bemoreeco

This is a great article we saw in the Guardian this week about keeping track of your carbon footprint could become as simple as slipping a mobile phone in your pocket: a London-based start-up company has developed software for mobile phones that uses global positioning satellites to work out automatically whether you are walking, driving or flying and then calculate your impact on the environment.

Carbon Diem’s inventors claim that, by using GPS to measure the speed and pattern of movement, their algorithm can identify the mode of transport being used. It can therefore calculate the amount of carbon dioxide that a journey has emitted into the atmosphere – without any need for input from the traveller.

The system’s inventor, Andreas Zachariah, a graduate student of the Royal College of Art in London and chief executive of the Carbon Hero company, said that Carbon Diem is the world’s first automated carbon calculator.

Because it keeps a constantly updated diary of a person’s carbon emissions, Zachariah said that a user can easily track their environmental impact and, if they choose, modify their behaviour to lower-carbon alternatives.

“We’re facilitating people to make little changes and allow those changes to be noted and registered and possibly shared,” he said. “If lots of people realise we’re in this marathon [in tackling climate change] and we’re not running alone, then we actually think people will be motivated to stick to changes.”

He has tested the software in Nokia and Blackberry phones, using computer algorithms to predict the kind of transport a person is taking. He claims that in tests over the past year, the software was almost 100% accurate in working out when people were on airplanes or trains; it was between 65-75% accurate at guessing when people travelled on buses.

To read the full article <click here>

1. Save up to 10% on your water heating!

Chances are you can turn down the thermostat on your home’s water heater a few degrees, and still have plenty of hot water for everyone’s daily shower, not to mention the dishes and laundry. Lowering the temperature from 140 to 120 would reduce your water heating costs by 6 to 10%. Give it a try!

2. Get an Energy Monitor

According to the Energy Saving Trust, 8 out of 10 of us Brits do not understand their energy bills or understand what energy rates they are on. Get a closer handle on your home energy use with an advanced energy monitoring device. 

3. Unplug Unused Chargers

Even when they aren’t charging anything, plugged-in mobile phone, laptop and other chargers continue to draw electricity. Briton’s throw away about 8% of our annual electric bills this way, wasting millions of pounds. The solution is simple: just unplug them, or plug them into a standby buster  and flip that switch when your device has pulled enough juice.

4. Turn fallen leaves into compost

Rake up and shred fallen leaves and add them to the compost bin. Besides autumn leaves, you’ll find other carbon-rich materials in your garden. Look for waste-material that are brown in color such as sawdust, straw and dried grass clippings. Even your teabags, coffee grains and newspapers are great to add.

5. Out with the old and in with the new or freecycled!

Freecycle (hyperlink) any of your old summer clothes that you will not wear anymore and help benefit someone else. If you fancy an item for your winter wardrobe check out moreeco’s list of ethical clothing retailers such as Adili, Seasalt, Gossypium and Green fibres and earn yourself points, as well as free carbon offsets on all purchases.

 

Smarter driving could save you up to £250 a year in petrol or diesel. And with fuel prices rising all the time, it could save you even more in the future. Applying a smarter driving style is easy and once you’ve mastered it you’ll be doing your bit for the environment and for your purse. So what is smarter driving? Simply, it means driving your car more efficiently. Doing this means your car will produce less carbon dioxide (CO2), the main gas contributing to climate change.

Adopt these top ten steps from the Energy Saving Trust and you’ll soon be saving money and reducing your car’s impact on the environment.

1. Check your revs - change up before 2,500rpm (petrol) and 2,000rpm (diesel).
2. Anticipate road conditions and drive smoothly, avoiding sharp acceleration and heavy braking. This saves fuel and reduces accident rates.
3. Use air conditioning sparingly as it significantly increases fuel consumption.
4. The most efficient speed depends upon the car in question but is typically around 45 - 50mph. Faster speed will greatly increase your fuel consumption.
5. Drive away immediately when starting from cold - idling to heat the engine wastes fuel and causes rapid engine wear.
6. Accessories such as roof racks, bike carriers, and roof boxes significantly affect your car’s aerodynamics and reduce fuel efficiency, so remember to remove them when not in use.
7. Avoid short journeys - a cold engine uses almost twice as much fuel and catalytic converters can take five miles to become effective. Plan your journeys to avoid congestion, road works and getting lost.
8. Check your tyre pressure regularly - under-inflated tyres are dangerous and can increase fuel consumption by up to 3%.
9. If you’re stuck in a jam, switch the engine off if you expect to be there for more than a minute or two. Cutting the engine will save fuel and reduce emissions
10. Use cruise control as much as possible while driving as this saves fuel and helps you drive more eco friendly.

Alternatively, leave the car at home and get on your bike - which is the greenest form of transport. It gets you fit to so you can save on the gym bills too! For longer journeys book in advance for a cheap fare and use the train.

There are so many amazing ideas to save energy at the moment that it’s almost impossible to believe we haven’t already saved the planet. So, right up there with the nightclub powered by dancers, comes the human-powered gym.

As members pedal on stationary bicycles, a small motor connected to the stations charges batteries that power the gym’s television and stereo system.

