ANOTHER PLANET
The chairman of Forest Green Rovers, Dale Vince, who is also the founder of green energy company Ecotricity, has decided to stop having red meat on menus at the Club after a successful trial removed it from the player's meals. Mr Vince says the decision was taken on performance and health grounds and that fans would not be banned from bring meat products into the ground saying "consequently red meat is now off the menu at Forest Green Rovers, although this has been described by some people as a red meat ban, it's actually not.'Green jobs' are outperforming the rest of the job market according to a new survey which says that the salaries of 'green collar' workers in the UK have increased by 5% since 2009. This goes against the trend in the overall job market in the UK which has seen a below inflation average salary increase of 2.1% according to a report in www.edie.net. The behaviour of people is as important as building design when it comes to energy sustainably according to Dr Kathryn Janda from the UK’s Energy Research Centre. Dr Janda has examined US studies on energy use in zero-energy homes. While overall, energy use is lower than in 'normal' homes, both communities have high consumers as well as low-energy users. The studies show that people cut back their energy use when given feedback, either by using real-time meters or by being given indirect information in the form of, for example, itemised bills. Dr Janda said "In the face of climate change, purely architectural solutions are necessary, but by themselves, not sufficient.Celebrity chef Rick Stein's traditional English pub, the Cornish Arms, has switched to an environmentally friendly sewage system by installing an off-mains drainage system which would work in its rural setting. Builders brought the expertise of wastewater manufacturer Klargester to install an EnviroSafe treatment plant.The Carbon Trust is negotiating with potential private sector partners to plug a 40% funding gap left by Government spending cuts. The trust's chief executive, Tom Delay, says while public sector funding will remain a crucial part of the organisations work, the millions of pounds in cuts will mean it has to seek more private sector partnerships.February 17th saw a gathering of academics, government and business representatives at the Royal Geographical Society to discuss climate change. Speakers included Climate Change Secretary, Chris Huhne, Julia Slingo, Chief Scientist at the Met Office and Mike Barry, Head of Sustainable Business at M&S, The central theme being discussed was the impact of climate change on food, water and energy shortages and what effect this will have around the world. Julia Slingo, Chief Scientist from the Met Office highlighted the concerns of increasingly extreme weather - 2010 was the second warmest year on record, with the long-term trend showing temperatures rising. Pakistan had the worst floods since 1929 – and Australia has also just suffered terrible floods, but in Russia there were heat waves and wildfires and the worst drought since records began 130 years ago.Long life woven plastic bags need to be reused at least 11 times to have a lower carbon impact than single use carriers, according to research published by the Environment Agency – saying that in reality lightweight single-use carriers have the lowest carbon footprint. Standard 'bags for life', sold in most supermarkets, only need to be used four times to have a lower carbon footprint than single-use carriers.An DEFRA initiative offering students free cinema tickets in exchange for drinks cans has been launched for the second year in a row in 20 universities in England. The Can Film Festival (hoho!) is a recycling initiative developed by Every Can Counts and the National Union of Students (NUS). Students can bring their cans to NUS areas on a campus and swap a certain number for the free tickets.The use of two types of pesticide has been proved to more than double people's chances of getting Parkinson's disease. New research shows a link between the use of Rotenone and Paraquat and Parkinson's with people exposed to either 2.5 times more likely to get the degenerative illness. The chemicals are not used in domestic gardening but paraquat, especially, is one of the most commonly used industrial herbicides in the world, widely used in agriculture.A farmer who buried potentially lethal asbestos on his land has been ordered to pay more than £10,000 in fines and costs. Worksop Magistrates Court sentenced Anthony Bealby after he pleaded guilty to burying 2.3 tonnes of asbestos at Grange Farm.Standard & Poor have calculated that air fares will rise by up to 40 Euros per trip as a result of the European emission trading scheme coming online at the end of the year.Ben Challis from A Greener Festival, Fruzsina Szep from the Sziget Festival in Hungary, Daniel Barcza from the Moholy-Nagy Arts University and Andras Gross from the Medence Group were all speakers at the 'New Ways and New Trends in Arts Management' held at the British Embassy in Budapest on March 3rd looking at sustainable development in arts management. You can see more at http://en.artsandbusiness.hu/.