GreenPrint to 2050

On Tuesday morning, I gave a short introductory talk at our Greenprint to 2050 event where more than forty 16-24 year olds got together to start to create their vision for 2050. 

Once completed, the vision will be presented to politicians and senior decision-makers at the House of Commons.

Personally, I am delighted that we are able to give these young people the opportunity to get together to articulate their vision.  Politicians and businesses are currently making environmental decisions that will impact young people the most, many of whom are too young to vote and none of whom are actively at the table and shaping decisions.

Over the duration of this parliament, we are likely to invest in an energy infrastructure that we will be locked into for at least 30 years.  Any delays in taking decisions in the fight against climate change will make it more painful and difficult for the next generation to cope. 

Radical new thinking is needed in our education and training if we are to equip the next generation with the skills they will need to flourish in an economy that will produce 80% less carbon.   

A more strategically intelligent foreign policy will be needed to give the next generation food, energy and water security and ensure that the UK is not held to ransom by other countries who are currently grabbing strategically important resources.

For all these and many other reasons, Greenprint 2050 is hugely important and I will be doing whatever I can to ensure that the outcomes reach as many of the key people as possible.

Sustainable trophy award

Immediately after the Greenprint event, I got on a Eurostar to Paris for EDF Energy’s Sustainable Trophy Awards. 

I have been a judge at both the UK and International Awards scheme, looking at the myriad of different sustainable initiatives being developed internally by EDF Energy and their employees. 

The diversity and creativity of the different initiatives was astonishing. My overall perception is that EDF Energy in the UK is currently most progressive on creating energy efficiency schemes, cutting carbon and developing mutually beneficial links with charity partners. 

The Eastern European countries were creating some amazing biodiversity projects helping to safeguard the habitats of animals as diverse as wolves and sand martins. Whilst the French have a number of fantastic schemes that are seeking to build more diversity within their workforce, it was great to see the company doing so much – most of which is totally unknown to the wider world.

The award event itself was a bit bizarre. It took place in a very smart area on the outskirts of Paris in a set of Pyramid buildings that seemed to have been handed over as a design project to a group of Polynesian art students. The person who designed the set and chose the award music had clearly spent too many years watching the Eurovision song contest resulting in a delightfully surreal clash of worthiness and cheese.

The event also demonstrated the complex economic decisions that companies such as EDF Energy have to make. The energy market has recently been transformed by new US technology that has made it economic to extract shale gas. 

Potentially there are large reserves of this gas in Europe and China which might also be able to be exploited, and if this happens the economic viability of investment in other forms of energy – such as nuclear – change radically.

Celebrity worms

A couple of weeks ago I went to the home of one of the UK’s best known celebrity couples to help them green their lifestyles. 

I can tell you more about this next week as the story is currently embargoed. One of the things I did was to ask the fantastic company Wriggly Wrigglers to deliver a womery and worms to them. I was thinking about this on Sunday as I did battle with my wormery at home.  I find the whole process fascinating.  The worms are currently thriving and feast their way through all our uncooked kitchen waste, garden cuttings and even cardboard. The end product is great compost and a juice which is a perfect replacement for baby bio and feeds the house plants.

It is however a bit of a mucky process.  Despite my best efforts, taking the lid off the wormery usually results in a face full of escaping flies, and getting the compost requires delicately picking out worms who haven’t realised it is time to move up to the next level of food. 

Whether this somewhat earthy chore will appeal to the glamorous celebrity couple and their children is a tad debatable!

Recycling incentives

It was no great surprise to see the Coalition Government announce that they will not be pursuing Labour’s proposed 'pay as you throw' rubbish scheme and instead will be rolling out a recycling incentive scheme that has operated successfully in Windsor and Maidenhead. 

Eric Pickles was no great supporter of the pay as you throw idea, indeed New Labour was convinced that he was mainly responsible for no local authorities putting their name forward to trial the idea.  

Personally, I think that the incentive route of rewarding households is a far more sensible and appealing option, and it has certainly been successful in its trial. 

The current initiative does, however, have one fundamental flaw in that households can use the incentives to buy more stuff. This might be great for recycling rates but it is also likely to lead to an increase in the overall amount that is being thrown away in the first instance.

It is a classic example of how an incentive solves one issue but creates another more fundamental problem. 

With a very minor change this difficulty could be resolved by ensuring that the incentives are provided for activities and services that have less environmental impact - such as trips to the cinema with free public transport provided.

Contact Trewin

Do you have a question for Trewin? Send him a message using our contact form.

Do you want more?

Trewin has been blogging for Global Action Plan for the past few years. If you enjoyed this week's blog you can find more here.

• Email this page