Green Rewards teams up with Enviro Comms and RWA to develop Local Green Points, a new approach to rewarding households for recycling and other green behaviours at home.  As well as providing genuine rewards for activities such as recycling, Local Green Points also aims to enhance community cohesion through a strong local, community-driven approach. 

If you are a local authority, a business or simply someone who is interested in finding out more about Local Green Points, go to www.localgreenpoints.com – or you can always speak to Graham Simmonds directly on 020 7326 5055.

Registrations now open for the world’s only Tree-Athlon!

London, Battersea Park - Saturday 18th September
Manchester, Heaton Park – Saturday 2nd October

Barefoot runners will be kick starting the 2010 Tree-Athlon events in London and Manchester.

Today, the independent environmental charity, Trees for Cities, is urging people to do their bit for the environment, by running a ‘Tree-Athlon’ this Autumn.
Now in its sixth year, the Tree-Athlon is a three part event, which includes a 5km run, the chance to make a tree wish and the opportunity to take home your very own sapling to plant. The aim is to raise funds for the planting and care of thousands of trees across the UK and internationally.

The 2010 Tree-Athlon plans to be bigger and better than ever before! Both races will consist of three groups: runners, barefoot runners and buggy sprinters, making it a perfect opportunity to gather friends and family for a big day out, to celebrate trees and raise money for urban trees.

In London, Ben Fogle and Tom Aikens will be teaming up to lead a Tree-Athlon barefoot run, whilst  parents are also being encouraged to take part in a buggy run.

Michelin Star Chef, Tom Aikens, says: “I am thrilled to be starting this year’s Tree-Athlon in London and leading the first ever barefoot run around Battersea Park! Trees and urban vegetation are so important – from brightening up grey city streets, to perking up community spaces and ‘edible’ school playgrounds.   Let’s plant the seeds, nurture them and watch them grow.”

Presenter, Writer and Adventurer, Ben Fogle, says: “I strongly support Trees for Cities' work and I am a true believer that we all need more green spaces in cities and healthier surroundings. Being part of the barefoot run at the Tree-Athlon with Tom Aikens is fantastic, and I can’t wait to see more trees planted in our cities as a result!”

The event is in partnership with Festival Republic, Manchester City Council  and Magic FM, and is being supported by Thames Water, CBS Outdoor, Red Rose Forest, Palo Alto, Stewed, Eat Natural and Together Drinks.

So fancy getting fit and helping our cities to breathe? Do your bit and start your tree-loving training!

Register now: tree-athlon@treesforcities.org & www.tree-athlon.org 


All media enquiries:
Inna Costantini: 0207 820 4428; inna@treesforcities.org
Stephen Gray: 0207 820 4428 stephen.gray@treesforcities.org

Notes to Editors

1.    Trees for Cities is an independent charity that plants trees and re-landscapes public spaces in urban areas of greatest need. The charity’s vision is to stimulate a greening renaissance in cities around the world that will impact on global warming and beautify the urban landscape, as well as encouraging greater social cohesion through the active participation of local people. A special effort is made to involve children and young people in all of the projects. The public can get involved by sponsoring trees, registering as a volunteer, enrolling in training programmes, taking part in the Tree-Athlon and going to fundraising parties – see www.treesforcities.org for more information.
2.    All funds raised from the Tree-Athlon will go towards tree planting projects in London, UK cities and beyond. Money raised in previous years went towards the creation of outdoor classrooms in London schools, planting new woodland plots in Leeds, a community orchard in Manchester, continuing native tree conservation projects in Peru, training local women in tree conservation in Ethiopia, and planting thousands more trees in Nairobi to help reforest the city.

Green Rewards has teamed up with EastendHomes, the Registered Social Landlord, to offer their residents Green Points, as a reward for their greener behaviour, to be redeemed for a wide range of eco-products.

This is a pilot scheme and there are currently a couple of different ways for residents to earn Green Points. The first is as a thank you to the residents for their involvement with the greening of the estate, by working with the environmental charity, Trees for Cities on their community planting days. Each resident who participated was given 1000 Green Points. 

Residents can also collect Green Points by recycling their batteries (an often difficult and annoying task) at a special collection point. For each battery they recycle, they will be given 40 Green Points. There is no limit on the amount of batteries that can be recycled. A great incentive to get rid of that drawer full of dead batteries!

