to help deliver solar lighting to Africa. Solar Aid
Archive for the ‘Change for Good’ Category
Grass roots projects are “the way to low carbon UK, says coalition of 12 m.
February 1, 2012 Change for Good, Clean Energy, FinanceEcotricity eco-bond oversubscribed by 62%.
December 19, 2011 Change for Good, Clean Energy, FinanceSeeking £10 million of funding from customers and the public to help accelerate the building of new renewables projects, more than 2,000 people had between them applied for £16.2 million worth of ecobonds by the deadline, exceeding the success of ecobond one last year. The bond had a minimum investment of £500 and an initial term of four years. Ecotricity also offered a preferential rate to its customers – 6.5% as opposed to the 6% for non customers.
Co-op aims to create an new social asset class to lend to developing country co-ops.
December 11, 2011 Change for Good, FinanceThe UK’s Co-operative Bank aims to create a new asset class providing growth capital for co-operative businesses in the developing world, starting with a new fund just launched, the Global Development Co-operative, which aims to raise $50m, which it will lend at low rates (2-5 per cent) to co-operatives looking to expand. Investors would gain a social return, and at best the return of their capital. Eight investors are backing it, and is seeking support from global investors and foundations interested in international development and investments with a social impact.
Carbon trading “not working” UBS says, as carbon price hits record low.
November 25, 2011 Change for GoodThe price of carbon permits has fallen to an all-time low. Bankers and traders now question the future of the EU and UN cap-and-trade scheme. “The carbon scheme isn’t working,” Per Lekander, analyst at Swiss bank UBS writes.
Damning inditement of James and Rupert Murdoch in the FT.
November 10, 2011 Change for GoodPhilip Stevens writes that whatever the ultimate truth, the damage to the dynasty by its trail of “criminality masquerading as journalism” has been done. “The original crimes and subsequent efforts at cover-up reveal a company out of control – devoid of even the most basic ethical standards and convinced that it could bully and bluster its way out of trouble. Whether innocent or complicit the Murdochs, senior and junior, were culpable.”
FBI raids Solyndra’s offices.
September 8, 2011 Change for GoodThey are investigating wastage of public money. US taxpayers face a possible $587m bill.
Solar lanterns are increasingly replacing kerosene across Africa and Asia.
August 25, 2011 Change for Good, Clean EnergyBut many problems and barriers remain in these “distribution cursed” markets, Renewable Energy World reports.
UK defence ministry opposes windfarms because they “interfere” with detection of nuclear tests.
August 19, 2011 Change for GoodHundreds of turbines have been turned down on application because of the MoD’s concerns for its Eskdaleuir array, the Guardian reveals.
UK banks still fund cluster bomb makers.
August 16, 2011 Change for GoodRBS, Lloyds TSB, Barclays and HSBC have all provided hundreds of millions of pounds to companies that manufacture cluster bombs. This despite a growing global ban outlawing the production and trade therein.
Demonstration in China forces closure of chemical plant after near flood by sea.
August 14, 2011 Change for Good, Climate, OilThe petrochemical plant was feared by the population, and then a tropical storm nearly flooded it. 12,000 gathered, convened by Chinese social media (Twitter being banned in China), and the local government quickly closed the plant.
Flourishing business can happen without a growth fixation: Jules Peck.
July 1, 2011 Change for GoodJules’s many arguments include the following: “In the US 930 electric co-operatives are the sole source of electricity for 42 million people in 47 states. That’s nearly 12% of the nation’s population. They control $100 billion in assets and $31 billion in member equity.”
Regeneration is best done through localisation.
May 30, 2011 Change for Good, CommentariesA Sublime magazine column by Jeremy Leggett argues that there is huge scope for individual and community action to change the world.
Companies need to prepare for a post-growth focus on wellbeing.
May 24, 2011 Change for GoodSo Jules Peck argues. “There is a rising debate about the need to move beyond growth, with numerous Nobel prizewinners, politicians and business leaders such as Adair Turner, Ian Cheshire, Bernie Bulkin and 77% of the members of Prince Charles’s Cambridge programme for sustainability leadership agreeing on the need to question and dethrone growth.”
“I thought many others would feel the same”
May 20, 2011 Change for Good, Commentaries….”but that proved to be naïve”. James Murray and Jeremy Leggett discuss peak oil, Damascene Conversions, and the realities of running a green business. Business Green.
Integrated corporate reporting draws nearer?
May 18, 2011 Change for GoodJohn Elkington reports encouraging developments from the International Integrated Reporting Committee’s (IIRC) latest meeting. Nike wants to drop sustainability language and adopt value-creation language using green yardsticks routinely.
“Hold that horse: we’re running out of time”.
April 6, 2011 Change for Good, Climate, Commentaries, Finance, OilSo Jeremy Leggett argues in Sublime magazine. “It’s absolutely vital that, as far as the three major crisis debates are concerned – finance, energy, climate – each of us makes up our mind about what we think.” (Not the sub-editor’s finest effort, I have to say).
“Prosperity Without Growth: Economics for a Finite Planet” by Tim Jackson.
January 23, 2011 Change for Good, Commentaries“We must repudiate traditional economics if we’re to save the planet, says Jeremy Leggett”. My Guardian review of Tim Jackson’s book, supporting his view that capitalism in the form into which we have allowed it to evolve is killing economies and ecosystems alike. Re-engineering of the system is essential.
“The singular genius of a simple solar lantern”.
October 18, 2010 Change for Good, Clean Energy, CommentariesOn the Huffington Post, Jeremy Leggett celebrates the BBC’s decision to make a solar lamp and charger its 100th object in “A History of the World in One Hundred Objects”. Article on the hope inherent in solar lanterns and zero carbon homes.
“You are you mission”: the importance of purpose in organisations.
September 1, 2010 Change for Good, Commentaries“With global society recovering form the credit crunch, and facing a climate-change crisis, companies and non-profit organisations alike must recast their raison d’etre”. So I argue in this Sublime column.
Lend Lease bans its subsidiary Bovis from nuclear work because it is “unethical”.
June 11, 2010 Change for Good, NuclearBovis Lend Lease has had to pull out of a nuclear deal with EDF energy at the eleventh-hour after parent company Lend Lease objected to working in the sector.
“Rise of the radical”: today’s outlier ideas may soon become inescapable.
July 1, 2011 Change for Good, Commentaries, Finance, Oil“The time is approaching when hanging on the familiar notions of oil dependency, the big book of banking and growth at any price will no longer be workable. We may be obliged to rewrite the rules – all of them.” My latest column in Sublime.
Tags: Banks, Growth economics