Boesel said he doesn’t yet have a way to quantify the output but knows that at the moment it’s relatively small. However, this is just the beginning, he said.

"Our goal is to someday create 100 percent of the electricity we use in the gym," Boesel said. "The short-term goal is to get all of the electricity we can out of the machines."

You can read more about the idea on ABC.

What is Upcycling?

Upcycling has been around for ages. It’s only now that it’s catching some serious steam. At it’s heart, it’s the process of turning something that would normally be disposed and using it to create something of greater value. Typical examples include jewellery, furniture and even fashion.

The difference between recycling and upcycling, is recycled products are commonly those that are reused at lesser value. This is important, because it’s easier to build businesses upon upcycling - especially when every product has a story. Done well, we could soon see thousands of talented designers specialising in using disposable products from clothes, cars, furniture and almost anything else - and turning them into premium products.

11 Great Examples of Upcycling

As upcycling really begins taking off, it’s no surprise that we’re seeing better and better examples, most more exciting and ambitious than the next. Here are 11 of the best examples of upcycling I can find.:

Sustainablog - 6 Creative Upcycling Projects

Crafting a Green World - Girl Reconstructed: Upcycling Old Clothes

TreeHugger - How to Upcycling Gift Cards

TreeHugger - Upcycling Contest

LifeGoggles - The Largest Ever Upcycling Program

StumbleUpon - Upcycling Websites

Alternative Consumer - Skateboard Furniture - Upcycling?

HowCanIRecycleThis? - Turning Old Wires Into Wearable Art

Great Green Goods - Recycled Bracelet from inner tubes and flip flops

HippyShopper - Upcycling: Make a Lamp from an old blender

HippyShopper - Upcycling: Yield Shelving

What to look out for in the future?

So what’s next? In short, probably bigger and better. At the moment there are many great companies which are specialising in upcycling clothes and furniture. I would love to see even more ambition and creativity when upcycling. Imagine the products which really mean a lot to people for a small amount of time. Take cars, computers, mobile phones, clothes, sofas and imaging what can be created from them.

It will be interesting to see if the trend leans towards upcycling specialists who people call upon when they want an old product upcycled into something new, or upcycled products at retail. Personally, I hope both.

The biggest challenge facing upcycling at the moment is that most people don’t realise it even exists. I suspect it only needs one big upcycled product that catches on before everyone can do it.

Verdict?

I love the idea of upcycling. Not only does it reduce waste but it changes the image of recycled products from  the cheap option into the more loved premium option. That means more money, more growth and more upcycling.

This is a handy new tool from Carbon Planet. It lets you enter in your next flight details and work out how much CO2 your trip will cause. Not everyone on the plane, just you. Though it does assume a full flight. As we know, this isn’t always the case.

Anyhow, it’s a good estimate and it even divides between economy, business class and first class. So try it out before your next trip, then use a CO2 offsetting program to fly carbon neutral.

Also be sure to read the two supplement pdf guides on Greenhouse Gas Flight Emissions and the Myths of aviation CO2.

So this is it. Less than a month after we began our search to find the UK’s greenest low-fares airline we’re down to the final two, Flybe and EasyJet. Flybe reached the finals after defeating Aer Lingus (3 - 2) and Ryanair (3 - 2). EasyJet reached the finals with stellar victories over Thomson Fly (4 - 1) and Monarch (4 - 1). Now it’s time to decide, once and for all, who’s the UK’s greenest low-fares airline.

The Basics:

Flybe

Flybe, formerly Jersey European Airways, has not grown as quickly as other airlines. It’s only in the past 6 years that company has come onto the scene. First it was renamed British European in 2000, and then Flybe in 2002 with a repositioning as a low-fares aline. In 2007 Flybe took over BA Connect, British Airway’s’ regional service. BA currently owns 15% of the company.

EasyJet

Wasn’t Airline a great program? It’s probably annoying that it did so much to promote EasyJet at the time. EasyJet is Ryanair’s biggest competitor and has remained at the forefront of the low-cost airline movement. Most Recently EasyJet has purchased GO, expanded into Gatwick Airport and plans to move in to Manchester too.

Head to Head

Easyjet is the greenest low-fares airline in the UK. Generally speaking, it’s been an interesting investigation. There is a major split in the low-fares airline community at the moment about how to tackle climate change. Three airlines, EasyJet, Flybe and Monarch are actively taking steps to tackle the problem. Thomson Fly gets caught saying they want to but not making any actions to support it. The rest, Ryanair, Aer Lingus and BMI Baby either ignore the problem or often deliberately provoke environmentalists.

I hope you enjoyed reading this, it’s been fun to write.

Catch up on what you’ve missed so far:

BLFA Semi-Final: Monarch 1 - 4 EasyJet

BLFA Semi-Final: Ryanair 2 - 3 Flybe

BLFA Round One: Thomson 1 - 4 Easyjet

BLFA Round One: BMI Baby 1 - 4 Monarch

BLFA Round One: Aer Lingus 2 - 3 Flybe

BLFA Round One: Ryanair 3 - 2 Jet2

BeMoreEco Launches Battle of the Low Fares Airline