As well all know, points mean prizes, and in this case, Green Points mean green prizes. For example, 980 Green Points gets you a luxury organic rosemary or lavender soap. 1,980 points gives you a multi-purpose household cleaner.  4,000 points would get you a liquid powered clock and 5,600 points would get a solar powered helicopter kit.
 
EastendHomes provides a comprehensive housing management service in East London, currently with around 3,500 properties stretching from the Isle of Dogs through to Spitalfields. EastendHomes firmly believes that tenant and leaseholder involvement is an important part of developing and shaping housing services in order to meet the needs, priorities and aspirations of residents.

The reaction from the residents has been very positive, who are key in making their housing estate one of the greenest in London, and we are delighted they are getting free green products for being part of it.

This innovative pilot scheme hopes to make a big difference to the concept of rewarding greener behaviour, be it on a personal, social or corporate level, and plans are being developed to expand this scheme to other areas.

Graham Simmonds, Managing Director of Green Rewards, says, "We are really thrilled to be working with EastendHomes as our first housing sector partner and to be part of such an exciting scheme. We recognise the importance of rewarding people for living a greener life and encourage other Registered Social Landlords and councils to look at the exemplary work of Eastend Homes."

Paul Wilson from EastendHomes, says;

"At EastendHomes we are always looking for innovative ways to encourage more active involvement with our residents as well as how we can improve our environmental performance, and our pilot with Green Rewards on the 2009 London Tree and Woodlands Award winning Manchester Estate in Tower Hamlets is a great way of incentivising and thanking residents who do environmental volunteering on our estates in addition to rewarding those households that participate in our battery collection scheme."

Climate Squad is recruiting 300 volunteers aged between 16 and 25 and training them up to run their own carbon-cutting community projects.

This is a great opportunity for young people to get involved with, and make a difference to Climate Change. From a rally with Ed Milliband, to planting trees and audits of council buildings to see if our leaders really are walking their talk.

Climate Squad gives young people a great opportunity to help educate and change the older generation's views and lifestyle.

Launching this autumn, fashion knitwear label 'The North Circular' utilizes the talents of grandmothers and high fashion models to create directional fashion pieces over rich tea biscuits and local gossip.

The inspired idea by models Lily Cole, Katherine Poulton, Central St Martins graduate Alice Ashby and entrepreneur Isobel Davies sees contemporary knitwear exclusively made from rescued Wensleydale sheep, with the expert hand knitting skills of 'grannies, girls. …and a few strong men.

The range incorporates a modern range of knitwear pieces that are luxurious yet affordable for fashion savvy individuals, whilst signaling a return to traditional values, and maintaining the rare Wensleydale breed.

Information on the collection:

On The North Circular's personal site where you can meet the rescued Wensleydale sheep who provide the wool for each garment, you can create your own knit to order combination of colour and style to suit you while keeping up-to-date on the garments progress through ‘The Knitters Blog’ by Shirley, Pat and Janet to name a few.

There are sixteen designs and five seasonal colors to choose from in chunky knits with a modern twist. The launch collection includes The North Circular Collar and Necklace, The Knights Hood, and Chunky Diamond knits. Four styles can be miniaturized for children. The collection will expand through accessories, soft jewellery and women’s wear such as racer dresses and tanks in the near future.

ECO credentials:

The North Circular only use the ethical wool from rescued sheep from Izzy Lane's sheep sanctuary in North Yorkshire. There sheep graze on organic land and the wool is spun and dyed naturally within a 120 mile radius of the sheep’s cozy shed where they will live out the rest of their natural lives.

The North Circular is working to regenerate the ailing wool industry and support British manufacturers and craftsmen as well as helping earn the ‘hands-what-knit’ an extra bob. Packaging is kept to a minimum, using recycled and un-dyed materials with hand stamped details. Keeping the sheep at the very forefront of the campaign, The North Circular concentrates on the awareness of the decreasing numbers of the Wensleydale breed with each garment carrying a hand-made tag informing how many sheep were rescued to date.

The North Circular is previewing at Esthetica as part of London Fashion Week and will be launching in October 09.

Next time you're sailing through the Pacific Ocean, be careful of the 2,700km wide floating rubbish tip.

'The Great Garbage Patch' is composed of mainly plastic that we've dumped into the world's oceans.

DONG Energy, Masdar and E.ON have been given the go-ahead to build the world's largest offshore wind farm, the London Array, in the Thames Estuary.

The partners have each agreed to invest a total of €2.2bn (£2bn) to build the first 630MW phase of the project. Once complete, the London Array will be the world’s first 1GW offshore wind farm and is expected to supply enough electricity to power around 750,000 homes.

Anders Eldrup, chief executive of DONG Energy, said: ‘Following the 2 Renewables Obligation Certificate (ROC) announcement, and our subsequent decision to build the Walney projects, I’m thrilled that we also have the final investment decision on the London Array project. The decision to build the London Array offshore wind farm is a very significant cornerstone in DONG Energy’s strategy to increase the proportion of electricity generated from renewable energy sources.’ DONG Energy has built approximately half of all offshore wind farms in operation in the world today.

The London Array will be built in two phases on a 90 square mile site, around 12 miles off the coasts of Kent and Essex. The first phase, which will involve the deployment of 175 turbines, is scheduled for completion in 2012. The second phase will add enough capacity to bring the total to 1,000MW. Offshore work is due to start in early 2011.

The announcement follows the government’s pledge to increase offshore wind power and implement plans to create a low-carbon economy. According to project leaders, the London Array will displace the emission of 1.9m tonnes of CO2 every year.

Gordon Brown said: ‘The London Array is a flagship project in our drive to cut emissions by 80 per cent by 2050 and meet future energy needs. The UK is a world leader in offshore wind farms, creating jobs and prosperity for the economy. That’s why we have increased our support for this technology as we move towards a low-carbon future. E.ON, DONG Energy and Masdar are to be congratulated for their work on the London Array.’

Energy secretary, Ed Miliband, added: ‘This is another green light for green energy. It’s a vote of confidence in the support the government has put into backing renewable energy. The UK is already the world’s leading offshore wind power and this multi-billion pound project will help keep us there, cut our carbon emissions and contribute to secure energy supplies.’

The government’s crusade against climate change could turn Britain into the biggest dump for environmental flotsam in Europe. Last month the energy department imposed a new regime that awards generous subsidies to companies that produce power using biomass — plant and organic waste — instead of coal or gas, leading to a rush of proposed new biomass plants across the country.

Every megawatt produced at a biomass station will get 1.5 renewable obligation certificates (ROCs), which can be sold to other producers who exceed their pollution limits. Based on current market value, that adds another £80 on top of the wholesale electricity price of about £45 per MWh. Stations that also use the heat from the power-generation process, known as “combined heat and power”, will get 2 ROCs, representing a 220% mark-up on the normal power price.

Biomass power plants will need far more fuel such as straw, waste wood and elephant grass than can be provided in Britain today. To fill the gap, energy experts predict a surge in exports of everything from Canadian wood chips to palm-oil residue from Indonesia and olive stones from Greece.

In theory, the plant-based fuels are carbon neutral because the pollutants they release are only those they have spent their life absorbing. Yet shipping them across the globe and the heavy use of fertilisers to grow some of them could cancel out the benefits. A recent report for the Environment Agency found that shipping could cut biomass carbon-dioxide reductions by up to 50%.

Today the handful of biomass plants operating in the UK burn mainly wood and animal waste and generate less than 1% of power needs, about 250MW. According to Ernst & Young (E&Y), the consultant, companies have in the past few months received planning consent for, or proposed, facilities that would generate another 2.5GW — a tenfold increase in capacity.

Ben Warren at E&Y estimates that the UK would need to produce about 25m tonnes of biomass to fuel the plants already in the pipeline, but industry insiders estimate that only a few hundred thousand tonnes came from within UK borders last year.

The independent energy group Prenergy plans to build a 300MW plant at Port Talbot in South Wales that will be fed by wood chips from America and Canada. It will need 2m tonnes of wood a year, and this means one ship a week will be unloading at the dock.

Matthew Carse, managing director at Prenergy, claims that it is still “without question far better than burning coal. The carbon you produce shipping it over from America or Canada is approximately 2% of the carbon in the load you are carrying”.

However, Richard Templer, director of the Porter Institute for Sustainable Bioenergy Research at Imperial College, said: “With importing, you don’t know if the trees are being logged sustainably, if they are being replanted.”

Drax, the operator of Europe’s biggest coal-fired station in Selby, North Yorkshire, has plans for three Prenergy-sized plants in Britain. It already uses biomass for a small percentage of the power it produces, using peanut husks, wood chips, straw pellets, willow and palm-oil waste, mostly imported.

To feed its new plants, Drax hopes to convince farmers to grow energy crops — it claims to have identified more than 60 types, but won’t release further “commercially sensitive” details.

Alternatives:

Wind
This has received the most investment and government backing, but irregularity and high cost are big drawbacks.

Tidal
Energy companies are bidding for seabed sites to start testing turbines, but a full-scale roll out is many years off.

Solar
The price is falling rapidly but it can still be years before the energy savings make up for the cost of installation.

Microgeneration
Rooftop wind turbines and the like are largely impractical.

Energy efficiency
The area with the biggest potential. Simple things such as insulation and energy-saving light bulbs can slash energy bills by a third or more.

The corncrake, a migratory bird which over-winters in Africa, was once common across the UK, but was hit by changes in agriculture in the 19th and 20th century, the RSPB said.

Mechanised mowing allowed hay-making to be completed more rapidly, destroying the tall grass and meadow habitats the bird used for nesting and leading to a collapse in the population. Corncrakes became restricted to Hebridean islands on the west coast of Scotland where crofters were much slower to turn to mechanised agriculture.

Recent efforts by conservationists, farmers and crofters helped the corncrake population double from just 480 calling males in 1993, when the RSPB launched a recovery programme for the bird, to 832 calling males in 2003. And a reintroduction scheme since 2002 in England, near Peterborough, has sought to bring the corncrake back south of the border, and last year recorded 14 calling males.

The population in the Scottish strongholds hit 1,270 in 2007, but dipped to 1,140 in 2008.

A national corncrake survey organised by the RSPB, the Northern Ireland Environment Agency and Scottish Natural Heritage, is the first full survey since 2003.

It aims to find out whether the recovery of corncrake numbers is continuing, and whether 2008 was a temporary blip in an upward trend.

Mark O'Brien, of RSPB Scotland, said: "This is the first full survey since 2003 and numbers have undoubtedly increased since then, but we are really interested in seeing if last year's slight slump in numbers was just an anomaly in what has been an otherwise fabulous success story for this species."

But corncrakes are difficult to spot, because they are well camouflaged, shy and hide in long vegetation, so the best way to identify them is by the distinctive "crek crek" calls made by mating males.

The RSPB said the sound was like a "credit card being drawn across a plastic comb", and the birds were particularly vocal throughout June, especially at night.

The conservation charity is urging anyone who hears the distinctive call to report it, so it can be verified and recorded as part of the survey.

Anyone who hears a corncrake calling is asked to call the RSPB on:
England and Wales - 01767 680551
Scotland - 0131 311 6500
Northern Ireland - 028 9049 1547

A friend of mine has started keeping chickens in her small south east London garden.

I think she harbours plans of big country houses and estates that stretch for miles. This being south east london, not rolling Sussex has meant the chickens live a very happy urban life in an chicken igloo, and although have done a fair bit of damage to the garden (they just won’t stop pecking!) provide a very happy example of country city living.

Urban/country dreams were further brought to my attention recently, when I heard about Backyard Beekeeping (bee keeping in the city). Apparently some clever entreprenurs have been using all that unused roof space and keeping coloneys of bees up on high. Becuase London has such a large biodiversity with many differnet plants and insects, the flavour of the honey is supposed to bee (sorry) amazing. Amazingly, pollution appears to have no effect upon them.

You might also be interested to know that Fortnum and Mason's have started keeping bees on their roof and making honey to sell in their shop.

We all know how important bees are to a stable ecosytem and essential to human survival, so why not encourage these amazing insects into your garden with lovely smelling flowers like hebes and foxgloves.

You could even provide a home for them with a ceramic bumble bee nester for only £16.50 (or free with 5,300 points) or an FSC wooden one for £17.50 (or free with 5,500 points).